#especially when you're given the context of what their talents are

[ninjagirlstar5]

This is for my mutual that requested that I do Kakeru next, so I did! I actually had this finished all in one day but it was very late where I was by the time I was done, so I had to shelve it for today instead.

Kakeru's OG design is just...funny, when you find out his Ultimate Talent. This man does not look like a lawyer and looks like any other muscular guy that probably does sports. Which makes it even funnier when you find out that, no, he doesn't actually do sports, he was literally just born like this! This man was blessed with the best health possible, and yet he feels ashamed for this because his sister was born very sickly, so he blames himself for "taking away her health" when it's not his fault. It's just how life goes sometimes. But anyways, back to his redesign. I chose to base this redesign off of his splash art as he actually looks like a lawyer in that than his in-game sprite, but changed it up and added details to it since I didn't want to straight up copy it. Based off of his OG design, he was dressed pretty casually, so I decided to have his shirt collar slightly unbuttoned and kept it untucked, his suit jacket open, and his tie a little more loose. I gave him boots to add a bit of flair to his design, gave him small earrings, an attorney badge, and a tie pin to keep it attached to his shirt and prevent it from flying off. It's to show that while he's casual, he's still a professional. Also, in his splash art, he's shown wearing glasses, so I'm questioning why LINUJ didn't let him keep that??? What, are those reading glasses, fake glasses to make himself look smarter, or are those glasses that he actually needs to see from? Imagine that those are prescribed glasses, and he's walking around the killing game with blurry vision the whole time he was alive, lmao. But seriously, it's weird cause in one of LINUJ's sketches where he drew what the 79th class would look like if they survived, he has his glasses again so the state of his eyesight is just one big question mark. So I just said, "Fuck it, he has glasses" and that was it. It honestly adds to his professional and smart aura, which actually adds to his intimidation since you'd expect him to be very serious...and then it turns out he's super sweet and shy outside of court. And what helps hint to his softer, sillier side would be the flame design on his tie, as ties with goofy designs like that can show that this person can be silly if they want to be (at least, character wise). And I didn't want to get rid of the flame design on his shirt completely, so I decided to call back to it by moving it onto his tie instead. A tie that his sister probably chose for him, so Kakeru would wear it all the time, hehe. His hair barely changed, I just adjusted it so that it has a better shape. As for the colors, I made Kakeru's tanned skin a bit more obvious, and kept his colors quite monotone aside from the tie and gold metal of his earrings, tie pin, attorney badge, and the buckles of his boots. Fun fact: I originally made his suit blue, but decided that he looked too much like Phoenix Wright and desaturated the colors to look more gray, haha.

Anyways, I love Kakeru. I just wished he acted more like a lawyer in-game, you know?

#DRA #Kakeru Yamaguchi #Danganronpa Another #DRA Spoilers #sprite edit #Star's Art #kakeru is probably gonna be the most changed design yet #cause his OG design just does not look the part of a lawyer at ALL #at least with everyone else you can kinda get an idea #of why they look the way they do #especially when you're given the context of what their talents are #with kakeru you just don't #so him being a lawyer becomes a big surprise #and ends up tanking his design as a result

[toskarin]

So elves are angels?

if you're going off my description, which I largely lifted from tolkien, the answer is "not especially"

tolkien style elves are beholden to the concepts of fate and prophecy, but that's not a trait unique to them. they're just kind of especially fateful guys

as a fair warning, you've triggered a fantasy infodump here and I've quarantined it below the readmore

this is all going off of like... loose memories of a time where I was more fresh off of reading tolkien when I was younger, so I'm abridging a lot here. don't cite me to anyone or you'll probably be wrong. also how literally this is intended to be understood depends on whether you take the elves' word for how the elves came into being.

which you might.

men* and elves are the children of ilúvatar, more properly eru ilúvatar, who you can here understand as the closest thing in the legendarium to the christian god

*: understood to mean humans, including hobbits for the sake of this explanation, although that's left a bit vague because hobbits are thematically the most normal guys possible. they don't even feel much of a drive to give themselves a creation myth

elves were given immortality, ethereal beauty, really good memory, and incredible talents for creation. they were the first type of incarnate, from the time when the stars were coming into being

men didn't come around for a while after that. men are mortal, but will inherit the earth and can break away from prophecy and fate, specifically as it pertains to the music of the ainur, which is kind of hard to summarise without just saying "it's the scheme of how things unfold that was laid out from the moment everything was created, destiny itself"

to skip over a bunch of more complicated details, this means that elves are a union of body and soul, like men. they're intimately bound to the workings of the world, but most things that aren't men are also bound to it, and being bound to it doesn't necessarily mean you're aligned with it

there are entities that directly serve the god figure on a few different tiers. the god figure's first spirit creations were ainur*, and then the ainur who descended into the song of creation became lower forms of divinity called the valar and maiar, with the maiar being the lower-ranked spirits that assisted the valar

*: same ones mentioned in the context of the song of the ainur, since they wove the world more or less as proxies for ilúvatar

the valar take the roles of sort-of-proxy gods, while the maiar work to assist them and occasionally incarnate into mortal form when something needs REALLY fine tuning. the valar and maiar are much closer to what you're looking for, as far as angels go! (assuming I understood the question correctly of course, which I might not have lmao)

elves and men are two different kinds of incarnate, with dwarves being a third. in some way, they all contain echoes of divinity, and while some are more beholden to the framework of its designs than others, everything in tolkien's writing is echoing out from divinity, carrying divinity within itself

[askmerriauthor]

Pokemon S/V - Story Themes: Failure and Abuse

Something I actually really like about Pokemon S/V, which is somewhat ironic given the state of the game itself, is that its underlying story theme is about how the adults of the setting have utterly failed the younger generation.

General discussion and rambling about Pokemon S/V after the jump, as there's sure to be spoilers. This is a long one, so buckle up.

Throughout the many stories Pokemon has told over the years and its iterations, the role of adults in the series and how they relate to the kids - ostensibly, the Player themselves as well - has varied wildly. They've been mentors, friends, allies, enemies, or even just odd folk we encounter. But, for better or worse, they've always been fairly direct in a What You See Is What You Get sort of way.

Pokemon S/V subverts that a bit in that all of the adults - even those we don't meet and only hear about through dialogue - have completely failed the children of the story. The results of those shortcomings range from very mild to absolutely disastrous, but nobody is untouched by it. Even the Player isn't spared.

Right up front we've got the Friendship Trio: Nemona, Arven, and Penny. Being the core to the story, they're the biggest examples one has out the gate. Common themes they all share are that they're each left without support from their families or peers, and that they're each desperately lonely as a result. Nemona is a star pupil, a battling prodigy, and daughter to a wealthy, powerful family. But despite all her talents she's left adrift without aim or goal. Her younger sister is the one being given control of the family business and Nemona's own talents set her apart from other students, meaning she struggles to find peers. Her family seem all too happy to focus on the younger sister, while Geeta from the Pokemon League and the academy itself happily makes use of Nemona's skills for their own ends. Nemona is constantly eager to please, always looking up to powerful people like Geeta and Professor Turo/Sada, but admits that she's just sort of floundering without any anchor. The people she looks up to only see her as a tool to be used and immediately discarded until the next time they need her.

A lot of Players joke about how battle obsessed Nemona is toward the Player, or how yandere jealous/possessive she becomes immediately upon meeting us. She even stands up to Geeta - who she absolutely hero worships - about our attention being poached. But can you really blame her for realizing there's finally someone who not only matches her skill, but seems dedicated to following a route the game itself states virtually nobody else in the region ever comes close to achieving? Nemona is not only the youngest Champion ever, but the only Champion in years, until the Player shows up. Regardless of what the person holding the console feels toward the Gym Challenge, in-context of the story the Player is proving through their own actions that they value Nemona as a friend/rival and are putting in genuine effort to meet her. When you defeat her, especially at the very end when she goes all out in a way she's never been able to with anyone else, she's thrilled. To Nemona, it's got to be the most amazing validation she's ever had in her life. Why wouldn't she hold on dearly and enthusiastically when nobody else, let alone her own family, are able to keep up with her or offer her the validation she needs?

Arven is just absolutely wrecked by his parental failure. His parent (Turo or Sada depending on which version you're playing) was so obsessed with their research in Area Zero that they threw away their entire family. Their spouse left them and took Arven, leaving the boy growing up constantly feeling the void of that missing part of their life. They keep hearing about the things their Professor Parent has accomplished and how well-regarded they are, but that's always just a reminder that the parent put more effort into their work than into being with their child. When Arven tries to go into Area Zero to find their parent himself, his Mabosstiff (his beloved Pokemon companion he's had literally his entire life) is near mortally injured as a result and Arven spends the rest of the game desperately trying to save it. Later, it's revealed that the Professor's work is endangering literally the entire ecosystem and stands to destroy Paldea itself, leaving Arven with the knowledge that not only was he abandoned for the sake of research, but that research was both ultimately harmful and pointless.

By the time the Player reaches the depths of Area Zero and meets the AI Professor, they find out a few things about the Professor. Namely that they're dead. It turns out that the Box Legendary they brought through time killed them years prior and the person the Player - and Arven - has been interacting with all throughout the game is just an AI replica left behind. While exploring the Professor's various labs, the Player first finds an empty picture frame that had its photo removed and, when in the final lab in the heart of Area Zero, they find the photo pinned to the Professor's work board. A photo of Arven as a tot with his beloved Pokemon (still an unevolved Maschiff at the time). This yields two big realizations. One is that the Professor still absolutely harbored love for their child and family, but allowed their drive - or possibly insanity - to overcome them. They were lying to themselves all those years saying "I'm doing this for my family" while outright ignoring said family entirely. Second is that the Player is the only one who learns outright that the Professor was killed, which means they - albeit off-screen - were the ones to break the news to Arven. Even in death, with the AI Professor's remnants of its creator's memories showing love for Arven, they failed him again and again. It's always up to Arven himself to carve his own way through his parent's wake, relying on his own abilities and the help of his friends, to struggle through the mess his parent left him.

Penny is failed on multiple fronts and to multiple degrees. She's a complete introvert and clearly suffers from a fair level of social anxiety due to the bullying she endured during her time at school. She's not shy, per say; when it comes to interacting with the Player and others, she's actually rather outspoken once she feels comfortable. But there's absolutely a wall put up that she doesn't let anyone past until she's ready, controlling her level of exposure and interaction through mediums like only communicating via phone or intentionally restricting her in-person time behind excuses.

At the most basic level, Penny is failed by her own father who doesn't understand her. She mentions that he's always doting, giving her childish nicknames and basically fawning over her. That sounds great on its face - exactly the sort of thing Nemona and Arven crave - but it shows that her father doesn't understand his daughter. Penny doesn't enjoy or respond well to that type of affection and it's being forced on her, causing a wedge in her home life. Next up are Penny's friends, the bosses of Team Star. They gained that rank and gang affiliation because of Penny; she's the one who set it up as a means of rallying all the students who suffered from constant bullying to stand up for themselves as a unified resistance. By that point she was so emotionally battered that she couldn't even stand to be in the company of other people directly, isolating herself and communicating only through phone calls. The Team Star Bosses and Penny all considered each other to be the closest of friends, yet they had never once met her face to face. While it's not explored as much (criminally so, I say) each of the Team Star Bosses show that they're in a similar state as Penny; they rely on each other for support but also self-expression and validation. It's shown throughout their stories that they're let down by the systems they trusted and their families, not able to find what they need from those establishments and instead turning toward one another.

As it's revealed through the events of the Team Star story, the previous administration of the Paldean Academy allowed a brutal level of bullying to go on at school. So much so that it resulted in the targeted students dropping out, falling to truancy, and literally forming a gang just to protect themselves from their aggressors. When Team Star finally did put their collective foot down (peacefully by both intent and action), they were wrongfully branded as the villains of the story and stigmatized. Team Star was shown that not only would adults not protect them, but would actively punish them for protecting themselves. The school admin at the time - who were fully aware of the whole situation - not only allowed it to happen but then actively attempted to cover it up for the sake of protecting their own asses. They were content to sit by and allow their own students to suffer, ultimately leading to drop outs and expulsions, just for their own sake. This led to both the admin and the entire teaching staff to resign and be replaced by the staff we see in the game, and Director Clavell starts to fall into the same error as his predecessor.

When the Player gets involved, Clavell is about to expel all the Team Star members for good (and there's a TON of them). But, hey, credit where it's due; Clavell really puts in the work and goes to considerable lengths to uncover the truth of what happened. He puts into motion the start of healing those wounds by setting aside not only his time, but his own ego for the sake of understanding his students, protecting them, and rectifying the mistakes of those who came before him. There's a part at the very end where Clavell outright apologizes to Team Star for the abuses they suffered at the hands of the previous Academy staff and deeply bows to them. That may not seem like much on its face, but one has to consider the context of this being a Japanese game. A major authority figure like Clavell bowing and apologizing to those younger than himself, let alone those he's an authority over, is a MAJOR demonstration of genuine regret.

That's not to say Clavell is perfect though. Far from it; while he succeeds in this area, he fails in others as he readily allows Geeta to use both the Academy and its students as she pleases. Geeta outright takes advantage of the students for unpaid labor - the Player included - even though none of them actually work for her. The teaching staff themselves, while all good people who are trying their best, show similar failures to varying degrees. Saguaro doesn't show who he really is because he's afraid of disrupting the image students have of him. Miriam - beloved by students for her skills and nature - languishes unable to fulfill her desire to be a teacher because the credential testing (presumably set by Geeta, who establishes similar needlessly exclusionary tests) keeps knocking her down. Hassel is endlessly harangued by his family to give up his passion for art and teaching to take the lead of their House.

It continues with the Gym Leaders and Elite Four as well, given how Geeta readily abuses her position of power to her own ends. All the Gym Leaders readily discuss their dislike of Geeta, how she holds them back or interferes with them, and the various shortcomings of their lives due to structural failures in their society. People like Larry, Brassius, Grusha, and Iono are wholly at the whims of capitalism in a region where the economy itself is tied directly to the Pokemon League they work for. Larry and Hassel pull double duty as both a Gym Leader and Academy Teacher, as well as members of the Elite Four, further showing how much Geeta is intentionally intertwining all these systems together into a narrow, unstable medium. Poppy, a LITERAL TODDLER, is somehow a member of the Elite Four - when Geeta doesn't even pay adults a living wage to be Gym Leaders/Elite Four and also readily takes advantage of students for free labor, you cannot possibly tell me Poppy isn't an overt case of child labor abuses. Seriously, who are this kid's parents and where the hell are they? Later in the game, Geeta calls the Player on their phone out of the blue and one of the responses you can give is "How did you get my number?". She replies that because you're a Champion, she has access to your personal information. Information you did not consent to give her, that she used her position to look up and privately contact you - a child - for work, without the consent or awareness of your parent. Geeta has set the Pokemon League in a way that best suits her desires and warped the entirety of Paldea around it, endangering and weakening other institutions as a result.

There's actually a lot more to this scattered throughout the game, such as a student who's languished in the Academy system for twenty years without graduating because he's constantly failing. Or everything that has to do with History Teacher Raifort. But this has already gone on long enough of a ramble. In summary, Pokemon S/V has some honestly interesting explorations of institutional and personal failure from the past and how it impacts the future. Themes of generational trauma wasn't what I expected out of a Pokemon game. I hope to see it expanded on in the coming DLC content or, even better, in the upcoming anime series.

#pokemon #pokemon scarlet and violet #pokemon sv #pokemon nemona #pokemon arven #pokemon penny #pokemon geeta

[stoopid-turtle]

moar made-up thoughts about dd's thoughts

Some of the replies on my previous post left me re-evaluating, and I don't know that I was incredibly effective at what I meant to communicate (honestly, that is really frustrating for me). So I just want to clarify and maybe add some context.

I assume it goes without saying that everybody in turtleland adores dd and gg and that we think dd is a sweetie-pie (I can't conceive of being a turtle without that belief). And as a group, dd and gg's sweet moments get highlighted a lot, which I adore. These posts I have on dd are more about stuff I don't see discussed quite as much and they're not meant to encapsulate all that dd is because, wow that's a lot. For the previous post, I'd been thinking a lot about dd's mentality and how he approaches things, as seen in SDC, because his captaining style seems really distinct in a way I wanted to dig into.

Honestly, we've known dd for years at this point, and he's grown and changed throughout that time. He's been influenced by gg and by other friends and mentors. And like most people, how he acts is variable and dependent on context. 

I do think dd was sometimes thoughtless when younger, but I don't think that's anything out of the ordinary for his age at the time, and I think he's grown out of it. In any case, it was never mean-spirited. Still, I think the way he expresses his feelings is pretty reserved and that he's not incredibly prone to sentimental gestures, like the gifts he sent Yang Kai. I think he can be thoughtful in that he's responsive when people indicate what they want, but I don't think he's the type to think up a gift idea on his own. Given that Yang Kai actually knows the guy and said as such, I don't think it's too far off-base to say that. I honestly think he probably gets help from gg with that sort of stuff, and he's likely to have gotten better at it as a result. But dd has never struck me as a sentimental guy.

(though with the captain gifts, I have no idea the logistics of how those worked, and I suspect, like most things on reality shows, that production assistants helped with suggestions and such)

I think he's a fantastic captain! I don't think I said that, because it's one of those things I assume goes without saying, especially as it's often said as such in turtledom. I think even back to Produce 101 when he was mentoring the young girls who were fawning over him. He did the cutesy dance with them to support them, even though he hates being cutesy (and bless him for it. That dance is a gift (and led to cute bts moments of gg poking fun at dd)). He's passionate about dance and he's passionate about helping other people improve (and learning from others). Dancers want to join his team because of that passion, and because dd just has a natural talent for it that is incredibly inspiring.

But he does like winning. He explicitly said as much himself. And that one episode I highlighted where his team lost is pretty tense. The rehearsals were tense, the performance was tense, dd's response to everything was tense. During one round, his team only gets 4 votes compared to, like 40 for the other team. I can't recall the score ever being so lopsided, especially when the losing team is full of top-tier dancers.

And dd's behavior then is incredibly relatable to me. He laughs about it, joking about how he only got 4 votes. But it's the laugh you get when you're really unhappy and kinda embarrassed but trying to keep a good, positive face on things (or at least, that's a strategy I have for those moments, and given dd's switch to serious-times when he's doing the team debrief, I think he's somewhat similar). 

And dd recovers well. He has a debrief with his team. He talks to Han Geng about what his team is lacking (they specifically talk about his team performance not being thematic like the others) and realizes they need a choreographer to pull everything together and give them direction. And the very first round of recruitment, he gets a choreographer for them. 

I don't think dd only likes winning. The reference to "not here to make friends" thing was a bit of rhetorical exaggeration for fun. Like I noted, he makes friends. He learns a lot and he mentors a lot, and that's definitely a big part of the draw for SDC for him. And while dd never intentionally cultivates a family atmosphere (as opposed to the other captains who explicitly tell their team that they're like a family), they come together like a family anyway. But he still likes winning, and I think he has trouble enjoying everything else as much if he's not winning. 

It's not a bad thing to be competitive like that (I once got into a fight with my wife because I kept losing in thumb wars against her. I personally know when competitiveness becomes stupid). DD has a passionate drive to succeed. This is how he's managed to excel at basically everything he tries (except cooking). I think way back to the auditions in SDC 3, when dd impresses his group by being savvy about street dance gestures (like the plagiarism gesture) and by knowing how to appeal to dancers (by having them warm up with some freestyling). He quickly overcomes any doubts the dancers have based on his idol background by being genuine, sincere, and passionate and that's why people want to join his team.

 *rereads all this* Hmmmm...feedback and replies are good. This is a better post.

Also, this judge is the one who always says nice things about dd. He's said at one point that dd has an extraordinary natural talent for dance even among professional dancers. He's right and he should say it. Best judge. A+ I hope they keep bringing him on.

#bjyx #yizhan #in this house we use a lot of words #the first photo i put in this tumblr and it's some random white dude wtf me #dd would def roll his eyes at alla this #still an honor

[corviids]

hi birdie! just saw your post about impostor syndrome hitting you and i just wanted to remind you what an excellent artist and writer you are. i know it's difficult to think so when impostor syndrome is at its highest, but i do hope this brings some comfort anyways! <3

as a writer, i cannot being to explain why your writings are out of this world, insane, crazy, wonderful. whatever emotion you try to go for, you achieve it in a way that it just clings to the reader's mind and carves a place in our bones. your dialogues, your world-building, the details, the characterisation, the sadness, the joy, the despair, the love, the yearning, the rage, the passion…. i've cried reading your writings, because they hit so hard in my heart that i just cannot stay quiet about it. and i have devoured your smut, and i have laughed with the lucemond kids' shenanigans. you have a way with words, you are so unique. i consume every single piece you publish, and i would consume any book of your own if you published, too. you were one of the first writers i read and followed when i came to this fandom and i just hope i can keep supporting you in anything you do.

as an artist, your talent knows no limits. that magic you have putting emotions into words, well, you also have it when you draw the faces of your characters. it's like looking at them in the eye, their smiles and the twitches and tilts you capture so well, and it feels like i'm looking at a real person with real emotions. i'm in love with your style, from the sketch to the colouring to the way i can see any of your art out of context and know it's yours. you have magic in your fingers, and daily dust in your soul and in your mind, and that's why every single piece you draw and you write is a treasure to be kept and protected, love and cherished.

personally, i know we haven't talked much, but you have been so kind to me. and i just love your sense of humor, your commitment, the way you treat with such respect and love your readers. how you give your heart to answer to our asks and questions just as you give it to create content.

we're very lucky to have you in this fandom, a nd i will always be grateful for every single thing that you have given us that has made me fell even more in love with lucerys, with aemond, with lucemond. with this site and with the culture of fan creating and providing.

you're a star, and i just hope i can continue to see how much you achieve as time goes by! we have your back! you don't know how much your writings and your art mean to people, and i know because i'm one of those and i have friends with whom i talked about your creations! you made hundreds of people from different places in the world to fall in love with what you do! i would say that's such a pretty neat job! <3 <3 <3

hope you feel better soon! i'm here if you ever need to talk! sending you the biggest hug and the best of vibes!!!!!! <3 <3 <3

i’ve waited a couple days to answer this because i’m genuinely speechless. i don’t cry very easily for reasons but reading this, especially after such a hard day, made me tear up. there really aren’t words to convey how grateful i am for everyone here that has supported my works. lucemond and this little community we have built have really became a safe space for me to ramble and share my stuff without fear.

i’m eternally grateful for every single person that send me asks, comments, or just comes round to check my stuff out. this is one of, if not the kindest things i’ve ever received and i hope that i can continue to make y’all as happy as you all make me <333

#wanna give op a hug #asks

[real-chinq-tmblr]

I know that what he did was wrong....but I can't help but see a child rather than some "scary unhinged monster" he is usually painted to be. Or a joke. A meme. Didn't win the race and allat.

When I first heard his music and then saw that he immediately went to jail, I felt strange. I could hear the talent in his delivery and had he been given the right guidance and resources, he would've gone on to create something great.

But you know, I wonder if he would've wanted to do that, even if he was free. I sometimes notice that people who have lived that life have no interest in arts, just what is infront of them, what is reality to them. Does it make money? Does it prevent them from being in danger? That type of stuff.

Because it seems like the arts is like....a fairy tale to them? Kinda like how poverty is a fairy tale to upper middle class/upper class people?

I know that the victims of his actions suffered real pain. I don't deny that at all and I don't mean to trivialise it. Sure, he should pay for his crimes. But I genuinely feel like...he's not the problem, he's a symptom of it. I mean, he's 15. The thing is, he should've never been holding a gun or living that sort of lifestyle in the first place. So how did he end up in that position?

And it's so messed up that we glamourise this type of stuff. We like it. We encourage it. We want to see young children holding guns, following the footsteps of their older counterparts, "carrying the mantle". What mantle? Violence? Ignorance? Like I'm sorry but that's what it really is. It's like people joining the military for legacy reasons. Except it's on the streets, it's "colored", it's "poor", and therefore it's illegal.

My grandpa and my dad was like that. Not that they lived that lifestyle but they were surrounded by people that did, and whether they realise it or not they internalised similar values and passed them down. I had to do a lot of inner work to undo it and I still haven't managed to undo everything. I can't imagine myself having a child because I'm scared I'll pass something down to them myself. Because I'm not gonna lie, I can't disagree when I say that violence and ignorance has a lot of appeal. I mean, a lot. And in some circumstances it's scary to be otherwise, to not be aggressive, to not be angry. Because it could mean you're vulnerable, and vulnerability is incredibly scary depending on the context. (Because there are environments that encourages and actively requires some form of "vulnerability", or at the very least a feigning of it, or else you're a "threat" and a "delinquent".)

But at the end of the day, at least what I personally realised was that, we just all want to be seen and treated as human. That's all. Violence is just a means to it. Just like feigning vulnerability or politeness.

And it's funny cause what happened to Tay-K in the end as he strived to uphold those things (that at this point, could be considered "tradition", because I define "tradition" as "peer pressure from your ancestors/predecessors")? Incarcerated for 55 years and won't be eligible for parole until 2047, especially since his "friends" took a plea deal and threw him under the bus while he kept his mouth shut, and he also became a bit of a joke/meme. Or sometimes people just think it's a cool thing to say "free Tay-K!" but really, it's just a trendy motto moreso than anything said with sincerety.

It reminds me of a quote from Sanyika "Monster" Shakur, who said in an interview how people that "shine the brightest" end up incarcerated forever or dead so "what you really want is a nice little glow".

And think about the song he blew up from. "The Race"? He made that song/video while actively trying to dodge arrest and then the video went up on the day he was captured. It blew up because of the hashtag #FREETAYK and debuted at #70 on the Billboards. Then a whole bunch of other musicians, with nothing to do with his lifestyle or his experiences, remixed his song and capitalized off of his hype. The hype from his arrest and "authenticity" of the "gang lifestyle" behind the song or whatever the fuck. Like....is it just me? Do none of ya'll think there's something sick about this?

(But that seems to be a running theme for musicians/cultural icons anyways, especially the ones that had any sort of message. Like Bob Marley or Tupac, they're just icons to put on shirts or whatever with quotes, to sell merchandise and to "act cool" with.)

I tried to choose photos where Tay-K wasn't holding a gun or trying to uphold some image. Because I think he's human and that's how he should be seen. (I know he's doing "American Sign Language" with his hands but lets be honest, who wasn't this ignorant as a child? I have a few photos looking this stupid myself. I know, I'm such an adorable farty potato fairy today but I had my moments.)

I don't know. The older I get, the more minstrelsy and anti-human the whole "culture" feels. Well, not necessarily the "culture", but rather the people perpetuating whatever ideas they have of it whether it is that they "sell" or "buy" the "product".

Here's a few joints from Tay-K that I like:

#taymor travon mcintyre #tay k #hip hop #hiphopmusic #hiphopculture #hiphop #rap #rapper #music blog #thoughts #thinking #deep thoughts #life lessons #long beach #california #arlington #texas #rip eazy e #journal #diary #digital diary #personal diary #tumblr diary #dear diary #online journal #journaling #online diary #traprapper #trap #trap music

[beyblaiddyd]

Quarry spoilers below, do not pass go if you havent finished the game

Something I find really interesting about the transformations is how they kind of... amplify modes of aggression, or the worst parts of a character's self. To a certain extent it draws on generic aggression/anger, but there are specific features to each character we see in depth's behavior.

Nick is the primo example because we sit with him the longest and he doesn't know what's happening and neither do we.

(A little aside here to say that even though it can read a little tasteless in context, I actually like how they handle the scene where he starts going south. He says the "I want to taste you" line and you're obviously meant to read it in a sexual way, but Nick means it literally. Before she pushes him away you can see him open his mouth, like he is About to bite her. It's something you don't notice on the first playthrough bc you're thinking "wtaf is wrong with him oh god I fucked up so bad".)

But it's very clear that Nick's primary mode of aggression is Insecurity. He's a very insecure person and that's how his erratic behavior starts. It starts off with light questions about how Abi feels about him, or him starting to get more bitter options like "I'm pouring my heart out here."

Then it becomes more paranoid, insistent, as he gets closer to that animal transformation he becomes more and more compelled by the narrative that people (specifically Abi because she's the only one that talks to him) hate him, and that's what drives his anger. One of his core fears/frustrations/motivators is this idea that people won't like him.

It's not really out of nowhere, we see it earlier in the game quite a bit. He falls into line whenever Dylan or Jacob do something, he wants to be chill and to be liked by them. He's insecure that he doesn't know what he wants to do with his life and he feels pushed along by nothing, and he's amazed that Abi knows her talents and knows what she wants until the infection sets in and the bitterness leaks through the cracks and he starts to tear her down instead of building her up (as we know he prefers to do when given the cognitive opportunity).

To me the werewolf transformations are like... imagine all the worst thoughts in your head. All the impulsive first thoughts, the self hate, the fear, all spilling out uninhibited because you don't know what's happening and don't know how to stop it. He clearly fights it for a while until he can't. It's very chilling in the context of his and Abi's conversation about fate and how not being in control of your actions is a "convenient excuse" because 1) even if he's not in control of himself this is still some deep primordial part of him and 2) he is going to blame himself for what he said during it forever. Fun stuff to rotate in my head.

We see more of this idea with Jacob and Max.

Starting with Jacob, he actually has really similar core drives to Nick. He is just more openly emotional. He wants to be wanted, he wants to be loved, and he throws aside his concern for others in the pursuit of it. When he transforms he says, "stupid boy, summer is over, she doesn't want you, nobody does." It's this self-hatred he's pitting inwards, but I think it's also easy to imagine what he might have said if he ran into Emma (especially because we know what awful stuff he can say if you have them meet up after Emma is freed from her curse). The self-hating statements going outwards, I did this for you but summer is over, you don't want me, you hate me, etc.

Max is an interesting one because he's a very reserved character and what moves him to anger is protecting Laura. He gets most agitated when he 1) needs to keep her safe or 2) isn't being listened to. In his transformation scene he obviously has the benefit of knowing it's coming. He knows what he is, he knows that he's dangerous, he knows that what he's feeling "isn't him." But if Laura tells him to get closer despite his protests he can't stop himself from getting up and screaming at her. (She's not listening, she's putting herself in danger).

Laura is a fun one because she's very impulsive, her aggression tends to come with playfulness, rude barbs, but also Extreme Aggression/Bloodlust. She's motivated primarily by again, protecting Max, but also by revenge to a certain extent and that comes across in her actions. In the scenes preceding her transformation she can kill two people (and fuck Constance and Jedidiah, but still interesting from a character perspective! Her specific kind of violence can come with a body count well before her transformation)

I wish we got to have more time with the other characters when infected I know the game didn't have the time to do that but it's disappointing how hasty it is. I know by design they had to do the most build and the most fucked up stuff with Nick because once it's happened once we won't be as surprised when it happens again (and that's a mechanical, meta reason it was so much more intense than the other character transformations) but I like the character detail it adds. :(

#cocoa talks too much #the quarry #just thinkijg #hopefully the readmore works i talked a lot!

[caatws]

I can't speak for the merchandising but when it comes to gotg rides Mission Breakout is set just after vol 2 so there would be no need to change anything about it because of vol 3. Not that I think they would change the ride anyway. The newer ride is Cosmic Rewind and it's supposed to be taking place during or around vol 1. Gamora is of course included. This ride came out last year and I don't know when or how it was decided but I have been wondering if the whole rewind to vol 1 theme was picked so Gamora could be included.

I have mostly loved Gunn's work when it comes to gotg. I think he's typically thoughtful and nuanced when dealing with the abuse and trauma plots. However I don't think he had the ability to deal with Thanos killing Gamora. Gamora needed way more attention and her death should have been one of the most serious issues gotg ever had. I don't know what the perfect solution would have been but part of me wishes they would have given Gamora a solo movie or show handled by someone more willing to do the work needed to give Gamora's murder closure and Gamora an arc that was about finding a way to give back to her rather than take away. The mcu wanting to deal with hard and complicated issues is great. Being unprepared to see them through to the end or research what those situations are really like, isn't so great and honestly can send out a bad message. Vol 3 treats everything Thanos did with nonchalance. Gunn also uses the time and space since Endgame mostly in a negative way for Gamora. Vol 3 has Rocket and Nebula as much better friends and the entire basis for this is Endgame. At the same time it only lightly touches on Gamora and Nebula's relationship even though Endgame showed that was the most important thing for both of them and the entire catalyst for Gamora having confidence that her arrival to the future might be okay and they could win against Thanos. He ignores that 5 years working and being friends with other people could pose an issue for Rocket and Nebula when the guardians came back from the snap. Especially Nebula who hadn't been on the team before. It's like none of that time mattered at all. Then with Gamora he treats her time after Endgame as if it's created a permanent wall where she can't connect with these characters or be part of the guardians. And now here we are with Gamora being excluded and her value as a character being questioned which is the exact opposite of what you should want for a film about abuse survivors.

you're so right on all fronts here! i think gunn is extremely talented and everything else has been generally handled well and beautifully; for me personally it mostly only starts to all unravel when i consider the gamora situation, but looking past that, i think most of the characters got pretty solid arcs/moments/etc across the 3 films, especially considering the chaotic context of trying to fit into the greater mcu.

i'm glad rocket got the attention and care he did in this film, esp knowing how much it meant to gunn, but like i mentioned yesterday, i think it would've made more sense to put this particular story between vol 2 and iw, since the effects of iw/eg are hardly even explored in the film beyond peter grieving, the ravager gamora storyline, nebula's presence, and just other random details.

and i'm not just making up reasons to sound like a hater here lol like i've LITERALLY been saying since 2021 when mcu content resumed post-covid that, in general, one of my biggest gripes with post-eg mcu is the lack of rly going into the effects of 1) the 5-year time skip, and 2) the snap itself on most of the characters/stories, and unfortunately vol 3 ended up falling into the majority of films/shows that didn't rly deal with it much.

and my issue isn't necessarily gunn not wanting to deal with all that on top of the rocket story he wanted to do, but just like...we didn't have to make it a post-eg story then lol

in my ideal world we'd get like a vol 4 that is post-eg where it's just the gotg grieving gamora and searching for the new one, or perhaps even rectifying the whole original issue by bringing original gamora back or merging her with 2014!gamora etc. but either way, i think gamora's circumstances in her life and death warranted her getting a story just as much centered around her and driven by how much the other characters love her just as much as rocket did.

but yeah like you said anon, i just don't think gunn - or markus, mcfeely, or the russos bros for that matter - were equipped to handle this kind of storyline. and that isn't a bad thing! that isn't even a criticism of their work. it's just a literal fact that not all storytellers are equipped to handle every kind of story. and i don't think it should be A Big Deal to simply say that a white male storyteller may not be the best choice to tell the story of the consequences of a woc abuse survivor getting murdered by her abuser like lol. (bc when white male storytellers did tell that story, it was to show how the abuser actually Loved her and how there are parts of thanos we can still sympathize with UWU)

this is not even a radical opinion. this is quite literally the whole point of movements like #ownvoices and giving bipoc/queer/etc creatives jobs in directing and/or writing films/shows that center their identities.

like it literally is not that deep to suggest that local middle-aged white man james gunn (who's already made it clear that rocket was His Guy from the beginning, so we already know which character he'd prefer to focus on) was maybe not The Best Choice to write a story abt a woc surviving and escaping her abuser only to end up murdered by him in the end. he had his chance to show he was equipped to tell that story and he didn't, the end, case closed. it's as simple as that, and i don't wanna hear any dissenting opinions from white ppl, honestly!

#i'm so sick of ppl in the fandom acting like ppl are 'turning' on writers/directors who've made good projects in the past #like this attitude creates 0 space for ppl to share their valid criticisms esp when it's as simple as saying hey i don't think a white male #pov was best for this maybe! like BROOO #i'm just anticipating there's gonna be this same defensive sentiment with gunn after the dickriding i saw happening for the russos lmao #like bro just bc i thought catws was good didn't mean the russos could do no wrong after that help??? #anyway this got off topic #ask #the gamora situation

[pynkhues]

why do you think when theres been the recent live action adaptations of classic media, theres always a woman of colour paired with a white man? how to train your dragon, percy jackson, little mermaid, etc etc etc all follow this trend. obviously some exceptions but it seems like woman of color + white man lead/love interest is what hollywood execs have decided en masse. im not against diverse casting im just very curious why it always seems to be that specific formula is now the norm?

Yeah, it's an interesting trend in casting, isn't it? Not a bad one, necessarily - I love seeing more diverse casts for any and all projects - but I do think there's something to be said about how Hollywood views the interchangability of women's (and especially girls') experiences that erases the complexity of intersectional identities.

I was actually thinking about it a bit recently as I was getting excited watching the sneak peek for the new season of AMC's Interview with the Vampire, because that is one of the few shows that has cast a traditionally white character with a white love interest with a man of colour. Jacob Anderson is perfect as Louis, but he's also perfect because of the amount of work the writers put into adapting the story to make his race central to Louis' character's identity, his internal and external conflicts, and his relationships with others.

It really put into stark contrast for me how infrequently women characters get that same treatment. They might be recast with WOC - Hermione in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child for instance, or like you said, Ariel in The Little Mermaid, but their race becomes incidental instead of something that should be crucial to the adaptation of the story.

Because it's not just Interview with the Vampire that did it - Jason Momoa's casting in Aquaman absolutely utilised his Polynesian heritage to inform both character and story, and while I don't think it did a very good job of it, I do think the first season of Bridgerton was conscious of Simon's race moreso than it was Queen Charlotte's and Lady Danbury's, or even Kate, Mary and Edwina's in s2 (I do think they tried to fix this in the Queen Charlotte prequel to mixed results, but I do appreciate that they at least tried not to handwave it away).

I do think genre and audience demographic plays a role in this too. I don't think that it's a coincidence that we see this uptick in diverse casting with content aimed at children or young women, and I especially don't think it's a coincidence that a lot of these stories are fantasy or at least fantastical. Both I think offer writers an excuse to minimise racial identity in favour of fantastical ones - they can argue Hermione being a 'Mudblood' or Ariel being a mermaid is much more important 'in-universe' than either character being Black, and when that doesn't work, there's always the 'escapism' argument to fall back on.

Girls and women want fluff, they want escapism, they don't want stories of racism or racial trauma, which sure! Y'know! Often a lot of women don't! But race is more than that, it's culture and context and history, and to minimise it fails the character and as trends over the last decade have shown, usually results in failing the actress playing her. If you're not putting the effort into understanding how race informs this new imagining of the character, you're probably not putting the effort into understanding the position you're about to put the actress in either. Kelly Marie Tran in Star Wars or Candice Patton in The Flash both spring to mind in that sense (and god, as someone who's watched both, they're so talented and did the best with what they got, but man, they weren't given much).

It diminishes the nuance of womanhood, but that's kind of the point too, right? Hollywood's never understood the intersectionality that sits at the heart of every woman's identity, and the different aspects of her character and her resonances that builds her up or breaks her down, which is a part of why I think women characters, especially characters who are still girls, are seen as easy ways to create avenues to diversity in Hollywood.

After all, creating entry points for diverse casting for usually one (1) actress in existing IP allows studios to tick boxes and pat themselves on the back and say they're investing in diversity without actually investing in diverse stories or making space for diverse storytellers.

(I actually have a rant forever in the back of my mouth about how they're doing this to women's stories in general. After all, all these girlboss reboots of traditionally male franchises like Ghostbusters and Oceans 8, aren't telling women's stories, they're just putting lipstick on a man's).

But yes. I guess where I'm going with this particular point is that if you were to ask me point blank if I think that Hollywood wants to diversify, I'd actually say yeah, that I think they do. The problem is that no one wants to be out of the job or lose power, screen time, or representation, and given Hollywood is foundationally white, wealthy and patriarchal, those stories are always going to be repackaged in ways that centres white masculinity as something aspirational, heroic or crucial to a story, which leaves everyone else to shift roles or focus to prop them up.

Of course, in turn this does feed into the whole trend of pairing WOC and white men specifically, which is what you're actually asking, haha. And look! I do think interracial relationships in film have come a really long way in the last decade, but also still think they have a long way to go and in particular are a long way away from being able to have a non-white love interest. This by default means that if Hermione and Ariel and Iris are Black, Ron and Prince Eric and The Flash will be white, and I don't think the reverse is as 'acceptable' to studios due to the fact that the nature of both systemic and social racism means that white men are threatened by MOC dating white women, which further informs the way these relationships end up being drawn on screen.

(On a related note, there have been a few studies into interacial relationships recently, and they all tend to find that there's enormous social stigma for white women dating outside their race, particularly compared to white men dating outside of theirs, which this study links to white supremacy and incel culture.)

I think shifting beauty standards for women does contribute too, as well as - - y'know. Capitalism. After all, the avenues for merchandising particularly with childrens content (like, gosh, I love to see all the Black Ariel merch that's come out when I'm in the toy aisles shopping for my nephews, but it's also pretty impossible to deny that Disney saw a market there that they could cash-in on), and I do think all of that together probably paints a picture that can be boiled down to Hollywood execs seeing casting of MOC in these sorts of roles as limiting audience, and casting WOC as broadening it.

All of this isn't to say that I don't support these recastings - I do, very much so, but I do wish female characters were treated with more nuance in these contexts, and I especially wish we could get more diverse original stories as well as these recastings.

#film asks #kinda #fun fact: one of the actresses i work with at my theatre company was the understudy for hermione in the cursed child #she's very lovely and very talented and it's always a delight to get to see her perform #she's v good at improv which is like 80% of what working with kids as an actress is haha #welcome to my ama

[gucciwins]

night gone wrong

visiting family is never fun... especially during the holidays

Word count: 2243

A/N: happy thursday! im not sure where this piece came from but it's something sweet. honestly I needed a break from the series as much as I love it, needed to give my brain a bit of a break. so here's this little blurb where y/n and harry try surviving thanksgiving dinner.

_____

"Right, what's our story?"

"Again, really?"

Harry frowns, "I don't want to make a fool of myself."

"There's a chicken on your chest. It's too late for that."

He glances down at his blue jumper, the chick sitting in a hatched egg. Mon petit stitched on. It makes him look bilingual, and he was when he was younger, not now.

"I think I look cute."

"Course you do, but not my family thinks I'm dating a dork with glasses."

"You've complimented them before."

"Yeah, got you in my bed, didn't it."

"All you want me for is my body."

She shoots him the first smile since their ride down, "now you're getting it."

"As your fake boyfriend, I need some context."

Y/N sighs; how did she get here. One moment she had Harry pulling down her pants, making her come in a matter of minutes with his talented tongue and blurting out she wanted to take him home as a fake date to impress her family. Harry had never once told her no, and she expected this to be the first, but he surprised her as he has every day since she met him in her second year at uni.

Harry happened to be her roommate's friend, and from the moment Harry dropped a sixteen-ounce soda on her ruining her favorite velvet blue pants, saying it was her fault they never see eye to eye. Always teasing each other, sarcastic comments thrown back and forth. It wasn't always banter. Sometimes they needed a friend, and they were the first to arrive with no questions, only comfort, and understanding.

The first time Harry came over with bruised knuckles, she didn't question him, instead led him to her bathroom and cleaned him up. Once he fell asleep in her bed, she kissed each knuckle wishing them to heal nicely and that they did. Harry helped Y/N when she forgot to print her midterm paper, bursting into her class with shouts of apology of how he had taken it from the printer and did not notice when really he ran from his dorm room to bring it to class when she emailed him the document with over ten please typed out to print it for her.

They weren't friends, and they weren't enemies. They were something in between, not lines crossed.

That all changed when Harry finally managed to get Y/N to take tequila. He taunted her, saying she couldn't handle it, and she was never one to turn down a challenge, especially not against Harry. Three shots later, Harry and Y/N are kissing in a bedroom neither one has ever been in. Mitch had given them the all-clear, and there was no stopping them. Harry and Y/N could hold their alcohol, and after both checking for confirmed consent, there was no going back.

Neither of them regretted it, of course not. They did regret hating that they were awful communications, which led them to their dilemma right now outside Y/N's childhood home.

"Darling." She narrowed her eyes at him, not a fan of the endearment. "Sorry, bub." Not the best, but she'll take it. "Why is this so important?"

"I'm a loser."

"No, you're not."

"To them, I am," she point towards the house they’ve stopped walking towards. "All my life, I've been focused on school and getting the top grades, and I did it. I'm proud of it, I'm an all-around seasoned athlete, got a full-ride scholarship, and am now in the top three percent at the university, yet that means nothing to my family when I've never had a partner."

"Hmm...your family sounds shitty." He confesses.

"Well, they are, but they are the only ones I got."

"You didn't have to come."

"Didn't I? They bother me and know where I got to school. No escaping."

Harry sighs, "don't have to go in."

Y/N sighs, knowing he means that, but she promised him a home-cooked Thanksgiving meal, something neither of them could really splurge on.

"You want to leave?"

"If you want to," he shrugs, "I'd follow you anywhere. Can go back to the apartment and order our favorite pizza, watch some movies and drink shitty wine."

"Your wine is shitty," Y/N mutters, slowly warming up to the idea of leaving. She's about to agree when she spots the front door opening, the screen door still shut.

"Mother is asking when you're coming in." Y/N's brother, Greg, shouts from the front door stopping two small children from running out.

"Too late to run, it seems," Y/N mutters, kicking at some of the snow gathering on the sidewalk.

"Well, we're in this together, right?"

"Right."

"What's our safe word?" Harry asks, reaching out for her hand, intertwining their fingers together as if he had done it every day.

"Uhh..." Y/N's trying not to focus on the warmth of his hands and how safe she feels. "Cranberry."

"You don't make a cranberry dish?"

"No, uh, Greg's allergic."

"Okay, cranberry it is."

Walking in, everyone has their smile plastered on, and she knows not a single one is directed at her.

"Darling," Y/N cringes at the word, and Harry catches it, "so good to see you. Have you put on weight?"

Y/N grimaces, pulling away, "no, still the same. Thank you for the boost of confidence."

"Who's this lovely gentleman. Surely he's too handsome to be with you."

"On the contrary, Y/N's the beautiful one. Had to convince her to date me."

"Well, I think you should have escaped when you could have," her mother comments, patting his arm.

Harry frowns, turning to look at Y/N when he sees her kneeling in front of a small child, no older than two. He goes down next to her, making the little girl's eyes shift to him.

"Who he, auntie?"

"This is my boyfriend, Harry. He's excited to meet you."

"I, Faith."

"Hi Faith, a pleasure to meet you. Your butterfly necklace is beautiful."

"Your eyes are beautiful."

Harry grins, "thank you."

"What's boyfriend?"

Y/N chuckles, running a hand through her niece's ringlets. "Someone who takes care of you, and loves you, and helps you when you need someone."

"I want."

"One day, angel."

"Y/N, stop stalling, come say hi to the others," Y/N sighs, hearing her father's loud voice coming from the kitchen.

She presses a kiss to her niece's head before telling her to run along, and she does so happily, "ready, H."

"I've got you, love."

Y/N smiles, grateful she has him.

The afternoon passes slowly, and with every minute that passes, Harry's blood boils more and more. He hates how she's treated, how she's talked over, and she lets it happen. This isn't the same person who debated with him why macaroons are the best desserts to ever exist and how ice cream can be eaten in any type of weather.

She's a shell of the person, and he wants the girl he knows back. He missed her smiles, even if they were ever few directed to him.

They are all sitting at the table, dinner close to finishing, when he feels himself close to his breaking point.

"Hey, what are you majoring in again?"

A rare smile forms on her face, "oh-"

"-don't get her started," her father interrupts before she can answer. "God knows we finally got her to shut up.

"Just know it's boring, and it's not hard to do. I mean, she's not the brightest remember." Her mother comments.

Harry sees her shrink down, frowning down at her plate, and that's when he has enough.

"No." He shouts.

"H, it's fine." Y/N looks up at him, pleading with him not to.

"Cranberry, love."

"Relax, it's all a joke." Someone comments, an uncle he didn't bother remembering.

Harry bites back a scoff, "no, it's not. You all treat her like shit, and she lets you. She's the best person I've ever met. Sure we got off on the wrong foot when we first met, but she's always been there when I needed her, unlike you. Now, we are leaving. I'd thank you for this evening, but we all know it was a shit show. Let's go, love."

Y/N stays still in her seat, shocked that he defended her. Harry looks at her expectantly. She sits there frozen, pushing the chair out as she stands up.

"If you walk out the door, don't come crawling back when he breaks your heart and leaves you alone." Y/N's mother spits out.

Harry doesn't acknowledge her mother, his eyes locked on Y/N. He stretches a handout, hoping for her to take it. Y/N takes a deep breath, looking down at her sleeping niece in her brother's arms. She's so young and full of life and love that she never received. She's in good hands.

Without a second thought, she grabs onto Harry and lets him pull her out of the house. Stopping briefly to swipe their sweaters and not stopping until they were both in the car, they parked up the street.

"You alright," he checks in.

The car is blasting one of Harry's classical songs from his relaxing playlist. It's all piano, and it brings her a comfort she has never felt before.

"Yeah." She sits back, letting the silence fill the car as he drives them back to her apartment.

Before she knows it, the hour ride goes by in the blink of an eye, and she is now outside her apartment.

"Is it alright if I walk you up?"

Y/N nods, "Harry?"

"Yeah, love."

"Could-would you like to stay?"

Y/N misses the smile that takes over his face, "Of course I will."

She nods, "good."

They walk right next to each other, taking the stairs together, knowing Y/N's shitty elevator is never working, and the rare day it is, it's filled with people. Y/N notices they walk in sync, smiling down at this silly thing that brings her more joy than her family ever did.

Harry steps back, giving you space to unlock your front door; Berenice, your roommate, is in Florida visiting her family and won't be back until Monday, meaning you have an empty apartment and for once and won't be using it as she would have earlier this morning.

Y/N watches as Harry walks in, draping his coat across the back of the kitchen chair, making his way to the living room, grabbing the TV remote, and draping his favorite pink throw blanket over his lip. He makes himself at home, and Y/N notices she doesn't mind at all.

"Love, the film's queued up. Get your bum in here."

Y/N slowly toes her boots off, slipping under the blanket he raised for her, "what did you put?"

"Your favorite," he smirks, "well, one of them. You've got different moods for some."

"Oh," she raises an eyebrow at him, "please do tell."

Harry grins, turning his body to face her. "Gladly. Okay, when you're sad and want a pick me up, it's Pride and Prejudice. When you want comfort, it's Tangled. And when you want to feel your sadness, it's Love, Rosie."

Y/N laughs, knowing he's gotten each right, "missing one."

"Wasn't done," he chastises. "The Princess Bride is your favorite because it's a love story where they give up, but as Wesley said, Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while. It's your comfort because you're searching for love like that."

Tears are threatening to slip out of her eyes, "think I found it," she confesses.

Harry's eyes widened, in surprise, never expecting her to confirm this. "Y/N, love."

"I love you, and I'm done fighting it. I did it because I thought I didn't deserve you. You're too good for me, but I want to be selfish for once."

Harry leans in closer, moving his hands up to cup her face. "You're not selfish, not a mean bone in your body. Bloody perfect you are."

She shakes her head no, "not good enough, but I'll try."

"You're perfect, and I'll spend the rest of my life reminding you."

"Harry, do you-" she trails off, not bringing herself to say the words.

"What, baby?"

"I love you." She breathes out confidently.

Harry can't help himself, it's the second time she's said it, and he needs to kiss her. His lips are on Y/N's in seconds, she responds eagerly, pouring all her love for him into it. This is who she needs, no one else.

"I love you," Harry whispers against her lips.

"Again, please."

"I love you, Y/N."

Y/N kisses him again, not wanting to stop. Not when he feels the same, and they've spent so long beating around the bush, never expressing their feelings.

"Gosh, I could kiss you forever," she confesses.

"You have permission to do so."

"Do I?

"Yes, of course."

Y/N smirks, "well, let's start now."

With The Princess Bride playing in the background, Harry and Y/N get lost in each other, allowing themselves to breathe each other in. Their love is yet to be explored, but rest assured, it will only grow as both will learn to cherish and nurture their love the best they can with trust, honesty, and most importantly, all the love in their heart.

_____

thank you for reading <3 I adore you

make sure to reblog :)

#harry styles #harry styles writing #harry styles angst #harry styles fluff #harry styles x reader #harry styles x you #harry styles one shot #harry styles blurb #harry styles stories #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles au #harry styles uni #harry styles x y/n #thanksgiving #my writing

[radiodread]

ritsuka.... singing hetakuso..... M A N. like with almost every given song that would have a COMPLETELY different sound with rituska/uchida singing it, and hetakuso especially would have a much angrier vibe to it, and I would love LOVE to hear that.

in a similar vein, the monologue during the bridge of fuyu no hanashi.... from ritsuka..... o u c h. the "I miss you" line would be 200% MORE PAINED HH

haruki + "being in love feels like having your skin ripped off" idk why but all of akihiko's angst regarding ugetsu seems like it would be even more heart wrenching coming from haruki? even though it'd be a lot less guttural, from haruki it might just sound... sad? wistful? kind of like his internal monologue regarding akihiko in canon. and despite that being less intense than the way akihiko puts it, that might make it all the more of a gut punch.

I had... something of a strange idea. that basically came from me wanting to give yayoi more of a spotlight in this au because I REALLY want to explore her relationship with ritsuka. but anyway the idea is that (originally) hiiragi's monologue... comes from her instead. "I knew everything. they started dating officially in middle school. I knew. I didn't say anything." it wouldn't really work? because she wouldn't have all the context shizu/hiiragi have since obviously she wouldn't go to school with them, wouldn't have seen them fight at all. there is no logical reason for this concept other than the fact that I want More Yayoi Things.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE pls give me ugetsu trying to mentor ritsuka because he thinks he could get big, and ritsuka having absolutely none of it in the beginning, until he sees how talented ugetsu is and how good of an eye he has and starts respecting him. but his initial reaction is "fuck you"

please god give me mafuyu remembering he kissed ritsuka the morning after the live. and just. head in his hands.

Ohhhh it would be wonderful. And god. Yes. The "I miss you" bit while he performs "Fuyu no Hanashi" would break me. Would break anyone watching that performance and hearing him. And YES all of the angsty Akihiko stuff would be 200x more heart-wrenching coming from Haruki instead. I dunno why but the line about "feels like having your skin ripped apart" feels very much somehow like something Haruki would say regardless of what universe he's in? Exactly like you said, probably because it would be very reminiscent of canon Haruki's monologue about Akihiko. I agree that it'd sound more wistful and melancholic than Akihiko's which is just angry and, well, angsty in a different way?

Oh gooooodddddd Yayoi having Hiiragi's monologue?! You're good at breaking my heart, I'll tell you that. It makes so much SENSE for this AU, wow. 😭 Especially with how, like we discussed in an earlier ask, she runs into Ritsuka's arms after the "Fuyu no Hanashi" performance and apologises for not being there for him. Sure, there are absolutely parts about it that wouldn't work, but I still feel like she'd know enough about Yuki and Ritsuka, and see enough just by watching her brother, that parts of it would make sense, like her saying "I knew but I still didn't do anything". She would obviously know that there was a rift starting to grow between Ritsuka and Yuki because Yuki spent most of his time in the studio or at his part-time job, because Ritsuka would absolutely sulk about it when left at home and left out of all of that. She wouldn't have seen the fight that was the last time that anyone would see Ritsuka and Yuki together, but I still feel like Yayoi would have enough pieces to the puzzle to see most of that full picture. Oh, my heart.

HAHA I love the idea of Ugetsu offering to mentor Ritsuka, who takes it as an insult and indeed goes "oh hell no fuck you" but he WOULD warm up to the idea after he's seen just how talented Ugetsu is at what he does, the vast knowledge he has about music in general, and such. AND, of course, Mafuyu thinking back to the kiss (he would absolutely remember it without having to backtrack like canon Ritsuka) and thinking to himself "oh god I went with the moment and I kissed him, oh god why would I do that". Head in hands. Adorable. Yes.

#answered #half of twelve is six #given character swap AU

[caffernnn]

Yeah hi again! More tsoa au snippets anyone?

Now that i think about it, albert could be apollo in tsoa, so imagine him taking a look at makoto climbing the walls of troy, disdainfully raises his nose, spits "puny little mortal" and flicks him off the wall with godly telekinetic powers to be killed by our hector, which is hiyori; i mean albert is already symbolized as a god in canon.

Kinjou could be the dickwad pyrrhus since people refer to pyrrhus as achilles without his patroclus, and kinjou is hinted to have given up personal relationships in order to be a stronger swimmer, and fans theorize him to be creating a rift between haru and mako, so yea...there's that. He could be our proud, arrogant, homophobic lil shit pyrrhus who thinks everybody should be like him- friendless and glory-hungry.

AJHSAKDJSK I WANT TO SEE THE CONFRONTATION BETWEEN BRISEIS AND PATROCLUS AS KISUMI AND HARU!!! Imagine haru being mad at kisumi for daring to touch makoto even after his death, when all kisumi wanted to do was clean him since he doesn't deserve to lie in filth, and haru goes apeshit that nobody should touch his makoto and kisumi goes "you're not the only one who ever loved him!!". Kisumi goes on to rant that haru only cares about chasing his honor and that makoto only died to save his reputation, which i got from a prompt under the #kisumako tag where kisumi confronts haru about how makoto chose him instead of kisumi even though he only takes makoto for granted, then jabs haru with "i wish hiyori kills you tomorrow" and haru goes "do you not think i wish the same?" Omg I'm just quoting from the book at this point I'm so sorry 🤭🤭😅😅✌✌✌

I have an idea on how to include the fireworks scen to the scene where patroclus convinces achilles to fight and save the greeks where haru goes "not you too! Do you not see how they don't care for me?!?!" Or like how they are only nice when they need him smth like that and makoto drops the bomb "then let me fight in your stead" and haru goes on an an Achilles-like tantrum "ask me of anything, but not this!!!" Anw that's not the whole dialogue but haru relents in the end.

Imahine hharu arriving in the underworld expecting to find makoto waiting for him only to be unable to find him even after an eternity of searching, so finally breaks, like the fireworks aftermath where he looked like he just got dumped by his bf, and ge curls into himself, realizing he may have lost makoto forever (again)

I just can't stop thinking how the gay panic nao gave makoto is very similar to odysseus' "sharing beds is gay" comment, so imagine makoto, who followed haru everywhere and shared everything with him, suddenly distancing himself and sleeping outside their tent because he feels that he cannot let the entire army they are gay, especially haru, the best of the greeks, so haru confronts him "what's wrong?" And then they resolve by saying "let them think what they want" or "i will not let them hinder us" or "we don't have to change" smth like that and proceeds to do their nightly cuddle, kinda like the dolphin courtship ritual they performed at the pool.

Aaahhh i just want to expand on phoinix's (that would be mikhail???) story about the king who supposedly was forced to choose between his pride or people he rules, and he chose his pride, even with the king's wife (best friend, in this context??? The king in the story would be ryuuji) and did not help his people win the war so his people turned against him. The wife's name sounds like patroclus, and so phoinix was hinting that only makoto could talk haru into fighting. Makoto had to fight, which results to angst, since haru chose his pride, much like the king (pls let this not be what happens in the movie kyoani we beg you)

So that's it. I'll send more when the ideas come. I swear i will try to turn this into a fic if i ever get out of my slump. IF 😫😫😫

Patrochilles AU fans, come get y’all’s juice 💕

It’s always so interesting to see people explore Haru’s relationship with his own pride because it’s definitely multidimensional. There are so many characters who fall victim to their own hubris or struggle with it more externally (the people who appear as antagonists or rivals to Haru both in canon and in different AUs), but it feels more complicated with Haru, at least to me. His pride doesn’t manifest through Haru boasting about his talents or trying to control/lead people, especially early on in his story - the moment(s) his self-esteem shifts into a double-edged pride is when his belief in his current successes and happiness stops him and the people around him from growing and changing. That’s his downfall. My thoughts from my own Free! x Hadestown AU are sporadic at best, but this verse always makes me think about Haru, especially his descent into hopelessness during ES:

Haru falls apart when he clings to his vision of comfort and happiness and forgets the ever-changing life involved in that scene. He holds onto the life he has with Makoto, the life he has with his friends, the life he has swimming however or whenever he wants to… and he blinds himself from the reality that everything evolves and continues to change. His pride comes out in his desperate delusion that he can stop the hands of time through willpower and refusing to watch time go by. He’s definitely not the only one going through this sort of internal battle (I’d argue many of the “antagonist” characters go through similar struggles) but it’s the one we arguably get the most insight on.

ALSO: I love Haru dearly but I also love seeing characters pull himself out of his own head for a bit. That Kisumi interaction to remind Haru that Makoto was loved by a lot of people? Knowing Makoto often holds himself back when it comes to Haru because he’s almost too aware of Haru being watched by the world around them?? There’s so much there to explore I just !!!!

I’m rambling, but thanks for sharing as always!

#tsoa spoilers #free! au #long post #makoharu #kisumako #head full many thoughts #ready to watch Haru fight with his pride again in the movies #thanks for sending! #anonymous

[hongism]

hello! first of all - you're talented and amazing and I hope you're having a great day! secondly - I just saw your post about universe?? were people really bullying wooyoung?? was that on universe?? I can't believe that! that's so upsetting:(

hi! thank you you’re so sweet!

about the universe post, frankly we will never know exactly what people said to wooyoung, he didn’t specify what messages he has been receiving, but i keep up to date with all his messages and read them, and something i’ve noticed since the very beginning of the whole universe thing is that wooyoung has often said things like ‘you guys don’t like when i talk about my friends’/ ‘you keep complaining about my working out/dieting’ / ‘you tell me not to talk about things i’m interested in’. he has warned the people messaging him through universe many times imo, those kinds of messages are warning for the people who are sending less than kind things, but it seems as though it didn’t stop based on his messages yesterday where he finally said ‘i hesitate to come to message’ and ‘please be kinder with your words’. so while we can’t know for certain what people have been saying to him, i think the context clues are there given what he’s said in the past, but it’s very upsetting for sure, it’s also quite shocking that people who literally pay money to send messages to wooyoung would treat him that way so i hope that moving forward, people learn to be gentler and kinder and more respectful with idols in general but especially wooyoung rn

#anon #asks

[darkspellmaster]

holy shit, who the fuck are you even??? your fantastic beasts posts are so pretentious and annoying, you just keep assuming a bunch of shit out of things you're taking out of context and you talk as if its confirmed canon, when it's obviously NOT, like, do you have the fucking script right there on your hands??? no??? then shut the fuck up and stop clogging the tags with your stupidity.

Dear Sir, or Madam, Thank you for taking the time to write me such an informative and interesting response to my commentary on recent events regarding the Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. As you clearly have some questions that you want answered allow me to answer them for you. 

To the first inquirer, you ask who am I? (Although the correct terminology is either “Who even are you, or who do you think you are” ) For the record I am a  college teacher that teaches game design and development, specializing in the writing aspect for games (since they tend to need work on telling stories) who holds a Bachelor degree in Fiction writing and is right now working on a masters computer science degree. My focus in college was understanding how fictional stories are created and how they work, in both written and visual mediums. Does that answer your question there? Oh and I was originally going in for animation and journalism, so I have a background there as well. Also I have a strong understanding in article writing and how opinion pieces vs. fact pieces are written. Moving right along then. You mean my opinions on the matters in regard to the reaction over the whole issue with David Yates comments? Or are you talking about the fact that I laid out all the facts and links to articles with quotes, and went into explanation as to why Yates would have put the terms that way and theorizing what they are planning. You see, I was taking what was written in the books previously in Harry Potter in regard to both Dumbledore, Grindelwald, Ariana and Aberforth. The facts are in the book as stated: 

1. Dumbledore and Grindelwald were friends during the time that his sister was dealing with her issues. 

2. Aberforth noted in the book that Ariana was traumatized by muggle boys causing her to repress her magic and become ill.

 3. We know from Credence that repressing your magic early can cause you to become a Obscurial. Due to this one can then hypothesis that Ariana was a Obscurial as well. 

4. We know, thanks to the books and Dumbledore talking to Harry that Grindelwald was using him. 

5. We know that Graves/Grindelwald was using Credence’s abilities as per the first Fantastic beasts. We can then, assume with little to no guessing that Grindelwald saw a way to Ariana through her brother and used him to get at her and this probably lead to her untimely death.

 6. We know how Grindelwald operates due in part to his acts as Graves and from what Dumbleore said in the books as well, as well as the memories and Aberforth’s comments.

 7. Rowling seems to write her bad guys in similar fashion, not exactly the same, but very much alike.

 8. Tom Riddle is a prototype to the new version of Grindelwald in this movie (since we’ve seen how he uses his words to emotionally manipulate people) and more than likely she’s using a lot of Tom’s charm on Grindelwald (as per the comments of him -Grindelwald being very charming in the books). 

Taking these facts into consideration it’s not too hard to assume, at all, that Grindelwald is going to use that manipulation to get under various peoples skins and cause fractions between the cast of characters. Just as Voldemort got under Harry’s skin regarding Dumbledore, so too, it would make sense, that Grindelwald will do the same to Newt. Making him question his mentor and forcing him to grow as a person. 

Also, for fact, as I stated in my posts, if you look at the time period of the fight between Grindelwald and Dumbledore (not till 1945) it would make more sense for her as a writer to do a build up over the next 2 (FB3 and FB4) or 3 (FB3, FB4, and FB5) movies with Dumbledore and Grindelwald, than to front load the movie here with them and have a weaker meeting in the last where (let’s be honest here with 5 movies you know the last will be at the end of WWII in regard to this since it’s been set up in Harry Potter) they have their fight. 

Keep in mind that that final battle was where Dumbledore procured the wand of the hallows. We know that, from the books, Dumbledore owned at least two of the hallows and not the third, though it was in his possession after James Potter’s death and he returned it to Harry and had never used it. We can, assume then, that Newt’s journey has ties to the hallows, given the title has all three items in there, and we know Albus at this point doesn’t have the wand but Grindelwald does. I was off about the mirror and for that I apologize to my readers. However I don’t think I’m wrong on the idea that Grindelwald is going to France after one of the hallows (either the stone or possibly one of the Potters that owns the cloak or possibly one of the Gaunts, since they have the stone with them -although given the time frame for Morfin’s imprisonment I don’t see it being the stone so possibly the cloak) it would fit his MO so far, seeing that he wants to unite all three for world dominance. We can assume a lot of things based on what we’ve seen before in her writing. Writers tend to, and I know I’m guilty of this as well, have a pattern for their stories, especially when it pertains to situations like Harry Potter or the Fantastic Beast Series. The similarities are hard to dismiss. Slightly nerdy and unusual hero makes friends with a smart and talented girl and a slightly goofy guy. Trio is harassed by a charming yet ultimately dangerous big bad that wants to use some powerful mcguffin (object or person), to take over the world. Said trio needs to find a way to stop said person and uses help from mentor ally. Said ally has a dark past with the villain that is only revealed with time and for dramatic purposes. Main hero suffers powerful loss that propels them into action to defeat said bad, no longer for the sake of the mentor, but for their own sake. Wash, Rinse, repeat. Now which story am I describing Harry or Newts? This is why I honestly think the things I’m saying in the posts are true. There’s enough there if you read a lot of books and understand the patterns of a story, particularly the hero’s journey, to get why things are set up the way they are and why Yates and Rowling are being the way they are. It’s all down to how well you can critically read a book or watch a movie. If you know the hints, the signs, everything is laid out for you there in the trailer and the previous movie. Newt’s feelings for Leta, Leta clearly being a Lestrange and more then likely working for Grindelwald given how her father is a dark wizard that has ties to him. Hell her cousin is tied to Voldemort. Rolf being the hero that Newt wishes that he was in some ways. Leta being Newt’s lost love, etc. Anyone can see where this story is going if they look hard enough at what’s presented. Clearly there are parallels between the relationship of Dumbledore and Grindelwald and Newt and Leta. There’s enough hints there to show that she’s not a good person and probably hurt him emotionally and it’s not a far jump to assume that a Lestrange may fall for someone that’s charming and evil like Grindelwald, who could use that lust for power to do some bad things. It’s all there in the tropes! I really don’t need to have a copy of the script that’s coming out in my hands to understand what’s going on because we kind of read pretty much a lot of it via other books and her own novels and the way Jo tends to set things up. 

If however you are talking about my notes early on about the situation on the romantic aspect of Dumbledore and why he hides himself. Again, I am basing this on history, and, as we’ve seen in the books, the Wizarding world is just as predjudice as the Muggle world is. There’s enough evidence in Harry’s books to indicate that a lot of the laws that govern modern wizarding society probably have ties (namely in Britian) to the laws that were governed by the Queens and Kings of England. We’ve already seen the ties via the fact that Merlin is a real person so that would mean that, in all likelihood, so too is King Arthur. We also know that there are probably half bloods working for the ministry to tie in modern day british laws to the wizarding world, so It’s not that far fetched to assume that the wizarding minsitry has a similar law set up that I mentioned in my first post. If you are objecting to the fact that I used that fact, well I’m sorry, but it does fit within the aspect of the world that she is building as we’ve seen that most of the Ministry figures have duplicates in the Muggle world, down to the detectives and cops in the form of Aurors of different ranks. We’ve also seen that the MACUSA also has a similar set up to the pre-1940s version of the US Feds, and we have speakeasies and mobsters, meaning that the Wizarding world there is also in prohibition. And, if that’s the case, then there is no reason to not at all assume that the Law that I mentioned was still in effect in Great Britain where Dumbledore is living. If you object to that, well then sir or madam, I’m not sure what else to tell you other then I did my research before I wrote my counter pieceI highly doubt that she didn’t, at the very least, know about this law and other laws like it since, you know, Jo grew up when a lot of the laws were being looked at by the LGBTQ+ activist of the time so that they could . Also, it wouldn’t be to hard to look up that sort of info, since she clearly looked up about prohibition to include the fact that at the dining table they were drinking anything but liqueur, as that was not available at the time period of the film. Again, it all comes down to the facts that we have been presented, the opinions we have based on our own views, as well as the information we can gather from both her former works and works of others regarding how a story works in the visual medium.

As I said before, it’s their opinion that’s fine, but a lot of people are overlooking a lot of facts from the books to build this case against them, when non of us have the script at all. But as I said, critically watch the film and then the trailer and focus on the idea of the Hero’s journey and the 13 aspects of it, then think about what we know about Dumbledore, Grindelwald, Newt and compare them to Harry and Tom and you’ll see a lot of similarities to the original story. Not quiet the same but it’s still all there. 

As for being silent, I don’t think so. I had my say on the matter, and, when the film comes out, and I turn out to be right on all my points, I’ll be pleased. If I’m wrong and all my theories turn out to be false, ah well. Regardless I still hold that the fact that both Yates and Rowling seem to be hinting at a longer story being told with Dumbledore and Grindelwald and the given history in the Harry Potter books, and the fact that Newt is the lead and it’s his journey, that we’re not going to see a lot of the relationship deeply until film number 3 or 4 with the climax of all that being in film 5 in 1945, and that’s my honest opinion on it. 

#asking questions #anonymous #fantastic beasts 2 #I answered this and frankly I'm kind of relieved to see this come out at me #at least I know people have been reading it #I hope others do try to understand where the hell i'm coming from #and I think it's fine to have your own opinions on this matter #if you don't like what they said that's fine #I'm just personally tired of seeing people lambaste others over a choice of word #especially when it's a writer who's trying to tell what would technically be a multibook epic #not to mention them trying to keep secrets about things down so as not to wreck the story for those that didn't read the books #because you know there are some people that just don't like to read #but liked the harry potter movies

[theonewhospeakuphismind]

SIX FEET OF A COUNTRY

By Nadine Gordimer

SUMMARY:

Set outside of Johannesburg, husband and wife Baas and Lerice, both of African American descent, regards themselves as pseudo-farmers because of the luxury-travel agency the husband profits out from and bought the farm ten miles away from Johannesburg which indirectly serves as a retirement distraction for Lerice who’s a former actress. One unexpected and tragic night, a farm boy named Albert informed Baas that something terrible happened in the barracks where all of the black young servants sleep. Upon arriving to the barracks, Bass learned that the mysterious boy that he never saw has died from a combination of heatstroke and pneumonia. It came upon his learning that the stranger who died was the brother of one of Baas’ trusted employees, Petrus. He then told his employer that his brother illegally traveled from the very poor area of Rhodesia in the quest to look for a job. For further context, Rhodesian natives aren’t allowed to enter the Union unless they present a permit to the authorities. After the strangers’ death, Lerice and Baas explained to Petrus that the health authorities had to take away the body to undergo post-mortem. When Baas called the health authorities, they confirmed that the stranger died of pneumonia. Petrus then asked Baas about when could they fetch the body to bury. Baas replied that Petrus cannot fetch his brother for he was already buried in which Petrus didn’t take that as an answer and insisted Baas to ask the medical officials once again where is the corpse of his brother. Baas emphasized at first that the officials won’t listen to him but he ends up listening to him and Lerice suggested while they’re having dinner that night that he could at least call the hospital. That way, he would at least tell Petrus that he tried and that the hospital explained that it is impossible for him to bury the corpse. Baas then told Petrus that they must pay 20 pounds for a decent funeral. Came the funeral and relatives of Petrus found out that the person inside the coffin characterizes a person who is a light-skinned heavily-built native with scars that are nearly stitched on his forehead leading to the conclusion that it’s not the brother. In the end, Baas was put in an awkward situation because of his white privilege, and the body was never recovered.

ANALYSIS:

From what I can infer from the said story and summary, this shows what people-of-color especially of African descent experience while the whites who possess Euro-centric features have no worries in finding jobs and living without worrying about their life. This system is called Apartheid. According to History.com, apartheid means "apartness" in Afrikaans. This system was implemented to segregate white citizens from non-white citizens of South Africa. This started after the National Party gained power in the country that is dominated by the whites that ruled their government. Under apartheid, the two groups would have limited contact, implementing that the property of the whites should only be reserved for them and vice-versa.

The effect of apartheid is racial divides that are the root of racism. It brainwashed us to conform to Eurocentric ideals and push away any trace of any identity that reminds them of the blacks. I remember in the 2000s, skin whitening and bleaching were prevalent in the advertisement industry. Entertainment industries treated blacks as a source of ridicule if given the spotlight and they will rarely give you the spotlight unless you're really talented. Even if there are steps being done to call out racist remarks, it still exists because of the system being passed on from generation to generation. The real world sucks even more because of how they treated the black community. Society perceives blacks in a homogenized manner. They think that if you're black, you're uncivilized, rowdy, and uneducated. Racist people think that all blacks look the same and that they're disposable. How media perceives the black community definitely enables a racist point of view to other races who would meet a black person.

Even if the efforts in eradicating a racist mindset are significant since the 2010s, racism still exists and we cannot afford to be silent about this matter for it shows that we are still tolerating this system. What really awaken society about the racism experienced by the blacks is what happened to George Floyd on May 25 of last year. He was killed by police officer Derek Chauvin. Floyd was arrested after being allegedly accused of using a fake 20 dollar bill at a Cup Foods branch. The disturbing smartphone video consisted of Chauvin adding pressure to Floyd's nape using his knee with Floyd's iconic last words "I can't breathe" before he went unconscious leading to his death. This caused the Black Lives Matter movement to make major headlines all over news outlets worldwide. This goes to show that racism still exists and that the black community can't leave their house without being worried in which they have no choice but to defend themselves every single day.

In conclusion, the plot for this story speaks of issues that are relevant up to this day and that our black brothers and sisters are still in the fight to eradicate racism caused by apartheid. Inequality still exists in terms of job opportunities, education, and acceptance by our society. Black lives definitely matter.

REFERENCES:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PAzB9YBJbVU5qGzUeGecvto-aJv9NjWl/view

https://www.history.com/topics/africa/apartheid

https://www.arcgis.com/apps/Cascade/index.html?appid=217e9c317fbe4345b17ae785b5c45d1e

https://www.fastcompany.com/90512750/we-need-to-talk-about-how-media-and-creatives-portray-black-people

https://abcnews.go.com/US/timeline-impact-george-floyds-death-minneapolis/story?id=70999322