#humanity is fundamentally good. humans create. humans love. humans take care of things even if they have no reason to

[nyarthru]

Just finished stray tonight lads

and boy am I going through it

#hollow you may not look at this post. nor anyone who does not want to be spoiled #my posts #actually illegal I couldn't carry B12 outside w/ me he DESERVED to see the outside. #that being said #the submersion of dystopian society tropes in the game....my heart... #the game making it clear that it wasn't humanity as a whole that destroyed everything #but a select few (the upper class) causing it to happen and how it affected those down below #the fact that the slums was the place that felt the most human and remembered humanity fondly #GOD. B12 realizing that he doesnt need to live on to perserve humanity's memories....that #the robots were carrying on humanity as a whole #love that the game didn't go ''humanity is evil'' on us that it was like #humanity is fundamentally good. humans create. humans love. humans take care of things even if they have no reason to #cries cries #THINKING ABOUT CLEMENTINE TOO #THE OUTSIDERS MANIFESTO #HER GIVING YOU THE KEYS AND BEING LIKE ''one of us has to make it outside. I wrote that'' #MY POOR STRAY KITTY'S PATHETIC MEOW TO THAT #i have so many feelings about this game i am mentally ill leave me alone

[anarglitch]

Scott pilgrim takes off inhabits the same artistic space as the matrix 4, or even the final fantasy 7 remake. I mean this as a good thing. It has the distinct touch of an artist that made something that defined a generation revisiting the art that outgrew them a thousandfold with more maturity and different interests.

These interests usually skew meta, they're about what drives someone to revisit something made by a past version of oneself, about the experience of suddenly gaining more influence than anyone could reconcile, where criticisms of your work (which you also, no doubt, have many) become synonymous with criticisms of your culture. If you've been here a while, you probably know (and are tired of) what I'm talking about, manic pixie dream girls and aloof average male protagonists, toxic nostalgia, pick your theme and it's a video essay title.

Imagine having every read of your 2004 funny video game-coded coming of age comic reverberate infinitely toward every direction, people saying your main character taught a whole generation of men to be self-absorbed while the exact opposite type of people rant about how your secondary lead "ruined a whole generation of women" because of hair-dye or whatever. Imagine Edgar Wright makes a movie adaptation of your cute little comic that somehow launches the careers of half of the current celebrity pantheon simultaneously. How would that change you?

Well, for one, it makes you less relatable. The truth of an aloof nerdy guy dating in his early 20s is a lot more universal than the truth of an artist in his 40s forever defined by the event horizon of a thing he wrote half his life ago. The matrix 4 couldn't stop talking about how it feels to have created the matrix. The final fantasy 7 remake can't help but to constantly examine what it means to remake final fantasy 7. It's easy to see why someone would hate that indulgent meta trend, I'll probably never write a generation-defining story, why would I care about the first world problems of someone who did? It can feel distant, and at its worst it can feel insulting. Like it's pointing the finger at the fans, whispering 'you did this to me'. I get that.

I get that, but I love it.

It's the fundamental difference between wanting something that is like something you liked, and wanting someone that is from the same creator of something you liked. The difference between feeding the mona lisa into an AI and finding a new authentic da Vinci. You can't make something entirely new if you religiously stick to using the parts of something that's already there. The human behind the work will always have influences you didn't realize, thought patterns and aesthetic preferences that weren't entirely clear in their previous work, no matter how much you deconstruct it. More importantly, the human will also change, and this organic self-continuity will reflect on the art. I don't want the creator of something to hold their own creation with the same zeal as its fans, because someone who did that simply wouldn't have been capable of creating the original piece in the first place.

I don't want a product, I want art.

Scott pilgrim, the original, indulges the most earnest impulse we have-- that of self-mythologizing, of creating a narrative off of our own lives. To depict the mundane as fantastic, interpersonal relationships as adventures. It resonated with so many people because it was earnest, and it was also picked apart to hell and back because it was earnest. Its flaws were on display, and not just the ones it intended to show. But in my opinion, the opposite impulse, that of washing off everything that could be criticized and presenting the cleanest possible image of yourself through your art, is just... bad. it makes for bad art, or it just freezes you. The very first hurdle of creating anything is getting over that, then maybe the spotlight will fall on you. If it does, you'll get everything you ever wanted, but everyone gets to see through you.

So, how do you revisit something like that? You have two options. Either you take all the pieces and try to reassemble them exactly how everyone remembers it, signing your name as a formality, looking at a mirror in which you no longer see yourself, or you talk to it. You dialogue with your own work, with who you used to be. You travel in time and talk to yourself. You question them, acknowledge them but also teach them a thing or two. You don't respect the product, you respect the feeling. You find the same earnestness that made you put pen to paper for the first time, and you point it towards your new loves and fears. Maybe you make it less about the main guy, take the chance to develop your secondary characters, maybe you give the girl more agency. Maybe you summon the future and refuse its answers. Maybe you fight yourself.

That's the harder choice. It submits your new self to the scrutinizing eyes of a whole new generation, it risks alienating the people who identified with your previous piece. It's riskier, probably less profitable, and by any pragmatic lens probably a bad idea. But it's the only way you can make art. It's truth, the truth that got you there in the first place.

It's how you get it together.

#scott pilgrim #scott pilgrim takes off #review #bryan lee o'malley

[writeouswriter]

pls no anti ai art demagogy on my dash, thx

(X) in reference to this reblog I assume.

This is the wildest ask I’ve ever gotten.

“Please no love for the humanity of creation on my dash, please. Please no acknowledgement that art and the human experience behind those making it is inherently and fundamentally intertwined. Please no shoving the fact in my face that art is meant to connect rather than consume.

And please no pointing out the basic truth that most AI engines are built off the stolen work of others.”

Demagogy, noun: political activity or practices that seek support by appealing to the desires and prejudices of ordinary people rather than by using rational argument.

You come into MY house, you tell me what not to reblog on MY blog, and you what? Call me “irrational” and insult my understanding of the topic in the process?

Political activity, political activity... fuck off. Actors, writers, artists, those most affected by this ARE the ordinary people, and their concerns and fears surrounding this are perfectly rational.

And you know, nothing hits it home more for me than when I thought about my favourite show at the moment, the one that makes me lose my mind a thousand times over, I thought about everything in it that makes me tick, thought about both strong points and weak points, because it is flawed, god, is it flawed because people inherently are, and that’s the beauty, but mostly, I thought about the sheer amount of care/thought and depth put into it in a way I've never really seen before and in a medium/genre/whatever you'd absolutely never expect to find that thought put into, especially if taken completely at a surface level. Thought about the levels of metaphor and symbolism layered in beneath the silliness, thought about the callbacks and clever timing, thought about the behind the scenes arguments about what direction worked best for the narrative and the audience, arguments that took place because of how much they cared not just about telling a good story, but about telling one that really means something to them.

Thought about the love, the time, the excitement and the flair and personality and background and intent of each and every person behind the team bleeding its way into the scripts, into the acting, into the heart of what makes it truly what it is, and how that love bleeds into the audience as well, how that love and human connection is what prompts people to write full page essays and analyses on it, draw fanart for it, create the most beautiful fics for it, that love is what prompts them to laugh and cry and vibrate at the speed of sound thinking about it, and what prompts thousands upon thousands to come together in their appreciation for and relation to it, rallying around it like a group of cavemen around a campfire when they had never before seen the flame.

And then.... then I thought about the idea of that same show being written by an AI and genuinely felt physically ill. Because no real care will have been put into that beyond "If it looks like a TV show, sounds like a TV show, it must be a TV show." And on the surface, maybe it’d look fine, I’m sure some people wouldn’t notice. But it’d not only be made without thought, but consumed without thought. And, sure, maybe that'll fill you up in the short term, but it's gonna leave you feeling hollow and sick eventually. Because stories are not a thing to be mass produced with a random assortment of the cheapest quality materials on a conveyor belt that shovels them directly into people's throats at the most efficient speed possible, stories are not a thing meant to just be consumed! They are a thing made with intent in every aspect, even when accidental because our lives shape it subconsciously, they are a thing made with love, a thing to be savoured! And yes, for that to happen, they will take a lot of time and hard work and dedication, all of which deserve fair compensation and respect, all of which cannot just be replaced by a sham amalgamation of these things, and they will be all the better for it.

And on some level, corporations know this, and they want you to blame their shortcomings on the writers, on the artists, they want you to look at things like the strikes and those rallying against AI and get mad that they’re keeping art from the common people, or forcing them to come to this, or they want you to think they’re simply trying to make art more accessible, all the while building their conveyor belts in the background with the blood of those they’re kicking down, taking away jobs and shoving the humanity out of the picture.

Art is made to communicate, and sometimes it’s frustrating when we can’t get that communication across, when the image we want to convey is out of our skill level, our capability, when our words get tangled up, jumbled together and we need a helping hand to find the right ones again, and on this level, maybe AI could be a useful supplemental tool, or a fun little thing to mess around with, if ethically sourced, if used for good, if taking into account and graciously acknowledging exactly how it’s being used as a tool, rather than trying to pass it off as something it’s not.

But is it political, is it irrational, to merely state that the human condition cannot be replaced?

——

The unfollow button is free, I don’t work for you.

#AI #ask #long post #bizarre bizarre #ai discourse #humanity

[forestdeath1]

What traits do you think Sirius is attracted to? Like what would his ideal type be like?

(don't be afraid to go into extensive detail about it 🩷)

His ideal type... James.

Actually, it might not seem obvious, but for Sirius, it's important that people accept him for who he is. He might not realise it, but that's the filter for whether he'll have close relationships with someone. Showing complete acceptance of him as a person, without trying to change him, and genuinely loving him for who he is – that's the first thing that needs to be in a person. Otherwise, Sirius just won't open up. So, it's either full acceptance and liking Sirius just the way he is, or à la poubelle (And this is despite his deep-rooted feelings of inadequacy and the desire to be useful)

The second crucial condition is that the partner must earn Sirius's respect. RESPECT. Sirius must want to respect them. See them as an equal partner, no less.

Despite Sirius showing care for those he loves, I don't think he'd be attracted to someone who needs to be protected all the time. Sirius cares for the weak (like animals) and those under his protection (like Harry), but his understanding of caring for Harry is specific—it's not motherly care like Molly's, it's about providing resources and opportunities for him to become stronger and overcome challenges. Sirius has a deep-rooted aversion to human weakness in general (this isn't the case with animals because they genuinely depend on humans, but in Sirius's view, humans always have the potential for action rather than just having pity parties. It's a deep respect for the concept of being Human, for their ability to make choices and their potential. He believes that Humans are capable creatures, and it's only individuals choose to give up their agency, which diminishes the very idea of being Human. This is a pretty tough and harsh view of the world, but you can see it in him right from his first appearance in PoA.)

I see two types that could attract him (of any gender), one he'd simply get along with and spend a lot of time with, and the other who could be with him for the long haul.

The first type is easy-going, cheerful, able to handle his mood swings, finds his humour amusing, and can pull him out of the occasional melancholy he falls into. Someone interested in many things, active, and an engaging conversationalist. They don't create drama or get overly emotional if Sirius does something "wrong". This person can easily and flexibly navigate Sirius's boundaries just by being themselves. They're open-minded and free from stereotypes and limitations. They don't take offence at Sirius's jokes and humour; they take everything lightly. In general, they're airy, flexible, confident, attention-grabbing, bright, cheerful, and not overly concerned with questions of morality and correctness, but fundamentally a good person.

The second type is someone quite tough and strong. Also not inclined to drama or hashing out relationships, but with very firm boundaries. If they have a quarrel, it's a real fight, not just shouting. Sirius is definitely drawn to strength in another person, and there's potential here for serious relationships and to hook Sirius for years. This person is a bit edgy, and there should be something dark about them? I don't know how to explain it correctly, they shouldn't be evil or morally wrong, but they're definitely not a soft, tender flower. Very independent. They won't sigh over Sirius and won't look at him with puppy-dog eyes, but they'll definitely express their desire passionately. They're equals in everything, or maybe even better at something. Perhaps this person should have some unusual interests. Very passionate. Very. They have an animalistic sexuality. Sirius is more submissive in these relationships. And they might not be exclusive and could date others simultaneously, but they'll always come back to each other.

And the third type–James.

Well, alright, there might also be a fourth type, someone calm, thoughtful, perhaps with some challenges in life and difficulties that they faces stoically and without complaint, etc etc etc, but I'm tired of writing, sorry. I'd love to read your versions!

#sirius black #sirius black meta #the marauders

[yandere-fics]

Well, if you want darker asks, this one's been rattling in my brain for a while...

How would your yanderes handle it if their darling was a fundamentally, irredeemably evil person? Like, you can choose how they are evil based on setting, but to one-up rudie let's say they are at least on the level of "serial killer who targets loving parents specifically out of the sheer joy that creating sad orphans gives them". Darlings who are just utter despicable peices of human trash. I suspect the greatest angst in the city, where yanderes are basically soulbound to a worse monster than themselves.

♡ How Would They React To An Evil Darling ♡

♡ Miriel is delusional and will try her hardest to justify anything her darling does but I think this would kill her inside. See part of the reason Miriel only kills for her darling when she feels she has no other choice is because as an elf it's hard for her to be around death. She's very connected to the life that surrounds her so any suffering is going to weigh on her heavily and while she will follow her daling no matter what, it's difficult to see all the carnage they are causing and she would take them with her back to her village where she can lock them away for their own good. ♡

♡ Kassien was a mass murderer in the demon realm and she is only a few steps away from evil cause her kill count on a daily basis is much higher than any of the others but she also prefers her darling to be softer than her and so she will want to train this out of you if possible, otherwise she'll just try to find ways to let you do what you want because she wants to spoil her mate and well she can't deprive you if the thing you want is murder, as much as she would prefer you didn't. Though if you take it too far she'll break your legs and keep you inside so hopefully you'll learn to care about her and only her more instead of killing. ♡

♡ Nikki does not understand what is evil and what isn't. She's possibly the closest thing to evil in my oc lineup but she's not really sadistic unless someone steps out of line so she doesn't fully understand your desire to kill and hurt random bystanders but she just assumes they must have done something for you to be doing this, you are a bad influence on her because now when people bump into her or pass her she'll torture them slightly too because that's what you do though she's not going on murder sprees, she just makes them trapped in their worst nightmares for a couple minutes. ♡

♡ Nora's sense of morality is fucked up, as long as her darling cares about her, she loves them no matter what they chose to do because they are her reason for living. She has spent centuries being a walking death machine, killing without even asking The Boss why, and even prior to becoming The Boss's tamed pet she was a killer for hire. Although she never has really taken pleasure out of killing any of the people she has to, she also is not going to judge anyone who does because every one in the city has reasons for what they do. She's learned that even the most cold blooded killer in the city who she's been sent after has reasons, although she still kills them even after learning why. So an evil darling doesn't bug her, her darling is still the one bright thing in her life. ♡

♡ Rudie only kills for money but that certainly doesn't mean she doesn't enjoy the killing. She takes great pleasure in it and she likes knowing that she's extremely good at it. I wouldn't call her evil but she does very much enjoy the killing and if she ever won the lottery then she would just switch to killing for leisure instead. She herself feels she is evil and she doesn't really care but she would never consider her darling evil. In her eyes anything they do is not as bad as what she has done because she commited her first murder at 5 years old and after that she never really stopped. ♡

♡ Sawyer would burn down her city for her darling if they asked though they would have to give her plenty of affection in exchange. Sawyer adores her city but her darling comes first so if they destroy the lives of a few people then it's okay as long as she fills the void with affection towards Sawyer. For everything they break that Sawyer worked hard to build, they must do something for her to make that sacrifice worth it. She has worked so hard to protect it and has used her life force and the sacrifice of a few... miscreants in order to make it prosper so she would prefer if her darling didn't harm the citizens but she can grin and bear it for her darling's love. ♡

#yandere oc #yandere lesbian #yandere x reader #yandere x y/n #yandere asks #yandere scenarios #my oc sawyer #my oc mirial #my oc kassien #my oc nora #my oc nikolai #my oc runa

[queen-susans-revenge]

Why (And Why Not) To Have Kids

So as I've been moving to a different stage of parenthood--my three being all in double digits now--I've been kind of looking back on the whole mad scrum of raising babies and thinking about why exactly it seems worth it to me.

It was worth it, but also it was fucking hard. I wasn't prepared going in; I'm not sure anyone is. Maybe if you grow up in a big extended family taking your turn doing the bouncy walk with a fussy baby almost every day; and if you've got family around who will take the baby from you, in turn. Then maybe it wouldn't turn your whole life upside down and fundamentally remake your brain and sense of self.

But for most of us in these atomized times, parenthood changes everything. It takes away all your time and all your self-determination and all your money, too. It drives you to the brink and sometimes over it. No wonder more and more people are saying "nah, I'm good." (And that's a FINE choice!)

But for those who still feel an inscrutable exhortation of the soul--those who worry that their lives would not be complete without a child--here's my advice on how to tell if you should, or shouldn't.

Firstly, and mostly. If you don't enjoy kids, you shouldn't. If you don't fundamentally like being around them; if you don't think they're fun, and funny; if they don't put a smile on your face. Don't count on feeling differently about your own. Like, you will probably enjoy yours more, but they're still basically gonna be kids. If you hate the noise, the questions, the sticky hands--if you wouldn't take a friend or family member's kids for a day excursion just because you'd enjoy their company. Don't do it. I like kids. I like my own kids even more. They still drove me crazy sometimes and that's inescapable. My observation has been that it seems much worse for the people who DON'T like kids but expected their own to be "different."

But, if you feel your life would be empty without them... well, that is something that kids fix. The emptiness. Like, you probably shouldn't have a baby just because you're lonely...but also, you'll never be lonely again for at least the next thirteen years. If you wonder what the purpose of your life is; if you're searching for meaning. Children fill that hole right up. I don't think anybody dies surrounded by loving family and asking themselves, "well, I brought X number of wonderful people into the world, but other than that, what was it all for?" Like, once you have created a whole entire other human, you do not lack for meaning or purpose. You've got that covered forever, because you're gonna care about them more than you care about yourself. So if you find yourself watching little humans at the park and wishing you could spend more time with them... if you think a lot about the books you'd want to read them, the places you'd want to take them, the things you'd want to teach them... if you absolutely crave the sweet, trusting warmth of a baby asleep against your shoulder. That's a good reason to do it, actually.

#thoughts on parenthood

[shewholovestoread]

GYEONGSEONG CREATURE PART 1 - THE CHARACTERS (PART 2 OF 2)

Part 1 is here

The Characters:

The cast is uniformly awesome. Park Seo-joon's character, Jang Tae-sang starts off as someone who is only concerned about saving his own hide but he infuses his character with so much heart that even in the initial episodes, you end up rooting for him. The show is, very much, his hero's journey, going from someone who only cared about his own survival to one who's willing to risk his own life to protect others.

Han So-hee's character, Yoon Chae-ok was an absolute badass. She was more than capable of handling the shit that came her way. I loved that she was so confident of her abilities, she was excellent at her job. So-hee imbues her character with such deep emotion that you can tell that it's always on the simmer, her desperation warring with the bone-deep dread that her mother is dead. And then the final straw is the soul crushing horror they're confronted with when they infiltrate the hospital and find out what's been going on.

I also liked how the relationship between Tae-sang and Chae-ok developed. They start off at loggerheads with Tae-sang mocking the loss of her mother and Chae-ok seeing him as a profiteer, an opportunist. In a desperate fight for their survival against both the monster and the Japanese forces, they're forced to put aside their differences and work together and this is where they truly shine.

Their conflicting approach, where one is willing to die instead of surrendering and the other is willing to surrender to fight another day is what saves them. Chae-ok's drive to fight and keep fighting even in the face or insurmountable odds is what keeps them going when lesser people would have turned back. Tae-sang's drive to survive, to live is what keeps them alive when faced with near certain death. They fight for each other, taking the lead when the other falters.

I love that for people who seem so fundamentally different, they work so well together, perfectly complementing each other. I also love that when Tae-sang tries to save Chae-ok by asking her to leave, she refuses, she makes it clear that she doesn't need a knight in shining armour but a partner who treats her as their equal.

The other cast members are equally good, especially Kim Hae-sook as Nawol-deak, Tae-sang's 2nd in command. She's his pillar, the only person he can trust to take over the reins in his absence and she more than rises to the occasion. Unlike the others, she's unflappable, capable of thinking on her feet, weighing alternatives and wheeling and dealing the way Tae-sang does. She, like Tae-sang doesn't trust anyone (except Tae-sang.) She knows, only too well, how little it takes to break people, having gone through it herself.

Did anyone else wonder if it was Nawol-deak who gave up information that led to Tae-sang's mother getting arrested? Nawol implies that faced with relentless pain, people are willing to do anything to make it stop. That entire conversation and the flashback that followed, made me think if it was Nawol who finally broke and gave up information about her comrades.

Then there was Choi Young-joon playing Lieutenant General Gato, the most hateful character on the show, followed very closely by Hyun Bong-sik's Ichiro. The absolute lack of humanity they exhibit is far more monstrous than any other monster they could create. I'm pretty sure Gato is a psychopath. His quest to make a monster has nothing to do with patriotism. His military rank is a means to an end, it gives him the power and authority he needs to conduct his experiments with little to no oversight. He doesn't see other people as human beings, they are all, both the soldiers and locals alike, test subjects. The locals are used as lab-rats and monster bait while the soldiers serve to test just how much damage the monster can withstand, it's killing power and finally whether it can think and solve problems. The only thing Gato sees as worthwhile is the monster itself.

I would not be surprised if, in part 2, there was increased tension between Gato and Ichiro. Ichiro sees the monster as a mindless killing machine while to Gato, it's a like piece of art, it's an extension of his own genius and he would not take kindly to another scientist taking over. We saw it in Part 1 when Ichiro tried to train the monster, taking a page out of Ivan Pavlov's experiment, Gato's displeasure at Ichiro inserting himself into his work. This is not a man who shares or tolerates interference of any kind. I see conflict brewing between them that will perhaps be the source of their own downfall.

The other person who was absolutely spellbinding was Kim Soo-hyun as Lady Yukiko Maeda. Her portrayal is just... so intimidating. She's the perfect blend of gentility and menace. She has an ice cold demeanor that unsettles you even as her beauty disarms you and draws you in. By the time the show ends, there is no doubt who has the actual power in the Ishikawa home. This is a woman who will slit your throat and calmly drink tea and watch as you slowly drown in your own blood. it's a chilling portrayal and I can't wait to see more of her in Part 2.

I am excited for Part 2 to see how they close season 1 since season 2 is already in production. We do know that Chae-ok, her father and the rest from The House of Golden Treasure will launch a rescue mission for Tae-sang. I don't think Chae-ok will be content to leave Tae-sang behind, not to mention her mother's monster form is still inside.

Add to that, Myeong-ja is now infected and she will wreak havoc once she transforms (assuming she survives,) she is outside and she's pregnant. With Chae-ok's mother, we can see just how much the Najin caused her to mutate. I have a feeling that Myeong-ja's baby will be a hybrid, even more dangerous than the monster inside the hospital. It's also safe to assume that almost all of the antagonists will survive.

If you're hoping for a clean resolution in the season finale, you're in for disappointment. I have a feeling that the season will end with a broadening of the threat and our heroes will have to contend with not just those despicable scientists, Gato and Ichiro, they will also have the Japanese army after them after Kwon Joon-taek ratted them out.

I'll be happy as long as the season doesn't end with a cliffhanger. Season 2 is scheduled to stream in 2024, so on the plus side, at the very least, it's not a long wait. For now, I shall patiently wait for Part 2 and hope for the best...

#gyeongseong creature #gyeongseong creature part 1 #character breakdown #han so hee #park seo joon #kim soo hyun #claudia kim #yukiko maeda #yoon cheo-ok #Jang Tae-sang #horror #kdrama #horror kdrama #kdrama 2023 #kdrama meta

[m0r1bund]

hey, I was wondering if you have any tips or good resources on writing eco-fiction?

This is a GREAT question that I don’t feel qualified to answer. I have read a lot more environmental nonfiction than fiction, and I'm not really cued in to what other eco-fiction writers are doing. I’m also playing in the margins because creative writing feels like my second language (vs. visual arts, worldbuilding, etc.) So… I can only share what's worked for me. Take the best and leave the rest, chief o7

I think everything circles back to becoming freakishly obsessed with your home environment. This is just the way I was built LOL, if I want to make anything I have to be a little bit obsessed with it. I also just like to read fiction from people who aren’t career artists, who have some kind of niche interest or lived experience that colors their work (whether they want it to or not.)

studying ecology, the natural world, working with your hands in the dirt, whatever-- you can also appreciate how inseparable everything is from place. pick any moment in history and you can make a rich environmental reading of it. We construct stories that obfuscate this, but almost everything we do as humans is motivated by land and water and access to land and water. This really informs how I write. Everything is connected to The Desert even when it isn’t immediately obvious to me.

Which brings me to another thought. Most of my writing is playful daydreaming that asks “Wouldn’t it be fucked up if ______?” AND YET! The natural world is always doing it weirder and cooler. You just get to set up the dominoes in ways that highlight this, I think.

Like, 90% of what happens in Asthaom is motivated by water and access to water, the big limiting resource in a desert. So a false god marches on Scaiuq looking for mythical water. An ex-cactus rustler makes counterfeit versions of a rare cactus dye in order to flood the market and drive down demand for the real thing. your ancestors manufactured a climate crisis and now, 1000s of years later, the desert is fundamentally changed but still worth loving and fighting for. These are hyperbolic lies about real things that, I think, are very poetic and worth mythologizing. Fiction is daydreaming but it’s also about tricking you guys into caring about the boring stuff that I care about, hahaha

In that vein, being part of an eco-art community has also catalyzed a lot of things for me. In 2018 I joined Those Who Went Missing, an art therapy game about nature spirits who are created from lost and missing individuals. you tell stories about your characters and have them interact with others in a setting that's based on the real world. Suddenly I was spending a lot of time reading what others think of their home environment… (And now I’m realizing “I haven’t read a lot of eco-fiction” is a lie)… and suddenly I had this shared space to spew desert propaganda create stories in.

Something I like about TWWM is it doesn’t exclusively attract earth science people, so there are a lot of people who are using this game to learn and write about the natural world for the first time. Through them, I get to put names and faces to places that were once distant and abstract to me, and I also get to relive the thrill of learning what sky islands are, how to identify a mockingbird, etc. I also encounter a lot of dominant narratives about deserts, deserts as wastelands / empty spaces / inhospitable crucibles, the relationship between humans and land, that we’re separate from nature, that we only harm and extract, etc. This is not knocking those stories, they're valuable, it just motivates me to write my personal blasphemies so that I can gently push back.

It makes me think of something I was taught in my oral storytelling class, that storytelling is made by place, time, and audience. You will never tell the same story twice because you’re never going to be the same person in the same space at the same time with the same people, you have to be sensitive to yourself and the needs of those around you. Maybe this is just typical “knowing your audience” LOL but it really is a different process writing for TWWM as a group. leaving the jargon behind, being loud about deserts, insisting on depicting reciprocal human-land relationships even more than I otherwise would, while also grappling with the hurt and frustration of being thrust into an extractive relationship with the natural world. maybe 2 people will actually read/see it, but if it leaves an impression then it’s all worth it baybeeeeee

I don't really have a denouement here, but I hope you found something useful, thank you for giving me something to chew on. Anyone reading this, please share resources that come to mind. I feel poorly-read, haha

#good luck enjoy the journey 😎

[maaaxx]

Heartstopper Season 2 Spoilers

Heartstopper season 2 was perfect, and Alice Oseman is a cinematic and literature genius but I would like to take a few moments to draw some attention to.....

This boy right here.

(look how sweet he is omg)

I can't get over Isaacs arch in heartstopper, especially in season 2.

Ace representation is so few and far between as it is, and good representation is even more scarce, but having that sort of representation at the forefront of a show? And having it accurately depicted, and not infantilized? Showing the complexities of it? Basically unheard of. But Holy Fuck did Alice Oseman deliver.

At the end of season 2 he is just finding out what aro/asexuality is and reading up on it. He knows it exists and he knows that it applies to him. And he faced some of the difficulties of being aro/ace with James and with the isolation and feeling like he's not interesting unless he has a romantic interest, these are all very real and not commonly talked about things that people have experienced.

And oh my god was it euphoric to see on screen.

Growing up and watching all your friends have crushes and get into relationships and fawn over people and never experiencing that same thing is so isolating. Even in accepting environments and in good friend groups (as seen on the show) it always feels like your an odd one out, and outsider, etc.

So the scene where Isaac goes "I think their might be something wrong with me.", that hits home to so many people who grew up not understanding why they were different.

I've talked about on here before why labels are so important to people, and this is a perfect example of it. You can learn to accept yourself and love yourself and be completely self confident but if there's something fundamentally different about you, there's always going to be a voice in the back of your head reminding you of that. Learning a label, or a word, that represents something that you might have already accepted as something that's a character flaw, there's no word to describe it, it's so relieving. It means there are people like you who have lived to create that label, it means your not alone with it, it means you have a community.

And having this shown on tv, especially at a time like now where people are trying to cover up anything that reminds people that LGBT people exist, is going to tell so many kids that there is nothing wrong with them, and they're not defected, and they're not broken.

And Isaacs whole arch (even thought it's not completed) handled this perfectly. Because there were moments that shows that Isaac is in some ways separate from the group. They love him, but he's different, they care about him, but he doesn't have a romantic interest, so his presence isn't as acknowledged.

And I think that in Season 3 (assuming theres going to be a season 3) we're going to get to see this expanded on. We might get to see Isaac coming out to the rest of the group, and learning how to cope with not having access to something that a lot of people say is what makes people human.

Heartstopper is such an amazing show and Alice Oseman is incredible. The cast is incredible. Everything about everything about that production is incredible.

(now for another picture of my son)

#This is a heartstopper blog now #ik heartstopper is kind of seen as a kiddy show to a lod of older gays but this show has been so healing to me #and shows like this that are very like #well known #and get a lot of views and stuff #9 cant remember the word for it rn #even though we are where we're out with the lgbt things #like i said there are a lot of people who still want to hide certain identities from kids #and asexuality is one of them #representation is so important no matter how far weve come #idk what im saying rn im so tired #anywho #i fucking love this show #isaac henderson #heartstopper s2 #heartstopper #heartstopper spoilers #max thinks shes relevant

[eff-plays]

can we get more of your feelings about the durge/astarion stuff pretty please?? because i feel SO vindicated after reading your thoughts and am almost resentful of durge/astarion stuff having everyone so "they're made for each other!" and "they're canon!", it feels so invalidating towards tav/astarion. i really don't like durge either; i have one canon character when i play rpgs and dark urge does not fit them in the slightest 😓

if i wanted to put an understanding spin on it, i guess that's the trade off for having your own custom character with a back story you've created, and at least astarion is so incredibly loving towards tav and talks repeatedly about how incredible they are and how much he cares for them. but i do absolutely have SO many created scenarios in my head where my tav breaks down with their own traumas and ptsd, and astarion is there to comfort and help them through it, because god knows we don't get any of that in the actual game 😭 (i hope this made sense omg, i just love your opinions and want to hear them all)

Honestly I am not generally in the business of having too many opinions on things I haven't personally tried or experienced, so what you've seen so far of my opinions on Durge/Astarion is basically the extent of it, and my reasoning for deciding not to try it in the first place.

However, I can offer some further vindication in that I think saying "they're made for each other" or "they're canon" is such a dipshit and factually incorrect take that it's pretty much not worth getting upset over. People can say and think whatever they want, that doesn't always make it true, particularly not when it comes to RPGs that are meant to be played as you want them. People who say this are fundamentally misunderstanding the concept of an RPG, and they're probably stupid, and their opinions aren't worth considering or taking seriously. Or, they're just trying to upset you and they feel smug about their own choices, in which case you should still ignore them.

Like, I hate Ascended Astarion, but I'm not gonna say Spawn Astarion is canon. If I do say it, I will clarify that it's canon for me, because it is, but canon in general? It would be literally, factually untrue. So why would I say that unless I'm wilfully obnoxious and smug about my choices? Or just dumb? Which I am, but not like that.

Iirc Larian encouraged people to play custom origin for their first playthrough, and people did, and most people tried going for Astarion. That means that, statistically, a shitton of people have Tav/Astarion as their main pairing. Why would they encourage this if it's apparently not canon? Why shoot themselves in the foot by offering an apparently inferior experience first?

Also, just because one writer wrote stuff for one character because they had the time to do so, does not make it somehow the definitive answer. It was clearly not intended to be the only romance where Durge gets a specific variation, I doubt Larian would do that, so it's basically an accident, or at least unintentional.

That being said, even if it was intentional, who's to say it's a good thing? Harkening back to my Dragon Age days, I remember people saying that Andrastian human was clearly the intended experience, and the game struggled to accommodate any other race/class. Does that make it canon? Or just bad game design/writing?

Obviously not saying Larian did a bad job, clearly they did a good job if people are going to bat for it this obnoxiously, but the logic is equally flawed.

I do have issues with Durge in general as a concept (mostly cuz I just don't understand the logic behind including it aside from ... previous game fanservice?) but I haven't even graduated from gamer school yet so I won't get into that.

Also, one thing abt Tav I love that Durge misses out on is just the sheer ballsiness and comedy of rocking up to Bhaal's secret temple and killing all his guys and just not even being involved in any of that shit at all. Durge gets all that angst and drama, sure, and Orin is soo important apparently, but she died in two rounds for me. TWO. Imagine being just some fucking guy who fucks up your shit so bad that you have to restart everything. That amuses me to no end.

So ... there's that, lmao.

#bg3 #bg3 spoilers #cazador was a harder fight than orin lmao #all that buildup and then she just fucking croaks #misogyny tbh #but also i thought she was so annoying tbh so it was still fun to kill her #more fun that it was so undignified #like yaas girl go give us nothing #durge: ouhgh ... orin ... my enemy. tav: lmao yeah some rangom crazy bitch i shanked #tbh all the villains in bg3 are kinda mid there i said it #cept for maybe the emperor he can hang

[sunnidaydreamer]

God, I need someone to talk with about Drakengard.

We need a full-scale AAA remake, to get more people to know about this series!

Yeah, people found out about it through Nier, but it's a product of its time engine and gameplay-wise.

I love the series more than I can say, truly love the series, but the controls are AWFUL.

The movie cutscenes are beautifully done, but the graphics are otherwise bland at best.

But the story it tells!

A deconstruction of fanservice and tropes like the Antihero, the Sister in Love with her Older Brother.

Things like gratuitous violence, with some weapon unlocks requiring INSANE amounts of kills.

The characters! You can tell some of them are or want to be genuinely good people, but they're still people.

Inuart loves Furiae dearly, he thinks of Caim as his brother, but he's consumed by envy. Envy because he can see that the woman he loves may care for him, but she's in love with her own brother. Envy because Caim is strong and respected and everything he feels he isn't.

The Empire, the Watchers, use this to twist him and make him your enemy, purposefully setting him up in a pact with the very dragon that killed Caim and Furiae's parents.

Even when Inuart is able to get free of the brainwashing things aren't just magically better. He's fundamentally changed as a person, driven to madness from grief, willing to fight and kill Caim if it means reviving Furiae.

Drakengard also has interspecies romance! Yes my friends, while it is not in your face explicitly, Caim and the Red Dragon, aka Angelus, do end up falling in love. What can I say, Caim knows what he wants in a woman.

And what he wants is a giant red dragon. Follow your dreams, my man!

Manah is the result of an abused child desperately searching for even a crumb of love, taken over and manipulated by the Watchers, but as long as they tell her they love her she clings to them.

This carries over into Drakengard 2. Even though 2 is famously the black sheep of the series as it was not written by Yoko Taro, and some fans of the series won't even acknowledge it, and it is bowdlerized to hell and back it does have its moments.

Manah before the main story of 2 suffered a head injury that left her basically a blank slate. We see that she has grown into a kind person, who wants to help those who are suffering. She genuinely believes that destroying the Seals is the right course of action.

And when it turns out that destroying them triggered the end of the world? That this is the second time that she has brought this about?

It breaks her.

For a chunk of the later half of the game, Manah is full-on insane out of guilt. She's so broken that the Watchers are able to easily slide back into her mind and soul and possess her again.

The way her trauma and insanity are... handled for lack of better phrasing is, to be blunt, kind of terrible though.

Nowe somehow teleports into her mind and kills the manifestations of her trauma/the Watchers. The power of love?

Once they're dead she's magically better! No more guilt or trauma!

In the third ending she's so healed from her trauma that the Watchers have nothing to hold on to when trying to possess her again and she... absorbs them?

Yeah, there's a good reason 2 is.... controversial to say the least.

I love Eris though, you go my pyromaniac daughter, set a woman on fire with a big ass grin. Are Nowe and Manah an example of interspecies romance? Nowe is some kind of dragon-human hybrid called the New Breed, and Manah is human so.... I guess?

This is only the games by the way. There are several novels relating to all three of the Drakengard games, as well as 2 manga relating to 1, but one of the manga was never finished for some reason. 3 also has a manga centered on the other 5 Intoners after they were accidentally created by Zero.

1 also has novels that are like an alternate universe take as well, but I've never been able to read them and I don't know if they're still ongoing or what is happening there.

#drakengard #please talk to me about Drakengard

[dogsliampaynedoesntinstagram]

Hi! I spent all morning reading your posts, your opinions are very interesting. If you don't mind and have a little bit if time I would love your opinion on something.

Firstly, I've been in the Harry / Louis fandom for 4 years ish. I love them both and follow them everyday. at the beginning I would follow them in a very care free way.

but going forward with time and following them in their everyday life between photos, promos, interviews, etc., one cannot help but run into the various theories about their relationships. at first it was almost funny to me. then it became a burden. let me explain: if you look at all the things they do it is obvious that some things are done on purpose for the Larries part of the fandom (for example when the photos of Harry with Olivia on the bridge in Civita came out but he had a L on one side and an H on the other).

So I came to the conclusion that at this point there are only two possibilities: 1- Harry and Louis are actually together and can't be in the open and this is their way of sending clues etc. so it would mean that all these harry and louis relationships (Olivia, Taylor, Eleanour etc ) would be pr or for cover-up.

2- Harry and Louis are not together and it's all a great marketing strategy. This option scares me because it would mean that they are not as good people as we believe. in the end so many Larries (aside from the disrespectful ones) are very good people who try to help them by sharing posts and theories online. they are people who are very emotionally invested in them. I understand that the world of celebrities is also made of this but I can assure you that majority of celebrities don't have such a great conspiracy theory behind their image. how could they feel good about themselves knowing that every day they scam thousands of people who follow them with their hearts?

What do you think about it?? what is your theory?

I would love your answer on this, feel free to message me

All the love :)

Thanks for your message. I'm glad you enjoyed reading my tumblr - and it's so lovely when people come and say

I do disagree with every bit of what you say. I disagree with the building blocks of your argument, and I disagree with what you think they mean when they're put together. I'll explain how I see it, maybe it'll help liking them and following them become less of a burden for you.

I'm going to approach this in two parts - first by responding to the idea that things must be done on purpose, and then on the idea that if they were that would mean there were only two options.

I don't think it's obvious that some things are done on purpose for the Larry part of the fandom. I think there are always so many alternative explanations. I also think that the idea that the only possible explanation that a complete stranger could do something is because they want you to see it - is fundamentally unsound. It speaks much more to the way human brain works than anything that could be true.

I'll start with the shoes (I assume that's what you meant, these shoes). I don't think that every long line and short line is an 'L'. I also think there are a lot of options for what 'L' can stand for. When I looked at that I thought of Louis and Harry, but that's because that's what I'm interested in - I didn't think that it was the only possible meaning for the person who created it.

Even more importantly to me than that, even if the 'L' stood for Louis as in Louis Tomlinson - it doesn't follow that Harry is writing his boyfriend's name on his shoes so that we can see. In fact, if Harry had an 'L' on his shoe - it seems to me that the most likely intended audience was his boyfriend who he was talking about - and not fans.

To suggest that the only reason that someone is saying something is because they want you and people like to you to hear - is to deny the importance of expression to humanity. Lets take the bears. I have never believed that the bears were primarily about coding messages for fandom. I have always thought they were primarily expressive by the people involved.

I think it's incredibly important that fans understand that we are no at the centre of an artist's world - an artists work and life is not about us. What you are arguing only makes sense if you have already committed so far to the idea that their lives are about us - that you can't even see that you're making that assumption.

*******

The other part of your argument is a reasonably common one in fandom, which amount to: "unless the story I am telling about X is true, then X is a bad person". I think it's important to understand that such arguments are not true and never could be true (we live in a complex world and there are many possibilities). Rather than being a serious argument about how the world is - they're basically an expressing of anxiety through black and white thinking. (The underlying mechanism for anxiety a lot of the time is that things are either good or bad and the possibility of you, or something you identify with is unbearable and therefore you must frantically prove their goodness).

I mostly just want to reject that logic completely - to point out that it's never right - there are always a lot more options. If that sort of way of thinking about

But I also want to suggest that there's a problem with the terms of the judgement. Fans have told stories about Harry and Louis based on what they were doing when they were teenagers. I think it's incredibly narrow and uncharitable to suggest that they could 'scam' people who had shaped their lives by telling stories about it. The relationship between fans and artists is really fucking complicated - and to suggest that there's a good and bad way to react to thousands of strangers telling complex stories about you - ignores how impossible that situation is.

I have just read Sarah Polley's book 'Running Towards Danger' - which I can't recommend highly enough for many reasons. In places, the book gives a glimpse of what it is like to be famous when you are a teenager. She talks about how difficult it was to meet a make a wish kid - how ultimately it required her to be able to behave like an object and not be a person.

So much of fandom discourse ultimately treats 1D members as objects to be acted on - rather than people. I know I do that - but I do try and avoid making the sort of fan position where you insist the objects life is about us - a position of righteousness and judgement.

#I can't emphasise enough #that the fact that someone has emotionally invested in someone #is not an obligation #it is not something that demands reciprocity

[shelleysmary]

the end of 8x02, morse and thursday having that chat on a bench, is so much because what thursday says about human nature and “you are what you are, whether you like it or not” seems kind of out of place within the context of their conversation about the girls in the blue films, how they’re somebody’s daughter and how they do and should matter. but then again, morse and thursday have conversations like these all the time. they don’t have regular heart-to-hearts - they run on subtext and tough love and small acts of service, but they don’t say what they mean exactly, and hardly ever at the right time.

it’s morse who can’t accept that he is what he is. he’s drinking more after violetta, but it isn’t about violetta at all. morse has always struggled with his own compassion, his sensitivity, and the feeling that he doesn’t quite fit in. and, as a result of not fitting in, morse believes himself to be barred from all those things that make everyone else happy. it’s self-sabotage, but it’s also the result of his upbringing, his experiences, and having this high-stress job where he is exposed to the worst of humanity on a regular basis. i remember him feeling so deeply for the people he encountered over the course of his investigations. and now he can sit on that bench and say he doesn’t care about girls like lynn parry (he’s lying). that people make bad choices and have to suffer the consequences (self-flagellation-by-proxy). and that it isn’t his job to feel for the victims, only to bring them justice. by saying “you are what you are” thursday is subtly calling his bluff. morse doesn’t need to shut down his compassion by drinking - he needs to find a way to cope with being morse.

which reminds me of s1 and thursday’s advice that he find something worth defending. morse says “music,” but what he really mean by that is beauty. in earlier seasons, even in the way the episodes were shot and the prevalence of music and his love of opera especially, there was so much more beauty to be found in morse’s world. he sought it, he found it in the subtlest of places, and it’s what carried him through even as he carried the painful baggage of his past - his mother, his father, his stepmother, his failed relationships with susan and joan, the feeling of never getting the good he deserves. but by s8, the presence of those things is all but gone. even when we see him listening to music now (rarely), it’s more in the background, either when he’s sloshed or running late or in a terrible mood - it is no longer something worth defending because morse, at this point, has lost all faith that anything is.

and yet, if we’re going by thursday’s view that you are who you are, whether you like it or not, underneath all that bitterness and disappointment and put-on nihilism is our same old endeavour morse - the romantic who loves poetry and wants to believe in the ideals of truth and beauty, who still holds them as holy. and in the end, that is morse’s tragedy - we love him. thursday chose him. he has friends who genuinely care about his happiness, but he sees none of it. the world he has created for himself in s8 is so narrow by design - the working and the drinking and the being short with everyone, both as a release valve and a means of keeping them at a distance, thereby confirming his own idea of being fundamentally unlovable... all of it is to keep from getting hurt again, without realizing that what he’s doing is hurting himself. or perhaps not caring that he is hurting himself.

up until now, it was sad seeing morse and knowing where life ends up taking him. catching glimpses of the deep-rooted sadness in a man who tries his best but never lets anyone in. there is something about this series specifically, though, and in the one that came before, that feels so bleak because he is often unrecognizable from the morse we met in the pilot. neither is he fully inspector morse. he’s in a miserable in-between, and i’m curious to see how - as the final series - s9 will choose to tie it all together.

#itv endeavour #endeavour #endeavour morse

[gemstarstarlight]

I posted 996 times in 2022

That's 996 more posts than 2021!

61 posts created (6%)

935 posts reblogged (94%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@taketwoinink

@9-circles-of-l

@venusqq

@skyisverybored

@jinxneedssleep

I tagged 978 of my posts in 2022

Only 2% of my posts had no tags

#mentality love - 150 posts

#*checks for cameras* - 139 posts

#aroace - 117 posts

#asexual - 115 posts

#pretty pictures - 110 posts

#aromantic - 96 posts

#reblog for posterity - 92 posts

#ace - 87 posts

#aro - 74 posts

#philosophy takes - 66 posts

Longest Tag: 137 characters

#i am forever and always a humanities nerd who actually wanted friends but did not want to fit in and generally didn’t like people who did

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Them: I’m in love with you.

Me: No you aren’t you don’t even know me you absolute dingus *whacks over the head with a baseball bat*

24 notes - Posted September 1, 2022

#4

Matthew Mercer as a robot is about the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.

27 notes - Posted October 5, 2022

#3

So, I’m watching EXU Calamity.

And I am going to discuss major spoilers, so be aware.

I was FURIOUS when Laerryn cast Blight on the tree. To me it seemed so obvious that it was a protection against something that to destroy it without any attempt to figure it out first was unconscionable.

And I realized I was angry. And I couldn’t figure out why.

Because it’s a story! A great story, a beautiful story, a moving story, but a story nonetheless. Why did I care so much about Laerryn’s choice? I’m normally pretty good at getting invested in a story but not letting it emotionally affect me. I don’t cry in movies. I suspect when I finish episode 4 I’m not gonna cry when everyone dies.

But I was so angry at Laerryn I had to pause the episode and do something else.

Why?

I’ve done some thought, and I think I know why.

Deeply connected to and caring of her work, above relationships. A deep desire to leave a mark on the world, to be remembered after leaving this earth. Talented and, more importantly, aware of her talents. Clutching to her work, her abilities, thinking, “It was worth it, it was worth it, it has to be worth it.” The people she’s left behind. The loves that she lost. Showing people that she cares through her abilities more than what they actually want from her (to stay, to be available, to need them). And worst of all, that single-minded drive that wants to get the most of what she needs and excluding everything else.

I saw way too much of myself in Laerryn Coramar-Seelie. And I’m not sure I loved what I saw.

If I had been in her shoes—me, who ditched my family and friends to see the world, have always been looking for more in life than simply what works, who feels fundamentally different from most people, who truly deeply cares about others but somehow can never put them above my own dreams and hopes, which is the very definition of love in most books—if I had been there, would I have done any different?

Or would I, too, in my own hubris and desperation, made the choice that seemed most right to me, and so completely missed the point?

I think I was angry because I wanted her to make the right decision, and when she didn’t, I felt afraid.

30 notes - Posted August 2, 2022

#2

Wereanimals that aren’t just wolves. The leader is a WereTiger.

I am living.

35 notes - Posted November 11, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Okay, I’m not one for crackships as a general rule, but Fearne and Chetney are too batshit insane hilarious to not get behind. An almost-canon crackship that references Hulk and Black Widow. The wildest will-they-won’t-they between two weird old people. A 100+ year old hippie faun druid and a 400+ feral gremlin werewolf with really strong Chihuahua energy. God bless.

730 notes - Posted November 4, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #I love the massive jump from 35 notes to 730 notes

[intoxicatingimmediacy]

Rafael Casal: 'Blindspotting' humanizes the incarcerated

[...] "You can both acknowledge that everyone has faults, but that fundamentally, this feels cruel and unusual to do to people," he said. "A lot of the show's goal, politically and emotionally, is to get you invested in a group of people that immediately complicate your perceptions of the prison industrial complex and who it is affecting."

Casal said he hopes that when people watch the news and hear 60,000 inmates are incarcerated in California for selling cannabis, they will think about Ben Turner's lovable Blindspotting character Earl, Ashley's neighbor and a surrogate dad for Sean while Miles is behind bars. "When you're watching the show, all you want is for people to leave him alone and let him go about his life," Casal said. "This is a good, decent, loving, human being. That's who is mostly in prison."

The actor and filmmaker said many people believe U.S. prisons are filled with murderers and rapists, but those actually make up a small percentage of the population. "It's a lot of very stupid crimes that get people locked up for a very long time and a lot of them are things we don't even care about any more. We just haven't let people out of prison for them," Casal said.

"For us, it's about providing counter narratives to a lot of the things we were indoctrinated to, growing up, when we think about who is bad and good in society, who is guilty and innocent and putting a face on those things." He thinks it is unfair that families get "ripped apart" when someone goes to prison for a nonviolent crime.

[...] "Ashley walks in and there are five time checks during the night. Nobody's getting decent sleep. There are guards with guns everywhere. There are certain conversations that you just can't have in there," Casal said.

[...] "Is Miles going to have enough of the old him left to be the person that he needs to be to Ashley and will Ashley be enough of who she was? Because now she is going to have been a single mom for five years. How is he going to fair on his own as someone who loves his family, but isn't with them?"

[...] Casal is constantly surprised by how many people from different walks of life tell him they connect to the story and characters he created."You never get to choose your audience, so you are like, 'I wonder who's going to show up?' I hoped, selfishly, that we did a good enough job that women feel invited to the show," Casal said."We've done so much work to make sure that that's who is taking leadership roles in our writers' room and on our set and in our cast," he added.

#rafael casal #blindspotting