#or just class snobbery

[anghraine]

My mother finally introduced me to the much-younger beloved friend of her (Mormon) family who has turned out to be very gay and gone through a ton of shit, including right now, since his husband recently died and he's having to deal with his (also Mormon) parents (his own, not his parents-in-law). I've met him before, but I was maybe 13-14 then and he's ten years older than I am, and that's a very different dynamic than when you're 30-something and 40-something.

We actually get on really well, and there's like—well, mlm/wlw solidarity looks a bit different when you're also both raised Mormon.

#it's genuinely fun to interact with someone who really Gets It #bc a lot of other queer people think they do but don't actually #so he's been telling me all about the absolutely buckwild hypocrisy he's seen in the tiny conservative town he lives in #and i'm nodding along like 'and they were your home teachers? incredible' #also cool to interact with someone who doesn't think the true difference between small conservative towns and pdx is rainbow capitalism #or just class snobbery #sorry! i know some of y'all really want to believe that! but he was talking about escaping to pdx to just escape the miasma of homophobia #and i feel that so much ngl #but he's super funny and the queer ex-mormon bond is real lol #anghraine babbles #a treeful of monkeys on nitrous oxide #cw religion #cw mormonism

[starblaster]

honestly i do like to antagonize those people who recommend media to me in that obnoxious “it’s about queer characters and all these tropes i know from fanfiction!” like. hello, annoying acquaintance; before you is a sheet of paper and a pencil. you have twenty minutes to provide an adequate synopsis of this book without using the words “friends to lovers” or “found family” and if you cannot, the metal beam above you will fall, crushing and killing you. your time begins now.

#you fucking know better! i know you’re not stupid! #the fact that people can’t even effectively tell you anything of actual substance about most of these YA novels is #dare i say it; indicative of their emptyness #and yes this is one of those cases where it’s not fucking ‘snobbery’ #if you can’t give me even a sparknotes ass summary of your favorite book’s plot… maybe… just maybe… you might need to take a lit class #this is anti-intellectualism at its most annoying #also one of the reasons i need a substantial plot summary is because i have triggers that affect me significantly if tripped #if your stupid fucking book or podcast contains medical horror or psychiatric imprisonment and YOU KNOW THAT #and YOU DON’T TELL ME that’s the kind of thing that will get me to hate you immediately #i will never trust you again #like if you can’t at least give me a fucking heads up because your literary vocabulary is now limited to trope names #please for the love of god do something to save yourself and learn something for once

[ghcstao3]

new rich soap who’s still trying to get used to his new wealth, never having been able to spend so much so freely when he was growing up. he doesn’t feel like he fits in with this new group of people he’s meant to now be socializing with, all at the same level of rich—it’s just… not him. and he does his best to avoid it as much as he can, but it’s only inevitable he’ll have meetings, events, and so much more he loathes.

and old rich ghost, who grew up with the snobbery of the upper class, who doesn’t take it for granted but still resents not having earned it. who sees soap feeling out of place and decides the least he can do is help someone else not feel so much like a fish out of water.

soap who doesn’t want ghost’s pity, but grows to appreciate the etiquette lessons when he learns that ghost doesn’t like being defined by his status. ghost who falls in love with soap all the while, particularly when soap shows him normalcy and humanity that not many others in his overlapping social and business circles possess.

#simon ghost riley #john soap mactavish #soapghost #ghostsoap #ghost x soap #ghoap #alternate universe

[themalhambird]

Thinking about how Jane Austen's six novels taken together (in writing order, not publication order) become an increasingly scathing criticism of social class, i.e:

Northanger Abbey: Individual members of the gentry (General Tilney, chiefly) come in for some criticism, but mostly on a personal level: General Tilney is a grasping, tyrannical father to be sure but we hear little (though we might easily infer) of what he is like as the resident landholder. The final crisis of the novel, General Tilney's refusal to sanction Henry and Catherine's marriage, is resolved by Eleanor's marriage to a Viscount.

Sense and Sensibility: The "correctness" and "elegance" of the fashionable members of society- the Dashwoods, Robert Ferras, Lady Middleton- are negatively contrasted to the warmness and frankness of Mrs Jennings- whose kind-heartedness makes her more attractive, in spite of her lower-class origins and perceived vulgarity, than Fanny, Lady Middleton or Mrs Ferras (snr).

Pride and Prejudice: The aristocratic Lady Catherine de Bourgh is an interfearing busy body whose title and money only excuse her officiousness and rudeness. Darcy's pride in his superior situation to the Bennets leads him to act wrongly with regard to Bingley and Jane. Aunt and Uncle Gardiner, in trade, are more respectable- certainly better parental figures- than the gentleman Mr Bennet (and Mrs Bennet too). At the same time - Darcy's strengths are displayed in his undertakings as the resident landholder of the Pemberly estates- he supports the poor, and his situation allows him to shield the more vulnerable when he his spurred to act (Georgiana, to a less successful extent Lydia). Wickham's circumstances - debt, etc- could easily be read as the consequences of his wanting to step out of his place- his desire to be the oldest, or at least the second, son of a Mr Darcy- rather than what he 'is'- the son of Mr. Darcy's steward

Mansfield Park: Hey. HEY. look at the shitshow of a baronetcy. Lady Bertram is functionally useless. Sir Thomas is such a bad father that his daughters marry idiots just to get away from him. Also, having money can't give you intelligence or a personality. Most of "fashionable society" are actually miserable and mercenary and also probably immoralistic. The Church is clouded by corruption and isn't actively benefiting the local parish the way it should. The whole thing is underpinned by slavery, and the hardworking Price Children are ultimatley more deserving than the flighty Bertram ones. THAT BEING SAID: the portrait of Mr. Price is hardly better than the one of Sir Thomas, and Mansfield Park does stabilise- indeed, begins grows stronger with the reformation of its heir, and the implication that Fanny and Edmund go on to have children of their own. There is less of a quarrel with establishment, and more of a quarrel with the people who fill it.

Emma: "Gentility is inherent one can sense it in a person-" no you can't lmao shut up. There is literally no inherent difference marking out a gentleman's daughter and a farmer's daughter. Emma's snobbery as to class leaves her, at various times, both isolated and into some *serious* missteps. Emma and Frank Churchill both have a tendency to treat others as playthings, as their money allows them to do so.

Persuasion: The peerage/nobility are patently ridiculous throw them out in favour of [relative] meritocracy and hard workers. Sure, the resident landowners are supposed to be of benefit to those beneath them but they're not, actually, they take all of the privileges and fulfil non of the responsibilities and are pretty much uniformly selfish and our heroine Casts Them Off.

#jane austen #class #its late okay i haven't neccessarily thought about it *thoroughly* but. y'know. #i thought #northanger abbey #sense and sensibility #pride and prejudice #mansfield park #emma #persuasion

[aloysiavirgata]

Prompt: leather jacket, pay phone, Southern accent.

Mulder’s Southern accent is pure Hilton Head; the Long Island Lockjaw of the magnolia-and-sweet-tea set. His mother’s people came from here and he learned to golf with them. Mulder knows about Lowcountry food and unironic madras trousers and herons in the pre-dawn light. He knows when to say “The War of Northern Aggression,” with a laconic wink.

Mulder knows all the lyrics to “The Battle of New Orleans.” He happily eats shrimp with the heads still on.

Scully - lower middle class Navy brat with aristocratic cheekbones and a chip on her fine shoulder - is his acceptable Yankee wife. She’s never going to say “pecan” the proper way. Never going to cut her eyes just right at white shoes after Labor Day. They named her Jessica and said she was from Sag Harbor, and the Louis Vuitton tote bag is getting her by.

Scully, in AquaNet and Lilly Pulitzer, misses Mulder’s Mid-Atlantic cool, his New England snobbery. Misses his firm opinions on Chicago-style pizza (a casserole) and Billy Joel (unironic legend). She wants her hand pressed to his sternum in a grey t-shirt and a leather jacket, a faded hoodie from the Vineyard.

Mulder (Emmett, she hisses in her own head) knows that quality families would never repair the upholstery because it’s déclassé to care. Would never

Mulder eats a cheese straw, Mulder nuzzles her tingling ear in the steamy June evening, tells a funny story at the Cavendish-Lawrence wedding.

“I swear to Christ, Jessica had to pull over and find a payphone,” Mulder says, to his starry—eyed audience. “My poor sweet girl on the side of the road with a tornado alert, ordering Christmas presents.”

Mulder clutches her to him, his fingers big and hot and wide against her waist as the audience titters with admiration. Mulder smells like fresh cotton and old money. Mulder looks like the best terrible decision she’ll ever make.

She’s going to fuck him tonight, she decides. She simply cannot stand it anymore, and it would be such a shame to waste away without having had him, like some medieval ascetic. She wants him to lick her tattoo, to bind her to the living world.

Mulder drops a kiss on her buzzing cheek, near the tiny neutron star encroaching on her very essence.

She hears the tide lap against the dock, laughs the way Jessica is expected to laugh.

She feels alive, like sparks rising towards the sun.

#xfiles fanfic #xf fanfic #my fic #msr #inbox #Cancer arc #undercover #Prompt

[the-empress-7]

As for the second point, let's just agree to disagree. If you are going to set a precedent, why not set a more meaningful one. Like appointing her to the Privy Council.

Yeah, there were about a million better ways to honour Catherine. More straightforward ways as well, all this searching for the noblest of ulterior motives when it comes to Charles doing anything... it's a reach, frankly.

I do miss commenting on Catherine's outfits, but to be honest I hope she extends her leave for the entirety of the New Carolean Age. Deo volente, it'll be a long time. They don't deserve her. It's classism down to the bone, they can't stand a middle class married in doing better than the blood royal. Why must we search for ulterior motives when the snobbery is apparent?

Apologies for the rant, Empress! I think you get how I'm feeling.

I hereby co-sign this rant ✍️

[assortedvillainvault]

Hi! I was browsing the Lord Shen tag and found your blog 👀. I loved the headcanons for ShenxReader through the wolf henchmen's pov ❤️.

Would you mind sharing some headcanons but from the pov of the fluffy Lord peacock himself?

Hi Anon, thank you so much!!

I'm so sorry that my Lord Shen Masterlist slipped my mind - I'm fighting tumblrs atrocious tag search to find my previous writings for him and get them on there for you. In the meantime please - have some more!

Lord Shen x Reader Headcannons

- This stuck up, mithery, hairpin tempered ball of anxiety and condescension is officially your problem now. I mean. You chose this, so I’ll leave it to you as to what end of the bad choices scale you’re landing on, but man. You sure picked.

- I also can’t get over the fact that – in China and most of the East: white is associated with death and sadness, and mourning. You not only picked the unhinged genocide gun bird, you picked the only person in all of China to be literally born emo via albinism.

- I will get back to the above, but I’m mcfucking losing it over the image of Shen being. The smaller of the two of you.

- Like if you were a smaller creature he could properly get his elegant noble stride on, nose in the air and tail gently swishing behind him as he circles you, admiring every angle and relishing the nervous, excited little glances you give him. He might not be a strictly predatory species but he sure loves that thrilling edge of not-quite-stalking. He’s too high class for the genuine article, that’s what he has the wolves for.

- But if you had the audacity to be larger than him?!

- He’d grind his teeth if he had any. He wants so badly to intimidate you – making sure to step with an extra click of metal coated talons, words honey-barbed and sticky as he looks for chinks in your armour, having to crane his head back and up to look you in the eye and- look- could, could you just- just lean down? Lean down for goodness sake just- there. There. Lovely. As he was saying…

- Shen going to go bananas planning the perfect courtship. Everything must be. Exactly. As he plans it. God forbid you trip on the stairs. If you bribe the guards to move all furniture two inches to the left you’re going to have a great time watching Shen’s eyelid twitch for twenty minutes as he tries to figure out what’s ticking him off.

- Want a shortcut? Say nice things about his cannon. No seriously, it’s not a euphemism (though it could be-)

- The cannon is the culmination of Shen’s ambitions, the reason for his exile, the demonstration of ingenuity that set him apart. Seeing you run a hand smoothly over the intricate castings and complimenting his life's work is going to fill him with so many butterflies he’ll have the wedding ready by noon.

- Of course he does, underneath all the royal snobbery and sass, really, genuinely like you. More than he ever thought he could ever like another person. Go you.

- ...He can’t contain the terror that you might not like him back. Not because of all the murder, no, that’s clearly not the issue. But because he isn’t perfect enough for you. Because he’s not enough.

- Shen popped out of his egg all but rocking the 2007 bangs and MCR soundtrack of his time: born the colours of death in a house and species traditionally all the colours of the rainbow will have been like a self fulfilling prophesy – unspoken but not forgotten as he grew up and internalised his inadequacy by striving for excellence in literally everything else in life.

- Excellence in the form of weaponry, security, excessive control and genocidal ruthlessness. Combined with ingenuity, high intelligence and paranoia: all wrapped in a package of straining courtly manners and a need to constantly have the upper hand.

- You keep taking the fucking rug out from under him by reversing the script and being nice. Even his nanny (soothsayer, who has having a great time munching popcorn and giving incidental commentary) gives him shit and drives him up the wall – yet you’re out here, smiling (how dare you-) and- and saying he looks good (he knows, knows he looks sickly and out of place, a reaper amongst royalty-) and – of course you want to hand his hand really, who wouldn’t (who would?) - he’s fine, he’s fine-

- If he dared to let you go, he’d shatter like a discarded doll.

- How does it feel, reader, to hold the fate of all China in the balance of your smile?

#thalassa responds #thank you so so much for the ask!! #x reader #kfp lord shen #lord shen #lord shen x reader #kfp lord shen x reader #ahhh that critical combo of parental issues and chronic instability vs a need for love so intense whole nations are at risk. gotta love it. #disaster bird. #@rose your man is breaching containment

[piratefishmama]

Crossing the Line | Part 2

For Eddie Munson, it started with a tweet. A random little tweet in his mentions that ignited his incredibly hard to control impulsive curiosity. One of his long-time followers and his best friends little brother, a boy with a love of DnD who only begrudgingly followed him after he recorded one of his campaign sessions and posted it to YouTube, pinged him a mention with a single link in it to Instagram captioned “roast him he’s ruined Crazy Train!”

Michael Wheeler you little shit. He’d get Nancy on that one, Mike’s obsession with roasting people was getting mildly out of hand.

But Eddie was a curious soul and someone had apparently ruined an Ozzy masterpiece, so of course he followed that link, he didn’t even hesitate, even let out a cute little “boop” out loud as he clicked it.

Now. Eddie Munson, could have probably been classed as a bit of a music snob. He wouldn’t go too far with his snobbery, but for some people... it was just an unwritten rule that some people deserved the snobbery to the max. They deserved the shit storm that came with Eddie’s brutal honesty and lack of verbal filter.

And Nepo-babies with nothing better to do than *fix* legendary metal tracks with their top 10 bubblegum bitch bullshittery were 100% deserving of the roasting his bitchiest of little sheep had called for.

Did he go a little overboard over the following week while bored shitless in between customers at his shitty non-chain coffee shop gig? Absolutely. Did he feel bad? Absolutely not. It’d taken him all of five minutes to decide Steve Harrington was the worst.

Even if the nepo baby thing wasn’t enough, he was spotted with a different piece of arm candy every month, he had girls and guys falling all over themselves to get a glimpse from him in their general direction, like, there were articles about fights breaking out in the audience of his shows because fans couldn’t decide which one of them he looked at. He lived in some fancy ass house if his insta photos were anything to go by which no doubt his parents bought for him, he did way too many PR stunts to make it seem like he was a good guy, and while his voice was… okay, it wasn’t bad… passable, it was passable…

It sure as fuck needed to stay in its own goddamn lane.

So, the boredom in between the rare rush thanks to the Starbucks down the street was filled with what could only be described as obsessive online bullying, his ADHD hyper fixated so hard, but no way was he even going to notice it, so Eddie didn’t even feel bad about it. The guy had so many people falling all over themselves in hopes he’d notice them that his measly little insults would probably wind up just buried in the sea of hormones and the occasional desperate “COME TO BRAZIL” hashtag Brazilian flag and several thousand heart emojis.

And just as a fun little topper on the ice cream sundae that was his weeklong bitchfit into the void, a lovely little cherry on top, he covered Crazy Train on his channel. Not just the guitar bits, but he made chords and tabs for the lyrics too, letting his sweetheart sing for him, he never sang on his channel, vocals were just for the band gigs, his channel was primarily game music covers but this one, this one he declared “This is what it’s supposed to sound like” in the intro then rocked it.

Eddie was all about freedom of musical expression, but Steve Harrington could go suck a fat one if he thought he was getting away with ruining a masterpiece with his croony bullshit.

“So” The week after he’d finally put his one sided feud to rest, found one Nancy Wheeler, the instigators older sister sidling up to the counter mid-way through the most boring Sunday shift Eddie had ever worked in his life.

“Wheeleeerr, my sister from the most boring of misters, what can I get you babydoll?” He didn’t even need to ask, and she didn’t actually need to say it, he was already halfway through making her fancy little favourite, a cinnamon hazelnut latte with soy milk knowing she probably only had five minutes before she’d have to bolt again.

“Eddie… why have you spent the better part of a week harassing a celebrity on Instagram?”

“I think you mean an entire week, your little brother released the dogs of war. Aaaand the ADHD told me to do it.” He grabbed one of the little honey buns from the treats display and popped it onto a plate for her “forgive me honey bun?” A pet name AND a treat combined. She rolled her eyes fondly before accepting the free treat. “Why do you ask?”

“No reason.” There was absolutely a reason, but… honestly he brought whatever was coming to him upon himself. Sort of. She'd stand in his corner if shit got real. “I’ll handle Mike, don’t harass celebrities until you’re actually a celebrity, and even then, don’t harass celebrities.”

“It’s not like he’d notice, let’s be honest he has more fans than there are stars in the sky, all of them, and I do mean all of them, fully up for bearing his children.” Seahorse dads in the house! But also, mpreg too, ass babies unite. “It’s not like some rando having a questionably obsessive and lowkey aggressive meltdown over his ‘I’m bored as shit’ experiment would ever grace his radar.”

“I’m just saying Eddie, you never know who you’re going to reach with your online nonsense, if you ever want to get out of this place, you’re going to have to play nice with people from all walks of life, including nepotism babies.” The bark of laughter that erupted from Eddie Munson would have probably insulted most people, but Nancy had known him for years. He was listening, he was, there were just layers upon layers of automatic reactions to get through before he’d visibly take in what you were saying. “He could be nice, you never know.”

“Oh yeah, his royal highness seems lovely. Did you know people used to call him King Steve?” Seemed like the worst person on the planet masquerading as a semi-decent guy. Eddie wasn’t fooled in the slightest. “Your drink, mademoiselle!” He presented her with a large to-go cup filled with her favourite beverage.

“Don’t you have some odd little moniker on your youtube channel?” She asked behind the lip of her cup, before taking a sip and humming in appreciation. Even if he was a little shit, Eddie could make a mean latte.

“That’s a persona, it’s an online personality! People calling me Kas is different, people just called him that cause of how much ass he got. It’s weird, I bet he started it himself and paid his cronies to use it until it caught on.” That was good, maybe he’d pick his feud back up just to lay that one on him. “Seems very nepo baby of him, y’know? Can’t get a good nickname circling so he’s gotta buy one.”

“Wouldn’t his parents have bought it for him?”

“Ohhhh Wheeler good one! Nice nickname, did your daddy buy it for you? Babe, sugar plum, I love you. Imma write that one down for later.”

“Please don’t.” He was already off, and she caught sight of her smartwatch beeping about some meeting she was close to being late for. “Shoot! Gotta run, no more harassing celebrities!”

“I promise nothing!” Ah well, it probably wasn’t that big of a deal that Steve Harrington’s best friend had DM’d her, probably not a big deal at all, probably meant nothing... probably.

Part 4

#PirateWrites #Ficlet #Steddie #Crossing the Line #Stranger Things AU #WE HAVE A TITLE NOW #best friends Eddie and Nancy whee #i tried doing a tag list it didn't work sorry :( #hope it reaches you those who wanted to be tagged!!

[grits-galraisedinthesouth]

Meg's Doing It ALL Wrong!

"the most ass backwards, shocking, antisocial fail I've seen possibly ever."

If you've ever had a desire to eavesdrop on any business school course or psychology of business course, Ibble Dibble's most recent case study on Meghan Markle's business scams is not to be missed. Please forgive my use of gifs as I salute her 1,2 knock out punch to MM, Omit, NOprah & Sparry's ridiculous allegations of waycism. No one has come close to telling it like Ibble Dibble.

I salute you #1 I.D., take a bow! Your quote should be etched on the Duchess's future Frogmore Cottage tombstone because you did something no one else has been able to do: nail her waycism insanity in 1 intelligent sentence.

Friends, help me show our support for the female content creators on YT who are actually saving intelligent women from following in MEgain's footsteps.

Please follow the link to LIKE & SUBSCRIBE to Ibble Dibble's YT channel. At one point the megbots had her YT channel demonitized, but ID fought back and won. ID is an intelligent threat to MM's low class megbots. Also follow the Duchess of Suss who called out the aroscam in a hilariously funny video.

Meg's Floptastic Flaws #3: Meg is a Terrible Snob

there are good snobs like Prince Charles, Princess Margaret & Martha Stewart, bad snobs, and snobs who are just very bad at snobbing

Meghan is a narcissist who is actually an

ARCH SNOB : a snob who is a bad bad snob

"Meghan's snobbery is so appalling because SHE is BAD at snobbing."

"She is literally labeling and ranking people. Her big product launch is at best a freudian slip, at worst a passive aggressive power play...it is the most ass backwards, shocking, antisocial fail I've seen possibly ever."

A passive agressive power play:

audicity to think she can buy those celebs as friends for a jar of jam

poach their followers

insult them personally by numerically ranking them from most to least important on the very labels

the celebs are too dumb to know she's negging them

thinks we the public will admire her behavior & line up begging for the next batch of worthless nonsense she danes to sell

simply to posture on social media... gross but also ineffective

on some level Meghan always knows she's shooting herself in the foot

Meghan exhibits High Social Dominance Orientation: a genuine belief that some groups of people are innately superior to others and should therefore hold more power in society.

Meg's fury, jealousy & resentment for being scorned by Hollyweird & British high society in turn, snubs the only people who pay attention to her--you, US potential customers

a narcissist harboring true malice & intends to arrive at her rightful place upon the social ladder by any means necessary

believes she is due limitless revenge for being snubbed and immediately commences enacting it by any means necessary (a la her sewer squad & digital justice)¹

believes she has the right to exploit & abuse perceived inferiors

Meg is a bad snob. She does not judge in a qualitative measure but snobs purely to service her own delusions of grandeur OR at worst to entertain herself by upsetting her victims and creating chaos

meg has a following who wants to be like her & we know bc they leave insane comments

"Meghan Markle can't present herself as the loveable villain because she has NO sense of humor! She's just a bad bad snob." Case in point:

"Meghan (unlike a good snob), flipped what was likely a single joke about a little orphan annie ginger fro, (she heard 2nd hand), into an international incident with legal and diplomatic repercussions."🎯🎯🎯

Meg's fury, jealousy & resentment for being scorned by British high society...she believes she has the right to exploit & abuse (Catherine & William) perceived inferiors

"Another Rip Off"

¹comparisons to Mao's (actress) wife and the biblical queen Jezebel are accurate. Mao's wife jailed & murdered all who had rejected and/or criticized her during her climb up the greasy pole. Queen Jezebel sought to murder and silence all the true prophets or outspoken truthers. Meg's mission for "digital justice" is to criminalize criticism.

#Ibble Dibble #a woman scorned #Bad Snob #Arch Snob #revenge #meghan markle is a bully #Duchess of Sus Comedy #ginger's winter chai #grifters brew #signature wrinkled linen #messy #link to my website where you'll see nothing #click on each tile where you'll see nothing #I've Got it Made Marmalade #digital justice #criminalize free speech #criminalize criticism #youtube #crazy makers #aroscam #orphan annie ginger fro #jamscam #Queen Jezebel #Mao's wife

[neuroticbookworm]

Sand and Ray in Only Friends, episode 5

Welp. I've been looking for an interclass romance in the wrong show, it seems. Only Friends, episode 5 used every chance it got to shine a harsh light on the wealth disparity between Sand and Ray. Ray spends the entire episode looking like he's on a ride on Disneyland -- a ride that shows him this exotic experience of being financially fraught. Thrift store, parking lot concert, secondhand shirt, working class mother, the works. And he doesn't leave it well enough alone, either. He constantly makes snide comments, makes faces at the clothes, the places, the people. Every interaction he has with Sand is filled with this tension to turn it into something sexual. He is clear about his motivations behind his presence in Sand's life -- it's Sand who's too far gone to really see where they stand.

But a crucial detail in all this: Ray is not being consciously mean. His words, actions and expressions don't feel intentional. We've been getting glimpses into Ray's upbringing and the environment he must've had at home while growing up. We don't see a single parental figure who can teach him, well, anything. The wealth superiority that Ray exhibits throughout this episode feels more like a muscle memory rather than a coded taunt of a rich asshole who's been taught how to treat people like dirt.

I was talking to @lurkingshan about how Sand's characterization and how he lacks the teeth we expect a character who has grown up in poverty would have. He's giving in to Ray's persistence and cow eyes. He thinks they are on track to becoming "something more" while Ray is giving him no such hints. And the only plausible explanation for this characterization that we could come up with was a SandRay endgame, after all the dust and chaos settles. Which would explain how Ray is characterized in this episode too.

In a couple episodes, Ray will take his denial about Mew and Sand's place in his life wayyyyy too far and hurt Sand (I see you, locker room screaming sesh from the trailer) which will lead to Sand finally seeing things for what they are and removing himself from the utter mess that is Ray's life. When the time comes for Ray to fully understand that he will never have Mew the way he wants, and maybe move on from the obsession, Ray will use the every excuse he can to get back into Sand's good graces. And I believe the fact that his snobbery being a second nature, rather than a conscious effort, will help him make the case of a boy who just does not know any better. And Sand will, once again, fall for it.

#i wanna feel bad for Sand i swear #but i'm just perplexed that he's *this* disillusioned #sandray #only friends #only friends the series #ofts #only friends meta #ofts meta

[owlpellet]

I miss old skool Death Knight rp so much. I know there are classic servers and people who are still dedicated but I’m so checked out of WoW now. I came back to tumblr recently and all my old WoW mutuals seem to have had the exact same experience since 2018~2019 of just completely checking out of the game. Most of us seem to have quit even before the big Blizzard scandals.

But idk, I just get so nostalgic for Acherus. I don’t think I’ll ever get over Death Knights 💀 I didn’t play on US servers but I always wished (I could have joined you all!)

It really was a flash-in-the-pan type of RP that can never truly be revisited, and I miss it terribly sometimes. With the scourge plotline basically concluded not once but twice-over for good measure, the whole premise of the class loses its identity and casts them adrift and without purpose-- something for which they were always sort of destined, but with Shadowlands even things like the crises of faith and redemption and what happens when they finally let go and properly join the dead are negated. The uncertainty and fear of it all is what made them so interesting!

When I left the game, it felt like 90% of the RP happening was very "domestic"-- family dynamics, shipping, people having bake sales, exploration/travel, picnics, parties. It can be occasionally fun to see how a living weapon tries to fit into that sort of dynamic, but I personally found it quickly tiresome and unfulfilling as the moral quandaries of existing at all fell to the wayside. It's very hard to continue to RP someone grappling with their identity when all the other RPers are basically going "oh yeah i just drink a potion to stop the endless hunger so i can run my fashion business :)", and rather than mire in my lore snobbery I just... left.

[thefudge]

i need thoughts on saltburn -- even if you didn't like it!!! <3

sorry for taking so long to answer this, but i only finally watched the movie this week. i kind of wanted the hype and polarization to die down a bit so i could form my own opinion.

so, i enjoyed it! it has issues, but it was a fun and clever romp. any movie that ends with a "murder on the dancefloor" dance sequence will earn a smile from me because that is one of my favorite songs of all time and i don't know how emerald fennell knew that about me, but there were constant little moments in the script that made me go "ahh, we'd be friends in real life". i felt that way about promising young woman too, even if i ultimately disagreed with quite a few of her creative choices there. but her style & humor and the way she frames sexual content is similar to my own palate/writing. i especially appreciate the way she makes arousal and desire interesting, how she explores abjection but also intellectual stimulation. what makes the character of oliver irresistible to the entire household in the film is the way he can tap into people's desires in a very unexpected and creative way. he constantly surprises them by giving them what they didn't know they wanted. it's interesting that, from oliver's skewed perspective, it's felix who is supposed to be the object of desire, the person everyone wants to be around. but we the viewers can see oliver is the true loathsome subject and object of desire for those around him (and for the audience too, as we sort of can't look away from him).

i agree with people who say felix cared more about oliver than the reverse. in fact, the cleverest thing this movie does, imo, is show that oliver could be happy, but actively chooses not to. this isn't to say the posh oxbridge types fennell makes fun of in this movie do not ring true or that the social satire and snobbery isn't accurate. but it's more that oliver doesn't need to fall into their sphere of influence, doesn't need to measure himself using their standards. yes, the environment is classist and unfair, there are big structural issues that oliver cannot control, but oxford doesn't have to be his whole life, it's only a couple of years. the fact that he is there already gives him a leg up in the world. given his smarts and his magnetism, oliver could have done very well for himself after university without needing to latch onto saltburn. the clever twist for me is that oliver is also privileged, and not just because we see he's comfortably middle-class with a supportive family, but because he has options, he has choices, but he actively chooses to be miserable and hateful, because he hates and looks down on the ppl around him. yes, the saltburn entourage is filled with bitter, toxic people, but some of those people would've probably done anything for him, and would have genuinely loved him. but the truth at the core of oliver is that he prefers a room to be empty, he prefers to have saltburn all to himself as this pure luxurious space that is devoid of humanity.

at the end, oliver is both wonderfully effective and deeply unimaginative. don't get me wrong, i really liked his character and the gremlin freak energy he conveyed, i rooted for him along the way, i mean barry keoghan plays it too well not to, but despite his victory dance at the end, it's sort of drab that oliver's greatest achievement is saltburn. despite being the brilliant predator who hunted down all competition, he is not brilliant enough to see his prize is empty. he's not smart enough to see, that at the end of the day, he is just like the cattons. he loves and hates felix because he loves and hates himself. there are many moments in the movie where oliver stares into mirrors or his reflection is doubled in reflective surfaces, and i don't think it's just to signal his duplicity or multiplicity, but rather the fact that....it's all olivers, all the way down. he thinks he's such an outsider, but he is saltburn, he comes to embody it physically in the very last dance. and even his predatory cleverness is overrated; most of the cattons fall easily, they want to go, there's an emptiness at the heart of their lives and at the heart of saltburn that oliver wants to embrace.

and i do think that emerald fennell had some of this in mind; i don't think my interpretation is necessarily the right one, but you can see she's doing more with this than directing a satirical romp. i think we're actively invited to see beyond oliver's seduction and into the emptiness of his dreams. that's why some of the deaths in the end come off as slightly ridiculous and excessive, because it's not about his cleverness anymore, he's just the last person left when the party is over. he's still a character you can root for and have fun with (and be drawn to), but the film encourages you to question his narrative from the start, not just his literal narration to rosamund pike, but the overarching idea he has of himself.

anyway, this is all to say, i rather liked it! i didn't love it, but i appreciate what it was trying to do, and i think it's more clever in that regard than people give it credit for. i do think it's a more mature effort than promising young woman. i am kind of hoping emerald directs a nonconventional romcom next, because i like her approach to certain intimate moments, mixing tenderness with violence. i'd love to see a punch-drunk love-esque love story from her.

(i do also want to give props to barry keoghan again, because i think the movie wouldn't work half as well without him. he elevates a lot of moments and he is so compelling to watch)

#saltburn #emerald fennell #oliver quick #barry keoghan #my thoughts #replies #films

[evita-shelby]

A Repetition of History

Or Tommy finds his school bully at the last palce he expected to see him, Florence’s school entrence dropping off his son, who takes after his father in more than just looks

Cw: racsim, bullying, slurs, violence

No offense to Harolds of the world, i just picked common baby names from 1890

He’s taken his children to school plenty of times. So far, everyone fears his displeasure enough to keep their mouths shut.

Mosely and the growing bigotry these years had caused them plenty of trouble for them and their children so much that they’ve had to enroll them in a different school.

Florence had fewer more issues than Diane since she didn’t inherit the long forgotten Shelby trait of two different colored eyes. And yet his girl was approaching the building as if she were being led to her doom.

He’d only come here so her classmates could learn about what a member of Parliament does before they take a tour of 10 Downing Street that he got for them. While he felt a little bad for using his children’s school to campaign for re-elections, 9 year old Flora loved ruling over the playground enough to suggest the idea in the first place.

“What’s wrong, sweet girl?” he asks quietly, and before she answers, Tommy heard it.

“Didn’t know they let the likes of you into these places?” one of the parents says with that distinct tone that told the reformed gangster this was more than just old money snobbery.

This one was one of the ,unfortunately, many who believed in Fascism and the idea that the white race must exterminate the others.

And unfortunately for everyone involved, a man Tommy knew from before. He used to harass him and his siblings in school when they were younger. He would call Ada things, pull on her braids, he’d hit John, and the reason Tommy learned to use the old pocket knife he had pickpocketed one Sunday morning with his father.

The boy had learned to hate the Romani at his mother’s bosom and now taught it to his children. Especially the little boy with that sinister little smile that made the usually unflappable Florence cry.

“Not everyone shares your views, Harold. Most people believe the children of an elected representative should attend the same schools as the rest of the children in his constituency.” Tommy hardly brags about his career unless the situation merits it, and this one did.

It was only this and Florence that kept him from beating the living shit of his old schoolyard bully.

“I didn’t mean that, Shelby, but I suppose even the Crown lowered its standards to allow dirty gypsies like you into its sacred halls.” Harold said and Tommy knows this won’t end well for anyone.

“The people of Birmingham put me there, if they don’t see anything wrong with a ‘dirty gypsy’ representing them in Parliament, neither should you.” While he was used to being called a gypsy –some just didn’t know any better and still assumed their people came from Egypt--- Tommy couldn’t just let it slide this time.

With those last words and the apologies of Florence’s teacher and several members of the faculty, Tommy does his best to leave even with his fist clenched in anger.

Even words from that fucking cunt were enough to wake the devil in him.

“That’s right, pikey, leave just like your dad did.” Harold laughs, thinking he’s won.

He never sees the fist until Tommy’s recreating that time he and Arthur showed him enough was enough after he pulled Ada’s new dress down in front of the class.

Mrs. Changretta hadn’t stopped them, in fact didn’t stop Angel and Luca from joining in too. After all Harold hated Italians as much as he hated the Romani and the Jews.

The staff can’t get him to stop until he’s stained the cobblestones with blood and the screaming children shake him out of the memories of every single insult has avenged itself through his fists.

“I’m sorry, ma’am, don’t know what came over me.” He apologizes to the headmistresses, but he cannot make himself see the horror in Florence’s face.

She’s scared of him now. Just as he was scared of his father the first time he saw him kill.

Tommy, from then on, decides he won’t take her to school like he used to, but later that evening, Florence sneaks into his office with the desert he’s denied himself.

Even worse, she kisses his cheek as she always does and whispers, “Thank you.”

#eva smith shelby #tommy shelby x oc #tommy and florence #florence shelby

[platonic-prompts]

Do you have prompts for friends dancing in a grand ball and just having a good time in general?

I read way too much Austen for class so oh boy do I ever have you covered

There's actually quite a lot of talking that happens during the dances, so they can be sharing jokes and gossiping about what other people are wearing.

If you're wanting a more traditional ball structure, the amount of times people danced together could be very telling. Dancing with the same person multiple times was a sign of romantic interest, so the two friends are trying to balance hanging out with each other while dancing with not being viewed as anything more.

Or you could move into a fake dating plotline.

There might be games set up for those who don't want to dance, aren't socially expected to dance, or are simply unable to. The characters could spend the time playing games.

Interestingly, refusing a dance with someone was essentially saying you weren't going to dance at all, so A swoops in and claims that B has already accepted their offer to dance earlier and is thus unable to dance with C. Additionally, you can throw in snobbery, finery, and passive aggressiveness where needed. Balls were important social events as much as they were for fun, so outright snubbing someone could make for an interesting turn of events, or the characters could test the limits of how far they could go with veiled comments before they get caught.

#hated that class with a burning passion #we all did lmao one girl wrote a scathing end of semester review #prompts #writing prompts #inbox prompts that im finally getting to #surprise anon did you forget you asked this? lol

[verypersonalscreencaps]

INTERVIEW WITH LESLEY MANVILLE ABOUT WORLD ON FIRE S2 How important was it to do a second series of World on Fire? We always intended to return. Of course, we made the first series back in 2018 which screened in 2019 - and we all know what happened then! But we’re back and the scripts are just so lovely and rich, with new characters coming in. Robina is again holding the fort with all sorts of family problems she couldn't possibly have foreseen. Robina has some fantastic lines - you must love playing her. I do! I think that Peter’s written her so well and he's surpassed himself this time - she's got some corkingly good lines that are so arch. Robina is so deliciously posh, eaten up by the protocol of everything. There’s also something more than a little theatrical about her. She reminds me of one of those women in a Restoration or Feydeau farce. I mean, obviously, I can't play her quite that large, tempting though it is sometimes... Is that why you enjoy playing her, the way in which she’s suffering in silence, putting up emotional barriers? Peter has written some really moving scenes, but Robina is eaten up with a conviction that you mustn't show your emotions, you're not tactile, you can't hug anyone, not even your own family. These are the unspoken rules handed down through the generations. She finds it really difficult to show her son, Harry, love and affection - but she's broken when she sees news footage of the soldiers fighting out in Cairo, wondering if he’s dead or alive. It's a very rich tapestry of emotions. There are also some lovely funny bits, which are delicious to play, because she's steeped in class snobbery, but you can't help liking her. She's a real person with deep feelings and emotions but they’re buried, buried, buried… Robina is very protective of Jan and baby Vera, showing wonderful tenderness. Jan is now living with Robina who finds herself becoming the mother she never thought she would be. Obviously, she's not young, but she realises that being a surrogate mother is as important as being a real, biological mother - and she's also looking after her baby granddaughter, Vera. She might have been a terrible mother, but she's turning into a really good grandmother and grows to love Vera. She also feels very strongly that Lois should not have abandoned her daughter, however much she didn’t want to be a mother. But Robina picks up that baton and takes on the challenging responsibilities of looking after a new-born baby. Robina is very direct and doesn't mince her words, as is Kasia who comes to live with her. How does that work out? Robina doesn’t rate her daughter-in-law very highly as a woman. In her view, being married comes with lots of responsibilities, whilst Kasia just wants to go off and fight - which isn’t what women do. All of this is making Robina question everything - she realises that she was an unhappy wife, an unhappy mother – but now she sees these young women doing it all differently which leaves her in a state of emotional chaos. Tell us about Sir James, the suave, sophisticated man who arrives at Robina’s door. Sir James, played by Mark Bonnar, is very gently wooing Robina, and she's not prepared for that at all. At first she’s wary - he's a good guy who's a bit edgy. But that makes her like him even more. He's definitely a smooth operator, pulling out all the stops… he’s also a bit younger than me which makes me look really good! And there’s a different look to her this time around… Robina’s been flirted with for five minutes, so she's let her hair down – literally! Can you describe the relationship between Robina and her son Harry? If only Robina could hold Harry and tell him: “You’re my son and I love you” - but she’s incapable of doing that. She's also very disappointed in him because he's got a ‘factory girl’ pregnant and a Polish wife who really doesn't want to be married to him. If there was one thing Robina expected in her life, it was that it would be linear and clean, but there are frayed edges and messiness everywhere - and in her opinion, Harry is the cause of all of that chaos. There are lots of period dramas – what makes World on Fire special? World on Fire is unique because it deals with so many different storylines meaning you see the war from many angles, from very personal, private, small stories to great big epic tales and you see what those people fighting on the front lines were going through. Characters like Robina feed in a bit of light relief which I think is needed in a drama about a horrific subject. But it’s a timely story and one we must never forget. WORLD ON FIRE SEASON 2 (Premiere on July 16, 2023, on BBC One)

#robina is back! #🤗 #lesley manville #world on fire #robina chase

[triviareads]

Ever since I was mildly horrified that Colin Firth is a fancast for Lisa Kleypas's Lord Westcliff (by Lisa herself which.... come on, you need to pick someone who is not hot and yet inexplicably super attractive because of his "vitality" or whatever, Lisa), I've come to realize people actually liken Westcliff to Mr. Darcy, and even call It Happened One Autumn a 'spicy" version of Pride and Prejudice which.... well, we won't get into that particular suggestion, buuuuut I do think likening Darcy to Westcliff is kind of a disservice to both characters (and calling it "spicy" Pride and Prejudice is a disservice to both texts).

For all that Westcliff is shown as this perfect paragon of aristocratic virtue, he's honestly.... kind of not. Apart from him and Darcy sharing a sense of duty and a degree of aristocratic snobbery (which, tbh, most aristocrats or gentlemen would have at the time), they really aren't all that similar personality-wise

Do I think the narrative about Darcy being a brooding borderline douchebag was pushed by by fans post-1995 Pride and Prejudice? Maybe. To a degree. But let's be real here, Westcliff comes way closer to being a dbag than Darcy ever does, particularly his hot-and-cold behavior with Lillian (the time he calls her an easy target for St. Vincent and then immediately pounces on her and fingers her in his butterfly garden comes to mind). Darcy's behavior towards Lizzy is fairly consistent; it's just, they both misinterpret one another's actions until the proposal makes everything clear. That's not to say they don't change their attitudes afterwards, but there was always civility at the least.

And I don't think Darcy is a super broody type, but he is definitely shy around people he doesn't know (awkward too), and seems like the type to socialize with a few close friends (like I'm convinced his only confidantes are Bingley, and then his own cousin Col. Fitzwilliam). Westcliff on the other hand displays no qualms about socializing in large groups, in fact, he seems to command a lot of attention in large group settings like balls and the big house parties he hosts (routinely, based on Secrets of a Summer Night, where he's described as an accomplished host).

I know it's hard to compare a text with on-page sex to a text that is much older and has no point of comparison, but there was this detail in Secrets of a Summer Night that stood out to me:

This is veering into headcanon territory but the more generous headcanon I have regarding Darcy's premarital sex life is largely "widows" and "older women" and that too... I imagine it's a limited number (otherwise, he's a virgin. or partially a virgin; that's my favorite). What I'd never think Darcy would do is "join in" with any village wenches in Lambton (a combination of his shyness and upper-class snobbery about socializing with the lower classes for fun). Nor do I think he'd he exhibitionist enough to do things with paramours at parties where friends could see him. Interestingly, in IHOA, Livia comments that Westcliff has had a few discreet affairs and nothing more, but between a secluded sister and a friend who routinely goes around town with him, I believe Simon Hunt lol; that being said Westcliff is deffo more of a society affair type than a sex worker/courtesan mistress type. To be clear, this isn't me judging Westcliff for having sex with a lot of women, it's just, again, for all that he outwardly behaves in a proper fashion, he really isn't, and has relatively relaxed views on propriety, even as he judges Lillian for her lack of it at first.

In his second proposal to Elizabeth, Darcy basically said he understands that "no means no", while Westcliff..... does not quite understand that.

Ways Westcliff is similar to Darcy:

They both are brought to their knees by women who initially don't fit within their notion of a "right" spouse. But that's such a broad trope, as is the fact that they both "save" their heroines in some sense.

There's a decent amount of language in P&P describing Darcy as a a fair-minded master and "liberal"; while I don't know enough to speculate on his actual politics (though I have read some pieces that suggest he might be, based on, among other things, the real-life figure Jane Austen may have named him after, the Earl Fitzwilliam), what we do know is that he's liberal in the sense of being a very involved master at his estate, liberal with money where his estate and tenants are involved. Basically, he's not stodgy and backwards, just like Westcliff is when it comes to his estate and tenants. Kleypas takes Westcliff's liberal attitudes a step further by aligning him with progressive causes and progressive politicians.

Look, both Westcliff and Darcy are classist to a degree; both initially balk at marrying women with connections to trade, but ultimately, they a) go ahead with marrying them anyway and b) we know they like to associate with people in trade in other ways. For example, Darcy and Bingley are good friends in the way that Westcliff and Simon Hunt are friends. Plus, we know Darcy gets on really well with Elizabeth's Aunt and Uncle Gardner (who are in trade), to the point that they're frequent visitors at Pemberley after their marriage. Basically, their snobbery is not universal.

Westcliff and Darcy are good to their siblings but even here, the actual sibling relationships are different. Westcliff is closer in age to both his sisters so their relationship is (mostly) noninterfering (tbh Westcliff exercises remarkable forbearance when McKenna returns) and Westcliff is less high-handed than I imagine Darcy is with Georgiana who, based on their age gap, likely regards him as a second father of sorts.

#lisa kleypas #pride and prejudice #mr. darcy #jane austen #historical romance #romance novels