#please learn some nuance and critical thinking skills

[spacevixenmusic]

Unfairly Maligned Games, Vol. 3

Games I loved that got low scores, review bombed, or have some other weird negative stigma attached to them that I think is unfairly earned.

NOTE: I don't believe in giving games a number score or a letter grade. Maybe I'm just bad at criticism or very easy to please, whatever.

Indivisible [2019]

Mostly only known as the "from the makers of Skullgirls" game, Indivisible is another prime example of a game that was crowdfunded as one thing but turned into another, and gets a bad rap for its association with the ever-present controversiality of Skullgirls' creators. That said, I still think - as always - that it's crucial to view a game for what it is, not what it isn't. And what it IS is an extremely engaging mish-mash of genres and endearing characters, oozing with style and appeal, that fills a very particular void left behind by some of the most classic RPGs of a bygone era.

At its core, Indivisible is a 2D Metroidvania/RPG hybrid with an unusual battle system that plays similarly to an old PSX game series called Valkyrie Profile. During combat, each character's gauge will fill up, allowing them to take action(s). Your four party members are each assigned to one of the four face buttons on a controller (e.g. A, B, X, Y), and pressing that button will - in real-time - execute an attack on the enemy. Using it in combination the D-Pad allows for several different types of attack. All party members' attacks can overlap simultaneously, allowing you to string together combos to really rack up the damage, or juggle enemies to prevent counterattacks and break their defenses. The Metroidvania and platforming portion comprises the rest of the game, with a heavy focus on using those same action skills to scale massive environments, solve platforming puzzles, and dodge spikes. Typical Metroidvania stuff.

Story-wise, in our modern world of RPGs that is dominated almost exclusively by Japanese and Scandinavian narratives, Indivisible is breath of fresh air that focuses heavily on South and East Asian mythology and themes. Heavy inspiration is taken from the cultures of India, Tibet, Mongolia, and the South Pacific. This is reflected not only in the characters and their various ethnicities, but in the game's approach to spirituality, reincarnation, second chances, and being a teenager hellbent on destroying god. Our main protagonist Ajna is a teenager studying martial arts who isn't quite as in touch with her spirituality as her mentor would like her to be. When war strikes the land and burns her home to the ground, she gets pissed and sets out on a quest for retribution, discovering in the process that she actually does possess certain godlike powers of destruction, and also that she can absorb certain people into her head, which is just a cute way of lampshading having a Party System.

I've seen Reviewers and big Opinion-Havers on the internet criticize the game's writing for having a bull-headed protagonist who boldly rushes into confrontation, unleashing her wanton destruction without first considering the catastrophic consequences for civilians. It's almost like they've forgotten what being a teenager and making poor choices is like. But I say fuck 'em. I say we need MORE stories about uninformed teenagers with immense godlike powers and no sense of nuance making rash decisions and fucking up royally. That alone is crucial to understanding the rest of the game's themes about atonement, reincarnation, and understanding why you believe what you believe in. That's what Indivisible is all about. In many ways, I feel like Ajna shares a common story arc with Korra from the Avatar series, and it's very cool to see how she learns to deal with the damage she's caused and what insight that gives her when facing down the Big Bad.

Of course, what is a good story without characters to flesh it out? The characters in this game are absolutely charming and multifaceted, coming from a wide array of different cultures and personalities, many of which are vastly underrepresented in not only RPGs but video games in general. Personal favorites include, but are not limited to, big booba water mom Thorani (based on a buddhist deity of the same name), Leilani the Hawaiian sharknado (spins around in a cyclone attack using a leiomano, a Hawaiian shark-tooth sword), lesbian pirate mom Baozhai (based on the famous Chinese pirate Ching Shih), and of course, local nihilistic swamp witch Razmi (a loose mishmash of Korean and Persian Zoroastrian shamans). The full cast of characters is enormous (well over 20 playable ones alone), and each one comes with a unique moveset and playstyle that not only keeps gameplay interesting, but matches their personality and the role they play in the story.

But if there's one thing I truly want to focus on when I gush about this game, it's this. Indivisible has one thing over most other games of its genre, something that modern RPGs in particular suffer heavily from a severe lack of, and that's its strong commitment to multiculturalism. Indivisible made a clear decision to not only feature characters from around the globe, but to blend their cultures together in interesting and exciting ways that don't diminish or water them down. Every character is allowed to shine in their own way without diluting what makes them stand out in the first place, which is why you can have a game that features a gunblade-wielding cowboy, a Namibian songstress, an armless Chinese dancer, a Kamen Rider knock-off, and a Mongolian archer who people keep mistaking for Pearl from Steven Universe. This sort of melting-pot cultural stew used to be common in classic anime and 90s RPGs, but kind of fell out of fashion with the rise of gacha waifu games and Elder Scrolls derivatives. Now more than ever, I feel like Indivisible is exactly the sort of injection the gaming world needs to rekindle those flames of pure imagination that the old classic era brought us.

All that said, one of the biggest reasons Indivisible will always have a dark mark next to its name is of course due to the fact that its lead designer (the studio head) was involved in a sexual harassment case that resulted in everyone on the team either quitting or being laid off, and the rights to the work and characters getting lost in the shuffle. Additionally, the game was still finished and released as intended, but did not feature any of the guest star characters that were promised during crowdfunding, most of whom were indie darlings of the time (Shovel Knight, Hyper Light Drifter, and Super Time Force to name a few). Naturally, this has left a sour taste in many folks' mouths, so it is somewhat understandable why the game would have a negative stigma attached. There are also a few bizarre and possibly off-putting cameos hidden among the NPCs (a few outdated meme references and Zone-tan, of all people), but these are entirely skippable and serve only as background extras.

Sour grapes aside though, I wholeheartedly recommend Indivisible for anyone looking for a fresh take on action RPGs. The neat hybridization of Metroidvania and real-time RPG with fighting game mechanics gives it a very unique identity, and if the compelling spirituality of the story doesn't grab you, the charm of the characters absolutely will. It certainly took me for a ride. My only word of caution is to follow the game's own suggestion and get good at Blocking in combat as early as you can!

#unfairly maligned games #Indivisible #ajna #metroidvania

[i-read-that-manga-for-you]

Given

Admittedly, I read this manga a long time ago. Like when chapters were still coming out. I was still in high school at the time (holy fuck) and couldn't really articulate my feelings as well as I can now.

I had left this review (bits and pieces of it) on a manga site and decided I might as well put it on my tumblr, finetuning it, of course. First post, because in spite of its flaws, Given is still close to my heart. And I reread it again (somewhat) to make this a better review. I hope each person who reads this will reimburse me with 50 cents each (jk don't). So here it is. My impression of Given, with !!some!! talk about how SA is treated in BL/Yaoi culture in general.

Or not, this is just my two cents with no anthropology degree.

Do take what I say with a grain of salt, a piece of creative media does not exist in a vacuum, but this review treats it as one at times because I'm not really skilled enough to talk about any wider implications. I'm just some guy giving my review.

Spoilers ahead. Go ahead.

TW: Sexual Assault.

Honestly, this manga made me feel a lot. Good and bad feelings. But let's focus on what I liked.

Ugetsu.

He's on the phone, shhh.

I found Ugetsu to be a very compelling character, and it was a huge shame that he vanished partway through the manga. Basically? I have no criticisms about him as a character, he has his flaws and he's nuanced. He's interesting and compelling, and it's clear that he's someone who is still growing and learning to walk on his own two feet. I won't deny that his relationship with Akihiko was very toxic, but I definitely think this isn't something that can be blamed solely on him.

But with this out of the way. Let's talk about the pairings.

Let's talk about Akiharu.

Kizu Natsuki is an amazing artist... Even when I have certain issues with this manga.

Well. I have a lot of qualms with Akiharu.

For starters, Akihiko assaulted Haruki. I'll never forget that. The fact that they ended up getting together anyway was a huge point of contention for me. Given was framed as a story about love more than a traditional story about BL/yaoi which (sorry) usually leans towards the sex. (This is not to say that sex and romance are separated, well they are but they are linked rather than being one in the same. You can have either, like they're hot/cold water but they come from the same faucet.)

But I feel that having this scene in rather than an argument feels completely wrong. I'm someone who will digest pretty much anything the world throws at me, but the Akiharu assault scene came off wrong and it came off scary. (Note: I say scary but I definitely mean much more than that, I just feel like "shouldn't be romanticized" doesn't encapsulate all of it. This topic is not something I'm qualified to talk about, so I don't want to overstep any boundaries.)

And to be honest, that's good because SA shouldn't be romanticised, for that, a big well done to our author. I just wish the aftermath was dealt with better.

This is terrifying. Please retract your words.

In spite of the SA scene being scary, afterwards all seemed to be resolved the moment it was revealed that Akihiko had nowhere else to go.

Everything for them goes uphill from here. Yay.

I just have to wonder what was the point of that buildup if you were just going to allow things to end nicely like that. With a scene like that, you'd think that the manga was saying that "SA is scary, it's terrifying and it's something that you shouldn't forget even if it's BL/Yaoi." But, why did it end up like this.

What I'm trying to say is: What does it matter that Akihiko apologised (twice), he still assaulted Haruki, he assaulted a friend. Even worse is the way that they're framed as a healthy couple afterwards, this just made me all the more uncomfortable. I feel like this is saying "SA is scary" but also saying "the power of love and friendship absolves everything". I've seen some people talk about the fact that SA happened, but haven't seen them say how it was "resolved". I think it's more to do with yaoi/BL fiction culture, that we've grown to accept SA that is unaddressed in our media to the point that Akihiko's apology is like a prayer more than something that's not even worth a second glance.

Saying that Akiharu started off rocky is an understatement, but if I pretend it never happened, I can say for sure that they are much healthier than Akigetsu, and they deserve each other. It's just not good storytelling especially because I don't really understand the motivations of Haruki liking Akihiko.

I once said that Haruki's character arc was based on Akihiko and that was my bad. I was wrong. Haruki, in fact, has a minor character arc, that isn't really to do with Akihiko, about how he feels insecure surrounded by geniuses in the band and this gets resolved by Akihiko saying that they wouldn't be able to function if all of them were geniuses, and Haruki himself seeing Akihiko hard at work. But I had completely forgotten about this arc, my bad, but my point still stands. Haruki deserved a better character arc.

I don't have a smart comment for this unfortunately. Eat your veggies??

In spite of saying this, I'm not an Akiharu hater, I swear. But I just found that ship much less compelling than Akigetsu in general. Akigetsu was a relationship where they were both incredibly toxic towards each other, there was an imbalance in the fact that Ugetsu literally owned the place they were living in, as well as how he'd kick Akihiko out whenever things were rocky. However, I think the end of their relationship was dealt well on both sides, their toxicity towards each other was framed in a negative light as it should have been. They ended the relationship and went their separate ways, this was the best ending for them. For Akiharu and Akigetsu: The difference between these two relationships is that one was dealt well and the other was dealt wrong. Akiharu deserve each other and Ugetsu deserves to learn how to grow by himself.

Anyway, another point of contention was, in spite of the healthy nature of Akiharu. Somehow, the friendship between the two couples seems to have waned and it was pretty disappointing to see. I think it started before this, but the first time it was obvious to me was this scene.

I know you're in the middle of something, but don't be mean to Mafuyu >:(.

Context: This is Chapter 40. Akiharu are in a moment of intimacy and Uenoyama is knocking at their door trying to get advice.

We've seen that Mafuyu is a very reserved person, to see that Akihiko was so ready to tell Mafuyu to stop coming over (even if it is to stop him from coming over so suddely) right to his face was extremely immature.

Basically, imagine if that had been Mafuyu. Personally, I feel like Mafuyu would have been hurt like hell and closed right back up. This scene is something played for laughs and that's something so disappointing. Given is shown to be a band of friends, but in the end it seemed more like two couples who hang out sometimes. Also the fact that both Akihiko and Haruki are pushing Uenoyama to get Mafuyu to rejoin the band. That's something else that bothers me heavily. That they're treating Mafuyu as Uenoyama's responsibility because they're dating. It's a band that is sure to fall apart if you are not making an effort to support each other equally. I mean, it doesn't have to be entirely equal but points for effort and they get no points here. It's funny because they were at least a little self-aware of this prior.

Dating in a band is something that is nuanced, of course. But it sure is funny to see them practically go down the same route they condemned.

That's my criticism of Akiharu.

So, what about the other instance of SA? I'm talking about Shizusumi and Hiiragi, of course.

Let's talk about Shizuragi.

Here they are! Let's talk about them!

Admittedly the first time around, I wasn't particularly into Shizuragi, I was too busy mourning the absense of Ugetsu. But it was during their sex scene where I realised something was very wrong. I was having flashbacks to the Akiharu assault chapter but this time it was played as "love" rather than something reprehensible. Once again, assault was in the manga and it, once again, resolved with badly.

I feel like sexual assault being played off as "love" and being resolved literally the next chapter with the victim being all kosher with it, should be garnering people's "??? what the fuck"s and not to bat for the opposing team for once but where are the complaints. I've actually seen some people talking about this chapter, but I would have expected more.

Hiiragi said he was scared and was crying, but they still fucked anyway. :D <- smile of shock.

Um what. Haha... ha........ :D <- terrifed smile of shock.

I don't know whether it would have been worse that he knew he was assaulting Hiiragi or whether he didn't know at all. But he knew.

Shizusumi confessed his love the morning after and it was all okay. But, to be honest, the fact that it was played off as being "all okay" makes this even worse. It's normal in yaoi/BL for SA to be played off as love, but you'd think that the last place you'd see this is in Given of all places. SA is SA and the fact that Hiiragi was so accepting of what happened to him afterwards says something about this the culture of BL/yaoi and how we just go along with it says something about this sentiment of how "yaoi is always going to be yaoi".

We're done? We're done.

There are no more SA scenes (that I can remember). But I do want to touch on Mafuyu and Uenoyama as briefly as possible (This is a recount of my experience after all). So, Mafuyama.

Ah, yes. The start of everything.

Admittedly, I didn't actually find their relationship super compelling. This is because I tend to get tunnel vision on characters I like (in this case, I heavily tunnel visioned on Ugetsu). I do like them both, they just didn't fit within my vision. I thought they were sweet but I also see a lot of complaints about how Mafuyu was stuck on Yuki and Uenoyama was getting backseated and I do agree with this. Kind of.

I think Mafuyu's story is about growth as a person, it's like what people say: You don't move on or lose your grief, you grow around it. Grief doesn't get smaller, you just get bigger. The person he loved died and I don't think it's fair to say that he has to get over Yuki. Grief is something that sticks with you everywhere, something you have to carry every day. They're still teenagers, they're still young and still have room to grow.

But as a story? Sheesh, instead of Haruki having no place in their circle. I felt like Uenoyama, even when he's the protagonist, wasn't given his spotlight in his own story. There is no character arc for him, there is nothing for him and that's just not fair. There are two people in a relationship, so why does it always feel like, narratively, Uenoyama always comes as an afterthought?

You could have had a character arc about this... Relationships are meant to be balanced, sweetie...

I just think it's a shame, but they're nowhere near as unhealthy as the other couples in Given, so I'm giving them a gold star.

(Minor irk, I do not remember when this happened but why the hell does Yayoi (Uenoyama's sister) get a character arc (where she comes to an understanding about Mafuyama feelings for each other, but also the gay in general) but the man himself doesn't?)

So, with Mafuyama, I feel like the story could have focused a little more on Uenoyama's side. But I feel like it's similar to how Haruki's story kind of got the backseat to Akigetsu drama happenings at the time. Shrug, we can't have it all.

He's beautiful...

That's honestly... all my thoughts. Wow! That was a lot of them. I think there's a lot to be said about how yaoi treats SA and dub-con in general, even in a manga that's not even focused on the sex.

With that said, I don't think BL shouldn't have SA or dubious scenes but the aftermath should be dealt with better afterwards. I think with Given, it's a start that the SA (at least with Akiharu) wasn't romanticised, but the aftermath was just poorly executed.

But I'm not the yaoi police, I hold no authority and I don't support purity culture. I'm not an anti-anything and I also believe that fiction should be fiction. What people enjoy should no way equate to a person's worldview. But, this was just all my perspective and my opinion. I said it and now I'm done. Haha... Anyway, my paypal is—

#given #given manga #manga review #murata ugetsu #akihiko kaji #haruki nakayama #shizusumi yagi #hiiragi kashima #just my thoughts #my silly silly thoughts #GIVE ME YOUR MONEY PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE (jk don't)

[ofwraithsandwords]

Sees: "This sort of goes into my headcanon on how Integra's father has influenced her conduct with her subordinates and her position as director, but that's another subject entirely."

May you please explain more about this! (same anon btw). I am very interested! I feel like it might be in the minority of thinking she's not a very good leader/director. Her go-to solution to most things is to send Alucard out. Which always leads to a mess. Even her father realized that using him too much could've been bad. Not sure why or how he came to that conclusion. Or if ever learned from it in his later life… But I do find it interesting that his daughter proceeded to use Alucard for everything involving vampire extermination. Even gaining a replacement for alucard in seras during the 30-year gap.

More likely, stuff like that was written for cool set pieces/fights rather than show questionable leadership choices. Thus some of my confusion comes from whether this is sloppy writing or was actually intended in some way. Also, I should end this by saying this isn't a knock on her character. I just like to overthink ideas in this manga too much.

Hey again, Anon! Sorry for the delay!

Yeah, I do feel like Integra's leadership skills are definitely lacking in certain situations, but like you said, this is likely more of a way to showcase Alucard's abilities and violence in the anime as opposed to showing how Integra is kind of an incompetent director.

But here's the thing: you have to remember that Integra was given the organization when she was...14, I think? So she basically had 7 or 8 years to learn all the ins-and-outs of not only vampires as a species, but occult/supernatural-related subjects as well AND has to direct, supervise, plan, and mitigate any incidents/operations thrown her way. All the while keeping this secret sector of the English government totally under wraps. So...no pressure?

Like you, I don't think less of Integra as a character if she's seen as a faulty leader. In fact, I think it makes sense in certain cases and makes her characterization more complex and nuanced.

Anyways, as far as my headcanons about how her father shaped some of her mannerisms goes, I think it was his more clandestine behavior is what really effected Integra the most. The womanizing, drinking, smoking, fraternizing with other officials and superiors, keeping the true nature (or at least part of) the Hellsing Organization from his only daughter - the list goes on. Being around this behavior is going to have an impact on a child, especially seeing how her father probably treated women as little more than arm candy and a means for pleasure.

I think this might've been part of what drove Integra to dress in suits, to smoke cigars, and go by "Sir" in order to be on the same pedestal as her male counterparts. You could argue that it's because only knights could join the Round Table of Protestant Knights and not dames, but honestly? It's not like they couldn't make an exception. They wouldn't have had a choice. Regardless of what your opinion is, Integra chose to go by "Sir". No one calls her Mistress Integra, Lady Integra, or Dame Integra - there's only one person that refers to her with a female title and it's the Nazi war criminal himself with "Mein Fräulein".

I also have a headcanon that until Seras showed up, Integra was very in the closet and had a good bit of internalized misogyny. I mean, she grew up around and was raised almost exclusively by men, most of which who implicitly benefited from their patriarchal government. I'm sure a few of them had a few choice things to say about women and minorities in general despite Integra being half-Indian.

Anyway, once Seras was introduced and she and Integra spent the next 3 decades together, I like to think that Integra really unlearned quite a bit of the prejudice that was put on her at an early age and came to be proud of her identity as a half-Indian woman.

Most unsavory comments are met with criticism or a good glare from her which ended up causing quite a rift between her and some of the other knights. But most of them are maggot food at this point, so it doesn't really matter.

I will say though, despite her being much more respectful than her father, she's been known to put on the charm in front of a pretty lady once in a while.

#hellsing #ask #integra hellsing #arthur hellsing #seras victoria #headcanon

[roo-bastmoon]

Reliable real-time translators

I speak some Japanese and very little French, but I know barely a word of Korean and I'm nosy... so when our boys do Lives, I like to try to follow along by using notifications on certain real-time Twitter translators whom I find to be reliable*.

I'm listing the real-time translator accounts I know of here in case anyone else finds it useful. Please also feel free to comment if you know of others--but read below for the types of accounts I cannot in good faith promote, okay?

SEL and also SEL but for WeVerse stuff

MIINIYOONGS

YOONSEO

KOO PICASSO

CLAIRE

CHARTS K

BANGTAN SUBS

Use this list at your own discretion.

*Please note: I am not a cancel-culture type of person. I'm a Gen Xer and I highly value independent critical thinking skills. I will never throw stones, nor do I typically grab a torch or pitchfork and go after someone in public.

If you're a fascist, racist, sexist, any kind of queerphobic, an anti, a manti, hate on a member, or are a rabid cult member, I will quietly report and block you and then just turn my attention to what I want out of life, not what I don't. (When I say anti, I'm also including people who post sasaeng-type content that endangers our members.)

But I do sometimes follow people I don't agree with, because I don't want to live in an echo chamber. I'm not out to police people--not their thoughts or ships or personal lives. I also allow for people to make mistakes and have flaws, because that's how humans learn, and it's especially commendable if they apologize and are working on changing.

You have to demonstrate to me the active will to lie or cause harm for me to completely reject you--and once I do that, we're done done. So please know, I am very, very careful about how I judge others. Because...

Why am I telling you this?

Because some of these translators post hurriedly and make mistakes, or they mishear, or they have to work or study and cannot always translate for all 7 members every hour of the day. Sometimes they just get it wrong. And I can absolutely forgive that. They are providing a free service, they always apologize for errors, and I know to do my due diligence and get translations from many sources, because Korean is nuanced and tonal and therefore open to some interpretation. Whenever there's a doubt, I ask a native Korean.

What I won't tolerate is a translator picking fights with native speakers, being rude to questioners, or skewing a translation in favor of their ship (or not-ship). Nor will I follow a translator who has hinted at disliking a member, no matter how far back in their past. That's where I draw my lines.

But some folks listed above may be problematic for you. That's cool. If you want to DM me with evidence of intentional wrongdoing, I will listen with an open mind and decide if I need to stop following them or listing them here. But so far, I've been following these folks for months--many of them have been systematically attacked by the cult specifically because they love Jimin or view Jikook positively. They get absolutely railroaded if they get a single phrase wrong and ratioed as antis or liars sometimes. And I'm sorry, but I know from working as an editor of translated novels back in the day, translation is HARD.

Please do your due diligence and police your own internet experience. I cannot judge for you what you find acceptable. There are big accounts that translate but also post hotel info and flight info and photos of the Tannies' homes and family and friends and vacations and rumors and if that sets right with you, that's your business. It's human to be curious and I'm not trying to be judgey, because I've honestly been curious about some of that stuff too, but that's not a loving way to be an ARMY and I'm not gonna promote those accounts.

I will say that in my experience, all humans are flawed, all money is dirty, and all life is about compromise. It's always good to ask people where they stand before making assumptions. Text errors I can forgive; malintent I cannot.

At the end of the day, people who translate with good intentions genuinely amaze me and have my respect.

It's totally fine by me if you don't agree. But don't bring drama to this post. People who bring drama will be forced to ride the drama llama, you hear?

Love, Roo

[raspberryjellybrains]

I'm thinking things again, which means I am going to make them everyone else's problem by posting about it.

Something that's always rubbed me the wrong way about fanon Magnus is that he is often depicted as stupid or oblivious, and it's recently crossed my mind why this bothers me so much, beyond the fact that it's blatantly untrue; Magnus' strength lies in his craftiness and ability to read situations and people.

In the Norse world, he doesn't have much in the way of context or strength, magical or physical, so he has to rely on wit. Throughout SoS and HoT, he is able to repeatedly assess the threat and contextualize it within his own experience to neutralize it. Which is exactly what Percy does that everyone discounts as well, and I think there's something to that.

Reading people is a hard skill. Being able to understand your opponent and surroundings, using their strengths and environment against them is something extraordinary that takes an innate ability to understand others, think creatively and critically, and do this all quickly. We, as readers, can see these skills in use while he's in danger and safe.

Magnus has an understanding of people, and that is his strength, first and foremost. He sees cracks in Ran's divine front. He understands what makes Alderman tick. He heals by seeing into other's souls and pulling on their emotional/mental fortitude to fix their physical selves. This takes intelligence and observational skills, both of which he supposedly lacks.

Now, I can understand where people are coming from with this misconception. Intelligence in use is far harder to pick out than intelligence displayed, and Magnus doesn't see himself as particularly good at anything, let alone negotiating and fighting. He's an unreliable narrator, he doesn't want to display his intelligence, so we don't see it outside of duress; when we do, it's downplayed by self-deprecation and emphasis on his weaker traits. As a narrative voice, he is entertaining and conveys events well, so it's very easy to miss the fact that he has a blindspot, and it's himself.

Now, before getting into this part of the analysis, please understand that I have several bones to pick with SotD. It gave us some good stuff, but it was a massively detrimental whimper of an ending to most characters' arcs (shoutout to hearthstone. dude was so well written I literally cannot emphasize this enough). I hate that book insomuch as I can hate any individual book in a series.

That aside, in Ship of the Dead, we see Magnus fully learn to let go and depend on his friends when he is weak— problem is, he has far more friends than weaknesses. Rather than actually go internally and prod him to develop, to understand himself in a meaningful and nuanced way, we let him do that for everyone else. Magnus develops this particular habit of healing everyone else's hurt before his own to distract himself from the fact that it exists and he doesn't know how to heal it. There is no cake made of puppies and rainbows he can eat and be happy, or magical glowing hand he can press to his chest that will heal the wounds that have been open and weeping for years which are holding him back from trusting himself, and finding confidence. At the last moment, we as an audience, are robbed from the ending to his arc and doomed to always think of him in a partial state which compromises and questions it's own constitution.

Magnus is a smart character, and will do anything in his power to keep everyone from knowing that. So they won't.

TLDR; I get why this misconception exists, that doesn't make it less wrong. also, this bitch needs psychiatric assistance.

#please also understand that i am a magnus kinnie who is insecure abt my intelligence so this is a sore spot for other reasons lmao #pov u just wrote a page of analysis about the dangers of downplaying oneself and then proceeded to do exactly that #its okay when i do it tho bc im armed with coping mechanisms and no actual need to save the world 😼 #he needs a lot of psychiatric help. some therapy please i dont care what kind something please. #he also just like doesnt care about half of the time which #okay yeah real #but also. buddy you need that info. please store it. #magnus chase #mcga #mcga meta

[hardestgrove]

like not to get too deep on my stranger things shitposting blog but like, people being so rampantly anti billy but lacking and thought or nuance to that argument or trying to moralize their dislike of his character instead of just saying "i just don't like him" (which is literally a valid reason all on it's own) is in part directly because challenging material being removed from school curriculums, the increasingly poor quality of the american education system and the focus on standardized testing. Also a cause of this is places like tiktok which are finely tuned capitalist time sinks that create addicting doom scrolling echo chambers built to both make you feel bad and spoon feed you validation of a limited point of view so they can make money off of you.

In elementary school my art teacher was a ww2 survivor, sometimes he would gather us all in the projector room tell us stories from his childhood instead of showing us slides of Dali and Rembrandt. Not all of them were happy, some people would argue should not have been told to children our age even thought they happen to him in his real life when he was around 12. But these stories are foundational to me and my understanding of the world now. I loved this man deeply and he helped to inspire my love of art and creativity and helped art be the field I want to work in to this day.

I read Maus in high school which people have recently spoke of banning and watched Persepolis. I took a class about the literary use of the "Monster" and the "Other" where we read things like Frankenstein and watched Bladerunner and talked about the groups these monsters where metaphors for. We had a whole class discussing how many "monsters" are just people with conditions that were then demonized for their otherness (did you know the insult "pinhead" originated as an insult/slur against people with malformed skulls usually from microcephaly who were then exploited in freak shows?). I took a course on satire where we read A Modest Proposal (which is a slam against the English landlords who were treating the irish horrifically at the time, not a dude proposing they ate babies).

In college I took an entire mandatory course in my freshman year at art school called critical inquiry where we went through all the different kinds of theory-- Marxist, feminist, queer etc.

All media has a message, even dumb popcorn blockbuster shows. In some ways it is all propaganda. Critical thinking is important to understanding the world around you. Being able to understand multiple points of view is critical to interacting with the world. Schools are more and more less likely to teach these skills for reasons ranging from no time to actively suppressing them which leaves children open to getting a lot of info online with very little way of engaging with it in a way where they can think for themselves and pick it apart. This fandom skews young and it shows because there's very little genuine thinking, discussion and analysis of the text and a lot of frankly poorly considered takes and dickhead behavior.

I urge younger folks to engage with problematic content and listen to video essays and podcasts and whatever that explain critical thinking concepts and different kinds of theory used in analysis. If it feels like your school isn't teaching you how to be able to really seriously think for yourself please use the nightmarish hellscape that is the internet to find people who will and even when you find those sources be critical of them and never completely assume they're right, always ask "what's their angle?". Learn about dog whistles and indoctrination tactics. Learn how to protect your brains and how to engage with texts more completely for your own growth, entertainment and education and so you don't get blindsided by fucked up subtexts you didn't even realize where there and accidentally let shape your thinking.

#train.txt #once again THIS IS LONGER THAN I WANTED lol #god i got other shit to do i need to shut up but YES my final thought on this for now

[pizzasteveofficial]

Im just gonna say it cuz its been on my mind for a bit like I follow both proships and antis because I understand where both sides are coming from and I think my take on fandom is pretty nuanced now as I've been in fandom for over 15-16 years. Anyways, the reason I'm making this post is because there was a 27 year old who kinda drew like a 2 year old which fine whatever you do you and I thought all her posts were ironic. Like all the "this ship is valid that ship is valid" I thought were made to get a knee jerk reaction out of people who are too goddamn online to understand satire. Well, jokes on me, turns out those posts were NOT satire as I saw her legitimately draw an Adult character with an underage character like it was a fucking NORMAL thing people do. And I was so horrified that I ended up unfollowing like. LMAO I don't think people deserve death threats over shipping and I do understand fiction and reality are 2 separate things, but like. Fiction has SOME effect on reality and we can't enjoy things willy nilly without critically thinking about it. And it just boggles my mind that theres 2 sides of this coin in fandom now where you're either a proshipper (condone every single ship under the sun with no critical thinking) or an anti (hate every single ship that isn't pure). I personally think both communities are fucked. Y'all need to learn critical thinking skills. The whole lot of you. Liking a problematic ship or problematic piece of media doesn't automatically make you a reprehensible person, but at the same fucking time if you're shipping like incest or writing about some controversial stuff you should absolutely sit down and think about WHY you're doing it. Do you REALLY think that ship dynamic is "hot and sexy" or are you processing trauma? Do you really think that problematic ship dynamic is normal or is it something you find interesting from a story telling point of view? Like fr everyone on both sides, I'm telling you, fucking THINK about the stuff you consume!!! Please for the love of god turn your fucking brain on I'm

[bronan]

Hi, Agura and Tezz bingo 💕

please

agura:

I love Agura a lot, I love how tough she is and how she was literally out there fighting for her life as the only girl on a team of smelly teenaged boys. I think her concept as the hunter/tracker is incredibly cool, and the way she and Stanford bicker over who would be in charge in Vert’s absence is funny because tbh neither of you are really ready to be leader ffkdxk.

She always seems like she has to keep this strong front up and I think that is a really interesting aspect of her character, but it also tends to make her abrasive and she's quick to criticize and judge others. She does it in a joking, jabbing sort of way a lot, but sometimes you can really tell she’s mad at someone or disappointed in them and I do wish that her tendency to criticize so openly had been properly touched upon (like if Vert had been able to pull her aside and ask if everything is okay, or she could have had a heart-to-heart with one or both of the Cortez bros, or even had a proper talk with Stanford). It was just a really great opportunity for character growth; to me, it’s what separates her from Vert as far as “leadership material” goes. Vert has this steady patience and Agura lets herself get wound up more easily. 

I do think she lets her emotions get the better of her sometimes but tries really, REALLY hard not to and I appreciate that a lot about her. Calmness and patience don’t come as easily to everyone. I enjoy complicated characters who act human. I just wish we’d seen more to her personality or, at least, had observed her being called out now and then because she can be a bit of a jerk - they all can, and have been! I think her rivalry with Stanford was funny for a while but it started to just kind of drag on and I wonder if it ever wore Stanford down, you know? He definitely deserved some of the ribbing but ultimately, it’s hard not to take that kind of stuff to heart and being attacked for every little mistake you make is bound to put anyone on the defensive. I think Agura just holds the team to a really high standard and gets frustrated easily, one of those “No, let me just do it” type of people. She’s really, really interesting to me.

also yeah she would intimidate the hell out of me if we met, I feel like I would just make an absolute fool out of myself in front of her and her expression would let me know dsfnjcdjj 😔

tezz:

for as much of a shithead as he was, tezz got WAY more character growth than I expected out of that show. And I do tend to give him more leeway because he spent half of his life in space, alone, during the years where he should have been developing social skills and learning how to be a..well...person. Isolation would make anyone go insane but it just made him a rude-ass perfectionist. I do feel like tezz relates more to sentients than humans, but he does have the desire to bond with people and just doesn't know HOW.

I think tezz is a really complicated character who is misunderstood by his peers, and he wasn't ever given the proper tools to be able to communicate with them how he wants to. He was a hell of an advanced kid, sure, but it's clear home boy is neurodivergent and I just think he genuinely struggles to talk to anyone or express himself emotionally. Being in isolation like that also did him a great disservice, but I do think he was cocky and standoffish before his one way ticket to moon prison.

That being said, he can still be a massive jerk and I don't think he is completely oblivious to the effect his words and actions have on those around him. He's like yes I understand you are upset but who give a shit. smfh dude

also Tezz can never work alone he NEEDS a team. There's so many nuanced things that go right over his head, he needs a balanced ecosystem for him to operate at his full potential.

the difference between tezz and agura as far as being a jerk goes is that tezz, repeatedly, had consequences for how he acted. Vert was on him, man. But like in a nice way. BUT FIRM. Vert is a great leader. Anyway they made it a point for Tezz to be put in situations where his behavior had consequences, he had to admit he was wrong, he was allowed to show humanity and care for others that wasn't "logical". I think they took more care with Tezz's character than anyone else's, probably. Tezz got a lot of screen time compared to the others, but it was not ENOUGH I needed MORE. oh well. season 3

shit I never explained the wasted potential. ok so as far as it goes with sherman and tezz, I really wish they had explored how tezz is smart in one direction and sherman is smart in the other, and how they overlap but ultimately veer off and that causes them to have conflict with each other. Arguments over who is right, etc. It just would have been really cool to be like “well tezz thinks like this and sherman thinks like that, they are both REALLY REALLY smart and can both come to the same answer, but they will get there in entirely different ways and they have to really work at working together in order to come to solutions peacefully because they both have their own scientific method they want to impose on the other.”

#bf5 #ask game #now these are two characters who I feel kinda similarly about but in different ways... #it just comes down to how the show and the other characters treated them and if they were ever held accountable #I love ALL the bf5 characters and am SUPER normal about them all. But some got more growth than others fo sho #please don't let the takeaway of this be that I dislike agura but excuse tezz for the same stuff I am also holding a gun to tezz's head #I LOVE THEM BOTH A LOT I just wanted to see...more... MORE!!!

[fluentisonus]

.

#okay this isn't very coherent and I'll delete it in a bit but: #hh I’d forgotten how much I dislike a whole chunk of tolkien's fanbase #and how they're absolutely determined to see him and all his work as perfect and pure and past criticism #please learn to criticize things you like! please realize these things have flaws! #denying at all turns that tolkien can be racist and classist and antisemetic and conservative isn't doing anything helpful #he's a white guy from the 20th century writing fantasy he's not some moral bastion. just treat him like a normal person #he can be progressive in some ways and still bigoted in others it's not an all or nothing game #like god I'm enjoying lord of the rings but if I have to see one more person saying stuff lik #'he's not racist! all the evil people from the south and east and being described as having darker skin and racial features is a coicidence #or like 'he can't be antisemetic! he wrote a nasty letter to the nazis once'. I will scream #please learn some nuance and critical thinking skills #you (like me) can have a deep emotional attachment to tolkien's work and still acknowledge all of these things. #I promise it's possible #he's one of the most beloved authors of all time he genuinely doesn't need defending #anyways. this is not all his fans I've seen just as many totally reasonable people #but the others fill me with visceral frustration #thoughts #tolkien

[ashesandhackles]

The Hogwarts Express scene in Prince's Tale: A Sirius and Snape analysis

I really, really enjoy Sirius and Snape as characters and their respective narrative functions in story. But what gets me most about them is how much Rowling hints about their backgrounds and so much of it makes sense with regard to who they are as adults. So I am going to be breaking down a very small scene from Prince Tale and getting into long winded hypothesis about their respective childhoods.

So, let's start with Snape. The scene begins with Snape rushing to find Lily, already in his Hogwarts clothes. Harry notes he must have been eager to get out of his clothes - ones that look like he borrowed from his mother, as Petunia spitefully pointed out. This has always been a very interesting detail to me - first off, it indicates how poor Snape's family is. Second, this indicates his tiny rebellion from his father - he refuses to wear clothes of the abusive man, and prefers his mother's. I admit, I am partial to the reading that Snape refuses to associate with his father in tiny ways, rather than Tobias refusing to hand his son clothes.

(I have seen readings which say that it is also a sign of neglect - perhaps his parents bought clothes that simply don't fit him, but I am more inclined to think it's a hand me down, simply because Harry identifies so strongly with it. Because Harry knows what it is like to wear a hand me down that don't quite fit, that are too big for you, or the ones that make you look ridiculous.)

Lily and Petunia's relationship is fraught with Petunia's jealousy. And young Lily is upset over it when Snape meets her. "I am not talking to you. Tuney hates me" she tells him. "Because we saw the letter from Dumbledore". Young Lily shows signs of being extremely emotionally reactive and this scene is one of them. It's easier for her to deal with Petunia's rejection of her by telling Snape she doesn't want to talk to him. It's a childish displacement of her hurt over her sister's rejection. (I am genuinely baffled by interpretations that Lily and Hermione are similar. Hermione is very cognitive person, Lily, as we have been shown repeatedly in memories, is not).

Snape, however, with his bad history with Petunia and his inability/ poor social skills to understand why this matters to her, goes: "So what?"

Lily, who throws him a look of deep dislike, says "So she's my sister". This seed is important because this is what develops into "he doesn't get me" feeling she later displays in her teenage scenes with him. Interestingly, most of Lily's personal relationships have deeply interwined love and dislike - Petunia (whose rejection bothers her but she cheerfully informs Sirius that Harry nearly broke a vase her sister sent - which means there is resentment on her end too), James - who she was attracted to even before 7th year but also disliked at one point, and Snape - again, a contentious friendship filled with love and distance.

"She's only a -" we dont get to hear what Snape intended to say. And given his own acrimony with Petunia, it could be anything. However, I read it as "She's only a Muggle" because it ties into his feelings about his father. Snape, who is proud of being half a Prince, emphasizing his magical lineage from his mother's side, his refuge in a violent, neglectful home. (Barty Crouch Jr and Snape with their disappointing fathers - I imagine Voldemort is supremely attractive leader to people with broken homes like this)

Snape, by all accounts, shows a disorganised attachment style. His caregiver, his mother - and perhaps the only parent he seems to have regard for, is too preoccupied by her own abuse to be there for her son - we see this in glimpses Harry sees in OOTP: " woman cowering" where a man shouts at her, and a young, neglected Snape cries in the corner. Children born in homes like this have trouble regulating their emotions, simultaneously displaying tendencies to aggressively lash out or show disassociative symptoms. Both of which Snape displays. Statistically, this is also seen more in low income households where economic instability and resulting domestic instability creates an unsafe environment for the kids to safely form ideas of their identity, or express emotions in healthy ways, modelling instead out of behaviour seen at home.

Then, Snape reminds her that they are going to Hogwarts. He is already in his Hogwarts clothes - now, Snape gets to be the impressive figure. The one who told her about magic, who theorised about how Muggles get letters from magical people, the one who told her about Dementors and Azkaban. He has already left behind the Spinner's End version of him, he wants to bigger than that, and is keen to be in place of magical learning and to join Slytherin. Essentially, he shows signs of unstable identity, insecurity - all prime for grooming into a cult.

And here comes along James Potter, who looks around at the mention of Slytherin. James's comment uses Snape's line and directs it to Sirius instead and it becomes a conversation between them, as a way to bond more with a fellow "rowdy boy" Sirius. Effectively ignoring the other two.

Sirius as we see here, "does not smile" when James talks about Slytherin. He essentially says something that can be construed as a way to nip that conversation in bud: "My whole family has been in. Slytherin". This suggests to me that there is some loyalty to his family there and his disillusionment with them isn't entirely fixed yet. After all, Sirius's intense loyalty to his friends, more specifically James, did not come out of thin air. It is reasonable to suggest that he felt some loyalty to his family at some point and the intensity with which he regards his friends is a reaction to burned off and being a "displaced person without a family" as Rowling put it.

Interestingly, while his reaction to his mother and Bellatrix are obviously sore spots, his response to Regulus is comparatively quite soft. ("Stupid, idiot" - something he calls James later on in the same book, OOTP). I imagine Sirius has quite complicated feelings about his brother and he is capable of nuance (when the person isn't Snape, where his dislike seems to be borne of an intense projection): "The world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters". As someone who is grown up among them, Sirius would understand that.

His framing of Regulus's need to please his parents also further highlights what exactly is the source of disillusionment. He calls Regulus "soft enough to believe them" - which means he is crediting his own intelligence to see through his parents bigoted world view. Clearly, bigotry is not something the Blacks explained in a way that Sirius, eldest of their male line and their heir, bought it. It also probably didn't help the Blacks case that Grimmauld Place is in a Muggle neighborhood and that their eldest son is a bit of a wild boy with interest in pushing boundaries. His intellectual disconnect leads to the righteous rage he later feels but it began there. (Boy, it must suck to discover that everything you have been taught to value in the world and in yourself as the heir is essentially rubbish). Since his differences with his family began with seeds of intellectual disconnect rather than on intense empathy with downtrodden, it makes him, as a pureblooded privileged boy, unable to truly understand Lupin's fears regarding his lycanthropy. Hence, the Werewolf prank (I am not getting to the Snape bit, just the Lupin bit). To James' credit, he does understand what that means for Lupin and saves all three of them from different set of consequences.

Anyway, back to the scene. James, who has made an ass of himself in front of his new friend, who he was getting along with fine until now, then goes "Blimey, I thought you seemed alright". (Btw, I find James wildly large ego kind of hilarious here, especially in light of Snape's comment about him to Sirius in OOTP: "You will know he is so arrogant that criticism simply bounces off him"). Sirius, who I believe has been raised like "royalty" as Blacks would, has good enough social skills to defuse a situation. He grins and says: "Maybe I will break the tradition".

This line is an indication of Sirius's desire for independence, an identity seperate from his family. The use of the word "tradition" is interesting. It sounds like Sirius is expected to behave in a certain way, the heir of Black family whose parents thought being a Black "made you practically royal". Adult Sirius is contemptuous of this, or their "valuable contribution to Ministry" which means they just gave gold - it tells me that any and all conditions put on him by his family were to fulfill tradition that is either worthless or holds no meaning in his eyes. The root of the emotional abuse Sirius suffers from his family is this - realising his parents love for him is conditional on him being a certain way. (In fact, you can read Regulus desire to emphasise his connection to the family as a reaction to what he sees with Sirius - Sirius does not behave, Mum and Dad don't love him). As a child with unconscious knowledge of lack of love, Sirius then acts out, they react, rinse and repeat "until he has had enough". Sirius chafes against boundaries well into adulthood and doesn't react well to people enforcing it on him, even if it is out of love for him. Cue the fire scene with Harry where he behaves as if Harry is rejecting him instead of protecting him.

Sirius asks James about where he wants to go, and Snape, who is incensed about James being insulting about a House he put stock in, which he made part of new identity (so that he is no longer that Snape boy from Spinner's End) and was in general trying to be impressive about in front of Lily, "makes a disparaging noise" once James talks of Gryffindor. Snape's response to James' : "Got a problem with that?" is interesting. He says: "If you'd rather be brawny, rather than brainy-"

This is an important value for Snape. He knows he is clever and values it. He spends his spare time inventing hexes, making great shortcuts to Potions. He has genuine thirst for learning and he hones it. In SWM, we see that he has written far more longer answers than anyone else, he is poring over his paper after exams. He even mocks Hermione's lack of inventive answers: "Answer copied word to word from the textbook, but correct in essentials". He values originality. It may be me stretching this, but I am partial to the reading: this is his way of rejecting his father once again, who is implied to be a violent man. (in other words, someone who is hypermasculine - "brawny". In fact, Snape's rejection of hypermasculinity is a huge post on it's own - Potions (brewing, cauldrons - coded as feminine arts), the doe Patronus, his proficiency in Occlumency and Legliemency (intuitive mind arts, again seen archetypically feminine) etc).

"Where are you hoping to go, seeing as you are neither?" - Sirius is quick with emotionally cutting insults. Snape hasn't even finished his sentence, but Sirius is already on his case. Which suggests growing up in a household with sharp tongues. It's a fair assumption, given Mrs Black's half mad portrait. It also tallies with Sirius's talking about his mother: "My mother didn't have a heart Kreacher, she kept herself alive out of pure spite" . The wounds are fresh enough on this. (Another interesting way Snape and Sirius act as inverse mirrors - Snape rejects his father, Sirius rejects his mother. Sirius acts as proxy for James for Harry while Snape takes on Lily's role of protecting him). However, you know who else is spiteful? Sirius.

While James is the physical bully (the tripping Snape, doing most of the bullying in SWM), Sirius attacks emotionally. ( Sample the one about Snape's appearance - "I was watching him, his nose was touching the parchment, there will be great grease marks all over it, they won't be able to read a word" or even the carelessly vicious- "Put that away, before Wormtail wets himself in excitement"). Curiously, with all that talk of how his mother being spiteful, it's her room he spends time in when he is depressed. (Again, in inverse mirror way, we can talk of how Snape looks for a father figure in Dumbledore - craves his validation and is proud of Dumbledore's trust in him). We could argue it's also because Buckbeak is there, and perhaps it's the largest room in the house, but it's very telling that's where Sirius spends time when he is "in a fit of sullens". Sirius's sense of abandonment from his family, makes him look for family connections with friends - a trait he shares with Harry. Interestingly, the first time he glimpses Harry in Privet Drive, Harry is also running away from home - just like he did. Anyway, I could go on.

#harry potter analysis #severus snape #snapedom #sirius black #Sirius black analysis #snape analysis #padfoot #lily evans #lily potter #hp snack #the black family #walburga black #Tobias snape #deathly hallows chapter #the prince's tale #harry potter and deathly hallows #harry potter #meta #pro snape #hp meta

[foibles-fables]

Hi miss fables.

any tips on writing like you?

also can we get an ETA for Hawk and Thrust?(no pressure tho)

Oh my goodness what a polite salutation, I adore it!!!

Tips on writing like me?? suffer, daily. KIDDING. Kinda. This is a tough question to answer--there's no one-size-fits-all advice, especially when talking in terms of style. Every writer's style is different, each with its own little ticks and nuances, and everyone's gotta find their own groove. The best advice I can give is twofold:

First, practice, practice, practice. I've been at this for a long time, and I'm still learning and growing and changing. And practice different kinds of it, too. My educational and career background kept me working when I took a long hiatus from creative writing--lots of formal and scientific writing in college, lots of technical writing at work now--and the practice there certainly transferred to my jump back into creative writing after a decade. Write for you, write what you're passionate about, craft some emails, make magnet poetry, try to think of a new Wordle opener daily. It all adds up.

Second, read! Read a lot and read often. (I need to take my own advice here and pick up the pace with it again.) And read varied materials--anything that hooks you in. Read fanfiction, yes, but also please read novels. Or read short stories. Or comics. Read nonfiction. Read autobiographies. Read research papers. Read game guide books. Read screenplays and stage scripts and librettos. Read poetry. Read nature guides. Read news articles and editorials (and apply your beautiful critical thinking skills!). Read obituaries. Read how-to guides. Read song lyrics. And in figuring out the things you enjoy reading, think about why you enjoy them. Take what that creator's done and--going back to point one--try to apply it to your own work. Experiment and branch out. Bringing these pieces you like together is what coalesces your own style.

That's the best I can do, besides like--just saying to suffer again, because that's sometimes how it feels on my end, lmao.

AS FOR Hawk and Thrust! Hah! It is still underway after this weird week of floating in Listlessness City. I don't have an exact ETA on it yet, but I'm finally feeling the weirdness of...well, all That lift off of me. And now I'm more determined than ever to bring y'all this ✨Officially Canon Divergent✨ Between-Installments Smut. What do I have to lose at this point? I'm also brewing a Number of other HFW-adjacent pieces (at lots of different spots on the spectrum of canon divergence and canon compliance), so watch this space?! I promised y’all I was only going to get Worse about these two. I'm about ready to fistfight with a god.

#writing stuff #foibles is writing horizon stuff #hawk and thrust #(lol) #have a lovely day anon!

[cancerbiophd]

I'm defending my dissertation this summer in biomedical engineering. I'm looking for jobs and postdocs, but I feel unqualified for most of them. Because I had so little funding for my research, I didn't get to learn and use some methods like PCR, Western blot, flow cytometry, etc. except ELISA and Luminex. Most job listings say you're required to have proficiency in methods like these. I would otherwise be qualified, and the research is right up my alley. Am I better off getting a postdoc for further training, or are any of these jobs actually more forgiving about your skills and willing to train you?

Hi anon! Congrats on defending soon and getting that sweet sweet PhD!

My short and sweet answer is: 

Play to your strengths. Don’t let the companies hold all the cards. If you’re an expert on ELISAs and Luminex, then companies seeking candidates with that kind of experience would love you on their team, even if you may not have experience with other skills. 

Apply to as many positions as you can, including the ones where you may not think you qualify 100% for, because a) a candidate checking all the requirements in a job posting is rare and b) in some cases, a company or lab would be more than happy to spend time training you on specific techniques if they think you’re a great fit for the team.

If you feel that expanding your skills as a post-doc would be a good investment for your career, then for sure also apply to them as well. It’s also always helpful and reassuring to have more than one job option in the end too!

The post-school (no matter which level) job search can be a tough and time-consuming journey, so just keep throwing your ball into as many courts as possible. Getting into industry straight out of grad school without a post-doc first is especially hard for some fields, and may require dozens and dozens of applications and interviews over many months. 

Here’s the long and detailed answer:

Firstly, leverage your strengths. Outside of your technical prowess at ELISA and Luminex, these are some of the transferable strengths of hiring a PhD (no matter what field) that can benefit a company, and thus are aspects you can highlight in your cover letter/CV/interviews:

As far as basic knowledge goes, we’re experts in our fields. True, we don’t know everything, but when confronted with something new, just give us a few days, because we’re very good at getting to the nitty gritty bottom of things. 

PhD’s are fast learners, creative problem solvers (especially when given limited resources, like in your situation), and very dedicated to whatever task is on hand. 

And in order to do that, we’re meticulously organized, have great time management skills, and for those of us who have had undergrads in the lab, we have some experience in delegating tasks and managing personnel.

We have great communication skills: both oral (public speaking), and written (manuscripts). 

For those of us who have been successful at receiving financial awards (eg. fellowships, grants, etc), we’re proven ourselves great at marketing our work. 

We can take punches (criticism) and adapt well. 

And we have grit. The fact that we survived walking through hell and back for 4+ years proves our dedication and commitment to hard work. 

Secondly, let’s talk about job postings themselves and how they may not tell the whole story:

Some job postings may highlight the skills and goals that the candidate will become proficient in during the job, especially if it’s directly related to the company’s intellectual property. So it may not be necessary (or realistic) to be skilled in those yet.

The job posting itself may also be very broad and non-specific to the actual position (and is just a boilerplate posting the company likes to use for whatever reason), and thus may not actually include all the nuanced criteria the hiring manager/team is looking for. (I know from experience that Roche does this.)

Lastly, having a candidate right out of grad school who is proficient in every single one of the skills listed on a job posting is unrealistic. And companies know this, but they can still dream about the “perfect 1 in a million candidate” who may magically meet their wish-list. But realistically? That person most likely does not exist. 

Next, here are some scenarios when a team would hire a candidate who does not necessarily have experience in all the listed skills:

The candidate can prove themselves to be a fast and eager learner of those new skills.

The candidate has other desirable skills that the hiring team would value equally (which may or may not be listed in the actual job application, but you can certainly highlight in your cover letter).

The candidate’s personality works well with the rest of the team (sometimes it’s way more important to hire someone who will get along with the current employees than someone who checks all the boxes because protocols can be taught, but personality can not be changed). 

The technical skills that the job requires are not readily available or taught in a grad school setting, especially if it’s really cutting edge and/or part of the company’s intellectual property. 

Bonus: the candidate has network connections within the company/team who can vouch for their talent, work ethic, personality, etc. 

So, in conclusion: If a company is hiring a PhD specifically, the candidate’s transferable skills may be more valuable than their technical skills because techniques can be taught in just a few weeks or months, but those transferable skills take years to perfect. Therefore, as long as you meet the basic criteria (like education and experience level) and have experience in some of the listed technical skills, you should definitely apply. 

Lastly, just to end with a few notes of realism/other misc tips:

Technical experience is still important, especially if the hiring manager is specifically looking for that in a candidate. It may also be the deciding factor between two candidates who are otherwise equal in attributes. Some hiring managers may even put those experiences higher in priority than transferable skills, like if they need someone to hit the ground running when they start.

There is less job applicant competition in smaller companies/start-ups than in big established companies. The more competitive a position, the more “sparkle” the applicant must have, such as a post-doc or multiple publications, or being an internal candidate (someone who already works there), or was referred by the hiring manager/team, etc. So, pretty tough door to crack ajar (though not impossible!)

If it’s important to you to gain more experience in more diverse research techniques, then a post-doc would be the best path to take. I normally think post-docs should not be necessary for industry, but I think in your situation it may be a really great path to take in order to learn more techniques and to see what it’s like working in a well-funded lab (the differences in opportunities and organization can be pretty eye-opening). In addition, one of the downsides of industry is that because a company has its own specific niche in the market, your repertoire of lab techniques may start getting narrower and narrower. 

I recommend working with a recruiter. In exchange for a small % of your eventual salary, they will work with you to find open positions, get your application to the hiring manager, and in some cases will also help coach you in interviews. The easiest and most passive way to get in touch with one is to create a LinkedIn profile and set your status as Looking for Work (or something like that, I forgot what the exact verbage is), and usually a recruiter will personally message you soon after that. 

Wow that answer was way longer than I anticipated! But I always try to dump out as much knowledge as I have because I’m hoping something there will help! Good luck anon, and congrats again on finally seeing that finish line! Please don’t hesitate to reach out again if you have any further questions. 

#Anonymous #job advice

[nothorses]

hello! this is a story of sorts i don't need advice for once lmao i just thought you would be able to share in my frustration and disgruntled amusement

i'm a trans boy and i live in pakistan, and, as you may be aware, we have a significant problem in terms of women's rights and safety. one of the latest and most prominent women's rights movements here is the aurat march (aurat directly translates to woman, although it has more,,, biology focused connotations as well, etymologically speaking, which is something that the movement's opposition has a lot of issues with 🙄). this is essentially an annual citywide protest where feminists and feminist allies come together and march through certain areas of the city and chant slogans etc. there's usually a theme - this year it's 'women's health issues' - and a charter of demands.

around a year ago i really wanted to be a part of all this. but I've recently come to realize that it's actually a very superficial gesture. the march itself is mostly carried out by relatively privileged, upper middle class people from urban areas. the demands are never met, because this is an appeal to the people of the nation rather than the government (even though the demands require change in legislature). at most, it provides a communal space for a select group, and raises awareness to an extent. the value of this shouldn't be downplayed, but there is an ironic trend of people who think that the aurat march is the epitome of feminism that pakistan needs and simply refuse to hear anything otherwise.

i reposted a twitter thread on my social media; the thread was talking about how, essentially, the march cannot achieve anything more than some benefits for women in urban, already privileged circles; how a lot of it has been weaponized against women (you'll find a lot of articles about this if you look up "aurat march pakistan" or the phrase "mera jism meri marzi pakistan"); how we need to reform this approach or start anew if we want to bring about actual change.

sounds reasonable yeah? it is a perfectly valid criticism, not undermining the importance of the movement but explaining how it should be improved upon.

except it was written by a cis man.

when i reposted it, i reposted along with the accompanying tweet that actually brought it onto my feed: "stay out of women's business nobody asked for your stupid opinion", by a woman. in my own repost, i wrote something about how liberal feminists cannot handle when a man has valid constructive criticism.

and cue SO many other people who i don't even talk to anymore deciding to slander me behind my back for "hating on feminism". ironically, one of these people was a cis man who i cut off because he tried explaining to me why saying kill all men is a good and harmless thing. when THAT conversation happened, he was completely at a loss for words when he found out i was trans, after arguing with me about it for over an hour. side note: i think it's very telling that he thought he could explain a "feminist slogan" to me when he thought i was a cis girl, but then went totally quiet when it turned out my arguments had credibility especially because of my trans identity.

anyway. it's very disappointing to learn how many people around me lack basic critical thinking skills.

love you! hope you're doing well. in the process of writing this i've realized i would love to speak more about feminism in pakistan, so if you'd like hearing about that, please say so!

Wow, yeah, that is a great (and extremely frustrating) example of how liberal, mainstream feminism tends to be geared toward performative activism and arbitrary “rules” that are sort of just... echoes of more nuanced feminist theory.

It reminds me a lot of America’s “Women’s Marches”, which iconically features the pink “pussy hat” (pink knitted beanie with cat ears) because like... lol. The bio-essentialism and surface-level, performative, white-centric and middle/upper class-centric feminism is just so strong. 

I would love to hear more about feminism in Pakistan! Thank you for sharing this story! I hope you’re doing well, too. 💙

#feminism #trans #transmasc #Anon #Ask

[the-sinking-ship]

Top 5 of 2020

Rules: It’s time to love yourselves! Choose your 5 (ish) favourite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world in 2020. Tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

I was tagged by @tackytigerfic and @sitp-recs (🤯🤯🤯) and I’m so honored!! Thank you!! I’ve seen this tag floating around and have tried to read every single one I come across because I absolutely love hearing the things authors appreciate about their work. I’m a big supporter of strong-arming friends into self-love because it is so easy to be overly critical of our creative endeavors. 

I’m pretty new around here (I’ve only been posting Drarry since October), but I managed to publish four fics, all of which I am proud of for completely different reasons.

I’m still heckin’ anxious about tagging others because I’m new/just getting to know people and worry I’ll be that annoying person where ya’ll are gonna see my tag and be like THIS BITCH AGAIN?! But I will probably retroactively tag some people if I notice they haven’t had a chance to do this. Everyone should take the time to reflect on their accomplishments, especially after this trash fire of a year. Ya done good!  

Anywho! Here we go. 

1. Criminal. I’m so proud of this fic because a) I love it b) I finished it and c) I actually published it. A tip of my hat to anyone and everyone who has ever completed a piece of writing over 50k because SURPRISE! It’s hard. But I also learned that I fucking love it. That it is what I do best. It is honestly my comfort zone, always has been and always will be. I wrote this fic in complete isolation. I hadn’t yet been introduced to all the lovely and supportive people in this fandom/on the Drarry Discord and wrote Criminal alone, without beta help or cheerleaders, which I’ve discovered is a very lonely process. I didn’t really know if anyone would accept my story or even read it, but I finished it anyway (which, for a person with a wicked case of praise kink, was honestly terrifying). I’m not at all ashamed to say that I’ve read the comments people have left on this fic dozens of times. I’ve felt that telltale lump in my throat because of them. I’ve left them in my inbox for days because just looking at them gives me hope and confidence that words I write can bring joy to others the way other people’s fics have brought me joy. 

2. Stupid Love. This was something I wrote in an almost feverish haze while editing Criminal. Tacky, if you’re reading this, I owe you a debt of gratitude because not only are you a gift to this fandom for your skill, wisdom, and infinite kindness, you are legendary for your fic recs. You were one of the first to shout-out this fic in the Drarry discord and act as my fic-pusher, and because people trust your impeccable taste, they read it. So, thank you for taking a chance on a newcomer.  

I’ve always been insecure about my voice as a writer as it possesses almost none of the qualities I admire in other people’s work (subtlety, nuance, restraint). It’s like, whereas I enjoy a nice glass of pinot noir because it is delicate, artful, and expertly crafted, I feel like I’m over here dumping half of bottle of tequila into a mug shaped like a cat and offering to my readers like eh?????  This piece was flamboyant and ridiculous and so very me, and the fact that people liked it as much as they did felt like a hug. It was the assurance I needed that there is room for my style in this fandom. 

3. Sweet Indulgence. Yeah, I called it that because that’s what it was for me. I’m just over here trying to have a good time and this was so fucking fun to write. It has a similar vibe to Stupid Love and I’m glad it made some people smile. And TBH, this was a big deal because I was scared shitless to tell @fictional that I was writing something based on her art because if she hated it I was going to have to dig a nice deep hole and start my life as a mole-woman. But look at me! Still above ground! And Lynn still talks to me!

4. Quicksilver and Phoenix Fire. This was SO HARD. I’m forever in awe of writers who can create such flawless works with so few words. This was my first ever prompt-fill/wc limit and although I was really self-conscious about it, in retrospect, I’m really pleased with out it turned out. I could have made this 10k, but enjoyed the challenge of working within parameters and think it was a pretty darn successful fic, all things considered.   

Here’s to 2021! I look forward to reading more, writing more, and interacting more. Thanks to everyone who reads/comments/tolerates me because I’m just over here doing what I do best, which is kick down doors to rooms where I’m barely invited, shouting some stupid jokes, and praying to jesus someone laughs. ❤❤❤

#tag game #my writing #top 5 2020

[drwcn]

... I must say, it's really nice to know it wasn't only I who found book!LWJ's attitude unnerving. He was shown a posessive there, I think? The funniest thing that TGCF I actually liked, because despite one of 'merry couple' fangirling for another for years, he still gave him free space and trusted to make his own decisions.

Hi anons! :)

This post is gonna get kind of wanky, so be warned. If you don’t want wank, well don’t read this post. I really don’t like to answer wank asks because only positive vibes for my blog please and thanks (but don’t worry anons, I’m not mad, I’m just gonna put the three of you together so I can talk about some of mdzs’s problems once and for all).  Also disclaimer: my opinions are my own, I could be wrong about some things. I have only dabbled in the novel, some chapters here and there, and I really couldn’t finish it. I went ahead and read the original text, which is actually quite well written all things considered. The translations are fine, but it just doesn’t quite hit the spot. Thus, if I said some things which are factually incorrect, I am not opposed to being notified.  

First and foremost, for the anon that asked “what’s wrong with mxtx?” The short answer is nothing is wrong with her. She’s an author who writes popular online novels with a wide readership. Clearly people are receptive to what she’s putting out there. Good for her, you know. It’s not easy to be that well received. 

But in terms of her novels, there are several things that I personally don’t like. I’m just gonna list some of the things she’s said about MDZS/CQL. I have not consumed any of her other work. 

First, her treatment of her female characters. In an interview, she literally said that most of the men in her MDZS novel are single because she didn’t want to come up with names for their wives. Like....what the fuck. Take from that what you will. Also, look at her female characters. Seriously, what kind of fates did they have? According to another OP, all the female characters’ lines in MDZS added up to 50 sentences. Don’t quote me on this, I did not fact check. This is just what I heard. But even within the narrative itself, let’s do a body count. Jiang Yanli died for plot. Wen Qing died for plot. Qin Su existed and died for plot. A-Jing existed for 45 seconds and then died for plot. Baoshan exists in narration only. Madam Yu was a raging asshole. Madam Jin treated Jin Guangyao like trash. Cangse Sanren: dead. Mama Lan: (no name lol) dead. Where are the fucking women? Where? Let’s not forget all the other women that existed purely as plot device: Sisi, Bicao, Meng Shi. Mianmian is the only one who lived, but she literally had to - quote Eliza Hamilton - “take myself out of the narrative” to do it. 

Second, and this is a well known thing: mxtx claimed that the only canon gay relationship is wangxian, everyone else is straight because she doesn’t think it’s likely that there are that many gay people. If we interpret other male characters as couples, we’re free to have our own interpretation. ... ..... .... I’m fucking speechless. But also laughing because LHK and ZZJ literally ignored canon, and straight up made LXC and MY have a meet cute in class in front of everyone. 

Third, but not least, let’s talk about book!Lan Wangji. The following will strictly be talking about book!Lan Wangji and not show!Lan Wangji. Show Lan Wangji is very nuanced and WYB’s micro-expressions are great. (You’re doing amazing sweeties, don’t ever stop).

 What, pray tell, is book!LWJ’s personality? Silence is not a personality. book!LWJ is what we critics in the drama world call “高冷霸道总裁”, which is a trope in and of itself. And there’s nothing wrong with tropes, except a lot of viewers are getting...kind of sick of it, because it’s getting a little repetitive. 

高冷 = arrogant and cold, but like... in an admirably good way. Or as I like to call it, a stick up the butt and no communication skills. 

霸道总裁 = The Big Boss.  Attention: lemme use some heteronormative language here for a second because most of cdrama is written this way. The Big Boss is the fictional counterpart to the real life 高富帅 (gao fu shuai: tall, rich and handsome, the moniker for an ideal husband) that many aunties and mothers wish their daughters could marry. This kind of character is tall, rich and will swoop in to save the damsel-in-distress - erm, I mean the strong independent female character - when she’s in trouble. Because even though she’s a strong independent character, and sometimes even the main character, somehow her fellow male lead still has to play her knight in shiny armor. Not like, he’ll sit down and listen to her talk about her problems, no, no, he has to pay for her expenses, bail her out of trouble, save her life, sacrifice himself, go against the world for her... sounds familiar??? 

Yeah. 

And like, some novels do “the big boss” trope better than other. They give the “the big boss” a human side, let him interact with side characters, allow him to have friends, build on other relationships, such that he is 3D and can stand on his own. Eternal Love of Dream’s DongHua Dijun is a recent example which I think did a pretty good job of writing a male character that doesn’t let him revolve around the love interest 24/7. 

book!LWJ doesn’t work for me because what exactly is his character growth? He serves to back up Wei Wuxian and.....????? He’s so flat in his character built. He loves Wei Wuxian and....that’s it. What else is there? If there’s other character traits y’all picked up on that I didn’t, please let me know because I find him so boring and at times disturbing (in terms of the nature of his physical relationship with Wei Wuxian). 

In CQL, we saw Lan Wangji change as a character, we saw him struggle with morals and values, struggle against tradition and family and societal expectations. We watched him witness the death of Wei Wuxian and move on to face life afterwards. We know through the actions of Lan Sizhui that he helped raise a child who didn’t just follow rules blindly. When Wei Wuxian came back, we saw a matured Lan Wangji who had come into his own and was comfortable in his own skin. And in the end, when the dust settled and the truth was revealed, he rose to the occasion. Jin Guangyao’s death left a power vacuum, and Lan Wangji filled it. Someone once wrote an excellent post about Lan Wangji being attracted to Wei Wuxian’s sense of justice (recall Wang Yibo’s change in expression when Wei Wuxian prayed during the lantern ceremony). I think that is exactly right. For two individuals with such different personalities, their bond in my opinion lies in their ability to see right and wrong beyond rules and laws and customs.  

In the book, canon ended with the two main character going at it in the grass, and I guess...yeah that’s cool. Happy ending right? But what they did learn? What was the point? Lan Wangji had lived 13/16 years without Wei Wuxian. He knew who he was. But for Wei Wuxian, he came back to life in another person’s body and went through a gazillion different revelation within days. He needed to find himself again, discover who he is, what he wants in this new life. That is a process he needs to do by himself, without external influences and pressure. He needs to be given a chance to decide that Lan Wangji is who he wants in this life, not in the last life, and when he does Lan Wangji will still be here, waiting for him, as he has always waited for him. Lan Wangji is the rock, the constant, the home that Wei Wuxian could always fall back on. He is not a prison, not a master, not the dictator of Wei Wuxian’s life. Theirs should be a partnership of respect and understanding. They are soulmates not only in the romantic sense, but because they understand each other better than anyone else. 

Book!LWJ does not give us that. What it does give us is a badly written sexual intercourse that gives me the heebee-jeebees. Sometimes I think it’s even weirdly dub-con without intending to be dub-con. The truth is I can’t even begrudge mxtx for it, because she is not the only one to write in this way. I’ve read other c-novels and many many of them are like that. And here is where we’re getting into the discussion of cultural understanding/acceptance of sex, relationship, consent, gender roles and the what is taught to young adults in school. That is a rabbit hole I won’t go into. 

So that’s it. My thoughts. 

#cql wank #Anonymous #corie replies

[dramionediscussion]

I read the recent post about divination, and now I have some serious doubts. Like did I misunderstood entirely what the whole divination thing canonically is? I’ve read books couple of times, seen movies once, but it’s been awhile. I’ve read a small library of fanfics (99% Dramione), so I am no way a HP canon-lore expert. But that post left genuinely puzzled, like how does it go canonically? Was Hermione basically right or not? I would be grateful, if someone could either correct or confirm, whether my understanding of HP canon is true or not, please! As I understood it, divination sort of is “real”, but in a quite nuanced way, and that Trelawney’s class didn’t (and probably couldn’t) teach “true divination”, and it was a waste of time for students wishing to learn that skill. Certain people simple are “true seers”, and this clairvoyance ability cannot be acquired or learned (at least in a controlled or widely understood way). It was heavily hinted at, that the talent is in-born, and possibly entirely hereditary, or at least considerably so (the reason for Trelawney’s job interview was that she was related to a famous seer). Although, it’s also implied that astromancy is an exception, and via astronomy even those who are not seers can foresee future events to some degree (though it seems there’s large qualitative difference between these predictions and those made by “true seers”. Astromancy seems to be predicting very generalized trends, instead of specific events or happenings of individual people). However, this is more an impression one gets by the gravitas and dignity granted to Firenze and centaurs contra Trelawney (I think, Firenze did make accurate predictions, but they were so board and vague, thus is not clear whether they were just educated guesses or true foresight). If I recall no true predictions are made by any other method (Trelawney taught and practiced at least cartomancy, tasseomancy, and crystallomancy. Maybe also chiromancy and some others, which I don’t remember atm). More than that, it seems that true prophecies are not produced via any method, but rather received uncontrollably and involuntarily without any conscious effort or will. All this leaves many open questions and a lot of room for quite different interpretations. The only seer we see in a great detail is Trelawney, and it’s not clear whether her circumstances were universally applicable or just particular to her. Like, do all true seers make their predictions by falling into an uncontrollable trance, or do some of those methods work for some other seers at least? Can this talent be cultivated or honed in any way? Can one manipulate circumstances for receiving these predictions? At least some portion of the wizarding world seems to believe, that divination is accessible to basically anybody, because the ministry approves teaching of it, and there’s learning material and curriculum beyond Trelawney. Though, the ministry seems to treat reading tealeaves different from true seers’ predictions, which are gathered and organized in by the department of mysteries, unlike Harry’s or Ron’s schoolwork. There’s also a faint possibility that some form of milder divination is possible (something like predicting whether you will have a good day at the work by reading tarot cards), and Trelawney was just incompetent at teaching it. Existence of true seers doesn’t exactly logically contradict existence of lesser divination by non-seers. Still, the view that the only real divination is by done true seers (and possibly astromancy) seems to be canonically most likely, or the one JKR tried to convey. These other forms of divinations and omens are just wizarding superstitions some believe, including at least partly the ministry itself (like do the wizengamot or ministers consult diviners before making decisions. Or is it taught simply due a political inertia, like some atavistic custom or tradition from the past. Or perhaps divination is not there to teach the art, but to screen for potential seers from the youth). I think, Hermione did acknowledge fairly early that there are true predictions, by true seers (at least I don’t think she ever objected when the whole chosen one prophecy was brought up, and she seemed to treat the affair with a total sincerity). Even if Trelawney was mostly a fraud, and her class a waste of time (my canonical understanding), and she was right in her criticism. It might not still be the real reason she quit the class, or it could’ve been at least only partial reason. If we imagine a different turn of events, and let’s say that Trelawney would’ve taken an instant liking to her, and praised her efforts and rewarded her with approval and good grades. Would’ve she dropped the course anyway, or rationalized herself believing truthiness and benefits of Trelawney’s class? Would her general opinion about divination change, if she was admired and accepted by her female peers, instead of ignored and shunned? As I interpret Hermione’s character, it’s impossible to give a good answer to that, because in the canonical version the truth about Trelawney and divination in general is also both socially and emotionally convenient to Hermione. Being a multidimensional character, it’s very hard to say, how she would act in different circumstances, or what are all factors, which possibly influence her behavior and choices. I think, it’s a fair characterization to say that she clearly prices truth and objectivity in knowledge, beyond simple social or emotional utility. She pursues knowledge and truth at least partly for her own curiosity, pleasure and integrity. In the other hand, it’s also true that she places a great importance and trust on authorities and she can be extremely authoritarian in knowledge (though her hierarchy is not exactly the official authority like the ministry, or the Daily Prophet, but this informal community of wizarding experts and academics who produce the books she loves, relies and trusts so much. And of course Dumbledore and Mcgonagall, and other exemplary Light side wizards and witches). She craves attention, praise and acceptance and recognition of not only authorities and the wider wizarding world, but also those around her. I don’t think, there’s plausible answer for that, if she had a serious internal conflict between those two different sides of her personality. Canonically there’s no conflict, and her course is relatively clear on the matter. I would rate both outcomes in the case of conflict equally likely. That she would’ve continued divination, if she was “good” at it, and also that she would’ve dropped it, because her academic integrity. There are situations in which, she socially and personally inconveniences herself greatly, like telling Mcgonagall about the Firebolt, but it’s not exactly comparable, because she also believed that Harry could’ve been in a mortal danger. Besides, even if there was exactly comparable situation canonically, people are not always consistent on their priorities, and they might sometimes act quite differently in almost exactly similar situations. Personally I am quite conflicted about JKR’s whole “Hermione is not like the other simpering girls”-bit. In most situations, when it raises its head, I find it quite infuriating (especially with her appearance). Often it is just a desperate and egotistical way to promote oneself, and denigrate feminine traits and behavior. In the other hand, I’ve witnessed this happening in my own life (not to myself, but to people around me). Not a gender dysphoria or anything, but more like tomboys and girls who simply were not interested in things almost all other girls in their age-group were, and they got heavily ostracized and bullied for that by majority of girls. I can understand that certain women genuinely feel like that, and kind of objectively are not like other girls (in good and ill), and have issues with female friendships and female peer-groups. It’s hard to say how common that is, but also I don’t like this idea of trying meme into reality that all women are automatically natural friends and allies with each other, and that the fiction should also reflect this. Or that only reason why this isn’t so, is some outdated beliefs or cultural practices, which can be easily remedied by simple education. Frankly, I don’t think it’s real to that extent, and trying to pretend it is, will lead to harmful outcomes for women, who will go in their lives trusting in it. Women do have shared interests as women, and there’s shared commonalities with other women, which are not shared by men. There’s kind of a sisterhood of mutual understanding and joy in friendships and kinship with other women as women. But in the other hand, there’s also a lot of rivalries and conflicts within the same sisterhood.    Still, the way she disparagingly frames Lavender’s and Parvati’s interest in a divination, as silly, superfluous and fake, is more in line with the former approach. It’s rather cheap jab towards astrology and women who enjoy or practice it. It’s hard to know even where to start with that, because women basically never base serious decisions in it. Mostly it provides them a framework and starting point to discuss different temperaments and personality types in people. Also, it’s just a little (harmless) excitement and bringing some enchantment back to the dreary and banal world and mundane routines most people suffer through. Nobody lost their house because of astrology, unlike men’s many astrologies, like cryptocurrency and “beating the markets” investment models and schemes. Besides, interestingly enough there’s some truth to astrology. unlike I-LOVE-SCIENCE midwit sceptic-bros believe :P

-----

Edit:

According to the HP WIKIA:

Divination is a subject taught at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It teaches methods of divining the future, or gathering insights into future events, through various rituals and tools. The magic taught in this class, as well as the ability to say prophetic things is a branch of magic referred to as "divination."

So basically, while yes you have to possess the ability to "see", you as a regular witch or wizard can learn certain skills for divining. (Divining is an actual thing; To divine is the discover something by guesswork or intuition).

The WIKIA also says:

Divination is an elective subject available beginning in a student's third year. Students study a myriad of ways to scry information about the future, including tea dregs, crystal balls, visions, and Astrology and horoscope charts. Other methods of divining the future include smoke patterns, dreams, tarot cards, and the interpretation of prophecies, though the latter is quite rare. Guides and textbooks allow students of Divination to discern or translate what observed symbols intend to mean.

It's like here in the real world, some people believe in these things, others don't. But I think in the magical world, I'll personally will be more likely to believe in these things. And they seem like something kids should be exposed to a bit.

I think the problem was with the teacher. She probably wasn't the best person to teach and introduce these ancient and maybe not so widely used methods to the children. She is seen in the books/movies as bit of a nutjob, but she made that predicition about Voldy and Harry and so Dumbledore hired her to keep close incase she made probably more prophecies. It's funny though, everyone laughs about this subject and mocks it's teacher, but they whole heartedly believe the prophecy because Dumbledore says he believes it. Harry and his friends even broke into the Ministry to find it. So they take his word, but completely disrespects the actual person who made the prophecy in the first place. Makes sense -_-.

Hermione, she is a muggleborn, so of course she immdiately goes with logic and reasoning and science. It must have been hard for her to learn that magic is real and learn about this new world (even if she was excited about it). The thing with other subjects is that the results are immediate. When she casts a spell, it works automatically, it does what she told it to do. When she makes a potion, it looks/smells they way the books said it would and after using it, she sees/feels the effects. Divination isn't like that, you cannot get immediate results. You have to wait years for some things to happen but it may not always since other factors can influence it and completely change it.

So even in this magical world, she still operates with logic and facts and immediate results, just like in the muggle world. That's why it was difficult for her to "get" divination. Add on a rather incompetant teacher, a stressful third year where she overloads herself; it makes sense for her to just call it bullshit and quit. Maybe if the teacher did indeed like her and gave her praises, she may have not left so easily; she gets praises in other subjects and yes it does seem like she craves it. Hermione is incredibly Type A!

JKR admitted to basically modelling Hermione as herself. So if you think that Hermione's character was unnecessarily mean to Lavender and Parvati, JKR wrote it that way, maybe because she herself feels that way about women/girls like that. Should she have done that? No. Many girls loved Hermione, many saw themselves as her. There isn’t many nerdy girls who save the day in movies and shows and books. So reading about Hermione being popular and smart and liked and having awesome friends and saving the world, defeating evil, was amazing! But as an adult, looking back on things, you realise that Hermione is very much a  "not like other girls" girl, and not in a good way. She is very condesending especially to other girls or people who are not as smart as her. And that isn't a good message to send to girls who relate to this character. And it tells you a lot about JKR herself (if her twitter didn't already)!

- Lisa

#dramione #submission