#there was a point to this story ( answered )

[ignitesthestxrs]

there's something about the way people talk about john gaius (incl the way the author writes him) that is like. so absent of any connection to te ao māori that it's really discomforting. like even in posts that acknowledge him as not being white, they still talk about him like a white, american leftist guy in a way that makes it clear people just AREN'T perceiving him as a māori man from aotearoa.

and it's just really serves to hammer home how powerful and pervasive whiteness and american hegemony is. because TLT is probably the single most Kiwi series in years to explode on the global stage, and all the things i find fraught about it as a pākehā woman reading a series by a pākehā author are illegible to a greater fandom of americans discoursing about whether or not memes are a valid way of portraying queer love.

idk the part of my brain that lights up every time i see a capital Z printed somewhere because of the New Zealand Mentioned??? instinct will always be proud of these books and muir. but i find myself caught in this midpoint of excitement and validation over my culture finding a place on the global stage, frustration at how kiwi humour and means of conveying emotion is misinterpreted or declared facile by an international audience, frustrated also by how that international audience runs the characters in this book through a filter of american whiteness before it bothers to interpret them, and ESPECIALLY frustrated by how muir has done a pretty middling job of portraying te ao māori and the māoriness of her characters, but tht conversation doesn't circulate in the same way* because a big part of the audience doesn't even realise the conversation is there to be had.

which is not to say that muir has done a huge glaring racism that non-kiwis haven't noticed or anything, but rather that there are very definitely things that she has done well, things that she has done poorly, things that she didn't think about in the first book that she has tacked on or expanded upon in the later books, that are all worthy of discussion and critique that can't happen when the popular posts that float past my dash are about how this indigenous man is 'guy who won't shut up about having gone to oxford'

*to be clear here, i'm not saying these conversations have never happened, just that in terms of like, ambient posts that float round my very dykey dash, the discussions and meta that circulate on this the lesbian social media, are overwhelmingly stripped of any connection to aotearoa in general, let alone te ao māori in specific. and because of the nature of american internet hegemony this just,,,isn't noticed, because how does a fish know it's in the ocean u know? i have seen discussions along these lines come up, and it's there if i specifically go looking for it, but it's not present in the bulk of tlt content that has its own circulatory life and i jut find that grim and a part of why the fandom is difficult to engage with.

#tlt #the locked tomb #i don't really have an answer lmao this is more #an expression of frustration and discomfort #over the way posts about john gaius seem to have very little connection to the background muir actually gave him #like you cant describe him as an educated leftist bisexual man #without INCLUDING that he is māori #that has an impact! that has weight and importance! #that is a background to every decision he makes #from the meat wall to the nuke to his relationship with the earth #and it also has weight and importance in the decisions that muir makes in writing him #it is not a neutral decision that he's known as john gaius lmao #it's not a neutral decision that the empire is explicitly of roman/latin extraction #it's not even neutral that this is a book about necromancy #it's certainly not a neutral fucking decision that john was at one point a māori man living in the bush #when the nz govt decided to send cops in #like that is a thing that happens here! that is a reference to nz cultural and political events that informs john's character and actions #and with the nature of who john is in the story #informs the narrative as a whole #and i think the tiresome part of this experience is that #in general #americans are not well positioned to understand that something might be being written from outside their experience as a default #like obviously many many americans in online leftist & queer spaces are willing to learn and take on new information #but so much of the conversation starts from a place of having to explain that forests exist to fish

[singwhenyoucantspeak]

i dont like the genre of post thats like "LESS movies about X type of queer story and MORE movies about Y" cuz idk how to tell y'all but we just dont have enough of any of it. I gaurantee we still need more X and more importantly queer artists still want to create X. you can say you want more movies about Y without throwing X under the bus. we need more of ALL of it.

#im tired #there are always going to be queer people who still need and want representation of ever kind of queer experience #we are no where near having enough queer art to say there's too much of anything #also this is generalized because ive seen many iterations of this genre of post #with different things emphacized as X and Y #and to prove my point some posts are incompatible with other posts #because guess what the posters are different people who need and relate to different types of stories #the answer is that they should both be able to find what theyre looking for

[sweetgaleria]

Help a college student graduate by answering a survey!!

Hey!! Are you over 18 and in the miraculous fandom? Then this is for you!!

Hi everyone, this is my last semester of uni, and one of my final projects to be able to graduate is to write a scientific paper. I'm writing an article about adult fans of children's animation, specifically Miraculous Ladybug. My goal is to understand what makes adults (like us) want to join fandoms centered around shows aimed primarily at children, and to do that I'd love to hear directly from the source! The survey takes around 10 minutes to answer, it's 100% anonymous and it would help me immensely!

>>Click here for the survey<<

I need at least 30 people to answer, but honestly the more the merrier! I've also made a little thank you gif at the end, so if you see it let me know! If you have any questions feel free to send me an ask, as well!

Please reblog so it can reach more people! Thank you so much!

#what do we love (or hate!! I know people are here bc they dont like the show as much too) abt miraculous that #makes us want to spend so much time thinking and creating things for and about it? #miraculous ladybug #i am once again asking for your support #insert bernie sanders meme here #alskdjasd #no but really if you answer this it would help me so so much #and i'll be so thankful #i will reblog this post a bit frequently so please be patient with me 😭😭 #also the point of this is not to shame anyone for watching kid's shows in any shape or form #i just love animation and kids cartoons too #my first intentions with this research were to ask why do we mostly view animation as a kid's genre instead of a technique to tell stories #in the west at least #but it was too broad of a question and I dont have enough time to dedicate myself to it #so i narrowed it down to something i'm familiar with #which is why i went for #so uh anyway #pls reblog #and answer my survey #thank you so much

[ruporas]

wow?! amazing stunning inspired incredible especially the cigarette smoke panel

thank you so much !! i also liked working on that panel hehe i’m glad others liked it too :’)

#asks #ANSWERING THIS a bit late… thank you for sending this!! i’m Very relived to hear ppl liked this comic amcndmf #when i read thru the tags i was like thank god….. it was definitely a test of my Comics execution skill as opposed to story tbh #so when ppl pointed out paneling and stuff i felt like i did a good a job (happy) #but then on top of it ppl liked the writing too and that made me explode a krillion times (/positive)

[pikahlua]

So many plotpoints I just don't understand in this arc. Why have bkg die? Why have him fight afo? Why have izuku lose his arms? What purpose has any of it served???? At all???????

Todorki and ochakos fights were handled so well and streamlined and benefited their characters and arcs but bkgs and dekus have been a mess all bcus hori is a coward who won't just let them fight together bcus ig save to win and win to save meant nothing at all

Why have bkg die?

I think it's pretty clear from the way that whole thing was framed that the purpose of Katsuki dying was symbolic. This is a staple of Japanese drama running all the way back to kabuki. It is a trope for a main character to die to shed their mortal incarnation and come back to life as their deified form. Katsuki's death runs perfectly parallel to Tomura's from the PLW arc right down to the part where they are both responsible for their own resurrections. It's probably one of the best cases I can think of where a character's death actually did further that same character's arc without fridging them for the sake of someone else.

Why have [Katsuki] fight AFO?

Because AFO was set up as a "what if" scenario or cautionary tale for Katsuki, the other side to his "villains and heroes are two sides of the same coin" storyline. AFO in his physical form has a different character arc and story utility from AFO the quirk vestige. He provided a lot of backstory that allows us to infer the subtlety of how Katsuki is likely some sort of reincarnation of Kudou, the mechanics of which we will never need to revisit because they're unimportant. It was about karma and personal growth. It was about showcasing how Katsuki is an heir to many legacies, All Might's included.

Why have Izuku lose his arms?

Again, it's symbolic. It's been foreshadowed pretty heavily that Izuku would risk losing his arms in reaching out to save someone. This was a demonstration of his willingness to take on that risk. It also provides a moment for Eri to get in on the "everyone contributes a little bit to the fight" action all the other characters have been allowed to have. We don't even know yet what state Izuku will actually be in when this is all over, so it'd be premature to jump to any major conclusions about all of this. The story may still have a lot to say about this.

What purpose has any of it served???? At all???????

To entertain me specifically.

Todorki and ochakos fights were handled so well and streamlined and benefited their characters and arcs but bkgs and dekus have been a mess all bcus hori is a coward who won't just let them fight together bcus ig save to win and win to save meant nothing at all

Bold of you to assume you've read the final chapter in the story yet.

#anon ask #ask pika #my hero academia manga spoilers #final arc spoilers #at this point i'm just gonna have to get snarky about all of these sorts of asks #if you guys won't stop to think about this story and find the answers to your questions yourself why is that my problem #you're entitled to your own opinion #but jeez #one sloppy chapter and you all go off the deep end with it i swear #as if every story out there doesn't have a bit of this going on #seriously #is this sort of reaction really merited just by the fact izuku's arms are being healed??? #if you need context just know i've been getting a ton of asks like this lately and i'm pretty sure they're not all from different people

[carlyraejepsans]

have you played undertale yellow yet…? And if you have, have you gotten the neutral ending yet?

[spoilers beware obviously] yeah i "played" backseated eta lol UTY. gotta be honest though, and i hope i don't sound too mean with this, but when i finished the pacifist route and it just did nothing with flowey i was so disappointed i lost any remaining interest i had in doing the rest of the endings. so I'm afraid that's a no on your second question

#the voice & characterization were so on point for literally 99% of the story all throughout & then SPLAT. right at the end. i was so mad lol #answered asks #like I'm assuming he's used more in the other routes. but that ending was just so ooc and anticlimactic it doesn't really make it better imo #like i said i don't want this to sound bashy because it was still a blast to play and a genuinely great game #but i did nnnot enjoy how it handled the canon characters

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Okay, random question but in the panel where Lan Zhan & Wei Ying are riding side by side, why is Alan Zhan’s horse sad? Is Little Apple bullying him? :(

PS: I check in daily for your posts, OBSESSED 😭

Alan Zhan (patron saint of when the substitute professor gets your name wrong).

#poorly drawn mdzs #ask #MDZS #wei wuxian #lan wangji #mdzs au #I was going to give a serious answer but then I saw Alan Lan #I gotta warn you all; if it was not already evident - I am the biggest instigator of 'typo in the group chat' hazing #be warned (affectionate (non-threatening (a little threatening))) #Shout out to everyone with a non-western standard name who went to a western school and had their name constantly butchered #shout out to everyone who goes by/went by a nickname because 'people don't mess it up' #I *see* you. May you find Solstice in St. Alan Zhan's arms #whether wwx snuck into the class early to change the attendance sheet is is innocent is up to your interpretation #he's just enjoying the class president (and his academic rival) lose his cool #i dont have a ton of modern au thoughts but I do love the teen era dynamic of ‘smart class clown and smart nephew of headmaster’ rivalry #idk how it was at other people’s schools but the viciousness of being in the top 5 in class was a bloodbath at mine #The *Drama* between top students was wild. Validictorian selection was basically done at knife point #anyways; who’s writing teen wangxian modern AU where they are rivals for the valedictorian spot? #getting to know each other just to win but then actually enjoying the tome spent together #they both need to win and be the best sooooo bad; I cant imagine such a story ends well #wow we got far from Alan Zhan in the tags #Thank you for your on going support! I hope you don't mind me teasing you a bit like this tumblr user deathoverdignity #comic proper resumes tomorrow!

[captainjonnitkessler]

George Hull was an atheist in the 1860s, and he was pretty pissed off at biblical literalists. In particular, he was pissed off about the gullibility of those who insisted that giants had once roamed the earth, simply because it said so in the Bible.

Hull, a big fan of science and the still-new theory of evolution, decided to do what any rational, science-minded man would do: He spent today's equivalent of $60,000 buying a bunch of stone from Iowa, sending it to Chicago to have it fashioned into a giant statue of a man in absolute secrecy, shipping it to his cousin's farm in New York, burying it there in the dead of night, waiting a year, and then having his cousin hire two men to dig a well in that spot so they could "discover" the giant. Obviously.

He and his cousin set up a tent and charged people for admission to see the "Cardiff Giant" and made absolute bank from the hundreds of people per day that flocked to it. Experts insisted it was a hoax, but many people were convinced it was proof of the Bible's inerrancy. Eventually Hull sold his part-interest to David Hannum for today's equivalent of over $500,000. PT Barnum, the infamous showman and ringmaster, then tried to buy it and when Hannum refused to sell, he made his own copy. He declared his to be the original and Hannum's version the fake, potentially leading Hannum to coin the famous phrase "there's a sucker born every minute". He also sued Barnum, but according to Wikipedia "the judge told him to get his giant to swear on his own genuineness in court if he wanted a favorable injunction".

Eventually Hull proudly confessed to the hoax, putting an end once and for all to the debates about either giants' genuineness. Hull claimed that his intent had been to reveal the gullibility of Christians and to refute anti-science religious fundamentalism.

Then he moved to Colorado and did the exact same thing again, except this time he added a tail and called it the "missing link" between humans and apes.

(Big shoutout to the podcast The Constant: A History of Getting Things Wrong, where I first heard about the Cardiff Giant. If you like weird stories from history you need to check out this podcast it is SO fucking good)

#western new york has a lot to answer for in terms of spirituality and woo - and again we are SO fucking sorry about joseph smith - #but at least we also have this #anyway there's not a point to this post i just think it's a fun and weird story #also i think more people should listen to the constant. PLEASE it is so so good #also the original giant is still on display in cardiff new york! i'm thinking about going to see it sometime #atheism #skepticism umbrella

[starchaserdreams]

If you could miraculously save one character from their canonical death in Harry Potter and have it make the biggest impact on the story, who do you think it would be?

I honestly think there's an argument for Regulus. He was the only person in the entire decade of the 1970s who knew about the existence of the horcruxes. That secret died with him and stayed dead for close to two decades.

Imagine if it had come out in 1979. Imagine how differently the Order would have operated if they understood their mission and the villain they were up against. Because they had no idea. Even Dumbledore didn't know. It took him 18 years to figure out what Regulus knew in 1979. If Regulus could have communicated it to someone (anyone - maybe Sirius, if not Dumbledore) it would have changed everything.

#marauders #marauders era #dead gay wizards #regulus black #regulus arcturus black #r.a.b. #harry potter #I'm not really soliciting other answers #i really don't care about anyone other than regulus at this point #he is the beginning and the ending of that story #the beginning and the ending of that world #the noble and most ancient house of black #sirius black #albus dumbledore #fuck dumbledore though #i hate him so much

[soaps-mohawk]

maybe reader gets a nightmare and goes into soaps room to sleep. And later that day ghost smells reader on soaps sheets and gets jealous. or when reader wakes up ghost is also on the bed with her and soap

That is so likely to happen, though. Like Gaz and Price are gone on a mission and so it's just Ghoap looking after reader. Reader has a nightmare or has trouble sleeping so she goes to Soap for comfort, and of course he doesn't even think twice about it....until Ghost comes in later the next day and smells reader all over his sheets and he just....immediately assumes the worst, that things were happening and of course things spiral out of control and Soap is like, my dude, I was just cuddling her.

(Of course "just cuddling" for Johnny could mean a lot of things lmaoo)

#Ghost would have many thoughts after that #that is very likely #could happen at some point here in the story #later though lol we've got a lot to get through before that point #answered #crcb lore

[draco-after-dark]

I've come to the realization that any plot holes found in my story that I'm just going to make the solution be Cloud Guy because he is an enigma that no one understands.

Oh your confused how they found Clay.

Cloud Guy.

But how does that explain?

CLOUD GUY!

Then how did???

CLOUD! GUY!

I will gaslight you into oblivion.

Fuck you if you find a plot hole.

*tap dances on your grave*

#not really though i like seeing you guys point things out because then i can try to add more things to the story #let if i cant figure it out i just throw in Cloud Guy #problem solved with ABSOLUTELY zero consequences... for me anyway so suffer never knowing the answer #feral jd au #feral john dory au

[beetlebethwrites]

personally i h8 when ROs are interested in/had a past with eachother so i wish you luck with the development of your game/story but im not gonna engage with it anymore

Personally, I h8 when people write shit like this instead of just quietly pissing off 🤷‍♀️

#soz anon i have more people in my inbox saying they love this decision #and the point of YLAF is that the MC is the player character #rather than the main character in everyone's lives #and maybe you need to internalise that a little #this story isn't written solely for you #answered <3 #anonymous #yikes lol

[ann-chovi]

Helo, always wondered, in case Mari and Ingo manage SOMEHOW to return to their time, does Ingo present Mari to Emmet, and in case he does, how does it go?

I mean, I've been curious if they would get along well or whatevs, have you thought of anything or maybe you have something written/drawn?

Now see, I do have the story more or less fully planned out at this point (there's wiggle room- there has to be for it to breathe)- but as far as directly answering your question re: "do they get back to their own time" I'll lean on an old classic and say: wait and see.

As far as fun HYPOTHETICALS go- I'd say IF they met, Mari and Emmet would likely get along fine! Though Emmet might be a bit distraught at first at having missed an important milestone in his brother's life lol

#The story is the story and i have a full roadmap #that doesn't mean that fun little 'what-if' scenarios can't be pondered #but i directly answering questions about major plot points isn't going to happen #the journey of seeing where a story goes as it happens is a thing to treasure #sorry i really hope this doesn't come off as dismissive #i just don't want to reveal too much too soon

[ddarker-dreams]

I say geto should get the first kiss hmmm

sweating bullets because both options would lead to Interesting developments ... as i finish up the first-year chapter, i'm starting to learn toward gojo taking it in a weird and (kinda on purpose kinda not) emotionally manipulative way. that'd cause a schism between him and MC for a while, which geto gets to fill up when they're third-years.

so when geto enters his villain era, MC is in such a bad place mentally that her no bullshit defenses are weakened. gojo senses this and wriggles his way back in. he's slimy like that. he gets to "nooo don't cry you're too hot aha" his way back into her good graces, essentially.

fortunately for MC, gojo's slimy ways aren't left unchecked forever. unfortunately for MC, this takes a few years for her to realize and call him out on.

in all seriousness though, how they both cope with the loss of the person geto once was makes the perfect storm for a super codependent relationship. gojo doesn't want to lose anything else that's precious to him, so he becomes increasingly possessive of MC in their late teens/early twenties. MC keeps justifying gojo's behavior, contemplates distancing herself, gets a glimpse at a very vulnerable side of him, talks herself out of leaving, round and round the carousal goes.

#if anyone's curious ch1 is at 13.5k words #oh... MC at this point in the story feels like a bunny wandering into a lion's den #I'M SORRY BB... #golden girl #answered #Anonymous

[beaulesbian]

another fun parallel with these two, and a ringing snail communicator:

luffy, chapter 549, answering a snail on a stolen navy ship while on his way to save ace in marineford after wrecking the whole of impel down prison:

zoro, chapter 614, answering a snail on the fishman island, in the ryugu palace, talking to the princes of the kingdom while the king is tied up behind him:

#they really have some similar energy in these. #even the ppl around them act similar like “wtf are you doing” akdjs its so funny #zolu #one piece #monkey d. luffy #roronoa zoro #mine #hearing a ringing snail. picking it up almost immediately even if they might not be the best person to answer that - but actually they are #thanks to their bluntness and straightforwardness it makes the whole call much better. #also i like how even before that zoro was already thinking how to get everyone out of there. getting the crew together and away #so with that plan - as a first mate- he was ready to deal about the demands to secure a way for the strawhats to leave #(at this point in the story at least) #gif:zolu #gif:op manga

[divinekangaroo]

Movies/books which seared me:

hana-bi

melancholia

the aunt (patrick white)

never let me go (ishiguro)

#they all have a thing about boredom as an existential state even more than grief #dkw to call it but something about mundanity being profound and the profound being mundane #and in a way they are all horror stories too but it's the horror of individual existence within a context #and strange beauty #five minute question-answer these were the ones that floated up first so im gonna assume they're the right answers #i think for me there's a point where media has to become separate from its sense of its own cleverness #PB is interesting because there's a huge layer of revelling in its cleverness but then there's a huge layer of stuff they must have #-realised almost *no one* would parse; they never ever talk about it in interviews either #hana-bi is also a cop/gangster-*type* movie which uses genre motifs to look at grief and subverts #the grief is unbelievable and understated despite very contrived devices it doesn't *feel* like it's rolling in its own cleverness