#his mind has expanded

[hylialeia]

everyone who doesn't include the full quote when mocking GRRM's "what was Aragorn's tax policy" rhetorical question owes me $200

#we as a society need to move past this 'lotr is above criticism' mindset #'grrm totally missed the point of lotr!!' no YOU missed the point of that quote and also asoiaf #how does no one include the 'what did they do with the rest of the orcs? did they kill the little baby ones too?' part? #the point isn't dismissive of tolkien it's critical of modern fantasy's tendency to avoid these questions #and opt instead for a black and white conflict that doesn't examine the humanity on either side #grrm has gone on about how he admires tolkien. taking a quote that expresses his desire for fantasy to expand and explore #and claiming it's some sort of faux intellectualism just because it makes you uncomfortable #is incredibly small minded and harmful actually and I'm sick of pretending it's not #asoiaf

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

IDK if you've ever said anything about it, but in the Lights Out AU, what was Wally's first reaction on realizing that Frank was alive and he wasn't alone anymore? I imagine it was...quite emotional

i Haven't talked about their Initial Reunion yet, no! but yes, it was very emotional! there were certainly many emotions!

namely: fear, confusion, shock, and nearly killing your friend with an oversized baseball bat <3

#im trying to work on a mini comic to expand on this but my art Isnt Arting Correctly #so this will have to do for now #but to put it Short and Simply #frank: WHAT THE FUCK ITS JUST ME!!! ITS ME!!! #wally: oh oops heyyyyy totally thought you were one of the Things <3 my bad <3 #wally: .... #wally: HOLY SHIT? FRANK?! #aaaaaand scene #wh lights out au #scribble salad #rambles from the bog #obviously its more complicated and less... jokey than that #i have the scene laid out nicely in my head #but putting it to 'paper' is a challenge! #there are factors to include #like how frank thinks everyone in the storage room is dead & how wally hasnt spoken more than a few mumbled words in a Long time #wally at this point has essentially lost his sense of self and basically just goes through his 'routine' like a robot #so it takes a second for his mind to kinda... reboot in a sense #and in that second frank nearly dies for realsies #haha thats... thats funny actually. Nearly. ha. the irony. #but uhhhh yeah frank really goes Through It for a bit #especially the immediate waking up through running into wally #or more like wally runs into him! purposefully! with the bat!

[demigod-of-the-agni]

Spider-Man India, but... where from India?

A SUPER long post featuring talks of: cultural identity, characterisation, the caste system, and what makes Spider-Man Spider-Man.

I’m prefacing this by saying that I am a second-generation immigrant. I was born in Australia, but my cultural background is from South India. My experiences with what it means to be “Indian” is going to be very different from the experiences of those who are born and brought up in India.

If you, reader, want to add anything, please reblog and add your thoughts. This is meant to be a post open for discussion — the more interaction we get, the better we become aware of these nuances.

So I made this poll asking folks to pick a region of India where I would draw Pavitr Prabhakar in their cultural wear. This idea had been on my mind for a long while now, as I had been inspired by Annie Hazarika’s Northeastern Spidey artwork in the wake of ATSV’s release, but never got the time to actually do it until now. I wanted to get a little interactive and made the poll so I could have people choose which of the different regions — North, Northeast, Central, East, West, South — to do first.

The outcome was not what I expected. As you can see, out of 83 votes:

THE RESULTS

South India takes up almost half of all votes (44.6%), followed by Northeast and Central (both 14.5%) and then East (13.3%). In all my life growing up, support towards or even just the awareness of South India was pretty low. Despite this being a very contained poll, why would nearly half of all voters pick South India in favour of other popular choices like Central or North India?

Then I thought about the layout of the poll: Title, Options, Context.

Title: "Tell us who you want to see…"

Options: North, Northeast, Central, East, West, South

Context: I want to make art of the boy again

At first I thought: ah geez. this is my fault. I didn't make the poll clear enough. do they think I want them to figure out where Pavitr came from? That's not what I wanted, maybe I should have added the context before the options.

Then I thought: ah geez. is it my fault for people not reading the entire damn thing before clicking a button? That's pretty stupid.

But regardless, the thought did prompt a line of thinking I know many of us desi folk have been considering since Spider-Man India was first conceived — or, at least, since the announcement that he was going to appear in ATSV. Hell, even I thought of it:

Where did Spider-Man India come from?

FROM A CULTURALLY DIVERSE INDIA

As we know, India is so culturally diverse, and no doubt ATSV creators had to take that into account. Because the ORIGINAL Spider-Man India came from Mumbai — most likely because Mumbai and Manhattan both started with the same letter.

But going beyond that, it’s also because Mumbai is one of the most recognisable cities in India - it’s also known as Bombay. It’s where Bollywood films are shot. It’s where superstar Hindi actors and actresses show up. Mumbai is synonymous with India in that regard, because the easiest way Western countries can interact with Indian culture is through BOLLYWOOD, through HINDI FILMS, through MUMBAI. Suddenly, India is Mumbai, India is a Hindi-only country, India is just this isolated thing we see through an infinitely narrow lens.

We’ve gotten a little better in recent years, but boy I will tell you how uncomfortable I’ve gotten when people (yes, even desi people) come up to me and tell me, Oh, you’re Indian right? Can you speak Hindi? Why don’t you speak Hindi? You’re not Indian if you don’t speak Hindi, that’s India’s national language!

I have been — still am — so afraid of telling people that I don’t speak Hindi, that I’m Tamil, that I don’t care that Hindi is India’s “national” language (it’s an administrative language, Kavin, get your fucking facts right). It’s weird, it’s isolating, and it has made me feel like I wasn’t “Indian” enough to be accepted into the group of “Indian” people.

So I am thankful that ATSV went out of their way to integrate as much variety of Indian culture into the Mumbattan sequence. Maybe that way, the younger generation of desi folk won’t feel so isolated, and that younger Western people will be more open to learning about all these cultural differences within such a vast country.

BUT WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH SPIDER-MAN INDIA?

Everything, actually. There’s a thing called supremacy. You might have heard of it. We all engaged with it at some point, and if you are Indian, no matter where you live, it is inescapable.

It happens the moment you are born — who your family is, where you are born, the language you speak, the colour of your skin; these will be bound to you for life, and it is nigh impossible to break down the stereotypes associated with them.

Certain ethnic groups will be more favourable than others (Centrals, and thus their cultures, will always be favoured over than Souths, as an example) and the same can be said for social groups (Brahmins are more likely to secure influential roles in politics or other areas like priesthood, while the lowers castes, especially Dalits, aren’t even given the decency of respect). Don’t even get me started on colourism, where obviously those of fairer skin will win the lottery while those of darker skin aren’t given the time of day. It’s even worse when morality ties into it — “lighter skinned Indians, like Brahmins, embody good qualities like justice and wisdom”, “dark skinned Indians are cunning and poor, they are untrustworthy”. It’s fucking nuts.

This means, of course, you have a billion people trying to make themselves heard in a system that tries to crush everyone who is not privileged. It only makes sense that people want to elevate themselves and break free from a society that refuses to acknowledge them. These frustrations manifest outwardly, like in protests, but other times — most times — it goes unheard, quietly shaping your way of life, your way of thinking. It becomes a fundamental part of you, and it can go unacknowledged for generations.

So when you have a character like Pavitr Prabhakar enter the scene, people immediately latch onto him and start asking questions many Western audiences don’t even consider. Who is he? What food does he eat? What does he do on Fridays? What’s his family like, his community? All these questions pop up, because, amidst all this turmoil going on in the background, you want a mainstream popular character to be like you, who knows your way of life so intimately, that he may as well be a part of your community.

BUT THAT'S THE THING — HE'S FICTIONAL

I am guilty of this. In fact, I’ve flaunted in numerous posts how I think he’s the perfect Tamil boy, how he dances bharatanatyam, how he does all these Tamil things that no one will understand except myself. All these niche things that only I, and maybe a few others, will understand.

I’ve seen other people do it, too. I’ve seen people geek out over his dark brown skin, his kalari dhoti, how he fights so effortlessly in the kalaripayattu martial arts style. I’ve seen people write him as Malayali, as Hindi, as every kind of Indian person imaginable.

I’ve also seen him be written where he’s subjected to typical Indian and broader Asian stereotypes. You know the ones I’m so fond of calling out. The thing is, I’ve seen so much of Pavitr being presented in so many different ways, and I worry how the rest of the desi folk will take it. 

You finally have a character who could be you, but now he’s someone else’s plaything. Your entire life is shaped by what you can and can’t do simply because you were born to an Indian family, and here’s the one person who could represent you now at the mercy of someone else’s whims. He’s off living a life that is so distant from yours, you can hardly recognise him.

It shouldn’t hurt as much as it does, yeah? But, again, you’re looking at it from that infinitely narrow lens Westerners use to look at India from Bollywood.

AND PAVITR PRABHAKAR DOESN'T LIVE IN INDIA

He lives in Mumbattan. He lives in a made-up, fictional world that doesn’t follow the way of life of our world. He lives in a city where Mumbai and Manhattan got fucking squashed together. There are so many memes about colonialism right there. Mumbattan isn’t real! Spider-Man India isn’t real!! He’s just a dude!! The logic of our world doesn’t apply to him!!!

“But his surname originates from ______” okay but does that matter?

“But he’s wearing a kalari dhoti so surely he’s ______” okay but does that matter?

“But his skin colour is darker so he must be ______” okay but does that matter?

“But he lives in Mumbai so he must be ______” okay but does that matter?

I sound insensitive and brash and annoying and it looks like I’m yapping just for the sake of riling you up, so direct that little burst of anger you got there at me, and keep reading.

Listen. I’m going to ask you a question that I’ve asked myself a million times over. I want you to answer honestly. I want you to ask this question to yourself and answer honestly:

Are you trying to convince me on who Pavitr Prabhakar should be?

... but why shouldn't i?

I’ll tell you this again — I did the same thing. You’re not at fault for this, but I want you to just...have a little think over. Just a little moment of self-reflection, to think about why you are so intent on boxing this guy.

It took me a while to reorganise my thinking and how to best approach a character like Pavitr, so I will give you all the time you need as well as a little springboard to focus your thoughts on.

SPIDER-MAN (INDIA) IS JUST A MASK

“What I like about the costume is that anybody reading Spider-Man in any part of the world can imagine that they themselves are under the costume. And that’s a good thing.”

Stan Lee said that. Remember how he was so intent on making sure that everybody got the idea that Spider-Man as an entity is fundamentally broken without Peter Parker there to put on the suit and save the day? That ultimately it was the person beneath the mask, no matter who they were, that mattered most?

Spider-Man India is no less different. You can argue with me that Peter Parker!Spidey is supposed to represent working class struggles in the face of leering corporate entities who endanger the regular folk like us, and so Pavitr Prabhakar should also function the same way. Pavitr should also be a working class guy of this specific social standing fighting people of this other social standing.

But that takes away the authenticity of Spider-Man India. Looking at him through the Peter Parker lens forces you to look at him through the Western lens, and it significantly lessens what you can do with the character — suddenly, it’s a fight to be heard, to be seen, to be recognised. It’s yelling over each other that Pavitr Prabhakar is this ethnicity, is that caste, this or that, this or that, this or that.

There’s a reason why he’s called Spider-Man India, infuriatingly vague as it is. And that’s the point — the vagueness of his identity fulfils Lee’s purpose for a character that could theoretically be embodied by anyone. If he had been called “Spider-Man Mumbai”, you cut out a majority of the population (and in capitalist terms, you cut out a good chunk of the market).

And in the case of Spider-Man India? Whew — you’ve got about a billion people imagining a billion different versions of him.

Whoever you are, whatever you see in Pavitr, that is what is personal to you, and there is nothing wrong with that, and I will not fault you for it. I will not fault you for saying Pavitr is from Central due to the origins of his last name. I also will not fault you for saying Pavitr is from South due to him practising kalaripayattu. I also will not fault you for saying he is not Hindu. I also will not fault you for saying he is a particular ethnicity without any proof.

What I will fault you for is trying to convince me and the others around you that Pavitr Prabhakar should be this particular ethnicity/have this cultural background because of some specific reason. I literally don’t care and it is fundamentally going against his character, going against the “anyone can wear the mask” sentiment of Spider-Man. By doing this, you are strengthening the walls that first divided us. You’re feeding the stratification and segmentation of our cultures — something that is actually not present in the fictional world of Mumbattan.

Like I said before: Mumbattan isn’t real, so the divides between ethnicities and cultural backgrounds are practically nonexistent. The best thing is that it is visually there for all to see. My favourite piece of evidence is this:

It’s a marquee for a cinema in the Mumbattan sequence, in the “Quick tour: this is where the traffic is” section. It has four titles; the first three are written in Hindi. The fourth title is written in Tamil. You go to Mumbai and you won’t see a single shred of Tamil there, much less any other South Indian language. Seeing this for the first time, you know what went through my head?

Wow, the numerous cultures of India are so intermingled here in Mumbattan! Everyone and everything is welcome!

I was happy, not just because of Tamil representation, but because of the fact that the plethora of Indian cultures are showcased coexisting in such a short sequence. This is India embracing all the little parts that make up its grander identity. This scene literally opened my eyes seeing such beauty in all the diverse cultures thriving together. In a place where language and cultural backgrounds blend so easily, each one complementing one another.

It is so easy to believe that, from this colourful palette of a setting, Pavitr Prabhakar truly is Spider-Man India, no matter where he comes from.

It’s easy to believe that Pavitr can come from any part of India, and I won’t call you out if the origin you have for him is different from the origin I have. You don’t need to stake out territory and stand your ground — you’re entitled to that opinion, and I respect it. In fact, I encourage it!!!

Because there’s only so much you can show in a ten minute segment of a film about a country that has such a vast history and even greater number of cultures. I want to see all of it — I want him to be a Malayali boy, a Hindi boy, a Bengali boy, a Telugu boy, an Urdu boy, whatever!! I want you to write him or draw him immersed in your culture, so that I can see the beauty of your background, the wonderful little things that make your culture unique and different from mine!

And, as many friends have said, it’s so common for Indian folks to be migrating around within our own country. A person with a Maharashtrian surname might end up living in Punjab, and no one really minds that. I’m actually from Karnataka, my family speaks Kannada, but somewhere down the line my ancestors moved to Tamil Nadu and settled down and lived very fulfilling lives. So I don’t actually have the “pure Tamil” upbringing, contrary to popular belief; I’ve gotten a mix of both Kannada and Tamil lifestyles, and it’s made my life that much richer. 

So it’s common for people to “not” look like their surname, if that’s what you’re really afraid about. In fact, it just adds to that layer of nuance, that even despite these rigid identities between ethnicities we as Indian people still intermingle with one another, bringing slivers of our cultures to share with others. Pavitr could just as well have been born in one state and moved around the country, and he happens to live in Mumbattan now. It’s entirely possible and there’s nothing to disprove that.

We don’t need to clamber over one another declaring that only one ethnicity is the “right” ethnicity, because, again, you will be looking at Pavitr and the rest of India in that narrow Western lens — a country with such rich cultural variety reduced to a homogenous restrictive way of life.

THE POLL: REINTERPRETED

This whole thing started because I was wondering why my little poll was so skewed — I thought people assumed I was asking them where he came from, then paired his physical appearance with the most logical options available. I thought it was my fault, that I had somehow influenced this outcome without knowing.

Truth is, I will never really know. But I will be thankful for it, because it gave me the opportunity to finally broach this topic, something that many of us desi folk are hesitant to talk about. I hope you have learned something from this, whether you are desi or a casual Spider-Man fan or someone who just so happened to stumble upon this. 

So just…be a little more open. Recognise that India, like many many countries and nations, is made up of a plethora of smaller cultures. And remember, if you’re trying to convince Pavitr that he’s a particular ethnicity, he’s going to wave his hand at you and say, “Ha, me? No, I’m one of the people that live here in the best Indian city! I’m Spider-Man India, dost!”

(Regardless, he still considers you a friend, because to him, the people matter more to him than you trying to box him into something he’s not.)

#long post + more tags that kinda spiral away BUT expand on the points above AND kinda puts everything together concisely #BROS THIS IS AN HONEST TO GOD ESSAY #THAT HAS BEEN COOKING IN MY HEART FOR A WHILE NOW. SIMMERING FOR MONTHS BEFORE FINALLY BOILING OVER IN THE LAST WEEK #genuinely hope you read MOST of it because yes it has Quite A Lot Of Exposition but it all matters nonetheless #put in a lot of thought into this so i expect you to do your part and challenge your thoughts as well #you see how i'm not asking for you to listen to me. but to actually Think. i want you to cook your thoughts and add some spice and flavour #and give it a good mix so you can come out of this a little more wiser than before #because!!! yeah!!!! spider man india is just that!! he's indian!!!!! we don't need to collectively agree on where he comes from #bc it gets rid of that relatability factor of spider man. at the most basic level #think of it as a schrodinger's. he is every single culture and none of them at the same time. therefore none of us are wrong!! sick!!!! #pavitr's first priority is making sure HIS PEOPLE are safe. that's probably as far as we can go that relates him back to peter parker spide #he loves his people and working in the name of justice to FIGHT for HIS PEOPLE is just the duty/responsibility he takes up #it makes sense that he loves everyone and every culture he engages with bc that's the nature of spider man i suppose #if peter parker spidey acts as the guardian for the regular folk.. then in my mind pavitr spidey stands as the bridge uniting the people #because society as its core is very fragmented. and having pavitr act as a connection to other folks.... mmmmm beautiful #that's what i'm talking abouttttt !!! #anyways guys this is literally 3001 words on my document EXCLUDING THE TITLE. THAT'S 7 PAGES AT 11pt FONT. i'm literally cryingggg wtf #pavitr prabhakar #spider man #spider man india #desi #desiblr #atsv #across the spiderverse #atsv pavitr #indian culture #india #desi tumblr #what the fuck do i tag this as #agnirambles

[queen0fm0nsterz]

I keep thinking abt Zoruru and Taruru's potential as a comedic duo. Yall don't understand how funny but also potentially emotionally investing I think they are. Like on one hand we got this kid fresh out of training with hopes and dreams to achieve, already at a good point in his career because hey, he got accepted into one of the most elite platoons their army has to offer! What more could a guy like him possibly ask for? And on the other we have an old man who at this point is completely disillusioned with the Keron Army, never wanted to find anything worthwhile there to begin with -- he only joined to go after his true objective. He's not moved by ambition, but rather revenge.

Their personalities are the polar opposite of each other which you'd think would cause them to clash. There's teasing, playful banter (from Taruru) and half hearted threats (from Zoruru), but in spite of that they get along surprisingly well. That's because they have one thing in common: neither wants to be put aside. They both want to make something of themselves. They want to be recognised; Zoruru, by those who wronged him, and Taruru, by... everyone. He might be not exactly sure, but he wants people to recognise his worth. In that process, they both train hard to work towards that goal. Maybe together, maybe separately, but the idea is that they both end up doing exactly that: they acknowledge the other's abilities. And later, each other. As people.

They both get exactly what they need out of this unlikely bond. Taruru finds someone who recognises him as being apart from the crowd ("not a background character", as he put it in the GRR platoon arc), and Zoruru finds what he's always looked for, even though he might have forgotten it along the way: a genuine friend. Taruru gets the older keronian to loosen up, if minimally, while Zoruru reminds the younger one to not place his trust in a single life path.

They're not just great comrades, they're genuinely good for each other.

#sgt frog #keroro gunso #zoruru #taruru #garuru platoon #zoruru sgt frog #taruru sgt frog #{i think bitter old man + nice kid he adopted is a very real and powerful dynamic #this is my view of it anyway #this dynamic idea has been in my mind for literal years i would LOVE to expand on it given the chance #i think tororo can also be thrown here for EXTRA ENJOYMENT #i love the trio but these two specifically got me thinking tonight #i can see zoruru projecting his younger self on taruru a bit because he too wasn't a prodigy... he gets how taruru feels #and likewise taruru understands why zoruru is the way he is. its kinda like... a mutual understanding of each othed that no other member of #the platoon can really understand. cus garuru and tororo are both prodigies and pururu is also an expert of her field #mhhhhhhhhh yes carols put all your brainworms on these two characters that will never actually happen}

[hyper-hopper]

Hopper's test officially made it to the lab!

I've had some people guess at Hopper's breed mix in the past and thought it might be fun to make a poll while we wait for the test. For the sake of my sanity I'll say just vote for the two breeds you think will show up the highest in the results.

#pictures make it a little hard to see his size but reminder that he's only 15lbs. hes just VERY lanky #also expanding on the poor breeding thing: whoever bred hopper did not do so with health or structure in mind. #he has a few issues that point to the possibility of him being inbred and a few early signs of hip dysplasia that im HOPING arent true #with a docked tailed he was very much intentionally bred but my money has been on him being a doodle of some sort #as much as i hate the term lmao. but he COULD also just be a mini poodle from a byb #dogblr

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

[pericky; a look into ricky's head during their meeting.]

---

"I'm glad you came, I wasn't sure you would." The wine pours, the sound of it drowning out the missing word in that sentence: back.

Of course, is the response, and the part of Ricky that's spent twenty years tearing itself apart to understand why vibrates with relief. It doesn't matter anymore. Of course, of course, he thinks giddily along with the words. He never needed to wonder why Pericles wasn't coming back in the first place; he was always going to.

I'm happy you invited me, and of course he thinks again. A lifetime of pretending he wasn't always going to either falls away. However harsh and lonely the world has been, all's right with it again; and the shy voice of the boy inside him that he's tried so hard to kill says, so quietly, I missed you.

#sdmi #scooby doo: mystery incorporated #pericky #ricky owens #professor pericles #anyway fucking end me actually. lay me down to die #i said i was gonna write more pericky and by fucking god i did #the 'why did you do this to me' to 'oh thank god you didn't actually do this to me' pipeline of abuse folks 🥲 #which like. their last conversation is yet another devastating example of ricky finally standing up to pericles' bullshit Too Late #ricky denounces him in the strongest terms he knows; based on his own feelings and opinions and the way he sees the world #(which: even then he can't bring himself to say 'i don't love you anymore') #(the closest he can get is 'i chose you and i can't take it back; the only way i can imagine not loving you is if i never had at all') #and pericles tries to go 'nyeh nyeh whatever i don't care' (and does a real bad job of pretending he is not obviously hurt lmao) #and ricky doesn't try to understand his logic; he doesn't try to reconcile a world where pericles didn't *really* mean to do anything wrong #his response is MAYBE YOU *SHOULD* CARE. #pericles' view of the world and what's right and acceptable are warped and *wrong* and he's the one who needs to get his shit together #'you shouldn't have abused me you shouldn't have killed cassidy you shouldn't have murdered a child in cold blood' #that is MASSIVE and i think it is really telling that pericles' response is to shut him down with force instead of trying to argue any more #and that in the end is the real true fucking tragedy of it all #ricky is making huge strides one after the other to take back his freedom from pericles emotionally #....and materially it makes no difference to improve his situation in the moment; because pericles doesn't have any less power to abuse him #he never has a triumphant moment where he Overcomes His Abuser and Breaks Out of His Control #there's nothing he can do to fight back until pericles is too Literally Dead to control him anymore #it is one of the rawest depictions of the reality of abuse i've ever seen and just. God. i love it so much #(at the same time i REALLY want to explore a version of events where he got the chance to expand further on that growth) #(the 'all witches are selfish; make all things yours; i have a duty' speech from the wee free men comes to mind) #whosebaby makes things #whosebaby writes #SDMItag #dyn: when i die i want you to die too

[daisyachain]

there’s one version of an f/m/m triangle that crops up so often I’m surprised there isn’t at least a tvtropes/vernacular name for it. Miyokichi/Kiku/Shin. Molly/Fitz/Fool. Asuka/Shinji/Kaworu. Futaba/Taichi/Touma. not-really-but-you-could-shove-it-in-here Luthien/Beren/Finrod. Utena/Touga/Saionji is a twisted spun-on-its-head version of it. Specifically comprising:

masculine male character A: either is the protagonist or a character on to which male viewers can project.

female character B: a secondary character and A’s official love interest, often kept apart from A by story/circumstance/gender roles. Shows some resentment of the trials she’s put through by the story in being A’s lover such as being shoved to the side, cut out of his life, or put in danger.

less masculine male character C: another major character, A’s devoted sidekick, feminine and/or conspicuously cold toward women or sexuality, somewhat ill-used by A but not resentful about it, as a contrast to B.

The dynamic is used pretty equally by female and male creators, though probably with different purposes. Outside the story, there’s a clear explanation for how the roles are divided: men are main, women are peripheral. Obviously the female love interest has to be on the margins of the story. Obviously the male main character has to have an ally in-story who can bounce dialogue back. Any human person has to have a best friend (for men, has to be male) and a lover (for men, has to be female). The major character male bestie and the minor character female gf is the minimum character dynamic you need to sustain the main character as a believable construction.

Except within the story, the dynamic begs far too many questions. On B’s part: her other half and love interest uses her for sex once every few chapters and dumps her to go off on another plot-relevant adventure. She’s kept in the dark, talked down to, pushed away, and distrusted. Her place at her sweetie’s side is occupied by Some Dude and no matter how much she puts into their relationship, she’s always going to be a prize for after the mission. Why does she stay with him? What could possibly attract her about this bestubbled grunt machine whose passion for the sword outmatches anything she’s given him?

On C’s part: he gets used as an emotional support crutch, designed to service his best friend’s every need at the expense of his own goals or story. He’s a housewife, he’s a domestic, he does every thankless story task with a smile because he has to provide the exposition/set up the plot/set the plan in action that carries the main male character to victory. He doesn’t have a love interest of his own, meanwhile the most important person in his life is obsessed with a woman he barely speaks to. Why should he care so much about someone who only takes? Why is he committed to this one-way friendship? What does he think of taking the backseat, providing support, submerging his own will for the sake of a person instead of an ideology?

On A’s part: if he’s a red-blooded heterosexual male character who pursues a woman as is acceptable, why does he dig himself so deep in with his designated ally? Through dialogue and because he has to in order to show the audience, he exposes his heart and soul to C and keeps him in his pocket for as long as we are watching, so why then does he cast him aside so easily? He invests the most time and energy into his relationship with C, cultivating love and loyalty there, but he draws the line so firmly in the sand that the audience is sure he’ll never, ever step aside for one minute to follow the friend. Why does he choose a man for his emotional battery? Why doesn’t he communicate with his supposed partner? Why does he choose to use B and C for sex and solace respectively, and why don’t they ever mix?

The gender dynamics wrap around to simple: women aren’t up to being equal partners to a cool guy, so you need a male wife to do everything for you and appreciate the protagonist’s sick abilities. romance with a man is perverse and impossible, so you need a female love interest to prove that the protagonist isn’t gay and fulfil the audience’s needs. But in-between all of that you could ask some interesting questions of the spoke character, A, the male protagonist whose actions are taken as normal. the question being: bro. what’s wrong with you

#kelsey rambles #aaaaaand the only thing that satisfactorily calls the A-character on his mistreatment is the podcast CARAVAN. which is not good #actually i'd go as far as to say it's bad #rgu goes into it a little but it's nowhere near the main focus of the series #using asuka-shinji-kaworu as the example that just sucks so bad #shinji's treatment of asuka is so horrible and misogynistic and despite her screentime. in shinji's mind she's never more than peripheral #and gets dumped at the last second and turned into a corpse. she's an object of desire and he refuses to recognize the ways they're the same #on the other hand shinji loves and idolizes kaworu.....only in as far as kaworu is his own dream guy who gives him everything he wants #and never makes even the slightest hint of a glimmer of expectation of anything from shinji in return #the moment kaworu's desires become explicit--he's not only killed but erased from the story altogether #eva rebuild 4.0 does this in the most insulting way possible by farming him off with....rei? #not to try and take eva rebuild seriously but the way it expands on kaworu and sidelines asuka is somehow insulting to both of them #even moreso than the original series was. which is saying something #someday i have to read the eva manga because i hear it takes kaworu in a more problematic direction that is still a direction and so better #or as for SGRS--shin is far more loving and devoted to kiku than he is to any woman and takes a killing blow for him #he watches him in life and guides him through the underworld. he gives more to kiku than he gives to anyone. #yet as a character any possibility of like-liking kiku is denied. what's the damage there? #how does it make story sense? why does kiku have a more serious relationship with a woman than the ostensibly straight shin? #the answer is The Misogyny but even then it's jarring to have shin's plain love be obfuscated with the constant references to being straight #as opposed to kiku. who actually has girlfriends and not one-night stands #it's nonsensical to read shin as a straight man and yet any possibility of him returning kiku's feelings is barred off blacked out redacted #leaving us with a dog's breakfast of a dynamic that IS fun. because in this case it's intentionally bad. and the author is winking at us

[moonlitlunas]

it's actually so so soo cool to me that miguel's suit is a hologram and performs like an LED screen on his body; i love that they added this detail bc it gives so much depth to his suit that would otherwise be lost like it makes the meso american inspired patterns on his suit such an enagmatic glow and makes his suit so cool to look at!!! just a million stars glowing on him !!!

SEE !!! THE CIRCUITRY... ITS SO FUCKING COOL !!!

#i just think he's neat #little fuckin nerd miguel trying to make himself a cool looking suit after he literally expanded to twice his previous size lol #he has the pantone app open on his monitor #“lyla change the red from DF1F2D to B11313” #my personal hc is that he for sure added the mesoamerican influences much later on bc he had a spidey moment with a little latine kid #saved a kid downtown from those public eye goons and the kid looks up half scared/half in awe at his stature #the kid's guardian yells something in spanish while running towards them #so naturally #he squats down to be eye level with the kid and says something along the lines of “everything's gonna be alright kid” in spanish #and he swings away #but just out of his peripherals he sees the kid lose their mind #he picks up a faint gracias or other term of gratitude and lets a small smile escape his lips #and then he starts to notice just how many spider ppl have incorporated their heritage/nationality into their costume #and he's reminded of that kid #how excited they were to share something as binding as their mother tongue with thee spiderman #now all of a sudden he's spent the next 16 hours trying to incorporate traditional mesoamerican patterns into his costume's design #maybe it's lyla's idea to make them golden looking so they're endlessly shifting in a stunning contrast against the red #my miguelito #yeah #im totally normal abt him btw #idgaf actually #spidey #i can fix him #miguel o'hara #atsv miguel #miguel spiderverse #miguel spiderman #spiderman 2099 #spiderman atsv #spider verse

[jacklyn-flynn]

Isabela decides to leave an illustrated erotic book around each of her companions just to see what their reactions are. 

Merrill helpfully returns it to Aveline by leaving it on her desk. Because she’s married so it has to be hers, right? She swears she didn’t look at it. That would be rude. 

Aveline shoves it into a desk drawer, muttering about Donnic, and then pretends she didn’t see anything. 

Varric: “Oh, research!”

Fenris burns it. 

Sebastian spontaneously bursts into flames in the middle of the Chantry. 

Hawke very casually picks it up and puts it on their bookshelf. 

Anders pretends to be disgusted but looks at a few pages when he thinks no one is looking.

Bethany leaves it in the Tower library on one of the tables for the same reason Isabela left it. Later, they share the results. 

Carver rips out a few pages and then leaves it exactly where he found it.  

#headcanon du jour #hdj #dragon age #dragon age 2 #da2 #isabela and her dirty mind #merrill and her helpfullness #aveline and her embarrassment #donnic who has no idea he's even involved in this #varric's delight #fenris and his disgust #sebastian's demise #hawke's expanding library #anders sneaks a peek #bethany is dirtier than she'd admit #carver is too #it runs in the family

[sastiel-is-my-serotonin]

Okay, so maybe it's not that I'm struggling to write in general, I'm just struggling with happier stories... Huh.

#It explains why I've been able to work on certain stories a lot better than others #Tried writing a fun magic fic where Sam's trying to be a cool dad who can pull a quarter out of Jack's ear but it's only after failing #A whole bunch of tricks on Castiel #But I didn't get very far #Versus the fic idea where Sam's on a suicide mission to keep his vessel untouchable and Lucifer trapped in his mind - #That fic has like eight chapters and I've been going back with revisions with ease and expanding upon it when I can #haha yikes #I don't like this realization

[parapsychoiogy]

YOU are feeling good and normal

IM spinning the whole aos version of the city on the edge of forever and operation: annihilate around in my head like i have been for the last two years

#aos spock in da blue beanie shaking him in my brain at mach 10 #NO YOU DONT GET IT ITS SO VIVID IN MY MIND #sorry sam kirk get denevan neural parasite'd idiot #here comes dead chris pine in a fake mustashe with the steel chair!!!!! #also i just want to put aos kirk through the agonies of ediths death then his brother and sil death #his desperation to cure his nephew and spock and then spock learning he has extra eyelids <3 #AND THE LET ME HELP LINE I WANT TO EXPAND AND DISECT IT FOR EVERYTHING ITS WORTH #i also would add lines from the original city script that im in love with #ohhhhhhhh aos bones screaming assassins killers murderers in the middle of the street love that for him #sorry for all this you have no idea what my brain is doing right now

[lyctorism]

still always absolutely obsessed with the theory that, yes, “canonically” reginald named them by number in the order that they were obtained but ALSO. he named them in the reverse order of highest likelihood to cause the apocalypse. like on a scale from 1 to 7, how likely are you, child of mine, to cause the apocalypse? how INTENTIONAL it was? is up for debate but it is oh so highly coincidental i can’t help but think about it

#the umbrella academy #tua #from luther to viktor how easily can the apocalypse and the end of the world be jumpstarted individually? #like it's SOOOO. yheah #like luther and diego are DEFINITELY struggling. they're probably not going to accomplish anything close #allison would need connections. or time. #similarly klaus would also but he's immortal so he has nothing but time #FIVE.... five could. but he wouldn't. for obvious reasons. change my mind #five: oh you need a time vortex? a black hole in the greater metropolis? i can do that. #ben......... i think ben could definitely figure it out. his powers have never exactly been expanded on #and viktor................ well you know viktor #i've been thinking about it Too Much

[arch-dieangelo]

something something nico is always simultaneously hyperaware and extremely distracted because all his senses are somewhat connected to the dead and dying, especially his hearing. since, well, people are dying all the time, there’s always a faint ringing in his ears that he’s used to enough that he can ignore easily enough. when someone he knows or is nearby is about to die, it’s louder and overwhelming to the point that it hurts and is difficult to concentrate. this makes large battles and wars ummm hard! but he powers through for the sake of everyone else. he’ll focus on the battle and fight that is happening in order to ignore the Dying to the point that sometimes it’s hard to get him to stop when it’s finally over. generally he’ll collapse before the end of a battle anyway but. the. yeah. waves hand.

#mind you this has Always Happened to him. not something that manifested when he got to chb #he just wasnt fighting for his life 24/7 and surrounded by people on the verge of dying until then #though ermmm maybe he kind of was. semantics. #this is very short n i wanna expand on it a lot but. no energy no time no cares etc etc BLEH. later 🫡 #<- love that lil emoji btw. what a guy. #OUT.

[hybbat]

Curious how many companies at the start of the pandemic, when everyone was temporarily firing their employees so that they could collect unemployment, abused it like my dad’s company did where they made him - one of their most valued employees for almost 3 decades - not only work but work overtime cause they fired everyone else while unemployment paid him less than a third the usual pay he would be getting, and then pitifully threw him an extra hundred bucks as compensation after several months of forcing him through the humiliation of depending on his son just to eat and make rent.

#I'm still so god damn salty about this #mostly because my devils advocate nono i can see where theyre coming from they put food on my table dad refuses to be to this day #despite still suffering the after effects two years later and it just being one incident in a long string #that keeps showing they do not care about him #I could go on all day about how much his company has screwed him over this past decade specifically #firing all his employees #SAYING theyre gonna fire all his employees and changing their mind after half of them already found new jobs #taking his company car away and giving him the most pathetic gas allowance ever instead #expanding his work load the exact same way they tried to years ago and found it didnt work #thats the tip of the iceburg but the rest is too specific to get into #im just salty rn #my dad has too much kindness and faith in humanity to let himself see how much theyve been screwing him over though

[alister312]

im finally about to have long stretches of free time and ofc im gonna use it for writing BUT…… i kinda wanna do some oneshots as warm ups while working on my bigger projects

which is to say: if there’s content you’d like to see me try my hand at, drop me and ask or dm or reply to this post!! i can’t promise I’ll do any prompt (i.e. if it’s not a ship or subject I feel like I could do justice) but if I like it I’ll definitely use it as inspo 👀

#i definitely wanna do some of the gregstophe fic prompts pnjrnk has…. #i’ve also been thinking about doing more of christophe and his ships… also maybe something for stary week… I’ve got a clyle idea in mind… #i just wanna expand ya know

[slvttyplum]

one thing about suguru, he can hold a grudge and can hold it for the longest time. he will literally argue with you while he's fucking you, and he has, multiple time in fact.

putting you in missionary while pushing your thighs up to your chest and giving you a kiss before his mood changes, and he starts spouting bullshit, you couldn't even rebuttal like you wanted to and that's exactly why he did what he did.

if he knew you were getting fucked out of your mind with the way his dick was touching and swirling your insides, there was no way you could shoot him down the way he knew you wanted to, and that brought a smile on his face.

no smart remarks, only stuttering and moaning trying to get your point across. he was never going to let you win whatever argument the both of you had that day, if he feels as though you were even on the track to winning, he was going to fuck you until you gave up.

“mm no baby. if i say i want you home at a certain time, that's what i want.” while pushing himself deeper inside of you so that you couldn't say anything and if you did, it would just be inaudible blabbering while you scavenged your brain trying to find the words to say if you could even get it out.

this is something that could be categorized as a toxic trait or “red flag” if anyone knew that suguru pulled you into the bedroom to just fuck you and argue with you while doing it, people would throw a fucking fit, not you though, you tried to hold your own.

blabbering your nonsense trying to defend your case while he dug you out, and it's not even like he did this on a whim. he fucked you so good that it had your toes curling and your stomach caving in like a caprisun.

don't play with him because he will do this off guard and all, you won't even know when he's going to toss you over and slide your panties off and just fuck you like he had all the time in the world. no one liked being right more than suguru did, it was in his everyday agenda to make sure that any and everything he said was right and that if you disagree then he was going to make sure you agreed.

“huh? oh, i thought you said something about me being wrong.” with a smirk on his face. suguru knew you like the back of his hand, of course he would know his favorite person, so with that being said, he knew that fucking you until you couldn't properly form a sentence would get his point across and not yours.

whispering in your ear while he pushed into your sweet spot over and over again, your heart racing so fast and your legs quivering with the amount of force he was putting on your thighs. expanding his point out even more just to hear that pretty voice of yours whimpering and pleading for him to just stop because you couldn't take it anymore.

all the pleasure was building up to the point you were getting cramps, so you knew you were done for.

“tell me im right, tell me that i fucked you so good that i made you a mess.” his mouth near your ear as he continues to fuck you in, your body jolting up and down, your mouth moving but nothing coming out, that's how he knew you were done.

“thought so. good girl.”

#jjk #jujutsu kaisen #jjk x reader #jjk x you #jujustsu kaisen x reader #x reader #jjk suguru #jjk geto #jujutsu kaisen suguru #geto suguru #getou suguru x reader #suguru geto smut #jujutsu geto #geto x reader #geto smut #suguru geto #geto