#archetype called; but i love when women

[physalian]

What No one Tells You about Writing Fantasy, #2!

I did this list about 7 annoyances about fantasy, but I write in this genre for a reason! Fantasy knows no bounds, it can encompass all other genres within it. You can write a fantastical murder mystery, fantasy horror, fantasy romance, political drama, slice-of-life, comedy, whatever you’d like!

Whether it’s urban or high fantasy, supernatural or scientific, here’s seven great benefits of writing in this genre:

1. No modern means of communication

Unless you’re writing a world with phones or phone-adjacent devices. Phones and instant communication seriously inhibits the plausibility of dramatic irony and tension when you have to keep coming up with reasons to keep your characters from calling or texting each other everything they know. It’s exhausting, I tell you, and such a relief when phones aren’t a factor.

With that said, without phones, you have complete freedom to design your own magical channels of supernatural FaceTime, as weird and zany as you want. But without instant connections? Your character who knew too much can’t pass on the intel before they die. Your hero team can’t call for backup in their darkest hour. Otherwise easily preventable tragedies and deadly miscommunications are now very real.

2. The Monster Allegory

Fantasy and sci-fi tend to overlap more than they’re set apart, and in that overlap sits the monster allegory. Everything from werewolves to vampires to witches, reapers, demons, angels, goblins, trolls, wraiths, fairies, mermaids, ghosts, to Eldritch horrors and your classic Hollywood cast of mummies, creatures from the black lagoon, and Frankenstein.

Most of the time, the monsters aren’t just monsters, they represent a monstrous aspect of society the author wants to challenge and caricaturize in a fun and entertaining way. Or, the monsters are the good guys and the humans are the real terrors. Or, you’ve got two kinds of monsters to allegory two human sides. Sometimes they represent metaphorical demons, like vampires often representing addiction and werewolves repressed identities.

What all of this boils down to is the hyperbolic nature of science fantasy that allows you to go over-the-top with your metaphor and allegory in a way that a book grounded in reality just can’t.

3. Magic Systems!

Do you love world building? Do you love filling pages upon pages with your cool and unique set of superpowers you want your characters to have? Do you dream about your fight scenes and dramatic slow-mo shots?

Then Fantasy is for you!

There are zero limits to how you want to define your magic system. You can go classic with the familiar archetypes of elemental magic, wizards, sorcerers, and witches. Or you can step off the beaten path and design a whole new funky system of power sets. Best part? Your readers will have an awesome time imagining themselves with those powers, and debating endlessly about how it works.

4. Real-World Politics, who?

Amazon’s Rings of Power was twice-doomed when they only got the rights to adapt the appendices of The Silmarillion and when they decided to inject current political problems into a timeless story written purposefully to be divorced from those politics. You *can* write about human politics, but in fantasy, you don’t have to. You *can* interpret Lord of the Rings to be an allegory about the World Wars, but no matter how hard you argue, it wasn’t written with that intent.

Which means: Even if your story is set in the reality-adjacent fantasy version of 1543, you are free from the following: Racism, homophobia, sexism, religious bigotry, mental health bigotry, gender norms, anti-feminism, toxic masculinity, and more. “But that’s how it was-”

Nope. This is fantasy. You built this world, you decided to keep in the discrimination. Or… You can fill your fantasy world with a rainbow of gays, POCs in power, women in power, men unafraid to be compassionate and caring, a religion that doesn’t foster hate and division, the list goes on. You. Are. Free.

5. Nothing is too “unrealistic”

Both that you will always have people whining about how X would never happen so write the book you want to read, but also because fantasy is fake. Fairies aren’t real. Mermaids aren’t real. There are no rules for how they must be written and that’s how we have so much variety with so much room for interpretation by so many creators. Twilight made how much money writing about vampires that sparkle like diamonds in sunlight and crack like marble?

This is fantasy, it’s supposed to be unrealistic. Yes, your plot should make sense, but don’t be afraid to get weird. Write at least some of your story dependant on those fantasy elements. Write a story that can’t just be told in the real world minus the spectacle. Don’t be afraid to be sincerely fantastical and weird. People love weird. People love loving weird.

6. You are in complete control

But you do still need to research, unfortunately. Unless this is urban fantasy that depends at least a little on the human world, yours is completely your own to govern like a god tweezing weeds from their garden. You get to design your own geography and weather patterns and seasons. Your own countries and kingdoms and politicians. Your epic pre-canon fantasy war and the stakes that it was fought over. Your species, races, and ethnicities.

It’s a shame that a movie like Avatar (2009) set out to be this wholly unique take on aliens with music completely divorced from earthly bonds, new languages and a visually and culturally distinct alien species… and ended up a largely generic blue Pocahontas in space. It forgot that it was fantasy and didn’t go weird enough. They have horses, monkeys, wolves, rhinos, and deer just re-skinned with some extra limbs and colors. It’s pretty but it’s so, so shallow.

It could have become a cult classic like many a positively *weird* 80s off-beat fantasies, and now it just… exists. It makes a whole lot of money but its impact on the cultural zeitgeist is negligible. I’m the only person I know that can name every major character in the movie, and I’m no Avatar obsessor. They had complete creative control, and this is what they did with it. Don’t be Avatar. Take your creative freedom and run.

7. Even if it has been done before, do it again

You can say this about any genre, particularly romance, but fantasy and sci-fi, by the gatekeep-y nature of their fans, can be a lot less forgiving when it comes to claims of “unoriginality”. No one hates Star Wars more than Star Wars fans. Fans of these genres can get… concerningly attached to their favorite stories (mostly because the people who like them had only their fictional heroes to protect them from very real bullies).

But Game of Thrones exists because the author likes Lord of the Rings and went “yes, but what if it was an R-rated parade of misery?” Dungeons and Dragons exists because people wanted to roleplay in an LotR-esque world. Legolas and Gimli single-handedly defined what a badass elf and dwarf looks like in high fantasy. And people still gobble up media ripping shamelessly, or even good-naturedly, from this one story.

So on my other list, I argued that the sum of your parts is still original, even if the components aren’t. On this list, I implore you this: It’s not stealing or appropriating to write another Legolas if you love Legolas. Everyone loves Legolas. How many generic buff action heroes do we have and love? How many Hallmark romances tread the same predictable path? Who gives a damn if it’s unoriginal? Just make it entertaining and have something fresh to say in the end (or don’t, that’s fine too), and people will read it.

And when people say “Oh, you mean like Legolas”, take it as a compliment, not an insult. Yes, exactly like Legolas. Here’s my new elf because I adore this other book, now watch him go on a new adventure that I wrote for him.

#writing advice #writing resources #writing tips #writing tools #writing a book #fantasy #scifi #writeblr #writing

[chitra111goddess]

VEDIC ASTROLOGY NOTES ♡

(Can apply to any planet placement)

⚡️Ashwini women always stand out to me with their creativity especially in acting , they rly know to embody the character they're playing to the fullest even irl it may be easier for them to shift thro different identities or alter-egos just for funsies

⚡️There's smtg about purva phalguni women , they're gorgeous but for some reason I noticed they get hate esp from other women like they're called fake or pick-mes or they make up stories hmm

⚡️Purva ashadha women are so inspiring like they're always the ones to be teaching or preaching or saying smtg inspiring/motivational. They're beauties with soul and a mind of their own ! If u know a purva ashadha better take notes 📝

⚡️Magha women love wearing black and something about their looks or style is unconventional/gothy, it suits them

⚡️Uttara-phalguni women are so headstrong bruh and they have this leadership aura about them, they're gonna do what THEY think is right. Like other sun-ruled nakshatras they easily get attention

⚡️Mrigashira women love the push & pull , cat &mouse game, they either attract this dynamic or they create it themselves. There's also smth about Mrigashira and obsession 👀

⚡️Jyestha women embody the wild feminine archetype imo, when evolved theyre truly empowered and have this idgaf energy. people may be threatened by their power or skills. Their voice or the way the speak is commanding and naturally charismatic

⚡️Swati/ardra and their eyes 👁👁 most captivating eyes imo I'm in luv

⚡️Purva bhadrapada women seem to attract or be drawn to men with dark nature or men who carry trauma ? Or they know how to bring that out in a man

⚡️Dhanishta women love dancing and they appear to be friendly or have many acquaintances but very little people they relate to. Popular girlies

⚡️Rohini women feminine energy is undeniable , something about them feels innocent yet erotic. They just give off this juicy fertile vibee lmao💦 unlike jyestha which is more dry (not in a bad way its just different 💀)

⚡️Anuradha women are secretive as hell even if they tell u shit don't think u have them all figured out. there's so much to unpack with them , they're generally intriguing complex characters

⚡️Most bratty nakshatras are mrigashira and chitra lmao

⚡️Revati women are pretty privilege girlies also they're master manipulators 👀 they know how to use their femininity to get what they want

⚡️Pushya women have big MOMMY energy. they seem/look mature. They're either the ones taking care of others or others take care of them

⚡️Uttara bhadrapada women have dualistic nature they're either the sweetest ppl u know or ur worst nightmare depending on who theyre dealing with 💀they're like a mirror projecting and reflecting back ur inner self back at ya (Pisces energy) also don't forget the karmic saturn influence.. u don't wanna mess w them or any other saturn ruled woman

⚡️Viahaka women go through intense ups and downs , starting from their good girl phase then they snap and go wild then they mature/become spiritual

⚡️Chitra women secretly (or not so secretly) enjoy drama , they're either the ones caught up in it or they play the role of the "judge" where they can solve conflicts between others. Somehow they're surrounded by it.

⚡️Don't underestimate krittika women especially when it comes to survival 💀 these women can be dangerous and will stab a bitch if they rly had to (whether its for defending loved ones or them surviving) their symbol is 🔪 after all and taurus/aries gives them that survival instinct

⚡️Ardra women can make great poets/song writers , their creativity and inspiration stems from their own 'tragic' experiences

⚡️Punarvasu women remind me of that quote "home is where the heart is" they always end up coming back to their origins and what they feel in their heart

Lemme know ur thoughts & what I should make next

#vedic astro notes #vedic astrology #vedic astro observations #nakshatra notes #nakshatras #chitra #ashlesha #revati #ashwini #magha #jyestha #anuradha #rohini #bharani #vishaka #krittika #purva phalguni #purva bhadrapada #purva ashadha #ardra #rahu #ketu #hasta #mula #mrigashira #dhanishta #shatabhisha #jyotish #punarvasu #astrology notes

[saturnbellfromhell]

ASTRO OBSERVATIONS III

Hi everybody, I want to apologize that I haven't been so active lately. The "Energy Series" will drop this week, so stay tuned! Today is just a simple astro observations, since everybody loves them so much! Hope all is good, take care and let's get into the observations!

🟫SCORPIO DOMINANT WOMEN

I find them more intimidating then the men, not going to lie. I've also seen this with girls/women who are Mars dominant aswell. They are so sure of themselves and you never know their next move. They are beautifully scary, always have the upper hand and can see sex as a healing tool.

🟫SAGITTARIUS SUN

They are the masters at sarcasm and irony, they can seem a bit mean to some because they are always ready to tease others. The cliche thing about them that I can confirm is that they do love to travel and get away. They are really witty and humorous.

🟫GEMINI VENUS

Sorry if this is going to rub some people the wrong way, but I really don't like this placement. These individuals are too shallow in love for me. One day they'll be upset about a hookup and after a week they'll be sleeping with their ex and texting 10 other people. They are really good in the bedroom though and you need to be an intellectual individual to impress them. I've also noticed they get into a relationship quickly and they move quickly if they like you. Of course it helps if their is more water in the chart to balance it out. The only people I've met who married twice were Gemini Venuses.

🟫LEO LILITH

They are really easy to offend if you comment on their looks, it's kinda funny in a way because they look really good? They can be the ones that work out because they "have to", not because they like it as much. They really crave and live off attention, but deny it to the grave. This attention seeking can come from saying outlandish shit, aggressive behavior or just acting like a fool. They have a huge ego that can crumble really easily.

🟫MOON IN THE 8TH HOUSE

Thes people can be either a really healing and quite person, who learned the hard parts in life at a young age and want to help others overcome their fears and insecurities or can be the most triggering people ever. If they don't balance out their energy and work on themselves their dark aura literally eats them up. They can become addicted to drugs, alcohol and sex if a major shift happens in their life. They are the one's to use everything to try and escape reality and try to forget, but will dig a deeper ditch for themselves. They truly need good people around them to influence them for the better.

🟫MARS IN THE 7TH HOUSE

This one is a tricky one. The 7th house is the  house of partnerships, where Libra rules. By ruling this house, the scale and judge archetype try to balance out energies. Libra also can be called "codependent" since it needs two sides to function, putting Mars here makes them a very dominant person in relationship and wants an active partner to do things with. They also find it hard to stay in relationships and crave independence. It can also bring marriage in a later time in life! I've also noticed that this placement can also breed stalkerish personas, even more if Saturn is in this house or the ruler of your ascendant.

🟫MOON IN THE 12TH HOUSE

I absolutely love taking about this placement, not going to lie. Moon in the 12th house native have a very intense relationship with their mom, they are really close with them. It's also a possibility that their mother also has a Moon in the 12th house also. This placement breeds a different type of person who is very cautious around others, is semi psychic and the only people that get them are others who have this placement. Feelings that these people get are very intense and they can sense when someone is acting out of order.

🟫FIRE VENUSES

What I've found that the all have is this big heart and drive to love. I've never met  a fire Venus who is "scared" of falling in love, showing their romantic side and being sweet to their partner tbh. They will go to great lengths to let you know how they feel. The problem arises if they get bored, kinda like air Venuses. They don't want that "stable" relationship. It has to be full of life and energy, passion and pure emotion. They're not big on being heartbroken, because they know their worth and just move on with grace.

🟫CAPRICORN DOMINANT

Yes they can be looked at being "cold" and emotionless, but they just really value their time. I mean, this sign is ruled by Saturn, the planet of residence, restriction and TIME. They don't play around. Capricorn dominant people won't say it, but love being pampered by their significant other. They are such princesses in that manner. Even though they are big pleasers, they love to get it back.

🟫EROS IN CANCER

I mean they love a motherly figure in love, someone who takes care of them, asks if they ate and such. Also they don't like to go out, just like any cancer. But what I've noticed they really enjoy people who have an Eros in an air sign. Ya, they maybe won't date them but are really fascinated and intrigued with them.

🟫LILITH IN 9TH HOUSE

They can become really involved in getting their point across, being it in a philosophical, religious or just plain subjective way. This placement is known to have parents who are strict with their opinions or maybe grew up in a city with really closed off/radical people who's views can be considered "wrong". They were always left out for voicing their own opinion, which was different. This placement can be a placement which cult leaders have, since they have such strong opinions.  This paried with a Virgo North Node, Plutonian and/or Aqurian energy is scary as hell.

🟫PISCES MOON

Yes, I do love them but it's so difficult to u understand what they're feeling, because even they don't know. My very close friend is a Pisces Moon and he never talks deep about how he feels unless he's a little drunk.

🟫LILITH IN SCORPIO

I wrote back on a comment to which men are really attracted to a Lilith Scopios, so I'll write it here. Men with heavy water placements, Lilith in the 1st/8th house and Pluto dominant men. I've heard many say having sex with them is an  unforgettable experience. Lilith in Scorpio women love a Cancer sun/moon, that's a fact!

🟫SATURN IN THE 8TH HOUSE

Yep this can indicate a longer life than usual, but also having such a gloomy planet in a gloomier house has it's downs. They really need to work on letting things go. They can be very rigid and stressed most days.

🟫VIRGO RISING

Many Virgo risings I've met have naturally blonde or light hair, especially men.

xoxo N.K

#astrology #astrology observations #astro observations #zodiac #questions #sagittarius #scorpio sun #scorpio astrology #scorpio #aqua moon #aquarius #12 houses #moon in 12th house #capricorn sun #capricorn #gemini venus #sag venus #aries venus #leo venus #asterioid #asteroid

[phocidine]

I JUST NEED TO SAY IT.

I’m not necessarily accusing anyone, but I think it’s really important to know that a lot of the fans who completely flanderized Niki’s character thought that they were being feminist.

I don’t think it’s enough to just praise Niki and hype up her character endlessly. You have to actually understand her and not just scream “GO WOMEN!!! I LOVE WOMEN!!!” blindly.

Her Dsmp character was emotionally complex as hell and had an arc where she fell into despair, lost sight of who she was and what she believed in, and then found herself again and started anew.

But…When she was in that despair and lost phase, people were either calling her a girlboss and acting like her trying to kill her friends was empowering, or calling her an evil abuser because she wasn’t acting nice or “motherly” like they wanted her to.

We don’t know what kind of character qNiki is going to be.

Which means there’s no correct or incorrect way to characterize her yet!

But when she does start having a character:

Please take the time to consider whether you want to view her a certain way because of her actions, or whether you want to view her that way because she vaguely matches an archetype you enjoy or because you think depicting her accurately would make her seem un-empowering.

#this is the last ill say on niki worries #qsmp #qsmp niki #discourse #qsmp discourse

[thexfridax]

D.E.B.S. at 20: a Queer Cult Classic

Bessie Yuill Photo: Sundance/WireImage

There is a secret film hidden within the shadowy sapphic corners of Letterboxd. Some call it escapist trash, some call it an underrated cult classic, fools call it a male fantasy. It calls itself D.E.B.S. As other early-2000s chick flicks like Charlie’s Angels and St. Trinian’s have been reevaluated and embraced for their candy-floss aesthetics and campy wit over the years, the lesbian community was quietly reclaiming its own equivalent with 2004’s D.E.B.S.

The precursor to contemporary high-concept lesbian films like Bottoms, the spy flick is filled with something that queer female moviegoers still often yearn for: fun. That includes Jordana Brewster and her era-defying eyebrows as the impeccably named supervillain Lucy Diamond, John Woo–style fight scenes that parody the action genre in the same way as Charlie’s Angels, and a cheerfully cheap aesthetic where spies run around in plaid schoolgirl skirts.

D.E.B.S. was written, directed, and edited by filmmaker Angela Robinson. While “unapologetically queer” might be an overused phrase, it does apply neatly to Robinson. The Chicago-born director’s first project was a short film called Chickula: Teenage Vampire, calling on the long history of vampiric queer women that began with 1872’s Carmilla.

Her love of playing with genre led her to later put a lesbian spin on the movie musical by writing the underappreciated Girltrash: All Night Long and exploring polyamory in a period biopic about the creators of Wonder Woman, Professor Marston and the Wonder Women. On the small screen, she also burnished her lesbian credentials by working on several episodes of The L Word.

When D.E.B.S. started life as a short film, Robinson described it as “a story about a trio of superspies who are all chicks. I love all the comic-book characters: Charlie’s Angels, Batman, Josie & the Pussycats … But I always wanted them to be gay and they never were, so I wrote my own.” Success at Sundance led to Sony snatching the short up and deciding that D.E.B.S. should be a full-length feature.

Two decades later, the joy of this movie lies in the details. The tone is immediately set by a gravelly voice-over telling us that there is a secret test hidden within the SAT to recruit young female superspies (and establishing that, like Bottoms, this is a film aware of genre archetypes and willing to push believability). Our main character Amy (Sara Foster) is an academic overachiever — like many lesbians overcompensating for their perceived failure to live up to social norms. Her perfect score on the secret SAT test makes it even more scandalous when she falls for the aforementioned supervillain Lucy Diamond.

Queer friend groups may delight over the nostalgic frosty eye shadow and lip gloss worn by the D.E.B.S. (which stands for “discipline, energy, beauty, strength,” naturally) at all times. Flip phones, CGI holographic screens, and Goldfrapp’s appearance on the soundtrack will also remind you that you’re watching a film made in the early 2000s. And many will squeal when they spot Holland Taylor, over a decade before she came out, as the academy’s head.

Admittedly, the special effects are goofy enough to cross over into comedy, especially when our girls are abseiling into a restaurant or climbing walls with plungers, and the lighting could be charitably described as resembling teen soap operas of that era. But the chemistry between Amy and Lucy is crackling enough that YouTube compilations of their scenes have racked up hundreds of thousands of views online. Their fun enemies-to-lovers plotline begins with the pair pointing guns at each other and quickly progresses to a whirlwind romance (the other D.E.B.S. think Amy’s been kidnapped and launch a national manhunt, just as many friend groups have had to organize rescue missions for lesbians on weeklong first dates).

You could argue that espionage serves as a metaphor for the closet and that Amy is such an effective spy because she’s used to lying to herself about her sexuality. But that almost seems like too much weight to put on this meringue confection of a genre spoof: Its campiness liberates the characters to inhabit a fun, exaggerated universe with no serious homophobia or consequences. Guns are used, but the so-called superspies have such consistently terrible aim that there are no real casualties. And Lucy Diamond’s supposedly nefarious crimes are all reversible — the murders pinned on her are revealed to be misunderstandings, and she returns all of her stolen goods in order to win Amy back.

When this live-action Totally Spies with a lesbian twist debuted, it only made $97,000 and was dismissed by critics. But there were enough moviegoing gays impressed by its snappy dialogue, fun romance, and stunning supporting cast (including Meagan Good, Jimmi Simpson, and Devon Aoki with a French accent) for its reputation to grow online over time. In forums and YouTube comment sections, young girls were asking, “Are there any lesbian films where they just fall in love and have fun and don’t die at the end?” Their answer was D.E.B.S.

#D.E.B.S. #2004 #Angela Robinson #LGBTQ+ #Film #Queer joy #Criminally underrated #Cult classic #How is it #already 20 yrs later

[happysharkintensifies]

Booktok makes me sick, not just because of all the shitty books. It's the prevalence, no, the celebration, of toxic masculinity. Every single booktok book features some variation on the same man. And without fail, against all sensible reason, these characters are portrayed as handsome and charismatic and desirable.

It makes me sick when these authors hold up these toxic, predatory traits and put them on a pedestal as some kind of Ideal Man.

It makes me sick when their aggressiveness and possessiveness is treated as romantic. It makes me sick when these shitty men forcibly grab women, invade their personal spaces, and render them helpless by 'purring' in their ears, every. single. fucking. time.

It makes me sick that these misogynistic, heteronormative, and hypermasculine social conventions keep appearing in so-called feminist literature.

Strip away the idealized elements and you have what is basically the rich, white, cishet, alpha-male archetype. He's tall, usually six feet, physically fit and muscular with obligatory six pack abs, and conventionally handsome, with a chiseled jawline. He's usually clean-shaven, and any hair he may have on his body is minimal. He maintains composure at all times and rarely shows anxiety or uncertainty. He exudes raw charisma and charm and navigates social spaces effortlessly.

His hobbies, if he has any, are stereotypically masculine. When it comes to sex, he's confident, skilled, exclusively dominant, and always knows what to do without communicating with his partner. The sex he enjoys is usually rough, animalistic and overpowering. He may have been with several women in the past, and he may be regarded as a sex god, both in-universe and out.

His toxic traits are rarely portrayed as negative. But when they are, they're usually held up as some edgy, anti-hero persona and the reader is inevitably manipulated into sympathizing with him. He'll be portrayed as a tortured, wounded animal, and his female love interest (and, by proxy, the reader) will decide on some variation of 'I can fix him'.

He is essentially the unrealistic standard the ideal Proper Man; the one that men are expected to emulate, and that women are expected to swoon over.

But what really irks me is the lost potential.

If there are men who don't fit into this mold, they are depicted as pathetic, ineffectual, or any number of negative traits.

The narrative quietly and passive-aggressively mocks them and portray them as boring and un-sexy.

After all, is this the kind of man who will bravely swoop in and sweep a helpless woman off her feet? Of course not. Such men are boys. Wimps. Cowards.

These books are supposed to be fantasy: a genre in which easily anything can be explored. If faeries, magic, and contrived mating bonds can exist, then why can't we also have male characters who exist outside the stereotypical, hypermasculine mold?

Why is it that we can have so many fantastical, impossible, and wondrous magical forces, creatures, and peoples, but we can't have men who aren't possessive, abusive, or controlling?

Why is it that male characters, have to be so innately dominant, abusive, and violent? Why do they have to be so fit and muscular and strong?

Even worse, why is it treated as something that is so natural, so inescapable, even in the realm of fiction?

Where are the men who aren't tall and fit? Where are the men who don't have sculpted abs or chiseled jawlines? Where are the men who aren't lean and muscular?

Why can’t we have men who are skinny or overweight? Why can't we have men who aren't handsome or attractive, but just average looking? Why can't we have men who are shorter or just average height?

Why can't we have men with non-stereotypical hobbies? Why can't we have men who love to read, or paint, or write, or sing, or dance, or build model kits?

Why can’t we have men who are timid and shy? Why can't we have men who feel anxiety, fear, and sadness? Why can't we have men who aren't afraid of crying openly?

Why can't we have men who aren't sex gods? Why can't we have men who aren't confident in bed? Who are anxious, or even scared, at the prospect of sex? Who are passive instead of dominant? Who want to experience intimacy and affection?

Why can’t we have men be kind and gentle and sweet for once?

I'll tell you why we can't. Because booktok says men like these are not 'man' enough. Booktok says men like these are the 'boring' option, and completely devoid of interesting quirks, traits or personality. Booktok says men like these are underserving of attention, and only fit to be background noise.

As far as booktok is concerned, men like these can't exist.

#anti sjm #anti booktok #anti colleen hoover #anti coho #masculinity #toxic masculinity #booktok critical #healthy masculinity #fuck booktok

[punkeropercyjackson]

Yeah,no,Zutaras don't care about representation for anyone other than themselves.Because if they did,why do they

Call Aang white because they don't like him while knowing full well he's tibetan and come up with every insult in the book for him because he's a femme boy

Say Mai is a pick me and toxic because of her autistic-coding and trauma responses and dosen't 'deserve' Zuko even though he canonically finds the former attractive and has the latter too

Accuse Zukka shippers of being fujoshis who 'just hate women' for wanting Sokka to be bi and Zuko his boyfriend when most Zukka shippers are queer minors who only started the fandom because Atla got put on Netflix so that's how they found out it then instead of when it came out

And completely disregard Ty Lee as an even potentional love interest for Zuko by calling her 'too much of a bimbo' and 'stereotypically girly' for him when she was written with deconstructing that archetype in mind by giving her real emotions and what it puts girls through by misogynists who want to police how we present even if it's a healing/coping mechanism like in her case?

If moc queer or not love Kataang,they get called dudebros with no basis.If autistic women instead of just 'quirky nerds' love Maiko,they get strawmaned as 'creepy alt girls who're trying too hard'.If gay and trans people love Zukka,they get the classic 'these FILTHY GAYS are RUINING our HETEROSEXUAL SPACE' take.And if autistic queer girls who're femme in ways that aren't palpable to allistics and cishets love Ty Luko,we get told we aren't even worth considering romantic options because we're too 'stupid' and can't 'really have deep connections' that aren't being someone's annoying friend.You wanted Zutara to be canon because you're a woc like Katara and had a crush on Zuko?Cool,i feel the same way about Ty Luko and so do certain Maiko and Zukka shippers with their ships but none of run around cyberbullying school children and causing unnecessary infighting over it!So be quiet,not everything is about you and at this point we've proven we're too good to be near you so leave and don't forget to let door hit you on the way out♡

#anti zutara #kataang #maiko atla #zukka #ty luko #t4t kataang #t4t maiko #t4t zukka #t4t ty luko #katara #zuko #aang #mai atla #sokka #ty lee #atla geekery #pro aang #aang defense squad #pro mai #pro ty lee #pro katara #pro zuko #punk katara #trans ty lee #kataang defense squad #pro maiko #pro zukka #pro ty luko #autistic girl summer #summerposting

[arrenlebanen777]

ASTRO OBSERVATIONS 444

☾People who have the same Sun sign of your Sun degree, inflate your ego/or destroy it, they help you a lot in your path, they help you to be more confident and self-assured, you may even fall in love with them due to this. ☾People who have the Sun sign/Personal Planets sign of your Lilith Degree, could help you heal your inner child wounds, or make you really uncomfortable because they trigger the Raw/Violent/Suppressed/vulnerable energy in you. ☾You could idealize the sign of your Neptune degree. ☾People who have the Sun sign or Personal Planets in the sign of Your Saturn degree could teach you valuable/harsh lessons. ☾You have Love/hate relationship with people who has personal planets of the same sign of your Pluto degree, since they trigger your shadow. ☾Moon in 4th house: Have to find balance between comfort zone and Doing things, i know your house/home could be the best place in the world when life gets hard, but you could get stuck here. They have very good intuition to see/decipher the energy of the psychosocial environment, they never forget due to their good memory, the best practice here is to let go and remember that life is sustaining you all the time and realize that your home is in you and is all existence/universe/infinite, that way you become like a spring of life that nourishes everything & everyone that is around you. ☾Vertex in 8th house: Has intense karmic s*xual partners. ☾I have Sun in Scorpio in 5th house conjunct Sappho(80), Casanova(7328), and asteroids Shiva(1170), Bacchus(2063), Cupido(763) & Vesta(4) all in Scorpio 5th house too... And i’m going to tell you how it is: I love the energy of women(i really love it), i do a lot of yoga, Tantra for me is the best way to manage all this s*xual energy, casual s*x is not for me(because I want to merge completely and become one with the person), but is hard for me to stay long periods of time without s*x, i love flirting because I feel it's necessary/fundamental and fun (sometimes I don't realize when I'm doing it, and sometimes i flirt with everyone?), My libido is high and is not so easily transmutable, intense parties with s*xual and chaotic themes are places where I have a lot of fun and they relax me a lot, when i'm simple being people think that I give off the vibes of a fuckboy(I am not lol), intense music gives me chi(lol), When I fall in love I become quite possessive because I want that person just for me, and I can have s*x with that person every damn day of my life(With my first ex-girlfriend we had s*x every day for four months, several times a day), I am super passionate about art/music/spirituality and games in general, in the past I had a terrible jealousy problem (until I became more spiritual/conscious/therapy), my s*xual partners usually have very Plutonian or Scorpian vibes, If I spend a lot of time with a partner it drains me a lot and I have to disappear for a while, otherwise i become crazy, i love gloomy art, when i develop a crush on someone it feels like this: https://tenor.com/es-419/view/sukuna-smile-grin-jjk-yuji-itadori-gif-18924114

☾To all plutonian people: Pluto doesn’t care about you, It doesn’t care if you suffer or you are happy. The only thing that Pluto wants is that you transcends the extremes of what you call good and bad, because that way you can transform(nothing of the old remains)yourself, in other words Pluto wants you to become awakened/enlightened(reach your full potential) but it doesn’t care if you destroy yourself along the way. So watch out that this raw energy(power) of Pluto goes to your ego, because it could make you really egocentric(like sukuna, madara uchiha, toji fushiguro, villain archetype). ☾Libra IC: Daydreamers(they daydream like f*ck), harmonious home, beautiful family that is surrounded by arts or beauty in general, Diplomatics fathers, could have problems to express their anger, super charming, they decorate their rooms a lot, And a lot of people finds their room like a precious and dreamy place. ☾Sun opposite Saturn: Very serious person, disciplined, could suffer from depression because Saturn limits his expression, Saturn here asks you to focus on what is really important, in the house where the sun is, is where the burden of Saturn is lightened, and in the house where Saturn is, is where the most important lessons are, Saturn here practically asks you to become a master of your ego / of yourself / how you use your energies,  asks you to really observe what your needs/deep soul desires are, thats why it limits your expression because it actually wants you to express in a most authentic, mature and honest way, may have problems with the inner child, and they can punish themselves a lot, but once they discipline themselves in something, believe me that nobody and nothing is going to stop them (hard working af).

🌿i am going to do bookings for natal chart readings, very soon! Stay tuned!🌿

#astrology observations #astrology posts #astro notes #astro observations #astrology #zodiac tumblr #zodiac side of tumblr #8th house #5th house #astrology blog #astrology obs #scorpio #lilith #sun opposite saturn #neptune #astro community #asteroid observations #moon in 4th house #astrology notes #zodiac signs #spirituality

[princessjojo-x]

CancerVenus ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

💝 he may be quite submissive or vanilla.

💝 he’s unlikely to make the first move unless he’s known you for quite some time & has good reason to believe his feelings are reciprocated bc he’s sensitive, reserved & fears rejection too much to risk being let down. initially he can be very aloof with love interests & tends to play the field. nothing is obvious with him & he is hard to read.

💝 even after you’ve both shown mutual interests & began dating one another, he’ll resist being the first to confess feelings & he may even take his feelings to the grave. he’d much prefer you to open up first which will allow him to feel comfortable enough to open up too. usually, it takes him a long time for him to become emotionally invested in a partner. he may hide or sabotage in order to refrain from falling too deep in love. you’ll need to prove to him that you’re dependable, safe, responsible & nurturing before he opens the door to his heart. you’ll know he likes you when the hard crab shell comes off.

💝 his emotional state is vey changeable & unstable. it’s possible that this originated from a cataclysmic emotional event in which his ability to feel inwardly secure has been serverely compromised. old wounds & past traumas can heavily influence his present rxships & cause him to react from a place of fear rather than love.

💝 despite him continuously learning a lot of hard lessons through love, somehow he never gives up on love. he is extremely nurturing & protective. he can even be smothering & clingy. he overwhelms his lover with attention.

💝 he has a fear of being too vulnerable & even verbalising what he needs or feels can be too exposing for him (its an instinctual response to his distrust of most people). therefore, he has a silent emotional expectation that his partner should somehow know just what he needs without him even verbalising it. when these needs are unmet, he can react very badly, from deeply crushing silent treatment to extreme anger outbursts.

💝 he is emotionally intelligent & he encourages others to let out their emotions. if you’re going through emotional distress he naturally responds with nurture, wisdom & support.

💝 he can be moody, shy & emotionally manipulative (blaming his partner for his own low mood, especially since he take everything she says personally).

💝 you will know someone with cancer placements is taking you srsly & trusts you when they invite you to their home bc their home is a very important place to them. it’s where their personality shines, it’s their walls full of pictures of family & friends, books their mother read to them when they were little, blankets their grandmother made for them. they can’t let go of these things so when they let you inside their little shell, you can tell they put a huge amount of trust in you, they don’t do that with just anyone.

💝 he holds grudges a lot bc it's the only way to stop him from forgiving others. if you try to lie to him he’ll always have receipts ready!

💝 all cardinal venus signs tend to stop making efforts in their rxships once they get the person they were chasing, then either leave or complain about how boring things got.

💝 check the phases of the moon to see when he may cheat on you next. they don’t call it the “new moon” for no reason.

Turn On’s:

💝 he prefers love over lust.

💝 he seeks a partner who is emotionally understanding & provides him emotional security.

💝 ensure to give him lots of physical affection bc he establishes trust through physical touch. the best method to calm him down is literally giving him a hug.

💝 he loves a woman who’s the perfect blend of docile & dominant. dominant in the sense that she’ll be mature, reliable & persistent (he loves the mother archetype, being babied by a partner who feels like home). docile in the sense that she is willing to taking care of him & cater to him. he may even like passivity & receptivity in women, where he is the one providing & she can receive it.

💝he likes sweet, soft, gentle, delicate, nurturing, compassionate, patient women with feminine energy. create a warm, loving space for him to relax in at the end of the day or be willing to listen to how his day went.

💝 treat him like a priority & make him feel important. he needs constant reassurance, comfort, safety & vulnerability. ts

💝 his ideal partner has a water sign moon or ascendant.

💝 he wants someone with a strong connection to family or someone who wants to build a family (family oriented).

💝 ask him abt his rxship with his mum as he may have a mommy kink or mommy issues (or he may tend to attract people with mommy issues).

💝 sexually, he needs very strong touch, holding & kissing in order to feel sexually secure & trusting. unless he feels emotionally safe, he’ll feel sexually insecure.

💝 to impress him, dress a tad more modest & traditional, he likes a gentle aesthetic. he likes the colours of the moon (white, grey, light blue). don’t dress with too many colours or patterns. show da titties off, cancer placements love titties.

💝 he finds shy people super cute & charming.

💝 all water venus’s want emotional security. they want to be able to have a safe space & build a deep bond (they lacked this this security growing up). they want to feel spiritually bonded with their partner.

Turn Off’s:

💝 he loves to talk abt his feelings so he’s turned off by overly aggressive, emotionally closed off, arrogant, aloof, flashy & inconsiderate women.

💝 he dislikes being rushed or pushed to make decisions. he moves at his own pace & if he become overwhelmed, he’ll retreat.

💝 he’s turned off if you don't let him in bc he likes to build a full connection asap & may have problem with the waiting stage. he wants to be sure things are going steadily in the direction of you being fully open to him, fully trusting in him & being an open book for him to read. he craves that intimacy & prefers love over lust, so if you don’t share yourself fully too it may annoy him.

💝 he’s turned off when you make him feel left out, unwanted & refuse to take his feelings into account (same for all water venus).

💝 telling him he makes you feel super uncomfortable & unsafe. telling him that he’s creepy, perverted & gross.

💝 rejecting his cuddles & food.

#astro notes #astrology #venus signs #cancer venus

[emmitaaa4]

Addressing some fandom BS inconsistencies

Gwyn was shadow mommy, Az was shadow daddy, they were gonna have shadow babies with her extra super pliable bones.

I audibly chocked when I read this @nikethestatue (btw everything said in this post was on point). No but seriously this is how they sound, too many of them insisting that there is nothing wrong with basing the likelihood of a ship on who has the more suitable uterus to be with a man... cause supposedly they're just picking up on the hints SJM wrote for them? She likes babies for HEAs so ofc children are the end all be all of a relationship, plus there's absolutely no way that she could ever write an adoption plot SJM is literally adopted and has done it in other series. Selective reading strikes again.

A minimum amount of critical thinking would tell you that 1) the infamous *magical uterus change* scene was about nessian (& feysand), not about any ship; 2) if SJM had written Nesta changing Elain's uterus, it would have given too much away, not to mention 3) how disturbing/violating it would have been for Nesta to change her sister's reproductive anatomy WITHOUT HER CONSENT?! None of it makes sense narratively; my girl Nes would never, especially given the trauma they both suffered from having their bodily autonomy--and so much more--ripped away by the Cauldron.

This argument is so trivialized that I see it every other day on reddit/tiktok/*insert media app*, and yet elriels are the toxic side of the fandom? The ones whom people are allowed to insult, to ridicule for theories all made in good fun, the women that are villainized over a difference of opinion? Don't get me wrong, there's assholes on both sides and people keep calling one another variations of delulu (and the nastier personal attacks). But by painting this fandom-wide villain there is such a lack of accountability for the plethora of harmful talking points spread by other portions of the fandom. (I've been silently reading the anti-elain & anti-elriel tags for like a year, and I'm on tiktok. Yes, I have self-destructive tendencies).

Anyways.

I never understood either how people ever actually thought (or well still think) that gwynriel would happen BEFORE elucien?? It makes no sense logically, narratively, or in terms of characterization & the arc she's set up for Elain, Azriel, and Lucien. Yet it took one controversial bonus chapter for people to decenter Elain in her own story, that is make her choice of romantic partner--which SJM spent 3+ books setting up--Azriel's. It took one bonus chapter that soo many readers are still unaware of, to brush Elain off as a "sexual object" Az is using to distract himself until his therapist-extraordinaire Gwyn comes in and heals him all up. Because ofc she will: she's badass and not the "passive and weak and boring" Eplain (aka "Plant" or "brain dead gardener"), she fits the YA archetype of the spunky warrior-girl so she can handle his darkness, and SJM supposedly spent time fleshing her out because she wrote her as a LI for Azriel; she's made for him, she is what he needs to grow (I actually enjoyed Gwyn's character btw, just pointing out how silly it all sounds). “Next book is a love triangle between Elain/Az/Gwyn” “Elain will turn evil or is secretly evil”. So you're telling me that SJM would pit Elain & Gwyn against each other in a love triangle over a man... all because of a necklace that was not even mentioned once in the actual books? Please, let's be logical for a second.

All this because instead of reading the bonus chapter in the context of the books, some people are reading the books in the context of the bonus chapter. Which now that I think of it is probably why so many people mischaracterize Az the way they do--because yes we know enough of his character to know half of the stuff the fandom diagnoses him with is questionable. Azriel? Entitled incel x fuckboy hybrid (gotta be the first of his kind, minute slay ig)? Interesting tell me more. No joke I saw a semi-popular post on here where a gwynriel said they read the bonus WITHOUT HAVING READ ANY OF THE BOOKS. I'm sorry, ship wars are silly and believe it or not idc who ppl ship, but it makes it hard to take some of the things they say seriously.

All this to say that the fandom isn't even debating the right thing. If you consider everything SJM has said in her interviews:

(she's been planting seeds for Nesta & Elain's book since acomaf; she knows who she is writing the first 2 books about + is keeping things open for the 3rd one--with 5 different ship options--which automatically rules out "Elain will close the series"; she said she's doing research for Elain's book in the ACOFAS bonus & there's seeds for future bookS in acofas; all she said recently about her beloved *heroines* and the themes of fate/true love/choice she finds *very* interesting & wants to discuss)

and if you also consider all she's written in the actual books (elain's characterization + the overarching plot in general & how she fits into it), then it's pretty evident that Elain's book is next.

The question then would be who is the MMC / 2nd PoV in her book, aka would acotar 5 be an elucien or an elriel story? Because logically, gwynriel was always a consequence of elucien. I honestly do not understand how people don't see that.

Oh and they always think they're gagging elriels with the "obviously Azriel is the next MC" as if elriels aren't saying the same thing? And we're the ones twisting info and not making sense. It's just funny at this point.

---sidenote: I realize that this post generalizes some things, and I just wanted to say that I have interacted with lovely eluciens / people on either side of this headache of a ship war. My hard limit is Elain haters though... back off I say 🤺 BACK OFF 🤺

---sidenote 2: I would have written this as a reblog except im not entirely sure how tumblr works and I get no visibility from them rip.

#please be so for real rn #elain archeron #anti gwynriel #anti nonsense #acotar 5 #elriel #pro elriel #pro elain #pro azriel #sjm interview #azriel bonus chapter #nesta archeron #elucien

[atlaculture]

Cultural Fashion: The Razor Pt. 2 - Clothing

Since the girl representing the archetype of “The Razor” has yet to be named, I’ll simply be referring to her as “Razor” for this post.

While previous Avatar Legends characters I’ve analyzed have designs that allude to less prominent cultures in ATLA, Razor’s design calls back to a more popular source of inspiration for Avatar: China’s Tang Dynasty (618-907).

Her dress comes from the Tang Dynasty--- although it’s modified to accommodate her bending. Like the women in the painting, she wears a qixiong ruqun (齊胸襦裙) or “chest high robe-skirt”. As the name implies, the flowing skirt is worn at the chest and over the robe. It’s held in place by a sash and cord combo. The final component of the outfit is the thin scarf wrapped around the arms called a pibo (披帛).

As you can see, Razor’s outfit takes some artistic liberties with its inspiration. The sash is tied under the bust, rather than over the bust, allowing the top of the skirt to peek out; this gives her a more empire waist silhouette, rather than a traditionally tubular one. Her skirt is ankle-length rather than floor-length, for ease of movement. Her pibo is weighted at both ends, which just looks awesome. Maybe she can use the rings as weapons? Like slapping people with them. Finally, and most obviously, her sleeves are cut short to accommodate both her disability and her bending ability. Overall, I really enjoy her design.

According to Avatar Wiki, Razor was raised to be a weapon, a tool for her master to use against enemies. But she saw a better way forward, and now seeks to make up for the terrible things she has done and was taught to do. When you take into consideration both her backstory and character design, she gives off the impression of a deceptively cultured assassin-type. I also just love the contrast between her brutish body language and her delicate dress.

I actually think her character embodies the spirit of the Tang Dynasty really well. It was a time of much opulence and high fashion, but it was also a period of relative freedom and empowerment for women. It was during this dynasty that China saw its first and only sovereign female emperor, a princess became a successful general to an army of 70,000 men, rough contact sports like polo were all the rage with noblewomen and women’s social & political rights were expanded. It just goes to show that a love of beauty and fashion doesn’t invalidate a woman’s strength and competence.

#avatar #atla #Avatar The Last Airbender #avatar legends #earth kingdom #Avatar Legends keeps coming at me with the A+ designs #cultural fashion

[tyrantisterror]

My Personal History with My Good Friend, Satan

My first encounter with The Devil - that I can remember, at least - came when I was about three or so. My mom liked to borrow VHS tapes from libraries to show me and my siblings a lot, and one of the libraries she used was the one at our church. It was a small and obviously very religion-centric collection, but it left a notable mark on me - like, that's where I saw this weird, kinda shitty cartoon version of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe which might be responsible for irreconcilably fucking up my taste in women? I just have this distinct memory of watching the scene where Edmund is tempted by the White Witch and thinking, "Yeah, he's making the right call." If anything I was frustrated that he hesitated - three year old me was already simping for this woman. Just imagine a child channeling Ernie Hudson in Ghostbusters and growling, "When a terrifying and beautiful woman offers you candy and a private sleigh ride, you say YES!" and that's basically me as a kid.

Where was I? Right, Satan. So, the other video from that library I remember was this cartoon retelling of Bible stories, and really I just remember the Adam and Eve part. The temptation scene had this huge, super gnarly-looking demonic red snake in it, and he was so cool and badass and I was already predisposed to like snakes anyway, so of course he was my instant favorite. But, like almost all media featuring reptiles that captured my little child heart, he turned out to be the bad guy - literally The Devil, in this case - and was punished at the end of the story. And that pissed me off.

Sometime shortly thereafter - or at least that's how I remember it, this was over thirty years ago so things might be smushed closer together than they really were by the fog of ages - some of the kids in my preschool chastised me for liking snakes. "Don't you know the devil is a snake? Snakes are evil!" I remembered the movie, and it made me angry.

Because snakes aren't evil, and as a kid I knew that because my parents taught me it. Snakes were just animals, they don't know right from wrong, and to call them evil it to judge them for what they are, not what they do. That experience taught me a very important lesson: The Devil is a tool to make people hate the innocent. And as I'd later learn, snakes were far from the only innocents people would vilify because of a demonic association.

The second time I met the devil came a few years later, when I was six or seven or so. My Grampa and Grams liked to take us up North to Mackinac City and the Upper Peninsula each summer, and I have a lot of fond memories of those trips, but there was one in particular that's relevant to this discussion. We saw a sign for a "laser light show" in the shopping district, and I got to stay up late to see it with my family. The show in question was basically a cartoon projected into the night sky adapting the song The Devil Went Down to Georgia. It was super primitive and hokey and cornball and terrible and I loved every second of it. I was enchanted, absolutely delighted with the spectacle and the silly song where the devil was less a force of evil and more a comically bumbling inept supervillain - one of my favorite archetypes, even back then. So that's the second lesson about the devil I learned: The Devil can be fun sometimes.

Now, Godzilla, one of the few reptile characters I encountered as a kid who didn't end up a villain (at least not in the first movie of his I saw, Godzilla vs. Megalon), had already set me on the path to loving monsters of all stripes and, by extension, horror fiction in general, so as I grew up I had many more encounters with the devil. But while I warmed up quickly to most monster archetypes, like vampires, zombies, werewolves, etc., I always felt dismissive of demons. It kind of coincided with me becoming disillusioned with Christianity as a whole, in fact. A story about fighting evil, Christian-style demons is ultimately an allegory for fighting evil as defined by Christianity, and Christianity's definition of what evil is, well, sucks. It's bad! They got some things right, but some things horribly wrong. The devil is the tool Christianity uses to make you hate the innocent, and I struggled to enjoy a lot of demon stories because of that. Still do with some, in fact.

There were exceptions, of course - I loved The Evil Dead series as soon as I saw it at too-early-of-an-age, but then, the demons in it aren't super Christian. They aren't repelled by holy water or crucifixes or prayer, and in fact God and Jesus barely get mentioned in the series and never come up as a potential solution. They're kind of secular as demons go, and maybe that made them easier to stomach. But overall, demons ranked pretty low in the hierarchy of monsters to me - they were too tainted by the religion that spawned them for me to enjoy.

Until college, anyway. I quietly renounced my faith during my Freshmen year, and then, as if seeking one last chance at redemption in my eyes, the devil came to me again the following year. That's when I had a class on Medieval literature, and was exposed to far older devil stories than I had ever seen before. And Medieval devils kick ass. They have so much more personality and variety than I had come to expect, and some are downright affable, even sympathetic to a degree. It was one of many moments in college when I realized there was much more to a topic I'd previously written off as boring and trite.

This is when I read Dante's The Divine Comedy and Milton's Paradise Lost and Marlowe's Faust and Ben Johnson's The Devil Is An Ass. It's when I read early Gothic Horror novels like Matthew Gregory Lewis's The Monk, and dived into The Twilight Zone, which has more than a few episodes that are updates of medieval-style devil folktales in a more modern (i.e. 1960's) setting. And so many of these works presented the Devil not as a stand-in for everything Christianity hates, but as a person - a deeply flawed person, yes, but a person with actual wants and feelings and thoughts of his own, a person who was interesting and compelling - and sometimes funny, and sometimes charming, and sometimes really sad. There was, dare I say... sympathy for the devil growing in my heart.

In the last year of my undergraduate studies, I attended my college's yearly Medieval Studies Congress, where people from all over the world came to Kalamazoo just to share their research papers on medieval history and literature. One girl's thesis paper was on the subject of "rueful devils," i.e. depictions of demons in literature where they wanted to repent their sins and redeem themselves, which uniformly ended with the devils' hopes being dashed as they could not fully repent. This idea... possessed me. The idea that the devil could repent, or at least try to - that there could be hope even in the most debauched sinner. It was such a good narrative trope in my eyes - why did it die out centuries ago?

Well, because the church didn't like it, you see. If the devil can repent - if the Absolute King of Evil can choose to become a good person - then he's not very useful as a tool to make people hate the innocent anymore. The devil MUST be "pure evil" to work as intended. A rueful devil, a repentant devil, a devil that can be redeemed, forces us to be more forgiving and kind. It forces us to be better. It prevents us from hating people because an old book says so. And some people just couldn't have that, and so the trope died.

...

After I got my bachelor's degree, I entered the job market and, after applying to fifty different places or so, was finally hired as a high school english teacher about two weeks before the school year started. Said school year was the worst year of my life. Like, I've had extreme self loathing issues and suicidal ideation since, like, sixth grade, but holy shit it was NEVER as bad as it was in that nine month stretch between 2012 and 2013. There was this bridge I had to cross on the way to work each morning, and about two months in the job was so stressful that part of my morning routine was thinking, "You know, if I just swerve to the right, this can all be over and I'll never have to worry again." About halfway in I began drastically losing weight despite not changing my diet or getting more exercise and it was so traumatic that to this day whenever my weight starts to drop my initial reaction is dread rather than excitement. I impulse bought the first two Kung-Fu Panda movies and, after watching each for the first time and crying hideously, proceeded to watch them on repeat for an entire weekend while sobbing myself hoarse for reasons I couldn't comprehend at the time.

I was in Hell. And the devil met me there.

I started writing a story during that year. I didn't get very far, just a couple chapters, but it was one of the few things that gave me a sense of accomplishment. Despite all the stress and sadness and misery, I made something. It was a story about demons, and Hell, and trying to make your life better even when the world around you seems deadset on making you suffer as much as possible.

When my bosses called me into their office at the end of that year and told me that I had to quit my job so the assistant principal could take my teaching position and survive the downsizing they'd get next year, and that if I didn't quit they'd give me the lowest teacher evaluation they could and make it supremely difficult for me to get hired elsewhere... I was relieved. I'd been let out of Hell. After a handful of months left to finish out the year, I was free.

And then I went home, with nothing. No job, no desire to pursue the career for which I'd spent five years and an ungodly amount of money getting a degree to pursue, no nest egg, nothing. Nothing except a few chapters of a book.

The years that followed were hard. I did a lot of temp work, it took me a very long time to find something that worked for me. I may have left the worst year of my life, but there was still a lot of misery waiting for me. And through it all, I felt the need to accomplish... something, ANYTHING. I had to make something to prove I had a reason to exist, even if it was something that only had value to me.

With three years of work, those chapters became my first novel, No Sympathies: A Tale of Those Who Trespass Against Us. It was about the devil, and Hell, and finding salvation even when things seem inescapably bleak. It was my first novel, and now, eight years later, it's the first of five.

The devil saved my life. He saw me at my lowest, lifted me up, whispered, "It'll be ok. You have to keep going. I'll be with you, but you have to keep going," and goddammit, he kept me from swerving right.

That's when I learned the greatest truth about the devil, at least to me. The devil is a tool to make people hate the innocent, yes, this is true, but because of that, the devil can be a savior for the broken, the beaten, and the damned. You can feel like you're worthless, wretched, and doomed. But if the devil can rise from Hell, if the devil can choose to change, if people are willing to pray for the one sinner who needs it most - then there's hope for you too, isn't there?

Demons are creatures of rebellion - against God, against nature, against the powers that be, against doom and damnation itself. They were made to be a tool to hurt the innocent, but that's not what they have to be. Devils can lift us up, because no matter how far you fall, no one can say whether it's the end for you except you.

...I would like to point out that I am being figurative here. The devil does not literally exist, at least not in my view of things. He's a fictional character, nothing more. But he's a prolific fictional character, and how we portray him can say so much about us. And, to me, he is a dear friend, despite being imaginary, because the devil was there for me when I was low, and it was on his wings that I rose from doom.

...again, figuratively, not literally.

[specterthief]

Definitions and Classifications of Yuri (Third Revision) - yuri315

(This is a translation of a 2018 blog post by the user yuri315 on hatenablog, originally found here. I find this author's system incredibly thorough and interesting, as well as the examples they provide of most of the relationship types, so I wanted to translate it and share it with other yuri fans on Tumblr. I included notes on important information that I thought required additional context, and provided links to all of the manga and anime mentioned, in English when possible and in Japanese when no English was available.)

At present, in order to roughly group together a great variety of relationships as "yuri", the question of where the line is on what can be considered yuri, whether a certain work can be called yuri, and other such unproductive arguments happen frequently. The purpose of this article is to create a general classification of the contents of yuri as a genre, in hopes of shifting the conversation from "is this yuri?" to "what kind of yuri do I enjoy?"

Of course, it can't be denied that the ambiguity of the definition of yuri, combining works following a variety of tastes and trends into a single genre, has been an aspect of the boom that's revitalized the genre. Understandably, there are concerns that clumsily subdividing the classification of yuri will cause a lack of cohesion and lead to the boom stalling and collapsing, when as it is now it hasn't even received a genre code at Comiket.* However, for the general public and new fans who don't share these assumptions, it may be difficult for them to understand situations where it isn't clear whether something is yuri, and they may not be influenced or restricted by those saying "X isn't yuri." Therefore, it is the author's belief that it would be significant for the yuri genre to have some form of comprehensive definition or classification.

Let's start with a provisional definition of yuri. Yuri can be described as "relationships between two or more women, and the genre of works that depicts those relationships." By analyzing what feelings and behaviors these "relationships" are based on, the contents of the yuri genre can be classified. In the following article, we will divide yuri into three broad categories: "Romantic Relationships", "Special Relationships" and "Friendly Relationships", and then establish a more detailed typology of how these relationships form and how they may be portrayed in each category. These designations are for convenience only, and the author is currently experimenting to find a better system.

(*TL note: Genre codes at Comiket—Comic Market, a doujinshi convention and the largest fan convention in the world—are used for attending artists/circles to categorize their work. Circles exhibiting works in the same genre code are grouped together in the convention space; there are currently no genre codes for yuri like there are for BL, even now, five years after this article was written.)

1. Romantic Relationships

Romantic and/or sexual relationships between women. This category includes relationships where there is a clear declaration of romantic love, or the relationship can be clearly understood to be romantic despite a lack of an explicit declaration.

1-1. Escape and Compensation

The story depicts indulging in a homosexual relationship as a compensatory act in order for a woman to escape, temporarily or permanently, from a situation in which her right to self-determination is threatened by coercive heterosexuality, such as arranged or forced marriages or betrothals.

1-2. Temptation and Conflict

The story depicts a woman being seduced into a homosexual relationship by another attractive woman, despite the conflict of their "forbidden love." The seducer is typically portrayed as leading the protagonist into an unknown world, often with tragic consequences. This is nearly synonymous with the "Crimson Rose and Candy" archetype defined by Yukari Fujimoto.* *(TL Note: "Crimson Rose and Candy" is an extremely prevalent archetype in early yuri, originally depicted in Shiroi Heya no Futari, what is generally considered the first yuri manga. Despite its origins and association with yuri, due to the overlap in the genres and authors in the Year 24 Group, it's an archetype that was present in contemporary M/F shoujo and BL, notably Gilbert and Serge in Kaze to Ki no Uta.)

1-3. Self-Awareness and Confession

The story depicts adolescent girls becoming self-aware of their feelings and fluctuations in their sexuality, and, through confessing, beginning romantic relationships. Coming-of-age stories in school settings where the girls face problems particular to puberty are especially common. Examples: - Akira Okudaira x Fumi Manjome (Sweet Blue Flowers by Takako Shimura) - Mariko Kumakura x Akiko Oohashi (GIRL FRIENDS by Milk Morinaga) - Tsubaki Kureha x Ginko Yurishiro (Yurikuma Arashi)

1-4. Negotiation and Dialog

The story depicts a romantic relationship between women who are equal individuals. They are typically emotionally mature to some degree, and already aware of their own sexuality. Negotiations between them occur as necessary as the relationship progresses, and if problems or obstacles arise, they're resolved through dialog between the characters. Examples: - Momoko Naitou x Shinobu Handa x others (Shoujo Sect by Kenn Kurogane) - Yukino Miyashita x Setsuko Iwai (Octave by Haru Akiyama) - Tsukasa Shiratori x Mikage Kotooka x Nadeshiko Washio (Nameless Asterism by Kina Kobayashi)

1-5. Continuation and Stability

The story depicts women who are already dating or living together as a couple. The focus is on the continuation of an established relationship and its stability into the future, and concerns such as living arrangements or coming out to those around them. Most yuri of this type features working adults, and typically include sex or similar acts. Examples: - Maya Nagumo x Michiru Amamiya (Ohana Holoholo by Shino Torino) - Arisa Suzuki x Mari Satou (Akarui Kioku Soushitsu by Oku Tamamushi)

1-6. One-sided Love

The story depicts one woman having unrequited feelings for another woman. This includes stories where these feelings remain hidden for the entirety of the work, or where she confesses and is rejected. Examples: Tomoyo Daidouji → Sakura Kinomoto (Cardcaptor Sakura)

2. Special Relationships

Relationships where the feelings between the characters are ambiguous but special, and can't be constrained by the definitions of either friendship or love. Regardless of the nature of the relationship, the common point is a sense of awareness that "this person is special to me." In most cases, the relationship isn't explicitly stated to be one of romantic love, but can still be said to be nearly a romantic relationship, or a pseudo-romantic relationship.

2-1. Magnetic Attraction

The story depicts an intense relationship in which the characters mutually resonate with one another on an existential or spiritual level, and are irresistibly and strongly attracted to one another, as if by magnetism or gravity. The invention of the term "magnetic attraction" is the greatest achievement of Sound! Euphonium and can be considered a major event in the world of yuri. Examples: - Kumiko Oumae x Reina Kousaka (Sound! Euphonium) - Ange x Princess (Princess Principal)

2-2. Partners

The story depicts characters who become involved with one another in a half-formed way through fate or various other inevitable circumstances, and later develop a strong physical or emotional bond. It's a similar concept to "Forced Yuri", the tagline of MekiMeki's Only☆You ~Anata to Watashi no Futari Bocchi Keikaku~. Examples: - Haruka Tenou x Michiru Kaiou (Sailor Moon S) - Papika x Cocona (Flip Flappers) - Sara Ayafuji x Iris Kazari (Vampire-chan x Kouhai-chan by Sakaki Yoshioka)

2-3. Shelter

The story depicts a relationship that serves as a refuge from existential anxiety, miscommunication and societal oppression. There are similarities to 1-1 "Escape and Compensation", but instead of simple escapism, this type has the positive connotation of bonds between women facilitating healing, self-examination, and rebuilding one's way of life and relationships with other people in order to grow as a human being. Examples: - Utena Tenjou x Anthy Himemiya (Revolutionary Girl Utena) - Rakka x Reki (Haibane Renmei) - You Aizawa x Hana Kojima (I Want To Make You Cry by Bunbi Bun)

2-4. Buddies

The story depicts a relationship in which the characters act together to achieve a specific goal, and are connected by a strong bond of trust. Unlike 2-2 "Partners", these are often somewhat passive relationships where the characters' partnership is necessary to achieve their objectives, but over time they may realize their importance to each other and prioritize being together. Aside from truly equal "buddies", this can also include asymmetrical relationships like master-and-servant yuri. Examples: - Mireille Bouquet x Kirika Yuumura (NOIR) - Sora Naegino x Layla Hamilton (Kaleido Star) - Arika Yumemiya x Mashiro Blan de Windbloom (My-Otome)

2-5. Huge Unclear Emotions

The story depicts at least one of the women feeling incredibly intense emotions toward another woman. Specifically, there are three main types: evaluative emotions, such as good will, respect, admiration, envy or worship, obsessive emotions, such as possessiveness, protectiveness, dependence, or sadistic or masochistic desire, and hostile emotions, such as rivalry, jealousy, hatred, or a desire to kill. However, various emotions are often intricately interwoven in a way that is difficult to describe in one or two words. Examples: - Mamina x Roatreamon (Simoun) - Madoka Kaname x Homura Akemi (Puella Magi Madoka Magica) - Chariot du Nord x Croix Meridies (Little Witch Academia)

2-6. Closeness

The story depicts a slow awareness of one another in an intimate relationship. It involves the characters feeling safe when they're together, or having the feeling that they belong by one another's side. Examples: - Shino Kishibe x Nozomi Kishibe (I Live With My Brother's Wife. by Kuzushiro)

3. Friendly Relationships

Relationships that aren't particularly special, but are nonetheless amiable and intimate. This can include a huge range of relationships, from deep camaraderie and familial relationships to simple playful friendship between girls.

Of the above, 1. "Romantic Relationships" can be considered "true yuri", while 2. "Special Relationships" and 3. "Friendly Relationships" could be called "soft yuri."

#yuri #fandom #girls love #wlw #mine #translation #fan translation #fandom academia #maybe??? #i hyperfocused on this so fucking hard #i found it last night. got up today. blacked out for 10 hours and now this is here. enjoy the yuri

[eatmangoesnekkid]

Heart and Alchemical Womb-Centered Grounded Spirituality and Leadership From The Melody of Love, Pre-View

We are in the middle of an incredibly important shift in consciousness, a real transformative time and turning of the Ages. In this new era, we either ascend or face the consequences—this is grown woman speech here.

Humanity gets to decide whether we journey towards truth, meaning increase our value so that we can ascend with Mother Earth and create what is termed “The New Earth” or stay on the path of violence, pillaging, materialism, domination, individualism, competition, sex trafficking, and senseless destruction. This world needs its Mother. Bring love, but also bring her a machete, meaning—some level of destruction and death are always necessary, but the senseless destruction, death, and complete disregard for human life are harmful to the bodies and psyches us all.

This paradigm shift requires a certain type of woman, female bodied person, or feminine soul; one who recognises the isolation, pain and destructiveness of the old ways, is ready to carve out paths to the new ways, and acknowledges the sacredness of being on this incredibly loving and rigorous journey of full aliveness within our body. If you are reading my work, I believe this woman is you and you deserve a vibrant body and lively life because you need to be in a space of full power in order to release your unique gifts. More than ever, we need courageous way showers like you who are not afraid to do their own internal and external ‘work’ in order to remain steady and grounded in the face of present and future chaos and who will continue to shine the brightest wettest light and hold space for others, no matter what. I call this archetypal frequency in female form the lover-warrior. We deeply need to love. But also need to remember how to fight..spiritually. Because when we understand who we really are, then we can favorably shift the reality, our own individual reality and the collective one. That's how powerful the feminine is.

As womb holders, even if our wombs have been surgically removed, energetically our wombs are still present and available which means that we have access to the grandest intelligence: the ability to feel… deeply. We can intuit next step directions and solutions that do not look like those same old archaic solutions.  That’s because we are natural born leaders and if you study human behavior and psychology objectively, you will realize how women have always been leaders. Males are generally and wonderfully physically stronger but females are mentally, psychically, and spiritually superior which makes us natural leaders. I do want to be clear— I’m not talking about status quo women. I am talking about awakened women. We are experiencing the results of a world built and run by men--and we have to be honest about that without ego. And men, especially, have to be more honest about what's happening. We are not to be at odds with one other or we all lose this game.

We live this robotic, unnatural, anti-nature, anti-care system that was designed by males for the wellbeing of men. . We may be female but our bodies are living in a male energy system and the result of it has been exhaustion, lack of fulfillment, burnout, heavy monthly bleed times, an increase in infertility and other female reproductive chronic issues, and the like. Everything about life, including the structure of marriage, how a typical work week is organized, the 9-5 Monday-Friday toxicity, exhausts women but gives men more energy, status, and power. As a woman of African ancestry who feels deeply connected to many parts of the global world, I always found it fascinating that even though men were out front acting as "leaders," it was the African wives behind the scenes giving direction and counsel to their husbands while holding a baby in one arm and stirring a homemade pot of stew with the other one. Any African woman knows this to be true. But the continent of Africa has massive issues and shadows, as does the rest of the entire world. The lack of true feminine energy present on the planet is making us all unwell and the earth will kick us out of here if we don’t discover better ways to align. I know women want to hear that men are the saviors just like what we read in Disney books. We fall asleep then are magically awakened by our Prince Charming who awakens us from our ignorant sleepy frequency. But, my love, these were all deliberate programs planted into the psyches of little girls that bankrupted us of our real power. Primal power.

We were lied to and all must deprogram from the scarcity, greed, and lack neurology we learned as little girls so that we can have full access to our intelligent alchemical natures and female resources to live more as magical women, divine beings, fulfilled wives/spouses, daughters, nieces, and mothers and less needy, victims, or prey.  We must get to know our feet, our calves, our legs, our hips, our pelvises, our asses, our spines, our bellies, breasts, throats, mouths, etc. Women/female bodied people are leaders (and the first teachers and healers as well) who will always give birth to new leaders no matter what. We are the ones divinely designed to midwife the New Earth through the magic of our frequency, vibration, thoughts, beliefs, and habits/action terrestrially and cosmically, and sometimes while in the embrace of a mature lover which can beautifully be a man (or not). But having a man, being with a man, in the way it is being falsely taught in male-centered women spaces online is never required and easily can separate you from the truth of your full aliveness -mainly because you are living through the programming and script and not fully conscious and accessing your entire body and its potential. And when you do, you can easily trigger a male’s fragile ego.

Ma’am, I’m going deep and wide in this book series—no tip-toeing around. A book series of love that isn't fluffy and is willing to tell the whole truth.

India Ame'ye, Author mmm-inbreath!

[becomingpart2]

It really bothers me how people inadvertently end up shitting on Skyler when the praise they send Kim's direction seems to rely on how good of a female character she is and by extension how relieved they are that we finally have a good one on the same level of the male characters. There's always this underlying tone that this universe finally has a complex female character worth talking about and getting invested into. And yes I agree that she is an interesting character but the underlying tone that seems to accompany that praise is a sense of putting down Skyler for being just "the wife" or, mostly, the battered housewife. It seems people are only ever interested in talking about her when they want to (rightfully) defend her from the misogynistic attacks she's suffered over the years or to talk about how much she suffered in universe. Not much about her as a character on her own, not much about how she's complex and interesting on her own.

I understand the need to highlight her suffering and how she was victim in all of Walt's bullshit (and unfortunately that is still needed) but I also think it's hypocritical and condescending (and a touch misogynistic on its own) to only ever see her as a victim and thus less of a character than someone like kim, that gets to be maker of her own ruin.

Skyler is not just the good loving mother that wants to protect her children from their father and the criminal world he inserted them into. She's also smart and funny and quick on her feet. She's able navigate and adapt to different environments and she does it well. She's proactive, she comes up with plans on her own; sometimes against Walt (ted, the pool incident), sometimes to help him and them (the carwash) and sometimes to help herself (the IRS thing or when she evades police by pretending to be in labor). She's also flawed like all good characters are.

There's a lof of the talk about how Kim has more agency, and while I think that's true and good on its own, it can often fall prey to the point of view that the only way for a female character to be a good character is if she dominates predominantly male spaces and make those her own. As if the only way to be interesting is if you do it in the same way men do. It's a little diminishing towards women that don't do that or aren't interested in doing that (I'd also call into question how effective is that agency when It's conveniently one that doesn't go against what the male partner wants).

It's interesting how I have seen people say that the reason some might not like Kim is because she's a woman that exhibits traits usually associated with men and how she's the one who "wears the pants" in her relationship with Jimmy. That's true but I think it's important to remember that misogyny doesn't make those kind of distinctions and while she might be hated because of that, more "traditional" female characters are hated just the same, if not more.

In fact, I'd argue that Kim is hated significantly less than Skyler ever was. A lot of the male viewers like her and most of the analysis you see of the show regards her as one of the best characters in television history.

It's also funny because that comment seems to imply that Skyler is the "traditional female character" archetype, the housewife that's only there to take the abuse and that's not true at all to Skyler or how she was received by audiences. A lot of the reason she was hated as much as she was (is?) is precisely because she didn't fit into the expectations of what a "good wife" should be like. Because she didn't bow down and take Walter's side, because she was too independent and didn't support "her man" when he needed, because she couldn't see where he was coming from (which, strangely enough, it's something Kim always does, regardless of why you think she does it, the fact is that she's always by Jimmy's side).

This is not an attempt to shit on Kim but rather to highlight how often the conversation surrounding her character seems to veer in the direction of inadvertantly putting down Skyler as "less" of a good female character when I would say both have strengths and weaknesses from a feminist standpoint.

#breaking bad #skyler white #better call saul #bcs #kim wexler

[queerextremity]

i think one of the reasons i really like steve is the fact that he contradicts everything that you initially thought should be true about him. I’m not just talking of how i, before watching the cap trilogy, expected him to be some sort of walking toxic masculine propaganda, but he ended up being quite the opposite of that—that's already been discussed many times. i’m talking about all the subtle ways his storyline is written. when you think about it (and that’s probably the reason why steve is a very “safe” male character to me), he kinda goes through a character development that’s archetypically usual for female characters.

trying to fit in within the army, being rejected and mocked because you’re weaker and different, but later proving your strength by staying kind, persistent and clever is a story many old feminist media pieces used. i think of that scene from the first movie when peggy, after steve tells her about his life, says she knows what it’s like to have the doors closed for her. she does point out the reason why so many women are so passionate about steve (and why he’s really popular within the lesbian community, where attraction doesn’t really play a part). and i think it’s just so fundamentally different from the way i expected to read his story—as a typical patriotic male-centered superhero movie—and why it stuck with me when I saw it.

and i know we’re all joking calling bucky a damsel in distress, but when you think about it, he really does fit into the archetype of a superhero love interest. and steve does spend a lot of time trying to save him. and i, the great hater of this trope, find myself loving them tremendously. the thing is that, outside of their relationship, bucky has his own complicated and deep character conflict, and you would care about him no matter how the story handles him. in a world where such superhero love stories usually require the hero to be strong and powerful, and the love interest to be helpless and bleak, we have the cap trilogy. it plays with so many tropes that are so outdated even for superhero cinema that they should get boring, but it makes them interesting, dynamic and complex and refreshing.

that’s where it becomes impossible to ignore the romantic undertones of their story, because a lot of it is just familiar like that. adding that they are much more emotional in their relationship than the bros can handle. so we’re probably stuck with people trying to prove something to themselves by discussing steve’s sexual life in she-hulk, for example. it’s just that our society isn’t ready to accept male characters who are vulnerable and humane to their very core, and that’s another interesting way to look at these movies.

#mcu #steve rogers #julia rambles and screams #bucky barnes #stucky #steve rogers meta