#the reason she can’t do that generally is bc it harms her but like if she’s willing to do it anyway……. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ramshackledtrickster · 4 months

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Thoughts on the tyranny of king Washington dlc?

Not good.

I believe I’ve talked about this before on my blog but I can’t find the posts to link back to rn unfortunately.,,

But uhh I’ll just. Lightning round it real fast

“it’s all a dream” dumbassery

Racism behind the scenes (exclusion of indigenous talent and consultants that were present in the main game, very little care or no usage of the Kanienkehá:ka language, etc)

P much non of the indigenous cast returned except for Noah as Ratonhnhaké:ton. Ziio, Kanen’tó:kon, Oiá:ner… all different people (and all white or non indigenous if memory serves me right. I heard a story where Tiio Horn didn’t even know the dlc was being made until Noah told her at a con)

Killing ziio again for no god damn reason. And Kanen’tó:kon. Oh how about we kill Oiá:ner this time too. All of em died shamefully.

Writing Ratonhnhaké:ton pretty badly,,?? Idc if it’s bc of the weird tea he drank he shouldn’t be an asshole to Kanen’tó:kon and have that go unaddressed

Making him more animalistic and a jerk in general. Like the animal spirit dream segments keep making him run around on all fours n snarling n shit STOP IT

THEY WROTE ZIIO SO BADLY????? She only appears as this big floating head after her death shaming him for drinking the tea and she finally says “you’re no son of mine” JESUS CHRIST???????? This is not my Kaniehtí:io who are you and what did you do to her. No amount of girlbossism is gonna fix this for me

The spirit animals powers and plot … self explanatory (I love how ac3 took efforts to avoid harmful stereotypes and then just mega beamed it into the dlc)

His outfit,,, most of the game is in winter why aren’t u dressed more practically omg. Also I get.. weird vibes from it idk. It low key feels like an excuse to just make him scantily clad eye candy (also they debuffed him a lil which makes me sad. You are dehydrated !!!!)

“Wouldn’t it be wild if George Washington was genocidal good thing he never had the apple irl” hate to break it to you but— (I’m sorry I just. The framing in the game irks me where they treat him being racist as being the result of the apple and that he’s just a misunderstood guy that wants a vineyard or whatever tf he said in the game)

Thomas Jefferson being here and being a good guy. Idk I just. I don’t like it.

It has a salvageable premise,, a reimagined history timeline of a largely indigenous cast rising against a maniacal George Washington that shoots lasers. In the hands of a better crew and artist i think it would have been great and fun but as is.,,

I also like bad end alternate universe stories where someone gets dropped into a world where everything they know is wrong!! Call me silly but. Phineas and Ferb across the second dimension. But no yeah this is awful awful awful despite using a trope I like.

The only good thing I can say about tokw is that it has a great score. Lorne Balfe knocks it out of the park again but no yeah this kinda sucks ass imo. Also Noah’s voice performance really went off here but that’s it.

If I find the posts I talked abt this before in I’ll link it here but yeah. Lucky me that my favorite ac game also has the worst dlc of the entire franchise. And so the monkey paw curled.

Also heads up I’m not indigenous so when I talk abt the more racial stuff here, I’m not speaking from experience but rather what I’ve learned from other people who discuss stereotypes in media and what should be done to allow better representation

Anyways that’s abt it will edit if I find my old posts

#tyranny of king washington #assassins creed #ask to tag #and I say all this bc I LOVE ac3.#why is the dlc so….. hhghhghfg

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korkiekenobiconfirmed · 11 months

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Okay Aelin’s plan at the end of EOS was complete bullshit for so many reasons, all of which can be lumped under 3 larger categories.

1) Probability of success during the war

This is limited, as they mentioned in the books, but Lys’s ability to trick people into thinking she’s Aelin lasts about as long as it takes for them to need her fire powers. The point of pretending Aelin was alive was to help morale and keep the bad guys from learning that she was out of the picture, but if your supposed “fire breathing” savior queen doesn’t show a single spark of power, even when a battle turns dire, that’s arguably worse for morale and does nothing to rally the people. Martyring Aelin & saying she died arguably would’ve been a better choice for this purpose.

Strategy is a huge part of war. Someone like Aelin, with magic as powerful as hers (especially bc of how effective a weapon fire was against Erawan’s forces), would be treated as a battalion all her own. War strategy relies on knowing every player on the board, every move that needs to be made. Generals (like Aedion) are factoring Aelin’s powers into a battle (how it’s fought, chances of success, etc) which means innumerable deaths and devastating losses when that power doesn’t show face. It’s actively harming the war effort — imagine if you thought you had a nuke but then it turns out your strongest weapon is a nerf gun and nobody fucking told you…

2) Aedion & Lysandra’s involvement

Was Aedion justified for how he treated Lysandra? No. Was he justified in being that angry? Yes. Lys knew what she was getting into, understood the sacrifices she was making to execute Aelin’s idiotic doppleganger plan, but nobody told Aedion. He was going to have to sleep with Lysandra just for his goddamn genetics like some prize cattle and, in one fell swoop, lost the woman he loves and cousin he should have sworn his life to. It’s also implied in EOS that he has some sexual trauma in his past, having slept with people to move up Adarlan’s ranks as fast as he did, which makes the role they expect him to play even more fucked up. Lysandra’s essentially sacrificing her entire life and any possible chance at the happy ending she wants(which, btw, I can’t fathom asking of anybody, but at least she agreed to do it on her own…I guess)

3) The likelihood (& morality) of continuing the deception post-KOA

This entire plan moving into the future hinges on some weird ideas about genetics. Yes, the “Ashryver traits” seem to be dominant and there’s a high chance of Lysaedion’s children looking like Aedion… but if they don’t? What then, pass them off as bastards? That would mean they don’t get the throne. It’s also pretty well established that magical abilities follow the same heritability as physical traits but neither Lysandra nor Aedion has magic that could be passed off as a child of Rowan/Aelin. The best case scenario is that the kids inherit Aedion’s lack of magic and it’s all seen as some cruel joke from the gods, that the offspring of two such powerful magic wielders didn’t get any of their parents’ abilities. The worst (and most likely) case is that the kids turn out to be shape-shifters and they’re still written off as bastards…so they don’t get the throne.

The other problem with putting a false queen on the throne lies in the fucking morality of it all. Aelin’s whole claim to the throne relied on divine right (or some fantasy version of it) and the idea that people who are born to a throne have the inimitable right to rule. Darrow had the right idea in QOS when he told Aelin that she didn’t have the proper upbringing to be a queen, to rule a country, and her only argument against him was “weLL iM AeLiN aShRyVEr gaLAtHyNiUS.” As though that means anything in terms of all the knowledge, temperament, and responsibility required of being a GODDAMN QUEEN.

So if Aelin deserves queenhood purely because of circumstances of birth and blood, what are they achieving by putting a lowborn shapeshifter and her illegitimate children on the throne? Does that not go against everything that was supposedly so important? It seems more like Aelin only cares about the appearance of herself/her family sitting the throne of Terrassen, which is fine as far as writing an interesting character goes, but that’s a sinister kind of corruption that should be acknowledged for what it is. If she truly wanted what was best she would let Darrow and the other northern lords lead it (or at least put Aedion on the throne working with them) because they were the ones helping Terrassen through those ten horrible years and they have the power and experience to bring the kingdom back to its former glory.

SJM writing a plan that was so clearly not going to succeed is lazy writing. She knew it didn’t have to be a foolproof plan bc she knew Aelin was going to survive & be rescued (duh) but the fact of the matter is, an author’s actions and thoughts become the characters’ actions and thoughts. To make such a poorly-thought out plan then to present it through the narrative as some kind of genius move on Aelin’s part is…bad writing. It’s just bad writing.

#update: I wrote a fic dealing with this whole issue/how I think in-character aedion & lysandra would've reacted #find me @wxlves on ao3 #sjm critical #anti sjm #the way Aedion treated Lysandra also felt horribly ooc for him #and the way Lysandra just took the abuse was also ooc #but what do I know I’m not the author 😶

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dangans-ur-ronpas · 2 months

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Chapter 17

continuation of byakuya's no good very bad worst shit ass day of his life (so far)(!!!)

SEE HERE FOR GENERAL WARNINGS AND FIC SUMMARY

Some pre-chapter notes:

this chapter went a little different from how i originally planned bc I was going to make byakuya much more stupid. but. he needs to fly off the handle several times later so. we can't let loose all at once

to be very fair to makoto he did not want to do that. and yet. here we are

the king of kings!! @digitaldollsworld

Content warning tags: ableist language from various characters, Byakuya's panic spiral, mild self-harm reference

< previous - from start - next >

Time seems to grind to a halt. His breath is still caught in his throat, halfway through a relieved sigh as he had been waiting - expecting - for Makoto to help him. To pull up some vague, hidden piece of evidence to clear him of any suspicion, to cleverly point out some irrefutable proof that had previously lay unseen.

But instead - his heartbeats feel too heavy. His breathing feels too light, deprived of any real oxygen. His head pounds in the same way it did when he was struck earlier, with a dull, pulsing ring that washes out everything around him.

He prided himself, once, on being able to read a person’s intent. To judge just when and why they might choose to abandon him, to cross him, to try and use him for their own intents. For that reason, he supposes, is why this sickly, sticky feeling of dread is so new to him. He’s never known real betrayal before.

His eyes dart around the room, but the others don’t seem to believe Makoto just yet. Even Owada seems taken aback, stock still and quiet. Only Kirigiri seems unsurprised - or maybe, he was only imagining it, the tranquil quality of her silence. As if she were merely observing it all, far out of their reach.

“Seriously??” Syo’s voice is a grating jeer. “You’re telling me this whole time he had no idea what I looked like? No wonder he didn’t fall for me at first sight!”

“I…don’t think that’s the reason why,” Hagakure says, though he seems utterly bewildered. “But, that can’t be right, right? I’ve seen him reading loads of times. And he practically lives in the library, y’know?”

“Yeah, and he can do things just fine for himself.” Asahina says in agreement. “I mean, he does his own laundry and stuff, and he knows this place way better than me at least. I didn’t even know where the A/V room was during the first motive, I just sorta followed him.”

“Yes, this is sort of…” For the first time, Celeste sounds genuinely surprised, her usually unphased demeanor wavering, her accent slipping for a moment. “Ahem. While I did note that he sometimes seemed a bit��eccentric, so to speak, nothing of his actions suggested that he was impaired.”

Their skepticism is a small relief. He nods jerkily, unable to unstick his tongue from the roof of his mouth to verbalize his agreement. But it’s a small, pathetic movement that goes unnoticed, hardly amounting to anything in this large courtroom.

And their disbelief only goes so far. Ogami speaks up now, for the first time since the trial began, her low voice immediately silencing the whispers.

“I performed a concussion test on him earlier,” She says, gruffly. “As Kyoko had asked me to. He was lucid when answering my questions, and he didn’t seem to exhibit any symptoms that couldn’t be attributed to other reasons.” There’s a slight creak of wood, as she shifts her weight on the stand. “However, I did notice that his pupils were…strange.”

“My- what?” He sputters now, too suddenly, too loudly. He reaches up to touch slightly-trembling fingers to a closed eye, feeling the smooth bump of the cornea twitching beneath the thin skin of his eyelid as if he might be able to identify the damage that way. Why hadn’t she mentioned this earlier? Why bring it up now? “What do you mean, ‘strange’?!”

There’s a slight, panicked edge to his voice that he hopes no one catches, but this was the first time he heard that there could be physical evidence to his affliction. “It was a bit hard to test without the proper tools, but I noticed that they do not react much to changes in light.” Ogami explains. “The shape is also slightly…off. If I had to describe it, I would say that there is…a warping around the edges.”

“And you didn’t think to mention it?!”

“I assumed it was either due to the head injury, or, it was genetic.” There’s an apologetic note to her words. “Given your usual behavior, I…didn’t think it was important.”

Not important. As if she could know what was important here.

“I. Am not. Blind.” He snarls stiffly. “Obviously, I have never taken a close enough look at my own pupils to notice that deformation, but it has never affected my daily life. I am not disabled, nor have I ever been.”

“I find it hard to believe that you have never been aware of it.” Kyoko remarks, tone clipped. “I can’t imagine someone of your status being ignorant of anything concerning your physical health.”

“Then you can rest easy knowing that I am perfectly healthy.” He snaps back, venom flying off his words.

Distantly, he knows that he is digging a pit for himself. That admitting to this would help clear him of any suspicion at all. But he doesn’t care; he would rather die than suffer such indignity. That was what he’s always known, taught by his butler, and then reinforced by all his surroundings afterwards, his siblings, his father - better to perish and let your enemies cry with relief and count themselves lucky, than let them mock you as you dig your own grave.

“You should just admit it already. You are drawing this out to be unnecessarily long, or would you rather doom us all?”

“I don’t see why I should cooperate with someone who has been making mindless accusations at me all this while.”

There’s a tense, snappish tension between him and Kirigiri. A livewire current. A piece of elastic stretched taut. He glares, and to him, her blurred form looks like that of a reared snake.

“Um…” Asahina speaks up, her hand tentatively raised. “If Byakuya’s really blind, can’t we just test it?”

“Excuse me?”

“I-I mean! Not saying that you are blind, or anything,” She says this quickly, carefully, like soothing a spooked horse. “But, we’re not going to get anywhere if you two just keep arguing back and forth, and it’ll be really quick! Like, Sakura, can you hold up a few fingers?” She complies silently, one arm remaining crossed across her chest, the other raised to her side. “How many is she holding up?”

He tries not to squint, but he has no idea. Two? Three? It's nothing more that a blurred, brown shape. “You can’t be serious.” He almost laughs, but the sound he makes is derisive and bitter.

“Y-yes, this is-! Unfair!” Now it’s Yamada, speaking up again. “In case no one else has noticed, Mister Togami is lacking his spectacles! Asking such a thing of him…it’s akin to bullying!”

He’s oddly assertive about this, and Byakuya watches as he pushes his own glasses a little higher. For some reason, being considered something of an equal by Yamada irritates him further. “Shut up.” Who asked for his help.

“Yes, be still please,” Celeste sighs dismissively. “We are playing a game with our lives. This is hardly the time to be discussing moralistic issues.” There’s a slight metallic tap as she raps her silver finger guards against her rings. “But you do make a point. Byakuya does not have his glasses at the moment. It would be difficult to try and confirm anything without them.”

Thank goodness for those with common sense. He doesn’t look to his side, where she was standing, but he swears that he can see her eyes glancing at him, the unnatural red of her pupils bright on her pale face. “Yes,” he agrees, seizing upon it. “And they were broken earlier, thanks to Owada. Nearsightedness runs on my mother’s side, and the former Togami head was farsighted. I will admit that much, is that what you wanted? Kyoko?”

He’s rambling. He’s aware of it. But there are a few nods exchanged, and Asahina scratches at the back of her head awkwardly, as if embarrassed. Kirigiri, however, is still unmoved.

“No. When I say you are blind, I do not mean without your glasses. Or there wouldn’t have been a point in bringing it up in the first place.” Kirigiri shifts her weight slightly, the sway of her stance accompanied by the creak of wood. “Even without your glasses, you cannot do tasks such as reading. I imagine you’ve managed everything else by means of careful practice, but this is the one thing you can’t manage on your own.”

“Hey, Kyoko-” Makoto looks nervous, unsure whether to face him or her. “That-”

“And how do you plan to prove this?” Byakuya snarls. He feels a small flare of triumph, even despite everything, the looming threat of death. “As we found before, I don’t have my glasses. Did you happen to pick those up as well? Did you repair them for me while you were at it?”

Instead of offering a retort, or any sort of reply, she sighs. A soft, tired sound.

“Makoto.” She isn’t facing the other boy, but her tone is firm as she addresses him, and a little exasperated. She doesn’t say anything more, but Makoto seems to understand, and his hands drop to his sides.

“There is a way to prove it.” His voice is quiet. Quiet, and…sad, somehow. Defeated. “Byakuya…please show us your handbook.”

The realization sets in slowly. He’s already been betrayed by Makoto twice now, but still, he finds himself stunned, slack-jawed. This one was the worst by far - not only was he actively helping Kirigiri, he was betraying Chihiro as well, risking revealing everything to that accursed bear. And after all the lengths Byakuya had gone through to protect this secret.

“What are you saying,” He says, and his voice has a humiliating tremor that matches how his hands shake, clutching at the rail. Surely, he’s heard wrong. Surely, Makoto would correct himself, take it back-

“Your handbook. Chihiro, he…he put a program on it that lets you be able to do stuff like tell the time. It also reads stuff aloud. And he did it after the motives got revealed, that night when Celeste saw you guys leaving the bathhouse.” He sounds so somber, so sad and grieving. He won’t meet Byakuya’s eyes. “He did it in exchange for you teaching him how to be strong, and self-confident - which you did, by telling him to go around talking to everyone else today.”

Without really thinking about it, his hand goes to his inner jacket pocket, where his handbook sits. His fingers close around the little device, the hard edges of plastic and metal pressing into the creases of his palm. He feels a little like he’s been shot.

But he doesn’t bring it out. He glares instead, furiously, hatefully, at the boy standing just meters away. He - and Kirigiri too, most likely, Byakuya suspected that Makoto had already revealed everything that that woman - knew perfectly well the importance of Alter Ego, and why it could not, under any circumstances, be revealed. And they knew Byakuya was aware of this too, and they were holding this fact hostage, over his head.

(I could, some sore, beaten part of him thinks with poisonous intent, try and claim responsibility for Chihiro’s murder. I could say that they’re wrong. That I lured Chihiro to the bathhouse with the intent of making him less wary, easier to isolate. That he was so weak and trusting and stupid that killing him was a simple manner. That I mimicked Syo’s modus operandi to throw suspicion off of me.)

The mere thought was shameful, but it was his pride, wounded and bitter, that was seriously considering it, if only for some semblance of control. The barest reassurance that he had any real weight at all in this trial. And all he would need to do is open his mouth and say the words.

But instead, he bites down on his inner cheek, hard enough for blood to trickle out the corner of his mouth, hard enough for the pain to rival the buzzing in his temples. And tightens his grip momentarily, just enough to feel the faint, humming warmth of the handbook against his sweating palm, and exhales slowly.

“...Fine. Fine.” He spits, angry, defeated, exhausted. He’s sick of this. He just wants it to be over. “Yes. I’m blind. I have been so since we first woke up in this school. Are you happy now?”

Makoto looks down, his face shadowed by his hair. Kirigiri tilts her head slightly, a motion that’s not quite a nod but more of a bow.

“Wait, so then-” Asahina’s voice, confused and a little hesitant, pipes up. “If you’ve been…y’know, this whole time, but only after we got to this school…does that mean the Mastermind did this to you, somehow?”

“That’s what I would like to know, myself.” He turns to look at Monokuma, and finds the bear lounging across its throne, a bucket of popcorn resting precariously on the armrest. The repugnant toy giggles, and swings itself upright, spilling a handful of white puffs all over.

“Gosh, I wonder?” The thing taps at its chin, voice taking on a wondering tone. “Of course, I want this game to be fair and give you all a level playing field. I believe in equality after all! …Though this has made for so many entertaining developments, so…I figured I’d leave it as is. Besides, you’ve adapted quite well, haven’t you Mister Togami?” It cackles, paws clutching at its belly. “GIven how well you did hiding it from everyone, I think it’s fine if we leave it like this, don’t you think?”

He wants to cross the courtroom and throttle the stupid thing this instant. All he can do is glare murderously, lips twisted into a snarl.

There’s a sharp clap that has most people jumping. The source of the sound is Kirigiri, whose hands are raised, and pressed together. “Let’s move on.” Her voice is firm, with no room for arguing. “All we’ve done so far is clear one person’s innocence. We still need to identify the real killer.”

And that was it. The most disgusting moment of his life, over just like that, ended by her words. He knows that there’s bound to be some kind of punishment in store for those who interrupt trials, but he briefly wonders if he can get his hands around her neck before Monokuma can react.

Owada jerks at Kirigiri’s words, startled out of his own stunned silence. “W-wait,” He sounds panicked now, and of course he would be. His scapegoat is gone. “Then, if it’s not Byakuya, then who…?”

“Let’s consider what we know. Given how it’s not clear where the murder took place, it would have to be someone who had access to cleaning supplies or water, and has no alibi that can be verified when the murder occurred. For the most part, everyone here has an alibi that can be supported by at least one other person, but there are some that do not.” Kirigiri lists these calmly, and Byakuya imagines her cold gaze, flitting between each person in the room. “Mondo. Do you care to explain what you were doing prior to the body’s discovery?”

The effect is immediate. The other boy rears up, instantly furious. “The fuck are you trying to say? That I’m a murderer?!” He thunders. “Like I said earlier, I was taking care of my bro. You know that. Everyone knows that!”

“As you said earlier, Taka is currently compromised. He can’t give a testimony.” She shoots back without hesitation. “Your alibi is flawed.”

“Yeah? Well - well so’s yours!” He sputters. “Like- Syo might’ve been the one to find you in the bathroom, but that was just before Chihiro was found. Toko can’t say that you weren’t there the whole time, a-and even if you were, maybe the bathroom was where Chihiro died anyways!”

Owada may be stupid, but credit where credit was due, he was surprisingly quick to retort and pick at Kirigiri’s excuse. “I could not have cleaned up a murder scene in the bathroom so spotlessly in the time between Chihiro’s last sighting and the body discovery. As Makoto described earlier, the sinks of the bathroom were all dry-”

“There was that sheet, you could’ve used that before smashing Chihiro’s head over it. And there’s water in the toilets, right? And the girl’s bathroom was right next door!”

“...I’ll commend you for recognizing my perseverance. But I did not kill Chihiro.” She shakes her head. “If the only thing that will clear me is secondhand support to my alibi, then the only thing that needs to be done is to ask a witness. Toko?”

And she addresses Syo now, who just cocks her head for a moment, and shrugs. “I keep sayin’ to you guys, it’s lights out up there. There’s no telling when she’ll be back!”

Byakuya has had enough.

“Toko,” He says first, his voice low and hissing. Then, louder, building into a shout: “TOKO. Come out, NOW!”

“I don’t think it works like tha-” Syo’s words are cut off suddenly, and she collapses where she stands, like a puppet with her strings cut.

< previous - from start - next >

#thpff #thpff chapters #danganronpa fanfiction #byakuya togami #byakuya mentally filing for a second naegami divorce #sorry this one took so long.....my frontal lobe. it is soup #combination filing taxes + applying for classes + applying for jobs + etc etc. it'll do it to ya #going to really really really try to get 18 up by sunday but if its delayed do u prommy not to be too mad at me. do you. pls pls pls #i jest tho. thank u to everyone who has been reading thus far i hope you continue to enjoy it or move on to other things #just knowing you were here even if just for a moment even if for the whole ride is enough for me #i hope this chapter is legible i cranked out the last half of it at 2 am on a half bottle of soju #also had to mentally go over everything twice bc ive been listening to His Dark Materials audiobooks and my writing was turning british #byakuya frothing furious angry defeated at the stand while kyoko is just. o<-< are we done yet. can we please talk about the murder #theyre both toxic here and making everyone bear witness to it #alright folks lets take bets now on who you think the killer is!!!

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hawkogurl · 2 months

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Sometimes I feel like the 'did we watch the same movie' readings of Raimi!Norman (ignoring the mess that was NWH) could be tempered if people were willing to treat characters as narrative devices to tell a story and explore themes than like, a real person who is close to you and is need of their (moral) character and honour defended bc it would harm them otherwise, plus not making being likeable, relatable, and sympathetic (not to confused with being complex and character motivations making sense) as obligatory traits for a 'good' character - Norman is far more interesting and layered when he's a morally awful person who doesn't want people to know his true nature bc it would get in the way of his goals and a foil to Peter in terms of the power/responsibility and man behind the mask themes than if he was just some sad woobie who never did anything wrong and is genuinely a sweet and kind person.

And like, if you want to play around with sweet old man Norman in your fanworks, then go wild, but just embrace that's what you're doing and not act like it's canonical text or a well-supported possible reading of the film and then try to shove that into actual analytical critiques of the movies.

Totally agree. When I disagree with other peoples takes on especially platforms like tiktok or reddit, sites I generally hate where for these movies narrative analysis tends to be put on the back burner, I will often give more elaborate explanations why, from a storytelling angle, something is or isn’t true. And consistently I tend to get comments which are, in fairness to the commenters, very lighthearted saying that I’m providing college essay level stuff when I really don’t feel like I am. Due to the absolute plague of anti intellectualism and the far more natural reality that when it comes to mass media, people do not think about media in an intensely critical way. And I think that’s fine, it would be elitist of me to think that people can’t just like things to like things. But when you’re going to enter the territory where you’re making statements on the narrative fabric of something or start arguing in favor of something or against something or just for something with other people, you do have to start examining it critically.

And I completely agree with the concept you’re communicating. And I would be hypocritical to say I never do the same, I very much do, but when I’m trying to make storytelling or analytical points I do my damnedest to separate what I’m saying from my own more meta reasons for thinking a way I do, whether that be my attachment to a character or relating my analysis to some sort of metatextual fan reaction that isn’t totally relevant. There are certain points where I go against my instincts to defend characters like Harry or MJ whose general fan perception is unjustified because it doesn’t help or actively weakens my point with that sort of bias.

I also think people have developed this idea that to be a good villain, the villain must be sympathetic or morally gray. Especially in the face of people tending to moralize their own or other people’s personal preferences, people often feel the need to justify their most evil faves as sympathetic or tragic when they aren’t, at least not in the capacity they argue, rather than just accept that it’s not a reflection on them to like an evil character. It’s often worse to try and justify Norman. A lot of the time, in the process of trying to frame Norman as tragic or sympathetic, they make things worse from multiple forms of critical lense by both weakening the narrative and what it’s trying to say and also by unintentionally or subconsciously falling into some not so great tropes, such as implicitly belittling the actions against the child he abused or using Emily, Caroline Mulder or whoever it is that Harry’s mother was as a sort of scapegoat, blaming Norman’s negative traits on her as something she made him develop by betraying him however they decided she did or otherwise dragging her down to make him seem better. And in my perspective, the character assassination of a woman to justify or prop up the poor innocent man who only became cruel as a result will never not be misogynistic. It’s just a method of stripping the male character of responsibility for his actions by pinning them on his female counterpart. This happening with a woman who never even shows her face on screen is, for me, an example especially cartoonish in its egregiousness. I’m all for adding flaws and nuance to Emily or whoever’s character, but you’ll lose me when she’s portrayed as a bitch who’s at fault for any amount of Norman sucking. He is an adult man. He’s responsible for himself.

I feel the same about the varying executions of Ambrose Osborn. There are examples I like a lot more, like The Final Act on ao3 where he’s never used to excuse Norman’s actions. But most of the time, he ends up as an excuse. Cycle of abuse narratives only work if you still acknowledge the abused is not any less now an abuser for it. And going back to Harry, it contributes to this sort of mass belittlement for what happened there. Within fandoms, themes that feel real are always more worth hating someone for than vaguer, more distant concepts like mass murder and terrorism. Norman’s abuse of Harry is more egregious than his crimes as the goblin because it’s more real to people. It’s more of a condemnation because more people have been there. As a result, a lot of people seem to believe that to redeem Norman or to be allowed to like him, Norman can’t have been abusive towards Harry. You get a lot of things like Harry being treated as unreasonable, or Norman never having been abusive and just having been unable to express love properly (usually with a nice side of blaming Emily), or using Ambrose as an excuse, often trying to do the comics canon Harry breaking the cycle with Norman. Which both erases Norman’s abuse and never really executes that plotline in a way that works because it’s so tied into the ways Norman directed harm at Harry for traits in Harry he saw as weak. It doesn’t work with Norman and it’s still rather off putting to never acknowledge that Norman was awful. I don’t think people really realize that writing Norman as a good father in fanfic isn’t as much of a… I don’t know, support to abuse victims as they think it is. I’m not going to begrudge anyone who does so as a coping mechanism, I’m not here to dictate your trauma and you can do whatever feels right, but most of the time it comes off as thinking what Norman did wasn’t real abuse because he never hit him, or because he still loved him, rhetoric that’s directed against the experiences of real life victims quite a lot.

And all of that comes down to the fact that people implicitly treat characters like they’re people. Liking a character who did something has become the same as liking a person who did the same. But Norman isn’t a person. He’s a character. And while characters are obviously a lot more and making them feel like people improves most stories, at the end of the day characters are not people, they’re narrative devices. Within storytelling, while there’s a bit more nuance than what I’m saying here, at the end of the day good writing is writing that works. Norman doesn’t need to behave like a real person, ignoring that he pretty much does, because he is a character who, at the end of the day, only needs to act in a way that makes the story work.

This whole reply is disjointed so I’ll probably revisit this topic when I’m capable of intelligent thought. As always for anyone reading who disagrees, always willing to participate in good faith discussion.

#raimiverse #raimi trilogy #harryposting #harry osborn #spider man #spiderman #norman osborn #green goblin #norman slander

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menalez · 3 months

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honestly i wish those assholes would stop 1) harrassing you of course, because clearly it's disgusting to harras you just because you've been abused and 2) doing it in the name of goldstar positivity. goldstar positivity is about smashing the stereotypes against goldstar lesbians and fighting the hatred against this term in general, for example. and fighting non goldstar lesbophobia isn’t about bullying lesbian victims of rape and abuse, it's about calling out these women who've had tons of crushes on men (actual crushes), slept with men and enjoyed it, and overall are attracted to men but still call themselves lesbians - but there's a clear and obvious difference between them and a victim of abuse. these fake lesbians will openly claim they enjoyed sex with men before and have already been in love with a man, it's not the same thing as someone being abused and coerced. and at the end of the day, while sometimes it's obvious that self proclaimed lesbians aren't actually homosexual, many times it also isn’t because you can't know how the person felt inside. like, if a woman tells you she felt coerced into being with men, or felt like she's had to for whatever reason, well you can't know if it's true or not, and the best thing to do is to leave that person alone. unless she spreads lesbophobic rhetoric like "lesbians can like men sometimes!" it really isn’t harmful, and attacking her is risking to attack a victim of abuse or trauma of any kind so... idk better leave her alone???

anyway i just wanted to say you have my support, i'm a goldstar and i absolutely hate how many other goldstar seem to treat you, you're absolutely amazing, i love your blog and everything you do online for women and lesbians. you're a queen clearly !

if a woman tells you she felt coerced into being with men, or felt like she's had to for whatever reason, well you can't know if it's true or not, and the best thing to do is to leave that person alone. unless she spreads lesbophobic rhetoric like "lesbians can like men sometimes!" it really isn’t harmful, and attacking her is risking to attack a victim of abuse or trauma of any kind so... idk better leave her alone???

exactly!! i’ve said this before but the fact that they’re willing to say any woman talking about her trauma or abuse is a liar (bc accepting that to be true would mean they don’t have a basis for harassing her for their presumptions on her sexual orientation) is so vile to me. do they have 0 conscience that they’re willing to risk being the people who are calling a rape & abuse victim a liar? do they not realise that they might be wrong in their assumptions and in that case, they’re simply horrible people?

like if someone lies about those things then that’s a reflection of them and there’s no justification for such behaviour but to accuse ppl of lying about their trauma with such little basis means being willing to potentially call an actual victim a liar. no matter how much i might dislike any woman on here, no matter how shitty she is or whether i believe her when she says she’s a lesbian or not, i can’t imagine ever being shitty enough to tell her she must be lying about being coerced or abused or raped or whatever else.

thank u sweet anon for ur kind words ❤️

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bookishfeylin · 1 year

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Hello! I popped in a few days ago to say how much I love your blog and I thought I would circle back a little bit with some of my (messy) thoughts on the ACOTAR series from an LGBTQ+ perspective. (Maybe I could make a side blog for this. God knows how I struggle with the horrible writing in the Dragon Age games on main). My credentials: trans man and bisexual, but I’d like to blanket that I don’t speak for the entire community and, of course, I am speaking from my own experiences.

So, the first lgbtq+ character prominent we’re introduced to in SJM’s bibliography is actually Aedion from Throne of Glass, and the only reason I’m starting off with him is because I’m really mad that he was our first prominent bisexual character in the books and there was 0 mention of his relationships with other men; it was a throwaway line before his romance with Lysandra (in which SJM butchered his character in the last book. Not to say that bi men can’t date women! I liked their ship but I was mad at how it was treated as tokenism).

Within ACOTAR, we’re first greeted with Helion, and the issue with his writing is… pretty glaring, I think. The promiscuous bisexual is a harmful trope that’s been toted around for a while; “oh, you’re bi? you must be down for sex all the time with whoever you want” which… ignores the fact that sexuality can be a spectrum and does assign bisexuality a sort of sexual morality that people have used to condemn us for a long time. Not to say that Helion can’t be promiscuous, but there is a focus on it as a huge aspect of his character when there are other ways to do it.

I feel like Morrigan is a little self-explanatory. It’s… not great, imo, that SJM isn’t being a little more clear about her (if she prefers sexual relationships with men but intimate romantic relationships with women, great! But please SAY THAT). The way she strings Azriel along is cruel and unnecessary—she shouldn’t need to feel afraid to come out to people who are supposedly “her best friends” or “are like brothers to her”. Hell, she felt safer coming out to Feyre, who’s she’s known for considerably less time! I’ll also touch briefly on the whole situation with Eris… insofar as to say that I think SJM writing it out with such violence was unnecessary and the optics of “I prefer women because men harmed me” that, while may not be necessarily true, the appearance of it being true reads really poorly because it’s what conservatives and conversion camps like to tout about lgbtq+ people (“you’re only like that bc someone hurt you”).

Thesan is another one, but SJM left his lover unnamed. C’mon. There’s barely any named NPCs in this series as it is, it wouldn’t have killed her to slap a name on his husband/mate.

Speaking of mates, I need to gripe about the mating bond too—in ACOMAF, I believe it is, but just in general, the bond is used to indicate NOT who would be happiest in love, but it is based on which pairing would “make the strongest offspring”. So, if we walk away from the heteronormativity of that explanation, how the HELL do you get gay mates? And if you’re gay, what happens if your “mate” is someone you’re not romantically or even sexually attracted to? Do you just have to deal with this uncomfortable and predestined tension and expectations to suck it up and make babies, anyway? And why should it be based on children and the ideal nuclear family? (We know why. But from a meta perspective, why?)

And as a brief aside, I still haven’t seen a trans character. Not that I’d want to. I think I would end up being terribly offended if she tried to do so. Sorry this ended up being so long! Maybe I should’ve devoted it to my own post 😔

No, you're fine! I'd had my own thoughts about some of these but I'd never considered the full extent of how abysmal her representation truly was. Tysm for this!

#ask #anon #anti sjm #sjm critical #anti acotar #anti tog #anti acomaf #acotar analysis

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wrathfulrook · 1 year

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WIP Wednesday Thursday

bc I’m terrible at WIP Wednesday lol

Tagged by @direwombat. Tysm!

Tagging (for WIP Weekend or next week’s WIP Wednesday or whatever/whenever you want): @socially-awkward-skeleton @adelaidedrubman @strafethesesinners @strangefable @trench-rot @vampireninjabunnies-blog @inquisitors-grave @deputyash and anyone else who’d like to share bc 1) I’m terrible at keeping a semi-consistent list and 2) I genuinely love seeing everybody’s WIPs!

Below is a bit more from Wrathling (an earlier bit than previous WIPs bc I’m editing old chapters rn):

“It’s difficult for me, how resistant you are to accepting my help.” He raised a single brow, cueing her to speak.

She didn’t.

He crossed his arms across his chest, amusement clear on his face. “You’re much more demure in person than over the radio, Deputy.”

“Well, I’m in a bit of a bad situation right now, and I’m trying not to make it worse.” Don’t be a smartass, don’t be a smartass, don’t be a smartass.

A smile tugged at the creases of his eyes. “You think you’re in a bad situation?”

If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.

She stayed quiet.

The mirth drained instantly from his features. It was terrifying how he could do that. “This is not a bad situation, Deputy. This is the first good thing to happen to you in a while, I’d wager. There will be pain. But the pain is necessary to confess, to atone. And in the end, when you are free of sin and filled with clarity, you will look back with nothing but fondness and gratitude.

“Nothing you say will make this process any worse for you. In fact, you should be as candid as possible throughout your confession. You need to be honest with yourself, with me, with God. You need to truly confront you sin in order to be free of it.”

“And what if I don’t want to be free of my sin?”

He smiled kindly and spoke gently, “Sinners often cling to their sins. That’s why you need a baptist to help you. That’s why I’m here. It’s natural to be afraid. Though it will hurt, you won’t be permanently harmed, and you won’t be killed.”

She fought against the urge to roll her eyes, her ire at the man nearly overcoming her fear of him. “The only reason you won’t kill me is because you can’t. Joseph said that I had to be saved, or you wouldn’t get to ‘walk through Eden’s Gate.’ You can’t kill me without risking your immortal soul, or whatever.”

John Seed glared at her, and she wished she had never spoken.

“There are fates far worse than death, Deputy.”

He turned his back to her, rummaging through the implements he’d replaced onto the bench, settling for the long, pointed icepick that he’d brandished earlier. He offered her a kind smile that she didn’t trust for a second before he strolled over, pulling a chair behind him. He sat across from her, much too close for comfort while he twirled the icepick through his fingers. He leaned close, bringing his mouth to her ear, his dark facial hair scraping against her sensitive skin as she pulled away as much as she could while tied down.

His whispered lowly, almost seductively into her ear, “You will confess to me. Every sin you’ve ever committed, no matter how small, no matter how petty, no matter how you justified it at the time… You will confess.”

Before pulling away, his hot breath still on her skin, he drove the icepick into the meat of her left thigh. Then he pulled back slowly, his eyes never leaving her face, watching her react.

Patience had never been stabbed before. Not anywhere, not by anything. She’d once gotten a puncture wound from a sharp stick while running on the beach as a girl, but that was nothing. Nothing in general and nothing compared to this. She’d managed to make it through her fight with the cult so far with only bullet grazes and one shallow bullet wound. She had never experienced anything like this.

She couldn’t exactly feel the metal that was stuck in her flesh. Her brain had no way to process it. But the area felt both ice cold and too warm for comfort. The pain felt both sharp and dull. Nausea was involved, somehow.

Her eyes were blown wide, watching John Seed, the man who had just stabbed her, lean back in his chair. Her mouth opened, but she didn’t scream. In fact, no sound at all came out. He didn’t react to her shock, and so she turned her gaze downward. The blue plastic handle of the tool stuck almost straight out of her leg, with only about two inches of the metal shaft outside of her leg with it. She was amazed at how it had pierced so cleanly through the denim of her jeans, the light fabric only barely stained red around the metal.

She was dimly aware that that was a stupid thing to be preoccupied with. Was this what shock felt like?

As she stared dumbly at the scene, a tattooed hand crept into her field of vision, wrapped its long fingers around the weapon, and yanked. He did not yank it straight out, and Patience noticed it snag on the hole in her jeans, and then so much dark blood spill out, before she felt any pain.

And then she felt the pain.

And this time, she did scream.

She screwed her eyes up tight, threw her head back, and wailed. This pain felt more tangible, less abstract, and she felt her awareness slam back in full force.

“FUCK! JESUS FUCKING-“ She gasped and opened her eyes, glaring at the man across from her. “Fuck you! FUCK!” She squirmed against the ropes and breathed harshly through clenched teeth.

“Now, Deputy, there’s no need to start with your biggest sin. We have all the time in the world.” He smiled as though he’d made a particularly clever joke. “We can start small. Ease our way in. Work our way up. So, I’ll begin with a simple question: What is your name?”

#wip #my stuff #wrathling #oc: patience ekner

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knockyasocksoff2022 · 4 months

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Stephanie Meyer

Making bullshit BSD OCs bc it’s February and I didn’t meet my cringe quota last year so I must try harder this year!

Stephanie Meyer - The Lion & The Lamb

Pronouns: She/her

Age: 17

Ability Type: dream walking ability w/ physical manifestations. (This works best for information gathering.)

Affiliation: The Guild

Occupation: Student

Ability Restriction(s): The person must be asleep for this to work, and they control their own dreamscape. Steph can manipulate it to some degree, (it works better, the more familiar she is with a person and the closer she is) but they still have the majority of the control so she may have to fight her way through their mind to get to the information she wants if the person if particularly violent in nature.

There is no way for the person to know of her presence in her mind even if they’ve been warned they can’t know if she’s there or not. She cannot be harmed while in dream escape but it can cause headaches and nosebleeds. Because she has to work at night (that’s usually when people are asleep) She’s often sleep-deprived.

Ability Use(s): For interrogation, during the day the person of interest will be put to sleep so she can examine their mind to look at all thoughts they’ve had during that day (the more familiar she is with a person the farther back she can look). She sees the thoughts at the forefront of her mind most clearly.

When she’s asleep she enters her dream dimension and she can store information and memories there. (It’s much like Anne’s room, but her body is still in this dimension, which leaves her vulnerable to attack.)

During dives into her own dreams or the dreams of others, she can send out Edward and Bella, the physical manifestations of her ability, a lion cub and a lamb kid. They can relay key information or warnings to her colleagues in the outside world but can’t speak any words besides what she tells them two. When not in use as messengers they sometimes speak her thoughts, she doesn’t like this because she’s a very private person.

Appearance: She has extremely pale skin, and dark red hair, similar to the colour of Oda Sakunosuke’s but with natural lighter red highlights. Her hair is down to her mid back (she had a short hair cut and isn’t sure what she wants now, so she’s letting it grow out) and naturally wavy but she straightens it so it’s more manageable. She has bright brown eyes with flecks of gold in them, in certain lights they appear almost yellow. Her eyes are naturally soft, but they’ve gained a sharp quality to them over the years. She’s usually wearing a teeshirt with jeans/jean shirts or an oxford shirt with a jumper and khakis or a skirt.

Personality: Introverted but direct. She always shares her opinions, polite or not, people say her natural affinity for prose and elegant phrasing makes her sound gentler. She thinks of herself as not quite a tomboy but definitely not a “girly girl”, she doesn’t necessarily think she’s better than others but holds herself apart from them, preferring the company of those older than her. She tries to be as generous and kind as she can (I don’t think she quite realises her options can hurt people) but has sarcastic tendencies.

Likes: Romance novels or any novels set in the past, classical music (she isn’t an enthusiast but enjoys the relaxing sound), cooking and domestic chores, feeling useful, being appreciated, baseball, cars

Dislikes: gore & blood, lying for no reason, unhappy endings, relationships (in work and love) where she feels she can’t contribute an equal amount

Other Details: She feels the need to be useful because of her mother’s begging neglect as a child when she had to be the adult in the house, doing housework like cooking and bookkeeping.

She feels she’s undeserving of love because her mother never thought of her as a child to be cherished, only something tying her down from living an adventurous life. She’s always worried that she isn’t good enough for others, but doesn’t show it so she can come off as a bit aloof, feeling that if she distances herself and makes herself better than she won’t need others but others will rely on her. This is misguided because all she truly wants if for people to love her for her and not anything she does.

#bungou stray dogs #bungo stray dogs #bsd #bsd oc #oc #original character #stephanie meyer #bungou stray dogs oc #bungo stray dogs oc

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proudfreakmetarusonniku · 2 years

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ok info dumping about the old au I had. mostly just precanon stuff bc I just wanna get something out so I can sleep but I can talk about the rest tommorow if u want.

so! during one of eda's trips to the human realm, 6 year old luz ends up stumbling across the portal and accidentally ends up getting herself stranded in the demon realm (and since she’s very frightened and confused, she doesn’t go up to eda, so eda never actually realised this happened).

after a while, though, news of a tiny human child does end up spreading, and luz quickly gets caught by the coven scouts. understandably, she’s terrified and she’s convinced she's going to be killed but obviously that doesn’t happen bc y’know. random scouts aren’t going to kill a toddler for existing. that’s not a crime.

when belos hears about her he’s obviously immediately like “another human lost in this world? clearly it is just like me and caleb and i need to protect this sole other human from the Dangers Of This Realm for reasons completely unrelated to me trying to make caleb 2. obviously.” so adoption (derogatory) ends up happening.

and this Isn’t Great for luz for what are hopefully obvious reasons. being raised in an incredibly sheltered environment by a bigoted extremist who's also really fucking abusive isn’t a fun time. luz does try to escape for a while, and while she doesn’t because she’s six she does end up discovering some pretty secure hiding places. and in hiding, she sees and learns a lot she was never meant to.

still, she's being actively indoctrinated into a cult, so despite what she sees, she still trusts and believes in her adoptive father because she doesn’t know any better. she assumes what happens must be normal or necessary. after all, shes just a silly human, regular old luz who just is completely unremarkable in everything but failure. it bothers her a lot that she can’t do much to help.

when she first arrives, our hunter doesn’t even exist yet, and the old golden guard who was dariuses mentor is still around. i mean by old hes like in his twenties max but that’s ancient by grimwalker standards at this point. he sort of becomes this mentor figure to luz, too, and she really idolises him. she wants to be just like him, in how he's able to do so much without magic. she's really close to him.

which means it hits hard when he's killed. especially since, unseen by anyone in an unnoticed corner somewhere, she sees it happen. it traumatises her quite a lot, though she's good at hiding it and never lets it slip she was somewhere she wasn’t meant to be. when the new hunter comes around, though, she does take it out on this weird new young copy of someone who was practically an older brother to her. not intentionally, and not to like, a huge degree, but she's very distant to him at first.

they do eventually grow very very close, due to basically being the only person the other is allowed to really talk to, and luz stops seeing him as some sort of replacement. after all, they might look similar, but they act completely different! the old hunter was always calm, always reliable, but the new one is young and scared and needs a guiding hand through life in the castle, which luz is of course able to provide.

luz and hunter grow up in quite similar ways. luz is allowed to leave the castle much less- after all, it’d be a shame to lose the only other human left in some silly mission- but she's generally physically harmed a lot less too, though she does have a few scars that no one her age should have. both of them are manipulated and emotionally abused frequently, and are lead along by promises of a false destiny.

while hunter, of course, falls into a blind obedience, luz is privately a lot more sceptical. not that she doubts her papa is trying his best and doing the right thing, of course, but she worries he's going about it all the wrong way. while this makes her more easily swayed, she’s also unlikely to give up her views that wild magic is dangerous even if she realises her life was a lie. clearly, he must have been corrupted from a once noble goal.

she's also desperately lonely, and privately longs for friends that she knows she’s not allowed. when she has the time, she reads and rereads all the fiction available in the library, and desperately imagines herself as one of the young witches in them, able to go outside freely and talk to whoever they like and have adventures! but she knows she'll never be like that. after all, what are the odds she'd ever make it on her own, even if she somehow left the castle despite not knowing how.

(until, of course, a freak accident on a mission leaves her ending up unwillingly in the care of the owl lady, who doesn’t know who she is but knows she’s a human and someone who needs help, and surely it wouldn’t be that bad if she spent just a few days with a wild witch, right? surely she could make a few friends among the populace, right? no one would even know.)

#the owl house #the owl house aus #luz wittebane au #tw harm to children #tw abuse #tw kidnapping #tw self hatred #tw manipulation #tw murder #tw isolation

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strongermonster · 2 years

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now that i’m kiiinda sorta a little bit maaaybe stepping back into working with children again, i forgot how fuuucking annoying parents are in general, but specifically the abled parents of disabled kids. like i don’t have a lot of authority to speak here bc the only things ‘wrong’ with me are Brain and the fact that i’m partially deaf (honestly, an asset sometimes working in a room full of squealing excited children) but a lot of parents will be like “this is my special-wecial little babe who can’t do [long list of things]” and like.

99% of the time it’s not ‘can’t do’ it’s “has to do it differently in a way that’s either not something i get, or is too time consuming for me to bother with, or with no malicious intent simply did not occur to me to try doing it X way.” most of the kids can do all the exact same things!! sometimes even the amount of accessibility needed is like... basically nothing?

i’m not saying “take a kid in a wheelchair to the bottom of the stairs and say ‘good luck’” or exhaust a kid trying 900 things bc sometimes You Just Can’t. i’m like...

say we get a kid who’s autistic and can’t read or follow verbal instructions. ok! so that’s My Little Helper for the day and we do whatever it is we’re doing physically together, and most of the time they learn by doing just fine. how much “effort” did that take? how much time did i lose? literally none. not an ounce. and also even if i did, who cares? literally who cares?? were we having fun? did we learn something? cool!

and also tons of people learn in tons of different ways, which is why there’s always a print out of what i’m saying for kids who learn by reading (that’s me!) to follow along as i say it out loud for the kids who learn by listening (that’s very much not me!), and then we all actually do the thing together hands on, for the kids who learn that way (partially me!)

“my daughter doesn’t like nature walks. she’s in a wheelchair and it’s too hard for her. also the chair is very expensive and i don’t want it getting wrecked.” -cool! so we’ll get her a wagon. it’s low tech as hell but if she’s comfortable in it and you approve, that’s it! we’ll guilt the city into paying for it by going “oh my god, you don’t want a little girl in a wheelchair to go on this nature hike? is that what you’re saying?? woooow”

i think they (the parents) just get so caught up in being like “here’s the 203843 scenarios in which my child can be harmed mentally, physically, and/or emotionally, i must prepare for and avoid each and every one” which i GET, but also you reach a point where all that extra padding just becomes suffocating. you’re holding them back and doing harm, even unintentionally.

i also hate when they pile on these excuses and restrictions in front of the child. like goddamn, you’re just packing in the negativity to this impressionable little brain aren’t you? how many of those “well little timmy here can’t do X” has little timmy internalized and decided “well i might as well not do anything” then???? do you know how many times i’ve heard “oh i can’t do that” to which i ask if there’s a reason, and the answer is just “well my mom said...” (especially little girls, oh my god. “my mom says i can’t get dirty/run/be loud/climb trees/play with cars” it’s INFURIATING)

worst case scenario maybe they really can’t do something. and again; so what? not being able to do something isn’t a negative feature (full stop but also) exclusive to people with disabilities. you tried, you failed, you move on! find a new thing. literally all humans who have ever existed are doing this exact same thing. but you have to let them try for their own damned selves.

also when people ask me for a super detailed lesson plan down to all this pointless minutia LMAO. i’ll give you the outline, the tools we use, the little pamphlet that comes with the class that’s going to answer 99.9% of the questions you’re about to ask me (if you bother to read it), the stuff we’re reading, the safety based stuff, but otherwise it’s sort of a vibe dudes. it’s just Thoughts i’m having. like >talking about butterflies >mention milkweed >remember a cool fact about milk >remember a fact about the dairy industry >talk about the economy >remember that 7 year olds don't know what the economy is >forget what i’m doing >restart train of thought i’m going with the flow here!! it’s all improv based on a bunch of different factors, some of which are mysteries best left to the universe. it’s gonna be fun! it’s gonna be informative! and that’s really all i can say.

#also let's be honest. half these kids are only here because you want free babysitting. the learning is purely accidental benefits #ALSO I'M DOING THIS FOR FREE IN WHAT PRECIOUS LITTLE TIME I HAVE OFF FROM MY FULL TIME JOB SO CUT ME A LITTLE SLACK HERE #sorry for Wall of Text it's just i have really strong opinions about everything all the time #and you guys have NO IDEA how lucky you are that i keep 99% of them to myself #could you imagine if i was a fandom blog?? who talked about my fandom opinions on here?? there'd be a post of this size like every 8 minute #fortunately for u i keep that to harassing my friends on discord #anyways i'm getting distracted. there's just So Many Thoughts up in here #like little gnats all over my head #jj stuff #long post

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padfootastic · 2 years

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harry started smoking shortly after the events of the secret camera, he probably found the cigarettes in Uncle Vernon's things . He probably doesn't tell anyone, at first there were just a few but those of thinking that his father's "assassin" is trying to kill him,the tasks in goblet of fire, Cedric's death, the almost death of sirius here sirius is alive so after all this, it became a habit that not even sirius remus anyone in the order knows i can only imagine them discovering molly surtan...

did this get cut off towards the end? 👀

regardless, i love this sm!!! harry being full of rage and conflicted feelings, not knowing/being taught how to deal w them. he finds a cig and tries it just for the heck of it (can’t get any worse right?) and lo and behold, things don’t suck as much for a few minutes. he can peacefully float away from all his troubles if only for a small amount of time (genuinely this line of thinking leads me to more substance use hcs like harry’s had the most terrible life and it lends itself very much to those) and over the summer he gets used to those. takes a few packs to hogwarts w him, sneaks off for a smoke every now and then when things get too much, tries to hard it from the people around him.

and like, the thing with cigarettes is that they’re such a slippery slope lol so i can totally see him going for riskier and riskier smoke breaks until he’s finally caught one time. maybe at grimmauld place where there’s only so many places u can hide?

molly will definitely lose her shit, like no question. she’ll be the kind who’ll assume unwanted responsibility and berate him without giving him space to breathe imo (ik she’s much softer when it comes to harry, but i can def see her w the potential to do this). remus would probably pull another ‘your parents didn’t sacrifice their lives for u to kill urself this way harry >:(‘. arthur would bumble around a disappointed, well meaning, but ultimately useless ‘this isn’t the solution’.

sirius, though. here’s my bias coming in. i think he’d be the best equipped to deal with that bc i hc him smoking from a young age as well, for similar reasons. so he gets it, unlike literally everyone else, but most importantly he gives harry the space to talk about it. he’ll be interested in knowing what happened, why he feels the need to rely on cigarettes, and then gently GENTLY help harry come to terms with the fact that his grief is valid without having to resort to damaging substances AND help him find new coping mechanisms. generational healing and unlearning harmful things ftw amirite?

(alternatively, im also just here for a harry who started smoking super young and never stopped ngl)

#sirius black #harry potter #i spend way too much time thinking about characters and smoking #esp when they’re young #(possibly bc i started way earlier than healthy #or legal lol #also think a lot ab how adults should respond to it? bc in my experience nothing really works #like prevention? yes but once it’s begun? idk. confrontations just push them into hiding and safe spaces don’t make them stop #i’ve seen a spectrum of reactions & behaviours re substance use irl and it always fascinates me #idk sorry i’m a bit sleep deprived lol idk if this makes sense #i just went off on a tangent there huh i’m so sorry 💀😭#pen’s asks

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rinbowaman · 10 months

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Hiii question for Reden (I think that’s how you spell it sry if wrong) and Heethan. Like has Reden ever successfully gotten into an argument with Heethan and it didn’t end up in Yk what?

Hiii sweet anon!

so readen and heethan have gotten into a somewhat recent argument, I think it was chapter 17 or 18, where heethan wouldn’t let readen go on a small road trip with the girls and guys bc his schedule wasn’t clear so…if he can’t go, you’re not going lol. So the argument itself didn’t end in smut, but when he discovered the self texts, at the end of the day there was intense and very sensual makeup smut. Lol. But generally….I wanna say for the most part, when there is an argument, it always ends in smut, like 99.999999% of the time. Heethan always gets so riled up and the moment he senses you’re crossing the line or breaking his rules, he feels the need to put you in your place, and through it, he can make it more or less painful, depending on how he wants to give it to you. Bc as mad or aggressive he can be, he will never hit you, he doesn’t even really do the whole ass smacking thing to you bc he doesn’t want to test you like cattle. There was only one time he “slaps” your ass, and it was from a small Drabble where he does spank y/n, but even then, it wasn’t really spanking bc it was soft slaps that transitioned to him using his fingertips to trace around your ass cheeks. But heethan has kind of a hidden (meaning I haven’t actually drafted it in any of the chapters) but his little hidden motto is “one does not smack y/n’s ass like cattle.” (I’ve been meaning to make a smau about that.)

After the whole thing with tiff, it’s obvious he’s gotten over the whole hitting women thing, he’s at a point now where he will…..hurt and even maybe kill a woman if she’s in deserving of it, like tiff for instance, who played a role and was the mastermind in the kidnapping (even though heethan didn’t kill tiff, he def fucked her up….she deserved it tho) but with you? He will NEVER EVER even think about conducting bodily harm onto you, just gives you rough love bc no matter how painful it is, there’s always some pleasure with it that calms you down and that’s really the reason (also bc….the tension in arguing with you does make him aggressively horny) so he’ll give it to you and it’s his way of taking you. If you will look at it that way lol. Not to mention, he is a yandere, so he is obsessed and sooooo in love with you, one of the common traits of a yandere is perversion, and given that the guy has a high libido, heh……you’re doomed lol.

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rahleeyah · 1 year

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It’s d.c. anon back after a mental health breakkkk 😎😎 and I have more thoughts lol

first, I cannot take credit for this as I saw it on Twitter, but it RESONATED. Having CM come to svu to play the hallucination of an emt after Olivia’s car accident was a misuse of budget lol. I can’t remember (so correct me if I’m wrong) but he wasn’t in the rest of the ep, and as far as I know it didn’t do anything to advance the eo plot? Idk. Just a random thing I saw and was like YES. only bc that’s the reason we get sometime when we talk about crossovers…the budget… but like…why? LOL

Second, we know the general consensus is oc season 3 is a dumpster fire. BUT I actually like that we cut off the casino story line to focus on the Vaughn story and then went back to casino? Thoughts? I know it’s probably bc of the show runner turnover but, happy accident?

Lastly, I remembered the other day that when I was in college I had a HUGE crush on one of my guy friends. Idk if it was what I thought love was at that age and Idk if it was obvious to anyone else or to him but eventually he hooked up with my best friend at the time. And this gutted me. I spent the night ugly crying to my roommate and lied about the reason I was crying bc I was so embarrassed of the real reason. I bring this all up to say that at the time, I couldn’t control myself or my emotions and how STRONG Olivia has had to be for herself alone, with not many people there to let in and see her vulnerable. About the trust of others that is not there since the pattern has always been the same and I’m heartbroken for her

before we dive in - good for you for taking a mental health break. that shit is so important and all the stuff we do online can be fun but it can also do damage and I'm glad you took a step back and are ready to return now!

no it is such a good point and I have to wonder if like. were there contract discussions about the number of times he'd turn up in svu beforehand? was wet lettuce told he had to include Elliot somewhere in that episode and that was what he came up with? I wouldn't put it past him, the twat,

yes, this season has been a dumpster fire and yes I liked that we cut away for the random arc in the middle. I don't think I would've liked it if it came in the middle of the Albanian arc, where oc was actually telling a really good, interesting, cohesive story and it would've felt like a distraction, but in the middle of this mess that I didn't care about at all, the one off with vaughn was actually much more interesting and fun. the casino arc has been trash so I was just glad to not have to deal with it lmao but it would be interesting to see if they use this structure again and how that unfolds in the future

Olivia has had to be strong but Olivia has also chosen to isolate herself in many ways. Olivia has chosen to keep a lot of her feelings to herself on purpose as a matter of self-protection, which a lot of us do, not bc she's embarrassed and not bc she doesn't want to be a burden and not bc she doesn't want to cause a scene but bc her biggest fear is being seen as vulnerable. she absolutely does not want that, she will cut off her own arm before she lets someone else see her weak. so for her keeping all her emotions to herself and not confiding in people is actually easier than reaching out. that has become her comfort zone. it does more harm than good in the long run but we all get stuck in behaviors that hurt us from time to time. it will take all of her strength to be vulnerable, and there's really only one person left she will be honest with. and I for one desperately want to see that.

#anonymous #e.o asks #s.vu

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marnz · 1 year

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thoughts about writing and the moral project of art and my current project (valley book) below the cut, tw for mentions of abuse and violence

i think the key but under discussed thing about writing is how much empathy and compassion the author must have for each and every character. i think a lot about this amazing NYT essay by kaitlyn greenridge about who gets to write what, but especially the part where she discusses needing to love a monstrous character into existence. i don’t know if everyone agrees with this, when writing characters who are monstrous (using the word used in the essay) but i think the best art comes when we do afford each and every character full humanity while writing them even if the reader never gets their pov. when there’s care taken with a storyline even if the character is abhorrent. i’m writing a man who, caught in the cycle of abuse, does a terrible thing. i do love him. i am sad for him. i am sad that harm was enacted onto him and i am sad he enacts harm and i am sad for the character he harms. i am sad this happens to so many people and i am sad that these cycles are so difficult to break. i am taking care with his storyline, i am trying to think deeply, to research, to be as sensitive as possible.

but along with that i am also thinking about how much time and energy is spent thinking about men’s rage, and their set of circumstances, and how sometimes circumstances are misused--not to understand but to excuse. which feels very different to me. i find understanding circumstances quite useful in my personal life but also as a writer but i totally get that this is not true for anyone. but for me, i can’t really reckon with and understand an action without reckoning with and understanding other people. it’s more than a cycle for me it’s like a constellation, there’s always so much going on that we can never see or know, we can only guess at, but if you fill in what you can it’s easier to see the shape of it. easier to bear. anyway...in no way is this meant to be a post about sexism but the more i thought about this man’s backstory, and thought processes, and actions, the more i thought about how women are taught to take extraordinary rage and turn it inwards. i think maybe this is a gendered expectation but also an expectation of every marginalized community, to take rage and turn it against themselves because it’s the safest option. i am, again, thinking about Sharp Objects. i am thinking about this because we just do not spend as much time, culturally, dwelling on the rage of the marginalized. we find it very threatening. you see this with outrage over ppl speaking up over racism, transphobia, sexism, homophobia, you name it. this is so obvious but i could not stop thinking about this, possibly bc a lot of this project is about masculinity.

the character who is harmed is marie, the pov character, and the more i write her storyline the more rage i find! so i am thinking about it, generally, about how rage shapes an entire life, and how rage contributes to the cycle of abuse, and how a lot of anger is borne out of love--in this case, self love. how, for example, women or ppl assumed to be women, dealing with gendered expectations (marie, who in the present is a butch/gnc lesbian, was assumed to be straight and cis in high school) are taught to express rage. how members of marginalized communities are not allowed to express rage because they aren’t allowed to love themselves!

anyway. just thinking about it and articulating it poorly. i have been thinking about this more due to this excellent essay on Black Sabbath by Garth Greenwell and how having compassion for every character means knowing every character (and every person!) needs to have a ““good”“ reason for why they do things, even if they are abhorrent actions...everyone thinks the reason for their action is a good one, i think, they think it makes the most sense or feels right to them. but i think the thing about humanity is you can convince yourself any action is the right action, even if it’s abhorrent. so knowing that and gazing upon everyone with the same level of understanding and compassion is perhaps the job of an artist? just as greenwell argues the moral purpose of art IS to point this out. and to help us be better people, in the end, to know everyone is MORE than the worst thing they have ever done. to acknowledge the depth of their humanity. which is also the project of abolition! we cannot truly address harm without acknowledging humanity i think. it’s so difficult, i struggle with this so much, but that is the point, right? that it’s not supposed to be easy. i think treat others the way you want to be treated is such a grade school maxim but there is something to it, esp for the writer. see others the way you want to be seen.

#currently #valley book #long post tag #this makes no sense <3 #sorry for some clunky wording here. i am doing my best #approaching some thorny topics in good faith and just trying to figure it out...so i am not the most articulate

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