#it's funny how no two people in the fandom can agree on what colors the characters are lmao | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

powdermelonkeg · 2 years

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I’ve seen a lot of lists for “hey, if you’re here from Twitter, here’s what you need to know,” so here's a bit of my own advice.

You’ll learn the culture 100x faster if you follow a few hundred blogs, reblog from them without tacking on anything, and just read what shows up on your dash. Guidelines are great and all, but having to remember a checklist is hard. So, some simple step-by-step instructions:

Personalize your blog Get some picture besides the default as your icon. Doesn’t matter what it is, maybe a meme or something, it just can’t be a geometric shape with a few dots. Also worth noting, you technically CAN use a selfie for your icon, but people will give you weird looks. We more or less don’t do that here (99.99% of the blogs that do this are porn bots). If you can’t decide on an icon/header, etc, then at least put “New here, haven’t figured out the site yet” or something to that effect in your bio. We block blank blogs here, because they’re usually bots.

Pick a fandom and go on a following spree This is the easiest way to fill up your dashboard. Search whatever fandom you want, find artists in that fandom, and follow them. Rinse and repeat as many times as necessary, and your dashboard will be full of things you enjoy. If you’re like me and are constantly refreshing looking for new content at 4am, you’ll need to follow 1000+ blogs. If you’re more interested in searching things than having your dash bring you content, keep it around 100 to 300.

Reblog things without commentary Tumblr is a VERY different culture to Twitter, and if you’ve been on Twitter a long while, you’ll have habits around how you interact with people. The two generally do NOT mix well. I’m sure you’ve seen by now the posts like “reblogs are good, likes are worthless” or “don’t censor things in your tags” or “don’t tag like Twitter.” Genuinely, the best way to speedrun getting used to this place is to reblog things you like without adding onto them, and learning the culture by reading the posts on your dash. Once you’re confident that you know how we do things here, go ahead and sprinkle in some tag rambles or Tumblr memes, but that adjustment time is going to be different for everybody.

Scroll through your dash No, really. If you’re bored, take a tour through the recent posts of the people you’ve followed. You’ll find good artwork, cool stories, funny moments, and everything in between, but most importantly, you’ll start building those habits we regulars on Tumblr learned awhile ago, like which memes are a genuine response (Apollo’s dodgeball and red for color theory, currently) and how people tag things here.

Curate your dash Everyone’s pretty much been screaming it from the top of their lungs, but there is no algorithm here. The dash you have is the one you make from the people you follow. This means that you’re responsible for the company you keep. If you see a post you dislike, unfollow them. If someone’s going on a fandom spree that annoys you, unfollow. Point of view you don’t agree with? Unfollow. You can block for the same reasons, and block liberally. On top of this, you can filter out terms and tags in your settings. This is a link to it on desktop; scroll down and you’ll see an entire section titled “Content you see.” On mobile, you can find it by clicking the little person icon in the bottom right, then the settings wheel in the corner of your blog. From there it’s “General settings,” then scroll down a bit to “Content you see” and click it.

And that’s the easiest way to cozy up in this place.

If you’re worried about things not to do, everyone will give you a different list, but here are a few universal faux pas:

Sending hate Sending hate in the ask box is, unfortunately, something this site is known for, but doing so here tells everyone that can see it that you’re an obsessed child. If you do it on anon, you look even worse, even if you can technically “get away with it.” A mature Tumblr user doesn’t send hate no matter what; they block the user they dislike and move on. If you get hate, block them. Yes, even if they’re on anon. It blocks their IP address from sending you anything on anon, forcing them to use their real username if they actually want anything to get through.

Negative commentary Things along the lines of “I don’t even like this show, but-” are not compliments. They’re very discouraging to artists, and using them makes you look insensitive at best. If you want to convey “I don’t watch this show, but I like this art,” you can start it with “I don’t even go here, but-” instead. And if you want to criticize—don't. Genuinely, do not. It's the easiest way to get people not to like you here; if you don't have something nice to say about an art piece or fanfic, then just don't interact with it.

Censoring sensitive words The “content you see” feature on this site does its job and it does it well! If I, a Tumblr user, dislike the mention of “cleaning supplies,” I will block it. This means any post that contains “cleaning supplies” will be filtered from my dash. What this also means is that if you write it to get around this—for example, “clean*ng suppl*es,” “clea/ning sup/plies,” “cle@n!ng $uppl!es,” and so on, it will not be filtered, and I will have cleaning supplies on my dash despite my precautions. The only time you'll see someone doing this is if they don't want a specific user or term searched: squ/id-ink-per/sonal won't show up if I search my username, ze/lda won't show up in the "zelda" tag for that audience to see, etc. People on this site do not get terminated/shadowbanned for specific words. The closest we have ever gotten to that was when Apple tried to block sensitive content and made it so things like #girl wouldn’t show up on Apple devices. Which was a bug that was then fixed. Believe it or not, our moderation team is actually human, so if you’re terminated, it’s not because of some search-and-destroy program built into the site.

Now, before I go, here are some quality-of-life things to help you more easily use Tumblr’s features.

Only the first five tags on a post are indexed If I tag something #zelda, #loz, #fave mutuals, #ask bee, #worldbuilding, #you have no idea how long i spent on this, #i’m going to bed now then only the bolded tags are going to show up in the search results. Someone searching #i’m going to bed now won’t find my post, because it’s not in those first five tags.

You can change the color scheme of the site You’ll have to do it once on desktop and once on mobile, because the two platforms have different color schemes. On desktop, click the little person icon in the top right, then “Change Palette.” On mobile, tap the person in the bottom right, then settings wheel, “General settings,” “Color palette.” We have a lot more than dark and light mode!

You can insert links without interrupting your text Find whatever link you want to insert first, then highlight the word you want to turn into that link, press the “insert link” button, and paste it in. On desktop, it looks like a little infinity symbol. On mobile, it’s a little chain link icon. It lets you do cool things like this whenever you want.

Text can be colored! On mobile, it’s really, really easy to color text—just highlight what you want and the colors will pop up automatically. On desktop, it’s trickier to do, but we have a lot more options here: In the corner of your post, there’s a little settings wheel. Click that, then change “Rich Text” to “HTML.” Your page is going to look like weird code. This is normal. I recommend coloring text as the LAST thing you do because of this. Go here, type the text you want to color, and pick your colors out, then copy the HTML code at the bottom. Then go here, paste that in the box, and replace the “;” with nothing (I’m serious, nothing; not a blank space, just leave the “with this” box empty). Copy the semicolon-less code, go to the Tumblr post, and paste it in. It’s that easy! Fun fact, you can also do this in your desktop blog description, if you want; that little box is fully HTML-configurable.

And those are my starting tips! Have fun out there!

#twitter #psa #tumblr tips and tricks #long post

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dauntless-gothamite · 1 year

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Kiss Me Under the Mistletoe

Fandom: Venom (Marvel) Pairing: Eddie Brock x Venom Summary: Eddie and Venom prepare for Christmas together, and Venom has no idea what to get Eddie. When an argument gives him a gift idea, Eddie wakes up and fears that Venom has left, he voices all the feelings he has been keeping hidden. A/N: I wrote this yesterday and I’m hoping it will help me get out of my writing slump; let me know what you think!!

- December 20th -

Eddie rolls out of bed with a groan as Venom emerges from his shoulder, forming as a floating head. “Eddie, what are we doing today?” Venom asks, antsy after waiting hours in Eddie’s body for his host to finish sleeping. Eddie places a mug under the coffee machine, sighs, and turns around to lean against the counter and face Venom before answering.

“I am going to schedule an interview with an artist who has been doing interactive exhibits around San Francisco, and then, maybe–just maybe–we can go get a Christmas tree.” Eddie feels Venom shuffling around in his mind for a moment and thankful when it stops, Venom quickly having found the answer he was looking for.

“A Christmas tree would be nice, Eddie. We will get the biggest one we can!” Venom exclaims, buzzing with excitement. Eddie grabs his now-ready coffee and takes a sip, hissing as he burns his tongue.

“Woah, woah, I said maybe!” Eddie answers as he pulls his shirt over his head and walks back towards his room, ready to get dressed for the day. The moment he finishes speaking, he feels the tough texture left behind by the burn in his mouth cool and fade, and a small smile settles on his lips. “Thanks, buddy,” he says.

“...Now can we get the tree?” Venom asks.

Sighing, Eddie says, “Yes, we can get the tree, just as soon as I’ve set up this interview.” Venom hums and Eddie takes that as him agreeing and continues with his morning routine.

Venom stays silent and still as Eddie talks on the phone and schedules an interview, thoughts of Christmas filling his mind. From what he has seen in Eddie’s memories and on television, Venom has gathered that Christmas is about two things: people you love and presents. Unexpectedly, Venom starts to feel unsure about a lot of things. Eddie has some Christmas traditions; would he want Venom to be a part of them? What would he get for Eddie? Would Eddie get anything for him? Just as he starts to spiral, Eddie says, “You can come out now, V! Let me grab my wallet and put my shoes on, and then we can go.” He has a relaxed smile on his face, and Venom thinks to himself: this is when he is happy. How can I make him feel like this for Christmas?

- December 21st -

“Eddie, Eddie! Today we are going to decorate the tree!” Venom says, pulling Eddie from his sleep and extending a tentacle holding a mug of fresh coffee towards him.

“Yeah, but not at,” Eddie pauses to look at the clock on his nightstand, “7:15 in the morning,” he grumbles.

“That is why I made the disgusting drink you like so much,” Venom explains. Eddie just rolls his eyes and gets up, ready to get to work.

An hour later, Eddie sits on the couch, Venom’s head floating next to him, to admire their handiwork. “You know, V, you’re pretty good at this whole tree decorating thing,” he muses.

“Of course I am, Eddie,” Venom replies. “I do not know how you get anything done with so few arms.” Eddie chuckles and that same smile from the day before once again appeared on his face.

“Yeah, me neither,” Eddie jokes. Turning to Venom, he continues, “I don’t really have anything to do today; do you want to watch a Christmas movie?”

“I would like to watch Elf. The internet says it is very funny,” Venom says.

“Really? Because I was thinking we could watch “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” Eddie replies, fighting not to smirk.

“Why?”

“Well, you know, weirdly-colored not-human thing living far away from civilization-” Venom playfully slaps Eddie with a tentacle, causing him to break and release the laugh he’d been holding back.

“No, we are watching Elf,” Venom insists.

“Alright, Elf it is,” Eddie says as he begins to set the television up.

- December 22nd -

The interview Eddie had set up the day prior has been going on for the past hour, and Venom is starting to get bored. So far, he has occupied himself by moving around in Eddie’s body, but he decides it’s time to see how much longer he’ll have to hide. “Eddie, how much longer?” he asks in Eddie’s mind.

Eddie glances at his watch and mutters “Twenty, max,” into his shoulder. The artist across from him raises a brow and twists their lips, so Eddie plays it off as a cough to the best of his ability. The next twenty minutes are some of the slowest in Venom’s life. But, he knows how much Eddie hates it when they interrupt him when he’s working, so he remains silent.

As they leave the coffee shop where the interview had taken place, Venom suddenly stops Eddie in his tracks. “What is that?” he asks, extending a tendril from the crook of Eddie’s neck to point at the marshmallow and whipped cream covered drink in a passing stranger’s hand.

“Oh that? That, my friend, is hot chocolate. Anne used to make it all the time when it got cold out. It never tastes as good when I make it, so I haven’t had it much lately.” Venom hums noncommittally, a melancholic feeling washing over them as Eddie reminisces about Anne. That has been happening a lot more lately, they notice. “Tell you what, V,” Eddie says. “Why don’t we walk a few blocks to the holiday market and get some before we go home?”

Shortly thereafter, two large takeaway cups of hot chocolate in hand, Eddie ducks into an alleyway, and Venom emerges from his shoulder so they can enjoy their hot chocolate together.

- December 23rd -

The sun is starting to dip below the horizon line, and Eddie is standing in front of the mirror with Venom fussing over his hair and outfit. “Venom, why do I have to look so nice, we aren’t trying to get Annie back or do anything funny, remember?” he scowls.

“Don’t pout, Eddie, we like to look good for Anne! And Dan, too! Besides, she will probably want to take pictures.” Eddie sighs and nods, letting Venom pull various items out of his closet until he has decided on an acceptable outfit. In the end, Eddie is wearing a dark red sweater under his signature leather jacket and dark designer jeans with leather boots.

“We should get going, we don’t want whatever Anne has cooked to get cold before we arrive,” Eddie says, turning away from the mirror. On the way out, Venom grabs the bottle of wine Eddie had left on the counter to take to dinner and delivers it into Eddie’s hands before disappearing back inside Eddie. “Thanks, V” Eddie smiles.

“You are welcome,” he replies.

“Come on in,” Anne greets when Eddie rings the doorbell after parking the motorcycle down the street. “You look nice,” she nods in approval.

“Thanks. Oh, this is for you,” he says, holding the wine bottle out to Anne, who accepts it and leads him into the kitchen, where Dan is adding garnish to a chicken dish. “Dan, nice to see you,” Eddie greets.

“Likewise!” Dan says and makes his way over to shake Eddie’s hand. “Is uh…are you-” he starts awkwardly.

“Yeah, Venom is here,” he says at the same time that Venom forms a floating head connected to Eddie by just a few strands of gooey material at the back of his shoulder.

“Merry Christmas, Dan! Merry Christmas, Anne!” Venom says loudly.

“Merry Christmas, Venom,” Anne replies fondly. “Dinner is ready, let’s head into the dining room,” she says and falls into step beside Dan. At the threshold of the doorway between the kitchen and the dining room, Dan and Anne pause, and Dan leans down to kiss Anne. “Mind the mistletoe,” Anne teases over her shoulder to Eddie and Venom before looking up to the plant hanging above her. Eddie laughs and shakes his head, walking under the mistletoe without pause, and Venom makes a mental note to ask Eddie about the mysterious ceiling-plant later.

- December 24th -

Venom has been more quiet than usual this morning, and Eddie notices. “Hey, V, everything alright?” he asks after Venom fails to comment on how disgusting coffee is by Eddie’s third sip.

“Yes, Eddie.”

“Are you sure? Because you are being really quiet this morning.”

“I am just thinking,” they reply.

“Well that’s dangerous,” Eddie jokes. “What are you thinking about?”

Venom hesitates before answering, “Mistletoe. Why do we not have any?”

Eddie coughs and sputters, cheeks turning rosy, and he says, “Well, mistletoe… the thing about mistletoe is that you are supposed to kiss someone if you’re standing under it together. So it works well at parties, you know, when there are a lot of people. But here, it’s just us, so it doesn’t really make any sense,” Eddie explains.

“Then why do Anne and Dan have it?”

“Because Anne and Dan have friends who come over for holiday parties,” Eddie answers quickly. He takes a breath and adds, “And because they are in a relationship.”

“If they are in a relationship, then they can kiss anytime they want. Having a plant to tell them when to kiss makes no sense!”

“I guess it doesn’t,” Eddie muses. “But it’s a fun holiday tradition,” he shrugs.

“But you did not want to kiss me under the mistletoe,” Venom points out. Eddie's cheeks go from a light pink to a deep red in just a few seconds, and Venom feels his heart rate spike.

“Well you and I are, um, we-”

“Yes, Eddie?”

“We aren’t that, we aren’t a couple, so I can’t just kiss you, especially not in front of my ex-fiancee and her new fiancee!”

“What about when we are here?” Venom pushes.

“Venom, I don’t want to kiss you, okay! Sometimes, I don’t even want to talk to you! Just shut up about it!” Eddie snaps, and Venom stills beside him. Without a word, Venom dissolves against his skin and settles silently inside him.

Eddie regrets yelling at Venom almost instantly, but he knows that if he says something, he’ll have to explain, and he isn’t ready for that. How can he tell Venom that for a while now, but during the past month especially, he has felt differently towards them? That Venom’s enthusiasm to decorate the Christmas tree not only gave him hope that the holidays wouldn’t be lonely this year, even though Annie isn’t here, but also made him think that they could even be better? That the sight of Venom licking the last dregs of hot chocolate mix out of a cup made him think about that tongue in completely inappropriate ways? He couldn’t.

Eddie and Venom don’t speak for the rest of the day. Eddie just hopes things will be okay in the morning.

- December 25th -

Eddie is pleased to wake up on Christmas morning to the smell of coffee next to him, and he is even happier to see that it’s just after 9:00 in the morning. He smiles, ready to thank Venom, when he pauses. Venom didn’t wake him up this morning. He looks around the apartment quickly, as though that would give him some kind of reassurance that Venom hasn’t left, when he finds the note:

Dear Eddie,

Merry Christmas. I did not know what to get you, but last night you helped me figure out the perfect gift: you have a whole day to yourself, where you will not have to hear me think or talk.

- Venom

Eddie sets the note down and stands in shock for a moment. Did Venom mean he’d left Eddie’s body and would be back, or was he still there, just silent and still? And if he’d left, where would he go? Would he be okay? Eddie is starting to freak out at this point and gets dressed and brushes his teeth and rushes out the door, turning to stuff the note in his pocket at the last moment.

Unthinking, he speeds towards Anne’s house and once he’s there, he’s knocking frantically. She opens the door, and he shoves past her, looking around before turning to her. “Have you seen Venom?” he asks.

“What?”

“Have you seen Venom!” he repeats as he takes the crumpled note out of his pocket and shoves it into her hands forcefully. “Look,” he says, unable to resist reading the words once again. She doesn’t answer right away, taking time to read the note.

Then she looks up, shoulders slumped downward, and asks “What did you do?”

“I yelled at them,” Eddie admits quietly, shame heating his face. “I don’t know, I freaked out, and I just–I’ve yelled at him before, maybe he finally had too much.”

“Hold on, don’t freak out,” Anne says, pacing a few steps back and forth.

“I’m already freaked out!” Eddie snaps back.

“Okay, well what did you and Venom argue about?” Anne asks. “Maybe that will help us figure out how to get him to come out.”

“That’s if he’s still here in the first place!”

“They are, I can tell,” Anne says, eyeing Eddie.

“How? I can’t tell and it’s my body!” Eddie replies, patting himself down and turning around in a circle to look over his shoulder in search of Venom.

“I just can, but that’s not important,” she sighs. “Now stop moving around and tell me what you two were arguing about.”

Eddie stills, hesitating before he speaks. “Mistletoe.”

That stops Anne in her tracks. “Mistletoe?”

“Yeah. V had all these questions and he was confused and I think maybe I offended him or something…” he trails off.

“And?” Anne prompts.

“And what?”

“I know you, so I know there’s more you’re not saying. Out with it, now.”

Eddie runs his hands down his face and takes a deep breath. “I said that I don’t want to kiss him… and that sometimes I don’t even want to talk to him.”

“Oh, Eddie,” Anne says, deflating. “You’re such an idiot.”

“Hey! Wait, what?” he asks, dropping his hands. Anne pinches the bridge of her nose and leads Eddie over to the couch and takes a seat beside him.

“You know Venom has been looking out for you for a while, right?”

“Yeah, but I don’t see where you’re going with this,” Eddie says, furrowing his eyebrows.

“Then why would you tell him you don’t want to kiss him?” Annie accuses.

“Wh-because I don’t!” Eddie replies too fast and crosses his arms over his chest.

“You do. I’ve noticed things between you two are different, and that’s okay! And you can’t seriously expect me to believe you’d rather not talk to him,” Anne adds.

All of a sudden, Eddie’s defenses drop. “Yeah, you’re right. It has only been last night and this morning, but… I miss him,” he says. “I’m scared, Annie,” he whispers. “What if he left last night and something happened and I can’t do anything?” he confesses, unshed tears making his eyes glassy.

“He didn’t leave, I already told you. Now, I have an idea, okay?” Anne says and rests a hand on Eddie’s shoulder.

“You’re not going to throw a knife at me or something, right?” Eddie asks, trying to lighten the mood, but the joke falls flat.

“No,” Anne smiles sadly. “Now walk over there,” she points to the mistletoe, “and talk to him. Be honest. I’ll be upstairs; I’m going to take Dan some coffee,” she says, rising and exiting the room. I hope this works, Eddie thinks to himself before striding over to the doorway and standing under the mistletoe.

“Alright, V. I hope you’re in there and that you’re listening,” he breathes out shakily. “I’m sorry for yelling at you and for the things I said. They aren’t true. The truth is that–okay, I really hope you’re listening because this is going to be really embarrassing otherwise–I really want to kiss you under the mistletoe. And not under the mistletoe. I just want to kiss you, I have for a while now, I think. And I like that we can talk all the time, even if I shouldn’t be talking to you at a certain time, like at work or something, because I still want to. And I was, I am, nervous because well, I’ve never wanted to kiss–and maybe do some other stuff,” he adds, blushing, “with an alien that lives in my body, so it’s all a little unprecedented, so if you’re in there listening, can you please come out right now so I can kiss you under this stupid plant?”

For a moment, nothing happens, and Eddie doesn’t know what to do. He didn’t realize he’d started crying until now, and he wipes his cheek dry only for it to be licked by what is unmistakably Venom’s tongue. Eddie looks up and finds himself pressed against the thin edge of the doorway and Venom’s hulking black figure leaning over him. Eddie searches his opal eyes for something he can’t quite name before thinking fuck it and standing up on his tiptoes to pull Venom in for a kiss. When he finally pulls back, he meets Venom’s toothy smile with one of his own and says “Merry Christmas, V.”

“Merry Christmas, Eddie,” Venom answers. “Can we do that again?”

“I’d love to,” Eddie smiles, laughing as Venom reaches up and rips the mistletoe down.

“It is in the way, I do not like the feeling of it on the back of my head,” they explain. They both lean in for another kiss only to be interrupted by Anne, who is standing just a few feet away next to Dan, clearing her throat. Eddie groans at the mirthful glimmer in Anne’s eyes, knowing he’s about to regret ever coming here.

“I’m glad you two figured things out,” Dan starts diplomatically, only to be interrupted by Anne.

“Me too,” Anne says with a smirk. “But why don’t you both go home; we can meet up tonight for dinner, okay?” Eddie nods and Venom morphs into his floating head form.

“That would be very nice, thank you, Anne!” he says.

“No problem, big guy,” she says, winking. “See you later. Merry Christmas!”

“Merry Christmas!” Eddie and Venom say in unison, leaving quickly, eager to continue where they left off. Eddie decides he can worry about Anne’s teasing later; for now, he just wants to enjoy the day with Venom.

#symbrock #veddie #eddie brock #venom #eddie x venom #dauntless-gothamite #dauntless gothamite #motherfxking-flannel #motherfxking flannel #holiday imagine #marvel #sonyverse #christmas fic #oneshot

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badguysgalore · 7 months

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My Two Cents on the Joker: My Love/Hate relationship with the Clown Prince of Crime

I think something we tend to forget in fandom is that you can like or dislike a character without liking or disliking everything about them. Before anything else said, I want to make this clear as crystal. This is my opinion. I am not saying it is right or that you have to agree. No one has to agree with me. All I ask is that you hear me out, acknowledge my opinion, and if you don't like it, agree to disagree. I fully respect the opinions of those who dislike/hate this character. Okay, let's talk about this frikkin' clown.

It is absolutely no surprise, to me or to anyone, that a lot of people LOATHE the Joker. And with good reason. He is a monster. In nearly every continuity he's in, he's done terrible things. He killed Jason Todd, paralyzed Barbara Gordon, abused and manipulated Harley, tormented and experimented on Tim Drake, turned Superman into a dictator, the list goes on. I understand why people hate him. Their reasons are valid, especially if they relate to his victims.

I myself have a love/hate relationship with the Joker.

Here's what I love about the Joker:

I love that he's Batman's opposite, a bright, loud, colorful clown.

I love that when written right, he can be scary AND funny.

I love his overall classic design. Purple suit, bow-tie, green hair, red lips, etc.

I love that he's deadly, as any Batman villain ought to be.

I love his genius-level intellect. Though, arguably, all the great Batman villains have that.

I love his weapons. Joker venom, acid-squirting flowers, ninja-star playing cards, etc.

I love the whole "Joker card as a calling card" shtick. To me, that never gets old.

I love how ruthless he is. Some of the best villains are ruthless.

I love his whole "agent of chaos" shtick.

I love the idea that he's a deadly maniac hiding behind the humorous image of a clown.

I love the fact that he's anti-nazi. Good to see he has some sort of standards, at least in one or two continuities.

I love his obsession with Batman and their rivalry.

Now here's what I hate about the Joker.

I hate that he has zero respect for anyone other than himself, or even if he does respect them, it's only as a means to an end. At the very least, he ought to have more respect for his allies.

I hate how he serves as a bad representation of mental health. I will not sugarcoat it or give it a pass. I have my own share of mental illnesses, so him serving as an example of the mentally ill? Terrible.

I hate the whole "Life's a Joke and only I know the punchline" shtick.

I hate the way he treated Harley. It was wrong then and it's wrong now. There's no hiding it, or excusing it.

I hate the growing amount of "edginess" the character has been given. He's a clown villain. At least half of his crimes should be nonsensical fun.

I hate how he treats the younger members of the Bat-Family. I know they're his enemies, but still.

I will never condone the Joker's actions, nor the actions of any villain. And again, I fully understand and acknowledge that my enjoyment of the Joker as a villain is unpopular. But I feel like I should be honest. At the end of the day, the Joker is one of my favorite villains. Do I like everything about him? No. But I don't have to.

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tamelee · 2 years

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Oh, Tame, Tame, i saw first (colored) page of that h….

It is harder than I thought it will be. They try to repeat Kishi style in the best way they could, they put E(I don’t remember her name properly) in the same place in the note “author “ right after Kishi, make them equal somehow. You know, even sns fans who try to find some sns-ish moment on this panels make it even worse because they know it will be ss related and ss fans know it’s their territory and now they’re like bosses in comments like they know this time they’re right… it was physically painful to see this, and since it will be manga it will last for a long time. And even if I’m far away from fandom (twitter and insta), those things will catch me anyway. I know, it’s hard time overall ( to me), so many things happening in the world and I shouldn’t even pay attention to such little thing, I knew this manga will came, but still… I just don’t want to go through the same thing i was into during gaiden and 700 again, why didn’t I learn anything since that time?

Sorry for that, I just wanted to push it away

I feel your pain (๑•̀ᗝ•́)૭!!!

Even worse.. They place her name after Kishimoto’s behind “Original Story by:” as if Kishimoto is the one who wrote it and Esaka just helped him with it or something.

Well.. they did that on the original cover too. But that’s not even true. This story, this SS-fantasy fanfic Wattpad self-insert is only from Esaka. She said so herself:

“My story.”

“Original story” can mean many things. It can also mean ‘Naruto’. That’s a great loophole because the tweet isn’t tied to legal matters, but the cover is. Which then in this case it’s the best marketing strategy. Make people believe Kishimoto actually wrote this shit so it looks Canon? Make his Twitter account that isn’t actually his Twitter account tweet about it excitedly? Genius. I’ll give em that.

But then.. just treat the damn thing for what it is, right? A fanfic.

Yet SNS-fans are fueling SS-shippers by fighting them... why?

How is Naruto clutching his chest in pain and staggering his feet forward to Sasuke begging him to wait and not leave the village.. romantic?????? How is Sasuke ignoring Naruto’s pleas and this copy of Sasuke and Sakura’s scene where he left her on a bench- but worse, a SNS-moment? Of course SS-shippers are mocking that. Saying “Naruto wants to be Sakura so bad 🤡” It hurts, but I can’t even blame them. It is actively MOCKING SNS. THAT IS THE WHOLE GODDAMN POINT. Esaka wrote many moments mocking Naruto in that stupid novel. This won’t be the last time this happens- are they going to try and defend every single thing? Are they going to depict every original SNS-moment that Esaka gave to SS and tweet “they wanna be SNS so bad 🤡” because that would be a full day’s worth of work I can tell you that. You can start with the cover.

I do have to say that the adaptation is infinitely better story-wise than the novel. Prisoners for example had no reason to hate Sasuke and I already talked about this before. I said something along the lines of them needed to start a fight or something and they did. Also them needing to leave out the sob-story of the first prisoner and they did. All the critique I had in the first bit from the novel they fixed. So story-wise at least they agree with me that Esaka can’t write.

At least that’s a win lmao.

But you know what is most funny about it? Their ship gets a novel revolved around them.. or two actually even aside from the “official” marketing bs that already existed. A whole-ass Manga-adaptation and an official English translation for said novel on the way.. and what do they do? Enjoy it? Nah. They immediately run to Twitter to start make fun of SNS.

Now can anyone tell me why that is 💀

Could it be that they feel like they need to prove something? Could it be that the need to make Naruto or SNS look inferior in that moment is more important? Why would that be?!

😂.

To me that says a whole lot. And even though, yes, that fanfic might be their territory.. it’s still SNS-month 😎 The month is ours 🎉🫶🏻

#asktamelee #snow124-art #ooooohohhohOOHOHohOOOHhh #it is a wrong month to release that #lets not be discouraged!#( ๑‾̀◡‾́)✨#muwhaha #we'll see how it plays out ;-;#I think it's best to just treat it for what it is #a fanfic #but the fighting on Twitter???#wow #woooooooooow

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beevean · 1 year

Note

It's funny because BotW (i know obvious comaprsion) actually HAS not one but two ancent civilizations who left behind ruins.

The first one are the ancient Sheikah, they've been a stable of the series. BUT there's also the Zonai, who are newer and are set to feature heavily I assume in Tears of the Kingdom.

Moe importantly, BotW isn't set in a dead setting. You can give me all the "oh but it's on purpose fo the setting" it's still a fundamental mistake. Because BotW takes place in a recent post apocalypse (of the many in the setting) and there's still pockets of people living.

Hell while I don't quite agree on all of the parts to her approach, I love that @aquillis-main introduced a like, Chao evolution population n the island that ties in what happens when you released a Chao in older games AND the alleged tie between Chao and the Ancients. You know, you're gonna just mention that and then have no Chao anywhere. Interesting decision.

I feel as if the focus for Frontiers was the gameplay really. The gameplay is quite fun - not sure if it is worth the price for its release but there's a big amount of fun just, moving around as Sonic and seeing where you can get to. The actual story? Basically excuse plot. Not helped by three threads of the story not even being tied intoeach other and they only interact with Sonic - made worse because they can travel between islands but no, just stick Amy and Kncukles on their dumb islands.

(also frontiers is built off of Forces and presumably the last few games, you can really tell in the 2d parts but most of the western fandom probably doesn't want to accept that yet lol)

I agree. The setting isn't very interesting either. The Kocos are very cute, but that's about it. Characters just... sit around and ask themselves questions about the ruins, but rarely do they get answers. And good point about the Chao lol, you'd think they'd bring back such a beloved part of the franchise.

You're right about the excuse plot. And on its own, it wouldn't be a problem, how many games have excuse plots? Most of the 2D games, Heroes, Generations, even Colors' plot was praised at the time for being very simple. But those games aren't really seen as being a return to form. They aren't seen as having the best writing of all time. Frontiers is basically a far more pretentious, somber Generations. And I didn't even mention how their subplots barely make sense: oh, Amy wants to share her love around the world? Amy? The character who is literally defined by being such a gentle soul that she turns characters around? That Amy? Needs to learn a lesson about sharing her love? After watching two Kocos die?

bruh.

#sonic the hedgehog #i'm sure the game is fun to play #i can't judge obviously #but the story drives me mad #it's a typical case of a game being rushed to death but unlike '06 and forces it literally gets treated as the best story in the franchise #why

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plutonify · 1 year

Text

My Ninjago Seasons Tier Lists

EXTREMELY GOOD

Secrets of Forbidden Spinjitzu Pt 2

Prime Empire, PRIME EMPIRE, PRIME EMPIRE. Just everything about this story is so so good. The way they showed the characters dynamics, my sweet baby boy Jay getting to live the celebrity lifestyle like his parents. The humor, the designs, the colors! I LOVE THIS SEASON.

Sons of Garmadon

There isn’t much to say about this season that hasn’t already been said. There’s a reason why this season is so loved by fandom. This season is filled with drama, and it’s so good! Harumi is an amazing character, and while I dislike how Ninjago keeps introducing new characters, she’s an exception(along with Pixal). THIS IS SUCH A GOOD SEASON!

Tournament of Elements

I know I just mentioned how I don’t like how they keep introducing characters, but this season does a good job at introducing characters without actually introducing characters. It’s such an interesting concept, this idea of all of the elements going up against each other and in a tournament none the less. Mmm tasty. I keep rewatching this season, it’s so captivating, there’s so much drama!

GOOD

Hands of Time

I really like Hands of Time. This season introduces a lot of interesting concepts, most of which are very hard to do and risky. Like time traveling, betrayal, and twists. This season does it all and I’d argue that they do it well(well somewhat). WE GOT MORE WU AND GARMADON AND PREVIOUS ELEMENTAL MASTERS, just a lot of stuff that was wished for but not expected.

Possession

HERE IT IS, THE ONE WE ALL KNOW AND LOVE, MORRO! I personally am not a fan of paranormal concepts but Ninjago does it so well and make it so interesting! I love flawed characters like Morro. Also, ghost Cole is so good, people might not agree with me on this but ghost Cole is one of the best things they’ve done in the entire show.

ISLANDS/SEABOUND

Tears, sobbing, crying. This season is an emotional roller coastal, first it makes you laugh, then terrified, and then sobbing on the floor. But I love it for that, it makes me feel, exactly what I want a show to do. I find the writing this season to be some of Ninjago’s best, especially the way they built up Jaya and Nya’s fate.

HUNTED

This season is pretty meh for me, most of it is forgettable, the only reason why it’s not in the bottom row is because it’s really funny. Tons of comedic moments this season, thus I have some joy I can attribute to it.

RISE OF THE SERPENTINE

This was a typical first season. It did everything that a first attempt did but it was still somewhat enjoyable. Most of my gripes with this season came from the beginning. I’m REALLY not a fan of the first half of this season. The second half is okay. This season is tolerable.

BAD

SKYBOUND

I actually like Skybound. I find it more watchable then the first season, but while I find it watchable, there are some some really bad writing choices. Biggest flaw being the pacing. I also have a bias towards Jay and most of what I enjoy about this season was the potential it had, not what actually happened. So if I take away my “bias and potential goggles”, we have a not great season, thus it’s low ranking.

EXTREMELY BAD

CRYSTALLIZED

Awful, just awful. This season does not install joy in me. While I love that they brought Nya back, I can’t ignore the fact that she should’ve stayed dead and they didn’t do a good job at reviving her. This entire two part season did all of the characters bad, absolutely ruined them. I hate you Crystallized.

SECRETS OF FORBIDDEN SPIJITZU PT 1

Just as bad as Crystallized. Tons of wasted potential(haha). While Skybound was too fast, this season is too slow, this season is awful, I hate it. It’s funny how bad part one is compared to its second part.

#here’s a tier list!#this was tedious #but I find this to be the best way to write down my opinions and feelings #y’all don’t want to know how long that Voltron post took to make #gonna make more tier lists for different shows #ninjago #tier list #plutopinions

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pageofheartdj · 9 months

Note

Hi! Autistic aroace anon from before! I saw your post abt ace Donnie and aro Leo (which btw, I LOVE how their colors are basically their flags? But in Leo’s case it’s his green tone)

And I totally agree!! Donnie seems to have somewhat interest in romance, like the innuendo at the Bearnardo “why I always like the cute and mean ones” and with Atomic Lass. But a teen flirty normal level (thank god, I also agree with you at the “pls they dont care yet, its hormones. Pls focus family and friends), than to actually have smth not rlly, and the arosexual part? I may be projecting a lil here. But he always seemed more interested in the flirt part than anything else.

With Leo, he liked to flirt, but more to charm the person to gain their favor than actually flirt, like in Donnie’s case. He always seemed averse, but not against it, just “yuck”. I felt that was also a normal teen reaction like “I don’t wanna get strings attached” but with smth more, a “yeah, rlly not for me” thing. I can totally see him being gray/demi aro (again projecting? I’m gray/demi aroace), since with some stuff he seems fine but with others, more exaggerated or “honeyed” ones, he gets uncomfortable. But I could understand if ppl put him on sex-repulsed full Aro in the spectrum.

It’s totally wild and funny to me how the fandom is rlly 8/80. The dynamics of both of them being switched in the fandom to fit the box idea that they created for these two is wild to me. “Oh, Donnie’s autistic and 10% of the time, specially in stressful situations, he doesn’t want to be touched? And also a genius nerd? Nah, he’s a goofy goober which the idea of relationships is totally alien and foreign to him, he totally runs from it and has 0 experience of it”. “Oh, Leo’s has narcissistic tendencies and flirted to gain favors before in specific and numbered occasions? He’s totally a flirt, believing everyone wants to date him and he’s a heartbreaker, he totally loves that attention, not uncomfortable at all”

So yeah, sorry for my lil rant, but I rlly do feel whatchu said in that post a whole lot!!

Speaking of colors, he is blue and wore that orange uniform in Air Turtles so yaknow XD

The thing is, the turtles are teens, PLUS they lived an isolated way of life. They had NO way of acting on their interests no matter if they had or didn't have any.

And also. Attraction and relationships are not connected whatsoever! They can. But they don't have to! So the allo person might not want any relationships and aspec person can want and be in one. The relationship status says NOTHING of their identity xD

And moving on to Donnie. He has crushes on fictional character and makes sense, again, no people around. But he also used this his type on Strawberry who are very real and in the moment and is very cute and is very mean to him xD Donnie has a type with real girls too. What he wants to do with this attraction and if he has any sexual attraction is unknown and obviously, it's a kid's cartoon and romance is basically a non-existant part of it(thank god xD). And anyone can hc almost any queer and not queer identity on him, because all of them can and will work xD

Same with Leo, we have some canon moments with him, but it can work for so many queer identities. He is aro as a very direct conclusion. He is grey or demi and his repulsiveness tones down if he falls for someone, etc xD He can also be just a teen who is not into romance but now it extra disgusts him. Anything can work and as long as we are not forcing our hcs on others, it's all good xD

I also hc Donnie a quick developer, he had his plastron developed first, he instalearned his mystics. He could get into the whole romance territory earlier than Leo too xD Leo might not be that enthusiastic the way Donnie is, but still!

Although Mikey doesn't seem to mind and Raph is a big supporter as a comparison xD

And yeeeeeeah I am not a fan(although I can VERY much understand) of latching on this one trait, no matter if it's a rare one or not, and making it the whole personality. Donnie is autistic and very rarely is not 100% excited for a touch? He is touch repulsed autistic. He has canon romantic interests? Nah he is aroace. (Which I LOVE aroace hcs. But I've noticed that in fandoms aroace hcs 99% mean NO romance and NO sex NEVER, even though aspec has SO much variation). With Leo he has these few sad moments and BOOM he is a 100% 24/7 sad boy that was born depressed and all that. Despite the fact that he is very joyful and very confident and very cocky most of the time. YES he copes with jokes, this doesn't mean ALL his jokes are just cover ups. Donnie's copes with collecting data, doesn't mean he doesn't do it on regular just cause he likes it. HECK both of them tend to cope with the thing they like, so they would feel better. Donnie likes data collecting so he copes with it. Leo likes joking so he copes with it.

I love your rants🤝

#rottmnt #rottmnt donnie #rottmnt leo #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rise leo #rise donnie

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ghcstvalleychief · 2 years

Note

people hate to hear the truth but BL is made to fetishize m/m relationships, they know lgbtq money is huge and hetero girls will also be all over them. It's funny seeing people so defensive explaining why "not all" are like that but the whole genre is homophobic. For one, they use sexual violence or lack of consent in at least 90% of the series. The companies are pretty homophobic and RACIST, count how many openly gay men and dark skin color main characters are there. Most of the fans don't care about plot, about acting, about chmistry either, they only care about two boys kissing. Tharntype will be my first example, the series lacked of plot continuity nor sense whatsoever, first episode had a rape scene that was romantized, the acting was basic at most and with some was lame yet was one of the most popular series until this day. Now moving forward KinnPorsche, I'll move from the rape ship that is the obvious one to the young ship. People were pretty upset about one of the actors being underage (when the kid is a really good actor anx their scenes were cleaned from NC) because they could not sexualize them comfortably. Some fans even saying that for season 2 the minor actor would be legal it's beyond gross. Fact is, they try to put like we shouldn't bring morals to series, is just fiction but how can you be a supporter of rape and think you have any right to judge anyone. Like I said, BL is an illness in the entertaiment industry and heteros have no right into saying shit because most of them only care about a ship and two boys kissing.

I didn't know what Tharntype was initially until I kept seeing people mention it. So naturally, I was curious about what it was. I watched it and I couldn't get past the 3rd episode. I was confused because I was trying to figure out why this was such a huge thing in this fandom. The more research I did, the more I realized how some of the scenes that happened in TT were commonplace in this genre. I was shocked because I saw something similar to the scene you mentioned from TT but in a completely different show shortly after.

I remember visiting the BL subreddit because I was curious to know what the fandom was like and there were so many posts on that subreddit about how "it's okay for us to ship what we want and we shouldn't be made to feel gross for enjoying rape/non consent scenes." Like, I saw a post in that subreddit about that and I immediately left. What was even worse is how many people responded to and agreed with the post. People can be in denial about it all they want, but there are far more people who have some rather interesting thoughts surrounding all of this. And they are vocal about it. I know there is one actor in particular who's been very vocal recently about the fact that he's straight in real life. We all know who I'm talking about, and I just wonder how many of them are like him.

These actors won't admit to it because the industry is built on this fanservice thing where they have to sell the illusion that these actors are gay but they're most likely straight. They don't want actual out and proud gay men; they just want straight men who can pretend to be gay because that's what sells. I won't completely blame these actors because I know they probably have managers telling them to refrain from confirming or denying anything because of the industry expectation. But I will blame the actors who are straight up homophobic choosing to do this because they're only here for the clout and the money.

The thing about KC is that I never thought it should have existed in this show to begin with. The mere idea of a romance with that couple always made me feel uneasy because Barcode looks like a literal child. He is extremely young and he looks it. I was never going to be receptive to the idea of it and I wasn't. I needed Chay to be played by someone older because it would have me feel less icky but not by much.

#anonymous #answered asks

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cherrykindness · 3 years

Text

let's make babies |

pairing: Harry Styles x Actress!Reader

summary: you and harry are doing a live on instagram, you've drunk a lot of wine and now the world knows that the future Mrs. Styles is ready to make babies.

warnings: mostly cute, but the title tells you what you need to know 🤪

"What is your favorite song from the Fine Line album?" Y/N read aloud, twirling in her right hand the second glass of wine of the evening, the one already halfway through. "Adore You and Watermelon Sugar, of course."

Harry giggled, rolling his eyes upon hearing his fiancée's statement.

"Y/N will always choose Adore You because it was obviously written for her." He accused. "She wouldn't give that answer under different circumstances."

The comments climbed up the screen continuously, most fans gushing about how cute Harry Styles and YN/LN could be while the other part was concerned with wringing even more information out of the slightly inebriated couple who had decided to do a surprise live one early Sunday morning.

As expected after being away for some time to begin filming Don't Worry, Darling in Southern California, Harry enjoyed a lazy weekend in the house he shared with his fiancée and her pets. The days were filled with late naps and relentless Netflix marathons, sublime and ethereal evenings, marked mostly by unexpected declarations and rounds of sex that used to last until the beams of light were shyly coming through the linen curtains. They were not a monotonous couple, so this order could easily be changed.

"Watermelon Sugar is nothing more than about my love for watermelons, don't get too creative." Harry replied to a fan while sporting a corner smile, the message standing out among the rest for its dozens of emojis and large print, questioning the singer about erotic content behind the lyrics of his latest hit. "I really don't know what you guys are talking about."

Y/N laughed, shaking her head before leaning it against her fiancé's chest, propped up on the soft white pillows that were spread practically all over the bed. The air conditioner was on at a minimal temperature and a light rain whipped on the panes of glass camouflaged by the cream-colored curtain, that being the projection of Y/N's favorite nights.

"You can tell them, I'm not shy." She joked, nudging her fiancé's waist.

"You know what it was written about and who it was written for." Harry replied, raising one of his eyebrows. "That's what matters."

It went without saying that much of Harry's newest album, as well as some of his earlier work, had been done in exclusive dedication to his future wife. Y/N had been the muse for a vast repertoire of romantic songs, and even though the singer preferred to keep the story behind his more explicit compositions a "secret", the relationship the two had shared for more than three years was already solid and known enough for the media and fans to distinguish hidden messages in small details.

"It's a song about what usually comes before the act of making babies." Y/N laughed as he pointed at the display. "Honestly, you guys are impossible."

"No, we make babies every day." Harry joked, making a funny motion with his eyebrows. "I would spend my entire career writing just about that."

"Harry!" The actress exclaimed incredulously, slapping her fiancé weakly on the chest. "Children might be watching this."

"You don't want to have babies with me?" He asked falsely offended, accepting the cup that Y/N offered him. "Because I want some babies with you."

Y/N laughed, rolling her eyes as she watched the internet freak out at the dialogue that had suddenly emerged. Since the beginning of the quarantine, it was kind of inevitable that the couple of artists would not become the darlings of all social media; they were fervently active with photos, videos, and lives that depicted step by step daily life in isolation, gaining more and more followers and making the media more and more fascinated by the relationship they both shared.

The wedding was scheduled for the summer of next year and it was perhaps the most anticipated event in the tabloids. Bets about what the model of Y/N's dress would be and lists presuming who would be selected for the short list of guests stood out among countless news stories about the famous people influencing pop culture today.

The possible arrival of a Styles baby was an inevitable topic in interviews. Harry and Niall were the only members of the ex-boyband that had not become fathers yet, and because they had maintained a solid relationship and were seen as one of the most enviable couples during the last four years, Y/N and Harry had gotten used to all this openly asked questions. They didn't mind, they even had fun with the montages and all the anxiety that dominated the whole internet, often mentioning the fandoms' efforts to represent them as such "cool" parents in perfectly edited pictures.

"No, guys, I'm not pregnant." Y/N amusingly clarified the doubt of dozens of new comments. "Please don't believe so many controversial news stories that appear out there. I was on twitter last week and saw several people theorizing about a possible pregnancy, most of the arguments based on a website that used photos from the set of How to Get Away with Murder in the season where I was actually playing a pregnant woman as Laurel." She laughed. "It's so funny! I know you guys love to guess these things, but we won't hide something so special when it actually happen, I promise."

"Especially because Y/N can hide absolutely nothing from anyone." Harry accused, leaving his drink on the corner table before settling into a comfortable position for the two of them. "Anyone who's a Marvel fan knows that. That's one of her most characteristic quirks."

"They gave me a fake script for the last two movies." Y/N agreed, shaking his head. "For me and Tom."

"We agreed to keep the engagement a secret for a while. The plan was to travel to Holmes Chapel to break the news to my family in person, but guess who got a call at ten o'clock at night from an angry Anne because she learned of her son's engagement from an interview Y/N gave the next day?"

Y/N gave a guilty smile, winking gracefully at the camera. "It was all James' fault! I'm sure he already suspected something, those questions were very suspicious."

"Of course the questions were suspicious, babe. You literally said you had a secret that involved both of us but that you couldn't tell because it was important that our families knew first."

"I thought he would think about a pregnancy or something!" The actress defended herself, feeling very convincing in her intonation bordering on obviousness. "That's a mania I can't get rid of, it's in my genes."

"Did you all hear that? Further proof that you guys don't have to worry about guessing when Y/N's pregnancy will be, I'm sure our baby will make sure to tell you everything while still in the womb, mom's genes will make sure of that."

"You are so funny, Harry Styles." Y/N sarcastically stated, holding back a giggle as countless messages with laughing emojis were frantically up. "Yeah, I know I talk a lot and all, but you have annoying quirks too."

It was obvious that live would be news the next day. Although they were completely open about matters concerning their relationship, nothing seemed better than receiving so much exclusive information from a Harry and S/N drunk on expensive wine.

"You wake up in a bad mood and you're dangerously sexy, that should be illegal."

Harry laughed, holding his fiancée's waist a little tighter as he felt her tumble a little further to the side, getting closer and closer to the edge of the bed. Y/N was dangerously weak for drinks, and the singer knew that the actress' body was already near its limit.

"You're the only sexy person here, love." He declared with a corner smile, evidently finding the whole situation funny. "Do you want to go to sleep now?"

"No." Y/N shook her head. "Can we watch some movie? Can we watch Sweet Home?"

"Of course, love." He murmured, giving the woman a quick kiss on the forehead.

Even though Harry knew that his fiancée was unlikely to make it past the five-minute mark of the episode, he made sure to restart the korean series at exactly the scene where she had stopped, the first chapter still halfway through after Y/N realized that it would be impossible to watch such a macabre work without a drop of alcohol in her blood.

She had been so excited by the taste of Argentinian wine and the idea of updating her fans after a few weeks away, that she had forgotten the main purpose of the live. Harry and Y/N had been apart for a few days due to the new movie the Brit was shooting in North America, all happening in an unrestrictedly careful manner due to the restrictions caused by the pandemic.

He was slowly migrating towards acting and the future Mrs. Styles couldn't be prouder. Y/N had felt on cloud nine when Harry had given her the news of his upcoming job, but her only pronouncement on the subject had been a succinct post on instagram. Just a photo of the couple on a trip to Germany with a simple heart emoji didn't seem enough for the actress' exhibitionist soul, and coming to that conclusion was the main reason she decided to invite him, already relatively changed, for a live appearance. Y/N wanted to go on and on about how much she loved that man and work on that whole honeyed speech that would bring her (once again) the title of "cutest bride of all time," but of course Harry had to come home from his trip with his favorite red wine and poison her with those sweet caresses that took her out of orbit, turning the degree of alcohol content into the least of her problems.

"You're going to kiss Florence." Y/N exclaimed suddenly, as if only now realizing that her fiancé would share the screen with Florence Pugh, one of her closest friends in that industry. "Kiss on the mouth."

The MacBook was still open and hundreds of new comments were going up every second, but Harry didn't bother one bit to warn her about the possibility of her becoming a meme the next day. He was having too much fun with the situation to worry.

"Are you jealous?"

"Yes." She stated with a pout. "I am jealous, I just don't know if I'm more jealous of her or of you."

"But you kiss me every day, babe." Harry laughed. "And you've been kissing other people's men for almost ten years." He joked.

"But I only think about you, I already told you that."

Harry shook his head negatively at the camera, knowing he was sharing with the fans the funniest side of his fiancée.

"I know that, honey." He assured, lightly stroking the actress' back. "I think we'd better turn off the TV and go to sleep now, I'm sure you'll have a terrible headache tomorrow."

The brit planned to bid his audience goodbye and put an end to that recording, but Y/N was drunk and her sense of right and wrong had already gone to space. Harry should have been quicker, however, because his fiancée's speech would be cause for new tags and the only subject for the interviewers for at least the next few months.

"I don't want to sleep, how about we make babies?"

That's what Watermelon Sugar was all about, after all.

#harry styles imagine #imagine1d #imagine harry styles #harry x reader #harry styles x reader #fluffy imagine #harry fluff #actress reader

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imagine-being-straight · 4 years

Text

A Message to the TOH Fandom

I’m tired.

I feel like everyone in the fandom can agree that the TOH fandom overall has white favoritism. If you actively deny that we have a problem with white favoritism or are offended that I said this, look at yourself and other people who have been talking about this issue. Really look at yourself and ask why you are offended by what I said. Now back to the TOH fandom’s problem with white favoritism. It’s a huge problem and I don’t think people have realized how bad it’s gotten.

Luz and Amity

Do both of them have amazing content created about them? Yes, but if you look a bit closer to the contents of their contents you’ll see a clear disparity between the two. Luz is more likely to be in Lumity art (which itself isn't a problem), but the problem lies in that she is only there for Amity. Is there still content with her alone and highlighting her character? Of course there is, but for every content that exists for Luz solely, there are at least two others for Amity. Don’t get me wrong I love Amity as much as the next person, but she still is a side character. The Owl House focuses on Eda, King, and Luz mainly. They are the main characters.

When I first joined the TOH fandom, I noticed a lot of Amity focused content. A lot more so than I expected since she is a side character. I understand that a factor in her popularity is her crush on Luz and we’re all really excited for confirmed gay characters, but it doesn’t explain how popular she is. She appears in roughly half of season one’s episodes (I know she technically appears in 11 episodes, but some of her appearances are so minor you can easily forget they happened) compared to Luz being in all 18 episodes. Yes Luz isn’t always the focus of these episodes, but she still changes and develops as a character through most of them.

The reason I’m bringing all of this up is that Amity is white and Luz is a POC. Characters of color in the past have been overlooked and underappreciated in the past, not just in this fandom, but it still happens a lot here. Whether it’s conscious or not, we all have been affected by white favoritism and it is our responsibility to recognize it and change. The Owl House brings more than just gay representation: it brings an Afro-Latina Bisexual protaganist with two major side characters, Willow and Gus, being a mixed Asian-Black character and a Black character. You still think I’m full of shit saying there’s white favoritism in the TOH fandom? Well I’m just getting started here.

Willow, Gus, and Boscha

Boscha herself is an interesting character and I think people see a lot of potential for her character, but the problem is that she overshadows a lot of other characters who are much more important and relevant. Willow is a good example of someone who has been constantly overshadowed by Boscha. Most content I see of Willow is usually Boschlow content (I’m not approving or condemning Boschlow here, this is me just stating some facts) and it’s so unfair to Willow as a character. Willow is more than just Luz’s friend or a quiet girl and more people need to realize that. If you can analyze Boscha’s character in the three episodes she is in, you can do the same thing to Willow, who has been in 14 episodes (three more than Amity). There is no excuse for the lack of Willow content and the abundance of Boscha content.

The same thing can be applied to Gus. Sure he doesn’t get very much screen time, but it is still loads more than Boscha. I have seen barely any content about Gus and the few times I do, he is usually with a group and not alone. No one talks about him and I cannot express how underrated he truly is. If you want some funny content with him, play around with his interest in humans and how he has totally misinterpreted things we know as facts. If you want Gus angst, then write about how young he is and how he could be feeling inadequate despite being smart enough to skip two grades. Amity is seen by the fandom as a whole as being extremely smart, but the fact that Gus skipped two grades, a feat Amity has not done herself, truly showcases how smart Gus really is. It’s not that hard to make Gus content and everyone is just sleeping on him.

The fandom loves to attach itself to Boscha, who may I remind you is white. Willow and Gus, who have way more plot relevance and screen time, are constantly pushed aside for more and more Boscha content. Willow and Gus are beautifully written in the show, but most people overlook it for Boscha, who in the show has been fairly one note so far. If your only argument is that you want to show the background characters some love, then where is the Skara content? Skara has just as much screen time as Boscha, but I’ve seen very little content about her. I guarantee if Boscha was a POC she would have the same level of content as Skara, but since she is white she overshadows literally every other POC supporting character, including those who have had more screen time than her. Don’t even get me started on the Detention Track kids and Emira/Viney. This post is already long enough and I don’t need to make it any longer.

Camilia and Alador/Odelia Blight

Right here is the clearest example of the white favoritism of the TOH fandom. Alador and Odalia Blight have gotten so much content about them and we still haven’t seen their faces. You can easily find so much analysis on them and how their parenting must affect the Blight siblings. You can find so much content about them and we know literally nothing about them other than the fact that they’re abusive. I know Alador is set up to be less abusive than Odalia, but it doesn’t change the fact that he is still abusive to his kids. Whether he approved what was going on or not doesn’t matter because he was still complacent with what was happening.

Now let’s look at Camilia and all her content- oh wait there is basically none for her. All the Camilia content is basically nothing other than CamilEda content (again I’m not trying to bash or approve CamilEda, I’m just trying to state some facts). Camilia did make a mistake in setting Luz to the camp, but that does not make her a bad mother. People need to remember one bad action does not make a bad person. I think Dana herself said that Luz and Camilia do love each other, but they do have their differences, which makes things hard sometimes. Camilia truly does care about Luz and tries her best to do what‘s best for Luz and more people need to recognize it. There is so much untapped potential with Camilia’s character, like how she will react to Luz not coming home or what she will do to try to get Luz back. What if she sees all of the recordings Luz has made for her? How will she react? These are all things we can make content on, yet I see so many people sleeping on it.

Now when you compare how the fandom treats both Camilia and the Blight parents, there’s a clear bias in favor for the Blight parents. The Blight parents are given more attention and content despite having less actual screen time and being actual pieces of garbage. Camilia is shoved to the side despite there being plenty to analyze about her and her relationship with Luz. Camilia is also a good person, which is clearly different to the Blight parents. It’s never been a matter of which parent/child relationship is better because they’re both written very well, but rather the fact that Camilia gets shoved aside every time we talk about parent/child relationships. I mean when you look at it, Camilia and Luz’s relationship with each other is literally the Blight family’s dynamic, except the opposite. The only difference between the two families is that one has POCs and the other is white. And to no one’s surprise, the white family gets more attention and analysis than the POC’s family.

Statistics

If you’re still not convinced here's some cold hard evidence that white characters are more favored than POC characters. I’m going to be using AO3’s (archiveofourown) data on how many works a character is tagged in.

On AO3 at around 6:35 PM EST Oct 3, 2020, The Owl House had 1921 works. As we can see Luz is number one (as she should), Willow is number three, and Gus is number four. They’re ranked fairly high (which was a surprise to me), but when you look at how many works they’re actually in, the white favoritism becomes clear. Amity is tagged in around 1480 works and Willow and Gus each are in 730 and 610 respectively. Willow and Gus are in half the works Amity is. Somehow Willow appears in half the works Amity does even though Willow appears more than Amity in the show. Boscha also has 360 works with her in it, half of what Gus and Willow’s works despite being a very minor character who has appeared only a few times. What's worse is that Edric and Emira are literally 200 to 60 works away from Willow and Gus respectively. Edric and Emira, two white characters who have appeared in literally three episodes, but are tagged in nearly the same number of works as two main POC-supporting characters. Now maybe you’re like “Oh the Blight siblings are only so popular because of Lumity, this data is skewed” so the next picture is of all the characters with all of the romantic relationship tags excluded.

The data shows that the fandom favors the white characters so drastically that there is no excuse or other explanation for it. Lumity being popular doesn’t explain why Amity is still the third most written-about character, even with the Lumity tag being blocked. Quantity of episode appearances doesn't explain why Willow has less content about her because Willow appears in three more episodes than Amity does. The only explanation is white favoritism because the most popular characters are all white (with the exception of Luz, but that’s because she is the main character). Before you tell me “Oh it's because they’re more interesting or they have more potential” actually look and analyze the POC characters because they’re amazingly well written if you actually sit down and analyze them.

Why Calling Out White Favoritism Matters

Now you may be asking: why should I care? Well you should care because the fandom as a whole is literally favoring white characters over POC characters, which is low key racist. It makes people care less about POC characters and actual people which can lead to some internalized racism if not caught early enough. The Owl House tries very hard to highlight their POC characters and actively ignoring or dismissing them is disrespecting the show itself.

I feel like I should make it clear that I’m not shaming anyone who’s favorite character just happens to be white. What I’m doing here is being critical of whether or not a person likes a character because they are white (whether that decision is conscious or not). There is a clear difference between “Oh X is my favorite character, but I recognize the other characters are good in their own ways.” and “Oh I love X and only X. I will only use the other characters to further X’s character and completely ignore everyone else’s complexity”. Please take some time and think about why you like a character and see if you unconsciously love them because they are white. No one is immune to it and even I had to realize I was unconsciously favoring white characters while writing something The Owl House related.

The sad part about all of this is that it needs to be said that racism is bad. It needs to be said that white favoritism is extremely toxic and we should make sure we don’t actively take part or be complacent in it. I know for a fact that other POC have seen this white favoritism, but are too numb to say anything about this because they feel like their voices won’t change anything. The few people who have spoken out haven't been listened too. The fact that I had to step up and make this just to try to get people to listen and I might not even make a difference is so sad to me. The fact that I’m young makes me not numb to the white favoritism. The fact that I dealt with, for the first time, racism at the age of 14, which is extremely late for a POC. The fact that the only reason I can be mad about this is because I dealt with racism so late that I have energy to speak out against this and not be numb to this all. I hate that all of this exists and we all let this happen. We all let this problem fester and now it is now our responsibility to get our priorities straight and change. If we let this problem grow and grow, then in a few years this fandom will be a shell of what it once was.

“We can do this together.” -Luz Noceda

#the owl house #toh #lumity #luz noceda #gus porter #willow park #camilia noceda #amity blight #boscha #edric blight #emira blight #alador blight #odalia blight

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therealvinelle · 3 years

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What are vampires?

(Yes, I changed the title from “What is venom?” a week after publishing and after a whole set of sorry souls reblogged the post. I’m very sorry, but as I sat down to write the follow-up piece I realized that this meta is about vampires, not venom, and the title is no longer appropriate. My perfectionism got the better of me and I’m sorry.)

There’s been a lot of speculation on that in this fandom, here comes my take. It’ll split into four parts, this being part one where I look at what venom does to the human body. In part two I look at hybrids, part three I speculate on what venom is, part four I treat possible origins and raisons d’être of venom.

So, this first part is mostly me regurgitating facts. We won’t get anywhere if we’re not all agreed on what vampires are.

Also, I get very pseudo-scientific in this meta, but I have no education in biology or medicine so I could be wrong about everything. I tried to use good sources, though, so I can’t be entirely off-base.

With that out of the way, LET’S DO THIS.

To create a vampire, you infect a human with venom. This venom spreads throughout the body, altering every cell. The process is complete when the heart stops beating. If the human was injured at the time of infection, they will be healed, as long as the heart keeps beating.

Let’s go through that.

How does the venom spread?

When Bella was bitten by James, Edward was able to suck the venom out. Several minutes passed from she was bitten until Edward sucked the venom out, yet the burn was only reported to be in her hand. By contrast, anyone who’s ever had pharmaceutical administered intravenously knows that blood travels quickly. If venom travelled like any normal fluid, Bella would have said «My hand is on fire. No wait, my arm! No, wait, my torso! No, wait-» and Edward wouldn’t have been able to suck it out.

Additionally, Bella has that scar left by James. The venom had already altered the cells at the entry point.

To me, this sounds like the venom is like Pac-Man, spreading through the body by altering one cell at a time. It’s the only explanation for why it’s so slow. More on that later, though.

How does it alter the cells, and in turn the human body?

Physically, their skin is made impervious and perfectly even, their teeth are straight, razor sharp and white, their bodies impossibly strong, fast, and precise, their senses heightened to an insane degree yet they feel no pain from most physical injuries. Their digestive system is altered so they can only consume blood, preferably human blood, anything non-blood is regurgitated. They’re much more attractive than they were in life. They’re not reliant on oxygen, and their blood doesn’t circulate. They produce their own venom.

Mentally, their minds function at the capacity necessary to even utilize a body like this. They are able to process their heightened sensory input (for example, it’s the brain that interprets visual input from the eyes. For vampires to be able to see better than humans, both eye and brain have to improve), process though much faster than humans, they forget nothing, and they feel emotion and physical sensation more strongly than humans do.

Let’s go through these alterations one by one.

Skin

Frequently likened to marble, vampire skin is as hard as stone. When Bella becomes a vampire, she’s stunned Edward’s flesh now yields to her touch. Before, if she pressed her finger on him, his skin would not yield. The shapeshifters can kill vampires because their fangs are sharp enough to pierce their skin, without that advantage they couldn’t do it. No ordinary weapon could injure a vampire.

The stone skin is an armor, protecting them.

Teeth

As us humans get older, the enamel in our teeth is worn away, revealing the tooth’s underlying yellow color (the dentin). Vampires can live for thousands of years, yet their teeth remain that perfect blinding white. What changed? I see two possible explanations, one being that vampires still have enamel, and it’s too strong to ever be worn away, or they don’t have it because their teeth have been altered to the point where they don’t need a protective layer anymore, and their composition is something completely different from that of human teeth.

I think it’s the latter, as there are two other major changes reported. Their teeth have changed shape, they are now sharp enough to pierce through human or vampire skin. They’re also venomous (more on that later), able to inject anybody they bite, fellow vampires included, with venom.

There’s also the fact that vampires are changed on a molecular level, but more on that later.

Strength, speed, and precision

Meta I wrote on vampire strength disparity.

Vampires are ridiculously powerful, no upper limit (as in, «Newborn Emmett can carry 500 tonnes») is given, but whatever it is it’s high. Alice might just be the physically weakest vampire in the saga (Jane is physically smaller, but she eats properly. Alice lives on a subpar diet), but to Bella it makes no difference, Alice blows her out of the park anyway. Edward, a malnourished and not too strong vampire, is easily able to pick up entire trees by the roots, and then throw them at a small target.

As for speed, vampires move faster than the human eye can register, which according to this article means they can reach a speed of 38 146 mph! (61 390 km/h for us metric people) (Also, the traveling object used for this calculation was a ball, and the article specifies that it would be different for bigger objects. Alas I’m not going to bother my physicist friend with this, so we’re using the ball number.)

When it comes to precision, vampires exercise perfect muscle control. They’re so graceful their steps can’t be heard by humans, Edward can famously stroke a soap bubble without popping it, and they’re able to perfectly mimic the handwriting of others (a task anyone who’s ever googled forensic calligraphy will know is next to impossible). Much of this appears to be instinctual, like a downloaded .vampire package. Knowing how to attack prey, where to bite, that all happens on autopilot. So too does running, jumping, walking (funny how their default mode, even Carlisle’s, is to walk too quietly for their designated prey to detect). Snarling, hissing, and growling are also distinctly non-human manners vampire adopt.

Senses

Heightened sight, hearing, and smell is extremely useful. It makes them much more effective hunters. The smell especially is useful here, but really, all their senses are invaluable in this. It’s great for dealing with fellow vampires as well, they can see, hear, and smell their kind coming from a far distance.

There’s an added advantage, though. As I got into here, and here, if a vampire’s memories of their human life is dull and washed out compared to their brilliant new existence, dismissing humans as equally deserving of life becomes that much easier to justify. Heightened emotions serves this same purpose, though considering their longevity I think this is another form of survival, that they’re wired not to grow bored with life (but this is really for a separate meta).

There’s also the fact that their senses have to be tuned up to 11 to fit their other enhanced abilities. There’s no use in super-speed if you can’t see where you’re going.

Vampires’ heightened senses make them more efficient predators, and help them become the bloodthirsty sociopaths we know and love.

Pain receptors, or lack thereof

Vampires feel pain when they are thirsty, when their limbs are torn off, when they are bitten by other vampires (it appears to be the venom that stings), or when subjected to a gift that induces pain (Jane, Kate). They don’t feel pain like humans do, nor do they feel discomfort (they can sit indefinitely in any position, never feeling the need to shift around.

Interestingly, it looks to me like pain serves the same function for them as it does for humans. The brain registers pain to tell us something, a biological error message. Don’t walk on that leg, it’s injured. Get your hand off the hot stove and don’t put it there again. Pain is useful.

Vampires, by contrast, are not going to get injured from someone hitting them. There are no blood vessels that can burst, no soft tissue that can burst nor bones that can break. So, no need for their brains to register that as pain. Humans need to change positions every now and then for the sake of our circulation and so we don’t develop pressure ulcers (and I’m sure there are more reasons), vampires have no circulation and, as mentioned above, their skin is armor. No pressure ulcers.

What they do need pain for, is to let them know to feed. That’s the big one, and in turn the strongest one. The pain of the thirst is unbearable, as it has to be to turn a human who was infected with venom into a killer. It’s survival. Same goes for feeling pain when their limbs are torn off, or their bodies damaged by a bite. Their pain receptors let them know to avoid this next time.

As for Jane and Kate’s gifts, this may not serve a purpose for other vampires, but it serves a purpose for Jane and Kate. It protects them. So, sucks for everyone else, but that’s what gifts do, they give the gift-haver a leg up on others.

Digestive system

Carlisle had spent many years attempting to understand our immortal anatomy; it was a difficult task, based mostly on assumption and observation. Vampire cadavers were not available for study.

His best interpretation of our life systems was that our internal workings must be microscopically porous. Though we could swallow anything, only blood was accepted by our bodies. That blood was absorbed into our muscles and provided fuel. When the fuel was depleted, our thirst intensified to encourage us to replenish our supply. Nothing besides blood seemed to move through us at all. (Midnight Sun, chapter Home)

Ignoring the horrifying fact that the context for this quote is Edward wondering if Bella’s tear could stay in his system forever, this here is extremely interesting and I agree. Partly because I can’t think of anything better, partly because Carlisle is an in-universe medical genius who’s had access to far more data than I have. He can run experiments, I can’t. Even if I came up with a theory I thought was better, if blood absorption through porous tissue is Carlisle’s best theory then there must be evidence in favor of this which I don’t have access to. So, porous tissue it most likely is.

(Also, my «Carlisle totally volunteered for vivisection fun times with Aro in Volterra» theory survives that first paragraph. Vampire cadavers might not be available for study, but live ones absolutely are, you just pick them apart and put them back together after, and bring in Corin and/or Alec so the guinea pig has a good time too. There’s no way that never occurred to Aro. Even if it didn’t, it’s bound to have occurred to someone over the years, and Aro touches a lot of people. And we know he and Carlisle discussed what vampires even were, that they were best friends and all about that science.

We also know that sometimes, your weird science experiments involving dismemberment and tripping on Corin in Volterra, stay in Volterra. The tissue is porous, Edward, DON’T ASK ME HOW I KNOW.)

This has huge implications. What happened to the digestive system they used to have?

It’s still there, but non-operational.

Middle solution: it’s recognizably there, but welded shut. At some point, whatever the vampire ingests hits an untraversable boundary, and from there the blood is absorbed while any other matter remains, undigested (though possibly dissolved by venom) until regurgitated.

The vampire’s inner anatomy is unrecognizable from that of a human. Vampires have no need for livers, bowels, gall bladders, and so on, and so these organs no longer exist, or have even been replaced by other organs (assuming vampires need any, more on that later).

My vote lies with the third option, though both second and third are possible. The first one, not so much, as it means that in theory, they could force something through their system. They can’t.

More, vampires are nothing if not extremely efficient and economical organisms. They don’t need to feel pain from a physical blow, so they don’t. Why carry around these organs they’re not using?

Then there’s what they even need their digestive system to do. Humans need the nutrients in our meals not just as fuel, but as- well, everything. We need the building blocks for our cells. Our bodies are constantly renewing themselves. Vampires, by contrast, don’t appear to do this. There’s no waste of any kind, and their skin doesn’t get flaky. Edward specifically says blood is fuel, and I think that’s a literal interpretation.

Now we’re veering into speculation territory, and this isn’t the place for it just yet as we’re veering into what venom is and does, but I think whatever digestive process vampires have, serves to turn their blood to venom. I don’t think there’s any particular organ for this, I think that’s just because that’s what happens when venom comes into contact with blood. We see it happen when humans are bitten, and I think it’s fair to assume that the same thing happens when venom comes into contact with ingested blood.

This also helps explain why animal blood isn’t equal to human blood. Animals can’t be turned to vampires, it’s blood but venom and animal blood aren’t on the same FM, so to say. So, with no better option, yes venom can make do with animal blood, but it won’t perform as well as it would with human blood. The vampire is now weaker, with the frankly terrifying side effect that their eyes change color. We’re so used to this that we just go «oh, yeah, animal blood means their eyes turn yellow. It’s like a LED light letting you know which diet the vampire is on!» when in any other organism, a chance of color like that is usually the sign of something being wrong. Blue lips, yellow sclera, red urine, all color changes that point to something not being not as it should be.

Now, to go further here would mean getting more into what venom even is, which is best saved for part three. I’ll say this, venom appears to be the only fluid in the vampire body. It’s moistens their eyes (and melts their contacts), pools in their mouth, is injected through their fangs, and the application of venom to a wound makes them heal faster. Venom is the substance they rely on, more so even than blood, their elixir of life. (My speculation on how Edward was able to impregnate Bella is reserved for the hybrid/what is venom metas).

Also, on what vampires carry over from their human bodies, I do think they’re economical enough to not fix what ain’t broken. I think this because the human nervous system is absolutely brilliant, and indeed Bella regains sensation during her transformation where her spine had once been broken and unable to communicate with her brain. Question is, of course, was this because her new vampire body still uses the human nervous system, or did Bella regain sensation because her transformation had gotten to a point where this was no longer the case?

Beauty

The beauty part has gotten some very valid criticism, as beauty is very subjective and venom makes it out to be an objective, empirically measurable unit.

To caveat first, we see in canon that not all vampires are gorgeous. James was an ugly human, and so as a vampire he’s no beauty. Maggie was emaciated and not particularly attractive, so she’s bony and not hot by vampire standards. The Cullens, by contrast, were attractive humans. Human Bella is a hottie, she pulls all the guys without issue. If she were as plain as she thinks she is, she wouldn’t get male attention. Being new is only gonna get her so far. Jasper was turned because Maria thought he was a cutie, and same goes for Emmett with Rosalie.

(There’s also a certain inherent bias - I imagine attractive people have a much higher chance of getting turned than uglies.)

More, understand that vampires don’t look human. They’re flawless, desirable, perfect, yes - but they are very distinctly not human, and humans know as much instinctively:

Like any normal human, suddenly standing just a foot away from a vampire would send adrenaline racing through his veins. Fear would twist in his stomach for just a fraction of a second, and then his rational mind would take over. His brain would force him to ignore all the little discrepancies that marked me as other. His eyes would refocus and he would see nothing more than a teenage boy. I watched him come to that conclusion, that I was just a normal boy. I knew he would be wondering what his body’s strange reaction had been about. (Midnight Sun, chapter 21, page 547)

Vampires are beautiful in the way the Nefertiti bust is beautiful. It’s perfect, otherworldly, timelessly beautiful, but looking at it you know this is a bust and not a living human woman.

With that in mind, I think some of the vampire’s unnatural beauty is… not circumstantial, but happy bonuses to their other qualities. Their perfect skin, for instance, goes a long way towards making them beautiful. Perfectly smooth, a glowing white, no disruptions like blackheads, scarring, or sweat. At one point Bella describes Rosalie as looking airbrushed. Their perfect teeth, impeccable grace, these features also help.

Now, I think when venom makes a human more beautiful, I think the big thing it does is make the features perfectly symmetrical. This by itself is immediately inhuman and unnatural, more computer generated than human, just perfect enough to tick off the uncanny valley box. This would explain the flawlessness Bella keeps describing in vampires. It also explains the disparity in beauty, the features Rosalie had to work with and get symmetrical were lovelier than the ones James had, and why they can look completely different from each other yet share that same kind of uncanny impeccability. It also explains how people of wildly different face types and ethnicities can all be beautiful, the venom won’t erase the features you had but rather refine them into the best they can be.

I do think that refinement, in addition to symmetry, happens. If it didn’t, the change wouldn’t be so radical from human to vampire. More, all vampires are described as having sharp features, Esme stands out for the fact that she retained some of her human softness. So, the venom appears to make features more angular and, well, sharp.

Aro’s description is in favor of my interpretation of vampiric beauty:

I couldn't decide if his face was beautiful or not. I suppose the features were perfect. But he was as different from the vampires beside him as they were from me. His skin was translucently white, like onionskin, and it looked just as delicate (New Moon, page 234)

His features are flawless, meaning symmetrical. He should be beautiful, so it’s the skin that gives her pause.

There’s also the matter that beauty is observed in the body, not just the form. They all look strong and limber, even the tiniest of vampires. I imagine some of this is simply texture, that vampires are made hard, smooth, and perfect, but we have this from Bella looking in the mirror after waking up a vampire:

She was fluid even in stillness, and her flawless face was pale as the moon against the frame of her dark, heavy hair. Her limbs were smooth and strong, skin glistening subtly, luminous as a pearl. (Breaking Dawn, page 261)

Fluid even in stillness, her limbs smooth and strong. This woman was starving to death when she died. Combined with the fact that Edward, who was a sick 17-year-old, has muscle definition, it seems venom does body sculpting as well. Though it’s worth noting that hydration goes a long way towards muscle definition for humans, so the change in fluid composition in vampires could have something to do with it their limber appearance.

Then there’s the other vampire beauty markers.

Their voices are described quite unusually, with words like wind chimes, bells, or feathers. They’re beautiful, but, like everything else about vampires, inhuman. When Carlisle calls Billy on the phone, Billy immediately recognized the voice as somehow wrong, it’s too clear and sharp.

I mean, I think in part this is because their vocal cords aren’t made of soft human tissue anymore, but most likely stone. No matter what they’re made of, though, it’s no surprise that we’re not getting human voices out of them.

Their scent is appetizing to humans and other vampires alike, and serves a duel purpose. Humans are attracted to them (well, vampires are too), while vampires are able to use it for tracking purposes. It’s tremendously useful for keeping track of your territory, as randos can’t walk in and eat your food and sneak off again without leaving a trail. It’s also good for meeting up with friends, we see Carlisle and Siobhan use it for this purpose in Midnight Sun.

Circulation

The purpose of blood is to carry oxygen and nutrients to the cells. Apparently, this isn’t a need vampires have. All they need is venom. The theory that their tissue is porous adds to this, as it would mean blood travels through their body in a different manner. The porous tissue replaces circulation.

So, no circulation for vampires because they don’t need it.

This meta is now getting ridiculously long, so I’m putting the venom production section in the venom meta.

The transformation

The transformation is complete when the heart stops beating. The former human is now a vampire, and no longer reliant on a heartbeat, nor oxygen. In this they are different from hybrids.

As for the process itself, I think that as the venom spreads, it starts multiplying on its own. This is why it took longer for Carlisle than it did Bella, she was bitten and injected multiple times and on every part of her body while Carlisle was grazed on the arm. Bella had more venom that could work on her, Carlisle did not. These facts support my theory of the slow spread of venom.

I’ve played with the thought of the transformation happening in stages, where the first act is the spread of the venom, which then spreads throughout the body and heals the body to put it at default, the second act is the bodysculpting, and the third act the finishing touches. It doesn’t quite fit with venom transforming as it goes, though, so I’m very hm on that.

A few observations:

Activity level doesn’t appear to help spread the venom. Carlisle exerted himself, and his transformation took far more time than normal (though lying still instead of contorting in agony probably doesn’t help in that regard). Bella laid still as a corpse, and her transformation took far less time than normal. The venom spreads in its own time, regardless of what the blood circulation is up to.

Going by the accounts of the Cullens, while the pain is constant, the transformation hurts increasingly as the venom spreads.

Bella was severely injured, and needed to be healed before she could even feel all the pain. Her broken spine, for instance, meant she couldn’t feel below the waist.

Carlisle said it’s «easier if the blood is weak» (cryptic much?! Not making it easy for me, dude. Though as this was said in the context of Edward explaining that Carlisle would only turn someone already dying, I do think he’s referring to what it’s like for vampires, though, that humans are not so tempting if they’re half dead.)

Healing

Now we’re veering into the venom meta, but: the transformation fixes anything that could impede the vampire’s function. Bella would get nothing done with her post-birth broken body, and so she’s fixed up for her. Alice’s emaciation means she’s thin and less strong than others, it doesn’t physically prevent her from doing anything.

The venom, it appears, heals the human not because it’s being altruistic, nor to make the vampire more appealing to others, but to make the human into an ideal host. BUT MORE ON THAT IN THE VENOM META.

With that, my god we’re done. And this meta is words in total, an ugly number.

Lastly, I know that putting a read more at the end of a 4k long meta is the worst joke in the world (RIP to you poor souls scrolling past this. My reason for not being a read more kind of gal to be found here)

Nothing yet, I’m afraid.

#long post #had to delete immediately after posting because i hadn't actually written anything in the skin section #so i deleted rather than having people reblog before it was ready #ops #twilight #twilight meta #twilight renaissance #twilight vampires #twilight venom #twilight biology #vampire biology #also i am very proud of the way my ship snuck into the post #sorry not sorry but it's a bedbug ship #it won't stay out of my stuff #edit: can't count. wrote five parts

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jackoshadows · 3 years

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what i don’t understand is sansa stans who insist that she learnt from the best (cersei ans littlefinger) and so she’ll be an amazing ruler and player. first of all, when did she learn about the game from cersei? she was a hostage in kings landing, she wasn’t sitting in on small council meetings or anything and cersei definitely wasn’t telling her about all the moves she was making. the only time cersei really gives her ‘advice’ is during blackwater when she says that ‘tears/sex is a woman’s weapon’. regardless, cersei isn’t someone you want to be taught from, she makes terrible decision after terrible decision in affc. (since we’re on this topic, dany is the younger and more beautiful queen who foils cersei).

as for littlefinger, he’s definitely not a leader or ruler. he subtly manipulates things here and there and gets away with a lot of it because he stays under the radar. he’s not someone who inspires devotion for sure. nothing about the vale arc in affc puts sansa in an actual leadership position.

I agree it's best that no one learns how to be a ruler from Cersei Lannister, considering how much she messes up in AFfC.

And yes, it’s my opinion that Sansa's arc is leading towards outwitting Littlefinger and understanding how to play the game rather than ruling. And with two books left to go, she still has a lot of learning to do and being able to process the information available to her, analyze it and connect the dots and use the data to her advantage.

I just finished my ADwD and TWoW sample chapter re-reads so a rather long essay under the cut.

Sansa did acknowledge early on that unlike Cersei, if she were to become queen, she would prioritize getting the people's love over their fear - like the Tyrells did. But unlike the majority opinion of fandom, I think that this points to Sansa giving more importance to PR than to actual ruling. That it was better to be a loved monarch than a feared one.

It’s funny that Sansa stans often point the finger at Dany as being narcissistic, entitled and arrogant, when the few comments that Sansa makes about being queen revolve around her.

“Go ahead, call me all the names you want,” Sansa said airily. “You won’t dare when I’m married to Joffrey. You’ll have to bow to me and call me Your Grace. ” - Sansa, AGoT

“ If I am ever a queen, I'll make them love me.” - Sansa, ACoK

Compare her quotes to those of current leaders/rulers in the books:

A good lord protects his people, he reminded himself. - Bran, ACoK

“Why do the gods make kings and queens, if not to protect the ones who can’t protect themselves?“ - Daenerys, ASoS

“And I know that a king protects his people, or he is no king at all.” Davos, ASoS

I was trying to win the throne to save the kingdom, when I should have been trying to save the kingdom to win the throne." - Stannis, ASoS

“I am the shield that guards the realms of men. Those are the words. So tell me, my lord— what are these wildlings, if not men?” - Jon Snow, ADwD

The other leaders in the quotes are putting the people first, prioritizing the people’s needs first no matter how much it affects the rulers themselves. Jon’s decision to let the Wildlings through the wall is necessary, but highly unpopular among his men. And ruling is more than just being beloved by the people -

"Allow me to give my lord one last piece of counsel,” the old man had said, “the same council that I one gave my brother when we parted for the last time. He was three-and-thirty when the Great Council chose him to mount the Iron Throne. A man grown with sons of his own, yet in some ways still a boy. Egg had an innocence to him, a sweetness we all loved. Kill the boy within you, I told him the day I took the ship for the Wall. It takes a man to rule. An Aegon, not an Egg. Kill boy and let the man be born.” The old man felt Jon’s face. “You are half the age that Egg was, and your own burden is a crueler one, I fear. You will have little joy of your command, but I think you have the strength in you to do the things that must be done. Kill the boy, Jon Snow. Winter is almost upon us. Kill the boy and let the man be born.” - Jon Snow, ADwD

This is the hard part of ruling be it in the middle ages or now. It’s not enough to be a good man to be an effective ruler. It’s complicated and it’s hard. How do I resolve this thing? Do I do the moral thing? But what about the political consequences of the moral thing? Do I do the pragmatic, cynical thing and kind of screw the people who are screwed by it? I mean, it is HARD. - GRRM

In this context, Sansa’s quote about being queen comes off as naive, ignorant, fairy taleish, like the queens in her stories - where everyone loves the queens and that’s all that’s necessary to be one.

It’s easy for Sansa stans to nitpick and criticize each and every one of Dany’s decisions and then praise future best queen Sansa - who has done absolutely nothing as a leader and has instead thus far served as an uncritical narrator to events around her. We don’t know what kind of leader Sansa would be because she has never been put in those situations or even shown an aptitude for strategic thinking.

Let me use an example I came across while recently re-reading ADwD and TWoW sample chapters. TWoW spoilers - if you don’t want to be spoiled on TWoW, please read no further.

-------------------------------------------------------

In ADwD, Jon is confronted with food shortage if they let the Wildlings through the wall:

“If we had sufficient coin, we could buy food from the south and bring it in by ship,” the Lord Steward said. We could, thought Jon, if we had the gold, and someone willing to sell us food. Both of those were lacking. Our best hope may be the Eyrie. The Vale of Arryn was famously fertile and had gone untouched during the fighting. - Jon Snow, ADwD

I have already written extensively on Jon’s political know-how of the North and using it in his strategizing and planning of Stannis’ campaign. But here we see that his knowledge extends to the south, where, knowing that the Vale stayed neutral during the WOT5K and it’s geography of being fertile, he sees it as a possible source to buy food for the Wall.

Now let’s go to the Vale in book 6, TWoW, Alayne’s sample chapter. After being called a bastard by Harry the Heir, a hurt Sansa goes looking for Littlefinger and chances upon a scheme of price gouging:

Near the bottom, she heard Lord Grafton’s booming voice, and followed.

“The merchants are clamoring to buy and the lords are clamoring to sell,” the Gulltowner was saying when she found them. Though not a tall man, Grafton was wide, with thick arms and shoulders. His hair was a dirty blond mop. “How am I to stop that, my lord?”

“Post guardsmen on the docks. If need be, seize the ships. How does not matter, so long as no food leaves the Vale”

“These prices, though,” protested fat Lord Belmore,”

“These prices are more than fair. Wait. If need be, buy the food yourself and keep it stored. Winter is coming. Prices must go higher.”

“Perhaps,” said Belmore, doubtfully. “Bronze Yohn will not wait, ” Grafton complained. “He need not ship through Gulltown, he has his own ports. Whilst we are hoarding our harvest, Royce and the other Lords Declarant will turn theirs into silver, you may be sure of that.”

“Let us hope so,” said Petyr. “When their granaries are empty, they will need every scrap of that silver to buy sustenance from us. And now if you will excuse me, my lord, it would seem my daughter has need of me.”

“Lady Alayne,” Lord Grafton said. “You look bright-eyed this morning.” ” You are kind to say so, my lord. Father, I am sorry to disturb you, but I thought you would want to know that the Waynwoods have arrived.”

We are now in book 6 territory, this would be the point where a future queen/leader Sansa reflects on what she just saw - Littlefinger is hoarding grain and letting Royce and others sell theirs so that he can later increase the prices for demand from a starving populace and have the rest of the Vale Lords be dependent on him and with winter coming, there is currently much demand for the grain.

This would be where, if GRRM is writing for the future leader of the North, Sansa would wonder what is happening in the North with respect to the food situation since she just heard that merchants are clamoring for grain and winter is coming. Or she would think on LF’s scheme - is it a good plan or a bad plan? Does she think that Yohn Royce is right to sell his grain? What is her view on hoarding all the food for price gouging while people possibly starve elsewhere? What does she think of starving the populace for profit? Does she approve? Or does she think it’s ethically wrong?

We get no answers to these questions to give us a hint of what kind of ruler future best queen Sansa will be. It’s a blank slate because while Sansa acts as a narrator here and describes one of LF’s little schemes, she herself as no opinion on it. Instead Sansa’s immediate concern when speaking to Littlefinger is that Harry the Heir called her a bastard in front of everyone. Meanwhile Dany in ADwD:

Skahaz had been named Warden of the River, with charge of all the ferries, dredges, and irrigation ditches along the Skahazadhan for fifty leagues, but the Shavepate had refused that ancient and honorable office, as Hizdahr called it, preferring to retire to the modest pyramid of Kandaq.

Mounted men were of more use in open fields and hills than in the narrow streets and alleys of the city. Beyond Meereen's walls of many-colored brick, Dany's rule was tenuous at best. Thousands of slaves still toiled on vast estates in the hills, growing wheat and olives, herding sheep and goats, and mining salt and copper. Meereen's storehouses held ample supplies of grain, oil, olives, dried fruit, and salted meat, but the stores were dwindling. So Dany had dispatched her tiny khalasar to subdue the hinterlands, under the command of her three bloodriders, whilst Brown Ben Plumm took his Second Sons south to guard against Yunkish incursions.

The most crucial task of all she had entrusted to Daario Naharis, glib-tongued Daario with his gold tooth and trident beard, smiling his wicked smile through purple whiskers. Beyond the eastern hills was a range of rounded sandstone mountains, the Khyzai Pass, and Lhazar. If Daario could convince the Lhazarene to reopen the overland trade routes, grains could be brought down the river or over the hills at need …

The sea provides all the salt that Qarth requires, but I would gladly take as many olives as you cared to sell me. Olive oil as well."

"I have none to offer. The slavers burned the trees." Olives had been grown along the shores of Slaver's Bay for centuries; but the Meereenese had put their ancient groves to the torch as Dany's host advanced on them, leaving her to cross a blackened wasteland. "We are replanting, but it takes seven years before an olive tree begins to bear, and thirty years before it can truly be called productive. What of copper?"

Sansa does not come anywhere close to Dany and Jon in terms of leadership and that she’s so often pushed as this future queen in fandom, including by bnfs and so called asoiaf experts, is baffling, frustrating and hilarious.

What, if any, attributes does Sansa have to even be a peacetime ruler? After the war means rebuilding from scratch, making deals, hard bargaining, strategizing, using political tools, rebuilding the economy for war torn lands, get in the food, grow the food - precisely the kind of thing Dany is doing in Meereen. Or Jon thinking of building green houses in the Gift to grow food.

But Sansa building a snow model of Winterfell means that she’s the best qualified peace time ruler? Reddit dudebros and so called tumblr feminists united in wanting female characters who wield soft power and uphold the patriarchy as future rulers.

Even when it comes to personal growth, while Sansa has come a long way from her AGoT days, she still has some catching up to do with her peers. After getting hold of LF, Sansa complains that Harry is a horrible person for calling her a bastard.

Come,” Petyr said, “walk with me.” He took her by the arm and led her deeper into the vaults, past an empty dungeon. “And how was your first meeting with Harry the Heir?”

“He’s horrible.”

“The world is full of horrors, sweet. By now you ought to know that. You’ve seen enough of them.”

“Yes,” she said, “but why must he be so cruel? He called me your bastard. Right in the yard, in front of everyone.”

Now, personally, this is the point where I would like some introspection from Sansa. Remember when Sansa called out Jon as a jealous bastard in front of her friends in AGoT and Arya defended him?

Sansa sighed as she stitched. “Poor Jon,” she said. “He gets jealous because he's a bastard.”

“He’s our brother,” Arya said, much too loudly. Her voice cut through the afternoon quiet of the tower room.

“Our half brother,” Sansa corrected, soft and precise. - Arya, AGoT

Considering the way Sansa ignored Joffrey’s attack on Arya, it’s a good bet that if Harry the Heir had called out Jon Snow as a bastard in front of everyone in AGoT, Sansa would not have an issue with it. Now that she is being insulted as one, she gets to experience the hurt that Jon felt everyday growing up in Winterfell as a real bastard.

But even here, she refuses to scrutinize the situation more than simply getting angry at being called a bastard. Sansa is often held up as this compassionate, kindest person, ‘beacon of hope for the future’, a queen who cares for the masses etc. But where is her questioning why the classist prejudice against bastards is in itself wrong?

She is angry that she is being called a bastard, she is not angry that bastards are treated as less than. She doesn’t question the societal prejudice against bastards, only angry that she has to pretend to be one and be insulted as one. She doesn’t spare a second reflecting on her bastard brother Jon Snow or question her low opinion of bastards:

Sansa could never understand how two sisters, born only two years apart, could be so different. It would have been easier if Arya had been a bastard, like their half brother Jon. She even looked like Jon, with the long face and brown hair of the Starks, and nothing of their lady mother in her face or her coloring. And Jon’s mother had been common, or so people whispered. Once, when she was littler, Sansa had even asked Mother if perhaps there hadn’t been some mistake. - Sansa, AGoT

And that’s the difference I see between Sansa and characters like Dany, Arya, Jon, Brienne and even with Tyrion and Penny. While GRRM interrogates Westerosi society prejudices, feudalism, classism, sexism, slavery, ableism, bigotry, the effects of war on the small folk etc with these other characters, Sansa rarely reflects on these issues. That’s why it makes no sense when epithets like ‘embodiment of hope for the future’ is used to describe the character. Hope for whom? The small folk? The patriarchy? The feudal lords?

Sansa being nice to people like the stuttering Ser Wallace is held up as her being the kindest ever. But Jon is nice to Shireen, Arya is kind to Weasel, Jaime is kind to Tyrion. Why is kindness and compassion only highlighted for Sansa, like some unique feature of hers when many characters, even the villains, exhibit kindness?

This is Jon Snow in ADwD

“I see what you are, Snow. Half a wolf and half a wildling, baseborn get of a traitor and a whore. You would deliver a highborn maid to the bed of some stinking savage. Did you sample her yourself first?” He laughed. “If you mean to kill me, do it and be damned for a kinslayer. Stark and Karstark are one blood.”

“My name is Snow.”

“Bastard.”

“Guilty. Of that, at least.” - Jon Snow, ADwD

This is Sansa Stark in TWoW:

Ser Harrold looked down at her coldly. “Why should it please me to be escorted anywhere by Littlefinger’s bastard?”

“Yes,” she said, “but why must he be so cruel? He called me your bastard. Right in the yard, in front of everyone.” - Alayne, TWoW

Sansa in TWoW is as hurt by the bastard moniker as Jon Snow was in AGoT when addressed as such by Tyrion. She’s emotionally where Jon Snow was in AGoT, while Jon has matured enough to not care for such insults anymore. And this is book 6! I guess it makes sense considering Jon is 16 -17 and Sansa would be 13 - 14 years old, making her younger than him in AGoT. But this is why the whole ‘Jon should take Sansa’s advice to rule because she’s the smartest ever!’ trash the show pushed to hype up Sansa is complete nonsense.

I don’t know how many chapters GRRM will be devoting to Sansa in the Vale in TWoW, but there’s still a lot of growth and character development pending for book Sansa. As I have always said, Sansa has a lot of information but she rarely if ever introspects on what she has heard and seen. She knows that LF last had Jeyne Poole but at one point wonders where Jeyne Poole is... Just ask LF dammit! She knows that Lysa had Jon Arryn poisoned on LF’s say so and knows that SweetRobin is being dosed with dangerous levels of Sweetsleep and that LF is banking on his death and yet thinks that SweetRobin will be okay. She needs to start putting two and two together to come up with four and I suspect that in itself will take up the whole of TWoW.

So will Sansa become any kind of queen or ruler? No. If she survives the books, I can see her being Lady of the Vale and be moving the chess pieces around. I can see her gaining agency and maybe even be the real power in the Vale aka Littefinger. Just like Jon, Arya, Bran and Dany I think Sansa will be a darker character in TWoW. The game of thrones cannot be played honorably and she will need to get her hands dirty to outwit LF and take him down at his own game.

The point where Sansa simply stops narrating what she sees and actually starts analyzing what she sees in her POV chapters is when the student will become the master and I am excited to see that happening.

#asks

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