#but even then if it's true that there is no problematic element it is still not as funny as people think it is

[redysetdare]

I wish the denmark joke has stayed dead. it is literally the most unfunny asexual joke we got.

#text #it was only funny at it's first conception of “there is the same percentage of ace people as there are people in denmark” #because in general hearing that of itself IS funny #but once it turned into “let's invade” and shit it became very much less funny #idk i don't find the idea of “Asexual army” or invading a real life country to be that funny? #like this joke died for a reason and now ppl brought up back and it's just....it's never been THAT funny guys #ik some ppl have brought up the problematic idea it tends to represent and like idk im not super well versed on that argument #but even then if it's true that there is no problematic element it is still not as funny as people think it is #it's kinda annoying #yes this is because someone turned my actual funny aromantic post into a shitty half-baked aces invade denmark post #they got blocked because they also had haz/bin hotel icon and i was feeling extra mean #anyways denmark jokes are stupid and probably the sure fire way for me to just dislike you and block u at this rate #signed an ace who has been here too long and is sick and tired of this shit

[starastrologyy]

Composite Chart Notes 🪐

Hi everyone, please do not copy or repost anything I write on other social media platforms :) I recently became aware of a Pinterest page reposting all my posts from TikTok/tumblr! I don’t have a Pinterest for my astrology blog :)

A composite Aries Rising, can often indicate a very active couple. They may enjoy partaking in various sports or various forms of physical activities together. However, they can appear to be a very argumentative couple, this is especially true of mars, mercury, or pluto squares the composite ascendant. Their conflicts can often be made public.

This is interesting because in terms of long-distance couples, I often see Uranus conjunct the descendent or Uranus in the 3rd house in their composite charts. A composite Sag or Aqua rising is also common in the charts of couples who are long distance.

The North Node in the composite 5th house can indicate a couple who have children together.

Another indication of a “hidden” or private relationship, is if the composite chart ruler is in the 12th house.

This is more of a personal anecdote, but I once had a man slide in my DMs on Instagram. We had mutual followers but I didn’t personally know him. Long story short, he just began offering to buy me things/send me money with nothing in return. Obviously I found that kind of suspicious as there’s usually a catch! He didn’t even push meeting me in person! We just kinda spoke online for a bit. I got his birth details and ran a synastry chart between us. We had no 2nd or 8th house overlays. However, his Jupiter did aspect my Sun (which explains why he was so generous towards me). I then took a look into our composite chart, and our composite Sun & Moon are both in the composite 2nd house! Additionally , the ruler of our composite ascendant is in the 8th. Which explains why our relationship is literally based on him sharing his resources with me, giving me money, and buying me things. Obviously not all relationships with this kind of configuration will play out like this, I just thought this was so interesting.

There can be elements of sexual idealizations in relationships where there are hard Mars-Neptune aspects in the composite chart. One or both people may feel as if they have met their “dream” sexual partner if the orb is particularly tight. However, once the illusion or initial “high” fades. This aspect can prove to be problematic in many ways. There can be deceptions and disappointments that start to manifest. Mars square Neptune is common to see in the charts of *affairs* or short lived sexual relationships. However, please remember the entire chart needs to be taken into consideration.

Couples who travel a lot together usually have significant 3rd and 9th house placements in the composite. Jupiter in the composite 9th, 3rd, or conjunct the composite Mercury can also indicate a couple that travels frequently.

A couple with Jupiter or Venus in the composite 7th house, can make very good business partners. Couples who have the ruler of their composite midheaven, in the 7th house, may also decide to go into business together.

My readings are still open for those interested ! The link is in my bio :)

#astrology tumblr #astrology #astrology blog #astro thoughts #astro notes #astrologyposts #astrology observations #astro tips #astro posts #synastry

[susiephone]

while i find a lot of criticism of booktok and "booktok books" to be valid, a lot of it seems......very reminiscent of the anti-twilight stuff in the early 2010s. like specifically the parts that were like "TWILIGHT IS THE DEATH OF FEMINISM AND LITERACY" and "VAMPIRES AND BOOKS ARE RUINED FOREVER" and "THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO LIKE TWILIGHT ARE DUMB TEENAGE GIRLS WHO ARE DUMB AND DON'T KNOW ANY BETTER" rather than like. actual critiques of the books. and even some of the more valid claims would sort of position themselves as if teenage girls reading twilight can't tell fiction from reality. like i'm not saying you can't or shouldn't criticize popular books (i certainly have), or saying that it's not fun to rag on a book you hate (it sure as hell is). but treating a book you don't like getting popular (esp with teenagers) as the end of literacy and the publishing industry and good writing is just plain absurd.

like i'm not saying all these books are secretly masterpieces, or even that they're all good. i've read some shit booktok books, just like i read some shit YA books back in 2012. but weirdly, the world did not come to an end and good books are still getting published. many of those books provided me with genuine entertainment, solace, and community, even if in hindsight they weren't the best, and i don't think it's fair, kind, or logical to treat people like they're stupid for enjoying books like this. (not to mention, how many people really got into reading because of Generic YA Fantasy #45 or Fun Mindless Romance #207 or Pulply Trashy Sci-Fi #62? maybe they'll branch out into other types of literature, maybe not. but it's still good that they're reading.)

and, frankly, learning to recognize and critique genuinely problematic tropes and elements in these books has made me a better writer and more attentive and educated reader. sometimes being able to articulate why something is bad is important, and sometimes that requires actually reading the damn book. and i would say that goes double for books you enjoy but contain iffy elements - it's a lot easier to completely dismiss a book that's nothing but 500 red flags in a trenchcoat, but if you're in a place of "wow this book really spoke to me in x, y, z way and i really enjoyed it BUT a, b, c were really poorly handled," it gets trickier.

TL;DR: no, barnes and noble having a booktok table is not going to kill literature as we know it, and no, people enjoying a book you find overhyped and cringe doesn't mean they're all mindless sheep who can't enjoy True Literature. calm the fuck down.

#booklr #bookish #reading #booktok #literature

[tangibletechnomancy]

The (Personal) Is (Political)

~7 hours, Dall-E 3 via Bing Image Creator, generated under the Code of Ethics of Are We Art Yet?

Or, Dear Microsoft and OpenAI: Your Filters Can't Stop Me From Saying Things: An interactive exercise in why all art is political and game of Spot The Symbols

A rare piece I consider Fully Finished simply as a jpeg, though I may do something physical with it regardless. "Director commentary" below, but I strongly encourage you to go over this and analyze it yourself before clicking through, then see how much your reading aligns with my intent.

Elements I told the model to add and a brief (...or at least inexhaustive) overview of why:

Anime style and character figures - Frequently associated with commercial "low" art and consumer culture, in East Asia and the English-speaking world alike, albeit in different ways - justly or otherwise. There is frequently an element of racism to the denigration of anime styles in the west; nearly any American artist who has taken formal illustration classes can tell you a story of being told that anime style will only hinder them, that no one will hire them if they see anime, or even being graded more harshly and scrutinized for potential anime-esque elements if they like anime or imply that they may like anime - including just by being Asian and young. On the other hand, it is true that there is a commercial strategy of "slap an anime girl on it and it will sell". The passion fans feel for these characters is genuine - and it is very, very exploitable. In fact, this commercialization puts anime styles in particular in a very contentious position when it comes to AI discussions!

Dark-skinned boy with platinum and pink [and blue] hair - Racism and colorism! They're a thing, no matter how much the worst people in the world want you to think they're long over and "critical race theory" is the work of evil anti-American terrorists! I chose his appearance because I knew that unless I was incredibly lucky, I would have to fight with this model for multiple hours to get satisfactory results on this point in particular - and indeed I did. It was an interesting experience - what didn't surprise me was how much work it took me to get a skin color darker than medium-dark tan; what did surprise me was that the hair color was very difficult to get right. In anime art, for dark skin to be matched with light hair and eyes is common enough to be...pretty problematic. Bing Image Creator/Dall-E, on the other hand, swings completely in the opposite direction and struggles with the concept of giving dark-skinned characters any hair color OTHER than black, demanding pretty specific phrasing to get it right even 70% of the time. (I might cynically call this yet another illustration against the pervasive copy-paste myth...) There is also much to say about the hair texture and facial features - while I was pleased to see that more results than I expected gave me textured hair and/or box braids without me asking for it, those were still very much in the minority, and I never saw any deviation from the typical anime facial structures meant to illustrate Asian and white characters. Not even once!

Pink and blue color palette - Our subject is transgender. Bias self-check time: did you make that association as quickly as you would with a light-skinned character, or even Sylveon?

Long hair, cute clothes, lots of accessories - Styling while transmasc is a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't situation, doubly so if you're not white. In many locations, the medical establishment and mainstream attitude demands total conformity to the dominant culture's standard conventional masculinity, or else "revoking your man card" isn't just a joke meant to uphold the idea that men are "better" than women, but a very real threat. In many queer communities, especially online, transmascs are expected to always be cute femboys who love pink (while transfems are frequently degraded and seen as threats for being butch), and being Just Some Guy is viewed as inherently a sign of assimilationism at best and abusiveness at worst. It is an eternal tug-of-war where "cuteness" and ornamentation are both demanded and banned at the same time. Black and brown people are often hypermasculinized and denied the opportunity to even be "cute" in the first place, regardless of gender. Long hair and how gender is read into it is extremely culture-dependent; no matter what it means to you, if anything, the dominant culture wherever you are will read it as it likes.

Trophies and medals - For one, the trans sports Disk Horse has set feminism back by nearly 50 years; I'm barely a Real History-Remembering Adult and yet I clearly remember a time when the feminist claim about gender in sports was predominantly "hey, it's pretty fucked up that sports are segregated by sex rather than weight class or similar measures, especially when women's sports are usually paid much less and given weirdly oversexualized uniforms," but then a few loud living embodiments of turds in the punch bowl realized that might mean treating trans people fairly and now it's super common for self-proclaimed feminists - mostly white ones - to claim that the strongest woman will still never measure up to the weakest man and this is totally a feminist statement because they totally want to PROTECT women (with invasive medical screenings on girls as young as 12 to prove they're Really Women if they perform too well, of course). For two, Black and brown people are stereotyped as being innately more sporty, physically strong, and, again, Masculine(TM) than others, which frequently intersects with item 1...and if you think it only affects trans women, I am sorry my friend but it is so much worse and more extensive than you think.

Hearts - They mean many things. Love. Happiness. Cuteness. Social media engagement?

TikTok - A platform widely known and hated around these parts for its arcane and deeply regressive algorithm; I felt it deserved to be name/layout/logodropped for reasons that, if they're not clear already, should become so in the final paragraph.

Computers, cameras and cell phones - My initial specification was that one of the phones should be on Instagram and another on TikTok, which the model instead chose to interpret as putting a TikTok sticker on the laptop, but sure, okay. They're ubiquitous in the modern day, for better and for worse. For all the debate over whether phones and social media are Good For Us or Bad For Us, the fact of the matter is, they seem to be a net positive-to-neutral, whose impacts depend on the person - but they do still have major drawbacks. The internet is a platform for conspiracy theories and pseudoscience and dangerous hoaxes to spread farther than ever before. Social media culture leaves many people feeling like we're always being watched and every waking moment of our lives must be Perfect - and in some senses, we are always being watched these days. Digital privacy is eroding by the day, already being used to enforce all the most unjust laws on the books, which leads to-

Pigs - I wrote the prompt with the intention that it would just be a sticker on the laptop, but instead it chose to put them everywhere, and given that I wanted to make a somewhat stealthy statement about surveillance, especially of the marginalized...thanks for that, Dall-E! ;)

Alligators - A counter to the pigs; a short-lived antifascist symbol after...this.

Details I did not intend but love anyway:

The blue in the hair - I only prompted for platinum and pink in the hair, but the overall color palette description "bled" over here anyway, completing the trans flag, making it even more blatant, and thus even more effective as a bias self-check.

The Macbook - I only specified a laptop. Hilariously ironic, to me, that a service provided through Bing interpreted "laptop" as "Macbook" nearly every time. In my recent history, 22 out of 24 attempts show, specifically, a Macbook. Microsoft v. OpenAI divorce arc when? ;) But also, let us not forget Apple's role in the ever-worsening sanitization of the internet. A Macbook with a TikTok sticker (or, well, a Tiikok sticker - recognizable enough) - I can think of little more emblematic of one of the main things I was complaining about, and it was a happy accident. Or perhaps an unhappy one, considering what it may imply about Apple's grip on culture and communications.

Which brings me to my process:

Generated over ~7 hours with Dall-E 3 through Bing Image Creator - The most powerful free tool out there for txt2img these days, as well as a nightmare of filters and what may be the most disgustingly, cloyingly impersonal toxic positivity I've ever witnessed from a tool. It wants to be Art(TM), yet it wants to ban Politics(TM); two things which are very much incompatible - and so, I wanted to make A Controversial Statement using only the most unflaggable, innocuous elements imaginable, no matter how long it took.

All art is political. All life is political. All our "defaults" are cultural, and therefore political. Anything whatsoever can be a symbol.

If you want all art to be a substance-free "look at the pretty picture :)" - it doesn't matter how much you filter, buddy, you've got a big storm coming.

#ai art #generated art #dall-e 3 #bing image creator

[princesssarcastia]

things i’m still thinking about after my second showing of across the spider-verse

Ham and Noir never showed up at headquarters, but they showed up at the end when Gwen and Miles needed them.  I’m actually very curious about that—they both enjoyed working with Miles, Peter B., Gwen, and Peni in the first movie, so they don;t object to working with others on principle.   I wonder if their spidey senses pinged when Miguel or Jess showed up to recruit them, and they said no.  Or: they got all the way to headquarters, caught the vibe, and refused to sign up, not even to see their new friends.  Certainly, Noir is enough like Hobie to see the problematic elements of this place quickly and refuse to take part in it.  And Ham really loves Miles.  If he made it all the way to the part where they explain the anomaly, and how Miguel believes Miles fits in...I think he’d walk out.  My boy Ham would not have stood for that chase bullshit

(Or:  Miguel took one look at Ham and Ham’s world and said “Fuck that, no way.”)

(Or: Peter B. didn’t push for Miguel and Jess to recruit Ham and Noir.  Didn’t push for them to recruit any of the people he grew to love and love working with, during the collider incident, because he knows Miguel, and knows deep down that this environment is toxic, and not at all what he wants for them)

Which brings me to another thing I can’t stop thinking about: how Peter B. definitely knew Miguel before this whole inter-dimensional spider club got started.  They are definitely friends, or they were.  It gives Peter more leeway to fuck around with Miguel, and it gives Miguel more leeway to be an uptight fascist with Peter.

I also think that the reason Peter B. and so many other Spider-People buy into that bullshit narrative about canon events is because they, like so many traumatized people before them, want it all to have meant something.  They want there to be a reason, a divine purpose, a plan, so that their suffering isn’t pointless.  Peter B. has convinced himself that purpose makes the loss hurt less—and it’s not until Miles rightfully calls them all out on it that he starts to realize it actually makes it hurt more.

“All this loss makes us who we are!”  Bullshit, Peter B., you should know better.

We never meet another Miles, not once.  I know some people are speculating that 42!Miles was supposed to get bitten by that spider, but I don’t think that’s true.  

I think the Miles Morales in 1610 is something wholly new in the entire multiverse, and I think that should and does terrify the everloving pants off of everyone involved in the status quo.  In every peter who likes feeling special, who likes being The One And Only Spider-Man, In Every Universe.  In Miguel, who’s clinging desperately to the boxes he’s shoved the universe into so he doesn’t have to try and get better.

And Miles Morales is...oh, he’s mind-blowing.  I can’t stop thinking about the way he! plows! through! an! entire! multi-verse’s! worth! of! spider-people!  All of them!  It’s hard, but he fucking does it and he beats them and he’s RIGHT.   They should fucking crown him king.

Not only that—he beats them at the violence from the moral high ground!  He doesn’t give into despair, doesn’t take the easy route of “I couldn’t stop it, leads to, I shouldn’t stop it.”  He puts the onus on himself to do both.  To save the world and his father.

Miles Morales Is Better Than You

The way that Miles and Gwen seem to have some sort of trans-dimensional spider-sense hookup is so fucking cool.  Gwen stands in his room long enough to spider-sense out through the whole UNIVERSE and tell that he’s. not.  here.  they’re CONNECTED they have a CONNECTION.

Speaking of, Gwen Stacy is trans as fuck.  Claiming her now.

Hobie is a delight.  He sees, I think, what Peter B. sees (and what I think Ham and Noir see) which is that there’s something special about these kids.  (Obviously, that something special is that they’re the main characters.  But for the most part, Miles and Gwen are fighting head and shoulders above the rest of the crowd, and on their way to thinking head and shoulders above the crowd, too)

I wasn’t expecting the movie to focus on Gwen so much, but her story was heart-wrenching.  Her dad, picking her job over his daughter.  Getting a second chance, with some people she clearly desperately wants to be her new family, but that second chance is contingent on her ability to perform for the Mission—and comes at the expense of the only friend she’s made since Peter died.  And then...then she fucks up the mission.  And loses everything.  Big oof.  She gets punched in the face so many times, but every time she gets up angrier than before and starts hitting back.

#across the spider-verse #meta #miles morales #gwen stacy #peter b. parker #spider-ham #spider-man noir #spoilers

[khruschevshoe]

Jim and Oluwande got the worst end of the deal. I'd even say they regressed as both characters and partners and anything they had built up in s1 was almost completely stripped away from them. The way they're portrayed together and apart in s2 is not only unlike the characters we saw in s1, but their rich storyline was reduced to extreme side characters used only as plot devices in a way they absolutely did not have to be used. I LOVED them in s1, and I was so disappointed by what s2 did to them and their potential growth, which I think applies to pretty much everything in s2, not only them.

Mind if I piggyback of this ask to go into all my critiques of the handling of Jim/Olu in Season 2? Thanks!

OFMD Critique: Tealoranges, Dropped Storylines, and Wasted Potential

God, the issues I have with the writing of Season 2 extend in so many directions. Jim's character, I felt, was well-handled for at least the first two episodes but then slowly starts skewing wrong as early as episode 3 (I am still chewing glass over the way their reunion scene with Oluwande was written- or, rather, NOT written). Episode 4 was good, but everything after that? Someone said that Jim in the back half of the season feels more like Vico than Jim, and though I do love and appreciate Vico, it's completely true. Jim doesn't feel like the same character we've come to know, whether from Season 1 or even what is set up in early season 2.

And yet, I STILL feel like they're written better than Olu, if you can believe it? So, I haven't talked about this much, but I feel like Olu is done dirty from almost the moment he is introduced in Season 2. At least Jim (through editing alone, but hey, we'll give the show the smallest benefit of the doubt) gets an acknowledgement that they miss Olu during that flashback sequences while they talk to Archie- Olu doesn't even get that. I read about a deleted scene that would have had Pete and Olu desperate to reunite with Lucius and Jim in episode 1 and I feel like that was DESPERATELY needed to make the Season 1 finale -> Season 2 jump make any sort of sense. I like Zheng, but for the love of God, her romance with Olu (which I had my own issues with for the disservice it does both their characters) is not worth destroying the tealoranges build up from Season 1. Just cut something from the first episode or one of the Zheng/Olu scenes from the second episode to make it make sense.

Then, moving onto later in the season- I've posted about how Olu and Jim deserved the grand, epic reunion otherwise 1x10 and everything set up with them in Season 1 doesn't make sense. Could the writers of the show have possibly redistributed some of the glorious cinematography from Ed and Stede over to Jim and Olu? All I need is one shot of their reunion (a proper, emotional one, not played for laughs or friendship or whatever) framed by the sun to parallel Ed and Stede's being framed by the moon and I would have been happy on that front.

And then later in the season...I was down for the poly elements if they could have been executed better. Fanfics have shown that the Archie plot could have been executed well. But the fact that Zheng is straight up NOT MENTIONED until 2x7 by Olu? And then Jim says that he's been pining for her the whole time? I'm sorry, but it doesn't compute. Show, don't tell. There's a reason why I'm down for Jim/Archie/Olu (if executed well), but can't see Zheng/Olu at all.

But of course, 2x7 comes along and we get the "family who fucked" line. And the implication that Olu could have ever left the Revenge without Jim, when in Season 1 he became a wreck because Jim left for A FEW DAYS, much less was FORCEFULLY SEPARATED from him for MONTHS. Then in the finale, at the lupete wedding, they were separated out, him with Zheng and them with Archie, and, well, at that point...I was tired. I'm not gonna lie. Because this wasn't questionable or problematic writing, it just fundamentally DIDN'T MAKE SENSE.

And this is just on a romantic relationship POV. I hated seeing Olu lose his leadership arc from Season 1 and his loyalty to Jim and his nuanced emotional level-headedness/sense of logic. Season 1 really felt like it was slowly building up the idea that the ideal Captain was neither Stede nor Blackbeard but someone a bit more rational, a bit more grounded, a bit more communicative with his crew- someone like Olu. And he gets shoved into the back in Season 2 and reduced to the guy who can't sort scrolls or know that the BOATS ON A MAP MATTER. He gets no influence on plot or major decisions when he was often the voice of reason in Season 1 (we all remember Lucius being a romantic voice of reason in Season 1, but rarely remember that Olu was a major supporting deciding factor in a number of decisions made on the Revenge).

And as for Jim, I wanted more exploration or even just acknowledgement of their trauma post episode-4. I wanted an actual organic continuation of their character arc post-vengeance quest and post-Blackbeard, not just them getting defined by "funny knife thrower with a girlfriend and an ex-boyfriend who they want to get with his crush." They were so much more than that, and it killed me to see the two people who were basically main character 3 and 4 in Season 1 get shoved aside for unneeded subplots about Ricky and Zheng or Gentlebeard's three separate breakups when Jim and Olu's plotline had so much more potential than any of that. They weren't just star-crossed lovers- they were a slow burn ship built of absolutely interesting, complicated, and well-developed characters who brought out the best in each other with a DEVASTATING midpoint to their arc and it honestly would have made a better season not just for them as characters, but for the show overall if someone had just realized that the parallels between a couple that fights and claws to stay together no matter what (tealoranges) and a main ship that was still figuring itself out (Gentlebeard) would have SLAPPED.

(I am now picturing a version of this season where instead of the Izzy fakeout death/Gentlebeard reunion in the beginning of the first episode, we get an Olu/Jim reunion in episode 3 to parallel whatever reunion the writers wanted to slap together for Stede/Ed. I would have actively cried over the Olu/Jim reunion and it would have drastically improved the season.)

#oluwande boodhari #jim jimenez #tealoranges #my asks #ofmd critical #ofmd season 2 #meta #analysis #jim x oluwande #jim x archie x oluwande #rant #just in case #garlicule rides again

[autumnslance]

Werlyt in Lorebook 3

So Werlyt gets a page expanding on its location and history a bit, to be expected as the new Encyclopaedia Eorzea 3 goes over both Shadowbringers and Endwalker content. What they do with its history as an Imperial province again paints Gaius in a better light...in ways we already knew were IC for him as established in earlier content, while also being straight up out of Machiavelli's The Prince in a way that makes complete sense for the Empire when dealing with conquered provinces, and how we've even heard before how some of them are ruled very much like native Garlean regions.

See, one of the oldest tricks in the literal book is you conquer a province, and especially if it proves unruly, you give it a nasty governor. Use them to root out the rebellious factions, while also tearing apart the old systems, stripping resources, crushing the populace, etc. THEN you send in a Reasonable Guy to take over who ousts the bad vicious leader, restores order, treats the people well, and so on. Now that new governor--and by extension his emperor for sending him--looks better in the eyes of the people, a problematic political/military rival has been killed/broken politically, the unruly elements have already been culled, and the people are just grateful for a reprieve from their misery. More acquiescent and "this isn't so bad after all."

Another famous literary example (and with a new movie a few months out) is Dune; once Harkonnen takes back Arrakis, he sends one nephew, Raban, who is literally nicknamed "the Beast", to be a horrible bully of a governor. His job is to root out the remaining loyal Atreides and quash the local Fremen. Then once Raban's atrocities were at their peak, Harkonnen meant to send in his heir, Feyd-Ruatha, to be the golden prince who would get rid of the problematic Raban (lethally if needed) and be accepted by the people as a decent leader. Of course, Dune's story rolls out differently, but the play is the same.

The Garlean Empire did the exact same thing in Werlyt.

For 30 years the subjugated nation was oppressed and stripped of resources. When the Empire's attention moved toward Othard and the military presence thinned enough a rebellion rose up, it was still crushed, but not before the previous viceroy was killed in the revolt.

Then Gaius van Baelsar came in and restored order. We already knew Gaius had a habit of appointing the right people for the job, regardless of race and social standing; he continued that in Werlyt, and was otherwise a good governor, working to ensure the populace was cared for, administered properly, even improved education and literacy rates. So after a few decades of crushing abuse...now Werlyt had a "reasonable governor" who treated them like people and took care of them, if still under the auspices of the Empire. They made it look like a better deal, and the previous guy was a mistake that shouldn't have happened.

This also tracks with pre-Praetorium Gaius as the "true believer" of Garlemald's Imperial mission of taming the "savage" lands and ushering them into the "civilized" ways of the Empire and adding those peoples' knowledges, cultures, skills, and might to the Empire to make everyone better. That "unity" aspect he and other leaders like Quintus van Cinna spouted while missing the hypocrisy. Gaius was a good governor because he thought that was the entire point--and then also led to his opposition of the Meteor Project. He never wanted to wipe Eorzea out, he wanted to bring it under Imperial control and govern it as he had Werlyt.

So for twenty years, Gaius was the reasonable governor getting good grades in cultivating Werlyt as a respectable and flourishing province of the Empire. Then he was sent to Ala Mhigo to conquer that, and through it the rest of Eorzea.

...And then Valens van Varro took over Werlyt and pretty much overnight undid everything reasonable a decent governor would do because of his jealousy over Gaius and his own ambitions for power, especially after the civil wars left the Imperial throne vacant. Also cuz again, they have to spend this branch of story making Gaius look better by making Valens cartoonishly bad at everything. Rather than trusting what they already wrote about a complicated man who truly believed in his mission until forced to see how he had been a pawn sowing misery his whole life. But they've tended to rewrite Gaius and his on screen characterization a lot as it is, and with Garlemald not getting an expansion of its own (they had considered it but ultimately worked its fall into ShB and EW), it feels like they hammer this point in Werlyt to speed run what was supposed to be an actual rehabilitation arc for the character.

And then it once again frames the quintent as rebellious heroes who thwarted Valens plans to use them and the Weapons project for his own ends and sure we'll let that go cuz the folks in Werlyt need something. They do have a named leader (Talbot Hunte) and a government set up and none of it really mentions Gaius, though we know they put him in charge of their military. Cuz yeah, he was one of their conquerers--but they also know that they can work with him and that he knows how to run an army effectively.

Also all the quintet are literally named "aan Baelsar" in their entries, though the main thing I noticed there was that Milisandia did in fact dye her hair red to account for the discrepancy in her child appearances in the various flashbacks. Apparently it was cuz she noticed Alfonse seemed very fond of one of their caretakers at the orphanage, and so Milisandia changed her hair to be the same color to try and get his attention, quietly pining for him for years but never letting him know about her not-quite-sisterly affections.

#final fantasy xiv #encyclopaedia eorzea #lorebook #sorrow of werlyt #gaius baelsar #shadowbringers #endwalker

[genericpuff]

I reread episode 24 of LO after having dropped off between seasons 1 and 2 and it genuinely brought me to tears. I feel like there’s no way the theory about Rachel not intending this to be a depiction of SA can be true. The way it’s written feels so powerful and intentional, and I honestly think that makes her dropping the plotline that much worse.

I mean, maybe I’m projecting because of how similar the scenario was to my own experiences, but I just don’t feel convinced that she didn’t fully intend to write this as SA.

The shots of Persephone trying to physically push him away, of her standing shell shocked in the shower, after the fact, her internal dialogue about wanting it to stop but feeling like she can’t take back the “okay” she gave. It’s gut wrenching. And Apollo commenting on her hair and saying she should leave it long is such a brilliant piece of writing that hits like a punch in the gut for us readers who know why it grows.

And honestly, I think that chapter being so well written is what hurts the most. Because it feels like myself and other survivors were lured in by the prospect of seeing our stories told, and getting catharsis through Persephone even if we would never have it. The conversation she has later with Eros, where he states plainly that what happened was rape, not dancing around the word, validating what Persephone and so many real readers have gone through… It’s so, so painful to read that back and know that this plotline was dropped. That we were led to believe we would be seen only to be completely swept under the rug with no resolution to that story.

And I know people criticize that it’s immediately followed by a phone call with Hades, but honestly? After rereading that too? I loved most of the phone call. They had real chemistry, and you could still feel the weight of what just happened in how Persephone carried herself, but as they talked and she had something to distract herself, the burden got a bit lighter, at least for the moment. It felt resonant. Emotionally intelligent.

It’s like you said. Lore Olympus wouldn’t be so easy to hate if it hadn’t been so easy to love. I think it could have been good despite its flaws and problematic elements, because no media is 100% pure— but somewhere along the way, Rachel stopped caring. And THAT is what ruined it.

No but this is so valid, everything you just described was pretty much why I loved the SA plotline in the first place.

I think the scene itself is beautifully written, but it's odd how it becomes more about Persephone simply wanting an "easy way out" of TGOEM, not just in the 'decision' to have sex (i.e. she was coerced and assaulted) but later when she tries to get out of TGOEM, like... is it because she wants to actually date guys, or is it because she doesn't feel like she "deserves" to be in TGOEM anymore due to the assault? The story tries in some places to explore this but never commits to it fully so it's really hard to know what point it's trying to make at times when you actually peel back the layers.

Really the biggest reasons I 'suspect' Rachel of not intending to write a genuine SA plot from the very beginning is because of how... 'back of mind' it is. It only seems to be brought up whenever Rachel can be bothered to remember, but then it's completely juxtaposed against scenes where it should affect her (or reasonably would) and it doesn't. Case in point, a few episodes after she tells Eros what happened and he confirms it was rape, he tries to convince her to go into Hades' office dressed in a trenchcoat and nothing else underneath and it's like bro... this girl just told you what she went through, why are you suggesting she try to seduce her boss who she doesn't even really know yet LOL

As a result , it really does just make it feel like the SA scene is just there to make Apollo an easy villain, and Hades an easy hero, with the only definitions being "well, Hades didn't assault her, so he's definitely the better choice!" (as if Apollo was ever a 'choice' to begin with, Persephone didn't like him from day 1 so there was basically no chance of there being a love triangle setup except for the audience members who quickly latched onto that "I guess he's cute if you squint a little" line). And with the way episodes are chopped up, separating points of the narrative from each other, it feels like whenever stuff does happen (esp surrounding the SA plot) it's because Rachel's finally bought herself enough time to come up with something, like the therapy episode, Eros confirming it was assault, Persephone stealing the lyre with the intent of hiding it from Apollo (only to then willingly show it to him alone in her bedroom with him a handful of episodes later), etc.

If she did intend to write an SA scene from the beginning, it doesn't feel like she thought the plotline through fully to make it actually feel genuine (and this goes for a lot of the subplots in LO, they always seem to start off as these base "get your attention" ideas but with no actual follow through). And with Apollo now being written as this "huehue you fell right into my trap!" villain (and very poorly I might add) it just feels like the SA is now taking a backseat to, "Actually, Apollo is the bad guy because he wants to overthrow his dad or some shit. Forget the SA happened, I don't wanna write about it anymore."

All those points aside, I agree with you fully, if Rachel cared about what she was trying to write back when the SA was first shown, then that level of care definitely doesn't seem to be there anymore and it's such a shame to see. It just feels like it's being used for artificial drama and nothing more and that's so frustrating and disappointing for many of the SA victims who are critical of this story (including myself) to see when that plotline originally felt like comforting visibility.

#lo critical #lore olympus critical #anti lore olympus #ask me anything #anon ama #ama #anon ask me anything

[ruthlesslistener]

Could you talk about the Shade Lord? Especially the apologist part, what needs apologising (genuine question)?

Oh the apologist part is just me joking about how I'd defend LOS no matter what they do, not necessarily because they actually did anything bad lol. And if they did, I'd fight for them all the same bc they're my little meow-meow and some murders are funny (there's a reason why my Destiny 2 sideblog is ahamkara-apologist, even though the Ahamkara as a race are vastly more problematic than the LOS- they're space dragons and I love them). Ofc, there's always those people who think that the Lord of Shades is some kind of evil entity unleashed by Ghost that'll bring about the ruin of Hallownest twice over (usually people who don't realize that the Lord of Shades is CONTROLLED by Ghost- it's the shades of all the dead vessels with Ghost as its Focus), but mostly its just bc I adore them. Though it does have the added bonus of pointing out that while I like the Pale King and the Radiance as characters, I'm ultimately sympathetic to the vessels the most, which is a core point in my ramblings that I fear often gets lost, especially when I get angry about the 'PK is a colonizer and the moth tribes/Radi were the natives he genocided take'- because idgaf about people hating PK, what I hate is how incorrect that was AS WELL AS how it ignores the fact that the Void Civilization came before the Radiance did, which always seems to be conveniently forgotten or brushed over in those arguments. The fact of the matter is that Radi and PK aren't the 'secret heroes' no matter how you spin it, they're monsters that abused, tortured, and manipulated the voidborn- aka Ghost, their siblings, and (maybe) those that used to worship their element. Sympathetic monsters, yes, monsters who are caught in a tragedy, but still monsters. It's the Void that's the victim, and I stand by that in its entirety. Every act of retribution was justified. Even them killing Godseeker- which is the argument some people use for them being evil- because why shouldn't they? She was awful to them, cruel and rude and scornful just like the Pale King was cruel and the Radiance was hateful. SHE was the reason why the Radiance grew in power to become Absolute Radiance. She deserved what she got, 100%. Ghost and their siblings endured a lifetime of torment from the moment they were hatched, they deserve EVERY little scrap of retribution they get- and they aren't monsters for lashing out at the ones who caused the pain in the first place. It's all justifiable

(Also, neither PK nor Radi are my favs. Hollow is, with their relationship to their siblings [specifically Hornet] being my fav dynamic. I only like to explore PK and Radi in depth because of their impact on Hollow's life. So needless to say I'm a void stan through and through, and since the Lord of Shades is all of them, it fits)

As for the Lord of Shades themselves! I think I already sort of covered why I love them so much just in the first two paragraphs- they are all the shades of the dead vessels poured into one entity, with Ghost as the Focus, and thus the Lord of Shades is in essence Ghost (and co, minus Hollow probably) in their ascendant form, as a true Higher Being. Which is in of itself a monumental feat for something that was hatched to die, a godling denied their deific status by beings who could not understand them as anything but death. They're vengence and defiance made manifest, and they were reformed into the shape they are now because they looked into the eyes of their creators and tormenters and said no more. The first step towards their creation, the catalyst for their metamorphasis, was turning the Kingsoul into the Voidheart- very literally rejecting the Pale King's edict and reforming it into a beacon of their own power, accepting their nature and defying their maker. They looked at the very soul of someone who had cast their eggs into the dark sea below, who hatched them into a graveyard and watched them die in the millions, who made them to be slaughtered for his own cause because he thought they as the voidborn were less than alive- and they said 'I reject you. I reject what you said to me. I reject what you represent. I reject your vision, the way you made me to be. I will forge my own path. I will make my own way. I will accept what I am and I will show you right now that I am alive, I am here, I am not heartless and I am not thoughtless. I am what I am. I am the Void. And I will do what I must to save the family that you left behind.'

AND THEY DID IT FOR THE LOVE OF THEIR SIBLING, they did it for the love of the Hollow Knight, who let them fall and left them to die when they were both just hatchlings, who they had no obligation to save and yet rushed back to do so anyways. And they soldiered on through impossible odds, through endless fights in life and dream all while a spiteful, hateful creature hissed at their worthlessness and empowered their worst enemy, so that they could destroy the Radiance in her entirety, before she could be brought back at the peak of her power. The entire REASON that they could become the Lord of Shades in the first place and WHY they achieved that metamorphasis was for the love of their family- and for a vengence long-overdue, to say 'enough, enough!' and end the torment that plagued their kind for so long for no other reason than the selfishness of other gods. Dream No More was a beautiful ending that encapsulated the vessels finally getting peace, but I love the Embrace the Void ending because to me it feels like Ghost (and the other vessels) are reclaiming what was rightfully theirs, by force, from the entities who subjugated them for so long, and taking their rightful place as the major god of Hallownest- a birthright stolen from them by the Radiance, and denied to them by the Pale Gods.

(Also you can very easily imagine the LOS as Ghost being essentially a streamer with the other vessels being their chat and I love that sm. The-Many-Who-Are-One. My beloveds)

So yeah, that's why I'm the Shade Lord apologist. I fucking love them. 1000000/10 god

#hollow knight #the lord of shades #the hollow knight #anon #reply #[holds them gently] i would die for all of u #my adoration for them is partially why udsb has so much fuckin void sea metaphors and shit going on

[sepublic]

Obviously it would be way too many villains to juggle and thus give justice but could you fucking imagine if they brought back ALL of the old villains for Crystalized, even the ones who were already brought back in Day of the Departed?

We know Traveler's Tea can bring back the dead from the Departed Realm. But instead of Morro, who has already proven himself to be chill, maybe the Preeminent could be brought back in his place, since she was the true villain of Possession. The Preeminent could take a smaller minifigure form, or even be a miniaturized Lego build. Her being a lot smaller is because she got weaker from being dead longer, and Pixal defeating her.

Nadakhan gets brought back and it turns out he remembers all of Skybound, just as Jay and Nya do! Or he doesn't. Jay and Nya explain to the others that there was a whole season that just got undone, and given their experiences with time travel, it's not entirely out of the question for them to accept this. Nadakhan can't grant wishes anymore because that's a huge can of worms from a writing standpoint... Maybe the Overlord used technology to limit him, knowing what he was getting into because he heard the stories of Nadakhan. Or maybe his wish-granting was lost due to Djinjago's destruction, which is what Dragons Rising did. Again this is inconsistent lore but it's Ninjago so whaddya expect.

Yang is still haunting the Temple of Airjitzu, but as a chill and reasonable ghost. Maybe he gets crystalized (can ghosts be crystalized???), brainwashing and forcing him to the Crystal King's council.

Acronix and Krux are easy to explain, in fact the way they were left in canon is just begging for them to make a comeback, because if Wu did, why not them? Tbh a part of me thinks Machia is, in some ways, a better fit for this role; She much better represents her villain faction than the Time Twins do, since she's an actual Vermillion. Maybe all three characters can represent Hands of Time; Machia was also there with the Time Twins as part of Iron Doom, so again, easy explanation. The Iron Doom falls out of the time vortex and idk gets obliterated by the impact, maybe it lands on some explosive stuff, so only the Time Twins and/or Machia make it out alive; So there's no Vermillion army or time machine to rely on.

Iron Baron somehow survived getting encased in molten metal; I dunno how but he just did. He somehow broke himself free. Maybe his mechanical arm was still functional.

Should the Omega Oni be included? It might seem redundant with the Overlord there, but he technically WAS a big arc villain. It was a very short arc by Ninjago standards but whatever. Maybe having the Omega there could be used to contrast his existence with the Overlord's, and/or explain what the Overlord's whole relation to the Dragon/Oni divide even is.

Vex is retrieved from the Never-Realm. He's probably the least justified of all the villains to bring back given he's canonically a wimp, but maybe the Overlord selects him specifically for the psychological torment it'd bring on Zane. I like to think that Zane unsettles the Overlord because while it makes sense for the First Spinjitzu Master, and later his grandson, to defeat him... By comparison, Zane is a nobody in the eyes of the Overlord, just a master of another regular element, no more special than the rest; And yet he still beat him, put the Overlord down longer than Lloyd even did. So he's scared of Zane deep down, and he's using Vex as a way to get back at him.

Unagami gets corrupted by an evil virus because the Overlord already has experience with hacking given his stint in Rebooted. Unagami might be a bit more problematic for censors because once the show starts depicting him as a literal child, it might make censors uncomfortable to have him getting beaten up under any context, even if he did re-assume his Prime Empire form.

Mammatus is... Well, he could easily be crystalized. But given how his character is a racial caricature, I wouldn't be surprised if Lego wanted to avoid touching his character anymore; I suspect he was written as an actually reasonable person to avoid unfortunate implications, even if Ninjago still ended up doing that in a different way. Tbh I wish Mammatus and the Keepers got better focus and writing, especially during Seabound, but I can understand why he'd be left out.

Kalmaar is dead, but so were the villains in Day of the Departed. To break off on a side tangent, I'm surprised the writers killed off Kalmaar, despite Crystalized and its villains-returning gimmick being right around the corner. Given Vangelis and Aspheera were merely imprisoned, it'd have been easy to just have him be imprisoned, but I guess they didn't want to bring him back? But yeah, if you can bring back the dead by opening a portal to the Departed Realm with Traveler's Tea, then that opens up for a lot of villains to come back pretty easily.

So with all of these explanations in mind, our list would include;

-Samukai

-Pythor

-Kozu

-Cryptor

-Chen

-The Preeminent

-Nadakhan

-Yang

-Acronix and Krux

-Harumi

-Iron Baron

-Omega

-Aspheera

-Vex

-Unagami

-Vangelis

-Mammatus

-Kalmaar

-The Overlord

Yeah, I left out the Mechanic and Mr. F. Mr. F was kind of a useless addition since he wasn't actually Mr. E, meaning the writers didn't bring back the dropped Echo Zane plotline. And unlike Mr. E, who had an actual presence and menace, I kinda forgot about Mr. F a lot of the time, and Harumi better represents the Sons of Garmadon. I also left out the Mechanic because he isn't really a major arc villain, just a recurring thug. Tbh I'd replace him with Soto, who could represent the first half of S2, and whose pirates are an actual existing faction with continued relevance, and even defeated Nadakhan!

Also, I’d like to think Zane’s Ice Emperor persona makes an actual dramatic return and not just as an ineffectual gag, like maybe he has to use the scroll of Forbidden Spinjitzu to combat the Vengestone army, and seeing Vex again could trigger the past. It’s only for like one episode because we need Zane, but it’s a villain cameo for the arc where all the villains return.

But yeah, if we keep out Soto and Machia, that still brings us to 20 villains to juggle. Which is why this never could've happened. But I can dream, right? Writing a version of Crystalized that includes all of these characters and gives them some actual characterization and dynamics would be a Herculean feat.

(Now imagine a story that brings back all of these villains AND the ones from Dragons Rising…!)

#Ninjago #Nadakhan #Kodokuna Yang #Acronix #Krux #Machia #Iron Baron #Omega Oni #General Vex #Unagami #Mammatus #Kalmaar #Ninjago Crystalized

[alexissara]

Why Obsession Hits Different When It's Gay

In Media an obsessed character who is in love with the main character is extremally common. I find it annoying and boring when it's straight but tantalizing and potentially endearing when it's gay. This is not me moralizing queer obsession, it can be just as "problematic" as straight obsession but explain the appeal and the ways it feels different.

Historic Context

While the straights love a forbidden romance, the true forbidden romance throughout most of the white world's history [which is where we see most stories take place] have been gay. While there was many a secret love affair there were even more secret pinning that were never expressed, never written, words couldn't be made for their very utterance may be enough to ruin you.

So longing and pinning became strong elements of queerness, the longing for someone who you believe will never return your affections, taking in the small things, the little moments, the friendship that may never surpass what you dream of but none the less can be treasured. Having to lie about your attractions, your loves, marrying someone for your family and not for your heart. Hoping you can remain close.

Outside of the yogurt society we saw these loves torn apart on a systemic level where once they were praised and normal they slowly became demonized. Much like we see now an attempt to shift public views on queerness we had a radical queer genocide across the America's thanks to the Catholic and protestant churches shared interest in Ingenious genocide. Tearing through the culture, forced religious conversions, mass murder took loves, histories, stories that were once treasured and set them ablaze. They could never take away their hearts though, not really and this love, this feeling even if they were forced apart would live forever inside them.

The Narrative History

The lesbian best friend trope is often far less spoken about then the Gay Best Friend because the Lesbian best friend is a much cruller flavor and is still found in some media to this day. The lesbian best friend breaks down between the endearing but a little creepy weirdo to the dangerous homo in your area. Both traffic in explicit obsession.

The kinder but still mean bumbling obsessive Lesbian finds herself snapping photos of her bestie while she is asleep, keeping a lock of her hair, always telling her that the man isn't good enough for her but none the less dutifully supporting her heterosexual lifestyle when she engages a relationship. The bumbling lesbian best friend will probably die alone wishing she was with this girl but she understands her place, she isn't like the Friend Zone incel man, no she is happy with her place as a friend she might just sniff her hair a little too long. The Psycho Lesbian on the other hand is deadly, her obsession is building and eventually it's going to burst. Her best friends happy heterosexual life will be met with a knife ending her boys life and maybe hers next. The Psycho Lesbian is a threat to society and in the end she will die. The Psycho Lesbian gets no joy in her life, she has a bad life and then does some bad actions and then dies a bad death.

These tropes and the history build a empathy in queer people in particular queer women with the queer obsessed girl. An understanding and well, a desire to cheer on the girl's romantic dreams. So many love stories never happened because fear of expression or the heteronormative world stopped it. So it's natural when someone who is clearly in love wants to be with someone that many people will cheer them on.

The Straight Danger

Now a major reason it hits different is because well, it's not straight. Like people often try and site data about domestic abuse with queer women going like "look it's super high" but any further look into the data shows that the Lesbians and Bisexual women who are abused are normally abused by men they were in a relationship with, likely after coming out. The reality is for queer women dating men can be fairly dangerous and this goes double for Trans Women who we see time after time can end up lethal. The straight obsession can often mirror these abusers behaviors. Anything that brings up these kind of scars can for sure just be unappealing and most people probably know someone who has dealt with a shitty partner who even if they weren't abusive for sure were far to obsessed with owning their partner.

Ownership is baked into the model of monogamous straight marriage so the obsession also rarely feels special. Your supposed to be obsessed as a hetero. This is who your supposed to be with your whole life. Your both supposed to demand each others eternal affection and kinda hate each other. The man and the woman are from different plants they say but their magnetly brought together by the need to breed. Obviously this is bullshit and plenty of straight relationships can be actually healthy and great and fantastic and they also don't need to involve sex at all. However, the predominance of this model makes it where this obsessive affection far less tasty.

The Nice Guy's prominent existence in media, the idea that women just want bad boys and the nice guy friend who is obsessed with them deserves them is pretty prominent. This has built into a Incel cult of men in the real world feeling entitled to women's bodies. In the media these men tend to get with the women, in the end the nice guy wins. This normalization of what has ultimately lead to a very toxic environment for women also makes straight obsession feel that much worse. The idea that the men you are friends with are only your friend because they wanna fuck you and that their weird online about you in their private reddits or some shit.

The Chemistry Of Queer Obessession

All of this builds into the wider context of why both straight obsession just kinda feels bad in media and why Queer Obsession feels different then that. While, I believe these factors are core reasons why it feels different I think another factor is just that being queer is not the same as being straight, Allo, etc.

Many queer people deal with a lot of hate, Maybe not by their day to day crowed but we can look online and just see how many people want us dead. We have to look both ways when we hold hands with our partners. It's hard to date when you need to either find the right spaces or be on apps and go through people who want different things then you. So the idea of someone utterly in love with you can be super appealing.

The hard work is done of trying to find someone you work with and here is someone who loves you unconditionally, who is gonna uplift you and cheer on your dreams, do whatever they can do help. The queer obsession become a form of wish fullfillment. There being this great deep love right there beside you.

It also works the other way around, being able to be with someone you always wished would be with you, the dream of falling in love with someone and them actually wanting those advances. In particular when the obsession goes both ways it can be feel really sweet and like even if the world wants to stop them, this love is so great it barely phases you.

Everything I said put together really ties in why at least for me queer obsession really just is not the same as straight obsession in romantic media. I think queer obsession just feels special and maybe one day it will feel as creepy, I hope it does, but for now it just doesn't.

If your obsessed with my posts you could give me money on Patreon or Ko-fi, I won't stop you.

#queer theory #Queer thoughts #queer #lesbian #sapphic #Lesbian Tropes #media criticism

[celestiall0tus]

Reawakening - Connection

Table of Contents

            Rose trotted down the pathway to Liberty. She headed below deck where Juleka, Alya, Alix, Nathaniel, and Marc waited.

            “Hey, Rose. Did you bring the chart?” Alya asked.

            “I got something even better,” Rose answered.

            Rose set her backpack down. She removed rabbit Fluff along with a collection of photos. She arranged the photos with Marinette in the middle with everyone else surrounding her in a circle.

            “Ok, Fluff, do it,” Rose said.

            Fluff thumped three times. Ethereal strings crept out from Marinette’s photo to each photo with most strings yellow. Some strings had two colors that mingled on one side or clashed in the middle from opposing sides.

            “Woah! What’s this?” Nathaniel asked.

            “Neat, huh? It’s one of Fluff’s powers. Not the one she shares with me, but she sees all the threads that connect us. Not only that, but she can discern what relationships those individuals have.”

            “That’s pretty cool. Not as cool as time travel, but still pretty cool,” Alix remarked.

            “Isn’t it? I absolutely love this. Now we can help Marinette better. But not just Marinette. Everyone!” Rose cheered.

            “Let’s start with Marinette first, ok?” Alya asked.

            “Oh, of course. Now, most of the strings here are yellow, which stands for friendship. The brighter, the healthier. The ones mixed with touches of white are where she’s establishing proper friendships. Now, this is where it gets interesting. You see Zoe’s connection with Marinette?”

            Everyone leaned in and observed it. On Zoe’s end, the thread was yellow with hints of pink while Marinette’s end was solid yellow.

            “What does it mean?” Marc asked.

            “So, the pink is developing relationships. Like infatuation and crushes. That means Zoe has a small crush on Marinette,” Rose cooed.

            “But, what of Luka there?” Juleka asked, pointing at Luka’s photo.

            Everyone glanced at the thread. Luka’s end was a dark scarlet while Marinette’s was a deep yellow with dashes of pink.

            Rose chuckled nervously. “So, that’s where some problems occur. While the brighter, the healthier. The opposite is also true. The darker, the more toxic and harmful it is. That said, red is for romantic love. Not the developing of pink, but the full love. And we already covered yellow and pink.”

            “So, Luka and Marinette wouldn’t work?” Juleka asked.

            “Not quite. See, there’s still some hope. After all, it’s not like… like Adrien’s connection,” Rose muttered.

            Everyone looked at Adrien’s thread and grimaced. The thread was black as night on Marinette’s end and a deep, dark crimson that neared black on Adrien’s end.

            “What’s black mean?” Alix asked.

            “Well, that’s the worst of the worst. When a thread is black, it’s a problematic relationship. One that would be extremely unhealthy,” Rose admitted.

            “But I thought they were made for each other?” Marc asked.

            “I guess we thought wrong,” Alix remarked.

            “So, what now?” Nathaniel asked.

            “We help them heal. But not just them, Mylene, Ivan, and Luka too. They’ll need us. Right, Fluff?” Rose asked.

            Fluff shifted into kwami form and flew up. “Correct. For these may be the threads now, they can change. Allow for time to make room for healing and, hopefully, they’ll become new, beautiful bonds.”

            “You mean you have no way of knowing?” Alix asked.

            “Nope, and it’s blissful for once. I’m not fighting to stay in one place, one mind and I’m back to my element. It was quite unhealthy. Something I don’t recommend. Nonetheless, even if we don’t know what’ll happen, we must be supportive. Don’t force them into things they may not want or what you think is best. I’m looking at you, Juleka,” Fluff added.

            Juleka pursed her lips, hugged herself, and looked away.

            “Just let things happen naturally. If things aren’t going to work, don’t force it. If you do, you could force people into uncomfortable positions and put pressure on a thread until it snaps. And that goes for all of you. Not just Juleka. Understood?” Fluff stated.

            Everyone nodded. Fluff grinned and turned to Rose.

            “Alright, who’s next?”

#miraculous #miraculous ladybug #miraculoustalesofladybugandcatnoir #au #miraculous au #alternate universe #mlb fanfic #fanfiction writer #fanfiction #fanfic #miraculous rose #rose lavillant #rose #mlb rose #marc anciel #nathaniel kurtzberg #alya cesaire #alix kubdel #juleka couffaine #reawakening #all that remained au #all that remained #canon divergent au #canon divergence

[attorneys-against-court-violence]

Apollo Justice Has a Weird Character Arc

It's been on my mind for a long while and I'm pretty sure I'd explode if I didn't at least write my thoughts out, so here goes.

While it isn't a remotely original thought, I've been a little befuddled at how often Apollo's backstory and overarching conflicts seem to change from game-to-game. For context, let's compare him to Phoenix Wright and how their respective trilogies expanded on points from prior games:

Phoenix Wright: AA1 - Trials & Tribulations

The Phoenix Wright Trilogy is pretty tightly written, as far as overarching plots go. Each game has some relation to events from the first game - DL-6/Manfred von Karma, the Fey clan, and Mia's death.

Franziska and Pearl aren't there just because we needed an Edgeworth or Maya replacement; they help further develop the impact von Karma had & the drama behind the Fey clan respectively, both of which were introduced in AA1. Godot isn't there just so we can have another smug prosecutor; he's Phoenix's shadow, an echo of the grief and pain that Mia's death caused, closing the Turnabout Terror's arc by bringing it back to the start.

Most of Phoenix's troubles in the Trilogy are connected in some way to what was set up in his debut; Mia's death, his involvement with the Feys, the Class Trial and subsequent quest to help Edgeworth conquer his inner demons. Heck, even Rise From the Ashes - a bonus case in the DS rerelease - mirrors Turnabout Goodbyes in many key ways. It all comes back to one or more of the elements present in AA1.

Apollo Justice: AJ - Spirit of Justice

Apollo's (unofficial) trilogy is... not nearly as focused. The Troupe Gramarye play a large part in kickstarting the events of AJ, but aren't seen or expanded on in the following game. The most we get past this point is the Magical Turnabout - nice showcase for Apollo and Trucy's relationship, but this was after DD basically ignored AJ and while SoJ was preparing a new conflict for Apollo. There just isn't a lot of room to do anything with it as-written.

Klavier Gavin was set up as a friendly rival of sorts, but he doesn't play a large - or any - role afterward. The next set of prosecutors have nothing to do with anything that happened in AJ either; Simon's there for Athena's story and Nahyuta is more related to Spirit Mediums and the people of Khura'in (a major plot point from Phoenix's games) than anything to do with AJ, along with the whole country-spanning revolution that's going on.

Not to mention SoJ starts because Phoenix wanted to pay Maya a visit (another Trilogy callback) rather than anything on Apollo's part... Apollo only gets roped into Nahyuta's plot after the aforementioned Magical Turnabout, the only Gramarye-related case in as long as an entire game and a tutorial case. 3 years apart from one another.

Hell, Phoenix doesn't even get his dues in relation to Apollo's nonsense. He lost his Beanix persona almost as soon as he got the badge back and slipped comfortably into teasing-but-ultimately-not-problematic Nick again. Which doesn't do wonders for Apollo, who's disillusionment with his idol was so powerful he decked the man in the face. There's nowhere to go from a re-tread of Trilogy Nick compared to his AJ counterpart for either character.

I like some of the ideas Apollo's later stories present. I like the idea of him losing faith in the Wright Anything Agency (since Nick has been a real shady bastard to him) and going out to seek the truth on his own terms. I like the idea of him confronting his origins and how he would react to the knowledge. How he, despite it all, will still help them in their hour of need. It's just that none of these plot points are presented in a way that carries from what was already established.

Losing faith in the WAA? We gave him a new childhood friend you never heard of before who's basically dead before you met him. Confronting his true origins? Well yes, but actually he grew up in a hyper-religious country of Spirit Mediums that has nothing to do with his implied ties to the Troupe Gramarye, other than the fact that Thalassa is his birth mother. Apollo doesn't even know any of this by the end of SoJ anyways! Thalassa is practically a ghost constantly teasing the idea that "hey, maybe tell him he's this wizard's son one day?"

The lad confuses me, is what I'm saying.

#ace attorney #dual destinies #spirit of justice #apollo justice #phoenix wright

[lutawolf]

Big Dragon Episode 3 Review and Commentary

Don't go looking for episodes 1 and 2 review because there isn't one. I watched them but I'm late to the party. So, I'm starting here.

The song "I work out" just came to my head while we watch the swim model play with his hair. OMG the secondhand embarrassment is gonna kill me. Okay, I really can't with this dumbass hiding behind a chair. Sweet baby jezebel. Okay but we have the bag with the phone. Of course, it's password protected you dip shit. Just stomp that thing or take out sims card. There, wait. Running it under water? I just. 🤦‍♀️

What, now ya gonna steal. What the fuck are you doing. These dumbasses better start to have growth. Oh, you are taking the undie. That's actually pretty funny. Iffffff you hadn't got caught. At this point I think you should be writing a book on how to be a dumb ass villain. I think you need to just give up the life of crime. Sub baby is so subby. Look at him just standing there. Like he puts up no fight when being searched.

Oh, now we push. You are feeling all kinds of tough, dumbass. You never thought he would back that shit up. Oh damn, he said sorry. These two shitheads are made for each other realy. This is what nonconsenting looks like. When Yai drugged Mangkorn and now this shit that Mangkorn is pulling. We don't know if Yai is consenting because he wants to or because he is afraid of the videos being leaked.

Now here is the thing, this is art. None of us are saying this is okay. We know that these two ass hats are problematic. When you say that marginalized media can't be problematic art, then you are participating in the oppression. Forcing queer media to not be problematic art is saying, we don't have the right to occupy the same space as straight/white media.

Back to the show. This is what a forced D/s element looks like. Mangkorn got a roleplay kink, mkay. Oph, straight to the punishment. No talking until told to. For sure forced consent. More commands. And if we didn't know for sure, we now know he sucked it before. He's got a gage reflux.

Okay, so he was teasing him. Then he tells him to wait and Yai does. So subby. These rich bitches probably own walking shorts. Lawd. Okay so, we at a park, at night. This is how horror movies start. Douche canoe, he might have teased you, but you drugged him. You guys are almost even. Friendship. He wants friendship until the internship is over. The nagging back and forth. He doesn't know how to make friends, that doesn't ring true.

Now we are starting to see them. The real them. Getting a little cuteness. Aww, he got him a shirt... I think that is a shirt. Looks more like a sweater vest. Still, it's the thought that counts. Buddy boy he has seen it all already. Hahaha.. Wait, should I be concerned that dipshit and I think alike. Oh it is a shirt! Is that a tiger necklace? Aww, he brought him to his favorite spot.

Look at that slight smile on Yai's face when Mankorn brings up being friends again. Caught you staring moment. Cute. Ohhhh, he is serving him food. Interesting. He tells Yai to try it and Yai immediately does. Ohh, the gay couple is sooo cute. Okay, my opinion of you is going up Yai. Oh, we are bringing up the law and gay marriage topic. I like it.

Look at him breaking out the "food taste better shared." Okay this is cute. Back and forth about the food. Your ass still hurts? Wth. That's a power dick there. Oh, we are giving the, I wanna kiss you look. Saved by the tummy rumble. Oh, are you about to serve him again? Even with it being an inconvience due to the rain. Interesting. Look at that smile. Oh you finally gonna let people know you alive.

Looke at him checking on him. Then offering to walk him to his room. Ohhhh yeah, someone is coming in Dom. Aww, look at him apologizing for the phone and telling him he will buy another. I'm starting to like these two.

Yes, Yes, they are still problematic characters, fully aware but problematic characters are fun in fiction. Real life? No way. Who would be okay with any of the bl fictional characters? I mean really, Sean and Black have anger management problems. SCOY is about a stalker and stalky who fall in love. As much as I love Pai, in real life we'd beg Sky to call the cops. Let's not even talk about the Kinnporsche couples. Are we not allowed to live vicariously through art anymore?

Yai is being super cute. I'm liking it. I'm seeing a redemption arc here. Oh, look Mankorn being. Home dude is hooked. You like that old fashioned, shut up. Oh yeah, he's caught feelings. A Dominatrix! Mad respect but those wrist cuffs. Those boots though! I want! She is spitting the good advice too. She's a soft Dom for a Dominatrix. Oh, look she did a check in to make sure that their break apart won't spiral him.

What are these two cornballs doing. These fucking coconuts. I ain't afraid of no ghosts. The coconuts are though. Did he call by phone. Damn it's bad with the coconut can get a jab in. Aww, they have a couple's phone! Subby sub is grumpy now. Oh No! Couple's cases! They are rocking that RM and Jin colors. Look at you, dumbass. You hung up on your boyfriend's call.

So that's all folks. Hope you enjoyed. 💜💜💜 This review is dedicated to @victooooorious, @bengiyo, and @pharawee

#big dragon the series #big dragon #thai bl #bl thai #luta opinions #luta talks kink #coconuts mafia

[uncaught-coolfish]

I’m not even in the R///BY fandom but never have I ever seen a fandom so hellbent on gaslighting and manipulating people into not saying a single critique of the show

Like, I’ve heard that some stans literally do a freaking TEST for new fans to see if they have any criticisms of the show and if they do they get basically exiled from the fandom because “real fans don’t critique their favourite media!”

WHY SHOULD SOMEONE SAYING “I DON’T LIKE THIS!” STOP YOU FROM BEING A FAN OF SOMETHING! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH Y’ALL?! STOP IT! GET SOME HELP!

Genshin Impact’s fandom is utter dogshit but at least they can acknowledge the game has some problematic elements in it without getting blasted by some stans of a ship like Candehya or Kavetham (I said those two bc they currently have some of the worst shippers ever with their rampant sexism and biphobia towards ships like Dehyatham or Kavelou, even if Dehyatham is mostly targeted by Dehlou stans bc apparently “shipping the dark skin girl with the light skin boy is bad but shipping her with a light skin girl is okay bc white saviourism is uwu so quirky!”

I don’t even have anything to add because you’re literally so right. (ok that was a lie I have something to say) Literally have zero clue where “real fans aren’t critical of what they watch/play/etc etc” came from because it is simply not true. More than half of the things I enjoy I am highly critical of, INCLUDING THIS SHOW, because I want to see the things I enjoy improve. Or, like with this show and a couple others, there are just things so just…. not good that all you can do is criticize them.

But at the end of the day, people are choosing to get mad about what is essentially just other people critiquing the fictional parts they don’t like out of their fictional show. A show they can still like and enjoy, just as I still frankly do (without the. supporting an awful company just because some Texans whined about it part), and those critics shouldn’t stop one from liking the show altogether.

Idk. Insert a fucking rat movie quote.

#rwde

[2af-afterdark]

I'm in the VERY VERY vocal minority about this but tbh I'm kinda glad that the angel units are behind paywals. Bc their stories are really dicey and I am NOT strong enough for the discourse that would come out of that. Like, I understand this whole ordeal was handled terribly but I'm just trying to look for silver linings at this point.

Also I doubt pb will learn their lesson. They got their money already and this announcement was just salt in the wound. I wasn't surprised that the angel units wouldn't be added to the main gacha. Plus they only seem to work well with other angel units so putting them in the main gacha would dilute it further. Though I guess since a lot of people are saying they're Uninstalling so maybe they'll see it plus their emails are probably getting blown up.

All in all. It's disappointing but unsurprising. I at least wished they'd just given us S rank Gabe as part of the challenge since he's technically in the game. But as soon as I saw that it was L rank I knew they wouldn't give it out for free.

Sorry for rambling. I'm just holding out for the main story at this point.

Okaay so, maybe I'm not communicating this well but... having limited time cards is not the issue for me. The issue is how trash PB's communication is and how predatory and money-hungry they are being. They should have said in the announcements that the angels would be limited time and not added to the pool. I get certain cards being only for a limited time (that's what most gacha do). The issue was that they said nothing until later, which establishes that they can and will change the rules whenever they feel like it without warning. It doesn't have to do with if the units are good or bad. They could literally be the worst units in the game and I would still be upset because of what they are communicating to the players; that we are not worth keeping informed.

I admit that I am not happy they are paywalled, but that's because I'm never happy when cards (a huge bulk of the gameplay for a gacha) are completely paywalled. I find it gross and predatory. Also, it may sound heartless of me, but this game has so many problematic elements that if people get spicy over the content with the angels... I don't know what to say? The game is very open about what it is. It has many dub/noncon elements, intense kinks (two of them are literally decapitation and necrophilia), violence, etc. If the angels are the thing that starts the discourse, I will have to wonder who ignored all the other similar shit without saying something. If the cards are going to start discourse, they will do that regardless of the paywall. But, again, idk why they would when anyone walking into this game should already be aware of what it is.

And, no, I don't expect them to learn their lesson. The only way they would learn anything is if it hits them in the paycheck. The fact that people pay for Solomon Seals continues to encourage PB to use Solomon Seals to earn money. Unless the whales stop spending money on these practices, PB will keep using them (they why I don't, even though i am one person and my resolve means little in the grand scheme). Unless the sudden evacuation of players are whales (who seem to be the only ones PB cares about at this point), I doubt the company will notice.

Gabriel though, does genuinely upset me. Like I said in a previous response, battle pass systems like this tend to have free rewards and paid rewards. The rewards are usually the same but the free path gives out the main reward much later (think earning the card at level 200 for a free path versus earning it at level 120 for the paid path). This is usually fine because, though difficult, both paid and free players can earn the final reward. It's a small way of rewarding players for, you know, playing the game. This is especially true because battle passes require frequent log-ins and active participation. But Gabriel, the ultimate reward for the battle pass, can only be acquired after doing all that work plus spending $60. I find that gross.

I'm a whale. I do spend money on this game, but I am careful about how I spend that money. I pay for the daily log-in bonuses (the extra AP and keys). I have bought several event packs. I own every sticker pack. Basically, the only thing I don't do is pay for Solomon Seals. I simply want PB to not alienate a huge chunk of the players just because they can't, won't, or don't want to shell out money. It's about the principle of the matter to me.

As for S-rank Gabriel... He's okay. He's a good unit in battle, but he comes with no intimacy (so no comic, info, etc). Also, my guess is that they wouldn't add him to the general pool afterward either. After all, Minhyeok wasn't added after he left. Plus, my guess is they don't want to do that since they plan to release more packs, including those that sell Gabriel. Less incentive to buy his pack if you can just earn him in the general pool.

#❖ nonie #love letters ❤️ #talkin' whb