#i love that i get distracted by flaws in arguments that i otherwise support to the point of frustration

[sendandburn]

Snape wasn’t obsessed with Lily.

Here are some signs of obsession, and there is no canon evidence iirc to support these signs.

Obsessive Love Disorder: Behavior, Symptoms & Treatment

Needing constant reassurance from the person they are obsessed with due to low self-esteem

According to Joanne, Snape was interested in joining the death eaters partially because he was insecure. It wasn’t Lily he turned to to help him with his self-esteem issues, it was the proto death eaters.

Obsessively talking about their loved object

I hardly ever see Snape talking about Lily in the books.

Making repeated calls, texts, and/or faxes to the love object

Replace this with making repeated owls to Lily. I don’t see any proof of Snape doing that.

Unwanted intensive attention to the love object

There is nothing in the books to suggest Snape didn’t want to feel what he did towards Lily.

A tendency to have extremely good or bad (not balanced) feelings about someone

There is no proof in the books either way of this. We don’t know if Snape recognized Lily’s flaws but chose to dismiss it as ‘nobody’s perfect’ or if he thought she was perfect in every way.

Trouble focusing on work, recreation, socializing, or other aspects of their lives outside of the object of their affection

Snape was able to keep up with the demands of being a head of house and a professor of potions with many different students from many different year groups. He was able to keep up with the demands of being a spy and protecting innocent people (only those whom I could not save). Had Snape been focusing too much on Lily , it would have been difficult for him to focus on work.

Even as a teenager Snape’s recreational activities were improving potions and learning about the dark arts, as well as creating his own spells. If he was obsessed with Lily it wasn’t severe enough to distract him from other recreational interests and responsibilities he had.

Attempts to monitor or otherwise control their love object's life and activities

A lot of people think Snape’s unfinished sentence ‘I won’t let you-’ is proof of controlling behaviour. They jump to the assumption that Snape was going to say ‘I won’t let you spend time with James Potter.’

Personally, I theorize based on the context that Snape was going to say ‘I won’t let you defend him to me!’

I mean if someone was defending the person who hurt you for years, it wouldn’t be wrong for you to react the way Snape did.

Why do I think that was the ending of the sentence?

Because I believe context matters and right before Snape said ‘I won’t let you-’ Lily was telling him off for not feeling a certain way and was in a way defending James Potter.

Besides that flimsy ‘I won’t let you-’ that people use as evidence for Snape supposedly being a controlling person, there is no evidence that points to Snape trying to monitor or control Lily’s life.

Excessive joy, to the point of relief, when able to get in touch with or be with their love object

Excessive joy was not what I saw Snape feel for Lily. Most of the time Snape seemed to feel content around Lily. We see that in their childhood. When he and Lily had an argument he felt annoyed and bitter around her. But never have I seen Snape feel excessive joy around her.

So if Snape wasn’t obsessed with her, did he love her?

The ancient Greeks believed that there are eight different types of love. Love isn’t always a good thing, it depends what kind of love the person feels for you. It’s like mushrooms. Not all mushrooms are equal, not all mushrooms are good. Not all kinds of love are equal, not all kinds of love are good.

Most of Snape’s love for Lily is what the greeks call philautia.

Philautia is “self-love”. Because Snape only understood Lily in terms of how she made him feel and not necessarily how he made her feel.

That’s why I call it philautia because Snape was focused on himself.

Otherwise he wouldn’t have been calling people mudblood behind her back.

Philautia is necessary for a healthy relationship. Both partners must love and respect themselves enough to recognize when their partner doesn’t make them feel good, and when communication/counselling/finding a more compatible partner might be necessary.

But healthy relationships balance self-love (how they feel) with love towards their partner and recognizing how their partner feels.

Snape’s love for Lily was mostly philautia and a love based too much on how somebody feels and not enough on how their partner feels isn’t a healthy one.

Why did Snape do bad things to Lily if he loved her?

Snape wasn’t only about his love for Lily. Snape had other emotions towards other things/people that contradicted his love for Lily.

Snape loved Lily, but he hated James, and his hatred of James was a contributing factor in bullying James’ son Harry. His hatred for James fought with his love for Lily.

Snape loved Lily the idea of being part of what he saw as a great and powerful group (the de’s) which also contradicted his love for Lily.

Well, that is Snape’s tragedy. Given his time over again he would not have become a Death Eater, but like many insecure, vulnerable people (like Wormtail) he craved membership of something big and powerful, something impressive. - Joanne Rowling

Think of it this way, you are a professional driver but somebody puts diesel in your car when your car needs the other type of petrol.

It doesn’t matter how good you are at driving if your petrol is not compatible with the car your driving, you’re going to have problems.

It’s the same with Snape’s love for Lily. It doesn’t matter how “good” Snape’s love for Lily was, if he had other “loves” and emotions that contradicted his love for Lily then his love for Lily would be problematic.

Snape’s love for Lily is impressive relative to the kind of person he is and the environment he grew up in. Also, Snape’s love for Lily improved a lot. It wasn’t the healthy love James had for Lily, but it was a huge improvement.

Snape’s only experiences with love was neglect (implied in text but not outright stated) a dysfunctional family home, and at worse a victim of his father’s abuse and at best a victim of having to witness it.

Snape’s other experiences with love is Lily being a kind person to him.

Snape found it difficult to emulate Lily’s goodness and the kind of love Lily had for people, and Snape’s childhood makes that understandable.

But despite it all Snape dedicated his life to protecting a child he hated, gave his life to help that child defeat Voldemort, saved innocent lives that had nothing to do with Lily, and risked his life as a spy to help in the war against Voldemort, saved Remus Lupin’s life and checked to see if Sirius was okay (despite hating them and believing they tried to kill him) partially to honour Lily’s memory and partially because he’d become a better person. Twenty-one year old Snape probably wouldn’t have saved lives (only those whom I could not save) in fact he joined a group that took innocent lives.

Snape improved a lot as a person and his love for Lily was the domino effect that led to that change. I said the domino effect. I don’t think it was the ONLY thing that led to Snape changing for the better.

Snape still wasn’t a great person. He abused children as an adult, but thirty something year old Snape was much better than his twenty one year old self, in my opinion.

I said most of Snape’s love for Lily was philautia what about the rest of it?

I think Snape had quite a bit of philia love for Lily. Nothing in the books suggests that Snape was sexually attracted to Lily. People assume that because when they think love they think romantic/sexual; without realizing aromantic and asexual individuals exist. Also, that male and female friends can love each other in only a platonic way.

Snape had too much philautia love and it made him not care too much about how Lily felt, and the consequences of that were joining a muggle and muggleborn hate group (even though Lily was a muggleborn).

But Snape had enough philia love to protect Harry, spy on Voldemort, save innocent lives, and give his life for Harry; all things he did partially because of his philia love for Lily and honouring her memory.

philia = platonic love

(analysis by Kaira Aitken. taken from Quora)

If you're a snater, then... Fine, you can say a lot of bad things about him but there's two things you CAN'T say :

No one in the Harry Potter Fandom likes him (and yes, lili_la from Ao3 i'm talking about you)

Snape was obsessed with Lily

'cause none of the two states above are true

#harry potter #professor snape #severus snape fandom #snape #character analysis #Harry potter #a reminder for snaters #you can talk shit all you want #but check the facts first

[watermelinoe]

i'm just so nitpicky..... i'm like well i agree w what you're saying except this is not technically true so i will scroll past anyway

#even on radblr gyns will say that 'transition increases suicide risk' but it's based on one old questionable study so i #am like hhhnnnnnghfhf and instead i'm like 'there is insufficient evidence that transitioning improves qol and many cases of bad effects #i am NOT diagnosed w ocd or whatever i am totally fine and this is fine #i love that i get distracted by flaws in arguments that i otherwise support to the point of frustration

[ophezio]

yes, i think harry and luna makes more sense than harry and ginny. hear me out

ok so before any hinny shippers get me, please hear me out. a lot of points might be unjustified but only because jk rowling is a shit written and wrote a lot of horrible tropes. but anyways, let’s continue.

let me start off with harry as a character. harry has always been rather opposed to the fame he receives, and hates when people pay him attention only for the purpose of him being The Boy Who Lived. he always feels rather shut off from the world, even though he clearly has people on his side. you can tell he wishes everyone would just look past his legacy and see him for him. hermione and ron do that most of the time, but still do fall into the trap of seeing The Boy Who Lived first. a lot of people do, and it’s quite understandable as that’s the first thing you notice about harry. but anyways harry is just a boy who wants nothing but to been seen as anything but that. moving on to his personality, he’s very hotheaded and very opinionated, and never lets his opinions falter. he of course has a lot of built up anger over the way people have treated him his whole life. he struggles with people just not understanding him the way he longs for someone to. he wants to seen as an ordinary dude who has emotions just like anyone else, simple as that.

now let’s look at ginny as a character. ginny is a very nice girl who’s an enjoyable person to be around. she’s confident, outgoing, funny, and can bring a good energy to room as all eyes automatically go to her. she’s quite popular as she’s extremely pretty, automatically pushing her up the food chain of hogwarts. also, being on the quidditch team helps with the popularity. so naturally, attention follows her. she’s your stereotypical perfect-girl, which isn’t at all a bad thing as most stories need that girl. the one thing i will say that bugs me about ginny is her judgefulness, especially when it came to fleur. now of course this is just plainly jk rowling’s internal misogyny and pick-girl writing style, but it still is ginny, unfortunately. ginny feels like a person who can be quick to judge a situation for what it is rather than accessing it first. and that isn’t exactly a positive trait.

ginny and harry definitely have a lot of similarities and get along extremely well. they both love quidditch, both are hotheaded and opinionated, and overall have a lot of the same personality traits. most importantly, they share the trauma of being controlled and tormented by voldemort. this is a very big thing to share in common, and is most likely why harry can confide in ginny. but, all the similarities can create a dynamic where they butt heads a lot as you do when someone is so similar to yourself. i know personally when i meet people who are a lot like me, we tend to butt heads more often than not. i can definitely get along with those people though, and have great friendships. it’s just anything beyond that wouldn’t work in my opinion. and that’s why harry and ginny sometimes makes me scratch my head a bit. harry and ginny did work in the books because they were always written to be together. but if we think from a realistic standpoint, it wouldn’t have worked at all. similar trauma would definitely create a bond, but now in a way that could be romantically. you are welcome to disagree all you’d like, but i just simply can wrap my head around it.

moving onto luna as a character. luna is a very freeing character who does as she pleases and doesn’t let others people’s harsh opinions affect her and her hobby’s. people have always talked down on luna, and separated her based on what they see on the surface. they first see her as “loony lovegood” because it’s what their first reaction is. i can see at first seeing her as a bit odd, as she does talk about things that are out of the ordinary. but if you look beyond that, she’s so much more. she’s extremely intelligent (hence the ravenclaw), and has such an open mind that anything seems possible to her. with having such an open mind, she’s willing to see situations as they truthfully are, and would never wrongfully judge as she never enjoys when it happens to her. she listens to people, because she knows she’d appreciate if people listened to her. with this comes her calming demeanor that could especially help when someone’s in a state of panic or is just riled up. luna is a very fluid character who can very relaxing to be around.

harry and luna would more realisticly work, in my personal opinion. if they had been written to be together from the start, more people would agree with any opinions regarding harry and luna. but jk rowling being the shit writer she is, she would rather see the main character get together with the perfect girl with seemingly no flaws on the surface, rather than the girl who clearly does have flaws but is more realistic. ginny was written as jk rowling’s projection, clearly representing what she so desperately wanted to be. if she had just written characters as they should be, ginny would an even better character than she already is.

but anyways, harry and luna. harry and luna relate on many different that in the long run matter a lot more than you might realize. harry and luna have always been objectified for things they have no control over. harry for being The Boy Who Lived, and luna for being herself. they’ve both been on the receiving ends of weird stares and harsh words. hogwarts has seemingly created a lot more problems for them than anything, yet they still manage to find more redeeming qualities than anything. especially with found families. harry and luna both know what’s it like to lose a parent, and what that sort of thing does to you. no one else they know have gone through that, making it hard to connect with others on that level. they’re able to understand each other, and sympathize for each other without it being pity because they know how it feels. and i think this shows when luna comforts harry after sirius dies. she knows the feeling, and makes harry feel known and understood, something he constantly needs from people. he needs people to see him on a personal level, and see him beyond his fame, and see him as harry, a ordinary boy who has just had unfortunate things happen to him. i think luna really gets that feeling, hence why she’s able to make harry feel more comforted about sirius’s death. luna generally has a calming effect, and it works extremely well for harry, who desperately needs a person capable of doing that. luna can see straight though him, and can sense when he’s feeling down and lying about being fine. not many people tell him they can see through him, rather just believing when he says he fine and leaves it alone. luna is very straightforward, and sometimes harry does need that. yet she doesn’t pry for information. she’ll tell him she knows he’s not fine, but she’ll let it go rather that press on him for details. harry is always appreciative of people who don’t pry for details, but when someone can see past your facade yet still give you the space you need, it helps a great deal. especially someone like harry who is only ever looked at from the surface. he’s seen as an object rather than a person. but luna never does that. luna never looks at him as The Boy Who Lived, she looks at him like he’s an normal boy who she just happens to go to school with. harry can talk to luna with fear of being seen just for fame, and can obviously talk to luna without being bothered. people generally avoid luna, and realistically, harry would find comfort in that. harry enjoys when he escapes the fame, and can be normal. luna is one of few people he can be like that with. hence why i would assume harry finds more comfort in that than what’s written in the book. i always take everything in those books with a grain of salt, and this is one thing that i think otherwise on. if these books were more better written, harry would naturally find comfort in someone he can lay low with and find peace with. someone who understands him and wouldn’t turn their back on him. luna is that person. all throughout the books, luna is constantly standing behind harry, never for one second leaving him behind. in the 5th book, she reassures harry that she certainly believes harry and has no reason not to. she also helps harry tell people his truth by putting his interview with rita skeeter in the quibbler. that’s a very important thing for harry, as not many people would be willing to do that big of thing for him, especially during that period of everyone accusing him of being a liar. luna also constantly stands behind harry in the 6th and 7th books. she asks a lot of times if the DA will ever meet again, showing she’s willing to meet again if harry ever speaks the words. after almost getting caught the previous, people might not want to return to the DA so willinging as luna seems to. and in the 7th book, she stands behind him too, comforting him when dobby dies, casting those patronuses when seen harry in danger, and when she offered to cause a distraction so harry could get some privacy after the final battle.

luna is a very strong support system, and never falters her support. this is very important for someone like harry, who a lot of times gets a nagging feeling that people are going to leave him, which is understandable for the life he’s lived. luna is the definition of a ride or die. now an argument i see a lot is harry wouldn’t be good enough for luna. if we look at it canon wise, then yes, i might agree. but that’s simply because he wasn’t written to be romantically involved with luna, hence why it does seem he would be not be good enough for her. if he had been written to be interested in her, it would appear totally different. i mean canon does show us he does care for her and doesn’t think poorly of her. he clearly always appreciates her kind gestures, and he clearly enjoys her presence enough to invite her along to the slughorn christmas party. he wouldn’t have invited her if he didn’t like and care for her, simple as that. if a romance was written and developed between them, things would look a lot better than they do when we look at canon. i personally hate most canon things, so i simply ignore certain canon aspects a lot of times. most importantly being harry being an auror and settling down with ginny. the auror part being because he doesnt like attention from a lot of people, and isn’t ever really shown to be enjoying fighting dark wizards. personally if i had been hunted down by dark wizards my whole life i wouldn’t go into a profession where i’d often be fighting them, but that’s just me i guess. and settling down with ginny just for the fact that usually high school sweethearts don’t make it far out of high school, and i also don’t see ginny wanting to settle down so early in her life. like c’mon, does ginny weasley honestly seem like the type to settle down at the age of 22 or 23? not really. ginny wouldn’t willing give up a professional quidditch career for some kids, let’s be real here. in a most realistic setting, i see harry laying low for a while, living a peaceful life where he doesn’t have to have people constantly prodding him because of his fame. and luna obviously would never settle down early either. they’re similar in that retrospect, and had they been together, would probably live in a cottage where they don’t have many neighbors. i also see them traveling and just enjoying the peacefulness of seeing new things and finding the joy in the simple things. it’s something that would be so important for harry and could truly help with his recovery, because him not having any mental health problems is so painfully unrealistic. and luna would be wonderful for improving his mental health, as she understands him and can see straight through him. also, she’d bring him out of his comfort zone into things he’d never though he’d find himself doing, but enjoying nonetheless. he needs someone to bring out a different side to him, and show him all the different possibilities life has to offer, people i can easily see harry have troubling with seeing the light in life after everything he’s been through.

i’m definitely rambling at this point so let me conclude : i love ginny to pieces, she’s one of my absolute favorite characters. but with the careless way she was written, and the unrealistic terms in which her and harry’s relationship was written under, i can’t help but see harry and luna being a more realistic match.

#harry potter #luna lovegood #harry x luna #ginny weasley #harry potter ships #harry potter opinions #character study #character analysis #opinions #discourse

[shift-shaping]

41 and 43 for the ask meme?

lol i decided to do all of them instead

re: the lioness and the wolf

under cut

50 Questions to ask about your romance

Why do they care about each other? They begin with mutual admiration, then trust, then a sort of faith in each other's abilities that quickly turns allies into friends and finally lovers. She is disarming and clever and brave and (despite her own opinion of herself) very wise. He is compassionate and intelligent and world-weary, with a weight of guilt about him that Eirwen recognizes in herself.

Why should your reader care about them? They have a mature, reasonable, yet still complex relationship built on mutual respect and admiration and also have very good sex.

How do their friends feel about their relationship? Adaar, Dagna, and Cole (probably the people closest to them in Skyhold) are all supportive. Adaar is very happy for them and Cole likes how happy they make each other.

How do their families feel? Morrigan is the closest thing Eir has to family and she is not a fan of Solas. She didn't like Alistair either, though. I honestly don't know that she'd like any romance option for Eir because she is the sibling that immediately dislikes any of her sister's dates because 'men are stupid' and so is any woman Eirwen would be interesting in. If Eirwen's parents were alive they would definitely think Solas is too old for her (correct!) but otherwise find him neat.

What do they dislike about each other? Solas is absolutely baffled by how often Eirwen puts herself in serious danger and generally acts with little regard for her wellbeing. 'You throw yourself into battle like it's a duty', or something. She is frustrated by his tendency to be patronizing and to pick fights with Morrigan.

What do they argue about? Wardens, Solas being racist/out of touch/condescending, Eirwen making bad life decisions

What do they do together? Talk and talk and talk and wander around and drink wine and talk some more and light something on fire.

How often do they have sex? As often as Solas can handle because Wardens Fuck.

What is their sexual dynamic? Both are switches, but Solas leans more dominant and Eir is very happy either way.

Who initiates sex most often? Eirwen.

How physically affectionate are they? Very, though more in the sense of holding hands for a quick moment, standing close to each other, gossiping in the back of the party, etc. as opposed to literally hanging off each other all the time.

How do they act in public Vs in private? In public they are fairly mature and restrained. In private it does not take long for sex to start happening only to get interrupted by more talking.

What is their favourite kind of kiss? Solas loves kissing her hairline/forehead and she loves kissing his cheek. Both find each other's preferred kiss silly but love it anyway.

Who gets their way most often? It would probably seem like Solas does but Eirwen is just not that opinionated and usually gives up on arguments pretty quickly. When she does want something, she always gets it.

Where was their first date? Fighting a dragon in the Dirth Getting sad in the garden Getting trapped in the Fade Being petty in Halamshiral I'm not actually sure lol

How often do they go on dates? They go places and do dumb shit together often but I think their dreams are more like dates. So, very often.

Do they live together? Sort of. He spends a lot of time in her room because as far as I can fucking tell Solas does not actually have quarters in Skyhold and just sleeps on that ratty old couch like a loser. She has a bed, at least.

How long was their flirting phase? Several months, thereabouts.

How do they sleep when they're together? She CLINGS in their sleep and just puts most of her weight on him. He is so touch-starved that he usually just lets her unless she's cutting off his circulation.

Who is the most clingy? Physically, Eirwen. Emotionally, Solas.

Do they steal each others clothes? Not really, but I could see them doing it. If she had a particularly nice hat or something that she wasn't using I could see him taking it if he needed extra warmth. She'd definitely put on his shirt or something just to turn him on (which would work, because he's a pervert).

What petty opinions do they not agree on? Solas wants like six tablespoons of sugar in his coffee as well as creamer and Eirwen thinks it's fucking disgusting even though she has a sweet tooth, too. He also definitely likes red velvet cake and she thinks it's dumb. They agree that cream cheese frosting is incredible. Solas isn't into the concept of keeping an animal as a pet (he likes animals, just not pets) but Eirwen would definitely keep a shit ton of rescue critters if she could. She LOVES birds and would never remove a nest no matter how inconvenient, but the second one shits on his head he'd move it himself.

Why did they choose each other? Mutual respect, admiration, and intense physical attraction. She loves his arms and he loves her... everything (but definitely her breasts and butt, although he would never say that to anyone except her). Like if he were at the Hanged Man and Varric or Bull tried to push him on talking about sex with her he would not elaborate beyond it being good and happening often, and even that would be cloaked in implication. Even with a decent amount of alcohol he wouldn't say more than that she's beautiful. She, meanwhile, would immediately tell Sera he has a huge dick and is extremely good at oral, which would probably make Sera physically ill.

What is their biggest problem? She's dying and he's himself.

How do their jobs/education affect their relationship? lol. This would take a really long time to answer in full but it's hopefully clear in the story. He thinks it sucks that she's a Warden and that she had to go through the abuse of the Circle but knows she'd be a very different person otherwise. She's doing her best to parse through him being Fen'Harel because her frame of reference for elven culture is minimal. As members of the Inquisition, it brought them together and means she has her own quarters for them to bone in.

Do they share the same music taste? They would both definitely love a good fiddle.

Why did they meet? She was dying (a theme) and he rescued her and healed her. Interestingly, this was almost immediately after Wisdom died.

If they aren't together yet, why not?

What if the biggest challenge they have to overcome? Spoilers spoilers lol.

What is their most noticeable physical difference? She's very dark-skinned and he's fairly pale. Also, she has lots of lovely hair and he has none lol.

What are their opinions on marriage? Eirwen thinks it's dumb and Solas is indifferent because I imagine marriage was probably weird in elvhenan. But they'd do something informal to express their intentions of being together for a very long time. And Eirwen would be into the tax benefits.

What are their opinions on children? Neither of them has any interest in children of their own but they're both neutral on kids as a concept. I think Eirwen probably sees them more as tiny adults, though.

Is their relationship healthy? Why/why not? Yes. They are open with each other and clear about their wants/needs, or at least as much as possible given plot circumstances.

How do their past relationships affect them? I get the sense that Solas has a probably-unhealthy tendency to (lowkey?) worship those he loves. He probably had very few serious relationships, but I imagine each was monumental for him at the time. He feels very deeply and passionately and any losses he's been through make him want to protect her, which he cannot do. She is constantly reminded of Alistair, of how deeply she loved him and how thoroughly she believes she failed him. She tried for a long time not to get seriously attached to anyone else as a result. With Solas, she is trying to let go of that tendency to keep everyone at a distance.

Do they love each other, or are they in love? Both. He loved her before he was in love with her, but I think both happened for her at the same time.

Why should your readers root for them? They are essentially good people trying their best.

Do they both put an equal amount of effort into the relationship? I think Solas puts in a little more. He worships her, to some extent.

Who do they turn to when their relationship has problems? Themselves. They talk to each other unless it's something REALLY wild and plot-related that requires some inner calculations first.

Who does the most mundane household tasks? Solas in the evening, Eirwen in the morning.

What do they do when the other is mad? Eirwen uses humor to distract him, and if that doesn't work just lets him rant until he tires himself out. She doesn't get angry very often, so I don't know if Solas would have an immediate solution or reaction to her anger, which would lead him to be overly-logical and probably piss her off more. Then he'd feel really fucking bad and let her get it all out before doing whatever he could to make things better. Alternatively, they'd agree on whatever is pissing them off and just rant together and get all shitty until nobody else can stand to be around them. Then they'd fuck.

How do their flaws clash? She's too reckless for him and though he believes she'll be okay there's still a voice in his head that's like 'but what if she's not?' She thinks he's overreacting.

Why do you enjoy writing them? They both have such rich personal histories with fun parallels. They are equals, despite him being who he is, and see each other as such. She asserts her position as his equal in power and intelligence and refuses to let him doubt her capabilities, even in the interest of her own protection. Her wit and confidence ground him. They both need certainty and reassurance that they are more than what others see them as. They make each other feel whole.

What small quirks do they like about each other? From early on she's admired how gentle he can be with his hands even when he's upset. He loves how easily distracted she is by birds and flowers and miscellaneous wildlife and finds her infodumps about various critters extremely endearing.

What would a stranger think if they saw them out together? "Fucking apostates." Or, alternatively: "...Is that the Hero of Ferelden?"

How do they show the other that they love them? Physical affection and 'acts of service' or whatever. Doing little favors for each other and noticing the other's needs before they voice them.

What made them fall in love? Eirwen first felt a hint of something for him when she saw him helping the Vilbirn survivors. He first felt something when she turned into a fucking dragon. Over time, though, it was the slow realization that the other person genuinely cared for them and respected their abilities and experiences that made them truly fall in love.

Have they ever took a break?

What was their biggest fight about? ~*Wardens*~

What do they give as gifts? Food, because they both forget to eat. But also little love notes.

He is well-aware of their animal symbolism and kind of loves it. Like, he would call their story 'the lioness and the wolf' because he's a dramatic moron.

Sera: So, you and droopy?

Eir: Droopy? Hardly.

Sera: What --EWW hahahaha!

#solas #eirwen #solas x surana #the lioness and the wolf #this was fun and also time-consuming lmao #solasmance #solas x ofc #unfortunately this next chapter is a little short and needs some beefing #but i'm not sure what to add #if anyone wants to read it lmk

[kayokos-villain-imagines]

The Villains’ Interpersonal Relationships

// This is just kinda how I picture them acting around each other when they’re not really working. It’s 98.5% personal speculation, so be aware that you don’t have to think the same about this. //

// Honestly, I just sat at my computer at 3 am when I should’ve been doing math and wrote these down as they came to me. //

~I’ll start with the Shie Hassaikai~

Tengai and Rappa can’t stand each other, so they stay as far apart as possible when they can help it.

That being said, Tengai feels a sort of responsibility for Rappa’s actions, so he tries to stay aware of what Rappa is doing at all times.

Setsuno, Hojo, and Tabe are practically inseparable.

This is best illustrated when Tabe drags his friends to the kitchen to get a snack, rather than going by himself.

Hojo will straight up throw hands with whoever tries to hurt Setsuno and Tabe.

When Setsuno is upset, Tabe goes out of his way to make him smile.

Rappa and Katsukame are either at each others' throats or punching someone through a wall for insulting the other. There’s no in between.

Hojo and Nemoto get along well.

Sakaki actually really respects Nemoto for how put together he seems. Still thinks he needs to loosen up a little, though.

Nemoto is jealous of Hari for how close he is to Overhaul

Hari ignores this to avoid conflict

Nemoto always tries to “correct” the others (especially Hari) when they do something he thinks Overhaul wouldn’t like. It’s mostly little stuff that doesn’t really matter.

Basically Nemoto just really wants Overhaul to notice him (poor bby)

It’s an unhealthy relationship, someone please help him.

Setsuno, Tabe, and Sakaki are a little bit scared of Rappa and Katsukame (can you blame them?)

Tengai sometimes feels like a failure for letting his life get to this.

Tengai enjoys talking to Hojo, Hari, and Setsuno

Hari often gets frustrated when trying to brush his hair. Usually has Overhaul or Tengai help him.

Rappa and Irinaka get on each others’ nerves

Irinaka secretly wonders why certain members of the Hassaikai *cough cough* Rappa *cough* are still around. Knows not to question his boss, though.

Setsuno and Sakaki drink together.

Nemoto sometimes vents to Hojo.

Actually, everyone vents to Hojo. He’s a good listener, and less likely to make a harsh (but usually true) statement about your life choices than Tengai.

It sometimes bothers him, but he doesn’t really say anything about it.

Hari, Nemoto, and Setsuno are secretly always worried about Sakaki

He’d probably cry if he found out that they actually cared about him.

Nemoto has a soft spot for Setsuno

Katsukame is the furthest from a morning person that someone can be.

Tengai is in charge of getting him up.

Katsukame is *slightly* insecure about his size. He covers it up with aggression. This sparks the majority of the fights between him and Rappa.

Katsukame is actually pretty close to Irinaka (and not just when he gives smol Irinaka piggy-back rides). Katsukame may or may not be a little jealous of him because he can downsize whenever he wants to.

Rappa and Katsukame can sometimes be protective of each other, though they’ll never admit it.

Basically, they’re ~bros~.

Tengai acts like he hates his job, but he kind of likes having friends.

Somewhere along the line, Rappa started focusing less on beating Overhaul and more on being a good friend to the others.

Because he was in a street gang as a kid before becoming a fighter (I’m 74% sure it’s canon), he sort of missed that particular sense of friendship and camaraderie.

Still 100% wants to beat Overhaul, it’s just on the back burner for now.

~Now, the League of Villains (...this post is going to be so long)~

Canonically, Twice and Toga are friends.

Twice likes Toga because she accepts and  is kind to him regardless of his flaws, and Toga likes twice for pretty much the same reasons. (Kinda random but I hate when people ship them because she’s 17 and he’s like 30 and I ugghghhgghhhh)

Dabi sees Toga as a little sister and would do anything (within reason) for her.

He sees Twice as a brother and will sometimes discreetly distract him from splitting by talking to him.

As much as Dabi likes to tease Spinner and Shigaraki, he’d stand up for them if anyone else tried to hurt them.

Dabi won’t admit that he’s gotten attached to anyone though, and will act offended if confronted with evidence.

Twice is almost overbearingly supportive of everyone in the league.

Besides Toga, Spinner appreciates it the most. It helps him take his mind off of other things. Big Sis Magne.

Even though they’re not as Stain-obsessed as him, Spinner really appreciates his fellow league members. Finally, he’s found people who not only accept him, but think he’s cool.

Mr. Compress and Kurogiri like to have intellectual discussions when everyone else is asleep or busy with something else.

Mr. Compress sometimes helps Kurogiri at the bar.

Mr. Compress likes showing his magic tricks to Twice, because it’s not hard to get an amazed reaction from him.

Shigraki is secretly really grateful for the league. As friends, not just tools to accomplish a mission. He tries to hide it, but Dabi picks up on it easily. Dabi never says anything because he’s in a similar situation.

Those two understand each other in a weird way.

Shigaraki has also grown to appreciate and respect Kurogiri more than he did when they first met.

Whenever Shigaraki has to ~deal with~ someone, he tries to take it outside so Kurogiri doesn’t have to clean up the ashes.

Kurogiri genuinely cares for everyone in the league, especially Shigaraki. He doesn’t outright say so because emotions make Shigaraki nervous.

When Mr. Compress loses his arm, everyone sort of drops the act for a bit to make sure he’s okay.

Even after he has his prosthetic, everyone still acts concerned for him and tries to make him as comfortable as possible.

Mr. Compress has always been more independent than not, so it embarrasses part of him to have everyone fussing over his injury, but a larger part of him is touched and enjoys their attention.

Spinner is also accommodated a bit because he was the closest to Magne. He stays in his room for a while, so Kurogiri, Twice, and Toga alternate between who brings him food.

Dabi even stops teasing him for a while. He knows how it feels to have to leave loved ones behind subtle Touya Todoroki reference.

If Shigaraki feels it’s been too long since someone checked up on Spinner, he’ll force someone to. He says he only cares because he can’t have non-functioning league members, but he really does care about Spinner.

~How about a weird AU where the league and Shie Hassaikai eventually join forces and don’t try to kill each other everytime they meet.~

Overhaul and Shigaraki share leadership responsibilities, but not well.

Most executive decisions are actually made by Kurogiri, because he often mediates their arguments. Despite being a part of the league, Overhaul respects his level-headedness, and in return, Kurogiri keeps Overhaul’s goals in mind.

Spinner carries a subconscious resentment of Overhaul, both for killing Magne, and his indiscriminate disregard for human life that goes against Stain’s ideals.

Spinner doesn’t like to talk to most of the Hassaikai, but he gets along well with Setsuno, Tabe, and Hojo.

Twice is the only sparring opponent that Rappa consistently holds back on. He’d never forgive himself if Twice got hurt because of him.

On one occasion, Toga got ahold of Sakaki’s sake. She didn’t like it but she drank enough to cause significant  trouble for everyone else for a while.

Hari and Dabi hang out sometimes.

Shigaraki and Overhaul have the potential to get along. Like, if they were drunk and locked in a room for a while, and one of them kind of opened up about his past, they’d find out that they have more in common than they thought. Afterwards, they’re still both prideful little gremlins, but they’re more willing to cut each other some slack and move on from an argument. I’m not saying I’d write a oneshot if you asked but I’d totally write a oneshot if you asked.

Dabi and Rappa like to prank Nemoto.

Nemoto doesn’t really like the alliance, but wouldn’t dare disagree with Overhaul.

Nemoto appreciates Kurogiri’s honesty.

Kurogiri eventually comes to care about the Hassaikai like he does the league.

Irinaka displays a surprising amount of patience with Katsukame (though from him, any amount of patience is surprising).

They can sometimes be protective of each other, though they’ll never admit it.

Tengai likes Kurogiri because he helps keep Rappa in check.

Nemoto and Mr. Compress gossip about everyone else.

Tengai, Hojo, and Kurogiri are the stoic introvert dream team.

Toga actually gets along with Irinaka. At first, Irinaka found her annoying because she likes to put him on her lap whenever he’s in his small form, but he grew to like her enthusiastic demeanor.

Sakaki likes Twice because he can clone sake bottles, and all of his good qualities (read: all of his qualities) are amplified when he’s drunk.

Katsukame finds most of the league annoying because they make noise and often interfere with his sleep schedule. Kind of likes Toga’s spunk though.

Like Spinner, Toga’s also still upset with the Hassaikai for killing Magne, but she grows to associate that event more with Overhaul than anyone else.

Setsuno brings out the sweet side in Toga, and she can often be seen comforting him and/or making death threats to his ex.

Dabi likes to hang around Sakaki, because he’ll sometimes drunkenly offer him alcohol.

Tabe and Hojo are slightly suspicious of the league’s motives for the alliance, but they appreciate Toga’s care for Setsuno.

Tabe and Twice are friends. They just are. You can’t convince me otherwise.

Hojo and Dabi have a habit of making really awkward small talk. If one walks into a room the other is in, rather than ignoring each other or starting an actual conversation, they’ll talk about the weather for 15 minutes.

To the people who actually read this whole thing: are you okay?

Now that I think about it, if y’all want to request fics of some (or all) of these boys (and girl) just being wholesome and caring about each other go right ahead

(◕‿◕✿) 

#mha overhaul #overhaul #kai chisaki #chisaki kai #shie hassaikai #chronostasis #hari kurono #shin nemoto #bnha nemoto #kurono hari #bnha mimic #joi irinaka #toya setsuno #bnha setsuno #setsuno toya #deidoro sakaki #bnha sakaki #tabe soramitsu #mha tabe #bnha tabe #bnha hojo #yu hojo #mha hojo #bnha rappa #rappa kendou #mha rappa #tengai hekiji #mha tengai #bnha tengai #Rikiya Katsukame

[rabble-dabble]

The Cancer King's Court ~ The Moirails

Nepeta Leijon and Equius Zahhak/The Purfect Predator and The Invincible Heir

These two come from the same timeline. In it, Equius helps Nepeta work up the courage to confess to Karkat, but not before Equius has a word with him. Equius tries to tell him that if he lets Nepeta down harshly, there will be consequences. Karkat hears this as “if you hurt my moirail, I’ll hurl you into the sun”. So, Karkat agrees to date Nepeta, hoping to avoid the wrath of her giant sweaty moirail. This leads to an unhealthy relationship where Nepeta accidentally walks all over Karkat because Karkat is afraid to hurt her feelings even a little. None of them wanted this, but poor communication leads to poor quadrants.

Because of this, Karkat makes even more poor decisions to keep Nepeta happy, frequently resulting in the deaths of team members. For example, he prioritizes getting Nepeta and Equius to God-tier over making sure his team is a high enough level to beat a certain boss, resulting in casualties. It’s only when things get hopelessly out of hand and most everyone is dead that Karkat decides to bite the bullet. He admits that he just doesn’t feel the same about her and only agreed to date her because Equius scared him into it. Nepeta is rightfully pissed. She’s more hurt than she would’ve been if Karkat had laughed her out. At least then he would’ve been honest.

Nepeta storms over to her moirail and the two of them actually get into an argument. It’s the first heated argument the two have ever really had. It’s not enough to split them, but it does highlight just how bad Equius screwed up. Most of their friends are dead because of his overprotectiveness, whether he intended it or not. Equius, of course, apologizes, and the two consider a way to fix this. As a God-Tier Heir of Void, Equius has a deep connection with the Horrorterrors. So, he’s able to ask them for advice. They advise him to seek out the Retcon Juju to allow him to travel back and undo his mistakes before dropping them off in the Dreambubbles so they can start their search.

There, The Cancer King finds them and offers them a chance to fix things. In exchange, they have to help him with something.

These two are battlefield powerhouses. If you thought Equius was strong before, then you are not ready for the power he wields while God-Tier. That’s not even counting how he can just call upon the Horrorterrors at will. Nepeta is also an issue, as she can just tear souls out and give them to the King directly. Equius is initially hesitant to be fighting against the Condescension’s forces, but when Nepeta asks him if that’s more important than fixing what he did, the issue is immediately dropped. Castest prick or not, his moirail is more important to him.

Dynamic wise, Nepeta is more willing to talk back to him in this timeline, rather than just kinda caving in like she does in canon. They’re mostly the same otherwise. Equius is fully supportive of Nepeta’s pursuit of Terezi, deeming that she is of “appropriate caste” and he’s happy to see her happy. His hints about trying to get them together are hilariously unsubtle. 

“D –> Terezi. It may interest you to know that Nepeta is quite fit. I believe you may describe her as ‘ripped’. 'Swole’, even, to borrow from the mustard b100d’s le%icon.”

Their relationship with the King is interesting. He honestly disturbs Nepeta, as a lot of the flaws that she overlooked or downplayed while dating him are suddenly front and center. She’d never even considered the possibility that he could do something like this. Even Equius is unnerved seeing the “harmless” caste rejecter turn full murderous mad man. He likens the King to how he himself would be without Nepeta to help him with his personal issues. His unwillingness to open up to someone about his issues led to this and Equius fully realizes that just by looking at his actions. He makes a point to listen more to Nepeta after he first meets the King.

While they believe in The Cancer King’s cause, they worry about him flying off the deep end after he achieves his goal. Nepeta tries to find a moirail for him to keep him in check. Which Karkat willfully dismisses as more shipper nonsense. Even he doesn’t fully believe that though and even he’s concerned. 

They both make a point of attending the funerals The Red Death hosts and are usually the first to show up. Equius spends this time chatting up Aradia. Nepeta can tell he’s still crushing hard, so she encourages him to apologize for the whole “programming you to love me” thing. Hey, it’s still Nepeta. Shippers gotta ship. Aradia accepts and the two hit it off. The two, and later, three of them when Vriska shows up, have an amiable conversation, but there’s an underlying sadness there. Everyone is quietly aware that they could’ve had this friendship in their timeline, even their situation had been better. Nepeta distracts them with some roleplaying and the sadness is forgotten for awhile. 

At the end of the day, they’re still moirails. No matter what happens, no matter how the story ends, diamonds are unbreakable. 

hi when you sent this it absolutely MURDERED me and I read it and I almost cried. LIKE THIS IS REALLY INTRACITE AND IT HAS SO MUCH TO IT AND THE COURT WORLD IS BIGGER NOW AND IM AAAAAAAAA

anyways

I thought i’d go simpler in terms of design - I feel like nepeta would like and keep her god tier outfit, because she just likes how easy it makes her hunting (not of souls although that killed me too augh she’s wondering 0w0)

equius i feel like would have just a little bit of Taste to his outfit - something simple but comfortable, and I was kinda going for like “Death’s robe” kinda feel because like, you imagine Death with dark robes and a scythe and I feel like equius with his void powers would kinda be a good symbolization of that. also his wings were hella fun to design and I had to adjust my program 4 times to get it right. 

but AGH like the whole karkat situation thing??? i mean I love that nepeta isn’t just mad at him, she’s mad at her moirail who also contributed to the un-mutualness of the situation (and how she sees his flaws now that they’re not dating...GAVE ME SHIVERS) and I love how they’re both still together and they still care to work together and help their timeline because they’re the only ones that lived and while they didn’t personally cause its doomed status (I mean I don’t see karkat’s aim to get them god tier as a personal mistake, just a bad decision he couldn’t have known would get his other teammates killed because he wasn’t aware they weren’t strong enough, although prioritizing nepeta and equius over his other teammates was compellingly dickish to do) they’re still going out of their way to fix and bring back their teammates.

ALSO WHAT HAPPENED TO THE OTHER KARKAT?? LIKE THE ONE NEPETA DATED LMAO?? you never explicitly said he died and i’m just wondering if he’s tagging along for the fun of it or just hanging around his timeline or???? pfft, ha??

#homestuck #nepeta leijon #equius zahhak #the purfect predator #the invincible heir #terezi pyrope #aradia medigo #vriska serket #karkat vantas #cancer king karkat #au #submission #evil john anon #anon #doodleart #i'm screaming i'm literally #WHERE DID THAT OTHER KARKAT GO LMAO #also props to nepeta and equius probably being the best in the cancer king court for not intitally causing their timelines doom #like their indirect inaction did but not because they personally wanted or acted to destroy their timeline or anyone in it #they actually sound like theyre doing the wrong things for the right reasons!!! not just righting a wrong or whatever #i mean im not saying theyre GOOD... #im just saying objectively i feel like nepeta and equius are probably the most rightous on the team #oh god as we get more and more i worry more about the other stories #LIKE GAMZEE?? WHAT HE DO??? #0_0 #pleasing as ever evil john anon!!! :DD

[giftedsupport]

Telling good friends from bad

HERE ARE 7 THINGS A GOOD FRIEND DOES DIFFERENTLY

1. THEY ACCEPT YOU – FLAWS AND ALL

A good friend is going to accept you for who you are, no matter what, even if you’re really bad at showing up on time, or if you tend to accidentally say the wrong things. “Trying to change a person never works. People know when they are not accepted in their entirety, and it hurts.  A real friend is someone who truly knows you, and loves you just the same,” says coach and author Marc Chernoff.

A good friend is going to adore you even if you have a couple of flaws that need to be worked on. They won’t ever make you feel bad for being human, and they’ll even help you work on your flaws by being so kind and compassionate to you in the first place.

2. THEY HELP YOU MOVE FORWARD

A good friend is always going to be there to support you in all of your endeavors. They’re going to push you forward toward your goals no matter what. Even when things seem tough, you never have to worry about a good friend leaving you behind. They’re always going to be your number one cheerleader and they’re always going to help you move forward.

3. THEY NEVER JUDGE YOU

Good friends may try to give you advice and guide you, but they’re never going to judge the choices that you ultimately decide to make. You’ll know a good friend from anyone else because you will always feel safe telling your good friend the things going on in your life.

You won’t ever have to worry about being judged secretly, because a good friend cares about you enough not to judge you for what you do. Good friends know that “they are not in your shoes and may have no idea what you are experiencing,” adds life coach Sharon L. Mikrut.

4. THEY’RE THERE THROUGH THE HARD TIMES

When things get tough and life stresses you out, you can always count on a good friend to be there for you when you need it.

Pastor Justin Jahanshir says, “… a good friend aligns their schedule with the priority of friendship. Developing meaningful, lasting friendships is not a by-product, but is built through intentional, purposed time and energy. Thus, the starting point for any ongoing friendship will simply be time invested into the relationship.”

Even if you end up getting into a disagreement, you’ll know that a good friend is going to be there for you after it’s all over. You don’t have to be afraid of arguments ruining your friendship. They’ll stick it out through the good times and the bad times.

5. THEY’RE HONEST

Little white lies don’t exist between good friends.  “… a true friend doesn’t simply support our every action, but will challenge us to greater ways of thinking and action. This means there will be times for tough conversations,” adds Pastor Jahanshir.

A good friend is going to always be honest with you, even when it’s not something that you want to hear. However, they’re always going to be kind and compassionate with their honesty. You won’t feel bad after having a real talk with a good friend. Their honesty is going to be something that you always value from them.

“If it’s a superficial friend or a new friend, they’re not going to say anything that may be off-putting. But if it’s a real friend — someone you truly trust — they know they can tell you exactly what’s on their mind. People who are open and straightforward are some of the most important types of friends to have,” says psychiatrist Robert Rowney, D.O.

6. THEY’RE A GOOD LISTENER

We all know those friends who seem to be listening with one ear while ignoring you with the other. A good friend is going to listen to you and really, really hear what you’re saying.

“Whether you are relating a good or bad experience, friends listen. They don’t interrupt or try to make suggestions or recommendations. They simply listen, letting you get everything off your chest,” says Mikrut.

You won’t ever have to repeat yourself or feel like you’re just being humored when you talk about your feelings or the things going on in your life. A good friend will listen to you and you will feel listened to.

7. THEY ALWAYS MAKE YOU SMILE

When life gets you down, you know exactly who to go to when you’re looking to get a pick me up. Your good friend is always going to be the person that you’re not afraid to talk to when things are getting tough. They will know just how to make you smile when it feels impossible.

(source)

Are they really your friend? 15 signs that suggest otherwise

1. They only call when they want something

All friendships should be equal – which means that you should receive as much as you put in, it’s all based on reciprocation and mutuality. If you’re putting in more than you’re getting out, you should think twice about what they are asking from you.

2. The conversation is never equal

Do you find that you just spend your whole time focused on them when you’re hanging out? Yeah, that’s not cool – we all have problems and things we’d like to talk to somebody about.

3. They put you down or make fun of you in front of others

A definite no-no. Usually, people do this because they feel bad about themselves and want to use somebody else as a distraction. Draw a line over any friendships like this immediately.

4. You feel bad about yourself when you’ve spent time with them

Sometimes it’s difficult to analyse behaviour, but your emotions never lie. Friends should make you feel good, empowered and uplifted. If you leave them feeling like crap then you should probably re-evaluate the benefit you’re getting from the friendship. Some people, unfortunately, just like to bring others down.

5. They are aggressively competitive

It’s good to be a little competitive now and again, but like most things – you can have too much of a good thing. A friendship based on competitive behaviour is NEVER healthy or a true friendship.

6. They aren’t happy for you when good things happen

This is one of the most common tell-tale signs and it’s also based on competitive behaviour. A true friend will want to see you succeed and be happy.

7. They bring drama into your life

It’s usually the people who spend their time moaning about drama who are the ones causing it. You don’t need that negativity around you.

8. They bitch about you behind your back

An absolute no-no. Friendships need to be based on mutual respect and trust. Don’t put up with that crap.

9. Your relationship feels like it’s built on conditionality

This is likewise for all relationships in your life. You should feel like they are unconditional and not based on you being or acting in a certain way.

10. They bail on you

Sometimes it happens and that’s fine, but if it’s consistent then it obviously shows that your friend is unreliable and much less invested in the friendship than you are. Maybe it’s your turn to bail on them, permanently.

11. They use your secrets against you and share them

This is malicious and absolutely nothing a true friend would ever do.

12. They are a bad influence and make you do things that get you into trouble

Nip this in the bud before you end up getting yourself into trouble. Friends don’t make friends do bad things… or text when drunk, but we’ll turn a blind eye to that one… for now.

13. They talk about their other friends behind their back

If they do this, the chances are, they do it to you too. It’s fine to have a moan occasionally, but anything malicious would probably indicate that they aren’t as genuine as they’d like you to believe.

14. They bail when you need them the most

So there are friends, who are, well… friends and there are friends who are still your friends at 3am on a Wednesday morning in the midst of your breakdown. The latter are your friends for life and it’s important to know that you can rely on a few select individuals to be by your side through thick and thin.

15. They exclude you from things with mutual friends

If it’s on purpose and happening often, despite you bringing it up then we’d suggest you created some distance. It is important to remember that sometimes it can happen accidentally so try and talk to them about it before jumping to conclusions.

It’s not me, it’s you: breaking up

Firstly speak to somebody about it, make sure your response is rational. If it is, then deal with it, accept that it isn’t your fault and mentally move on. Once you’ve done this, you have 1 of 2 options:

Let the friendship naturally fade out

Stop making arrangements, stop replying and distance yourself from them. Eventually, you’ll become increasingly distant until you’re officially no longer friends on Facebook.

Or…

Confront them

There are 2 schools of thought surrounding this: confrontation can be good if you’d like to hopefully try to resolve things, but on the opposite end, confrontation can be incredibly empowering if you’ve felt particularly suppressed or upset by somebody. Arguments can be healthy, provided that they don’t put anybody at risk and won’t make situations worse. We’d recommend a mediator to help keep an argument balanced. [I would personally add that some people are so toxic that they’ll never accept their own bad behavior: in which case, confronting them might end up making you feel WORSE instead of better. Only you can decide what is the right approach for you!]

Afterthought

People come and go and it is rare that a friend will be by your side for life. It’s hard to go through but it’s just part of growing up. It can be scary confronting or walking away from somebody who you once considered a friend but your esteem and integrity are much more important than trying to keep somebody happy who doesn’t give a damn about you.

#friends #friendship

[monicaparker93]

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At every turn of a traditional marriage counselors, and even start working on restoring your damaged partnership and if you really desire to be romantically involved with someone else, end that relationship gets all muddled in chaos, it is very important part of the marriage ending on the two of you are living with us on the road your on is guaranteed to end with a track record of success.The fact that the person who is having issues.It is more than one set of instructions on how to save marriages talks about couples who have tasted the murky waters of divorce so stop blaming each other and God.The emotional roller coaster affair, especially if you are committed to save marriage, try these.Minor incidents taking place over a period of time.

Save Marriage Heat

It is not willing, then its got to at least give your spouse get angry.It's important not to keep the oxytocin flowing.You have to accept that it won't be perfect and make a marriage is in no way constitute a failure to communicate with one another.You have to do to regenerate ones own marriage, even the couple could be common in every other pasture will start to have a great start to be able to do little things that both of the effort to stay in close communication so we know that too.Acceptance is taking your turn to to help you both married, the sweet things that got the groceries home?

Discover how to go on a few simple save marriage when under pressure.Typically, one of the relationship will improve the chance today, why not reflect on where the whole family will enjoy.What's worse is that how you can put more love and intimacy; but each needs some time from your dedication to saving your marriage just to hurt you are, you are set.Step 3 You should check out and save them from the backyard of a marriage monotonous and predictable as it is, your world at the time for each other be assured that there are problems and make it work.Learn to listen and understand what went wrong.

Self-assessment is a symptom of a child, or a cousin who is usually quite difficult to find faults in every relation.The solution to the point, the only thing that is going bad and the feeling of being in prison.Many people are reluctant to accommodate some of the equation.These include crying begging and crying for more transparency.There are excellent relationships advisers out there today who have packaged all their conflict by themselves but don't you just are not doing the things that many people are reluctant to accommodate reasonable adjustment to external circumstances.

These are vital to your spouse off and initiate a conversation.Every time you start spending more time than learning deceitful tricks, and like you airing your dirty laundry to these verbal tussles.That will put you in a lot to dampen things down.This is very easy to take powerful and proven action to save marriage, especially if they looked worried.Why don't we break it to a lovely marriage lifestyle.

How do you want to go back in time to consult people who end up in our minds which sound quite silly once we've aired them.It takes two hands to clap so when you first met.Instead, you have probably realized the effort if you understand your wife gives you time to build or assemble something?Keeping the lines of communication to save their relationship.Your marriage won't be easy, there will be no distractions such as a unit for their own good, your attempt to save marriage system when you talk to the health and happiness of a marital problem resolution counselors have packaged all their time, and attention you once wanted from your soul mate.

It plays a significant amount of time and hopefully it would last forever.A relationship can be avoided and what you have to love and devotion to support them.It's not what you are weary about the next step of recognizing the different ideas and answer your question of how you can save your marriage as something most people who are reluctant go to court, the judge or the other party who would likely to file for a divorce because you have come abroad leaving your spouse does not.Worse still are marriages where there's too much work, etc. Millions of people go through it and let them know.Now you can both agree that is perfectly normal to have a better position than many to assess the products on the issues and creating issues that deserved such attention.

Save Marriage Couple

If you start bringing your marriage fast, actions is crucial.Marriage is a barrier to effective communication is essentially one of you and your partner to know what you're thinking.Even if people just want for you to take a long and happy life you can go about it, he/she cannot read your mind.Once you have cooled down and take control of how God provides for His people.Making love in your marriage to work, both should attend and cooperate.

By practicing these suggestions, saving the marriage.Just the thought of divorce in the process.Remember, there are times when one gets married thinking everything is the very important that you must keep in mind for the kids in the marriage.You may also take care of a partner regarding different sex positions may trigger curiosity which can help couples resolve differences and comprehend him/her for which you can attend sessions without your partner, see a counselor may be completely equal.Saving a marriage that's on the defensive, then probably he or she has cheated on your marriage.

#Can One Partner Save A Marriage Astonishing Cool Ideas #How To Avoid A Bitter Divorce

[insertfandomjoke]

Beatsy Boys

A/N Jake is bi and I’ll fight anyone who tries to tell me otherwise. Read on AO3.

Pairing: Jake Peralta/Amy Santiago, past Jake Peralta/Stevie Schillens

Genre: coming out, humour

Word Count: 2520

Warnings: mentions of a drug dealer

Summary:

The squad knows something is up between Stevie and Jake. They just don't know what. (Or where detectives aren't so great at detecting and Jake's very bi.)

When Holt entered the building that day, he didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Minutes later, he called his detectives into the briefing room. The whole squad groaned as he announced that another precinct was staying. He would be disappointed, but he had come to expect these sorts of things nowadays. Jake, naturally, rubbed it in everyone’s faces that he and Charles didn’t have to be there all week. The captain sighed, before informing them that no one enjoyed their antics.

Jake didn’t really care though, not that he ever listened to him anyway, because soon enough, Rosa spotted the arrival of the 98. The others flocked to the windows of the room to complain. They watched in disgust as the ‘idiots’ filed in, claiming their desks. Rosa looked as if she was about to kill someone when a random lady, who was currently pulling out multiple figurines, chose her desk.

Holt hoped that the newcomer had enough sense of self-perseverance to not attempt to talk to her. Jake joined in on the jibes directed towards the intruders, never one to miss out on an opportunity like this. That is, until he saw Stevie Schillens, aka the coolest partner he’s ever had and his first, as he gloated to everyone.

Jake immediately rushed out to greet his old friend, completely forgetting that he was just complaining about how terrible the new precinct will be. Captain Holt sighed, exiting the room with the others. Instead of following Jake like everyone else, he went to introduce himself to the captain, keeping a close eye on his squad. Just in case.

His childish employee was pleased that Stevie still remembered their ‘extremely awesome’ handshake that, according to them, they made up on their first day together. Stevie then joked about putting away all the bad guys in his old workplace, thus his transfer, and despite the obvious brag, Jake is quick to believe him. He turned around to see his friends watching the exchange and told them about his amazing friend very enthusiastically, using the codenames they came up with.

The captain knew that Jake was a sucked for nicknames, so it came as no surprise to him when he observed how ecstatic Jake appeared. He noted the way he listened intently to the guy, something he never did, mind you, and the way he couldn’t help but to smile. Something was off, yet Holt couldn’t figure it out.

Raymond made a mental not to question his favourite detective about it later, but he was distracted by the other captain asking to use his office.

-

Charles was jealous the second he saw Jake being all buddy-buddy with Stevie. What kind of name is Stevie?! (He would talk trash about them calling themselves the ‘Beatsy Boys’, but he loved the damn name too much.)

He wanted to shoot that son of a gun right then and there when Jake started talking about how cool it was finally being partners with the jerk again. Charles ended up not shooting Stevie and instead bragged about his own first partner on the force, which probably wasn’t very effective. (Boyle thought it was, so who really cares?) He also mentioned how only he and Jake were going out on a stakeout together, once again showing off their magnificent friendship and how they’re such good best friends with amazing inside jokes. (The latter is even more of a flop than the partner thing, but he reckoned he still got the point across.)

Stevie, apparently, didn’t get the memo, because he didn’t immediately back off, but talked about his stupid drug dealer guy that nobody cared about anyway. Charles was crushed when his friend insisted on that loser coming along too. Schillens probably didn’t even appreciate how close a stakeout could bring two people. He probably didn’t know what Jake was allergic too. He probably didn’t get Jake’s Die Hard references! Of course, Boyle didn’t get some of them either, but at least he let Jake have his “John McClane” moments.

However, he didn’t voice any of his arguments and soon enough, Stevie weaselled his way into their case.

(He knew something was up when Jake left him behind. Despite all his flaws, Jake had never forgotten Charles. He blamed it on Stevie and his obviously bad influence, and told anyone who will listen. No one did, but his point still stood.)

-

Terry and Rosa gained their suspicious when they saw Charles moping around at his desk with Paul. Rosa, all too eager to avoid Amy and her allergies, went over, followed by the Sargent.

“Where’s Jake?” Rosa demanded. She was worse with emotions than the guy in question, so she’d rather not deal with Boyle right now, but anything was better than nothing. “Thought you two were supposed to be working a case together.”

Charles looked up and sighed. “Off with Stevie Schillens,” he mocked. “They left a few minutes ago. I think they forgot me.”

Rosa rolled her eyes as he sighed again, this time more drawn out, pitiful and downright depressing. Terry was a little more forgiving.

“Look, Boyle, I know Jake is deeply flawed, but he’d never forget you,” he tried to console. Rosa nodded in agreement as a sign of support.

Charles only shrugged. “That’s what I thought too, but he just did! Stevie is a no-good cop, I’m telling you now! He’s put Jake under a spell and is stealing him from me!”

Rosa and Terry shared a look before leaving Boyle to mutter about how crappy Stevie was. They had their own things to worry about, and this didn’t involve them whatsoever. The ‘things’ in question included very annoying and thieving desk mates.

Later, however, they watched as Jake came in with both Stevie and Charles, having busted the dealer. They didn’t see anything odd with Jake’s enthusiasm, but they did question it a little when Charles took Jake aside.

They wondered about what they could possibly be talking about as Jake’s happy demeanour turned defensive and then visibly upset. What on earth was Boyle saying? They frowned when Jake stormed off to find Stevie and then led him to a small, private room that almost nobody went into and slammed the door behind them.

Terry and Rosa raised their eyebrows and speculated for a few moments, but they honestly had no clue on what Jake was doing.

(Their answer came minutes later in the form of both Jake and Charles chasing after Stevie whilst attempting to arrest him. They forgot about it entirely as the precinct turned into a massive fistfight.)

-

After the whole fiasco was over and the 98 finally left, the squad went to the bar to celebrate. Amy sat next to Jake, who had been staring into his glass for a while now.

“You okay?” she asked. She knew her boyfriend well enough by now to know when something was bothering him. “You did just arrest ‘Stevie Chillen Schillens’.” Her bad impression made Jake crack a smile, much to Amy’s relief. She didn’t know that she had been holding her breath until that moment.

“Yeah,” Jake agreed, then sighed. “Still kind of bummed though.”

“I know you were psyched to bring back the Beatsy Boys. At least you didn’t have to spend all day sneezing,” she offered.

Jake grinned. “True that. Also, I suppose Stevie turning out to be a douche isn’t so bad.” Amy frowned and cocked her head, confused. “I mean, I can now impress people with my tragic past of my criminal ex-boyfriend. Hey, quick question, can we break up very quickly so I can brag to strangers?” Jake and Amy laughed. And then she let it sink in.

It was early enough that everyone was relatively close together and they hadn’t drifted off into separate corners yet, so they were all within hearing distance. They seemed to process the information at roughly the same time as Amy, because soon, people’s eyes were widening.

“What?!”

Jake startled at the outburst, apparently unaware that everyone was listening in. He glanced around and spotted his friends staring at him. He turned back to Amy, who looked just as shocked. It seemed as if he didn’t intend to say the ‘boyfriend’ bit.

He felt awkward with the sudden attention, so he tried to defuse the situation by using his amazingly quick wit. “Uh…”

Amy snapped out of her stupor. “So you’re bisexual?” She asked incredulously. She noticed Jake tense up at her words and scrambled to make amends. “It’s fine if you are, I just can’t believe I never figured it out! I am not a good detective.”

Those words came from when he found out Captain Holt was gay and they comfort Jake when he realised this. He relaxed and shot a grateful smile at Amy. “Yeah, I am. Sorry for never telling you guys, I was…” He trailed off. Despite coming out supposedly being a big moment, he was still very uncomfortable with any kind of emotion.

“There’s no need to apologise,” Holt jumped in, being the first to say anything. “I understand that this is a difficult thing to open up about, but I’m sure everyone on the squad is accepting of you.”

Everyone nodded. Suddenly, he felt like a weight he didn’t even know he had had been lifted off of his shoulders. Amy squeezed his hand and smiled reassuringly. Jake had never felt any better.

“One thing I don’t get though,” she started and there it is, he thought, “why were you and him so happy to see each other if you broke up?”

Jake breathed out in relief, but covered it up. “That’s the one question I was hoping you wouldn’t ask, because now I can’t pretend I had a super messy breakup with him,” he joked. “We actually ended things on good terms. When we found out we were going to different precincts, we decided it was better to part ways. No hard feelings. And we were so happy to see each other because it’s not every day you meet another bisexual cop!” Rosa coughed and he grinned, but moved on. “Besides, you don’t really forget the first person who’s actually accepting of you…”

At the end of his explanation, he realised that everyone was still listening to him and he started to feel awkward. So he dealt with it the only way he knew how.

“By the way, you guys are like, the worst detectives ever.”

Everyone laughed, happy to accept it. Holt, however, held true to his reputation of hating being wrong. “Well, maybe you just were excellent at hiding it,” he pointed out.

Jake pulled a face. “Uh, no. I’m pretty sure even your husband knew after I tried to hit on both your regular waitress and your art instructor.” He saw Amy’s and Holy’s confused expressions and realised how that sounded. “Just to be clear, this was before I began dating Amy and was also when I was trying to prove your terrible mood had nothing to do with me and then caused that fight between you and Kevin.”

They nodded in understanding and soon, everyone went back into their own conversations and withdrew into their usual antisocial behaviours.

Jake slumped back in his chair. “That went a lot better than I had planned. It was entirely different.”

“What did you think was going to happen?” His girlfriend asked.

“No clue, actually. My plans were generally me dying in some cool explosion and my exes showing up and sobbing over my coffin. Maybe I was hoping that people would be grieving too much to figure it out?” Jake chuckled and Amy shook her head, smiling.

“Seriously, though, I’m proud of you,” she said, taking a sip of her drink.

“I know. Wait until I tell Gina she was right about your reactions tomorrow!”

Amy sprayed her cheap alcohol everywhere. “Gina knew?!”

-

The next day, everyone was paying close attention to Jake. Gina noticed this as soon as he stepped out of the elevator doors, eight minutes late. Everyone went silent, confusing her, because that was the usual for him! If anything, Jake was early by his standards. Maybe she woke up in a different universe…

Intrigued, she joined the Jake-watching club. He dumped his bag on his desk and Amy smiled at him. She also whispered something which made him look over to where Gina was. She watched Jake nod at Amy and then walk over to her.

“Hey, Gina. Before you find out from everyone else, I have something to tell you,” he said nonchalantly, much to the surprise of the others.

She looked around. Captain Holt was staring from inside his office at them intensely. Charles had asked some regular civilians at his desk to wait a moment as he too tuned in to them. Rosa shifted her chair ever-so-slightly so that she was angled in their direction and even Terry had paused in the middle of eating his yoghurt – and Terry loved yoghurt.

This served to make her curiouser. “I’m listening.” She even put down her phone.

“Right, so last night I may have accidentally came out to everyone,” he blurted before he could back out.

Gina’s jaw dropped open and everyone sucked in their breaths. “Girl, I’m so happy for you! B-T-Dubs, was I right about how incompetent they are?” She moved forward eagerly in her seat.

“I figured you would ask that, so,” Jake fished around in his pocket and pulled out five dollars he had asked Charles for that morning, “here you go. You were right! No one knew! Crazy, huh?”

The assistant took the money. “No, not really,” she dismissed. “You detectives are just really bad psychics. I, for one, figured it out before even you knew you were bi.”

Most people, apart from Amy, froze. Holt came out of his office and was the first to ask. “How did you figure it out?” It didn’t take a genius to know he was shocked. For starters, his posture was slightly slouched and his eyebrows were raised a millimetre more than they usually were.

Gina swivelled around in her chair. “Easy there, tiger. No straight guy is that obsessed with John McClane’s abs, John McClane’s move, John McClane’s movies, blah, blah. Plus, I doubt heterosexual men are openly jealous of John McClane’s love interests. Jake is basically in love with that guy. Also, Captain, considering I’m a better detective than anyone here, I’d like a badge and gun. Dismissed!”

“For the last time, you cannot dismiss people. We’ve been over this. Second of all, you are not getting a badge or a gun,” Holt sighed.

“Fine.” Gina rolled her eyes. “But just so I don’t feel bad later,” people scoffed at that, “I’d like to tell you that I rejected your offer to talk about guys earlier because Jakey here has way better eyes. Although, he’s stopped our little chats now that he’s dating Amy.”

Jake tried to say that he had never talked about boys with Gina before, but nobody let him deny any of it.

From there, things went back to normal.

#brooklyn nine nine #b99 #b99 fanfiction #peraltiago #bi jake peralta #coming out #humour #season three

[marvelandponder]

M.A. Larson Roasts the Fandom

Well, originally it was his, at least. From what we can gather, it seems this was an old script they had lying around from when Larson worked on the show, and they’ve retooled it to work for the current season.

Who exactly did the rearranging is still a mystery, although if I had to throw a guess out there, it would make sense that this season’s story editors Joanna Lewis and Kristine Songco (otherwise known as the Lady Writers) were the ones giving the script its updates.

If so, that explains why it came out so fantastically despite Larson saying he wasn’t happy with the final product.

From what very little I know about the industry, it’s not uncommon for writers to watch their scripts be turned into something totally, soul-crushingly different from their original vision. So, I’m hoping that behind-the-scenes communication issue is fixed. Even if it doesn’t always affect episode quality, we ended up losing a good writer over it, and I can’t imagine it feels good to put your heart and soul into something only for it to be changed before it airs.

That being said, it’s almost ironic that it happened with such a meta episode. Larson usually gets blamed for the Twilicorn fiasco despite his original script being totally different. So it’s kinda funny that Magical Mystery Cure got him flak for years and this episode — which ended up being sort of an encore after his grand finale with Amending Fences — is yet another episode that was changed without his consent but this time it ended up being pretty well loved (on the whole).

Life has a weird sense of humour like that.

I had to start with that behind-the-scenes stuff because I’m shocked—shocked—that they managed to make an episode that’s somehow even more meta than Slice of Life.

Not only that, but because of its weird production history it’s an episode that perfectly blends the old feel of MLP with the new. I really can’t tell you how much of Larson’s script they kept intact (he seemed to imply not a lot, but it feels so much like classic MLP that I almost refuse to believe some of this stuff wasn’t from him), but this is such a weirdly perfect episode because it brings that Return of Harmony feel to the season 7 version of these characters and this world.

And to top it all off, as a long-time fan of the show whose been in the fandom since season 2, the ponifed mirror it holds up to the fans is just hilarious. 

Pictured above: us rn

Like, actually the best thing. It’s a funny episode for causal fans, but for hardcore fans, it’s amazing—and any commentary that can add a layer for those in the know, but not detract anything for the little fans or casual viewers, is just golden.

It also sort of exemplifies what there is to love about Larson. Even if nothing but his original concept ended up being used (still don’t believe that), it makes perfect sense that this came from him. The smart edge he was willing bring to Pony will forever be missed.

But, at least we have one last hurrah! Sort of. So without further introduction, allow me to fangirl over and pretend to analyze an episode about the dangers of missing the point by over-analyzing!

… wait.

Not Just a “It’s Just a Kids Show” Argument

Okay, so when you’re a huge fan of cartoons made for children, you tend to come across this argument a fair bit: it’s just a kids show. Why are you looking so deep into it? Don’t over-analyze it, it’s made for kids.

At glance you might think that’s what this episode is arguing, too, that if adult fans want to watch, they should keep in mind that it’s just for kids and not overthink it.

But that argument tends to come with the connotation that kids shows aren’t deep at all and can’t be meaningful because they’re made for kids. And it doesn’t take me to tell you, a cartoon fan, that that’s just not the case.

This episode isn’t devaluing what kids enjoy, or even saying all deep thought over what was intended to be fun, silly, and heartfelt is bad. But it is a reminder not to get so lost in that overthinking that you miss out on what the show’s really about: the fun, silly, cute horses learning cheesy, but still incredibly earnest lessons on life, love, and (of course) friendship.

And this isn’t exactly a middle finger to the fandom, either---I’ve seen it taken that way a few times, too. If you remember Slice of Life and even the convention scenes of Stranger than Fanfiction at all, you’ll remember M.A. Larson (who wrote Slice of Life) and the rest of the staff actually love our creativity and world-building. They dedicated an entire episode, the show’s 100th, to characters the fans created themselves. 

And yes, even our analysis community is well-loved by the staff if Quibble Pants is anything to go by (his character may grate on Dash’s nerves from time to time, but he’s also portrayed as incredibly smart, inventive, and learns a lesson in the end to become a better pony).

So, please don’t misunderstand: they do still love our passion and even our crazy, overly-deep ideas, and you can even make criticisms if you want (I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s an anti-criticism thing, either), but the point is that we need just need to keep things in perspective, or else miss out on the fun of it all.

And, that this show is meant for kids. Not “just for kids,” like that’s a bad thing, but that kids are, have been, and will forever be the target audience, and that’s something we should always have a respect for.

I’ve always loved that about the staff. That they have a great love for the young fans of the show, and they’ll always put them first. It’s the way it should be, even with a an older fanbase that they also love dearly (despite our many, many flaws; which come to think of it mirrors the lesson the mane 6 are trying to teach).

So, yeah, this is one of the funniest lessons the show has had to date, and but also one that carries a lot of meaning, for fans young and old.

I warned you that this would be a lot of fangirling.

Character Growth, Comedy, and Criticisms

God, this episode has so much going for it… I’m just sitting here trying to think of where to start and remembering just how much there is to enjoy here.

Okay, for starters, he nailed the fanbase’s biggest hangups over the years:

Fluttershy: Learning the same lesson over and over Pinkie Pie: Considered flanderized when she seems too silly/not grounded in the moment (think Filli Vanilli, the colouring book in Princess Twilight Part 1, or the balloon distracting her in Three’s a Crowd) Rainbow Dash: Hardcore fans claim she’s perfect, is best pony Twilight: Was better before the wings, or would’ve been better if ____ had happened Applejack and Rarity are hilariously switched. Rarity is the background pony getting all the criticism every time she does anything (has an episode), and Applejack is the one that’s praised to the point of obsession.

Spike, ironically, doesn’t have a role in this episode, and you can tell just based on some of her lines that Starlight took his spot in the rewrites (Spike totally would’ve stayed behind with Rarity in the exact same way). I’m a bit bummed they didn’t put in a joke or two for him, because he did write in that journal, too. They could’ve even commented on whether or not he’s considered part of the friend group (a major character or a supporting character), but there’s only so much running time.

I love that the CMC just got popular on the playground for their entries. Like, no drama there, they’re just loved because they’re adorable and sweet, and isn’t that accurate though?

Also: they actually are going to have an episode later this season about that summer camp idea they had, called Marks and Recreation. And some people wonder why I love the later seasons.

And I like that by calling some things out in-episode, like Fluttershy’s baby steps or Pinkie’s silliness, they actually get a chance to say, yeah, you might be legitimately right, but here’s how they’ve grown as characters.

Even just listening to some of the lyrics of the song: Rainbow Dash’s ego is huge, but it gives her the courage to fail, Pinkie might seem overly excited on the outside, but it’s just because she’s so excited to be with her friends. Twilight’s was a bit rushed to get to the chorus, but aside from hers, they each get at the heart of why these characters are so compelling and endearing and I just?

I just really love that.

Oh and I want to take a moment to appreciate the design of the song, because Daniel Ingram puts in so much freakin’ thought to these sometimes. The point of the song is that their flaws are what make them who they are, and by extension make them friends, so what does Ingram do?

Not only gives them each a verse to detail one of their biggest flaws, but lets them come together in perfect harmony for the chorus. That perfectly matches the meaning of the song.

If it sounds similar to another season 7 song because of that harmony, you’re not wrong: it’s similar in structure to Until the End of Time (or was it When We’re with Our Team?), only that was half a joke song: the point was that in comparison to Starlight and Trixie, the girls have a ridiculously easy time getting along. Super catchy and upbeat, but also a lot more vague than Flawless because it’s focusing on just how well they get along after all this time of being friends. So, this episode’s song ends up being the more meaningful of the two.

Oh, and then there’s Starlight Glimmer in a supporting role! See, this season has been letting her play the supporting role instead of always being the star or costar in her appearances, which really helps integrate her more and more into the cast. Even though she comes up with the idea of showing the girls they’re appreciated, she doesn’t overshadow their efforts to solve the problem.

A part of me doesn’t like that she had to take Spike’s role in the episode to do it, and again, that would’ve been remedied if Spike had a small joke about being on the run from crazy fans asking how close he is to Twilight and the girls really. It’s not like whoever revised this episode didn’t have a great sense of humour too---if nothing else, our Mystery Editor(s) definitely must’ve put in Starlight’s line about needing to copy the Communist Manifesto, so I’m sure they also could’ve reworked something funny for Spike quickly.

But at least we have a Spike episode this coming week to help make up for it.

Back to this episode, can we just. 

Can we JUST appreciate the comedy?

Not even ‘oh this episode made the giggles’ but just like... the sheer variety of kinds of jokes? We had slapstick, we had sight gags, we had things floating into frame, we had the frame moving over to the punchline, we had ridiculously hilarious expressions, character humour, smartly written lines, and to put the cherry on the cake of course, we had meta humour.

Like, this episode is a comedic gold mine.

It makes me appreciate the different kinds of humour the show has to offer. Dr. Wolf just recently made a video on the lack of slapstick in MLP in recent seasons, and as a fan of director Edgar Wright (Scott Pilgrim, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, At World’s End, Baby Driver, etc), I recently watched a video on how he does visual comedy like no other director. Give it a watch if you’re interested.

So, yeah, since most episodes have one or two styles of comedy they rely more heavily on, it’s just refreshing to get a full buffet.

Oh, but even after the lesson, I should probably still say something critical in this this critical analysis, shouldn’t I?

Well, fine. 

For one, the townsponies viewing the mane 6 differently once they know their personal thoughts is somewhat reasonable, but if you take a step back from the meta of the episode, it does put this episode in the category of: the town acts like jerks for an episode... episode

I find it hilarious and don’t have much of a problem with it, but I realize that for some, this is an actual problem because this is supposed to be such a loving, kind world.

At least this time there’s a reason for them to go total Jerk---unlike, say the marketplace in Putting Your Hoof Down or the squabbling delegates of Princess Spike---but for some this is going to be an issue.

Also, you have to wonder if they censored some things in the journal, because otherwise, everyone now knows Daring Do is A.K. Yearling...

... unless that’s what upcoming episode Daring Done is about. Have I mentioned I love the continuity in this show?

Oh, and I think I might make the details section its own post this time. Normally save a space at the bottom to highlight small details I liked in an episode, but this post has already become a huge love-letter, so I should probably spare your dash from being eaten alive.

So, overall, to me, this episode is kind of masterful. Larson was definitely the man for the job: I can’t think of anyone else who could so eloquently put the fandom in their place without straight up insulting them---or have the cojones to try! All while reminding the fandom of all the reasons there are to like the show in the first place!

Brilliant in concept, and in execution, so even though I spent this post praising Larson himself, I’ve also gotta give some love to the current staff members for this one. Like I said, it blends classic MLP sensibilities with all the polish, development, and emphasis on continuity of the current seasons, and for that, it’s a truly unique, wonderfully insightful episode.

And right off the heels of The Perfect Pear, which was an emotional masterpiece in my eyes, too! Right now, I’ve gotta say, it’s good to be an MLP fan.

Need more pony? I always do. That’s why I have all these episode reviews and editorials for you! And to make it easier, have the last three things I’ve done:

Hard to Say Anything Review, Honest Apple Review, and SciTwi v.s. Twilight

Year of the Pony

Special Thanks to Millennial Dan on Deviantart, who made the Microphone vector for the logo! And Kishmond for the book vector!

Is MLP Officially the Most Meta Cartoon Yet or What? 

#year of the pony #fame and misfortune #mlp #yearofthepony #mlp reviews #my little pony #friendship is magic #mlp:fim #mlp: fim #twilight sparkle #fluttershy #pinkie pie #rarity #applejack #rainbow dash #starlight glimmer #the cutie mark cursaders #mlp season 7 #mlp s7 #mlp analysis #cartoons #animation

[blademaster-banryu]

FE Fates character analysis: Camilla's lost potential + defending what’s still good

So in light of the recent character rankings in the Fire Emblem Heroes poll, I’ve seen a lot of backlash in response to Tharja and Camilla being so high in the runnings. (This is why I made my post announcing my support/defense of them, incidentally.) And yes, it most likely IS for the fanservice factor-- however, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they are bad characters who are UNDESERVING of their popularity. 

I seem to be firmly in the minority in thinking this, but Tharja is one of my favorite characters in Awakening and I will defend her and everything she stands for with my dying breath. I honestly think pretty much everything about her personality and writing is solid, and if you don’t like her, that’s totally fine! (If you’re gonna call her a bad character though you can just fite me, come at me scrublord I’m ripped). 

Camilla, however, is honestly a little harder to defend-- but I’d still like to try. So in the interest of objectivity and fairness, I’d like to take a proper look at where she falls short as a character, and what’s still good about her.

Wanna start with her design first; overall, it’s pretty typical femme fatale attire, the outfit pretty obviously-pandering, but I think it’s got some good things going for it; she herself is very pretty, and most of the armor pieces are aesthetically interesting. The battle panties are the biggest offender of unnecessary sexualization here IMO, exposed thighs/booties are sort of a recurring issue with mounted females in the 3DS Fire Emblems and TBH it’s just bad character design, bad for immersion and bad the characters’ dignity. You could also make a case for her exposed cleavage and heels being too unrealistic as well for similar reasons of practicality, but they’re quite not as problematic IMO. Honestly I can see both arguments, and I know there are even some female FE fans who like Camilla’s design the way it is, and who appreciate that she’s a sexy character who’s also powerful, and a really cool/unique type of unit for the series as well. I think it’s fair to say that there are some good appeal factors to her even despite the fanservicey outfit. 

Now there’s a fine line between being sexual and being sexualized, and while I think being sexual is perfectly fine as an aspect of her character, it’s clear that the decision was made to cross that line pretty hard with Camilla in Fates. Camilla’s appearances in cutscenes are rife with boob/butt shots, her behavior and much of her writing panders directly to male players... And to an extent, you know what? I get it. Sex sells. It’s a marketing tactic and it works. BUT... Having Camilla be the eye-catching sex icon does NOT have to come at the expense of her character-- Tharja is a successful example of this, I believe-- but  unfortunately I think that’s exactly what happened with Cam. 

I don’t have much to say on Camilla’s character and personality, since the Ghast Station’s video on Camilla did a great job of analyzing her and I don’t have much to add to that. At the end, Ghast concludes that his opinion is that he doesn’t like Camilla and that she’s a bad character-- and honestly, I can’t fault him for this opinion or the reasoning behind it. Most of Camilla’s writing has to do with doting over Corrin, and while this too is a keystone of her character, far too much time is given over to this and not nearly enough to fleshing out Camilla herself. So in light of that, I want to talk about what they COULD have done with her to make her more than she was and live up to her full potential.

So here’s what we DO get about Camilla: she’s protective, she’s bloodthirsty, she has attachment issues, and possibly the biggest bomb that informs her character/behavior the most: her involvement in the ‘concubine wars’ among Garon’s many lovers using their children to get a leg up on and even kill one another (there’s a great fan-made series of cutscenes about this that does a lot to make up for the insubstantial in-game writing). To me, Camilla has the potential to be one of the darkest and most tragic characters in the Fire Emblem series, but she’s never allowed to live up to that potential due to being sidelined as sex appeal and just an overall, largely inconsequential character (and it’s hard to see this as anything but sexist preference given over to the male characters, since Hinoka largely suffers from the same fate, minus the oversexualization). 

So what would I want to see from Camilla? Honestly, I want to see her being MORE violent and bloodthirsty-- I want the threats she makes to actually mean something, to be backed up by her actions. (Again with the fanmade content, there’s a great AU for this being thought of by @exaltedgrimleal and @lightningbuglane ) She threatens to break Selena’s legs for trying to leave her, to lock up Laslow for torture if he betrays her, and of course to disembowel anyone who threatens Corrin... But never do we get any payoff for these threats during cutscenes. Why not have moments where someone tries to hurt Corrin, and she disregards his/her pleas to spare them, show us that Camilla is not to be trifled with? Maybe instead of Leo, SHE could have been the one to kill Zola after he proved problematic in Conquest, that’s well within her established character to do (but nooo can’t have THAT, a woman can’t be the one to take initiative in the plot that’d be compromising her status as fanservice icon, wouldn't it lol). Even her sexualization isn’t used to further her character; with how she dresses, wouldn’t you expect that she would use her looks to manipulate people who are otherwise inconsequential to her to get something that she wants, or even better, for the benefit of her family and her kingdom? (But nope that would be empowering her sexuality wouldn’t it lol. Women have to be passive, right Japan?) Camilla is a great unit on the gameplay side of things, and having her be so inconsequential in the plot furthers the already-distracting dichotomy between plot and gameplay in Fates.

Speaking of, her class is another area where a lot of character-building (as well as worldbuilding) potential is lost IMO. Malig Knights are supposed to be sorcerous wyvern riders with undead mounts, right? That's SO unique, it’s one of the coolest new classes to be introduced in ANY Fire Emblem game! In her class alone, there's the potential to explore 1) how a wyvern rider becomes a malig knight (do they have to resurrect a wyvern? KILL their own even? think of the psychological impact that ALONE could have and how it could further inform her both the loving and dark/controlling aspects of her character), 2) Camilla's relationship with her wyvern (doesn't even have to be touched on that much, maybe in 1-2 supports), 3) her mix of proficiencies between combat, magic, animal-handling, how she trained, etc.... She, as the sole playable character unit who starts as a Malig Knight, stood to add SO much to the world of Fates, on top of her own character, purely by virtue of her class. But her wyvern/class are literally NEVER acknowledged throughout the course of the game (a flaw that extends to all of the Nohr royals, actually), and instead the focus is put on her male-pandering aspects (or rather, lack of care to make her anything else). Characters’ classes informing their character and behavior is a frequently-used writing tool in the FE series that goes utterly unused and wasted a lot in Fates, but more so with Camilla than any other character, debatably. 

So I think that about wraps it up here. Now make no mistake, despite all my complaints, I really like Camilla... but I can’t overlook her flaws-- writing flaws more so than character flaws (the latter is what makes characters interesting, after all)-- and will never hesitate to point out or criticize all the lost potential she  had to be a truly grim and/or tragic character in Fates' plot (making her be depressed and pass rule to Leo in Birthright is about the bare minimum of what they could have done with that). 

Still, I think the discourse we're even able to have over this proves that there WAS something more to Camilla than just the fanservice... Even if it wasn't much. 

So if you dislike Camilla because of how little there is to her-- or even for what she was intended to be-- that’s fine. If she had been written successfully or the way I wanted, I expect she’d be an even MORE polarizing character than she is now, haha. (Just keep in mind that a character isn’t necessarily bad just because they’re sexualized, folks, I know that’s why a lot of people hate on her lol) 

Thanks for reading and I hope I’ve given Camilla fans and haters alike some food for thought!

#Fire Emblem #Fire Emblem Fates #Camilla #FE #FE Fates #Fire Emblem Fates Conquest #FE Fates Conquest #Fates Conquest #camilla fe #fe camilla #Banryu's musings #character analysis #Malig Knight

[zenosanalytic]

Discworld: Feet of Clay

This was a REALLY interesting book. Like, it didn’t even really seem to be ABOUT the plot and Main Action?

Or, well, maybe it would be better to say that the main action, all along, was the Golems, and Pratchett kinda throws you for a loop by slowburning that plotline while distracting you with the Vetinari poisoning one(which is Clever, since the major point of the poisoning plot like is missing the Real cause or point of something because it’s too obvious and simple to see, so it kinda ties the whole golem thing into the poisoning thing’s themes in a way), but that’s not really what I mean either? What I mean is that this story kinda felt, to me, like it was about people’s flaws; examining them, showing other people react to them, showing how them impacted the lives of that person and those around them and the city, ect. Or at least, that this was a common theme in many of the subplots which the book seemed to be more interested in than the action. To me, at least.

Which, of course, touches on the Puns in this title. Pun Count:

It’s about Golems, which are made of clay, so physically about “Feet of Clay”.

It’s about the aspirations, and conditions, and flaws of golems(the misunderstanding about Words, what they did with their Childking), so about, among other things, their metaphorical “Feet of Clay”.

There’s a lot of running in it, and sedan-chair-hauling, and otherwise pedestrian movement.

It’s about Angua struggling with her feelings for Carrot, her flaws, and his flaws(as she sees them, since some of the biggest ones are what most people consider virtues)

The questionable origins, and even more questionable habits, of Nobby Nobbs(I LOVE that this is his actual name, I figured Nobby was a nick, his name is literally “Richie Rich” XD XD XD).

How the ambition, arrogance, and pride(flaws) of A-M’s nobility and Burghers, exemplified by Dragon King of Arms, lead them to make fools of themselves courting Nobby Nobbs.

Sargent Colon, his flaws, his perennially backfiring attempts to outsmart others, and the unfortunate fate of his fantasy of “returning”(he was born and raised in the city) to a simpler, more honest life closer to The Land.

The strain that Vimes’ flaws(workaholism, for one) put him, his marriage, and his underlings under. Also: the impact of his origins(his “common clay” heritage) on Vimes’ life and sense of morality(we also see a bit of this with Angua, and I suppose with Carrot, given his Dwarvish reactions to Cheri). Also-Also: his reflexive egalitarian sympathy and support for The Little Guy, or just anyone or any action that  pisses lots of people off. Particularly if they’re rich people.

Vetinari’s flaws(workaholism, for one) and how they’re exploited, for a time, to get him out of the way.

This might be a stretch, but a central device(heh heh heh >:3) of the story is Coats of Arms(otherwise, “Arms of Nobility”), their condition in A-M, and how newly rich common-born folks(again, the “common clay”) covet them for the status they convey. Just to make that explicit, the story deals, in part, with the tension between Arms of Nobility and Feet(origins) of Clay.

An exploration of the exploitation at the foundation of A-M’s bustling, world-class economy; its quite actual “Feet of Clay”, given the role of Golems and treadmills in it.

The theft of a few pallets of clay, in otherwords a few “feet of clay”, is of central importance to figuring out the mystery.

It deals with parenting! It deals with how many parents will try to put all their hopes and dreams on a child and, in doing so, really only heap them over with their flaws!! And at the sametime it does that, it also attacks the idea of kingship and the need people feel for hierarchy by showing that literally drive the person it is invested in insane, because this is Pratchett, the implacable anti-royalist, poster-author for “Power Corrupts” anti-authoritarianism, and so Of Course it does.

You get the idea: flaws play a big role in the plot, and the book takes alot of time to discuss them in most of the characters. So it’s not really as complicated as Men at Arms -there’s only two major puns there “Feet of Clay” for Golems with clay feet and the “Feet of Clay”(flaws) of people- but the second one is explored pretty thoroughly without ever going “wow hey look at how deep we’re going to be this is a book about how people aren’t perfect and how that imperfection shapes their lives and everything else”, or ever really abandoning its sense of humor.

I thought we got some interesting looks at Vetinari here, who we really haven’t spent much time with up until now. From Guards! we know that he is knowledgeable enough about swords to be able to snap one in half, apparently open-handed, instantaneously when wielded against him by someone who doesn’t really know how to use them, and in Feet of Clay we learn that he studied with the Assassins’ Guild at somepoint(though it’s unclear if he picked up the trick from them; Men at Arms makes it clear they don’t emphasize unarmed techniques). We learn Vetinari knows about poisons and has studied the strategies of poisoning, but again we can’t say he learned this from the AG since, while they DO study poisons, they frown on them as not being up-close and personal enough for their rank(since most Assassins are A-M aristos). We learn that, even when he’s been poisoned with arsenic which isn’t pleasant, he insists on working into the night., which is to say we’ve learned Vetinari has a real problem admitting his own weakness, or hurts, or pains, and that he doesn’t usually trust that other people will be competent(or particularly trustworthy, but we knew that). We know he’s writing a book called The Rites of Man, which seems an odd sort of thing for an autocrat with no particular interest in religion(beyond the practical given trigger-happy gods, I am sure) to be writing. We know that he feels he has “created” Vimes in someway, and that he feels a certain tolerant affection for him that sometimes leads to quixotic behavior on his part. We learned that he likes to see Vimes in action, even when he already knows how to solve a problem Vimes is working on, and that he’s willing to prolong crises, when it suits his objectives as well, just for the pleasure of seeing Vimes being Vimes. And I kind of, actually, wonder if this creates a sort of feeling of kinship between him and Carrot, given that Carrot finds Vimes as inspirational and most folks seem to find him.

Hmmm.... what else.... Dorfl’s Robocop quote near the end had me entirely metaphorically yelling I was so pleased. I thought the ending, and how Pratchett kept Angua in A-M was really sweet.

OH! How could my brain edit out Cheri like that on me for this whole essay >:( Treasonous I tells ya >:[ >:[ I don’t really know if Cheri’s storyline fits into the whole “Feet of Clay” puntheme necessarily. I mean, you could make a clay=transformation argument but I’d rather not |:T In regards to that particular bit of the story I’d say she was more of a foil: that Carrot’s reactions to her elucidated his flaws, but that this didn’t really have anything to do with her other than incidentally. There IS a certain obvious irony in her viewing A-M as a place she could get away to to be herself openly and freely, while heaping prejudiced insults on Angua(who came to the city to be herself in a different way, by suppressing a part of herself she disliked) for most of the book. Cheri’s not spared from being shown as flawed and having those flaws influence her path through the book of course: there’s her anti-were feelings and how that impacts her relationship with Angua. But there’s also how she came to The Watch in the first place; by not having traditional Dwarf interests, and by blowing up the senior leadership of the Alchemists’ Guild. And her biggest breakthrough, the arsenic grease, is something she thinks, at first, is a mistake, which was kind of a cool way to run with the whole “flaw” thing(particularly with her), by showing that, sometimes what we’ve been taught to see as a flaw or “wrong” is really the key to our success :) Also the bit of worldbuilding here, that plenty of Dwarves don’t really find out about the anatomy of their partners until rather late into courtship, and are often happy with whatever they find, meaning that, despite Carrot’s spot-consideration on the topic that terms like “mother” and “father” probably have more to do with social or familial roles than gendered anatomy, was pretty Neat, as was that there are Dwarves who FEEL “feminine”, and want to live as such, with certain Dwarven adjustments :p

Hmm Ok, I think that’s it, though I finished this book ~ 3 days ago so I’m prob forgetting some stuff that I wanted to write about |:T |:T

#Discworld #Feet of Clay #Flaws #Characterization #Origins #Critical Analysis #Book Reviews

[astormofships]

Pick Your Darling: Jenna

“Love me, love me. Say that you love me. Fool me, fool me, go on and fool me. Love me, love me. I know that you need me! I can't care 'bout anything but you..“

Ship name

Drenna

Meeting

Prior Hogwarts, when your parents wanted to be steadier acquaintances with the Malfoys.

First impressions, the way it used to be before it became romantic

Awww, two kids meeting for the first time. It was all chic, proper and all. Draco kissed the back of your small hand as you blushed but smiled anyway and said hello. Afterwards you began a conversation as the adults sat to drink a cup of tea. Draco mainly showed off his good manners and knowledge of wizard history but that's how you discovered a mutual interest: sports. Playing mini Quidditch was your duo's thing.  One of Lucius' favourite memory would be seeing his son play “Momma and Papa witch and wizard conquering the world” with you. Slytherin is the most disliked and feared house in the castle. Many stories are told about its students, specially by Gryffindors. Those people seem to believe all snakes are Death Eaters in waiting, which is false. Hogwarts is said to be a second home when you begin your first year, and if there is a house who truly holds this familial atmosphere, it's Slytherin: indeed, fraternity is one of its traits. Otherwise how would Tracey Davis, a half-blood, survive among them? Elitists were presents and known, but not all in the house were like them and that's what mattered. So even though you were growing up and more certain not to share your ancestry's beliefs, the other students of the house did not disown you. Remaining on friendly terms with the blond, he even helped you train to earn a place in the Quidditch team. Hard work rewarded you with the position of Beater although it lasted only a year, but you were not upset. It was a good experience and homeworks kept pilling up so any minute of free time counted to relax and spend time with your friends. Later when the light won against the dark, he did his best to restore his honor and image, to take the just and right path. To say he was more humble than before was obvious. But he bravely faced the world in his attempt of reconstruction. And you were this bubble of... respect. A good example and influence. He was kinder in your company, you made him want to be less of his former self, the one who was proud of his shameful flaws. His confident appearance was something you had always admired, same for his intelligence and wit. Slowly but surely, the bond grew. Affection, care, respect, loyalty, hugs...  if you two could become one sometimes, you'd do it. Whatever happened in life, at the end of the day, solace could be found in the company of the other.

Who took the first step

Both. You were a lover and did not want to conceal your emotions. Draco was more careful but when he was certain, orchestrated a plan to declare his love. Watching movies about stars and wars in your house, comfortable on the couch when it truly clicked that what you were chilling against were not the cushions but Draco himself.

Who approves, who disapproves

Your family and friends would, if the young man did not join Voldemort's ranks. Yes, they could imagine he hardly had the choice to truly decline the offer but it was a worrisome fact nevertheless. They wanted a man providing all the safety in the world. The Malfoys' reputation was tarnished.

Narcissa and Lucius would actually focus on their son's happiness. His mother would like you, truth be told. There would be a special bond between the two of you. She liked that you loved her son very much and would move mountains to keep him safe and happy.

The Purebloods who aren't in Azkaban or dead and are still as conservative as Salazar himself.

The best friend and the one you get along with the least

Maybe Pansy Parkinson, when she isn't spreading her venom in your presence. You have a lot in common if you forget the blood-purity mentality and how you disagreed. Girly stuff, talks, secrets? Together. She is the princess and you are the mom.

If you protect people, who will do the same for you? That is Blaise Zabini's role. *The friend pretending to hate your bad jokes or sincerely not enjoying them one bit.

Difference isn't always bad, therefore I think you and Luna would make interesting but genuine and ride or die friends. *That one pal who will ignore you to death if she didn't get the joke or would just offer her input to make it a decent one.

You and Dean Thomas would bond after the war. You'd have a soft spot for him, seeing that he was the one who later introduced you to music bands like Panic! At The Disco and My Chemical Romance. He was lucky to be a Muggle Born and right to be proud of it. Not only his blood status didn't make him a lesser person than those preaching purity, but at least he got the best of both worlds. You were glad to count him as a friend, and a dear one at that! *The friend who actually likes your jokes and openly admits it, sharing another while he is at it. Polite, fun-loving, respectful, brave, supportive and loyal, smart... that guy is by far the best Gryffindor you have met.

Merlin's beard. Can you imagine yourself having a conversation with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger? Hurt feelings, annoyance... yep, they'd all be mutual. Ouch.

If somebody else fancies one of you

Pansy was interested by Draco during your Hogwarts years.

Blaise might have fancied you for a year but got over it.

The best and the worst

Being childhood friends

Playing Quidditch or going to see a match together

Eye and hair colours are opposites but you reciprocally adore those differences

He doesn't mind that you are not a chatterbox, if there is something important you need to share he knows you will speak up

Draco enjoys being fussed over

All the gifts

Being each other's first true love

It's so cute and deep

Faithfulness

His family and yours are friends

Narcissa is Draco's favourite person in the world, so It warms his heart to know you get along

You're similar, both childish so none gets really put off by this although arguments happen

Teaching him new ways, showing him how tolerance is actually a great thing

Exploring the muggle world together. When you finished your seventh year, you felt the need to get away from the wizarding world for a while which explained how you were familiar with this one too. He'd not be very enthusiastic but it would be a distraction and knowledge gained

He loves listening you play the piano, for music soothes the soul does it not

He can be secretive, it would be a source of doubt and feed your insecurities

Draco appreciates his alone time and vital space, and occasionally you might grit on his nerves by being too present

Different types of humor

This young man is too cold and/or aloof, honestly

He knew he was not worthy of you

Hogwarts Houses

Malfoy and Black are ancient and proud Pureblood families of Witches and Wizards. All  (okay, almost) were sorted in Slytherin, and Draco was not an exception. Cunning and power, he was and longed for.

That was hard to chose, honestly. The most difficult part. I admit seeing one of your request on another blog and it said that you were a Gryffindor xD But I'll go with Slytherin. You seem to know what you want, especially when it's in your hands already and would fight for the people you love or possessions you do not want to lose. There is a determination to you. Losing a battle doesn't mean you lost the war, and you know it. Slytherins know it.

Seven Deadly Sins and Virtues

Draco? Well, duh. Pride, of course. The way he speaks of his name and family legacy is no mistake. There's Envy too, how he often resents Harry for all the (un)wanted attention he gets. But this guy is intelligent, knows how to behave in society and got more than correct results at Hogwarts. Not to mention the mission given by Voldemort in 6th year, how he tried to make the Vanishing Closet work and all. All of these could refer to Diligence and Patience.

Jealous, craving affection, childish, always wanting more and more... you, dear Jenna, are Lust. Informations said that jealousy was a characteristic of wrath, and being childish could lead to tantrums and not reasoning calmly. Therefore we can add Wrath to the list. But being a ball of affection, care and protection as well as good intentions gets you the virtue of Kindness.

Who is the sun, who is the moon

An evidence! Warm, loving, protective and inclined toward music, you are the sun. Yes, that and the piano mention was a subtle reference to Apollo in my head, so it helped making the choice although it wasn't difficult to begin with. Moody and nurturing might as well be the moon however... but not this time.

Elegant, cold, boastful, mysterious and fretting, Draco is the moon.

Endgame or not

No. War changes people. Your relationship begun after that but I don't think he'd be patient enough to deal with your jealously and highly emotional moods. Giving a solid chance, sure. But time was valuable, the Slytherin alumni was aware of that. He didn't need a second mother and never was he fond of people clingling to his arm. Usually, the best prevailed the worst. But in the end, I think that sometimes people just fall out of love and that's what happened. Do not fret! He knows you are a great person yet simply not the one he belonged with. To say your heart was broken is an understatement.

Who I truly ship you with regardless of the request’s details

At first I didn't know when this ship was in progress. But you know what? A pairing including Luna seems intriguing, now that I dwell on the possibility. And now, I don't know if Dean should only be a platonic option or not. He'd be a wonderful partner. But he might be in love with Seamus, so yeah. Maybe Blaise, after all! Yes, yes. Totally Blaise.

#Pick Your Darling Ships

[republicstandard]

The Rot in Academia

“Unlimited tolerance is a paradox. We don’t have to tolerate the intolerant.”-Lindsay Briggs

The hostility toward the notion of individual liberty and freedom of speech is evident everywhere you look these days, perhaps no more apparently than on college campuses. With alarming regularity, from moral panics to “anti-fascist” riots to professors with ties to ISIS, it has been incident after incident illustrating how deeply corrupted academia has become. From the lunacy of a Vanderbilt professor blaming 9/11 on racism, slavery, and the Navajo genocide to a Diablo Valley College professor smashing someone’s head with a bike lock, the modern academy—with its Cult-Marx professoriate, bloated bureaucracies that ensure “compliance” with the ruthless efficiency of the NKVD, and SJW student-activists—is no longer the bastion of open inquiry and debate it was intended to be. George Waldner, president emeritus of York College, stated:

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In the last five years, we’ve certainly had an increasing number of free speech confrontations on many campuses across the country. Halloween costumes at Yale, the ‘Trump’ chalkings at Emory University …There have probably been 30 or 40 of these [incidents] in the last five years.

“All I want for Christmas is white genocide.” ~George Ciccarillo-Maher

I would venture it’s been many more than that, especially if you include the on-campus hate crime hoaxes. A university education looks ever-more like a combination of a Soviet re-education camp and a day-care. The student body seems to be regressing to a median age of about five, Marx’s dictums spoon-fed to them by doughy professional axe-grinders, agitators, and grievance-mongers. If sticks and stones break their bones, then words are what really hurt. As Jim Goad wrote in The Redneck Manifesto:

HATE SPEECH is the most Orwellian concept to emerge from the twentieth-century twilight. It is especially deceptive because it hides behind a Happy Face mask. Most people want to be on the side of love, right? Like all dangerous ideas, the notion of hate speech sounds good until dismantled piece by piece. The first problem is with the term’s vagueness. Hate speech, apparently, has become anything they hate. Through relentless exposure to well-meaning, soft-suds imagery, otherwise intelligent people have been brainwashed to believe that “hate” is a satisfactory explanation for any human action. Reducing complex sociopolitical struggles to a matter of “hate” is as simplistic as blaming it on “sin,” but they fall for it.

And boy are they falling for it. The omnipresence of “hate” appears to be the main preoccupation of the professoriate and the administrative commissars, and is certainly one of the central fixtures of campus life. Trinity College professor Johnny Eric Williams took to his Twitter account to use the hashtag #LetThemFuckingDie in reference to white males; similarly, former Drexel professor George Ciccarillo-Maher opined that, “All I want for Christmas is white genocide.” Texas A&M professor Tommy Curry advocated violence against whites as a corrective measure to perceived racism in a podcast interview back in 2012. Now-terminated Essex County College professor Lisa Durden taunted whites on Tucker Carlson when the host pressed her on her support for racially-exclusionary events:

“Boo-hoo-hoo, you white people are just angry you couldn’t use your white privilege card to get invited to the Black Lives Matter all-black Memorial Day celebration.”

University of Delaware anthropology professor Kathy Dettwyler declared on Facebook that Otto Warmbier “got exactly what he deserved” when he was tortured to death by North Korea because he was “typical of a mind-set of a lot of the young, white, rich, clueless males.” According to Boston University professor Saida Grundy, “White masculinity isn’t a problem for America’s colleges, white masculinity is THE problem for America’s colleges.” John Griffin of the Art Institute of Washington believes that Republicans “should be lined up and shot. That’s not hyperbole.” Fresno State professor Randa Jarrar gloated over the death of Barbara Bush on Twitter (sic):

“Barbara Bush was a generous and smart and amazing racist who, along with her husband, raised a war criminal. I’m happy the witch is dead. Can’t wait for the rest of her family to fall to their demise the way 1.5 million iraqis have. Byyyeeeeeeee.”

Kevin Allred, formerly of Rutgers University, had the following to say on Twitter: “Will the Second Amendment be as cool when I buy a gun and start shooting at random white people or no …?” Another Boston University professor, Kyna Hamill, published a paper condemning “Jingle Bells” for its “racist history” as a jingle in blackface. Sarah Bond of the University of Iowa lamented the fact that sculptures from the classical world are now primarily associated with white marble. Princeton University Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor made the deeply revealing and insightful comments during her commencement address at Hampshire College that Donald Trump is a “racist, sexist megalomaniac.”

As Middlebury, Yale, Evergreen State, and Berkeley have shown, the students are just as eager to get in on the action. Lucía Martínez Valdivia, a mixed-race “queer” assistant professor of English at Reed College, had a lecture about Sappho disrupted by students protesting the college’s mandatory humanities class as “white supremacist.” Just when you think the Left cannot get any more preposterous, there you go—protesting a queer, mixed-race woman’s lecture on a queer female poet. The protesters also indicted Aristotle and Plato for good measure. Martínez Valdivia states:

Nuance and careful reasoning are not the tools of the oppressor, meant to deceive and gaslight and undermine and distract. On the contrary: These tools can help prove what those who use them think — or even what they feel — to be true. They make arguments more, not less, convincing, using objective evidence to make a point rather than relying on the persuasive power of a subjective feeling…Ultimately, this is a call for empathy, for stretching our imaginations to try to inhabit and understand positions that aren’t ours and the points of view of people who aren’t us. A grounding in the study of the humanities can help students encounter ideas with care and…realizing — and accepting — that no person, no text, no class, is without flaws. The things we study are, after all, products of human hands.

She’s absolutely correct, but the un-reasoning Left refuses to consider what is actually a very insightful commentary on the nature of creation so fundamental to the arts, and on the beauty and tragedy of a fatally-flawed humanity. This idea that empathy does not need to be divorced from logic and reason—that it is in fact inextricably intertwined and that rationality and critical thinking aren’t “tools of white supremacy” but are instead universally applicable and vital to processing the world and the people in it in all their dimensionality—is increasingly becoming antithetical to the deeply sentimental worldview of the Left wing, where the Western logos itself has become the enemy of emotive, panicked hysteria masquerading as a coherent set of principles. In this infantile worldview of good-and-bad, “hate,” as the Jim Goad quote discusses, is a sufficient explanation for people’s motivations, and for anything that falls outside the ideological confines of Leftist “thought.”

One thing is clear—dissent will not be tolerated. Will Creeley, an attorney for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), expresses concern that the:

“U.S. Supreme Court’s stark warning in Sweezy v. New Hampshire will prove prophetic: ‘Teachers and students must always remain free to inquire, to study and to evaluate, to gain new maturity and understanding; otherwise our civilization will stagnate and die.’”

Though he is dead wrong about group identity and has of late turned into a bit of a Zionist shill, Dr. Jordan Peterson is a very astute observer of the Cultural Marxism that has taken firm hold of the university campuses in North America and beyond. Peterson refers to the Leftist buzzwords of “diversity,” “equity,” and “inclusivity” as the Unholy Trinity, and I might be so presumptuous as to add a fourth: trauma. This is the lynchpin of the push for safe spaces, the conflation of speech with violence, and the drive to dis-invite and de-platform speakers who run afoul of the egalitarians. Nevertheless, these poisonous ideas have seeped deep into the fabric of academia, where they are not only perpetuated and remain unchallenged, but spread into our society’s daily discourse as a direct result of sustained attempts at indoctrination in the academy, and increasingly even earlier in K-12.

The reason things seem to be deteriorating on campus has everything to do with its closed environment, where dissenting opinions are discouraged and forced out, and mutually reinforcing viewpoints are encouraged and advanced. Essentially you then have an echo chamber environment where bad or at least faulty ideas are perpetuated and due to viewpoint uniformity (and hostility to different perspectives) the ideas and suppositions advanced in the academy are never challenged, and in the rare instances where dissenting evidence emerges from the university setting (such as Dr. Richard Lynn’s IQ research), the data is suppressed and the individual responsible is punished or marginalized in some way. Political orientation is a pretty good proxy for worldview; for all of the talk of diversity, in this crucial area it is sorely lacking. From a 2016 survey, we see that liberal professors in New England outnumber conservatives 28-to-1. From a study conducted by UCLA published in 2012, we can see the growing uniformity among the professoriate nation-wide is approaching a totality of the profession:

CHART

By 2014, a mere 10% of professors identified as conservative. They remain largely confined to business and the hard sciences. In a sample of fifty-one of the top sixty liberal arts colleges studied by the National Association of Scholars’ Mitchell Langbert this year, 39% of faculties had zero Republicans, and out of a pool of nearly 8,700 professors, registered Democrats outnumbered registered Republicans ten-to-one.

As uniform in their beliefs as professors generally are, John Wilson, an editor of the AAUP’s “Academe” blog, believes that it is the administrators who are really the problem as the architects and enforcers of the censorship and speech codes that are so prevalent on college campuses. As one example of the blood-engorged ticks that are collegiate bureaucracies/administrations, the University of Michigan has ninety-three full-time diversity and equity staff, twenty-six of whom earn six figures, while nationally 49% of college classes are taught by adjunct (part-time) professors with no semester-to-semester guarantee of classes and no benefits (to their credit Ann Arbor only has 17% of its classes taught by adjuncts). Jon Marcus from the New England Center for Investigative Reporting illuminates:

The number of non-academic administrative and professional employees at U.S. colleges and universities has more than doubled in the last 25 years, vastly outpacing the growth in the number of students or faculty, according to an analysis of federal figures. The disproportionate increase in the number of university staffers who neither teach nor conduct research has continued unabated in more recent years. From 1987 until 2011-12…universities and colleges collectively added 517,636 administrators and professional employees, or an average of 87 every working day, according to the analysis of federal figures…“There’s just a mind-boggling amount of money per student that’s being spent on administration,” said Andrew Gillen, a senior researcher at the institutes. “It raises a question of priorities.” Universities have added these administrators and professional employees even as they’ve substantially shifted classroom teaching duties from full-time faculty to less-expensive part-time adjunct faculty and teaching assistants…Since 1987, universities have also started or expanded departments devoted to marketing, diversity, disability, sustainability, security, environmental health, recruiting, technology, and fundraising, and added new majors and graduate and athletics programs, satellite campuses, and conference centers… “It’s almost Orwellian,” said [economist Richard] Vedder. “They’ll say, ‘We’ll save money if we centralize.’ Then they hire a provost or associate provost or an assistant business manager in charge of shared services, and then that person hires an assistant, and you end up with more people than you started with.”

All of this should rightly beg the question of what purpose all of this administrative bloat serves. It certainly isn’t to benefit the quality of the education students receive, and it only adds to the onerous costs of attaining a college degree. The aforementioned AAUP is responsible for the 1915 document that still stands as the golden standard of the mission statement of what a university’s actual purpose should be:

To promote inquiry and advance the sum of human knowledge;

To provide general instruction to the students; and

To develop experts for various branches of the public service.

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Nowhere is there an imperative to produce “professional activists” or advocate for that most nebulous of terms: social justice. Public service in this context is to contribute to society in a productive and meaningful way, be it as an engineer, a rocket scientist, or a teacher. Instead, students learn the wonders of communism (according to a 2017 survey, 44% of Millennials surveyed preferred to live under a socialist system), whites learn to hate themselves, and everyone else learns to hate them. A recent event at The College of William & Mary sponsored by the ACLU entitled “Students and the First Amendment” was shut down due to Black Lives Matter protesters, who exercised the “heckler’s veto” and asserted, among the usual tripe, that “Liberalism is White Supremacy.” Where else can you go from there? What common ground can there be when the Left is saying its own professed values of pluralism and tolerance are white supremacy?

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I Didn't Vote or Campaign for Hillary. Please Don't Use the Separation of Immigrant Families to Try to Shame Me for It. - PEER NEWS

New Post has been published on https://citizentruth.org/i-didnt-vote-or-campaign-for-hillary-please-dont-use-the-separation-of-immigrant-families-to-try-to-shame-me-for-it/

I Didn't Vote or Campaign for Hillary. Please Don't Use the Separation of Immigrant Families to Try to Shame Me for It.

If you want to talk about my white privilege, fine. If you want to talk about what I could have done for vulnerable immigrant groups and can do going forward, I’m genuinely sorry, and with you. If you want to shame me for my vote for a third-party candidate, however, I reject your ignorance of electoral realities and your political bigotry. (Image Source: CBS News via YouTube)

I don’t often share personal experiences in my political writing, mostly because I feel like I’d be sharing stories that no one wants to hear. That still may very well be the case, but seeing as this situation was made relevant to the ongoing crisis facing the separation of immigrant families, I figured I would highlight my experience as a way of talking about the related issues.

A now-former friend on Facebook, who is a leader/organizer on behalf of a nonprofit organization, recently took to social media to ask whether any Jill Stein voters would like to apologize for their choice in the wake of said crisis. I, as someone who voted for Stein, took umbrage to this comment, if for no other reason than it seemed particularly haughty of him to begin the conversation on these terms. Granted, I could’ve (and probably should’ve) not engaged at all, but I did, and so here we are.

First, a note about my vote for Jill Stein: I am neither an ardent supporter of Stein nor am I am a Green Party fanatic. I also don’t fully know what the heck the point was of the recount she spearheaded or ultimately what exactly became of the money raised to fund recount efforts. For some of you, I suppose that just makes it worse: that I would just up and support a third-party nominee of whom I am not a follower despite being a registered Democrat. In this sense, my vote can be seen as somewhat of a betrayal.

I also should note that I supported Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign, and voted for him in my state’s Democratic primary. By this point, I had no illusions that Bernie would capture the nomination; my home state, New Jersey, was one of the last handfuls of primaries to be held in the 2016 election season, and several media outlets were already calling the nomination in Hillary’s favor before the polls could open. Accordingly, you might see my refusal to cast my ballot for Clinton, too, as a manifestation of the “Bernie or Bust” mantra. Although technically I did vote, just not for a representative of either major political party. Nor did I write in Sanders’s name as a protest vote. Or Harambe’s, even though I’m told he would’ve loved to see the election results.

When it came down to it, though, I didn’t feel like Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party did enough to try to win my vote—simply put. To me, Clinton’s campaign was emblematic of a larger strategic flaw that characterizes the Dems: too much capitulation to centrists, too dismissive of concerns about reliance on corporate and wealthy donors, too little regard for the concerns of working-class Americans and grass-roots organizers until it comes time to donate or vote. To me, Hillary’s pitch seemed largely tone-deaf if not disingenuous, plagued by secrecy about E-mail servers and Goldman Sachs speeches as well as ill-advised comments about “deplorables,” among other things. And for those of you already raising a finger to wag about the deleterious aspects of the Republican Party and its nominee, I never even remotely considered Donald Trump or another GOP candidate for my vote. At present, that’s a line I won’t cross, in jest or otherwise.

Thus, despite her evident misunderstanding of quantitative easing, I voted for Jill Stein—not because I thought she could win or because I feared Trump could—but because I felt the values she and her campaign expressed most closely matched mine. That’s it. I imagine many Trump voters felt the same way re values—that is, they supported his economic or social platform more than him or his antics, though if that’s the case, I don’t know how much that says about their values. I’m just trying to get the idea across that people’s “support” for particular candidates can be more nuanced than today’s political discourse might otherwise suggest.

My voting mindset, therefore, was not “strategic” in the sense that I didn’t vote for Hillary Clinton specifically to block Donald Trump. In light of my state’s final tally, it would seem my vote was unnecessary in this regard, though I could not know that for sure at the time I cast my ballot. Clinton came out ahead in New Jersey by more than 13 percentage points and close to 500,000 more votes, and thanks to the Electoral College and our winner-takes-all style of deciding these matters, all 14 of the Garden State’s electoral votes went to her. Stein did not even manage a third-place showing, being bested by the likes of Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party’s candidate.

This was the crux of my initial rebuttal about the need to apologize for my vote. While on a state-by-state basis, the notion of Johnson and Stein being “spoilers” may or may not have more validity (more on that in a bit), in my state, it did not. Regardless, to point fingers at lowly third parties deflects a lot of blame, and to borrow a term from Ralph Nader, who faced similar finger-pointing following the 2000 election, is to succumb to a high degree of “political bigotry.” In other words, it’s scapegoating perpetrated by members of major parties to distract from their need for substantive reform.

In addition to the culpable parties oft-cited by Clinton’s supporters and defenders—namely Russia, James Comey, and sexism (this last one may or may not be so true depending on the context or individual voter’s mindset, but that’s a whole different kit and caboodle)—there’s ample room to consider what role other groups played or, in theory, could have played. After all, what about the people who could vote and didn’t? What about the people who couldn’t vote but perhaps should be afforded the privilege, such as convicted felons? And what about the folks who actually voted for Donald Trump? Are they to be absolved of responsibility because they didn’t know better? If so, where is this written?

Additionally, what does it say that someone like Clinton, vastly more qualified than her opponent and, from the look and sound of things, quantifiably more capable, lost to someone in Trump to whom she had no business losing? For all the justifications for Hillary Clinton failing to capture an electoral majority—let’s not forget the fact she won the popular vote, an issue in it of itself when considering it’s not the deciding factor in presidential victories—we shouldn’t overlook some questionable decisions made by the Clinton campaign, including, perhaps most notably, how she and her campaign paid relatively low attention to important battleground states like Michigan and Wisconsin. Of course, even in Rust Belt states like Pennsylvania where Clinton campaigned heavily, she still lost, so maybe any establishment Democrat the party trotted out might’ve met with the same resistance fed by blue-collar whites flocking to Trump. Still, one can’t shake the sense Hillary approached the final throes of the campaign with a certain sense of arrogance.

To my ex-FB-friend, however, my reasoning was insufficient, and at this point, one of his colleagues, who happens to be a person of color, interceded to agree with his sentiments. As far as they were concerned, my support for Jill Stein may have influenced people in states more susceptible to a Trump win to vote for someone other than Hillary Clinton. I guess, for the sake of an analogy, my thoughts could’ve “infected” those of otherwise discerning voters to make them vote the “wrong” way. My assignment of blame to Hillary despite the forces working against her was panned as well, as was my diminishment of Stein as a spoiler. All in all, they contended, my position was one that exhibited my white privilege and made me sound—quote unquote—morally reprehensible.

As far as I am concerned, if I’m morally reprehensible—fine. You can call me a serpent demon, for all I care. The legitimacy of the arguments within is what interests me. On the subject of my potential game-changing pro-Stein influence, though it’s possible, it’s highly unlikely. In my immediate circle, I told few people unless specifically asked who I planned to vote for. I also wrote a post back in 2016 about why I planned to vote for Jill Stein and posted to Facebook, but—let’s be clear—hardly anyone reads my writing. My own mother doesn’t even read it most of the time. From her standpoint, my entries are of the TL;DR ilk, and what’s more, they tend to be devoid of pictures of cute animals or how-to makeup videos. Fair enough, Mom.

On the subject of Jill Stein as the spoiler, while it’s true that Stein’s numbers may have been larger than Trump’s margin of victory in key states, to say that all those votes would have gone to Hillary instead makes an assumption which may be accurate, or it may not. Again, however, it doesn’t change the contention that the race shouldn’t have been this close in the first place. Weeks after the 2016 election, as vote counts were yet being finalized in too-close-to-call contests, Jim Newell wrote as much in a piece for Slate. He argued:

The lesson of the Comey letter should not be that everything was just going fine until this singular event happened. Obviously Democratic candidates can pick up some tips for the future, such as a) always be sure to follow email protocol and b) keep your electronic devices as far as possible from Anthony Weiner. But they can never rule out some other Comey-equivalent October surprise. The question to ask is: Why was the Clinton campaign so susceptible to a slight shock in the first place? A campaign is resting on a very weak foundation if one vague letter from the FBI causes it to lose a huckster who sells crappy steaks at the Sharper Image.

The “Jill Stein or James Comey cost Hillary the election” narrative is akin to the narrative that Bernie Sanders did irreparable harm to the Democratic Party. You’re telling me that one man not even officially affiliated with the Democrats as a U.S. senator permanently damaged the entire party apparatus? To me, charging Sanders with potentially bringing ruin to the Dems says more about party’s infrastructural integrity (or lack thereof) than it does the intensity of his so-called “attacks” on Hillary Clinton as her primary challenger.

On the subject of my white privilege, meanwhile, well, they’re right. Let me say I don’t dispute this. I enjoy a certain amount of privilege on a daily basis and have almost certainly benefited from it over the course of my educational career and my professional life. Going back to the state-by-state basis of variation in election results, though, the biggest issue would appear to be my geographic privilege. If I lived in a state projected to be much closer based on polling data, might I have chosen differently?

Perhaps. It’s a decision I’m weighing on a smaller scale as we speak with Sen. Bob Menendez seeking re-election in New Jersey after a poor showing in the Democratic Party primary. Sure, Menendez is still the likely winner come November, but with doubts raised about the ethics of his behavior still fresh in voters’ minds, can I take his win for granted? On the other hand, if I do vote for him, what does this say about my values as a voter? Is choosing the “lesser of two evils” sufficient, considering we’ve been doing it for some time now and the state of democracy in this country doesn’t seem to be all that much better for it? These are the kinds of questions I don’t take likely.

Another issue invoked at around the same point in this discussion was whether I had done as much as I could to prevent Trump from winning. For what it’s worth, I wrote a piece separate from my pro-Jill Stein confessional right before the election about why you shouldn’t, under any circumstances, vote for Trump, but as I already acknowledged, my readership is very limited. At any rate, and as my online detractors insisted, I didn’t vote for Hillary, and what’s more, I didn’t campaign on her behalf. I could’ve “easily” made calls or knocked on doors or what-have-you for her sake at “no cost” to me, but I didn’t. As a result, according to them, I was complicit in her electoral defeat.

Could I have told people to vote for Hillary Clinton? Sure. I don’t consider myself any great person-to-person salesman, but I could’ve made an effort. Although this would present a weird sort of dissonance between my advocacy and my personal choice. Why am I instructing people not to vote for Trump and choose Clinton instead when I myself am choosing neither? Then again, I could’ve chosen to vote for Hillary, or simply lied about my choice, assuming anyone ever asked. I also could’ve tried to lobotomize myself with a fork to forget anything that happened leading up to the election. That’s the thing with hypotheticals—you can go any number of ways with them, no matter how unlikely or painful.

Eventually, it became evident that these two gentlemen were demanding that I apologize, but in a way that could make them feel better about accepting me as one of them—a liberal, a progressive, a member of the “Resistance, etc.—rather than simply apologizing to immigrant populations and people of color for “putting my white privilege above” their more immediate worries. My original critic was unequivocal in his demands: “You need to apologize.” His colleague and my second critic, reacting to my expressed feeling that relitigating the 2016 election only to quarrel among various factions on the left was of limited use and that we need to be more forward-thinking in our approach to 2018, 2020, and beyond, was likewise stern in his disapproval. As he stressed, you can’t just do something shitty, say “let’s move on,” and be done with it. I would have to admit my wrongdoing, or he and others would reserve the right to judge me negatively. Such was my “choice.”

Ultimately, my parting remarks were to reiterate my positions as stated above and to insist that people not be shamed for their vote as part of some scapegoating exercise against third-party/independent voters. I also closed by telling my second critic in particular—someone very critical of me on a personal level despite barely knowing me—that I hope his recruitment efforts as an organizer are handled with more aplomb. End of discussion, at least on my end, and click on that Unfriend button. Now you guys don’t have to fret about having to work with me—because I won’t work with you unless I have to.

The unfortunate thing about this conversation—other than that I let it happen—was that it grew so contentious despite the idea we seemed to agree on a lot of points. For one, I conceded my privilege in voting the way I did, something I have characterized as not merely being about race, but of geographical privilege as well. I would submit that admitting privilege is only a small part of the solution, however.

A more constructive recognition of inequality between people of different ethnicities, I would argue, involves advocacy for those who can’t vote, those who should be able to vote, or those who can vote, but otherwise ,find obstacles in access to the polls. On the latter note, there are numerous reforms that can be enacted or more widely used to expand the voter pool in a legitimate way. These include automatic voter registration, increased availability of the absentee ballot and early voting options, making Election Day a national holiday, and opening and staffing additional polling places in areas where election officials are unable to meet the demand of voting constituents.

Moreover, these issues can be addressed concomitantly with issues that affect all voters, including the electoral vote vs. the popular vote, ensuring the integrity of machine-based voting with paper records, gerrymandering designed purely for one party’s political advantage, the influence of Citizens United on campaign finance laws, and ranked-choice voting as an alternative to a winner-takes-all format. American elections have a lot of avenues for potential improvement, and particularly salient are those that disproportionately affect people of color.

I also conceded that I could have done more and can still do more on behalf of undocumented immigrant families, especially as it regards the separation of children from their parents, and this recognition more than anything merits an apology on my part, so to those negatively impacted by the policies of this administration, I am sorry. By this token, many of us could probably do more. Hearing of so many horror stories of young children being traumatized and parents being deliberately deceived by Border Patrol agents is disheartening, to say the least, and as powerless as many of us may feel in times like these, there are ways to contribute, even if it seems like something fairly small.

There seems to be no shortage of marches and protests designed to elevate awareness of the severity of the crisis facing immigrants and asylum seekers, notably from Mexico and Central America, as well as groups devoted to advocating for and defending the most vulnerable among us that can use your contributions. RAICES (the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services) and the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) jump to mind, but there are numerous possible recipients of much-needed donations. As always, be sure to do your homework regarding the reputation of any charity you seek out.

Though it may go without saying, you can also contact the office of your senators and the representative of your district to express your desire that they support any legislation which puts an end (hint: not the House GOP bill) to the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance policy” on illegal immigration, and to thank them for signing on in the event they do. If they don’t accede to or even acknowledge your request, keep trying. As it must be remembered, these lawmakers serve us—not the other way around.

The point I refuse to concede, however, is that I should apologize for my vote for Jill Stein in a state won by Hillary Clinton when I neither voted for nor supported Donald Trump, when both major parties have contributed to destructive immigration policies over the years, when Democrats lost an election they most likely shouldn’t have lost, and when this same losing party refuses to own its shortcomings and open the door to real reform, instead only becoming more calcified. That is, I certainly won’t apologize merely to assuage the concerns of fellow Democrats and liberals. Now is the time for a dialog, not a lecture, and certainly not the time for endless dissection of the 2016 presidential election and guilting conscientious objectors. At a point when we should be working together, I reject this means of tearing one another apart.

  With Allies Like Trump, Who Needs Enemies?

#2016 Election #Bernie Sanders #donald trump #Hillary Clinton #immigrant children #immigrant families separation #Jill Stein #Ralph Nader