#rather than argument

[hometownrockstar]

I hate the argument abt when you say customizable games should have fat people and people say "well it would be harder to model or scale clothes to fit" cause like i guess youre technically right, but why then are fat people not seen as worth the effort to actually code and model these things? Someone else said this abt baldur's gate but they said "in an RPG like that game shouldn't the priority be on allowing people to express themselves as much as possible with designing their character?" Also like fat people aren't a rarity or minority, even if all media ever wants to give people the impression that the world is 99% skinny people with maybe one or two fat villains or sidekick friends.

#A lottt of arguments against including or accommodating fat people eventually boil down to #Continuing to believe fatness is a choice. And therefore the burden to change should be on them to lose weight #Rather than for institutions or society or other people to put in the effort to humanize and accommodate fat people #Fat politics

[parliamentoftoh]

“Willow is the Evelyn to Hunter’s Caleb!”

“Luz is the Evelyn to Hunter’s Caleb!”

y’all constantly be missing the key part of this which is that Hunter is not Caleb in anyone’s eyes but Belos, and we already know who Belos considered to be the Evelyn in this scenario.

it’s Flapjack. 

That’s it that’s your answer everyone pack it up and go home. 

#toh #the owl house #this debate always annoys me #because it always turns into wanting Hunter to BE Caleb rather than it being Belos' gross projections #I'm a huntlow shipper but there's not a strong argument there let's be real #and I love the idea of it platonically being Luz - but that ignores the fact that in Belos' eyes Luz ALSO represents Caleb #he wants to 'save' her the same way etc. etc. #anyway put some respect on our late friend's name

[beaulesbian]

Rang a few times, then went to busy signal.

#byler #stranger things #strangerthingsedit #mike wheeler #will byers #dustin henderson #max mayfield #mine #gif:byler #this scene was so interesting for few things: #max know the byers landline by memory which means she might call enough to memorize it probably talking with El! #mike is enough frustrated that he cant connect the call that hes 'whining' about it to dustin #dustin probably doesnt call it there as much to have this problem #mike probably rather writes to el but would rather call to hear will and therefore is annoyed he cant reach him as much as he would wanted #but he wont say it to will that hes calling him much more than the times theyve actually talked!!! #therefore the argument about not connecting - which leads to mike actually talking to will in 4x4 how he feels he lost him!! #okay now im done

[blood-orange-juice]

Ok, Childe as a wuxia/xianxia trope. It's honestly a bit embarrassing how well this fits.

(blame @a-yarn-of-purple-prose for this post and if anyone here is a wuxia fan feel free to correct me, I'm new to the genre)

Wuxia is a Chinese martial arts fantasy genre you are all familiar with. An adjacent genre is called xianxia, "immortal heroes", it ramps all the fantasy elements up to eleven and skews tropes a bit (we'll get back to that).

A common trope is some kind of unorthodox school/sect or technique, allowing to achieve greater power without the usual decades of training. It could be straight-out evil or just revolving around chaos.

Such a martial school is usually called an evil/demonic sect (sect is more like a clan in that setting, not the modern concept of sect) and their techniques tend to drive practitioners to insanity. Either because they are inherently corrupting or because getting too much power without growing as a person is really not the best thing for your mental health. They are also often cast from hp points.

And then there's the archetype of a demonic sect heir. The best pupil or simply someone who has inherited a lost art. Proud, always greedy for more strength, often noble in some weird way.

*points to our calamity of a boy*

Common elements of such stories include:

Falling into some weird realm or meeting a weird person who teaches the hero a Forbidden Technique

Learning a technique too quickly through some sort of magic/alchemy/memory manipulation

Some people are so singular in their pursuit they become insane (走火入魔)

Ambition bad, loyalty and family good

Conflicting loyalties, generally a conflict between a chosen path and personal weaknesses/attachments (could be both ego and familal love, and this is more of a xianxia trope)

Fits like a horoscope so far but wait.

There's a very interesting case of Korean murim genre (their version of wuxia) where sects are less varied (I recommend this post for a basic introduction) and we get three paths:

Justice/Righteous/Orthodox/Light — theoretically they keep the Evil Faction at bay, and protect innocent people, but usually are corrupt to the core

Evil/Unorthodox/Dark — these try gaining as much power as possible and attempt ruling the whole world

Demonic Cult — usually dont take part in evil and justice battles, follow their own code of conduct based on their religion, value strength above all else.

(I'm sure there's a similar distinction in wuxia too, I just can't find it in the deluge of lore)

"Demonic" is closer to "pagan" or "heathen" than Christian idea of demonic here, their beliefs are often based on Zoroastrianism and worshipping a sacred flame. Do you remember all the Persian themes used for Khaenri'ah? And Surtalogi being the flame on Surtr's sword in Norse mythology. I also had the impression that Genshin gnostic references are based on the Zoroastrian-flavoured branch of Gnosticism.

In murim the trope of demonic sect heir is called "heavenly demon" (I believe, a more correct translation would be "supreme heathen"), they are utterly badass, live for the glory of battle, seem more like forces of nature and follow a very strict honour code often conflicting with normal human ethics.

(do I need to spell it out)

TvTropes also says this about Korean stories:

(do I need to spell it out pt.2)

I'm not sure why a Chinese studio would focus on the Korean version of this trope but I'm sure something like this exists in China as well or maybe there's a popular manhwa that inspired authors.

Xianxia extends the fantastic element further, focusing on Taoist concepts and practices and adding all kinds of magical realms (celestial, demonic, etc) and magical beings and making immortality achievable. I still need to read more about it but if I understand that right, demonic heir trope turns into a demon prince in this case. An actual visitor from the demon realm or a practitioner who achieved immortality through dubious means.

These are fae-coded in a way very similar to Childe and have a certain nonchalance towards things most humans would consider traumatic. They are simply not bothered by them, having a different set of morals or faring from a realm that is much worse.

Our boy isn't that (he's still very much human) but he's aesthetically coded like one, same as Scaramouche is yokai-coded, despite not being a yokai.

So. When people say Childe's arc is a reference to Journey to the West, it's not entirely untrue, JttW is the classic of xianxia genre and Childe does belong to the same genre. He, however, is not Sun Wukong but a different, darker trope.

This also explains why he has that "shonen anime protag but not quite" vibe. Shonen was heavily influenced by wuxia but this trope never quite made it to anime or maybe never became popular enough. It's not a deconstruction, it's a different story. Or perhaps a deconstruction of that different story.

#childe #tartaglia #my investigation into what the hell this boy is is concluded #this means I'll get to think about something else #many thanks to saoki for indulging my questions for the past two days #there's also an argument for childe being a demon princess rather than a prince but I'm tired #maybe I'll get back to it if anyone wants to meme together #genshin lore tumour #skirk #khaenri'ah #if abyss be thy name I pledge to you my loyalty #I'll need another post to explain how it fits into some scenes #this is already too long

[turtleblogatlast]

Huge missed opportunity to have more teleportation hijinks with Mayhem and Leo tbh

Could have so easily been made into a great April & Leo episode 😭

#rottmnt #rottmnt leo #rottmnt april #rottmnt mayhem #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #and if another of the boys needs to be there as well then I personally would love it to be Mikey but I could see arguments otherwise #I just love the Gumbus dynamic too much lol #anyway yeah god I need more one on one April and Leo interactions rather than the Barely Any we got in the show #and Mayhem deserves more screentime!😤 #if it’s not just an April and Leo bonding ep and one of the other boys is included then- #could easily incorporate Mikey’s mystic abilities briefly overloading and causing a nearby Leo and Mayhem’s teleportation to freak out #thereby teleporting everyone to an alien planet WHOOPS #for Donnie I could see him desperately trying to scientifically explain teleportation as an amused April and Leo proclaim that it’s magic #for Raph I can see him trying so hard the whole ep to pet Mayhem and failing every time #bonus points for all of this if Leo figures out how to more easily straight up teleport rather than just make portals or go between swords

[cinnamonsly]

FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT

no but we need to talk more about how violent and physical heart can get. how emotions can get so intense and blinding that you see red and all you can do is lash out in a physical way. punching, hitting, biting, pulling hair; nothing mind (and soul on occasion) aren’t used to. it takes a lot to get heart worked up to the point of getting physical, but he definitely doesn’t shy away from the chance to beat the crap out of someone when he gets to that point

i mean. he literally attempted to kill mind at some point so i really don’t think any of this would be far from the truth

#also think mind would just. take it most days #he’d rather fight with words and logics through an argument than with his hands #he won’t fight back unless he absolutely has to #even if heart is beating the crap out of him #lots of thoughts about these guys 2night…. #fanart #character art #digital art #sketch #doodle #chonny jash #cj mind #cj heart #cccc

[wonder-worker]

Here’s the thing I need people to understand:

Even if we believe that the (entirely unproven and far too politically convenient) pre-contract story between Edward IV and Eleanor Talbot was true, it doesn’t actually matter. Even if it was hypothetically true, there was still no reason why Edward V – who was already King at that point and was referred to as such – couldn’t have been able to succeed his father regardless.

David Horspool (Richard's own historian) summarizes it better than I could, so I’m just quoting him here:

"[Richard also made] no allowance for any potential solution to the problem that might have re-legitimized Edward V and his siblings. These included securing a retrospective canonical or papal judgement of the invalidity of the pre-contract; an Act of Parliament legitimizing the children of Edward and Elizabeth Woodville’s marriage, as happened to Henry VIII’s variously tainted offspring; or even ignoring the issue and proceeding to the coronation of Edward V, which would legitimize him by making him the Lord’s anointed, and render allegations of his bastardy as newer versions of the old tittle-tattle about his father."

In short, even if Edward IV truly had a pre-contract with Eleanor Talbot, and even if all of his children with Elizabeth Woodville were supposedly illegitimate, it should by no means prevent Edward V from succeeding his father to the throne. If Richard truly wanted to support his nephew, he had a variety of useful and entirely workeable options to choose from. Instead, he officially declared his nieces and nephews (including a literal 3-year-old) illegitimate, kept Edward V and his even younger brother confined in the Tower of London, and declared himself King.

Why didn't Richard take these actions, all of which he would have been well aware of? As Horspool says simply: "that Richard took none of these courses was because he had no interest in doing so."

The ONLY conclusion we can come to based on Richard's actions is summarized most succinctly by A.J Pollard:

"The truth of the matter is that Richard III did not want Edward V to be legitimate because he did not want him to be king."

#r*chard iii #richard iii #my post #edward iv #princes in the tower #imo this is the main crux of the argument #it DOESN'T MATTER if the pre-contract story was actually true #even if it was true there was no actual reason why Edward V couldn't have been crowned regardless if Richard had truly wanted to support hi #sorry I saw something annoying on Twitter and wanted to rant #(I wasn't even searching for it lol it just popped up; it's very annoying) #I saw a bunch of people quoting John Ashdown-Hill (yeah that guy) on the fact that Eleanor chose to deed some of her property to her sister #Elizabeth Talbot during her lifetime rather than leave it to her in her will #and using this to argue that Eleanor considered herself married to Edward and as a married woman unfortunately could not bequeath real #property by will without her husband's consent #which is absolutely ridiculous considering the fact that #A MARRIED WOMAN ALSO COULD NOT DEED PROPERTY WITHOUT THE PERMISSION OF HER HUSBAND #Eleanor choosing to deed property to her sister during her life proves that *she did not consider herself married to anyone at the time* #Which ... should be extremely significant and indicative! #and should in fact settle the argument once and for all #I don't know how Ricardians have somehow twisted it and claim the opposite #anyway im done ranting. bye

[cowboymater]

none of the batboys are "woman-coded" or undergo the "female experience" bc you motherfuckers actually talk about them instead of stripping their backstory for parts and slapping them onto your special guy so that the 839584th whump fic on his ao3 tag can have some extra kick

#if you're mad at this post then it's probably about you #hit dogs holler etc etc #you are not absolved from participating in misogyny just because it affects you #like sometimes i think y'all would rather die than talk about a character who is also a woman #mia dearden helena bertinelli stephanie brown cassandra cain etc etc ad nauseum #their interesting traits and lore have magically migrated to a man and then you'll call the man ''female-coded'' #fucking maddening #fandom misogyny #crosspost from twt mind ur business #dc #dc comics #batfam #batboys #naming names: #dick grayson #jason todd #tim drake #i haven't seen anyone make an argument for damian yet #which like. if i Had to hazard a guess #it's probably bc the venn diagram of fans who think like this and fans who irrationally hate his guts is just a circle

[lesbianfakir]

It is my god given mission to NOT draw fakir as a white boy idc what’s canon, this interview annoys me so bad

[ID: rough transcript of an interview with Ikuko Itoh. Someone asks “since fakir is an Arabic word, does that mean fakir is Arab and/or was he intentionally made to look so, and if so why?” The transcriber writes “her response to this is that while in her mind he is not Arab, she wouldn’t rule out the possibility that fakir has Arab ancestry in his family tree”]

WHY’D YOU GIVE HIM AN ARABIC NAME THEN?? It’s okay mr fakir I won’t let her whitewash you

#that one Reddit thread that’s like my friends want to name their white baby jungkook #maybe there’s an argument for him being named after an Arabic word rather than a proper common name BUT #I did my research and all instances I can find of fakir being used as a first name are middle eastern or south Asian men #hmmmmm 🤔🤔 #tho disclaimer I’m white so I’m not the person to be complaining about this #I’m sure someone can articulate the ick much better than I can #or maybe I’m complaining about nothing who knows ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ #anyways when I draw fakir he’s Arab btw #like mixed ig because drossy is in there somewhere #princess tutu #like urghhhh the vibes I get are that she chose the name because she thinks it’s cool and mysterious but I’m like. GIRL #ITS AN ARABIC NAME

[mdr-reikas]

100% agreed on the whole way naruto shippers clearly do not actually care about or like madara and sasuke. for example fucking sasusaku shippers clearly do not notice or care about how sasuke is miserable fighting for some village that ruined his life and that no one knows the truth about the uchiha massacre they just see him as some strong skinny twink bishie boi who is only nice to their precious self insert sakura they see him as a thing for sakura. don't even get me started on fucking tobirama x madara or the toxic tobirama stans in general, i have seen horrific shit of madara being violently raped by tobirama on ao3 as a punishment of his crime for "being an uchiha who hasn't been humbled". the sad thing is that i have seen crossover romance shipping fanfic that actually respects both madara and sasuke as characters (making sure they ain't OOC or stripped of their nuance/personality) and they have more chemistry with characters from different anime/manga series. both madara and sasuke deserve better from this damn fandom than just being hashirama and naruto's cute little waifus who constantly get kidnapped like Princess Peach and get pregnant with uchiha babies like a fucking Uchiha baby factory.

So real!!! I think one of the reasons why this happens sometimes is because a lot of naruto fans/shippers are very pro konoha, so anything that Madara or Sasuke do is instantly a crime against humanity to them, so in order to make their ship work they have to take their morals and issues away from Madara and Sasuke, so they "aren't evil" anymore.

Also, that last part about t*birama/madara is so true. I mean, aside the fact that Madara would never be able to forgive him for killing Izuna, Tobirama also just had zero respect for him as a person. Tobirama felt no empathy for the Uchiha, and to pretend that he would set that aside for Madara is just insane to me. It's fine as a crack ship or if you write it to be intentionally toxic (which can be fun sometimes), but just taking away all the nuance these two characters have to make them fuck??? why?? Like, with hsmd I atleast understand where people are coming from, childhood friends trope and all, but what is the appeal of tobimada? No one who actually likes Madara would be able to ship tobimada, and no one who actually likes Sasuke would be able to ship sasusaku.

Madara and Sasuke definitely deserved sooo much better, they deserved loving people who actually respected them and their dreams (and no hsrm did not respect mdr's dreams while he was still in the village let's not play pretend).

#madara #uchiha madara #madara uchiha #anti tobirama #anti tobimada #anti sasusaku #anti sasunaru #anti sns #anti hsmd #anti hashimada #anti hashirama #so many anti tags dear lord #but yk id rather spam some tags than have some pro (any of the above) person trying to start an argument with me #pro sasuke #anti konoha #pro madara #asks

[smolmakerel]

"You can't leave me! I won't let you!"

"Christina, lo juro por Dios [I swear to God], get the fuck out of my way or -"

"Or what? You'll hit me? Hit me then! Give me a reason to call the cops!"

"Mamá?!"

"You're fucking crazy! Just like that bastard's father!"

"Don't talk about him like that!"

Tara curled up under the kitchen table, one of her favorite hide-and-seek spots because of the table cloth. She couldn't understand what her parents were screaming about, Sammy piping in every once in a while, but she knew she didn't like it.

It sounded scary.

With caution, Tara lifted the cream table cloth and peaked up.

Mamá was beating her fists against Papi's chest, face creased in rage. Sammy was fighting to place herself between the two, but neither of the two noticed.

Tara flinched when Sammy was shoved out of the way by their papá. She scrambled out from beneath the table and stood, unsure, behind her mamá.

"¿Mamá? ¿Papá?" Tara uttered. Both of her padres² stopped arguing and turned to her, and she shifted awkwardly. "¿Esta todo bien?" [Mom? Dad? Is everything ok?]

Papi's eyes softened while his shoulders sagged. "Sí, no te preocupes. Me quedaré con mis padres por el momento si quieres venir conmigo." [Yes, don't worry. I'm going to stay with my parents for the time being if you want to come with me.]

Tara blinked in confusion. Why was her papi leaving? Why did it sound like he didn't want to take Mamá or Sammy with them?

Before Tara could ask, Mamá was screaming again. She slammed her palms over her ears with a whimper. She never did like whenever they fought.

"Stop fighting!" Sammy cried out. "Can't you see that Tara's scared?!"

Papi narrowed his eyes. "Shut your bastard mouth!"

Sammy took a wounded step backwards.

Papi's eyes then went wide. He looked between Mamá and Sammy, then he turned his eyes to Tara.

"Is she even mine?"

"Listen -"

"Tell me the fucking truth for once in your miserable fucking life, ¡puta!" Papi roared out, and it shook the house into silence.

Mamá looked away. "Of course she is."

"... I don't believe you."

Tara stumbled out of the way when Papi shoved her out of the way. She followed behind the small group and gasped when she saw Papi's business suitcase full of clothes sitting on his leather recliner.

"¡Papi!" Tara began to cry, finally realizing what was happening. "¡Por favor no te vayas!" [Please don't go!]

Papi continued to pack up despite Mamás furious threats of calling the police, Sam's panic at the escalating situation, and Tara's full-blown meltdown.

Tara was close to hyperventilating as she threw her body at her papá and clung to his leg. He tried to shake her off, but she held tightly to his gray slacks.

She was the last person he was with when they both heard yelling coming from the master bedroom. Papi had begged her to clean her room and get ready for bed, going as far as to bribe her with a homemade caramel flan. But then he abruptly left.

The yelling only increased in volume, and, after an hour, Tara crept downstairs to hide out.

Was this her fault somehow?

"P-Papi, por favor -" she wheezed, chest constricting. She could barely breathe, let alone get her words out properly.

Hands roughly shoved her away, and Tara stared up at her Papi in horror. He stared back with an equally distraught expression.

"Tara," he gasped. "Lo lamento -" [I'm sorry -]

Mamá burst into a fit of rage.

Tara sat on the floor for the rest of the night. She blocked out the rest of her parents' argument and sat there. She sat there while her Papi left them.

He slammed the door. He never slammed the door.

Sammy tried to help her. Tara took the inhaler but remained on the floor by the stairs, watching the door for when Papi would come back.

He never did.

#scream #scream 2022 #scream vi #my writing #sam carpenter #tara carpenter #Based on one headcanon where Tara couldn't understand what the argument was about because she couldn't understand English yet #Idk who it was but credit to you #fuck christina carpenter #The way I know Christina would rather defend Billy than her daughter says a lot about her character #Poor Tara's going through it #So is Sam but she's not the focus right now #Tw domestic violence? #Probably #I mean Christina would probably do shit like this #Then wonder why no one in her family speaks to her #I'm sad so I wrote this #I figured out how I want to structure my bilingual moments #Bilingual Carpenter sisters

[paellegere]

ok well since tumblr deleted my whole tag essay on this post which i'm going to be sad about forever, i'll try to recreate it in its own post.

so the op of the post made a great point which really touched on why i've been saying that i had a fundamentally different takeaway of season 9 compared to the rest of the fandom. i have a lot to say in response to this (i mean it), not in argument but in support and synthesis of it.

fair warning: this is essentially a thesis on seasons 8-10 and how they function as a unit, through the focal lens of season 9. the length is appropriate for this argument.

i'll start with dean at the beginning of season 9: he has a great struggle in 901 regarding gadreel possessing sam, more so than any other struggle he's faced when saving sam's life, which points to me as him being aware of and conflicted about sam's history of possession. he understands this is crossing a line because it's similar to lucifer and meg, and so accepting gadreel's deal is violating sam to a length dean hasn't gone to before. dean by and large is the one who has this particular ethical problem (shown throughout the first half of season 9), not sam. hell, dean is the one who leaves sam once gadreel's out, without even waiting for input because his self-loathing is that strong.

sam, on the other hand, is more textually concerned in his 912/913 arguments with the lack of trust ("i can't trust you, not the way i thought i could") and dean's selfishness ("you did it for you"). this is an ongoing conflict sam has with dean, since the beginning of the show. dean doesn't trust sam to make his own decisions and therefore makes them for him, without sam's consent or knowledge. sam wants to be trusted to stand on his own, and he wants dean to put the same faith in him that he puts in dean. this is the core of sam's needs; the violation of autonomy is just an externalization of these needs and this conflict.

and i don't entirely disagree with the connection between going behind sam's back to keep him alive against his will and a rape narrative. both involve a lack of consent and a violation of agency. however, it really doesn't stop there, and it's a lot more complex than that.

and that's what rubs me wrong about more common interpretations of season 9 that i've seen. because this isn't really what the season is about. this violation on its own isn't the point. or if it is on the surface, it's equally about sam lying to himself about what it's actually about. he's consistently left out of major decisions regarding his own life and then lied to about it "for his own good," and he wants the right to choose his own path.

except, as we learn, that's not true. he lied about it. because the point of the whole season is that sam and dean are the same. they will make the same decisions to save each other over and over again. the point of the whole season is that sam has been lying to himself.

i said this in another post, but i think a big reason sam was able to lie to himself about this fact is because he's had the opportunity to let dean go on several occasions. he's been unable to save dean the way dean has saved sam. he fails where dean succeeds. sam has been forced to endure a grief that dean has never had to experience because dean always brings sam back. and so because sam has endured these experiences maybe he's more comfortable letting dean choose death in the abstract—the hypothetical. but in reality when it comes to that point, sam can't actually follow through, because he's just as dependent on dean being there for him as dean is dependent on sam.

and that's what season 9 is about. sam has been lying to himself about this reality from the start. this is why 1019 parallels 311 regarding how insane sam is about dean. it's reiterating the facts we've known but with a new perspective, now that sam is done deluding himself. he needs to accept that he was lying to himself and to dean, and this is what allows season 9 to close and for season 10 to begin, because season 10 is a response to sam's realization. he chooses dean over everything else in a monumental display of hypocrisy and genuine understanding of himself and who dean is to him.

seasons 8-10 should be taken as a single, cohesive unit, and the show goes to great lengths to enforce this. season 9 mirrors season 8, and season 10 acts as a response to and therefore a continuation of season 9. you can see this in the way charlie's death mirrors kevin's (one brother's lies and deceptions leads to increasing stakes that could have been avoided through honesty and openness, which culminates in the death of their beloved ally, and the deceptive brother blames himself for that death because his own unethical actions led to it), or how both of them undergo a change in their physiology as a result of godlike power entering their bodies which mutilate them from the inside and have fatal consequences (sam with the trials, dean with the mark of cain) which can only reasonably be resolved with their deaths (and they both even enter the final stages of this conflict by going to confession). also the plot structures of seasons 8 and 9 on their own mirror each other very closely.

this is all very important because it outlines the purpose of each of these two seasons. it's about them being fundamentally betrayed by their brother, causing that brother to become desperate and feel rejected and unloved, only for them to get what they need out of each other to reaffirm their love. they have to function as a unit, because otherwise both season's primary conflicts (as in, the conflicts established in the first half of each season) are left unresolved. instead, sam gets what he needs from dean in 823, which means that in return dean gets what he needs from sam in 923, thus closing the circle that was opened in 801.

dean reaffirmed that sam is the most important person in the world to him in sacrifice, that he would choose sam over every single other person on earth—this is what sam needed to hear, because it's the foundation of the conflict in season 8, since sam thinks dean chose benny over him and this sent him spiraling into a suicidal depression and self-loathing. so season 9, consequentially, is about dean getting what he needs from sam: he needs to know that sam will do anything in his power to save dean, which is a conflict that began in season 8 (with sam not searching for dean in purgatory) and is reasserted in 913 when sam tells him that he wouldn't violate his agency if the situations were reversed.

and this is exactly what dean gets in 923, when sam says he lied about all of that. dean gets the affirmation that sam's love for dean goes beyond petty ethics, which translates to "dean is more important to sam than anything else in the world" where the "anything else" includes sam's own moral boundaries. this is important to dean because dean eschews his own moral boundaries for sam's sake and safety over and over again throughout the series, and this is a major source of his own character development (see: 122, 203, 214, 222, et cetera et cetera). sam repeatedly denies that he's the same way, and has proven at least once that he wouldn't do the same, so this is an important affirmation for sam to give and it's why dean had spiraled into a suicidal depression and self-loathing (look, another parallel).

so season 8-9 are mirrors of each other, and they have to be mirrors of each other in order to work structurally and for any of the conflicts presented to be resolved. season 10 then is a response to this which shows the consequences of those dual resolutions: aka, sam acts just as unethically as dean does in the rest of the show, except this time knowingly and intentionally instead of subconsciously as he has been doing up to now (see: 1001, 1003, 1004, 1018, 1020, et cetera et cetera).

in order for all of this to work, the conflicts in season 8 and season 9 have to be equal. i.e. dean has to violate sam and his ethics as badly as sam violated dean and his ethics. it also has to be suitably Bad because it's revisiting a conflict that's existed in various iterations across the entire show. this is why it's also deeply important that 923 dean's death also parallels 222 sam's death, because it highlights how this conflict has always existed and how sam and dean are similar to each other. they both make the same choices under pressure and go to equally unethical lengths. which is why season 9 couldn't end until crowley told the audience that sam was trying to make a deal with him to bring dean back to life, specifically after dean begged sam to let him die. the point, then, was never about the violation itself: sam disregards dean's right to choose death just as much as dean disregards it. the season is about how sam and dean are at their cores the same, and it's about sam becoming aware of that reality and then actively, consciously choosing it. which is what sam reiterates across season 10, as a response to his choice in 923.

he only realizes that this is a Bad Thing in 1101 (i.e. after the response has run its course) when he says they both have to change. and the "both" is important because they are the same, fundamentally. sam isn't innocent of this violation of agency and obsessive deception of his brother, and he needs to understand that before actionable change can be made, which is what season 10 is all about.

and there's something poignant that can be said about 1023 being titled "brother's keeper," because this episode is about sam playing the role of brother's keeper, only for it to blow up so spectacularly in their faces that it causes the apocalypse 2.0. it forces sam to recognize that his original conclusion (that dean was right, and that he was lying) was not actually the correct and moral way to continue living. the significance of 1101 only reveals itself in the foundation laid by seasons 8-10, because these are the seasons about sam discovering just how down bad he is for his brother and accepting it wholeheartedly. season 11 then seeks to fix what seasons 8-10 broke, which is of course the entire fucking planet.

and this is the problem: the first apocalypse was caused by the absence of love, and the second was caused by too much love. their love is a destructive force that has world-ending consequences. that's the point of these seasons, what it all comes back to. in receiving the exact type and strength of love they needed from each other, they ended the world. and this is the conflict they need to resolve in season 11, or at least try to. because their love for each other can, has, and will destroy the world, over and over and over again. this theme can't exist unless seasons 8 and 9 mirror each other, unless season 9 is about sam's hypocrisy.

without that world-ending love, they couldn't have started the second apocalypse. if sam weren't a liar, he would have respected dean's choices, and he would have let dean die. if sam truly cared about bodily autonomy, dean would have died in 923 when he begged sam to let him. but he doesn't; that's not the point of the narrative. of course the violation of autonomy is important, because it provides the foundation for the conflict. but the violation is itself a metaphor, a triple whammy of symbolism: the possession is a metaphor for violation, and the violation is a metaphor for betrayal (as seen through the lens of deception).

the point of season 9 is not that dean metaphorically raped his helpless little brother; rather it's that the violation of agency goes both ways, and sam is a hypocrite for trying to maintain his autonomy while stripping it from dean. it's a continuation of season 8, which thus compacts his guilt over "abandoning" dean in purgatory and his self-loathing and fears of not being good enough or worthy enough of dean's love, which thus causes him to act recklessly and injuriously toward himself and dean. it's not a positive conclusion by any means; like i said, this is what causes the second apocalypse, and it's only after they've ended the world twice that sam finally sits down and says maybe they were wrong about this whole thing. maybe their love is too destructive.

in 912, sam says: "something's broken here [...] we don't see things the same way anymore."

in 1101, sam says: "this isn't on you. it's on us. we have to change."

sam goes from blaming dean to blaming both of them, because he realizes that they're both equal partners in their toxic, fucked up love. season 8 and season 9 allowed them to become equals by giving each other the affirmations they desperately needed to achieve true enmeshment, and season 10 is the consequence of that unhealthy relationship.

the point was never that dean violated sam. he does that over and over again throughout the series without destroying their relationship. the point is that sam is willing to violate dean all the same, and he had to face that reality head-on and accept it to resolve the conflict between them and give dean the affirmation he needed, just like dean gave sam the affirmation he needed in 823. the violation was simply a vehicle through which the conflict could come to a head, and the most provocative symbol this show could possibly use was the metaphor of sexual assault and rape, given sam's history with it via meg and especially via lucifer.

i've probably written enough now. the tl;dr is that season 9 invokes what can be interpreted as a rape metaphor not to vilify dean or even really to continue sam's ongoing rape narrative (though the violation that occurs in season 9 uses this as a foundation for the conflict and that's important to understanding the gravity of the situation), but rather to give appropriate stakes to mirror the primary conflict of season 8 and provide grounds for dean to get resolution for the conflict that began in 801 and continued through 923. god i hope this makes sense because now i've written this essay twice and i'm so miserable because of it.

my apologies if any of this is repetitive or meandering or lacking in any way; i tried really really hard to recreate my original essay and also provide more evidence and groundwork for my argument but obviously i'm sure i've missed some details and overlooked structure in many places. not that i even really expect anyone to have read this far. if you did, i love you and please talk to me about seasons 8-10. i'm losing my mind

#supernatural #god strike me down i can't do this anymore #i just want this to be over #at some points i feel like i sound overly critical of sammy and i want to stress i am a samgirl and he's everything to me #and i also don't think this trio of seasons vilify him either even if my arguments might sound that way #i think his development across these seasons are fantastic even if they aren't all rainbows and sparkles. he's a great character #since the essay was originally a response to the first linked post it addresses the issue with the 'rape narrative' reading of s9 #more heavily than my other arguments. so yeah that's probably why i'm worried it comes across as more critical than i intended #also calling someone a hypocrite is a rather loaded term even though i'm using it neutrally. but i digress #ok i'm posting this now. i'm done with this. end me #praying to god i don't have to open this again and make edits. PRAYING TO GOD #.txt #the winchester gospel

[greenclouds]

sorry but I’ll be on my deathbed defending roman for the comment about kendall’s kids. obviously saying someone’s adopted/non-bio kids aren’t really theirs is a horrible thing to say. but he’s not saying it, logan did. roman is just using it as a pointed example of why the conversation was so ludicrous in the first place. this is who our father was. this is the kind of thing he believed. none of this matters.

and kendall fucking deserved it

#succession #succession hbo #I have personal experience with that extremely hurtful viewpoint on adopted children #but I really feel roman was using it as an attack on kendall’s logic rather than on his kids #oh dad wanted to keep the company in the bloodline? that’s your big argument? well dad also thought you didn’t have one #if anything the fact that he literally didn’t raise them makes them not his #roman roy #kendall roy

[v-arbellanaris]

here's the thing, right. like. okay, let's take everything up to the title showing up as the 'origin' style opening for dai, where you establish character. but like. literally what about that opening establishes character. you get brought to the chantry in haven where they briefly discuss executing you before declaring the inquisition. you can either begrudgingly support the people who have actively threatened you repeatedly or you can go uwu i'd love to help you guys out im so excited to be working with you. like. hello.

#throughout most of the haven stuff you don't get to develop your own opinions on anything. key information is shoved into codexes with #no other information or dialogue contradicting what was said. if you do express an opinion the game goes out of it's way to have every #single companion hammer you over the head with the 'correct' opinion. and for some reason they're almost ALL on the same page. #for example. DORIAN advocating for the circles so southern thedas doesn't ''become like tevinter'' like hello what. WHAT. #magic dangerous. apostates bad. blood magic evil. wardens bad. tevinter evil. qunari evil. dalish bad and stupid. ferelden bad and stupid. #chantry good! templars good! seekers good! orlais good! colonialism good! #like somehow. ALL OF THEM. #when it's to that extent like it's clear they're trying to push you towards some kind of conclusion. rather than letting you make your own. #or even be able to express it. AS AN ACTUAL CIRCLE MAGE I CANNOT EXPRESS COHERENT ARGUMENTS TO SUPPORT THE REBELLION. #like HELLO??? #sorry but there IS no moment or period in time where the herald gets to establish their character. they're immediately thrown into #the deep end of the plot. you get IMMEDIATELY THROWN into the resolution of the mage-templar war. with barely any info except what you #get from your advisors and companions. and some codexes if you go out of your way to read them. which. considering they push you to go to #val royeaux as soon as possible. is just. #like come on. let's be real here. #tbd #dai critical

[wonder-worker]

"[Elizabeth Woodville's] piety as queen seems to have been broadly conventional for a fifteenth-century royal, encompassing pilgrimages, membership of various fraternities, a particular devotion to her name saint, notable generosity to the Carthusians, and the foundation of a chantry at Westminster after her son was born there. ['On other occasions she supported planned religious foundations in London, […] made generous gifts to Eton College, and petitioned the pope to extend the circumstances in which indulgences could be acquired by observing the feast of the Visitation']. One possible indicator of a more personal, and more sophisticated, thread in her piety is a book of Hours of the Guardian Angel which Sutton and Visser-Fuchs have argued was commissioned for her, very possibly at her request."

-J.L. Laynesmith, "Elizabeth Woodville: The Knight's Widow", "Later Plantagenet and Wars of the Roses Consorts: Power, Influence, Dynasty"

#historicwomendaily #elizabeth woodville #my post #friendly reminder that there's nothing indicating that Elizabeth was exceptionally pious or that her piety was 'beyond purely conventional' #(something first claimed by Anne Crawford who simultaneously claimed that Elizabeth was 'grasping and totally lacking in scruple' so...) #EW's piety as queen may have stood out compared to former 15th century predecessors and definitely stood out compared to her husband #but her actions in themselves were not especially novel or 'beyond normal' and by themselves don't indicate unusual piety on her part #As Laynesmith's more recent research observes they seem to have been 'broadly conventional' #A conclusion arrived at Derek Neal as well who also points out that in general queens and elite noblewomen simply had wider means #of 'visible material expression of [their] personal devotion' - and also emphasizes how we should look at their wider circumstances #to understand their actions (eg: the death of Elizabeth's son George in 1479 as a motivating factor) #It's nice that we know a bit about Elizabeth's more personal piety - for eg she seems to have developed an attachment to Westminster Abbey #It's possible her (outward) piety increased across her queenship - she undertook most of her religious projects in later years #But again - none of them indicate the *level* of her piety (ie: they don't indicate that she was beyond conventionally pious) #By 1475 it seems that contemporaries identified Cecily Neville as the most personally devout from the Yorkist family #(though Elizabeth and even Cecily's sons were far greater patrons) #I think people also assume this because of her retirement to Westminster post 1485 #which doesn't work because 1) we don't actually know when she retired? as Laynesmith says there is no actual evidence for the traditional #date of 12 February 1487 #2) she had very secular reasons for retiring (grief over the death of her children? her lack of dower lands or estates which most other #widows had? her options were very limited; choosing to reside in the abbey is not particularly surprising. it's a massive and unneeded jump #to claim that it was motivated solely by piety (especially because it wasn't a complete 'retirement' in the way people assume it was) #I think historians have a habit of using her piety as a GOTCHA!' point against her vilification - which is a flawed and stupid argument #Elizabeth could be the most pious individual in the world and still be the pantomime villain Ricardians/Yorkists claim she was #They're not mutually exclusive; this line of thinking is useless #I think this also stems from the fact that we simply know very little about Elizabeth as an individual (ie: her hobbies/interests) #certainly far less than we do for other prominent women Margaret of Anjou; Elizabeth of York;; Cecily Neville or Margaret Beaufort #and I think rather than emphasizing that gap of knowledge her historians merely try to fill it up with 'she was pious!' #which is ... an incredibly lackluster take. I think it's better to just acknowledge that we don't know much about this historical figure #ie: I do wish that her piety and patronage was emphasized more yes. but it shouldn't flip too far to the other side either.