Tumgik
#every single ‘controversy’ brands them
verysium · 5 months
Text
ACT 1, SCENE 4: blue lock headcanons
Tumblr media
shidou would view traditionally ugly creatures as strangely cute. it's not a disgusting cockroach, it's a silly little bug with eyelashes as long as his. no, he's not going to let go of that scraggly one-eyed cat that likely has rabies. it looks too sweet to be abandoned on the streets. his dream childhood pet was definitely a piranha.
aiku wears band t-shirts without knowing the actual music group. no, he does not listen to sex and the pistols, he just thought the design looked very cool. would also wear lana del rey merchandise just to impress the ladies. the only song he realistically knows is west coast, and even then he's only heard it at a random sushi restaurant.
reo would have stereotypical rich people problems. he can't decide if he should bring his chauffeur and valet or actually drive the car himself for your upcoming date. also spends at least one hour seriously pondering over which gucci silk pattern tie looks better on him. trick question, they're both the exact same shade.
shidou steals your covergirl perfect point eyeliner because he thinks it looks way better on him. also a big fan of body glitter and super vulgar eyeshadow palette names. his favorite hue so far is that one hot pink fuchsia that literally burns your eyes with its brightness. nothing is too neon with this man.
ness is the epitome of the sunshine-turned-unhinged-maniacal-killer trope. he would be the bestest boy, but if someone even lays a single hand on you, he’s already plotting their murder. eerily good at hiding bodies but would never divulge his secrets in fear of scaring you off.
shidou would walk unashamedly to the women’s clothing section of the general department store. would never be embarrassed by the bra sizes. you have a double D? he’s already trying three of the cup sizes on just to see if he can get you a comfortable one. if you’re part of the itty bitty titty committee, he wouldn’t judge either. this man loves femininity in all its full glory.
aryu exclusively uses dior beauty. he would rather die than use a generic drugstore makeup brand. sometimes you wonder if he's secretly a dermatologist because this man knows the exact shade, tint, and quality of product for every possible skin tone and type. also very passionate about the controversies behind animal testing and parabens. would be exceedingly picky when it comes to anything he smears on his face (think jeffree star but without the problematic issues.)
sae has his phone screen set to default wallpaper. he only has the translator app downloaded, and that's about it. his personal trainer takes care of all the rest of his stats. after he started dating you though, he kept pictures of you in his private photo albums.
noa cannot tell a white lie to save his life. if he doesn't know something, he will not know something. he doesn't see the point in hiding that. sometimes has trouble reading the room, so you need to remind him that brutal honesty and pure rationality aren't always the way to go. he does become more conscientious after that.
bachira used to draw crayon portraits of all the imaginary monsters he saw at night. scared the shit out of his parents because they thought he was hallucinating (he actually was.) nowadays, he's a lot tamer because you force him to take his meds.
isagi is, in fact, the number one mind reader and manipulator throughout the entire series. this man is clairvoyant, psychic, and telepathic all packaged into one. sometimes his right ear twitches, and he just knows someone is talking about him behind his back. unfortunately, all of this occurs in his head, so no one on the outside world actually knows about his sixth sense.
rin was absolutely bombarded with valentine's chocolates last year, but when he sorted through the entire pile and realized you hadn't given him one, he returned them all to their respective senders. will refuse any form of sweets unless it came directly from you. you need to be there physically to hand him the box.
kaiser writes, thinks, and speaks entirely in german even if no one else can understand him. he secretly can speak english but chooses not to because he absolutely hates anglicization. refuses to compromise his own language and culture just to fit in with the rest of the world. it's degrading. if he had it his way, german would be the new lingua franca. definitely thinks translation is for dummies. what do you mean you're not already bilingual? you better run, not walk, to that little green owl app. does use his foreign accent to make you feel flustered though. has a voice kink but in a non-traditional sort of way. you have to be the one turned on by his voice. only then will he start feeling it.
yukimiya loves it when you lose your shit. one time a jerk cut you off in traffic, and you started aggressively cursing. he fell in love with you right there on the spot. it was something about the fire in your eyes and the way you refused to take any attitude from the other party. that self-assertiveness you exhibit is so empowering.
aiku takes you out to karaoke bars just to hear you sing. you look so pretty under the purple disco lights, belting your little heart out to the rock lyrics. sometimes he has to take a minute to just appreciate how lucky he is to have you.
nagi didn't know that you have to actively check and update your email inbox. he had no clue school even started until one day the principal called his parents over his thirteen student absences. he thinks it's a headache to even get out of bed and put his fingers on his laptop keyboard. since when was the distance between his arrow cursor and the search bar that wide? it looks too long for him to reach. maybe he should just do this tomorrow.
reo does not know what saving money is. the first time you asked him for a promo code, he looked at you as if you had just spouted a strange language. when you showed him your little wallet full of cut-out coupons, he literally had to hold them up to the light and closely inspect them. it was definitely a moment of enlightenment.
sae likes anklets, especially the super thin gold chain ones. something about the way it brushes against his bare leg when you sleep beside him drives him out of his mind. he's also a sucker for subtle jewelry as evidenced by his necklace and wrist bands.
otoya practically lives for instant gratification. he would be guilty of love bombing. loses interest quickly, but sometimes wishes he could actually commit for once. football is important to him because it is one of the only activities he has consistently practiced for over a decade.
karasu is down bad for anyone who can actually outsmart him. you got a higher mark than him on the recent exam? damn, his heart just beat a little faster. spaces out in a love-filled haze whenever you ramble on about your nerdy little subject interests. he is a sapiophile through and through. intelligence just does it for him.
loki is the type of person who absolutely demolishes your self-esteem, and yet you still cannot bring yourself to hate him. when people say god has his favorites, they mean this man right here. he would be an innately talented genius while simultaneously being the most humble human being in existence. at this point, it's not his problem. it's a you problem. try harder next time.
chris is very similar to a neurosurgery resident. he has the largest self-entitled ego in existence. not a single day goes by when he doesn't remind you that he is, in fact, one of the highest ranking football players in the world. you can't say anything about it though because he has rightfully earned his arrogance. i mean, what are you going to use against him? his grueling hours of blood, sweat, and tears? this man works harder than the devil himself. in fact, he is the devil.
rin is the type to get emotionally attached to the most ordinary objects ever. he collects batteries and keeps a separate drawer as a graveyard for them once they die. the triple A ones get a special funeral since they're so hard to find. he just can't bring himself to let go of objects that no longer serve a purpose (just like his relationship with sae, sorry not sorry.)
hiori cannot go to bed unless it is absolutely dark. the curtains have to be closed. the door has to be locked. everything has to be drowned in pitch black. the reason he does this is because he still has flashbacks from that tiny strip of light underneath his bedroom door. his parents would argue all night when they thought he had gone to sleep. it still haunts him to this very day.
nagi wishes he could be a cat. sleeping all day and sunbathing on the rooftop seem like great ways to spend his life. unfortunately for him, he is not a cat. when he dies though, he wants to be reincarnated as one. either that, or a rock.
rin snores like a whole power drill at night. sae secretly hates his brother for that but can’t bring himself to wake him. whenever the itoshi family goes on vacation, ear plugs are not an option but a necessity.
chigiri knows ventriloquism. he used to play with his sister's dolls and make up character voices for each of them. definitely uses it as a party trick or as a way to make you laugh when you've had a bad day.
sae always keeps his feelings to himself. sometimes he finds it easier to rant to you than others, but then he almost always ends up retracting back into himself after realizing just how much he's revealed. he hates being emotionally slutty.
ness is the big scary dog in his relationship with kaiser, not the other way around. everyone thinks kaiser is the intimidating one, but ness wears a leash for a reason. one of them is the chihuahua, and the other one is a rottweiler. you can already guess who is who.
reo was having a mental breakdown in his limousine one time, but he ran out of his usual luxury aloe vera lotion tissues. instead of buying more, he took out his cheque-book and ripped out the pages to dry his tears. money is just paper to him. it can be recycled (no, it can't.)
loki is the type to show you a sweet and heartwarming smile before pulling out the most atrocious uno card combination in existence. i'm talking reverse, wild card, skip, draw 2. you sat there for twenty-five minutes trying desperately to draw a green. by the time you were done, he only had one card left. (screw you, loki.)
niko draws his own manga whenever he doesn't like how the official plot ends. if the canon ever diverges from the way he imagined it in his own head, he will draft his own fan fiction instead. one time, he rewrote an entire shonen jump series just to bring his favorite character back to life (*cough cough* said character wears a blindfold.)
karasu is definitely the "um, actually..." type of student. he will always have a rebuttal on hand. the truth is never black-and-white with this man, and he will argue both sides if it furthers his own agenda. he reads the encyclopedia front and back every night just so he can pull out a random arbitrary fact to win an argument some time in the near future.
shidou had a bad habit of chewing pens as a child until one day it finally exploded in his mouth. from then on, he vowed only to chew glittery gel pens. that way when it exploded in his mouth, his tongue would be stained a bright, shimmery purple. if you ever got him a scented gel pen pack, his life would finally be complete.
rin cannot differentiate between colors. if you asked him to find the difference between bubblegum pink and cotton candy pink, he would not know. to him, seven colors is already a lot to memorize. when he was a child, he only drew pictures with a single color because it was less of a hassle that way.
otoya used to think lime green was the most aesthetically pleasing color in existence. almost considered dying his hair that shade until karasu told him that girls don't actually like guys who look like neon highlighters. still wishes he did it though. he wants to glow in the dark.
Tumblr media
© verysium 2023 / please do not translate, repost, or plagiarize any of my works
620 notes · View notes
Text
and they say, "she's so lucky."
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Everybody knows Brittany Jackson. She's been famous practically her entire life, gifted with the voice of an angel. Nobody knows Matty Healy, the small-town boy whose penchant for music never took him anywhere, despite his semi-famous parents.
An At Their Very Best role reversal.
Part of the "I Love You In Every Universe" series.
COMING SOON.
"Healy!" 
He sucks in the last of his cigarette, nodding at the lone PA that's holding the door open and waiting for him to come back inside. Throwing the stick on the ground and crushing it with the toe of his boot, he exhales through his nose and heads inside the stadium again. Their steps echo through the maze of concrete hallways, his lanyard jingling around his neck as he moves towards the stage, nodding at the various crew members he passes. Grabbing his guitar from the stand, he moves over to the rest of the band, swinging the strap over his head quickly and bracing himself for the rest of the day. 
She was the reason for his being in America for the last month, thrown into the deep end of one of the largest, most ambitious tours of the last decade. He participated in brutal rehearsals that extended into all hours of the night, worked early mornings with the sound techs, trying to perfect the show as best as he knows how, all for one girl who rarely graced them with her presence. She was the all-American (Australian) dream. The one, the only... 
Brittany fucking Jackson. 
She’d been a household name since she was old enough to be put in front of a camera—a child star turned bona fide pop star. She was gifted with the voice of an angel and the Midas touch, everything turning to gold once her name was attached to it. A former Disney darling, she’d grown up in the spotlight before moving onto rom-com films and major blockbusters, captivating audiences with cameos in the Marvel Universe and blowing critics away with her versatility. She’d made guest appearances on award-winning shows all while touring constantly, with a new album released every two years like clockwork. 
The shine seems to be fading as time goes on. Her last record hadn’t performed well; the lead single barely cracked the top 40, and the album fared even worse, not charting at all. When the reviews poured in, there were shared musings on the lack of originality, the departure of something deeper within the Brittany Jackson brand that signified she was growing alongside the audience that had followed her since she was a child. Then there was the string of controversies that seemed to trail behind her... 
When her name was ushered, they didn’t talk about the voice that was so powerful it rendered you speechless anymore; they spoke about the photographs of her in seedy Los Angeles back rooms, wiping at her nose, or the videos of her shoving paparazzi in violent outbursts, smashing cameras on the ground like some kind of arrogant rock star. She was a complete cliché, the child star who went off the rails because their fifteen minutes of fame were fading, the money running dry, and the sharks were beginning to circle because they smelled blood in the water. 
After he had hopped on a plane, leaving the band he’d been in with his best mates since he was a kid and his entire family behind, he wondered for the first time if any of the stories were true. Then, on his first day, they were more than confirmed. She was completely unappreciative of everyone bending over backwards to please her every whim, she was spoiled, demanding and whenever she bothered to fucking show up, completely anal about every little thing. 
She wasn’t present for his “audition” to be the lead guitarist for her tour (it was more of a formality considering his best friend knew her manager, old school friends, and he was practically guaranteed the job). He never bothered asking why they picked him; the role wasn’t exactly easy to fill after her last band member went straight TMZ after being fired and told them anything and everything they wanted to hear. The press had a field day for weeks after the tell-all story hit their website, and the flames threatening to burn down the Brittany Jackson empire grew higher. 
When she finally attended one of their rehearsals for the first time, she never bothered introducing herself, just stood in front of them with her arms crossed over chest, her hip jutted to the side while waiting for them to start. She never speaks to anyone directly, referring all her comments to their band leader quietly with their backs turned. It was fucking demeaning, and he wasn’t exactly wanting to be her friend, because he wasn’t sure he could find a way to relate to being a self-centered brat, but he was stunned at how detached she was. He participated in more meetings or practices for the band he’d been in with his schoolmates than what she did for the tour that was meant to revive her reputation. The resentment that inks its way into his veins makes him hate her a little bit. 
Sighing, he looks at the time on his phone and of course that’s when the girl of the hour waltzes in, her mother following behind her, all pointy features and bleach blonde hair. The older woman sneers at him down her nose and he puts the device back into his pocket, stands and gets ready to play. It’s hard to miss the irony that is her daughter being over an hour late to one of their final rehearsals, but he’s the one getting glared at. 
Anne walks briskly onto the floor of the arena, directly to the stage manager and everyone braces themselves for the next lot of ridiculous notes that were bound to come their way. Brittany’s mother had been a nightmare and the cause of so many problems. She’d stop the performance if costumes weren’t right, would pull her daughter from the stage and nitpick about her hair. She’d shout across the venue while her daughter played piano, pointing out the way her stomach rolled whenever she reached across the keyboard. 
Brittany Jackson certainly was her mother's daughter. 
89 notes · View notes
gaystan · 10 months
Text
PRESENTING ME AND @11x13kyle's FIRESIDE CHATS WITH KYLE AND ERIC AKA NICHE INTERNET MICROCELEBRITY AU:
cartman and kyle host a podcast called fireside chats with kyle and eric that’s basically just red scare, cartman is dasha and kyle is anna
they're constantly beefing with each other on twitter and some people are convinced it's staged to promote the show but kyle just hates cartman That Much
a majority of their listeners are just there for the occasional mention of their batshit childhood experiences amongst all the terrible political takes
like "umm i don't wanna hear this insane opinion on al gore i want to know more about how you guys swear that he tried to get you to help him kill manbearpig when you were 8"
fans wonder if these events are true or if they're enabling each other's schizophrenia
cartman is always saying the worst reactionary things while kyle's takes are deceptively normal until he hits them with one that makes listeners go hey WHAT?
kyle resents being called a reactionary but cartman LOVES it, wears the label like a badge of pride
there is CONSTANT discourse about whether or not cartman's antisemitism is ironic or not, with the reasoning "why would kyle be friends with him if it was genuine," and kyle regularly takes to twitter to say "IT IS NOT IRONIC."
kyle peaks the mic multiple times an ep yelling at cartman, says they'll edit it out in post, never gets cut because neither of them can edit
reddit posts go up are after every episode giving timestamp warnings for when kyle gets super loud
cartman has a christian music era, gets tradcath allegations and does little to discourage them
there are people who rpf ship kyman. cartman knows about this and tweets at fans asking them to send him fic recs
secretly jacks off to them
has a bit where he gives a shout out to his favorite kyman fic of the week and kyle breaks the mic every single time screaming at him
he posts unbelievably cringy "ironic" thirst traps to his instagram story at night and "ironic" drag pictures but the outfits and makeup are too good to be a joke
he also posts pictures of butters in bed with like bites on his neck to brag about getting hot tail but it's also just as unsexy
this is how he accidentally comes out, he was so distracted by the need to flex that he forgot he's still trying to beat the gay allegations
the "ironic" kyman fic jokes stop being funny
butters is adam friedland and kenny is the girl he cheated with
the butters show is cohosted with dougie and part of the alt right pipeline
stan is kyle's offline boyfriend in a B list rock band and wears fireside merch on stage sometimes
this includes the isis shirts which he swears up and down he didn't know were isis shirts
deeply apolitical by choice so whenever kyle talks to him about podcast stuff he nods along like whatever you say honey
he still listens to it he just tunes out of the political talk
the day his fans find out he's gay is the biggest day for them since his 2021 single hit the hot 100
everyone analyzing his old lyrics like oh my god. this was about a MAN. it all makes sense.
kenny is a twitter microceleb and socialite, much like with cartman controversy is part of the brand
gained thousands of followers over the butters cheating discourse
thirst tweets about kyle and they're secretly unironic
comes on fireside and rates youtubers he's slept with, kyle is disgusted and cartman is delighted
chapo trap house is craig and those guys
183 notes · View notes
amporella · 1 year
Text
KYLE BROFLOVSKI, STAN MARSH, AND THE FEMININE/MASCULINE QUESTION
(Or; In defense of feminine Kyle and masculine Stan)
(OR or; how Matt and Trey's outdated views prove their intentions for their characters...
...part 1.)
Normally, I would kick off the part of an essay like this above the ‘read more’ with a short summary, but given the complexity of this topic, I don’t think I can summarize it in the way it deserves in just a paragraph. Instead, I’ll start with this: it’s been a little over a year since I was freed from Tumblr shadowban hell, and nearly as long since I made my first original post on South Park tumblr. Since then, I’ve developed a pretty obvious brand in support of feminine Kyle, but I’ve never actually posted a meta justifying it. As such, consider this not a response to any discourse related to it, or a way of undermining the valid opinions that are being and have been shared, but instead as a long-overdue explanation as to why I see Kyle the way that I see him, and why I believe that interpretation is equally valid and equally progressive.
Thanks to everyone who’s shared their time and thoughts with me over the past year, regardless of how long I’ve known you, and let’s get into it!
INTRODUCTION:
Okay, HERE’s the introduction! As I type this from top to bottom, I expect it to turn out fairly long, so bear with me here: we’re going to need some exposition to explain the way I plan on going about this. I’m going to try and be concise!
i. A Bit of Background
Feminine Kyle has been a controversial topic within the South Park fandom for well over a decade, cementing itself as arguably one of the oldest ‘fanon vs canon’ debates within the fandom. Supporters, a wide group consisting of some of the most notable artists and writers in the fandom, insist the evidence is there; naysayers argue that not only is it not there, but that the mere existence of feminine Kyle reinforces old yaoi tropes, homophobia within fandoms, and most recently, antisemitic stereotypes. 
For better or worse, such a portrayal has dwindled in popularity within recent years, with fanart and portrayals from the earlier fandom days becoming the subject of ridicule. Several other portrayals accompany feminine Kyle into forced obscurity - jock Stan and edgy Craig, to name a few - but only the former has drawn such politically charged discussion. Needless to say, there is plenty to discuss when examining its validity. I intend to try and cover all my bases, but first, some clarification:
This is not an unbiased analysis: this is a meta in staunch support of feminine Kyle. As such, not every single moment for or against such a portrayal will be mentioned here: I intend here to establish why feminine Kyle is a reasonable interpretation, not why the opposite may also be true. I also do not intend to prove that feminine Kyle is absolute fact, or the only valid interpretation; while I personally choose to base my portrayal off of what I’ve listed here, choosing to disregard it is also a perfectly fine conclusion. These characters are ten, after all; there is no objectively correct way to portray them!
Secondly; this is a Kyle-centric meta, but it’s also going to include a fair bit of Stan. Declaring Kyle feminine has no point if we have no character to contrast him against; femininity requires masculinity to mean anything, and vice versa. There has to be some point of reference. As a result, this meta will unintentionally make a declaration on Stan’s femininity as well; just like above, accept and reject it as you wish! ‘Correct’ characterization in the South Park fandom is understandably murky.
Speaking of characterization, we first need to discuss why a long-winded meta like this one is even necessary. Why can’t we decide whether Kyle’s feminine? Surely that should be pretty obvious, right?
ii. Why can’t we come to an agreement?
Well… not really. That’s the problem!
Nearly everybody in this little section of the South Park fandom (by which I mean the non-dudebro section) is progressive, which is a good thing. But that also makes femininity a really difficult concept to nail down. Here’s what Oxford Languages has to say about it:
Tumblr media
Okay, straightforward enough. But what attributes are characteristic of women? That’s where we come across our problem; there really aren’t any. Many of the traits (at least personality wise) society used to consider characteristic of women are misogynistic stereotypes, or exist solely as a way to justify gender roles; as such, we can’t designate femininity based on personality traits, which is a great thing for society as a whole and a bad thing for the simplicity of my South Park meta.
Consider this example: being easily grossed out to the point of fear was, in the past, considered to be a trait typical of women. Consider all those boomer comics you’ve seen about women being afraid of mice. Surely then a reasonable conclusion would be that Kyle’s irrational disgust/fear of pee would be a feminine trait. But that conclusion actually isn’t reasonable, because we now know that isn’t necessarily a female-exclusive trait; as such, that interpretation is misogynistic and can be disregarded. Do you see what I mean? It’s really not that easy.
But I actually have a way to make that work. It is going to require some inception. Keep that in mind while we segue to another relevant question:
iii. What is effective characterization?
We talked about characterization a little bit above, but now we need to talk about it again: namely, how do you characterize a character? How many times will I say the word character in this essay?
This question doesn’t just apply to South Park: I mean this for all shows, but most specifically the long ones, and the ones with questionable track records in episode quality. We have all watched something and thought “he would not fucking say that”, even when the person who made him fucking say that was the creator themselves. How do we reconcile that with our vision of a character, especially when such a character assassination is often unintentional? Do we take everything the character does or says at face value by rating all of their behaviors as equal in the characterization scheme, or do we look deeper?
I think the answer needs to be the second one: we need to take characterization by intention, rather than what the character actually says. Generally, a creator will have an intention for their characters, whether that’s in personality, arc, or both. They typically have a plan for some aspects of the character, even in episodic shows like South Park, and they try not to diverge from that plan. For example, Kyle’s reaction will often differ as he is faced with differing events (as real life people do), but he reacts in a similar way, fueled by his consistent morals: he never responds in a Kyle way one episode and in a Cartman way in another. He always reacts like Kyle would, and rarely wavers from his fairly consistent characterization. It is clear that when planning Kyle’s responses to things, they do not start with a blank slate.
That’s the perspective we need to take on when viewing this; we need to look at these characters from the way Matt and Trey intended for them to be looked at, and we need to look at them with the perspective that Matt and Trey had. Segue over: let’s go back to the main point. Keep that in mind.
iv. How do we fix our dilemma?
You don’t really need to keep it in mind, because I’m going to say it again right here: we need to view the characters with the perspective Matt and Trey had. This applies to everything characterization related, including femininity. What makes Matt and Trey’s perception of femininity different from our own?
Well, that’s easy: they’re from a different generation, for one. They’re old white guys, for another. They naturally have different views on femininity than we do, because they have different (often shittier) views on women than we do! Matt and Trey have had some good takes, but their takes on women rarely fall into that category. Unfortunately, we’re going to have to deal with those takes for now if we want to draw a conclusion, because those are what we have to go by when deciding femininity. 
We’re putting on the Matt and Trey goggles for this meta. What do they think femininity is? How would they portray a feminine character? What would a feminine character look like in their eyes? When judging characterization by intention, which I plan on doing throughout this meta, we need to Become Old White Men. 
(That same reasoning is why I’ll essentially be using women and feminine people interchangeably throughout this essay; Matt and Trey tend to associate femininity exclusively with women or flamboyant gay men, and the way they portray them is often the same. Needless to say, those terms are not interchangeable in real life; I only use them as such here both because of the above reasoning and to try and shorten this behemoth of a meta.)
From Matt and Trey’s perspective, it would be much less ludicrous that women would be more easily grossed out; that is the common consensus among men of their generation, and they haven’t proved themselves to be more enlightened than the rest, so we’ll go with that common consensus. From their perspective, Kyle disliking pee would be a feminine trait; therefore, giving that trait to Kyle implies that, in that episode, Matt and Trey viewed him as feminine and intentionally portrayed him that way. This argument becomes stronger once the rest of his traits are considered, which we’ll do throughout this essay. From this point forward, I'll clarify that this is from Matt and Trey’s point of view less often for brevity; assume that unless I clarify it's from mine, it's from theirs. 
Understandably, there may be some issues with this, namely: doesn’t temporarily taking on this perspective and then proceeding to label Kyle as feminine based on stereotypes imply that you agree with those stereotypes? To which I say: no, not really. You can take the intention (femininity, in this case) and disregard the bad that comes along with it: you can essentially claim Kyle as a feminine character without acknowledging what may be flawed reasoning on behalf of the creator, and choose to draw your own conclusions based off of that. I’ll explain this in more detail at the end. 
So, that’s the introduction! But we still have one more thing we need to talk about before we can move onto the actual meat of the essay.
We need to talk about creek.
THE CREEK INTERLUDE.
Why do we need to talk about creek in a Kyle-centric meta, besides that I like talking about creek? The answer is that Matt and Trey’s views on creek answer a very reasonable question, that being: Why do we have reason to assume that Matt and Trey would intend for any of them to be feminine? Why do we have reason to believe the idea of femininity in relation to their male characters would even cross their mind?
Creek is our reason! 
i. The Masculine/Feminine Divide
Consider Matt and Trey’s audio commentary for Put It Down, starting at :52. "One person wanting, which is usually the woman... who flips out a bit more about things emotionally, and generally the man is a bit more, like... not responsive to emotion, and just wants to problem solve. And we have had experience with that…"
Through that commentary, Matt and Trey have already assigned ‘roles’ to Tweek and Craig within the context of the episode; namely, Tweek being the woman and Craig being the man based on their behavior throughout the episode. Obviously, the stereotypes they suggest above very often aren’t true, and a gay man in a relationship is in no way ‘the woman’ regardless of femininity, but they reference them nonetheless, and this helps our case for three reasons:
It confirms that Matt and Trey view some characters as more ‘woman-like’ than others, even just within the context of a single episode: ie, more feminine than others. It shows that they take femininity into account when viewing character behavior, and it is possible they have done so with other male child characters than Tweek.
Furthermore, it shows that the above behavior is intentional; they’ve intentionally made one character more ‘woman-like’ than the other. Matt and Trey admitting that they “have had experience with that” implies that they, on some level, based the episode off of their own experience: hence, Tweek was intended to play the role of ‘the woman’ from the beginning of the episode. It is therefore possible they intended this with other episodes.
The parallels between Stan/Craig and Kyle/Tweek, and on a larger scale, style and creek as relationships, are obvious. The fact that creek exists in the Matt and Trey collective brain as a masculine/feminine relationship implies that their platonic parallel, Stan and Kyle, has the potential to exist in the same way. 
I don’t personally think that Tweek is at all intended to be feminine throughout the series in the same way that Kyle is - Tweek’s meth-driven paranoia is a far cry from Kyle’s natural neuroticism (a trait which, while not inherently feminine, is obviously such within the eyes of Matt and Trey) - but within the context of that episode, the point stands. It also gives us something to look for: contrast. If Kyle is feminine, going by Matt and Trey’s way of portraying relationships, he must have a masculine counterpart. This part is easy. 
STAN MARSH, ALL AMERICAN BOY:
When looking for traditional masculinity within the main four, Stan is our guy. Despite possibly being the most sensitive out of the group, the remainder of Stan’s traits, behaviors, and interests line up exactly with the typical perspective of what masculinity looks like. His consistency with this makes Kyle’s deviation even more remarkable.
i. Personality
So far, we’ve mostly talked about masculinity and femininity in reference to personality, so it only makes sense to start there with Stan. First, let’s consider the trait that Matt and Trey explicitly mentioned they consider masculine:
“Not responsive to emotion, and just wants to problem solve.”
We don’t even need to look through the series for evidence of this one: South Park Studios themselves confirmed it on Stan’s SPandMe results, a quiz intended to connect quiz-takers with their respective South Park character. 
“You are an average all-American person, and despite your crazy surroundings, you remain levelheaded.” 
Remaining levelheaded in crazy surroundings essentially boils down to being not responsive to sudden, situation-driven emotion, especially in the context of Put It Down, where Craig is able to step back from Tweek’s emotion-driven response to a crazy situation and consider it in a levelheaded way. Stan often tends to perform the same duty for Kyle as Craig does for Tweek in that episode, serving the role of someone to vent to in stressful situations.
Tumblr media
Now that we’ve checked Matt and Trey’s explicitly mentioned perception of masculinity off the list, let’s consider some other traditionally ‘masculine’ personality traits: regardless of whether they’ve been explicitly mentioned, it’s a fair assumption that they’ve considered a few other traits within the ‘masculinity’ vein. 
Quick to Threats: Stan has a tendency to be levelheaded, as mentioned above, but when angered he can jump straight to threats of violence; this serves as a contrast to Kyle, who tends to respond verbally instead. Consider this moment in Passion of the Jew: 
Tumblr media
While Stan actually gives Cartman a fair amount of time to ‘take it back’ before he resorts to active threats of violence, he still does so much quicker than Kyle has ever done in the past; Kyle, by comparison, tends to insult normally. Stan, when pushed by Cartman, responds with threats within a few lines of dialogue: Kyle, when pushed by Cartman, has only legitimately snapped a few times over the course of 25 years of harassment. 
Another example would be in Cash For Gold, where Stan jumps to telling the jewelry salesman to kill himself without any prior conversation; unlike Kyle, who typically makes efforts to negotiate first, Stan resorts to threats.
Tumblr media
Also consider Stan’s behavior in Stick of Truth, in which upon the character’s arrival into the Elf Kingdom, Stan is immediately ready to get into a fight to defend Kyle; as the character approaches Kyle, he threatens them by punching his fist. His method of protectiveness often boils down to violence on behalf of the people he cares about, and he takes personal affronts, or affronts to those people, extremely seriously. Kyle, on the other hand, is defensive rather than offensive in terms of protectiveness, and cares more about the wider populace instead of mostly the people directly relevant to his life; we’ll get into that more later.
Tumblr media
This is a trait heavily associated with masculinity throughout history, and throughout media: masculine characters in shows, books, and movies are often the ones shown to pick fights rather than verbally negotiate. This trait is even shown through Craig, who’s already established as “the man”; throughout the first few seasons especially, he threatens other characters once aggravated instead of communicating. 
Leadership Ability: Obvious disclaimer is that this trait in particular is not exclusively male, or even largely male (just like every other trait I’ve mentioned), but the world continues even to this day to associate leadership qualities with traditionally masculine qualities, and I have reason to believe that Matt and Trey do the same thing. Let’s go through a few episodes in which Stan is staunchly placed as the leader for some examples:
Stan, as a character who is often the protagonist of the show as a whole, naturally falls into the leadership role within The Boys. In this way, he once again serves as a contrast to Craig, who is obviously the leader of his own game; the official wiki goes so far as to call them Craig and Those Guys. An example of this would be in South Park Is Gay, in which Stan approaches Craig first to try and one-up him, and another more subtle example would be in Good Times With Weapons, in which Stan’s leadership is demonstrated just by him being front and center in front of Craig’s door.
Tumblr media
He also serves as the lead detective in Lil’ Crime Stoppers, and tends to be the leader of his respective sports team, being chosen as both quarterback and pitcher in football and baseball respectively. On a larger scale, Stan becomes Captain in Whale Whores, where he is revered for actually making things happen in comparison to the previous Captain. 
South-park-meta also has a great description of why Stan’s a leader which you can find here, which mentions a few things that I haven’t. 
Stan in a leadership role comes up over and over again, and while I normally wouldn’t consider this a strong enough piece of evidence to bring up on its own, Stan’s other masculine traits (which I’ll be getting to shortly, outside of the personality department) make me believe that it’s intentional. This is especially relevant when the leadership within the girls is also considered: while the groups of boys tend to have a very obvious leader, the girls fluctuate often between Wendy and Bebe, with Matt and Trey unable to even keep the leader of the Pleases and Sparkles Club consistent. The fact that the boys tend to have leaders and the girls don’t leads me to believe that Matt and Trey do see leadership as a masculine trait.
Superficiality & Ego: To be clear before we start this section, I do think that Stan is legitimately very sensitive. He is my sensitive little guy. But he does have a tendency to be superficial with some issues, often unable to grasp the bigger picture, especially when failing to grasp the issue tends to benefit him specifically. 
Consider his behavior in A Scause For Applause. Initially, Stan has no clue who the farmers are or what they stand for, and is labeled a hero simply because he likes his wristband and doesn’t intend on taking it off. However, as soon as he essentially becomes a celebrity, he pretends to be extremely passionate about the cause, despite the fact that it is all “bullcrap” to him. Stan is hugely empathetic, but only towards people that are close to him, or issues that are relevant to him (such as the whales, as he loves animals): he couldn’t care less about the farmers in Belarus, but relishes in the attention he’s getting because of it.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Another example of this would be in Butterballs, where Stan behaves in essentially the same way: he joins the anti-bullying campaign not because he is passionate about the issue, but because he’s being taunted and he wants to prove that he’s a leader, or, as Bucky Bailey says, a “big man”. His pride is extremely important to him, which is part of the reason why he steps up. As Stan starts to make the anti-bullying video increasingly about him, Kyle sees through him and points it out.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Once again, his ego drives him rather than genuine passion for the issue: his actual interest in it is superficial at best and serves only to fuel his ego. Both qualities are heavily associated with masculinity, and toxic masculinity in particular: as Stan gets pissed at Kyle in both episodes, that side of him and the anger accompanying it begins to show. We’ve now accepted those traits are generally bad, but they were often praised as a key part of manliness in the past: them continuing to be associated with masculinity in Matt and Trey’s mind would be very plausible.
ii. ‘Manly’ Interests
Stan’s one of the most fleshed out characters throughout the series in terms of interests, but he does have one that shows up more prominently than any other: sports! I’ve gone into exactly how frequently it pops up for him in my Jock Stan meta, so I won’t go into it now, but I highly suggest reading that if you’re interested. Furthermore, that’s also why I’m not going to be using basketball as a masculine justification for Kyle; from what I’ve found, it’s just not as relevant to his character.
Sports are widely considered to be an interest associated with men, and particularly, masculinity; while the gender split among people who are passionate about sports is much less divisive than the media would lead you to believe, few people associate anything other than women’s sports with women. Football in particular is typically considered a man’s sport, and has its heavy associations with toxic masculinity: the traits valued within football tend also to be the traits that our society values specifically within men, those traits typically boiling down to strength and competitiveness. As mentioned above, the desire to compete and show off (particularly with Craig, also considered to be the respective ‘leader’ of his group) is a trait much more heavily associated with Stan than Kyle; it leads me to believe those traits and his interest in football paired together are not a coincidence.
Another one of Stan’s larger interests are animals, which he consistently feels passionate about, but more specifically dogs. He’s shown to love Sparky dearly, with the first Stan-centric episode of the series having Stan’s crisis about Sparky as a main factor, and he even accompanies Stan in Stick of Truth for one of his attacks. I mention this because while a love of animals is often associated with women, or femininity, dogs specifically are consistently associated with men; when the term “man’s best friend” was coined, they were not considering ‘man’ as the wider mankind. Dogs are so heavily associated with masculinity that people naturally assume dogs that they meet are male, and that the large majority of dogs in fiction ARE male. The association between dogs and masculinity is actually a necessity for Big Gay Al’s Big Gay Boat Ride to work as an episode: Stan valuing “butchness” and wanting Sparky to behave in such a way acts as his main conflict throughout the episode.
While this last one is not quite as relevant to Stan’s overall character as the previous two, it’s frequently brought up as a “counter” to Stan’s sportiness, so I still find it relevant to bring up. Board games, which are certainly less associated with manliness than sports, are still an extremely male sport, particularly dominated by white males (with 93% of board game designers being white men); I am inclined to believe that Matt and Trey knew this, which was why Nichole, and the rest of the girls, stood out so much. They even address this within the episode, which has most of the boy gamers (excluding Stan, who is more open to girls joining the group) rejecting the girls who want to play. Even Stan’s least traditionally masculine interest is centered around manliness within the episode.
Is it coincidence that when Matt and Trey selected interests for their characters, they chose interests heavily associated with masculinity for Stan? Probably not. Again, these interests aren’t necessarily male-exclusive, nor do they even necessarily lean towards men in reality, but from the perspective of two older men like Matt and Trey, they ARE masculine traits. The fact that Stan is given those traits specifically while the other characters are not is heavily indicative of their intention; namely, to make Stan an obviously masculine character.
iii. Appearance
I swear we’re almost done with an insanely long Stan section in what’s supposed to be a Kyle meta. I may have to change the title.
The last thing we’re going to be looking at with Stan in regards to masculinity is appearance: how does he present himself? When he chooses roles in games, how traditionally masculine are they? Let’s start with his Stick of Truth role: Stan Marshwalker.
Tumblr media
During Stick of Truth, Stan serves as Kyle’s devoted, protective knight: as I already mentioned above, he’s ready to pick a fight with the player just for looking at him. But even beyond his behavior, his appearance is undeniably masculine; knights were the ideal of manhood and masculinity for quite a long time, hence the trope of a knight saving a princess from a castle. Especially back when knights were a Thing, there was nothing more traditionally masculine than waving a huge sword around and fighting a dragon to defend someone’s honor. Stan doesn’t defend the honor of any princesses in Stick of Truth, but he does offer to duel Tolkien on what’s implied to be Kyle’s behalf, which could be easily interpreted as a parallel.
Tumblr media
The knight motif comes up again in the episode Make Love, Not Warcraft, in which Stan’s selected character is this: a muscular, masculine presenting knight. I’m leaving this section a little short because I’m going to be bringing it up again when we get to Kyle , but keep Stan’s appearance here in mind. 
Tumblr media
Stan’s next most relevant character is Toolshed, from Stick of Truth:
Tumblr media
Stan’s TFBW costume, who is essentially a handyman, is less ingrained in society as traditionally masculine than a knight, but still is a heavily male dominated field: in the United States, 96% of handymen are men. While less symbolic than a knight, handymen can be considered masculine even considering only that trait; they are heavily associated with men, which is essentially the definition of masculinity from the Matt and Trey perspective.
Stan has a ton of alter egos throughout the series, but we’re already at 4k words so I’m going to keep this section as brief as I can. The only other real thing of note here is that Stan seems to associate ripping off his sleeves with strength, as he opts to go ripped sleeveless in both Good Times With Weapons and as Stan The Man in W.T.F. 
iv. Conclusion
What can we conclude from the above information, and how does it have any relevance at all to Kyle?
Firstly, we can conclude that Stan Marsh, in personality, interests, and appearances, was given traditionally masculine traits by Matt and Trey. Furthermore, we can conclude that due to Matt and Trey’s mention of masculinity and femininity within Tweek and Craig, this is not a coincidence; his masculinity was intentional. Finally, we can assume that Matt and Trey genuinely believe these traditionally masculine traits to be legitimately masculine: as in, it is unlikely they gave him these traits with any other intention than making it clear he was a masculine character.
Okay, so we’re done with Stan! Mostly. He’ll come up a little more later. But why did we need to spend this long talking about the character who isn’t even the main guy in this essay? I know I talked a little about it above, but surely I have more of a reason than that? Well, it’s because of what Matt and Trey said in the commentary for Kenny Dies, around the 42 minute mark.
“A couple weeks before this, the idea was that we were going to kill Kyle, remember, and we'd make it a big thing - we'll kill Kyle, and Butters will step in... it always seemed to us that Kyle and Stan were really similar... so let's kill off one of those two."
As of Season 6, Stan and Kyle were too similar. In order to justify keeping Kyle on the show, they needed to draw an actual distinction between the two of them. Before this point, Stan had already been established as South Park’s masculine, golden football boy since his very first episode, so what would be the most effective way of differentiating Kyle from Stan in a consistent way?
The answer would be to give Kyle feminine traits to contrast Stan’s masculine ones. It required leaning hard on some aspects of the character, but it obviously worked: Kyle is still here, widely loved, and often very different than the way he was before season 6. If we can prove that Stan was intentionally given masculine traits, we have even more of a reason to believe that Kyle may be given feminine traits to separate their personalities, and we’ve already proved that! Now we need to prove that Kyle was actually given those feminine traits, and we’ll start right now.
...by which I mean tomorrow, when I post the second half of this. Please hold your applause and/or complaints until then, because you really need the second half to tie the whole thing together and actually come to some concrete conclusions.
You can read part 2 here!
229 notes · View notes
Note
genuine question: how can we use this website to be less annoying to others?
Glad to give my thoughts. Like I said, I’m very petty and most of this stuff probably isn’t as big a deal to most people. Anyway I’m bad at being brief so I added a readmore. Here are my personal rules:
1: Don’t add anything to the body of a post unless you have something that you really feel will add some degree of value, meaning, humor, context, or at least something to people further down the reblog chain.
This is the most important rule. Adding something to a post makes it longer, it makes it so everyone who reblogs it in the chain after you has to see it. If you have nothing to add but “wow” or “holy shit” you are lengthening the post for no reason. Those reactions can easily go in the tags.
This is also the reason I think gimmick blogs are so annoying. It’s one thing for a “heritage post” blog to reblog things related to its respective gimmick. Simply reblogging them puts that thing on their blog, so anyone looking at it or following them because they want to see “heritage posts” will see it. But they go a step further and add “X heritage post” for no real reason other than to brand the post as theirs.
When I see a post that I like that has useless additions that take up space while adding nothing I get mildly annoyed and go to the reblog of the person who reblogged it before they did just to trim the useless comments off. But if that person deactivated then I can’t trim the comment. Tumblr lets you trim to the original post without any of the additions regardless of if op is deactivated or not with the little X on the reblog menu, but only to the original post. It’s better than nothing though
This whole point is, to me, a bit of tumblr etiquette that makes it so you don’t have to see unrelated comments from someone you don’t follow just because they thought to add a pointless comment way up the chain. This definitely is petty, but if you remember how the old tumblr formatting worked, this was extremely important because each addition took up even more screen space with the line to the next persons url and squished the original post into smaller and smaller spaces. So that’s probably why I feel so strongly about it even though it doesn’t matter as much anymore.
2: The tags are mostly your free space to say what you want, BUT try and respect that OP will likely see them.
A LOT of communication done on this website is done through talking in the tags. That’s not what they were originally meant for but that doesn’t matter anymore. People will likely be looking in their notes to see tags by their mutuals.
The original poster can and will see every tag on a post, unless they delete the post or mute notifications. Mute notifications seems like it doesn’t work, but that’s because it only mutes future notifications on the post, the tags in your notes before muting will still be there regardless
This is to say that in most situations, if the op is someone like me who uses their notes to communicate with their mutuals and others in their communities, your irrelevant tags might also be there and annoy them. So use courtesy when tagging. Thankfully tumblr cuts off tags after a certain point on the notes page but still keep it in mind. I go overboard writing mini essays in the tags all the time, and while I do think that is a little annoying I do it anyway so I can’t blame people.
3: Keep blorbo tagging to a minimum if you can help it.
This is probably my most controversial stance, but blorbo tagging can be really annoying in certain circumstances.
The biggest offender to me are tagging make characters on posts about women. I don’t care that you think he’s your babygirl or whatever, I find this extremely annoying. I get it, sometimes a post fits your character really closely but the gender is wrong, but usually it doesn’t and they’re just doing this on any post even slightly related to a single aspect of a male character they care about. Often because most tumblr fandom people couldn’t be bothered to care about female characters if that was the only way to escape a saw trap alive.
There are other blorbo tag type things that annoy me, and again I’m a petty bitch, so take it with a grain of salt. But to me this one is a little personal (for lack of a better word). One of my first big posts on this blog was about wizard girls leaning in to kiss and having the brims of their hats get in the way. I didn’t mind the blorbo tagging about men that much, but they got less and less related to the post that it was annoying. The last straw before I deleted the post (back when I didn’t realize mute notifications actually worked. It might not have at the time) was a tag about their male blorbos leaning in to kiss and their belt buckles got in the way???
Idk I just find blorbo tagging in general mildly annoying and only do it when the post is an extremely perfect fit for on the characters I care about. I often block people for blorbo tagging about characters from things I dislike, I’m petty and the block button is fun for me to press, so I do that often. :)
4: NOT EVERY POST IS ABOUT YOU!!!
If you see a post that isn’t about you or your demographics or gender or whatever, you really don’t need to make it about you. That will very likely annoy op, especially because no one would have anything against you if you went and wrote your own post inspired by whatever the post in question said.
Not every post about lesbians needs to be made about gay men. Not every post about trans women needs to be made about trans men. Not every post about women needs to be made about men. And probably most important:
Not every post needs to be made about white people!
I know you might be thinking how writing something in the tags about your experience as a white person relating to what op is talking about, but I promise you they don’t want to hear it from us. They almost certainly are seeing tags from other white people because for some reason we can’t seem to see someone posting about issues of racism without having either the “I’m sorry for being white” or “white devils advocate” voices appear in our heads, just ignore it. Bite your tongue and reblog or move on for the love of god stop pestering the op.
Obviously the lesbian, trans women, and women ones are the ones I see in my notes that are annoying. But I can’t pretend I haven’t seen other white people say some really unnecessary shit in the tags / haven’t seen posts by nonwhite people who are clearly annoyed about how we always make everything about us.
Remember, you can always write your own post!
5: OP didn’t “turn off replies”
This feels like something that wouldn’t happen that often, but multiple times when I’ve made even mildly controversial takes about like video games or whatever, people will either add in a reblog or send me an ask complaining that I “turned off replies because I was afraid of hearing them disagree” usually followed by them calling me a coward. It’s very simple, I have reply settings so that people I follow and people who have followed me for at least like a week can reply, that’s it. I don’t have replies from everyone on because most people outside of those categories I don’t care about their opinions and they are annoying. If you can’t reply, that’s probably why. And if they actually did turn off replies, that’s because they don’t want replies, especially from people like the ones I just described.
6: I actually don’t have a problem with spam reblogging
This might seem backwards given my other stances on things taking up unnecessary space like useless comments, but I really don’t mind spam reblogs. I frequently do it when I see art I really like or when there’s a post that really resonates with me. Yes, it is annoying! No, I probably won’t stop. I do it so I can’t judge other people who do too. I am trying to keep it to like 5 times at most though, any more is just overkill.
7: OP is a stranger, not your friend
This one applies basically everywhere on the internet, but unless the person who made the post is someone who is like a mutual or someone that’s you’ve interacted with a lot before, they’re probably a stranger. Don’t try to be “playfully rude” or overly familiar. It’s annoying and weird and you will get blocked.
8: If you’re sending an anonymous ask, remember that OP is not going to take you in good faith most of the time
A lot of anon asks aren’t meant to be malicious, but a lot of others are. Bait, hate mail, insults, you name it, there’s a very good reason people like me assume every anon is sent in bad faith for some purpose. If you are going to send an anon ask, try to make it clear that you genuinely just want to ask a question and that you aren’t trying to trick op into saying something you can use to write a callout post against her or whatever.
You did that in this very ask thing and that’s why I’m writing out this long post instead of deleting it or letting it rot in the inbox.
9: Prev Tags etiquette / “Peer Reviewed” Tags
The usage of “prev tags” is controversial, a lot of people have different opinions on it. But with all the changes they made last year that made it harder to see the tags of the person before the person who’s reblog you are viewing, I think prev tags etiquette has changed.
My personal rules for prev tags are to copy the tags into my own tags, and then follow them up with a tag that says “<- prev tags”. Unfortunately tumblr tags convert dashes into spaces for some reason so it ends up looking like “< prev tags”. I’m stubborn and don’t want to like use an emoji arrow though. Anyway, tumblr mobile conveniently allows you to copy the tags of the person you are reblogging from surprisingly easily which I appreciate.
Unlike previous tags, which stay in the tags and don’t turn into an addition to the post, “peer reviewed” tags as they are sometimes called do get added to the post permanently for the remaining blog chain.
The unfortunate truth about this website is that some people have bad opinions on what qualifies as being meaningful enough to be cemented as an addition to the post via “peer review”. As such, the phrase “how could you leave this in the tags 🤣” has essentially become another “you sir have won the internet 🤣”
The shitty part about that is sometimes there are good and meaningful additions in the tags that are worth being added to the post as a whole. But you can add someone’s tags to a post without saying “how could you leave this in the tags”. Anyway this one is more subjective and hard to define so I hope I got my point across at least somewhat.
Anyway, there are probably a few other rules I personally follow that I’m not thinking about right now, but just follow general internet etiquette and try to keep in mind that op is a person who will likely read whatever you type, that covers most things tbh! Thanks for reading if you somehow read this far. Hope this helped! If it didn’t, oh well, I did try and warn you I’m petty and have strong opinions about things that usually don’t matter afterall
16 notes · View notes
thewertsearch · 1 year
Text
Asks Comp - 16/4
Tumblr media
I literally did not know The Baby Is You was a thing. To be welcomed back into the comic like this after four months is very on brand for Homestuck.
... and wow, its outro really does match the end of this song, doesn't it? That's even funnier than if he'd snuck some of Megalovania in there.
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Ooh, that's another liveblog I'll want to check out when I'm done! I've never actually seen a Worm liveblog before. Adding it to the list myself!
Tumblr media
Nothing's really changed since I've been gone! I make a conscious effort not to do much Homestuck analysis off-blog, since I want my journey to be fully documented here.
Tumblr media
It's good to be back! I'm looking forward to a full reread when I'm done.
Tumblr media
Would you believe I didn't even know there was a book?
I also didn't know the movie had two (allegedly) terrible sequels, which is very funny. Neverending story indeed.
Tumblr media
Thank you! I can't take too much credit, though - most of my tagging system has been crowdsourced from askers!
Tumblr media
At some point, before we reach the end of the comic, I'm going to have to formalize my approach to liveblogging Homestuck's side content.
What I'll probably do is give each of them the 'lite' treatment initially, but if they turn out to be more canonical than I thought, or particularly interesting to liveblog, I'll 'zoom in', and analyze them properly. We'll see how we go!
Tumblr media
Could you imagine the relationship dynamics in your average troll soap opera? The shipping web for a single season would make our heads explode.
Tumblr media
It's a fun question. What sort of object symbolizes everything?
The first thing I'd try would be a star chart, Dave's magnifier and a literal planetful of Grist.
Tumblr media
Added to the list! Not until later later on, though - I'd worry that the opinions and theories of another liveblogger could interfere with my own, especially if they're talking about it with someone who's already read it!
Tumblr media
I would find it hard to disagree.
Tumblr media
Do people think Act 1 is pointless?
I mean, it is the slowest Act in terms of pacing, but slow pacing isn't always a bad thing. You sort of have to take it slow when your readers have this much to get to grips with.
...okay, maybe we didn't need quite as many Sylladex mishaps as we got. But we still needed some. Homestuck has a lot to introduce you to.
Tumblr media
I always pictured an English accent for Hass - although, interestingly, I didn't picture one for Jade. As a headcanon, I like the NZ one better.
Where did Grandpa grow up again, actually? He was raised by Fake Mark Twain, who was from Missouri - but I don't have a clue what a Missouri accent sounds like, let alone one from a century ago. I have a funny feeling that it's not the accent I'm imagining coming from Jade.
Tumblr media
Now that's a ship I'd never have seen coming. Props to Hussie for coming up with something more controversial than my Feferi<>Equius.
Tumblr media
All four kids, with four endgame weapons, might be able to challenge Jack's current incarnation - but they're not going to get the chance. You've hit the nail on the head - he's semi-perfect Jack for a reason.
I have several theories for Jade's prototyping, and every single one of them would make Jack even more dangerous than before. It's just barely possible to challenge him now, but things will only get worse.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Read the room, Serket!
Would Vriska have tried to negotiate? She feels like the type of person who'd rather take a beating than admit they're outclassed. Plus, I'm not sure how much she'd have to offer Aradia, who seemed entirely motivated by revenge (and, possibly, secretly motivated by timeline stuff).
All that said, I would have loved to hear Vriska trying to worm her way out of this.
Tumblr media
I love it! Please send in the completed house, if you get the chance. That's going to look so cool with a moving meteor.
Tumblr media
And they're both easily distractible! This feels like two people who might actually get on surprisingly well, if they were in, say, the same high school class.
Tumblr media
It's hard to say what's a rarepair, since I don't know what ships are rare in the fandom - although I'd have a few guesses about the most common ones.
If we're going for a ship with very tenuous connections, I will submit Rose x Feferi for your appraisal. They're both fans of the Noble Circle, and their signature colors are pretty close.
You know what, I'll just review all of your ships. Tavros/Gamzee - PB&J - is pretty cute. [] I'd recommend Miracle Child for a number of reasons, but it does include a well-written Gamtav. Jack/Droog is more <> to me than it is <3. Like One Sundered Star might be influencing that? I'm not really sure. Somewhere I think I saw a Jack<>Droog. Your pre-shipping chart post isn't in the chrono; also, I'm pretty sure the A6A6I5 ask is one of mine. Gamzee/Eridan is a rarepair; I've seen it, but not often, and it's a <> in the fic I'm referencing. Kanaya<>Terezi and Feferi<>Vriska are strange enough that I've never seen them anywhere, really. [] And finally, Vriska and Tavros. These two are the textbook example of why the ashen quadrant needs to exist, and they're a perfect pair for it. [] ~LOSS (8/1/23)
I don't even know if Carapacians have moirallegiance - but those two would definitely work if they did.
Out of all my ships you flagged as rare, I think my favorite is Feferi<>Vriska. I just think they'd gel weirdly well together!
57 notes · View notes
sharpth1ng · 1 year
Text
Scream Wardrobe HCs Pt 2- Billy Loomis
Billy wears a weird blend of prep and grunge in the movie, so I tried to work with that while also considering how his style would develop after high school, because I think going to college and having an ounce more self acceptance would lead to some new threads for him
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Tommy Hilfiger & Calvin Klien
This one seems obvious, I didn't put any polos here because we all know he wears them
He's got a bunch of their pullovers and button downs, they're simultaneously a prep brand but with looser fits and styles so they slide into the grunge vibe a little
definitely has one of the oversized horizontal stripe sweaters (a la kurt cobain)
He definitely has a pair of the CK cords (bottom row on the right) they've got that good soft/ridged texture, good for covert stiming
Also CK was controversial for putting up these massive homoerotic billboards and he doesn't even know but those pictures of marky mark grabbing his dick did some subliminal messaging
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
2. Levis
Boy got the 501 jeans in a few colours (blue pictured here but I think he would have the black ones too)
obvious obligatory plaid shirts, mostly in blues and greys
DENIM JACKET. I refuse to believe this kid didn't do the incredibly 90s denim on denim look at some point. Its really, really gay and he has no idea
Tumblr media
3. Denim cut offs
This is his only pair of shorts, he almost never wears them
Stu keeps pulling at the loose threads at the bottom so they're slowly getting shorter and shorter
Tumblr media
4. The classic 90's white tank top
Starts wearing these as undershirts, slowly they turn into just shirts, he wears them under unbuttoned shirts and stuff
Makes Stu lose his mind a little (Sorry, the shirt is slightly see though, Stu needs help)
Tumblr media Tumblr media
5. Big fleece lined hoodies
Boy likes a hood, sometimes you gotta not show your face
Has a habit of pulling the sleeves over his hands, which he isn't actually aware he's doing but Stu thinks its cute
in high school he probably has a plain one(on the left), later gets the sick Nine Inch Nails one and Stu likes to steal it (also Stu calls the band Nine Inch Males and it makes Billy want to strangle him)
Edit: also he’s transmasc, every single one of us has a Big Hoodie™️
Tumblr media Tumblr media
6. Obligatory turtleneck
These were massively popular, Skeet Ulrich had one
I just think he's pretentious and he goes to film school, this bitch has a turtleneck idk what to tell you
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
7. Dr Martens
Boy almost never wears sneakers, he likes the thick soles and the shit-kicking vibes
He gets a pair of the brogues (on the far right) in college during his turtleneck phase but still wears the ankle-high ones lots
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
8. Obligatory 90's leather pants and jacket
He buys these in like 1998/99, its the gayest thing he's ever done and it's because Trent Reznor wears them
This is basically lingerie to Stu, he's a weak man
Bonus, cause I gave Stu underwear so Billy gets some too:
Tumblr media
He wears the ck boxer briefs (almost exclusively, you got sensory issues? You dont fuck around with underwear)
I told you this ad campaign was gay
More:
Randy
Stu
Sidney
89 notes · View notes
melvisik · 7 months
Text
Aziraphale's Choice aka If this turns out to be too controversial, I'll take it down...
Since Good Omens season 2 dropped, public opinion of Aziraphale has pendulumed from frustration to sympathy in a matter of days, and it’s completely understandable. At first, most of us were more than likely experiencing the same as Crowley in that moment – that sinking feeling of ‘Oh god no, no he didn’t. This cannot be happening. Aziraphale, please be smarter than that.’ We were devastated, we were angry, we were disgusted at Aziraphale’s choice to essentially abandon Crowley. Justifiably so, to be honest.
Tumblr media
Then came the switch, when we got a chance to breathe and realize that Aziraphale’s actions weren’t entirely unreasonable. He wants to make a toxic environment a better place, not just for humanity, but for Crowley as well. While he does still tend to view things too much in black and white, it’s no crime to want your world in a better state. And this isn’t as if Aziraphale is losing Crowley forever, at least not in his mind. Come Hell or high-water, Crowley always shows up again. Especially if there's even the slightest chance Aziraphale's walking into a risky situation.
Tumblr media
Though this time just might be a step too far... However, another argument has often been made that I'd like to emphasize here: Aziraphale is, essentially, in a cult. Now it's a cult of a different color to be sure, as he hasn’t been forced into performing lascivious acts, or tortured, or imprisoned (as far as I know…), but he has been an integral part of an organization based around a single theological/idealogical idea - that his every waking moment should be dedicated to serving the will of an ineffable Higher Power, without question or complaint and in complete accordance with the demands of his superiors. In short - he's got major religious trauma. Getting out of a cult is frickin hard. (So much respect and support to those who have broken out of cults, and to those still trapped, I sincerely hope you find your way and peace someday.) Aziraphale has the idea of the righteousness of Heaven ingrained into his very being, and that can be extremely challenging to let go of, even if you see the consistent wrongness right in front you. Aziraphale sees it as being problematic because of some systematic flaws.
Crowley on the other hand, who has been literally rejected and hurt from this organization, sees the system itself as inherently flawed. Ok, you know what? Let’s go for it and use a plant metaphor, because this is Good Omens and it’s what we do: Aziraphale sees the tree as being sick because of a few bad apples, but he is attached to that tree. Crowley is already off and sees the tree as being rotten at the root; he's ready to sprout his own roots and be his own tree. Aziraphale is situated and comfortable in his environment, while Crowley is more or less accustomed to being displaced. For instance, Crowley loses the flat, but they take their plants with them - Crowley takes care of them, giving them what they need to survive (though they don’t exactly let them be ‘lazy’ about it).
Tumblr media
Aziraphale keeps his bookshop and takes care of books, which requires considerably less effort. And although Aziraphale eventually leaves his books, he’s going back to a familiar environment under the banner of improving it. In Aziraphale's mind, Heaven still represents all the good deeds humanity chooses to do, even if Heaven and humanity have shown very different brands of ‘goodness’ (and a worse kind of badness when it comes to Hell for that matter, humans doing something so much worse than Hell could have imagined). And of course going to Hell would be bad since they're the bad guys (I mean, completely ignoring Beelzebub as another demon capable of love, but who's counting?), but Heaven is a different matter, right? There are people like ‘Jim’ and Muriel who seem well-intentioned, so it can’t be all bad, can it? It can be fixed, can't it? An interesting question that many people asked in the first season – does Aziraphale realize that Armageddon, the War between Heaven and Hell, means that he’ll probably have to kill Crowley? Or at least that Crowley very likely will be killed, since he’s so sure that Heaven will win? Besides this part…
Tumblr media
…it doesn’t seem to register in his head. It could be argued that even Gabriel and Beelzebub seem to acknowledge this, not wanting to start up another Armageddon and risk destroying each other. But why not Aziraphale? Sometimes, Aziraphale reminds me of the kind of person who smiles at you and goes, “You don’t seem like such a bad sort, it’s such a shame you’re going to Hell. I’ll pray for you.” *cough*Iforgiveyou*cough* You know who sounds sorta like that?
Tumblr media
As I said, cults are difficult leave. They’re often even dangerous and vindictive towards ‘deserters’ (Book of Life anyone?) Aziraphale does need to finally see the light, but at the moment he’s so blinded by Heaven’s. The kicker is, it’s something he must want. Nobody else, not even Crowley, can make that decision for him. Crowley can't rescue him from this. Crowley can only help him, give him guidance or be there to catch him if he… well, hopefully metaphorically falls. This has to be Aziraphale’s choice. But we all knew that. So...
Tumblr media
It’s just hard for him, y’all. P.S. There's so many beautiful analyses on Aziraphale's choice, but one I would highly recommend (it's also a bit of a different take):
38 notes · View notes
apathmakerstale · 23 days
Text
I woke up from a nap and found out one of the foundational pillars of my youth shut down. Damn.
Rooster Teeth was my lifeblood as a teen, and I’ve been a fan from the first time I saw Tex vs RnB’s. RWBY is what made me starting writing. I remembered the exact time I started actually writing down my ideas, Feb 2, 2015 at 3:52 pm after confirmation study, a day after I learned Monty passed. It was a RWBY OC fic that I stopped after I remembered their words to stop focusing on other people’s work and work on your own to build your own brand. I still have it- the writing is meh though -and my first drawings were RWBY characters like the ones below. I owe my artistic creation to that. Maybe I'll post that first fic one day too.
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
That gave me the time to build up a portfolio of original writing that I will soon be publishing online for myself. It inspired me and still does to this day as I enjoy RWBY and hope it will be finished.
I still listen to Gold, the music from RWBY just inspires such a sense of love from me. It can make me well with tears- which is not something easy do. I was apart of the RWBY WIKI! Back when we called Yang Yellow, and speculated White would be a cold high lady type and not girlfail. The Speculation House was my house. It was the first time I posted anything on the internet.
AND I CALLED IT BACK IN 2013- I CALLED SALEM AND OZPIN- ONE MAN WITH MULTIPLE SOULS A WOMEN WITH NONE!!! I CALLED IT AND EVEN HAD A POST I MEANT TO MAKE BUT I WAS TOO SCARED!!! SIX YEARS AHEAD!!!!!!
Anyway I was a superfan like from 2013-16 I lived and breathed the company, I watched every video, every channel, every podcast, I lived and breathed it. From Cow Chop, Sugar Pine, Funhaus, Gamefails etc. Achievement Hunter was why I came home from school to watch videos. I remember why RTX was a fandom wide event, and every single panel had mind-blowing information about something I loved. I was there for the first GTA V gameplay, and the first video on Let's Play. I have such a distinct memory of sitting down one Friday after school with a bowl of chef boyardee on a cheap white desk covered by a blue rag and chipped dark blue bowl, looking up at the ps3 3d wall-mounted tv, and watching the first Capture the Tower in Minecraft with such glee. It was my childhood.
I followed the King AU fan comic series on here and the FAKE AH crew AU. I was that heavy into it.
I READ A FEW REAL PEOPLE FICS. I was that deep. I've never done that for anyone else even in my deepest fandom days.
I remember being so excited when them and Yogscast paired up, they being another pillar and like them I am still a fan. Those TTT episodes are something special to me.
Like any company it had its flaws, and I remember every single controversy. Every. Single. One. God. I've diminished to someone who just keeps up with podcasts like F**ckFace and Red Web but I still called myself a fan. It was a foundation for me and a stabilizing influence when I was younger. I sincerely hope that the talented people there get help for this.
It only inspires my hatred of Warner Brothers more.
It actually does feel like a chapter has closed and I don't know how to feel about that.
Anyway here's Gold for your heart.
youtube
8 notes · View notes
fanstuffrantings · 4 months
Note
About you getting hate for liking the Freezerburn ship and then getting even more hate for politely asking to be left alone:
idk what the fndm's been drinking lately to get like this but it's kind of everywhere nowadays, which is one reason I no longer participate in things like the freezerburn ship week or stuff like that. It's become so popular to cyberbully people in this fandom, especially if they hold any opinion outside the extremely limited and strictly enforced one-way-only 'acceptable' opinion, and for some inexplicable reason, Freezerburn has been declared Unacceptable and Wrong and Bad, and that goes double for the shippers.
I once saw someone say that shipping Freezerburn was "homophobic."
A ship... between two female main characters... is "homophobic..."
The reason given as to why it was "homophobic" to ship those two characters was because the person making the declaration irrationally declared that every single Freezerburn shipper is also a BlackSun shipper and furthermore declared that the "only reason" anyone could ever possibly claim to like Freezerburn was if they were "pairing Yang off with a random girl so they could force Blake to belong to a man without being accused of homophobia"
I also once saw someone say that shipping Freezerburn was "disrespectful" and "egotistical" and "ungrateful" and - again - "homophobic" because Yang kisses Blake in canon and apparently that means that every viewer is legally obligated to praise the ship and make it the center of all their fics and fanart, because anything less is you "choosing to hate bumblby because you're a homophobe" and "failing to show the proper gratitude and reverence to the writers" and "stuck up and conceited and arrogant enough to think you could come up with better ideas than the writers" and "disrespecting all their hard work"
Aaaaand I've also seen people post lists of "rules" that every fic-writer or fan-artist is apparently required to follow, and if they don't then they get written off as "part of the HTDM" and they become a socially-acceptable target for cyberbullying and harassment, on the grounds that "the HTDM refuses to respect rwby, so why should we respect them?" And what'd'ya know, one of the many rules every fan is now expected to follow is literally "you must ship bumblby and you must make Blake and Yang get together, and you cannot pair either character with anyone else in the series."
I'll tell you what; the show claims to be about artistic expression, freedom of speech, and trusting love - but the biggest fans never got the memo.
No one is allowed to make art unless it is Canon-Compliant
No one is allowed to express an opinion unless it is a Glowing 5-Star 10/10 Two Thumbs Up monetizable recommendation
And no one will choose kindness if you break either of those two rules. Differences and Dissent are the enemies in this fndm, and if you get pronounced guilty of them, you become an acceptable target.
Because you ship two female main-characters with each other
Just not the ones that became canon
And the fndm seems unwilling to confront the fact that "doesn't ship bumblby" isn't included in the definition of Homophobia - but "attacking people and inciting hate against them through smearing their reputation and getting them branded as a toxic monster for no other reason than they posted content about a wlw ship on their tumblr" kind of is
Anyway Freezerburn is awesome
Ah. Yeah I've been out of the fandom for a minute, fell out around volume 4 and came back in with a recent rewatch so I was around when Shipping freezerburn was less controversial I guess. That and one of the only people in this fandom I've been following for the past decade is a multishipper who only posts postive content.
But this all does track. I did at one point ship Blacksun but it's been years since that happened and I find a lot of enjoyment in Blake and Sun's sibling/friend dynamic more than anything.
Even funnier since my post that started this mentioned that I support Yang having two girlfriends, but I have seen how serious rwby fans get about people criticizing the show even before I left. I remember when there were wars about posting in the rwde tag and fans who would start fights with bloggers for posting in it because they didn't think people were being nice enough in the rwde tag despite it being labeled that way for a reason.
I appreciate you taking the time to explain fandom history I missed out on to me.
Been a freezerburn shipper since volume 2, and surprisingly, that hasn't changed even after 6 years of being gone. If there's one thing I'll always support, it's Yang and her many suitors.
12 notes · View notes
kloppool · 3 months
Text
analysis of liverpool's szn at the halfway point
i think the most apparent reason for our resurgence this szn is our midfield rebuild. i won't go too in-depth about our issues last year (cause we all literally lived it) but our midfield was old, injury-prone and just could not do its job. the thing that makes liverpool different is that our attacking facilitators are our fullbacks, so the midfield is expected to do more defensively. that was not happening last season, which left our defense exposed. this year, our brand-new midfield has looked amazing. despite a rough few games, domi has been one of the best signings, covers an incredible amount of ground a game, and can score some absolute bangers. macca has been played out of position so far, but has still been great. however, i think endo has been the best of the bunch, which might be a little controversial, but considering what the expectations of many were vs what he has delieved, i think the thing i love the most about endo is his attitude. even if he makes a mistake, he puts in double the effort to make up for it.
similar to our midfield, our defense is very much having a comeback season. as i touched on in the previous paragraph, the midfield left our defense very exposed last season. this was especially an issue at the fullback position because while taa and robbo are crazy talented, they sometimes leave a lot to be desired in the defensive area. our center back situation was also not great.
while the midfield being loads better certainly helps our defense, i also think that every single one of them is miles better then last year. virg is having a proper renaissance and looks back to his best. joel was phenomenal, ibou is hitting his stride and jarell is our best academy player since trent.
trent's position switch has maybe been the most interesting thing taticallly so far imo. by allowing him to play as an inverted fullback, trent gets to make full use of one some of his best skills- his passing and vision. he's directly gotten us 4 points this season through goals and his defending has improved
to put in perspective how good our defense has been our goals conceded per match is 0.84 so far
the funny thing about our attack this year is that normally it's the area we have the least concern with. for years, liverpool was defined by it's incredible attacking football and lack of defense soundness, which lead to (what felt like) constant 4-3s.....just look at 2017/2018.
so far liverpool have scored 39 goals, only behind city (43) and aston villa (40)
however, the problem is that liverpool are wasteful and not finishing enough chances. mo salah has 12 goals and 7 assists in having played 19 matches
the issue (so far) is that there is no other consistent goalscorer. while darwin has certainly been much better this season, he still misses a lot. if he can improve his finishing, i gen believe he could be fernando torres-esque. if not, we need to a. find someone to consistently score goals and b. allow him the freedom to do what he does best: which rn, is to cause chaos. i can see darwin taking up a bobby type role here and being a facilitator for mo and another strike partner
diogo is, after mo, our best attacker. he is so clinical it's not even funny. cody's movement and energy are fantastic, but his finishing needs to improve. luis diaz has been great at times, but has struggled lately and i think a little time off to reset after everything he's been through this season would be great
summary: our midfield and defense have improved massively thanks to new signings and players rediscovering their best selves. our attack creates great chances, but overall struggles to finish consistently. but, overall, i'm impressed. we've lost a lot of crucial players over the past 2 years, mainly in the midfield and attack (literally all of our midfielders left) and to be in a title race this season is truly impressive.
have not spoken of klopp yet, but he is as animated as ever and his ability to reinvent this team and reenergize them is truly special. i know he's "the normal one" but what he does is the exact opposite.
if you read this whole thing thank you so much.....also you might be a little crazy
17 notes · View notes
moirtre · 9 months
Text
Tumblr media
*    03.    ANTHOLOGY: the solo activities of letalis.
capitalizing on the immediate success experienced by the seven-piece, apricus began promoting solo activities for each of the members two years after their debut. aside from music, the members have all managed to successfully find their niche activities, allowing them identities apart from their role in letalis.
Tumblr media
 ‎ ‎ ┉       *       ﹙ㅤʬ              ›             NAIRA.
‎ ‎ ⋆⠀⠀&.⠀⠀٬⠀⠀going by the solo alias of naira christiansen, naira was the first member to pursue acting as her primary solo activity. typically appearing in thai soap dramas and short films, she's made a name for herself as one of the most sought-after female leads. her most notable drama, released in 2018, features naira as a workaholic university professor who finds herself being pursued by a hardened ceo in the midst of a pr disaster.
Tumblr media
 ‎ ‎ ┉       *       ﹙ㅤʬ              ›             MELANIE.
‎ ‎ ⋆⠀⠀&.⠀⠀٬⠀⠀easily the most well-known member outside of the group, melanie was the first to embark on solo activities. known for her self-made brand, melanie has found success as both a solo artist and brand ambassador. beginning with her musical debut under the name, melanie bae, in 2015, she has released a total of eight solo projects including three #1 albums, 37 charted songs, 3 top ten songs, and one #1 single. her most popular release, chanel blues (2020) received both popular and critical acclaim even being cited as the album of the year by billboard magazine.
Tumblr media
 ‎ ‎ ┉       *       ﹙ㅤʬ              ›             JUNIPER.
‎ ‎ ⋆⠀⠀&.⠀⠀٬⠀⠀outside of the group, juniper is best known for her infamous mysterious persona. as a model juniper finds her niche in avant-garde high fashion editorials and runways. beginning with a controversial calvin klein endorsement in 2017, juniper quickly became one of the most sought-after models, appearing in multiple subsequent campaigns for the brand through 2019. after being named the international face of valentino in 2021, she's opened every major fashion week show for the brand since.
Tumblr media
 ‎ ‎ ┉       *       ﹙ㅤʬ              ›             EMMY.
‎ ‎ ⋆⠀⠀&.⠀⠀٬⠀⠀as a soloist, emmy has continuously proven herself to be a powerhouse without having to compete with melanie's demographic. as the second to begin her solo activities in late 2015, emmy's status as an icon is most notable in japan and the united kingdom. debuting as a solo artist with her rap-heavy japanese album, emmy found rapid success within the japanese entertainment industry landing variety show appearances and a few action dramas. her rise to stardom in the united kingdom came in 2022 through her casting as the fiery, altruistic new anchor celine misuki in the hbo max drama 'succession'.
Tumblr media
 ‎ ‎ ┉       *       ﹙ㅤʬ              ›             NARYUN.
‎ ‎ ⋆⠀⠀&.⠀⠀٬⠀⠀notably the last to begin solo activities, naryun has found a home in the r&b and neo-soul scene. taking heavy inspiration from artists like frank ocean, solange, umi, and sabrina claudio, naryun quickly established herself as a self-producing artist. with all of her music being written, produced, and composed by herself and close friends, trenton won and hwang minseo, naryun takes on a more underground feel with her music. choosing to focus on personal growth and musical quality, naryun has released two full-length albums since her debut in 2019.
Tumblr media
 ‎ ‎ ┉       *       ﹙ㅤʬ              ›             HERI.
‎ ‎ ⋆⠀⠀&.⠀⠀٬⠀⠀despite her apathy for public attention, heri began making a name for herself as a television personality and producer in 2018. beginning with her appearances on running man and i live alone, heri gained a reputation for being a bashful personality with a competitive edge. additionally, though less known, heri has found acclaim for her production credits under the penname carré. often pairing up with songwriting and composition duo romeo and pluto (better known as avos' hwaseong), heri is often spotted on apricus' most futuristic credits. most recently, she has been one of three rotating hosts of apricus culture's exclusive variety show, for the culture, since its debut in 2022.
Tumblr media
 ‎ ‎ ┉       *       ﹙ㅤʬ              ›             SIENNA.
‎ ‎ ⋆⠀⠀&.⠀⠀٬⠀⠀a known triple threat, if anyone can give melanie a run for her money, it's sienna. though initially making her acting debut in 2017, sienna quickly proved herself to be a capable actress landing a lead role in a short-lived netflix original in 2018. her continued display of acting prowess carried her through her beloved roles as lexie lim in the movie 'love, simon' and its sequel 'love, victor' as well as the infallible angelia ellery in netflix's 'the politician'. after announcing a break from acting in 2022, sienna reinvented her image through her pure pop debut album, barbie blues. the album debuted to immense attention in the western music market, securing sienna's american music award recognition as 'best new artist'.
24 notes · View notes
yesterdayiwrote · 3 months
Note
Hi Emma,
I’ve been trying to put this train of thoughts for down for quite some time, not sure if it will make any sense or not. But I wanted to put it out there in some form, because every single time a new chapter gets added up, the less the whole convo makes sense.
I get if you won’t want to publish this.
I have read a few of the latest anons and followed Lewis’ business and no-business ventures for quite some time now, mostly because I got across them on socials, and I ended up forming my own ideas on Lewis, but they are a bit controversial, so we will leave those out, for today.
From Lewis’ himself and people we can trust enough’ words (George’s as well), it’s kind of evident that Lewis (as many people in the show business have) has a private persona that is very much different to the one he quite carefully presents to the public.
Lewis’ name is a brand, and like many brands is worth millions, reason why there is lots of engineering behind the scenes about the events he shows up at, the sponsors and other brands that work with him and, mostly, the people that he associates himself with (in public).
His social medias have been wiped out in recent times (after he received his Title from the Royal Family) and rebuilt to present him in a certain way, a more private and watered down figure than what he’s been in his rebellious party years, if we want to put it that way.
His social medias nowadays are always constructed and filled with activism, business projects, positivity and sponsored events with others high end socialites or even political figures.
Yet there are some kind of discrepancies that sometimes slip through the cracks that kind of make little sense.
Lewis can do whatever he wants in his personal life, the non-public one, but considering how excessively careful he always is with his perceived reputation, there are things like the Antarctica trip that always catch you by surprise when they happen
It’s clear that Lewis has a wilder side and probably a rather controversial one, so certain kind of associations are not that unexpected of him.
It’s the way they are treated by his PR team and by himself that clash with whatever PR image of him they want to present us (the public) with.
Lewis has been associated or somehow involved (even romantically) with bigger or smaller names for the longest amount of time, so it frankly makes me wonder what is the gain in being associated with so many controversial people, when his PR facade is so well chiselled and preserved.
Of course he can like hanging out with said people, maybe he even likes dating them, but some of them (Juliana) are mostly product placements to generate publicity and clicks/views. So the question now would be, with all those kind of let’s call them IG ‘’models” that are available out there, why would they let Lewis associate with someone as controversial as her.
We can have the longest discussion about this, but how many times Lewis has been pictured officially out and about with her by his side, bar the two NY eve’s events? The point I am trying to make, here, is that you can find someone to scratch your itch without anyone knowing about it ever, there are certain professional figures who are tight lipped way lot more than an IG “model”’under an NDA will ever be.
His PR team and personal entourage certainly can provide one individual with this kind of service, so if Lewis or his entourage keep on associating with those kind of people (influencers, etc), and do the reverse of hiding it (if Lewis wanted to date Juliana in secret, he perfectly could, without anyone knowing a thing about it), pushing the story to the media… means they all have something to gain from it.
Now, with an IG “model”, linking your name with someone like Lewis’ would generate views and cash, but in Lewis’ case… he’d generate lot more rumour by associating with someone like Shakira, rather than Juliana.
So the gain doesn’t seem worth the risk of being spotted with someone as controversial as virtually unknown as her.
Might be overanalyzing, but there has been various instances of Lewis taking the casual L,l with medias, and not in his “romantic” life only. But with the carefully construced persona that he has, and the team around him, I wonder how some slips this big have occurred fairly often, you know.
Very confusing.
You make a lot of interesting points anon, and there's a lot to cover.
I think with anyone in the public eye you've got to remember there's two versions. There's very much the person, and then there's often the persona. There's Lewis Hamilton the human being, but there's also "Lewis Hamilton" the brand and the public figure. For some celebs they're indistinguishable from each other, for others there's a lot more distance between them. With Lewis, I think they're very interchangeable and he flows quite effortlessly between the two. Lewis loves and appreciates his privacy, but he also loves the attention when he chooses.
I think public personas operate a bit like Doctor Who regenerations, and we're on about our 3rd or 4th iteration of "Lewis". We started out with the young f1 rookie who was very serious but taking it all in and could do no wrong. Then we had the burgeoning celebrity phase. Gets a famous girlfriend, starts getting a bit confident, maybe a bit cocksure at times, but starts embracing the limelight and the attention. Then there was the obnoxious asshole phase. People can deny it happened all they want but... it absolutely did. Now we're into his 'reforming' phase. Mellowed out, more in control of his image, more socially aware, really trying to build that GOAT brand and fight back against some of the earlier criticisms of him. His growth stage.
I think people overlook the effect his relationship with Nicole may have had on him. He was very young and very new to the public eye and he was pushed into a very public relationship that I don't think was entirely healthy. It got very messy and I think he was definitely changed by it. He's never had a visible long term relationship since.
It's easy to view everything connected to Lewis through a PR lens and whilst I'm sure his PR people do monitor who he's seen with and who he associates with, they will undoubtedly have to balance that with indulging what Lewis wants to do. He's in the public eye, but he's still a person and a grown adult. They can't wrap him up in cotton wool and save him from himself and his bad choices at the expense of allowing him to be an individual. Its impossible to exist as a human who only ever makes the right choices and we shouldn't expect him to try.
Equally, I think people naively assume that Lewis is above playing PR games, but he absolutely does. When Lewis wants to be private, he manages it highly successfully. He's not stupid. He didn't tell anyone he was going to Africa, he didn't tell anyone about Antarctica, but he told everyone he was going to Brazil this winter break, even though its known to have a pretty effective gossip/paparazzi culture. He said he wanted a latina girlfriend... and who has he been linked to since? I kind of get the impression he's quite happy to be spotted here and with her for whatever reason.
I think people are overanalysing it slightly. She's young and stunning and she has previous with famous people so knows how to play the discretion game for his benefit and hers. Whether it's for real or for show, it works both ways for him. We all know about the problematic stuff because we've looked in to it, most people won't know and won't care, rightly or wrongly. As you say, she's largely unknown. She's only deemed controversial because it's Lewis and the more rabid corners of his fanbase view him as morally pure.
Lewis hangs out with a lot of problematic people and he really doesn't try and hide it. People have a habit of viewing him as entirely unproblematic on an almost Swift-esque level of delusion. Not every questionable thing is a PR misstep, he's capable of fucking up entirely on his own. He's quite clearly a Musk fanboy for example, and he's spoken of his love of him depressingly recently entirely off his own back and I think I personally probably judge him far more harshly for that than anything else right now.
I honestly don't see his public reputation slipping right now, if anything, I think he's probably getting less shit in the press these days than he ever has before, especially in the UK press, probably aided somewhat by the knighthood.
I think people are upset because she's not someone they personally approve of, and I do kind of understand that sentiment. It definitely sucks when you start to question the opinions you've formed about your fave, but that's kind of healthy? I mean genuinely, more people need to criticise and hate on their faves, not in a troll/hateful way, but it's definitely a good thing to take a step back from people you don't know once in a while and go "God, what a dick!". Definitely keeps the fandom a bit healthier! As they used to say "Your fave is problematic".
8 notes · View notes
sailorsharky · 1 year
Text
On Hogwarts Legacy and allyship.
TW/CW: J.K Rowling, Hogwarts Legacy, Transphobia, Antisemitism mentioned. Right. CW out of the way, let me preface this by saying that this may turn out to be a long ramble, but I feel the need to voice my grievances in some way as a non-binary person. First of all, let's set some boundaries. Arguments in bad faith and trolling shall be ignored and/or reported/blocked. Lately, with all this hassle going on about Hogwarts Legacy, I felt the need to air my frustrations. We have all seen many different arguments from across both sides, but I will try to keep this as short as I can.
This game has been talked about well before launch, and many trans and enby folks, as well as Jewish people have asked for people to show solidarity by not buying the game. As an ally, it's important to note that it's not a lifetime pass. Many think that being an ally just means saying you support something or be generally neutral and not saying slurs. That is not the case. To be an ally you have to listen to what marginalized groups are saying. The release of this game and the widescale purchase of it by people only talking the talk and not walking the walk has shown many of us under the Trans umbrella (as well as our Jewish comrades) that we cannot trust those we called allies.
I am not saying that playing this game automatically makes you a bigoted person. Some folks I know got it and one admitted that the last JKR controversy he recalled was the whole "Dumbledore is now gay" debacle. (Pretty solid rock you've been under. Room for one more? /j) My ire is not pointed towards people that were genuinely ignorant of the situation, though my disappointment still stands and my trust in them as allies is gone. What mostly draws my ire is the knee-jerk reaction of supposed "allies" when pointing out that they have crossed the picket line and attempt to rationalize their purchase with arguments such as "I'm only supporting the devs", "I'm seperating the art from the artist", "What will 60-70 bucks change?" and "It's okay though because I donated as much/more to a Trans charity!" and so on. Let's go through them one by one. I'd like to keep this as short as possible however as many others have pointed out why these fall flat. 1. "I'm only supporting the devs". If you ONLY support the devs (of which the lead dev and a voice actor share JKR's horrific viewpoints), why aren't you buying EVERY single game on every storefront you make use of? This is a non-argument. If you buy games ONLY to support the devs, then by all means, bankrupt yourself to do just that. But you don't. You wanted to buy this game for nostalgia's sake. 2. "I'm separating the art from the artist" As a fan of HP Lovecraft's work, I understand the want to separate the art from the artist. But 1) Lovecraft is rotting in the ground as we speak. JKR is very much alive. 2) It's hard to seperate the art from the artist when said art is used as a cudgel to infringe upon human rights and dignity. Every act of consumption of her IP she sees as a vote of confidence in her brand of hatred. You may not personally see it that way, but she does, and she relishes in it. "But you just said you like Lovecraft's work! He was VERY racist and xenophobic!" Yes, absolutely! Let's HAVE that conversation, but not on this post. I agree that Lovecraft's art needs to be talked about in a critical light and the setting needs to be reclaimed and distanced from his fear and hatred of all things Not-From-New-England.
For now, moving on to... 3. "What will 60-70 bucks change?" In the grand scheme of things? Nothing. But this was never about trying to ruin JKR's pocket book. This was a litmus test for allies. Stand side by side or cross the picket line and play a mid-tier magic game filled with propaganda and caricatures of Jewish people (among other things). No, I will not entertain statements such as "But I don't see that! If anything, you seeing Jewish caricatures means you are the antisemite!" No buddy, no no no, that's not how propaganda works. There are other posts that delve into this. But in short; recognizing when something is a racist caricature does not make you a racist. Nor does not recognizing it immediately make you a racist, it simply means that you do not recognize propagandic imagery and it's important to listen to people who do know about it, specifically people that have been so unfavourably depicted in the past and present. Moving on. 4. "It's okay though because I donated as much/more to a Trans charity!" Martin Luther would like to have a strong conversation with you. Specifically 95 Theses long. Karma is not a linear scale. Buying something that ends up directly harming people and then turning around to pledge the same amount of money (or more) to a charity is not going to fix the broken trust, nor will it actually help at that point. What might help mend the fence is recognizing what the issue is and listening to the voices of those affected. Granted, many of us feel that they can no longer trust former allies because of this. Once broken, trust is hard to repair. It's important to keep that in mind and not get upset when we point it out. Personally, I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, but with that said, I won't be so trusting of people calling themselves allies when they choose to spend 60-70 bucks on a game that directly benefits Queen TERF (Royalty cheques are a thing, remember? You ARE directly financing her hate) rather than saving the money or putting it to a different game or charity. In short, my advice for folks that call themselves allies is this; If you want to call yourself an ally, actually listen to what is being said and learn from it. We all make mistakes, but launching into a kneejerk reaction is simply degrading what little trust remained. Don't just virtue signal, but stand beside the voices of the marginalized in solidarity.
That is all I can spare at the moment. Please keep the responses civil among one another. Asking for clarification is a-okay. Repeating above mentioned "arguments" and more like them is not. P.S: Do forgive me if I forgot some key points, I've been running on very little sleep at the moment and I needed to air my frustrations in a constructive way.
40 notes · View notes
secondhand-snow · 6 days
Note
*Stalker!Lukas finds her Spotify, and them listens to all of her Playlists before he even meets her.
*I'm dreading the reason Lukas has been acting all cagey it's because he's already talking to Shiv on the side.
*Hot take: I love how Matsson dresses. It's all good quality pieces and accessories that suit his body type and his personality, even the controversial gold jacket lol. That being said, him on that suit at Logan's funeral was perfection. Alternatively, Justin Kirk in casual clothes is something to dream about. It's a shame we didn't get any Mencken dressing down for a rally.
oh stalker!lukas finds every single account online she has ever had and goes through everything on it. he listens to your sexy playlist and jerks off to it imagining you.
eeeeek!! we are the the point were canonically they start talking, so that's not an impossible theory!!
matsson's style is everythinggg to me. the way its so different than the roys and serves his character so well? he's not afraid of name brands like they are, he loves sportswear and loungewear, he never wears their trademark business casual. honestly he would want you to wear the gold jacket and nothing else while ur riding him.
i would actually combust if we saw mencken in casual wear. i already go so feral for him in the bathroom scene with roman, with his sleeves all pushed up and the top of his shirt unbuttoned. i feel like he'd love a polo shirt, very country club esque.
5 notes · View notes
tysonfurybattlepass · 7 months
Note
Heard you were looking for some anon hate, so here's some that I've thought about over the past few years 😉
Your art is pure garbage. Your shading is so basic and yet it looks worse than the drawings on wikihow articles, and your colors are an abhorrent mix that looks like neon puke. Literally one of the first tips beginner artists get is "don't use the airbrush". And what do you do? Airbrush the fuck out of your markings and shading! Your older anatomy and character designs were far more superior while the newer ones are a bastardized version of their former glory days. I'm younger than you and I can actually paint and pick good colors lmao
You haven't improved at all in 5 years. You actually got worse! You're drawing the same snarling cat 20 times a month instead of working on your backgrounds, shading, anatomy and compositions, and their jaws still look crooked with displaced teeth Every. Single. Time! I wonder how strong their bite force is when the lower jaw is at a 45° angle from the upper one?
All your characters look crazy and deranged and like absolute psychopaths. It's not a good look for your "brand" <3 And their torso takes up 90% of their body. How are they supposed to be strong beasts when their stumpy legs can barely hold the weight of your bad stylization? And you call that an improvement instead of godawful anatomy!
And then, and then!! Y're constantly making new characters, drawing them a bunch and forgetting about them! Algernon, Jarith, Lucia, Geneph, Xiaoya, Bailey, Jicama, Utah, Felin, Civen, Afryea, Thyodore,.Tyson (Aster's pet Inostrancevia), Donnie... And you have even more that you haven't even posted about? How does it feel to know that someone knows your characters more than YOU do? Talk about being an irresponsible artist
You're not even creative enough. "Here's a species that looks exactly like a cat but trust me guys it's not a cat, see? it has two extra arms!" "Here are 20 smilodons that are yellow-brown and have spots, but I love all of them and can differentiate between them!!" "Here's a leopard seal who's bigger than the natural ones and is a made-up species (who's supposed to be part bear and I definetely didnt forget about that) even though nothing is different between her and a regular anthro seal!!!"
I hope you give up on art. It won't take you anywhere in life, just like your autistic interest in paleontology won't help you. You didn't even get a superior education, so it's clear you'll live your life working minimum wage jobs because you're not qualified to do anything better. You’re lazy as fuck and you have no excuse for how weak you are.
You say you have 1000 followers but you barely pass 10 notes on your art and even less on your vents, and whenever you demand people to send you asks daily, nobody says anything. So not even your followers like you. They're just observing your every move and are laughing at your pain. The only thing you're good at is being daily entertainment for me and hundreds of others like me.
All your "female" characters loook like males regardless of what they identify as. It's as if you're incapable of drawing women.
Hooray for making all your best characters trans since you seem to be allergic to normal people. I'm glad you confessed that you support the mutilation of middle schoolers / transing gender non-comforming females (Azure).
You call yourself a "he/they" but you're still competing in the women's category cuz you know you wouldn't last in a fight against real men. You're such a failure that even your step father calls you his daughter publicly. (Your parents surely are disappointed in what you've become. I wouldn't be surprised if you were the reason for their divorce)
Only a few years back you were a proud tomboy girl, but I guess you hate yourself so much that you project your self-misogyny through self-identification and an atrocious art style.
You even chose the name “Tyson”, like that troon Chris Tyson. Considering the recent controversy, that’s what people will associate with your name, not whoever “Tyson Fury” is, and truthfully you deserve it.
You're so fragile being called a girl when you look, sound and act like one. Girl. Woman. Female. Dike. Lass. Lady. She. Wahine. Kaikamahine. Did this make you cry some pathetic manly tears? 100% sure you look like the soyjak in the soyjak vs chad meme right now. Can’t wait to read your breakdown on tumblr, if you’re not going to outright delete every account you have to escape me
Typical white girl starving for attention online behavior lmao.
You boast that you are "hot" but you are objectively ugly, not even mid. Your undercut is shit and your face is so damn bland. Your fursona is strong and beefy but you have a thin female body with stick arms and visible breasts. Talk about projection and an inflated ego. You're oozing with narcissism, and I wouldn't be surprised if you got diagnosed with it. It would 100% suit you.
Your "girlfriends" are still lesbian women, but you’re not one? “Transmasc butch lesbian” my ass, you absolute pooner. It’s not that hard to be a regular woman. Pretty sure you're not even dating them, you're just friends who haven't even held hands. And you’re still a virgin lmao. No bitches? 🥺 And you have not one, but two, because you're insecure in your feelings and can't commit to only one person since you need that external validation. I'm sure they're cheating behind your back because they know you wouldn't check on them.
I hope your sleep apnea kills you in your sleep. You deserve it.
L + ratio + you’re a loser + cope and seethe
Don't bother blocking and reporting me, I said all I had to say, I don't plan on interacting with you anymore and I don't have this level of hatred against anyone else.
Now, have I stalked your accounts until their beginning, or have I followed you for a really long time? Or a secret third thing (I stalked you for a really long time)?
the color thing is true but you should get a job
19 notes · View notes