#i also have some labels

[vaxxman]

Could I request Medic having The Mom Grip on Scout’s shoulder after the speedy moron almost let a mercenary secret slip while they weee getting groceries?

Three Europeans and two Americans walk into a grocery store in New Mexico.

I hope this is the right meme.

More silliness below.

This comic is the antithesis of the "wtf is a kilometre" joke.

The faces they make when they can't quite identify the type of brown bread in the bread aisle.

You don't know how [insert nationality here] you are until you go overseas and things are different.

Spy obviously has no problems with pretending to know how much a gallon of milk is, he just peeks into his conversion chart notes, pretending it's his shopping list.

I want to think Heavy is completely fine with having to readjust to a new unit system, he just eyeballs most practical things anyways by holding them up and mumbling about how they approximately weigh like a chicken or his kettle bell etc. He's always been living in practical ignorant bliss.

Medic has a peer reviewed meltdown the first time he realises there's no uniformity in "a cup of ____" because every object has different densities. He's diligent about memorising the conversion rates for ounces, pounds, the most common things etc., and recovers ok. He goes through the same stages of grief rage when he finds out about distances and lengths.

Just remember four inches are 10.16 cm and pray no one asks you to specify anything bigger than inches.

Everyone does a mental victory lap when they manage to guess how much Celsius the weather is because they keep forgetting it's Celsius*5/9+32=Fahrenheit, Engineer reminds them patiently.

The true victories are the correct temperature guesses we've made along the way.

One time, a friend asked me if I actually knew how much a tablespoon of flour was in gramms to convince me that metric users also make use of volume based units without thinking about them. But little did she know a heaped spoonful of 405 flour is about 15g and a level tablespoon is 10g.

They claim Oolong just tastes better when it's boiled to 80°C exactly with a Bunsen burner.

You only asked for one scene but somehow I came up with a bunch of other things. This post was drawn across 2 months so the artstyle is all over the place. Thanks for your ask!

#team fortress 2 #tf2 #tf2 medic #tf2 scout #tf2 spy #tf2 heavy #tf2 soldier #Medic's reaction to a stick of butter is 100% based on my own reaction after reading an American recipe for the first time #Like I didn't know butter in America came in this normed stick-form I genuinely thought it was some arbitrary unit like ??? A Stick?? #As in I didn't know if the recipe required the butter to be in this specific shape; like sometimes you have to add butter in shaves or molt #no biggie lemme whittle away at my butter block until it's shaped like a stick? And then I learnt it was the portions that butter comes in #Cut me some slack; I'm used to recipes using eggs as the scale-up ingredient; not butter #I also learnt that medical labels is where metric units are mostly encountered simply because medicine is international #But that is the main reason why I think Medic would not realise he'd have to deal with imperial units until he goes grocery shopping #The man's just been ignoring the “oz” information right below everything he's ever used; out of sight out of mind #I want to think Engi is the most normal person about the entire metric-imperial-units thing he just does some mental arithmetic and done #King just learned système international d'unités during one of his 11 phds; it's not unrealistic

[booksandabeer]

Ramblings on Fandom: Peggy Carter, Steve Rogers, Delusional Shippers, and Alleged Misogyny

So with the release of Season 2 of What If…? emotions are once again running high, the outrage is outraging, and people are up in arms about the whole Captain Carter situation. While I do think that some reactions are a little overblown, even needlessly aggressive in tone to the unfortunate detriment of their otherwise convincing arguments, I share the confusion and frustration about the sudden centering of a long-dead & never excessively popular character, the sidelining of the Steve-Bucky friendship, and the as-inexplicable-as-it-is-total exclusion of Sam Wilson as Captain America. However, I’m not here to talk about the show because (1) I haven’t watched this season and have no plans to (why waste time torturing myself with something I know I’ll hate?) and (2) other people have already written dozens of metas about it, so what could I possibly add at this point.

What I do want need to talk about (lest I explode) is something that has irritated me for a long time and that is now happening again: Every time someone even mildly criticizes Peggy Carter, expresses doubts about her suitability as a heroine, or even just questions her disproportionate importance to the franchise post-EG, inevitably a certain section of fans will come out of the woodwork to immediately throw around accusations of misogyny and yell about how we’re all just a bunch of delusional Stuckies who are mad that she got "in the way" of our ship. Sigh.

This is gonna be a long one, so I’ll put it under a cut. Rant incoming. You've been warned. If you don't want to read, simply scroll on by.

First of all, let me state very clearly that I’m not debating the existence of misogyny and sexism in fandom spaces—or in the media from which these fandoms originate. At all. It exists, it’s a thing, I’m not denying that. Which is exactly why it frustrates me endlessly to see these accusations thrown around as a gotcha! argument to shut down any and all critical debate around a female character. All it does in the end is escalate rhetoric and radicalize attitudes.  

In the case of Peggy Carter, specifically her treatment by Stucky shippers, I’ve always found 'misogyny as a motive' to be a largely unsubstantiated accusation.¹ Now, I neither presume nor do I want to speak for the entirety of Stuckynation, so I will not claim that there aren't corners of the fandom where people discuss her in ways that I find off-putting and deeply unserious, but I will say this: If you genuinely believe that disliking one (1) fictional female character equals “hating all women” and wanting to suppress and marginalize their presence in fiction and real life alike—then I think we need to take that word away from you until you’ve learned its true meaning.

You might also want to ask yourself how exactly reducing a female character to a mute trophy wife or a heroine who has to act out her love interest’s recycled storylines helps your feminist fight.

As to the “standing in the way of your ship” part of the argument. Very simply put: No character can stand in the way of something if there never ever was “a way” to that something to begin with. “Being mad” implies that there was a reasonable expectation that wasn’t met, a substantive hope that was crushed. Now, I’ve said this before and I’ll gladly say it again a million more times: No Stucky shipper in their right mind ever truly thought that there was even the slightest chance that Marvel Studios owned by the Walt Disney Company would allow Steve “Captain America” Rogers and Bucky “Winter Soldier” Barnes to be canonized as an explicitly romantic pairing in their billion dollar franchise. Be serious. That was never in the cards. I wish we all lived in a world where it was, but we don’t, and it wasn’t. The best we could ever hope for was for Steve and Bucky to get a good, satisfying, in-character ending. And if, in Steve’s case, that would’ve included hints (or more) about a possible rekindling of his, uh, aborted romance with Sharon—then so be it. But we never got any of that. The characters never got any of that. Instead they sent Steve into 1950s suburban hell, literally trapped him behind a white picket fence, and condemned him to a life of passivity and lies, all so he could be married to a woman he barely knew a long time ago in a completely different world; who built and ran a top-to-bottom Hydra-infested organization, but apparently never noticed that there was anything wrong with her life's work. For decades. Great. As for Bucky—well, we’ve all seen the devastatingly grim-faced, utterly lonely, and deeply sad version of him that was presented to us in TFATWS. Happy endings all around, I guess.

So. Am I mad that Steve didn’t get to ride into the rainbow-colored sunset with Bucky at the end of EG? No. Because that was never going to happen anyway. Would I have been mad had he ended up with Sharon or another female character in the 21st century? Also no. Granted, I wouldn’t have been ecstatic about it, but mad? No. But am I mad that Steve ended up with this specific female character under these specific circumstances as presented in canon? Fuck yeah, I am.

The thing is: I personally believe Steve and Peggy to be fundamentally incompatible when it comes to the way they view the world and their respective places in it; their morals and values; their capacity for compassion and empathy; their ability and willingness to compartmentalize, compromise, and collaborate with people and institutions whose ethics and/or politics do not align with their own. I have a real hard time believing that a relationship between these two (or worse, a hasty marriage) could be either happy or long-lasting.

I don’t believe Peggy to be inherently evil, I don’t hate her, I simply think she operates within a different moral framework than Steve (and even genuinely believes it to be a righteous one).² Your mileage may vary, but I personally happen to find that framework reprehensible, even indecent, and ultimately dangerous. After all, over the course of the 20th century, we have seen exactly where that kind of “the ends justify the means” brand of pragmatism leads—over and over again. Not to mention that the people who use this line of argument to defend characters like Peggy (or real-life politicians for that matter) never seem to want to look too closely at who gets to define what "the ends" are in the first place and who decides when they've finally been met.

(Never. The answer is never.)

And to be clear, there is absolutely nothing wrong with depicting, and even centering a narrative around a morally (dark)gray character—oftentimes it’s actually the more interesting option—but you cannot at the same time claim that they are purely good and should be only admired as such when their actions literally tell an entirely different story.

So, no. I will not accept Peggy Carter as the shining aspirational heroine that the MCU so badly wants to sell her to me as—while simultaneously continuing to reveal things that paint an increasingly darker picture of her character. And I will certainly not celebrate seeing one of my favorite characters of all time—whose defining trait was that he couldn't ignore "a situation pointed south"; who used to fight for the little guy and against the establishment; who once said about the very organization that Peggy Carter helped build that it was so corrupt, it all needed to go—rendered morally inert for some hollow happy ending that may as well be a conservative’s wet dream full of false nostalgia for an America that never really existed. I cannot find it in me to be anything less but mad about that.

But that does not make me a misogynist. It does not make me a delusional shipper. It makes me someone who looks at what the MCU has been telling me about Peggy Carter for years now—over and over again—and takes it at its own word.

--------

¹ If you’ve actually read a a fair number of Stucky(!) fanfics you will have noticed that the reverence afforded to and "page time" devoted to her character and her relationship with Steve is somewhat disproportionate to anything that's backed up by canon—well, up until EG, where she was suddenly reanimated as The Great Love of Steve’s Life—and in my experience, it's highly unusual for any fandom to put so much (mostly) positive attention on another character, let alone a potential love interest that is not part of the endgame ship.

² I also want to emphasize that if you love Peggy and she's your fave: good for you! I genuinely have no beef with you. People can agree to disagree. All I ask for is that we maybe stop willfully ignoring the less savory aspects of her character. You don't need to pretend she's perfect to justify your affection for her. I LOVE Steve, and yet I have no problem conceding that he is FAR from perfect.

#*drops post & runs away* i may regret this but it's my blog and i rant if i want to #i know some people will roll their eyes & i debated posting this at all but i simply had to get it off my chest once and for all. #so there. now i can be free. or something. #also i have no idea what to tag this & i personally find 'anti' tags silly bc why is critical discussion automatically labeled as 'anti'? #but whatever i'll play nice. so i guess: #anti peggy carter #anti steggy #anti endgame #hope that covers it #wading into the dIsCoUrsE

[mchi22]

all(?) the unused death animations in clash

also these chairman animations that im pretty sure go unused

#toonblr #corporate clash #ttcc #toontown #im not tagging all of them i dont care #notes: misty has a removed death sound but her death animation doesnt work #chip has an animation labelled 'death' but im pretty sure its just his animation where he falls down #graham and brian also both have 'death' animations but again i think theyre just what happens in their ending cutscenes #but uh. i cant get their animations to work. so. #also sorry some of these are off-center but u wouldnt believe how hard navigating in panda viewer is #edit: added brian and graham #theyre lower resolution bc i still couldnt get their animations to work so i just giffed a video someone else made

[iridescentmirrorsgenshin]

Alhaitham and Kaveh - not 'friends' but 'roommates'

(This is a reworked excerpt taken from my Haikaveh essay! If you're interested you can check it out here or as a pdf <3)

Due to Chinese game restrictions, explicit mentions of homosexuality or overt queer references have resulted in less implicit ways of conveying queer relationships or characters. Therefore, same-sex characters in romantic relationships are assigned the platonic status of “best friend” or “friends”.

As such, these restrictions can be used as guidelines in establishing queercoding within Genshin Impact. It is of note, however, that this rule does not mean that all characters who are canonically “friends” are in a romantic same-sex relationship. Differentiating between same-sex couples and platonic friends (who have all been assigned the label ‘friends’) can be done by identifying particular care undertaken to ‘style’ characters. This is done so by queercoding, as in, using taboos linked to queerness; references which point to romantic connotation; or omitting certain details which casts obscurity on the nature of their ‘friendship’.

Alhaitham and Kaveh’s relationship has been styled in this way, as although various titles have been given to their relationship status, there has been no definitive term supplied overall. Alhaitham tells the Traveller that the two are “roommates”, with Kaveh confirming this, although stating that they “used to be friend(s), but not anymore”.

Within Kaveh’s Character Stories, their history as “best friends” is a painful one of separation, which can be seen as akin to a break-up, and despite their lack of status as ‘friends’, the two share an intimate knowledge of the other that no other character is privy too.

Condensing their relationship down to ‘roommates’ is an oversimplification that the narrative challenges the player to question.

This is achieved through their rapport with each other, seen within Alhaitham purposefully goading Kaveh, something which he cannot be seen to do persistently with any other character, as well as Kaveh’s unique reactions to Alhaitham, which present a side to him unlike which can be observed in his interactions with others. Additionally, the two mention the other without them present, as Alhaitham mentions Kaveh unprompted twice within the Archon Quest and once within his Story Quest, and Kaveh is prone to discussing Alhaitham with those who are aware of them living together, as Collei observes: “Seems like you always include him in the conversation, even when he isn’t here…”

When the two confirm themselves to be roommates, this is immediately followed by Paimon asking Kaveh if they are friends, to which Kaveh does not give a definitive answer too. When Paimon asks Alhaitham the same question in the Archon Quest, Alhaitham evades the question, and turns it back on Paimon, who notes that “[she] doesn’t know. That’s why [she’s] asking,” to which Alhaitham then describes Kaveh as his roommate. Although, this still is an evasion of Paimon’s initial question, Alhaitham neither denies nor confirms their friendship status. The status of their relationship is constantly called into question, for the characters they interact with, and for the player.

This casts an ambiguity over their relationship which aligns with Chinese gaming regulations in regard to same-sex couples, which in turn, points to a certain ‘styling’ of relationship which differs from general platonic friendships within the game. Where both platonic friendships and same-sex relationships can only be openly dubbed as ‘friendship’, signifiers must be present in order to differentiate these platonic friendships from the non-platonic.

Obscurity of relationship status can be used to do so – where characters are not explicitly “friends”, but are evidently tied to each other in some way, more than their assigned platonic status. Here, Kaveh and Alhaitham are irrevocably connected beyond their “roommate” status, and although they are not currently described as “friends”, they used to be, “best friends” according to Kaveh’s Character Stories, which creates a gap for interpretation.

The player is encouraged to interpret the reason for the two’s parting of ways, along with the reason for their current rapport. Although Kaveh asserts that there is a mutual “disdain” between the two, Kaveh observably talks about Alhaitham enough for Tighnari to assert: “No dinner with Kaveh is complete without a few words about Alhaitham." Rather than out of disdain, it can be surmised that Kaveh talks about Alhaitham due to the fact that he cares, as he states that the reason he has so many troubles regarding his work is because he cares so much about it.

When paralleled with his troubles with Alhaitham, being that Alhaitham finds a way to “infuriate” him every time they talk, it can be inferred that Kaveh’s approach to dealing with his work is the same as to how he deals with Alhaitham.

If Kaveh’s assertation that the “disdain” between the two of them was true, then there is no basis for him to talk about Alhaitham as much as he does. This is due to his attitude in caring about something results in him verbally expounding the problem, the same behaviour he exhibits when dealing with Alhaitham. By his own reasoning, if Kaveh did not care about Alhaitham, he would not be so “infuriate[d]” by his words.

In turn, the player can see Alhaitham’s care of Kaveh manifest in his concern for Kaveh’s wellbeing within A Parade of Providence. In this sense, the rapport the two have currently which the narrative prompts the player to question can be explained. The two hold a mutual concern and care for the other, but due to elements in their past, they cannot address this, and thus it goes unspoken. The same can be said about the explicit status of their relationship, as no canon label applied to the two can truly explain their relationship, with ‘roommates’ being a clear oversimplification of their bond, and always followed up with the question of their friendship.

Alhaitham and Kaveh’s status as ‘friends’ is disrupted, not only due to the canon ending of their friendship in the past, but also in the current narrative of the game due to this refused label. Alhaitham and Kaveh do not adhere to the status of ‘friends’, either evading it (Alhaitham) or outright denying it (Kaveh), however, their bond remains central to each of their respective narratives, so much so that their differing viewpoints are integral to the other.

Alhaitham and Kaveh have been designed so that they are integral to each other, and the obscurity of their relationship acts as a signifier that their bond is not of a typical platonic friendship.

In Chinese gaming restrictions regulating platonic bonds and romantic bonds between same-sex characters as strictly ‘friendship’, Genshin Impact can be seen to subvert this in order to queercode. By creating an obscure bond between a same-sex relationship, a bond which the game constantly calls into question, a silence has been generated as to what the status of the relationship really is. The depth to Alhaitham and Kaveh’s relationship and the unspoken nature of it alludes to the queer taboo, in that its inability to be definitively labelled generates an otherness than that of an easily understood platonic bond.

#haikaveh #kavetham #alhaitham #kaveh #haikaveh meta #genshin meta #how have i just properly clocked that the library scene and kaveh saying the thing about caring are in the SAME hangout ending #i feel like im chewing on sawdust #i am wringing out every instance of heavy traces of homosexuality in the writing of these two #they make me crazy insane #they are deliberately avoiding labels #theyre not friends or roommates theyre a secret third thing #homosexual - but you didnt hear this from me!! #also im gonna be posting about a parade of providence at some point #because it owns my being #its one of my fav parts from the essay hehehe

[impossibleclair]

I saw someone refer to Doric as a 'Vanilla Tiefling' and tbh that IS hilarious but also I'll have you know I happen to LOVE vanilla so Miss Doric of the Emerald Conclave if you're free Friday night-

#i have dnd movie brainrot and i am deeply in love with the druid help #looking forward to this post gaining traction in a week and a half when the movie actually drops #doric the druid #d&d: honour among thieves #dnd movie #honor among thieves #tiefling #i mean she IS a very basic tiefling but also she seems to be designed to reflect some of the original tiefling illustrations from 2e #and that's really cool #regardless #i love her #clair speaks #i found this in my notes app from last night labelled 'tumblr post for when you're not delirious' lmao

[sukibenders]

When it comes to Penelope I feel like a lot of her fans take any valid criticism towards her and turn it into hate, which does her character a disservice. While some people do hate on her, a lot of it holds valid reasons. Admitting that she has hurt many people isn't wrong because she has, it's been shown on throughout the show and the impacts it can have. From labeling Daphne as "unmarriageable" during her first season and events that followed, her labeling Eloise as being part of a group of rebels, the terms she used to describe Kate [and Simon]-- which carried racial undertones no matter how you try to spin it, who didn't even know personally at that point, what she did Marina. All of these were very harmful and to say that none of these characters should feel angry, that they should just forgive Penelope without any work put into it is very laughable (especially because she's still writing as Whistledown and put many, namely women, at risk during a time where reputation is everything--something in which Penelope herself faces). With this being said, criticizing her actions, at least for me, doesn't come from a complete place of hate but more so from believing that she can be better if she puts in the work. By ignoring all that she's done and having her get her happily ever after so easily in the end, to be honest, would ultimately feel lackluster. I feel like she still has room to grow, but it will take a lot of work and, I personally, think seeing her renavigate who she is with who she wants to be outside of Lady Whistledown would be very interesting.

#bridgerton #penelope featherington #idk if this counts as anti but I'll label it as such too #anti penelope featherington #bc some people don't see it her referring to kate as a “beast” was wrong as hell and definitely side eye worthy coming from this yte woman #like she didn't even know kate and wrote that about her #and her ableist comments towards george were absolutely unnecessary as well #so deny that none of these things holds impact would be highly untrue and make the story very flat #i do think pen provides valuable insight to a different perspective of the ton and was helpful in eloise seeing a different view #so that's one [of very few] reasons that i think she should have a chance of redeeming herself #but that also doesn't mean that any of these characters should forgive her either #penelope stans and/or polin stans do not interact if you can't be respectful! #(also bc some people like to say “but the bridgertons are privileged and got their happy endings” #one just bc they got their happy endings in the end doesn't mean that what pen wrote didn't put them in difficult situations or that she #should be thanked as if she helped them [with daphne that was mainly her and her own mother's doing] #[for eloise that different bc it puts her and her family under political scrutiny as well bc do you honestly think being labeled as associat #-ing with rebels would be a good thing?]

[angel-archivist]

It's so interesting and so exceedingly frustrating how agab is being utilized now within the queer community as a way to isolate and sort nonbinary and genderqueer folks into binary boxes that determine their moral purity levels, and their authority to do and write and exist.

The way nonbinary writers are being put under accusation of fetishizing gay men while their AGAB is continually brought up in a way that feels like queer-space-approved misgendering.

The way feminist circles that are supposedly trans-inclusive will use the word AFAB in a way that implicitly but intentionally isolates nonbinary people who aren't AFAB from joining. It's for women*.

The way the language is already flawed and leaves out intersex folks from the conversations while focusing on a binary of sex that isn't truthful.

The constant obsessing over whether someone is AFAB or AMAB and whether or not that gives them the privilege to join, do, write, or be present in certain spaces really really concerns me. How are we supposed to dismantle a binary system of gender if we can't even move past forcibly assigning and focusing on people's genders assigned at birth?

#and yes i understand! that agab language can in some circumstances be helpful in inclusive language and in the medical world but ultimately #is misgendering and unnecessary it should be up to the person to disclose their agab not an expectation of them to give up freely #I think that inclusive language shouldnt be misgendering in nature and agab as far as i can tell should only be used in select discussions #and certainly not as a way to frame a nonbinary writer as a “biological woman” but in a way where the queer community will nod along and sa #“oh they have a point” because you used the word AFAB instead #honestly afab is the term i see used most frequently and most harmfully towards other nonbinary people who don't identify w the label #to exclude trans women and amab nonbinary people #to frame nonbinary people as “still women” because of their assigned gender at birth #also i understand its not as simple as “not using” these terms bc they still serve a purpose and are important #but as they leave the queer community and as they enter the hands of cis queer people they become weapons #i wish i could like manifest my thoughts super clearly but i really cant bc its a difficult situation #its just another example of misogyny and bio-essentialism creeping into the queer community #because the patriarchy impacts all things including our discussions of trans oppression and gender we need to stop viewing it #as a strict binary of male female and oh sometimes we'll mention nonbinary people but we're all afab and amabs at the end of the day <3 #like flames literal flames #if you wanna like chip into the conversation just shoot me an ask or respond to the post i'd love to hear other peoples perspectives #im not infalliable so if i said anything you view as incorrect especially in regards to intersex folks and how you all would like to be #included in these discussions as im not intersex but am aware of how agab is a subject that leans into the idea of a binary of sex #so yeah rant over <3 #retro.bullshit #rant

[wellthatschaotic]

whenever i see someone who is like "yes but [x] isnt as oppressed as [y]!!" or "[x] is widely accepted now!!" as a way to like. disregard queer people's experiences. i'm just like. have you been outside? have you been in the real world?

#im just. #infighting is so dumb #'you're tme so you can't talk about-' first of all. we're not tme. transmasc =/= tme. honestly tme is a dumbass label anyway and has just #become a 'progressive' way to ask for agab #what do you think a boy/masc person in a dress reads as to transphobes. you think theyre gonna apologize if i say #'actually im transmasc not transfemme' #thats not how that works- #every time we try to correct our pronouns we get stopped because it's 'inappropriate' and 'uncomfortable' #same with every time we try to explain our gender #and yet there are still people online trying to judge if a complete stranger is 'queer enough' to count #(and if they're 'not' the reaction is like. death threats for some reason??) #and im always like. GO OUTSIDE. PLEASE. #the queerphobe on the bus does not ask for your labels before calling you slurs. the bully harassing you will not stop and apologize if you #try to say 'i'm not [x] actually im [y]' #they do not care. they are full of hate and they have already decided on a target. #also? you have no right to a stranger's labels and life experiences #trying to demand that is already creepy. especially since your goal is to see if they're worthy of respect #ok rant over i think. just. ahhghh

[liquidstar]

honestly does anyone else think that the what:if routes are perhaps telling us that some sort of collision between subaru and reinhard is just inevitable in nearly every route

#re:zero #my game theory. i mean. light novel theory... is that somewhere somehow down the line subaru will have to face reinhard #and when that happens he will be his worst obstacle yet like in most alt routes #made worse by their relationship at this point #but also maybe perhaps UNLIKE in all the alt routes something will be different #and i dont mean that in a good way. im thinking maybe subaru could finally figure out The Trick to beating the strongest man alive #somehow. #and it might involve garfiel based on some stuff thats been foreshadowed who knows #what exactly would beating entail though? he cant die bc of the divine protection of the phoenix #but that being said if he somehow had all his divine protections taken away i mean... hed actually be relatively weak imo #his body would still probably remember how to move like a sword saint (like therisia's did in arc 5) #but like that can also be a bad thing like #would his body perhaps also forget that he has to ACTUALLY DODGE PROJECTILES bc they wont just magically miss him anymore? #will he try to walk on water only to sink like an idiot? #will he not check the label on the sugar only to find out its salt? #either way he wouldnt be the strongest man alive anymore hed just be a skilled swordsmen. julius could probably match him at that point #which im sure would be surreal to juli after years of admiration+envy+being gay about it

[hyperfixatinator]

ROTTMNT Theory: Leonardo's Face

(I know this topic had been talked about in other posts before. I had a mighty need to add my 2 cents, along with some pictures.)

We know Leo's gonna grow to be an amazing leader. He's already learning how to work in groups and communicate with his team, and he's even beginning to reel back his prideful behavior.

However, to live by the important life lesson of "we do we", I get the feeling he's not gonna do it the same way as past TMNT iterations. Future Leo in the ROTTMNT movie is proof enough that his humorous quips are here to stay, even after decades of apocalyptic horrors.

Because Leo's right, he IS the face man. He just hasn't realized yet how crucial the face of a team is, or how great of a weapon it can be.

(Show and movie spoilers under the cut.)

Firstly, the face is an important tool for navigating the world around you. It's where three (four counting the ears) of the body's senses are placed. Sure, you can technically live and roam through touch alone, but then you risk missing a lot of information about your surroundings that could impact your life.

Metaphorically speaking, Leo provides this for his team the most often. He uses his highly attuned senses to scan their environment for immediate details. This allows him to adjust their plans to even the slightest changes, or to make quicker deductions based on whatever clues he finds.

Another thing about faces is how prominently they're used for communication. They are one of the most critical tools for social interactions of all kinds, including deception. Mastery of facial gestures is what lets so many actors/actresses thrive when putting on believable performances.

Continuing the metaphor, Leo has proven himself to be a master of persuasion so many times throughout the Rise series. His easygoing charm can make him both motivating for loved ones and easy to underestimate for opponents.

Once Leo's self confidence improves some more, his social intelligence gives him the potential to become terrifyingly powerful. The ability to outwit geniuses by thinking outside the box. Negotiation skills that could put the average politician to shame. Eyes as sharp as his katanas, ones that could read people like comic books. An equally sharp tongue able to flip entire situations in his team's favor through words alone.

Next to hope, Leo's face truly is his most dangerous weapon. He just needs to learn how to not let it control him. I'd love to see Leo further develop this more charismatic style of leadership that tends to set him apart from his past series' counterparts.

#Leonardo #rottmnt #rottmnt movie spoilers #rise leo #analysis #You could also say Leo is both the face AND the voice of his team #I feel like Leo being a phenomenal actor is a key reason why Splinter chose him to be the new leader #Being a former actor himself #Splinter knows how powerful words and appearances can be in leading (or misleading) others #Splinter finally saw part of himself in Leo and decided that kind of potential shouldn't go neglected again #Leo asked why nobody had any faith in him #so Splinter took a chance to put some faith in him #I ended up titling this one a 'theory' too because it felt weird to have it labeled differently from my last rottmnt post #Sorry for the small text in some pics. I wanted to cram as many screenshots as I could since I'm a sucker for photographic evidence.

[intersex-support]

Something that has been helpful for me when having conversations about what counts as intersex is to really engage in enquiry about what the label means and how we're using it. To me, it's been more helpful to think through questions like:

What purpose does labeling a variation as intersex serve?

In what ways is societal understandings of "typical" changing?

Why was the label of intersex created and has our use of the label shifted?

What ways are we building intersex community? What do we want intersex community to look like?

How do our experiences of oppression impact our understanding of intersex as a term?

What sources are we drawing from when we develop definitions of intersex?

What is the history of the way intersex has been used?

What ways has intersex community been exclusionary in the past, and is that in line with our current values?

Definitions of intersex have always been tied up with what the medical world decides to classify as differences of sex development, but especially in the past twenty years as intersex community has grown more connected, we've started to have a lot more self-determination in our communities. But I think a lot of people still really have a misconception that intersex is a biological "third sex" that is strictly medically defined, and that there are clear cutoffs between intersex and endosex.

Instead, I'd like to bring in the concept of compulsory dyadism to introduce a framework where intersex is an intentional political label used as a way to build community for the people whose variation of sex characteristics are most impacted by the stigma and violence associated with compulsory dyadism.

Sex diversity is not just limited to intersex people. Even within the boundaries of dyadic/endosex bodies, people have variations like different amounts of body hair, penis size, hormone levels, breast size, as well as things like disabilities affecting any of those traits. For example, very few people actually have all the "ideal" traits that line up with this constructed idea of an endosex body that has the exact "correct" amount of estrogen, the right size chest, the ability to bear children, "normal" periods. Many endosex people might have a variation in one of those aspects at differing times during their life, such as during menopause, for example. And this framework can help us understand how diagnoses such as endometriosis are not intersex, but people might still notice overlaps in certain experiences.

But the reason that not everyone is considered intersex and the reason that having a separation between endosex and intersex is important is because of the stigma and violence associated with straying further and further from that dyadic norm, and intersex is a label used to describe people who are the most impacted by that stigma and violence. We have been socially labeled as "deviating" the most from the "normal" sex binary, and consequentially face intersexism both on a systematic and personal level. Our collection of sex variations becomes located entirely outside of the sex binary, and as a result, we often face curative violence, social stigma, and systematic exclusion from many parts of society.

This definition isn't a perfect definition. I think we need to have room to develop more nuance around the fact that many intersex people might not feel like their experience of being intersex has brought them any personal stigma or violence, as well as understanding that there isn't going to be a universal intersex experience. Even when discussing how intersex people are the most impacted by compulsory dyadism compared to endosex people, I think it's important to recognize that within the intersex community, our additional intersecting identities are absolutely going to influence our experiences with oppression and that it's vital to intentionally uplift the members of our intersex community who are most impacted by oppression. In the United States, the creation of the sex binary was an explicitly racist process, and racialized intersex people are subject to additional layers of stigma, violence and scrutiny. (Check out chapters 4-6 in the book Cripping Intersex by Dr. Celeste Orr for a really in depth discussion of how antiblackness and compulsory dyadism are forces behind why the Olympic sports sex testing has pretty much exclusively targeted Black women from the Global South, regardless of whether or not they are actually intersex. Also recommend reading The Biopolitics of Feeling: Race, Sex, and Science in the Nineteenth Century by Dr Kyla Schuller.) I also have talked with many intersex people who are tired of us always being represented through trauma narratives in the media, and who want us to be able to build a definition of intersex that isn't based around violence or tragedy. And I think that's really important that we also share our stories of intersex joy, and pride, and healing. I think that claiming intersex can be something really radical, and that's super valuable to me.

Overall I think that if we build our discussions around who is intersex on concepts to do with our social and political location, and take into consideration concepts like compulsory dyadism, sex diversity, and disability, we are going to be able to understand why any of it matters better than if our determinations of intersex identity are based solely in medicalized concepts of a third sex.

TL;DR: Although endosex people also have diversity when it comes to sex traits, intersex is still an important label that not everyone can claim. Compulsory dyadism is a force that affects all of us, but intersex people are the most impacted by compulsory dyadism and face intersexist stigma and violence for our intersex variations. As a result, intersex is an important label for us to claim so that we can build community and solidarity around our experiences. I think it is better understood as a sociopolitical label that describes the relationship between our biological bodies and the cultures we live in, rather than as a medicalized term that described a coherent "third sex."

other intersex people feel free to add on to this post-I'm only one person without all the answers, and would love to hear other perspectives!

#intersex #actuallyintersex #intersexism #disability justice #disability #trans #compulsory dyadism #cripping intersex #anyway again! i'm just one person and i am not in charge of intersex community #these frameworks have been really helpful for me. might not be helpful for you and that's okay! #this is just kind of a long post about some things i've been thinking about bc like. every time someone sends in an ask #asking about what is or isn't intersex. where the lines are. that sort of thing #i have a lot of thoughts about how there are lines. not everyone is intersex. endosex people cannot just claim intersex on a whim. #but at the same time those lines are sometimes blurred! it's not clear why some diagnoses r automatically considered intersex and some are #not considered intersex. #and i think that it's been helpful for me to look into okay what does this say about our oppression. our community. our bodies. what is #the history and what is the present? why does it matter? why do we need the label? how does it serve us #and Dr. Orr has been really influential in their theory of compulsory dyadism #also i

[finedinereception]

i think simon does end up physically back to where he started, mostly because i really want to explore the idea of simon emotionally hurting himself by trying to draw a line between himself and ice king. because the thing is that even if hes physically back to normal, he still is mentally afflicted by the remains of magic insanity and all the memories of those 900 years. hes extremely forgetful. he loses his temper more easily than before, or will start crying for reasons beyond his understanding. his physical coordination isnt as good as it was before. he feels godawful when magic queen puts the daily checklist back on the wall, because hes normal now, why cant he just remember to eat every morning? why is he getting lost 2 blocks away from his own home? why is he losing his temper over incredibly mild things?

its about the internalized hatred for himself. cutting a piece of his own identity away because hes not as well as he once was. he was ice king for longer than he was simon, but he doesnt want to acknowledge that it is part of his history and identity. itd be easier if ice king was a stranger who took control of his body for a while.

and he really needs to come to terms with the fact that he IS ice king, ice king IS him, just a different phase of his life, because pushing that fact away is only hindering his recovery.

#adventure time #simon petrikov #wizard married au #to be clear im not gonna label it with a specific mental illness because it can be a sensitive subject #its a magic-based condition similar to real world mental illnesses that makes him forgetful and damages coordination and mood regulation #but i dont wanna go hyper specific since i dont have experience with such conditions #my own experiences are mostly with cluster b disorders. bipolar depression. and anxiety #and he is refusing to use the coping methods ice king and magic queen came up with together because doing so would mean accepting ice king #as himself #and doing that is going to be an important step in moving forward #betty has also got some memory restoration stuff going on but its gonna be a LOT more complex and long-term

[larrythefloridaman]

WOAH, HE'S BIGENDER? I DIDN'T KNOW THAT!

#hey. hey. im just saying. he LITERALLY 'transed his gender' in a diagetic bit in orange. and if that wasnt enough. #in blue he disguised himself as squid jenny specifically with larry's powers (the only thing hes done with them on screen) #got caught by his god-assigned roles-obsessed caretaker. and was given the label of being something intrinsically unescapably deceitful. #while 'pretending' to be trans girl. #like. if i wasnt pretty sure it was all an accident i might even call the allegory here slightly heavy-handed. #with the nccts emphasizing a theme of 'youre not just what people say you are #you can be more than one thing at the same time' with crim #i think crimson can have boygirl swag. some bigender pizzazz. i think he deserves it. #is it REALLY a cpu kerfuffle arc without a subversive narratively relevant gender-transing. #am i supposed to believe the spirit of deviance himself is cis? get fucking real. grow up. /silly #also a lil crimtoinette in there. just for flavor. because i cant help myself. #also sidenote the nccts have given him this cute lil tendency #to tip his hat down to hide his face when hes trying to be Genuine or Thoughtful or Poignant. and i enjoy that little touch #i maybe like this guy a little too much. hes most of what ive drawn for months. #but what do you want from me. i read him as a queercoded villain deconstructed at the metanarrative level. #am i just supposed to be normal about that. #me and zia talked about this in dms and discovered. we came to a lot of the same conclusions. completely independently. lmao

[tsuchinokoroyale]

If he’s lookin for some thrills, ya hit him with the frills 🐠

#and now you say 🐠? that’s gills! you mean ❄️ and I say ❄️? that’s chills! you mean etc etc. #for the lore savvy I’m sorry to disappoint but this outfit was the questionably labeled women’s intimates my friend asked me to wear #they are perfect for me bc they are soft and vaguely audacious with the pattern and silly lil frills so he was right when he said as much 🥰 #also for those wondering why the poppy background in some but not all I have a reason! #that side of the room was so disastrously messy I didn’t want to clean it so I put in more effort somewhere else to make up for it #this is what we in the business call procrastination babey!! hope this helps xoxo 💋 #gpoy

[treemintart]

faux headcanons/observations cause i looked way too deep into a character xd

cw: abuse mention (nothing graphic)

under a readmore cause of spoilers for the end of the game

TL;DR: i think that faux is just a guy whos too chained by his roots and couldnt escape so he took it out on everyone around him in the absolutely worst way possible

Long version: i personally feel like faux has a LOT of unspoken issues, which is kind of hinted at in some dialogue/cutscenes

this entire conversation really felt like he had to uphold a perfect image so he wouldnt (couldnt) tarnish his fathers reputation. he had to do what it took to survive, even if it meant throwing his fellow writers under the bus. his perception on being a writer starts to warp and change because of this, turning into what he is now. also immediately being put into a machine he didnt have time to cope with anything, his anger just got worse. (i think that the death of Berlage was his doing as a way of having control, as he probably felt that he couldnt escape his roots and his ties to the police.)

i do find it interesting that he starts stuttering and panicking, which to me felt like a last ditch attempt to be accepted and understood in some form.

this line really stood out to me, as they are (assumed to be) similar in age. i think that maybe he went through abuse (presumably by his father), so that he views his body as aged.

i think that he really did trust felix, and felix became an anchor for him; in a very unhealthy way. when felix left to go solo, he felt that his stability went with it and was betrayed and angry. so he took it out on him in the worst way he could.

he didnt want to be left behind again, to be abandoned by his crew, so he tried to make it so he was the only one left. so there wasnt anyone around that could betray him.

#tai talks #bomb rush cyberfunk #spoilers #brc spoilers #long post #hi yes hello i am sorry for this LOL #idk if these are considered headcanons but im labeling it as that anyway #i also hope this isnt all over the place. i know i missed some things/screenshots but im too lazy to add them in now LMAO #maybe ill come back to edit this later in the day #could he have issues? yes #could he also just be an arrogant asshole? also yes #idk something about “your dad was a corrupt cop” and “he was a fine officer” really hits different #did his dad know about faux being a writer? very possible #either he didnt know or they had to make some form of compromise in the form of faux lying about quitting being a writer

[avelera]

Things that can be simultaneously true:

1 ) Codependency that would be unhealthy in real life can be really sexy and appealing in fic, and in romance stories in general, because those aren’t real life. We want to see the excesses of that emotion so we can feel it vicariously as far removed as we are as readers by the barrier of the written word. Writing characters who are obsessively in love is an effective tool in that regard even if they shouldn’t serve as educational models of an ideal relationship (whatever that is).

2 ) Some of what y’all are labeling as “unhealthily codependent” (even if it’s praise of a story where y’all find the codependency appealing as part of the story!)… isn’t unhealthily codependent?? Sometimes people do just spend a lot of time together when they love each other and make one another their priority? Oftentimes, that’s the person that people choose to marry (or equivalent) and the whole point of that decision and arrangement is you become one another’s priority???

Like I’m just gonna throw this out there as a litmus test for fandom to try out but maybe (when it’s adult characters involved) just ask “is this unhealthily, clinically codependent, like these people can’t psychologically function without the other, OR would they just be really sad without the other because they’re effectively married and they’ve made one another a priority and they could, in fact, after they’ve grieved pull themselves together and continue to function, even if it’s not instantaneous??”

#this is somewhat hampered by the fact I’m not sure even fandom knows what they mean when saying codependent #heck maybe I’m actually codependent on my partner! #and that’s why I don’t see it as a problem but I do also have my own life #I’m just puzzled sometimes by what gets labeled as codependent #when it’s like that’s just people in love who are also friends?? #idk I’m sure someone could get pedantic about this #but like having a crisis because someone you treasure is hurt or missing #ISN’T codependent that’s just loving someone?? #I’m assuming some of these people haven’t had a serious relationship before?? #Maggie rambles #codependency in fanfic