#well not JUST because i dislike being called general terms on my own post

[endcant]

whenever someone says “OP” or “they” referring to me on a post i made i have a compulsive need to say “my name is cave actually” or “my pronouns are he/him actually” not because i dislike being called general terms but because i think it’s funny. it’s like someone’s watching TV and they see a minor character on screen and they turn to their partner and they’re like “get a load of this guy” and the character looks into their living room and is like “THIS GUY has a name thank you very much”

#well not JUST because i dislike being called general terms on my own post #bc i do also dislike being called general terms on my own posts #like why the fuck do i have my name pronouns age and a hint toward my kin affiliation in my bio if you cant even hover over it for a moment #mine #1k #5k #10k

[utilitycaster]

Threatened this once as a throwaway tag, so: let's talk about why "Justice for Adeen Tasithar" as an attempted criticism of Essek is absolutely wild as a choice.

Disclaimer: there are many deeply annoying fans of Essek who do not seem to understand that the narrative and the cast (and by extension, merch/official art/comics) will treat him differently for being an NPC, even if he is a very important NPC and a member of the Mighty Nein, and you are justified in being annoyed. There are also a number of equally annoying Essek haters, most of whom are bitter shippers who have (correctly) realized it's slightly more palatable to others in the fandom to openly hate on Essek than on a PC; or else they are the miserable souls who think that every minute spent on a character other than their personal favorite stolen and wasted time. I am a firm believer in this post; everyone is annoying and complaining on your own blog about it is your absolute right. Also, both in regards to the fans mentioned above and the characters mentioned below, it is possible for people on two opposite sides of a position to both suck.

The first issue is the phrase itself; it co-opts a statement usually used for victims of hate crimes or political prisoners in the real world, and makes it unironically about a pretend guy who had precisely one scene, which is certainly a choice. I'm not actually opposed to using "Justice for" jokingly in fandom, but it is weird to use it relatively seriously in fandom.

The second is that Adeen Tasithar is a member of one of the Dens of the Kryn Dynasty, and is a Taskhand, a term reserved for people with high-level military responsibilities, and is a member of the Bright Queen's Court. During wartime. Coupled with the fact that Essek, who, as described below, is never portrayed as particularly cruel nor petty despite his many flaws, thinks Adeen genuinely does suck, this means that at best, Adeen Tasithar is heavily involved in military operations at a very high level and is in some way personally unpleasant. At, frankly, not even worst, we're talking D&D Donald Rumsfeld. Now, we can debate whether Essek is a war criminal or merely traitorous (not on this post though, because I don't care and it's not relevant), but, while we know very little about Adeen Tasithar, it's not an overreach to say that this man has a pretty strong chance of being guilty of his own war crimes. In general, calling for justice is something I'd hesitate to use in an "the enemy of my enemy" manner, especially if it's well within reason to consider that you're talking about Ludinus Da'leth's Kryn counterpart.

The third is that while you're under no obligation to like Essek, he really is, in general, portrayed as a decent judge of character and a terrible judge of whether selfishly following his own ambition was appropriate and what the consequences might be. He detests the members of the Cerberus Assembly with whom he works; he likes the Mighty Nein despite them ultimately being his potential undoing. He has a few friends in the Dynasty and cares about his (unambiguously good) brother, and feels remorse about his father. Essek has done terrible things in the service of his goals; but directly throwing an innocent under the bus (vs. setting into motion things that will, as a side effect, lead to innocent collateral damage, which he obviously will do) isn't his style. Again, at the very least, Adeen Tasithar is someone whom Essek genuinely believes is a bad person (note that Essek, by this time, also considers himself to be a bad person, and Trent Ikithon to be a "fuck hole", which might help your understanding of scale here). This doesn't mean Tasithar deserves what he got, but frankly, in a campaign about people who got a lot of things they didn't deserve, it's a pretty blatant straw-grasp onto a side character with the briefest of appearances to decide he's your poster boy victim just so that you can go full spiked bat on a character you dislike.

The fourth is that there's never any connection to how Essek not being friends with the Mighty Nein (or entering a relationship with Caleb) would provide justice for Adeen Tasithar, who is in an Empire prison by the end following the exchange during peace talks. It's actually entirely possible that the Empire eventually figures things out re: Adeen, notably because memory modification as a criminal act is going to be really fresh in their minds following the Ikithon trial (and if they interrogate Trent, it's also possible the Empire finds out about Essek). Essek is already a fugitive from the Dynasty and cannot move freely through the Empire as a drow whom assembly members would recognize. The guy didn't get off scot free anyway, so really, he is going to suffer to some extent; you just want him to experience abject and total misery, rather than constant fear tempered with a small degree of happiness, like some kind of sicko, or megachurch member.

The final one is that "justice for Yeza Brenatto" or "I don't like that Essek worked with the Assembly even if he wasn't happy about it" would actually be far more reasonable statements to make. Yeza was, in fact, a simple alchemist who was forced to become a pawn in the game being played by, among other people, Essek, and suffered immensely for it. The Assembly does in fact suck. And yet, rather than admit Caleb also considered working with the Assembly for selfish reasons, or that Veth, you know, exists people jump to woobify some random NPC about whom we know basically nothing other than "Military guy, well-connected politically."

So anyway: feel however you want about Essek; but if you're on Adeen Tasithar's bandwagon, I don't think you actually are terribly bothered by hypothetical fictional war crimes. I think you just are too spineless and online to say "I dislike Essek" and needed to construct an elaborate poor reason why.

#i feel like tagging this discourse is elevating it above what it is. this is straight up fanwank and I'm well aware of that #but if you need it tagged lmk #cr tag #queue

[lord-squiggletits]

Idk if my previous posts were unclear but I don't remotely hate any Optimus version that isn't IDW or think they suck. Every Optimus is good and there's a fan (or multiple fans!) of every version of OP no matter how obscure or underrated (as well as all the other characters).

What's more questionable (or at least annoying) is when fandom ignores canon character personalities in favor of writing specific archetypes that are either out of character or repetitive/stereotyped to the point of annoyance. As an example of this, it would be a female character being called the Team Mom just because she's a woman existing in a group of (primarily male) characters even if she's not remotely motherly or nurturing. Or, as a more topical example, how often I've seen Transformers ships where even though both characters are canonically masculine (or gender neutral), fanartists love to turn one of the characters small and weak (or even outright feminine) to turn the ship into Strong Dominant Seme and Sweet Cute Uke to fit a specific kink or romantic fantasy, even if it's a disservice/OOC to portray those characters like that.

In other words, a fandom's popularity of certain characters, ships, headcanons, etc is often more informed by tropes and forcing canon to adhere to one's personal tastes, as opposed to approaching canon and trying to understand it on its own terms. I'm not talking about the quality of the source material, but rather the way that the fandom interprets the source materials in ways that don't make any sense, approach it in bad faith, or just generally don't care about canon at all. So I'm not saying one OP is better than another, my problem is when fandom consistently focuses on certain stereotypes or flanderizations of a character, and then any character that doesn't fit the popular (often stereotyped) mold is ignored or virulently rejected. In other words, I think popular fandom often does a DISSERVICE to characters whether they love them or hate them, it just takes different forms.

So, just as an example, I think one fandom caricature of Optimus that I see a lot (and heavily dislike) is making Optimus some sort of shrinking wallflower type who's innocent, sweet, and virginal, in contrast to an opposite caricature of Megatron that's big, strong, dominant, and rugged, and making ship art that forces the characters into some kind of seme/uke or borderline heteronormative romance. Despite the fact that canon Optimus (in, say, TFP for example) is tall, broadly built, deep voiced, dignified, assertive, and strong (physically and morally), completely incorrect interpretations of him as a shy feminized uke type are still pretty common to find. And it makes you ask yourself why it is so many people make MOP ship art of them of The Small One and The Large One or The Small, Cute One and The Big, Violent One when it's completely different from canon. It feels as if such fanart is made by people who just want to see seme/uke style slash ships, and if canon doesn't give them what they want, they'll simply trash it and replace it with their own version, even if it's completely OOC.

So when I said in my other post that people don't like IDW Optimus because he can't be fit into caricatures like happy dad or shy twink, I'm not saying it to say "other OPs who resemble that suck," I'm saying it to express "Fandom tends to simplify characters into easily palatable and comfortable tropes, and when they encounter a character they can't do that with, they respond by ignoring or even hating on that character."

Other versions of Optimus have the problem where fandom turns them into a stereotype instead of the actual character they are, e.g. portraying TFA OP as some poor abused damsel with no self confidence and crippling anxiety being abused by his superiors, and then they talk more about this fake uwu smoll bean cinnamon roll version of TFA OP than they do about actual canon TFA OP. And honestly I can't think of any prominent content/meta about G1 OP that isn't just "he plays basketball and does funny one liners and is Team Dad/Grandpa." (Hell, you even get that with non-Optimus characters that get simplified to just sexy twink, old grandpa, comedy relief, evil ex, Diversity Win-- She's A Lesbian, third wheel to the favored ship, etc even though there's way more depth to them than just their surface level stereotype.)

IDW OP's problem is that he can't be stereotyped like that so instead the fandom ignores him. He's not small, so they can't stereotype him as a skinny twink getting topped by a burly uke. He's not jovial or happy go lucky or extroverted, so they can't stereotype him as Team Dad or Comedy Relief. He's assertive, blunt, and has a temper, so they can't stereotype him as a shy wallflower in need of protecting. He makes catastrophic mistakes and is responsible for bad things happening, so they can't stereotype him into a sweet cinnamon roll who has never done anything wrong in his whole life or The Infinitely Wise and Kind Paragon. There's no Big Bad Authority Figure who was mean to IDW OP and traumatized him, so they can't excuse the bad things he did as "he's traumatized so he couldn't help it" and wave away his flaws as "it's his abuser's fault, they made him this way." IDW OP has the kind of depression where he's grumpy, shut off, and angry-- as opposed to the shy, sad kind of depression that just stares forlornly out of the window in a beautifully tragic way-- so they can't make him into a sad woobie kicked around unfairly by life.

Or I guess they just stereotype IDW OP as "evil bastard with no redeeming qualities that's mean to everyone for no reason, plus the writers forced everyone to like him just because he's Optimus Prime" even though that isn't accurate either.

Put bluntly, IDW OP forces fandom to contend with the idea that someone can be a good person with good intentions but still fuck up on a massive scale and maybe end up hurting more than they helped. IDW OP is messy, ugly, flawed, mean, stoic, closed off. When IDW OP has mental breakdowns or has his feelings hurt, he's loud and angry and harsh, and the consequences of what he did while he was unwell continue to haunt him long after. In other words, he actually experiences negative emotions the way a real person would, and sometimes when he's under the influence of negative emotions, he lashes out or does stupid things (like a real person might) instead of inoffensively crying in a corner somewhere. He isn't sanitized enough for a fandom that only wants Perfect Pure Good Optimus Who Never Hurts Anyone Even By Accident, so instead of IDW OP's mistakes and dark moments being treated as the logical end point of a person put in constant no-win situations until he breaks, he gets treated as if his mistakes and flaws make him an irredeemable bastard with no good qualities who should've fucked up less often to make fans actually like him.

And this is all in a fandom where 90% of the characters are war criminals and a good half of them have massacred organic planets. But god forbid IDW Optimus ever make a bad decision in a stressful situation. Or be mean to someone. Or have a character arc about how blindly idolizing people as paragons ends badly for everyone involved because no one can be that perfect. He is simply The Worst Optimus Ever and there's absolutely nothing about him worth discussing.

And just to be clear, the problem isn't the fact that some people don't like IDW OP, or he's just not their thing and they don't care.

The problem is the fact that he's consistently and actively hated by the fanbase who makes a concentrated effort to say he sucks and make sure none of their fan works ever include him. It's literally at a level where I stopped looking in the Optimus tag on this website because I was tired of people randomly going "and btw IDW OP sucks and I want to drown him in a ditch" in posts that weren't even about IDW, and I stopped looking for MegOP fic on AO3 because most of it is IDW Megatron/clearly TFP or G1 inspired continuity soup Optimus. Places that are Optimus friendly for Optimus fans, where I could reasonably expect to find positive conversations, but instead get sucker punched by hate about the character The Space Is About. And I can't even have conversations asking about why they do, bc the way 90% of them talk, I can tell they literally just didn't read the comics or deliberately misinterpreted the story.

I find it bizarre and frankly, tragic, that the hate train for IDW OP is so pervasive that people actively erase and replace him from fan works IN THE IDW UNIVERSE in a way that no other character is targeted in. I have tried so hard to understand why IDW OP gets this sort of hate and erasure when other characters who were as bad or worse than him have perfectly normal takes about them that go "yeah he kinda sucks but he's cool and I like him" or "who cares if he's problematic IRL, it's a story." The only conclusion I can come to is that because Optimus Prime (TM) has a specific brand image and is locked into being a cultural icon, he's held to a standard of The Ideal Perfect Hero instead of the way better standard of "Is he an interesting, well written character?"

#squiggposting #discourse #i tried my best to phrase this in a way that didnt invalidate different tastes #but like honestly. some ppls tastes suck. or are actually problematic and not in a fake way #like as an example from the main text avoe #i hate it so much when gay ships are made seme/uke - dominant/submissive - fem/masc #when that not only isnt in character or accurate to canon. but is also really boring at best or homophobic at worst #i cant control ppl's opinions but i can still think theyre boring stupid or even downright offensive #i have SEEN pretty much every popular TF character or pairing get flanderized somehow #so it's not just my attachment to OP in larticular #and i find it very frustrating when it seems as if ppl arent fans of the very media they consume #and they turn an interesting story into cookie cutter stereotypes #and then when the story isnt a cookie cutter stereotype easily divisible into black and white #they hate the characters and story and call it trash #might delete later bc i feel cring #but this is oretty much the culmination of all the thoughts and discussions ive had #with multiple people #anyways ive seen enough fandom discourse posts about The State of Fandom #and The Same 5 Tropes Recycled just copy pasted into different fandoms #what i speak of isnt just about my fave. rather my fave is a victim of this fandom tencency #and it is a FACT that fandom will force characters into offensive stereotypes that dont even make sense #tldr sometimes fanon.....is way worse than canon #also i revised and edited this like a billion times to make sure i wasnt hasty or vague or mean #so if i still made a mistake. whatever i guess this post took hours #it's not about wanting absolutely everyone to love my favorite #it's about the fact that ppl actively hate him even in spaces that are about him/ships he's in #to the point i have to not interact with strangers bc i never know if my fsve will randomly get shit on #and on top that the hate is mostly based on surface level assumptions and misinformation #so not only is my fav hated in a way no other character is. they dont even hate him for canon facts #sucks to see the fandom so thoroughly full of hate by ppl who arent informed bc they never gave canon a chance

[maypearlss]

𝐨𝐜 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 : 𝐫𝐣 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧

i'll be the first to confess that rj is underappreciated. by me, specifically. which is probably why you guys haven't heard as much about him. that's my bad. but it's his time to shine now! and he's gonna be crazy entertaining to write, guaranteed, so that definitely makes up for the lack of attention i've given him. here's all about rj, folks!

on top of being the most cryptic member of overconsumption to the eye of the general public, rj has a penchant for stirring up conflict within the band. call it a hangover from an uneasy childhood. he loves getting under peoples' skin, but, by now, the band has just accepted it as one of his quirks. one quirk of quite a few, including a strong appreciation for any substance that can make life more interesting. one might say another hangover.

but don't be mistaken: behind the continuous mischief-making and frequent benders is a more well-intentioned soul than most give him credit for. misguided, yes, but well-intentioned. it's a part of him that is seldom acknowledged by others in favor of his junkie image—actually, he's seldom acknowledged at all in discussions of overconsumption's success.

no worries. who needs acknowledgment when you're in a world all your own?

𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 ⋆｡°✩

full name: roger jesse patterson

age: 23 (1985)–tbd

birthday: march 26

pronouns: he/him

sexuality: pansexual (so closeted even he doesn't know)

ethnicity: scottish-american

occupation: rhythm guitarist for overconsumption

love interest(s): none

likes: causing problems, speedballing, fantasy books/movies, arguing, animals, jeans with giant holes in the knees, being high

dislikes: his friends being genuinely upset about something, working out, getting haircuts, parties, horror movies, boats

height: 5'6

build: small, thin

hair: wavy, red mullet

skin: pale

eyes: grey-blue

𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 ⋆｡°✩

⋆ nothing to lose - l.a. guns

⋆ all hell's breakin' loose - kiss

⋆ mr. brownstone - guns n' roses

⋆ smokin' in the boys room - mötley crüe

⋆ nightrain - guns n' roses

⋆ locomotive (complicity) - guns n' roses

⋆ dirty deeds done dirt cheap - ac/dc

⋆ welcome to the jungle - guns n' roses

⋆ dancing on glass - mötley crüe

⋆ right next door to hell - guns n' roses

⋆ no mercy - l.a. guns

⋆ out ta get me - guns n' roses

⋆ coma - guns n' roses

⋆ kickstart my heart - mötley crüe

𝐟𝐮𝐧 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐬 ⋆｡°✩

he's, surprisingly, the first friend may makes within the overconsumption group

he can only fall asleep if he's laying on his stomach, but him falling asleep is rare because he isn't a fan of sleeping in general

he named the title track of overconsumption's debut album, all it takes

he's the ex-boyfriend of one of duke's older sisters, liv, whom he still remains on good terms with even after the breakup—duke has a bit (aka a lot) of a grudge against him for it, but he's subtle enough about it that rj doesn't really care

he's lactose intolerant

he's gonna make me really sad

i posted this intro to my instagram like 2 days ago, then forgot to put it here, so WHOOPS!! but it's here now, so all is forgiven :) and that's it for all the main/supporting character intros! the next intros i post will probably be some combined intro posts for some of the side characters like amelie, tigerlily, may's abuelo, those folks! but it might be a little while before then, we'll just see how much energy i have in the near future!

#oc : rj patterson #wip : the nona incident! #my wips #my ocs #writeblr #creative writing #oc intro #oc introduction #meet the oc #meet my ocs #wipsbymor

[marybeatriceofmodena]

I came across your anti-Grishaverse posts and I like to add some of own analyses about the worldbuilding (if you're willing to go through the series again after 2021, ofc). My knowledge on Russian history and folklore is very surface level but even then I still was absolutely baffled at how bad the worldbuilding is. Especially with "Grisha" which is literally Russian for Greg???? Lol, let's just call in the Pasha Army too because why not. I've already relentlessly made fun of the name "Grishaverse" being a multiverse of Gregs so here are my favorites: Gregor-Man: Into the Greg-verse. Gregory-thing Gregory-where All At Greg, Doctor Greg and the Multiverse of Greg-ness. And it's even worse with the show when they clumsily tried to explore racism with a more diverse cast of people of Asian descent which would've been an incredible story considering Russia's rich history with the Mongols and the Turks but then they had to add in the term "rice-eater". When like, Russian cuisine includes rice. Like salmon coulibiac. So it just makes no sense at all, it's kinda the equivalent of calling an American "burger-eater". And the absence of patronymic names just because the author thought it sounded better without them (Alina Starkov is grammatically incorrect and it drove me insane, it literally takes 5 minutes to look up how to do it). I think it's great how the author wanted to do a fantasy story with some vaguely Slavic traditions but the result reminds me of Raya and the Last Dragon from Disney which, as a South East Asian person, I really dislike because it literally does the same thing of cherry picking stuff from SEAsian countries and using words from real languages that don't make sense at all, even if it's a fantasy story (I really hate the "dep la" line from the movie). It's like the author doesn't really care about the nuances of Russian society or Slavic societies in general and really only cared about the aesthetics of it (which the show didn't even do right, what the fuck are those costumes, I hate fantasy costumes that look like they were on a haute couture fashion line). Which could lead into some really awful pitfalls bordering on stereotyping and exoticization. I think it's great how she wanted to do a fantasy story with some vaguely Slavic traditions since they're pretty underappreciated but the result reminds me of Raya and the Last Dragon from Disney which, as a South East Asian person, I really dislike because it literally does the same thing of cherry picking stuff from SEAsian countries and using words from real languages that don't make sense at all (I really hate the "dep la" line from the movie). I'm just tired of authors cherry picking stuff from other cultures for the aesthetics and don't bother to really delve into said cultures and build an interesting story inspired by their folklore or history. Not to mention, it feels like the lack of research shows a reluctance to genuinely learn and fall in love with Slavic cultures, like Westerners still think they're backwards and barbaric. I certainly felt the same way with Raya.

So, I'll start with the disclaimer that I haven't seen Raya as of now so I can't really speak for it, BUT I think the one nuance I would bring to this is that I do think it's fine to use artistic licence when you're taking inspiration for a certain culture, WITH THE VERY IMPORTANT CAVEAT that you need to understand what you're taking inspiration from in the first place.

Take me, for instance. My original fiction takes inspiration (among other things) of Breton tales and mythology, since it's the region where it's believed Nimue trapped Merlin, and there is a personnifcation of Death figure that is a bit of a nod to the Ankou (who in Breton mythology is considered to be Death's henchman), a plot point that will be a callback to the Midnight Washerwomen, and so on and so forth, but none of these are a 1:1 comparison with the Ankou and the Midnight Washerwomen, simply because... well, I felt like doing something different. But you know, I acknowledge it's a nod, I'm not going to say "Lord Death in my story is like the Ankou", because that simply wouldn't be true nor accurate.

All that to say, "inspiration" doesn't save you from having to do research, and learning "why" certain things tick a certain way. Orthodoxy tends to be very oriented towards mysticism and spirituality, and we kind of get that with the cult of the Saints in the Grishaverse, but if you stop and think about religion for more than 5 minutes in that setting, it falls apart. You could get away with saying naming conventions are different in your story compared to Russian conventions (if only for the sake of being gender-neutral and more inclusive), but it becomes a problem when there are several other mistakes that native speakers can easily point out.

And then, of course, you have to take into account that LB's forte is not writing fantasy that involves politics, sociology, wars, and so on. If we're talking about something that's more "in isolation" like the SoC duology, you can get away with that. Seriously, 19th Russia was a mess - it produced absolutely amazing art that endures to this day and still inspires a lot of people (not that we see any hint of that lmao), but it was also a pretty shitty place to live if you were a peasant or a serf. The problem is, the PoV characters we have for both the Grisha trilogy and the KoS duology are essentially 21st century characters, who apply 21st century logic and solutions to a 19th century setting, and instead of that causing a certain set of consequences, it works out for them when it really shouldn't, all the while they're ignoring HUGE PROBLEMS that are right there.

If you're going to write high fantasy with big stakes, I cannot recommend enough reading and learning about history. You're writing about a female freedom fighter in an oppressive regime? Read about real life folk heroines - Boudica, the Trung sisters, Joan of Arc, Emilia Plater, Rani Lakshmibai. You're writing about a rags (or close enough) to ruler protagonist? Read about Catherine I of Russia, Wei Zifu, Basil I, Fredegund, Theodora, Honwu Emperor. What made them tick? How did they get all the way to the top? Was it charm? Guile? Brute force? Knowledge? Sheer luck? Divine intervention (don't look at me like that, go ask Joan)? How did royal courts work? What were the conflicts at the time? Why were there conflicts at the time?

"But Irina, why should I do that research? It's all magic and dragons and monsters!"

Unless we're talking about a post-apocalyptic or primitive society, you're still going to have a certain level of societal organization. How is magic viewed in your fantasy world? Is it allowed? Glorified? Despised? Where does it come from? What's your inspiration? How does this inspiration view magic? What are you going to do differently and why? Are your dragons friendly or not? Are they gods? Pets? Prey? Are we talking about dragons in Persian mythology where they represent vices? If you're going to make them benevolent, why? Are they Chinese dragons, where they're considered benevolent and wise (on that note, that's why China had a more negative reaction to Mushu when Disney's animated version of Mulan came out)? If they're just going to be mindless beasts who just think about violence, why? Why not even pick another monster if you're going to make them the big bad when they're anything but? And the list goes on.

#anti grishaverse #grishaverse critical #raya critical #anon asks #writing advice #i guess?

[youngjustus]

raven’s name has technically been rachel roth for 20 years too but im not fucking calling her that lmao…idk for me it’s partially 1) fuck johns and the way he sought to completely change kon’s character and spit in the face of all his prior development just to make his stupid fan theory canon 2) having a character go from going by kon to conner is like going from tim to timothy. why make it longer, yfeel? and 3) 50% of the people who call him conner misspell it as connor, which would be fine (annoying, but ultimately harmless) except dc already has a connor, and i’m vehemently against dc’s inability to come up with an original name for any of their characters. hashtag team jon should’ve been given literally any other name bc there’s already like 6 jonathan kents

i know there is a lot to criticize about johns's run, but i honestly don't find a lot of things with what he did with conner leading up to his death in infinite crisis in terms of characterization to be out of character. although, full disclosure, i haven't revisited teen titans vol. 3 in [checks calendar] 7 years, so there might be some gaps in my memory.

i like that he's getting used to having an actual structured life with going to school and living in a house with parents that care about him. he's also still dealing with the aftermath of the finale of his solo series and graduation day! he's adjusting! it would be normal for him to feel weird and off. this is a post that i made a few years ago with a good addition from another user that puts this well.

however, i do generally dislike the luthor reveal because of how many stories that came after for conner have so heavily focused on it, when a) we already did something similar in the 90's with his original backstory and b) it contributes to one of the most annoying fan discourses i've had to see for my entire comics reading experience regarding superman being a 'dead beat dad'. unfortunately, at this point, it is a part of canon that is ingrained in too many fans and writers' heads, and is tied into too many plot lines for them to go away with it. such is the nature of a shared intellectual property! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

i think i'm probably misreading what you're saying, but kon isn't short for conner, and i don't think tim's full name is a good comparison. they’re two separate names. i've posted about the origin's of the name kon-el a few times over the years, and i even have the issue where he receives it in my personal comic collection. it is a very important part of the character's history, and a good thing to point to when people doubt the positive relationship between conner and superman. the name is one with real history, and it is a gift!

this is where my own headcanons and speculation comes in: it makes the most amount of sense to me that conner is a name that he specifically chose himself when he was adopted by the kents.

if somehow i missed a random issue of superman or action comics from between when his superboy series was canceled to him showing up in teen titans that gives an origin to the civilian name conner kent, or even just an interview with the creatives discussing the issue the name first shows up in, please send it my way!

if such a comic or interview does not exist, and if i ever had the chance to write the character, this is 100% something i'd like to explore. i have my own ideas that i've thought about a lot over the years (and even a middle name picked, too).

i also think that there are much bigger problems with dc comics than a few characters sharing a first name. like a lot more problems.

conner is his name as much as it is kon, and it's not wrong to call him it in the way that it's not wrong to refer to superman as clark or kal. the comparison at the start of this ask to raven is interesting, but i think the key difference there is that rachel roth feels like a regression (she's deaged and put in high school) and to me conner kent is further growth (being with the family that wants him in their lives).

#asks #super posting #conner kent #kon el

[kenzan-kiwami]

Can I get uhhh Wagi + 1, 2, 25

ABSOLUTELY

(this got quite long so i'm gonna shove it under a read more)

1. Why do you like or dislike this character?

it's so hard for me to quantify what i like about him in broad and general terms, but it had to happen someday i guess so thank you for that LOL

at the most basic and superficial level i just find him pleasing to look at and listen to. absolutely helps that my first exposure this year was ishin kiwami and not yakuza kiwami because he slays the haori look and the little extra sideburn scruff he gets looks great on him. i can't remember what my reaction was to him when i played 0 (we'll expand on that later) but i was clinging hard to inoue well before things happened, and every game i played after the fact only solidified kashiwagi as a fave.

but every little extra thing the games say about him just makes him all the more interesting to me. i still haven't done my Y0 replay but i've gone back and watched most of the scenes he's in, and the way he 1) already tends kamuro castle in '88 2) brings up the way yakuza (don't) cope with expulsion to kiryu and nishiki is interesting to think about after Y3 tells us he's been operating the HLA for some time. how long? was it already on the books during the bubble?

also from 0, the conversation between kiryu and nishiki at the apartment where they mention how tense he was while kiryu was at dojima's office. the last time you see him do anything before this point is when he flips his lid at kiryu and knocks him into the shelf. he has this big intimidating front on as current acting patriarch of the kazama family - rightly so, considering the respect he commands even from awano - but everything about his situation, and kiryu's situation, and kazama's situation, on top of the empty lot fiasco, is stressing him to the bone. he cares so much about kiryu not dying to the point he doesn't eat until he comes back alive, which just makes me worry about how little he ate over the game's runtime. he gets relatively little screentime and development compared to certain other characters in this series (especially playable protags), but in spite of it they manage to make him feel like a person. which i guess is one of the strengths of RGG's writing

there's a lot i've left unsaid, but i don't know if i can put much of it into words without somehow being asked the right question to prompt it lmao. i guess to conclude this segment, i see a bit of myself in him as well. he's the type of man i would like to be, if a bit less temperamental

2. Favourite canon thing about this character?

i cannot for the life of me think of a better way to put this, but i guess how gap moe he is? characters like tsuruno are out here calling him scary, and there's that one story from RGGO where they call him oni kashiwa, and y'know just his whole usual demeanour and presentation. and that gnarly scar across his face. but in spite of appearances, he's... kind of a nerd. dare i say he's just a little bit goofy (especially in 7 when he allows his filter to drop a little).

we've got a man who runs an empty karaoke bar as a hobby, and hires younger women to talk to what few patrons he has for him. he taught himself ikebana and how to make chinese herbal remedies. he's got it down bad enough for his own boss that he allows himself to get beaten to a pulp for as long as it takes for the emergency services to show up after kazama gets shot at sera's funeral (RGGO). i'm not even gonna uncork the fuckin "legend malt" bottle, and i've posted about his posture and ill-fitting suits on ps2/ps3 here before.

i think one of my favourite moments from 7 is still the end of nanba's 4th drink link, where he's like HUH after ichiban says they're organising a birthday party. all of the little breaks in his composure in that game make me feel completely normal ways i promise

also, not sure if i count it as such, but inoue's reimen lines from ishin. the way he starts talking about his favourite dish from his favourite restaurant then cuts himself off because he's gushing too much and ryoma isn't interested like, noooo, keep going please i want to hear it... tell me how you got your hands on reimen 100 years early

25. What was your first impression of this character? How about now?

like i say, it's been so long since i played Y0 that i genuinely don't remember if i had any actual thoughts on him or not beyond this relic i just dug up:

so i'll go from ishin kiwami instead i guess LOL

i'm still not sure what my first first impressions were but i was definitely latching on during chapter 5 at the latest. those cutscenes are soooo juicy, but we all knew that. every time i saw him i was like :) yay inoue is here :) until the start of chapter 10 when i was in straight up denial until they dumped his pale crusty-ass body in the middle of the sparring pit. ishin the only fucking thing delivering both his forbidden tatas and a scar backstory and we stan her for that.. the tibbies less so though because honestly it feels too lewd. seeing fanart of him with his shirt open helps me to understand what sawashiro fans felt when the infinite wealth trailer dropped

and it's all been uphill (or down, depending on how you look at it) from there. seeing him sopping wet, bleeding and pleading in the mud awoke something in me for sure. i understand why tsuruno calls him scary but i legitimately cannot see the dragon engine model that way, especially with those stupid tortoiseshell glasses. he looks like a sad dog & my male high school chemistry teachers at once. he's abashedly goofy and barely speaks above a whisper half the time.

i just know that whatever happens between him and kiryu in 8 is going to very painfully exorcise my own soul from my body.

#kashiwagi osamu #ONE THING I SORT OF FORGOT TO TALK ABOUT #his voice acting #(how you know i'm definitely in way too deep) #it's really interesting how the texture of his voice changes between certain games #i don't really understand the change between K1 > K2 specifically but in K2 and onwards he uses a more gravelly tone #i assume based on other works that K1 -> K2 is a direction thing but people do age (as evidenced by ps2/ps3 vs everything else lol) #0 K1 and ishin he sounds a lot smoother and in 0/K1 he seems to project his voice a lot more? #i definitely think in the 80s and 90s it's a 'garnering respect from the bigger families' thing still. and it works on awano at least #but yeah regardless i like to listen to him talking. he has a nice timbre #anyway i should probably leave it here before i get too Actually ill #i need to go to sleep like i said i was gonna two hours ago #thanks again for this i really enjoyed answering <3 #text #meta #long post #ask games

[emberwood-if]

I too loathe love triangles and I'm so glad someone else in the IF community does too. I totally respect that most people have different tastes and that's totally cool and fine as long as people are respectful, but when most people really like a trope and constantly beg writers to add it in and you really don't like it, it definitely makes you feel like the odd one out a little bit. I'm also just not romance or shipping minded in general (I'm arospec eyyy), so it adds another level of alienation definitely.

Also I definitely agree with you about the chosen one thing. I think the sexiest kinds of stories are where people choose themselves and especially when they defy fate because people and choices and the truth are all far more important than someone somewhere arbitrarily deciding someone is special.

Yeahhh, exactly !! Surprisingly, though I do love consuming romance, I’m not really a romantic person in real life, which is why I made sure to add a platonic route to Emberwood. It’s weird, I’m a big romance reader but I’m not big on affection/romance in real life lolol (my family calls me ice queen because I’m not emotionally expressive but it’s not my fault! Lmdjshshsh)

I think my biggest thing—and this pertains to just traditional fiction—is that a lot of the times, the romance feels very shallow? and i feel like the line between “fighting to be chosen” and “manipulating the main character into choosing them” gets blurred A LOT and it feels icky

Also, i think my dislike for love triangles stems for my dislike of jealousy plots. A little jealousy here and there is okay, I mean it adds conflict and it’s natural, but jealousy plots? Absolutely not. I hate it so much, especially when the MC isn’t even in a relationship and it’s just like ermmmmmm.

Obviously I speak in terms of the typical heterosexual love triangles you find in like post-hunger games 2010 work lol. Love triangles that become polyamorous or love triangles with diverse sexualities are different—not only because they’re underrepresented but because they add another layer of depth that straight relationships can’t?? Really have?? Because of the very nature of them being straight and monogamous??? U feel me?? So on that front, I totally get what the last anon meant

I’m glad you agree with me and I found someone who totally gets it ahah but for readers who do love love triangles, I get it too! It adds tension, and conflict and my angst loving heart does understand the fun in the “will they or won’t they” plots and if it’s done well, I can’t totally dig it but I usually just steer clear because it’s just not a trope I like!

Edit: also YES about the chosen one thing. THATS THE GOOD STUFF! I hate the whole “special MC is special for no other reason than being special” give us depth!! Give us story!! Give us other characters that can help MC and be their own hero as well!!

thanks for ur thoughts! I do love discussing writing 🫶 I’m always all ears

#ask #anonymous #discussion

[maidenvault]

i can't speak for other people who disliked 2022 selina but i personally felt like selina was constantly undercut in that attempt to make her softer. there's little to NONE genuine respect for the trauma she underwent and the rightful anger and vindictiveness she resultantly felt over it and there's little thought given to how large the divide between her and bruce would actually be if more writers following mindy newell took this as seriously as she did when she initially wrote it. it was frustrating to watch bruce use her and condescend to her only for her to ultimately forgive him within the span of days when he made little to no effort to earn her forgiveness. bruce never asked selina to be softer with him bc he understands her need to be suspicious of men. i think y'all are just too used to bruce's mistreatment in regards to her…

Well, I’m not the most well-versed in Catwoman comics or the developments her character has had over the many years so I’m not simply “used to” anything when it comes to this ship. This view certainly might need re-evaluating but TBH I kind of wrote her off at one point as a character who’s been mishandled by male writers so often and has such a relative dearth of great material in the comics that it’s not really worth trying to get into DCU Selina beyond the handful of classic stories everyone recommends. Sooo yeah in my heart I really only care about 2022 batcat and I can’t speak to how it compares to them in the comics except in a very general way.

I think it’s important to realize that the differences between these two are not necessarily neatly resolved once and for all just because they come to have more of an understanding of each other by the end of the film and show that they care about each other. It’s a complicated relationship full of tension in both a sexy way and negative way. @cityhalloween has explained really well here how an identity reveal would probably only complicate their relationship more because of the vast differences between her and Bruce Wayne, especially because her becoming Catwoman will change things. Even with the dysfunction between them that probably isn’t going away, I just don’t think Selina compromises anything in herself by giving into her feelings in an emotional moment a couple times, or being willing to take a risk with someone who might very well let her down when nobody has ever been there for her and he makes her feel cherished. It makes Selina much stronger than Bruce in a way that she isn’t so committed to just going through life with her guard up all the time to protect herself.

Selina’s known terrible men her whole life, but I just buy based on their interaction that she and Batman have a connection beyond words, that they intuitively recognize something familiar in each other. She’s perceptive enough and knows him well enough after their limited interaction to see that he is a total mess but his intentions are good and he really does care about her. I don’t think she would call him out on his ignorance and tell him her whole traumatic story if she didn’t think he was capable of listening, owning that he has been wrong, and truly learning, all of which he does.

If you’ve come here because of this post and the meta linked there as I assume, I don’t really know what more I can say that hasn’t been said. I don’t know what more would have satisfied you in terms of Selina’s pain being acknowledged, when her whole story and her connection with Batman is entirely about that pain, unless you just wanted her to kill her father. I just don’t think that’s who Selina is and I think Batman stops her because they’re alike enough that he can see that. I totally understand if you just can’t personally enjoy the ship because of Bruce’s behavior toward her, but I think anyone can dislike it and still respect that other fans like me feel strongly that she’s a great character and that she means a lot to many fans of color.

#the batman meta #catwoman #batcat #the batman #asks #meta #dc #the goddamn batman

[dumbdomb]

rp rules for 21+ subs

I AM NOT A SWITCH. I AM NOT SUBMISSIVE.

i'm mostly a bottom dom. please, dni if you don't like fucked up, harder kinks, it won't be fun for either of us. and keep in mind, i don't do any strict format or long-term rp, thanks!

notice: rp is for fun, casual chatting. it's not serious, you're not dating me. we are buddies being so, so silly on the internet. either one of us could walk away from the chat without notice, because we're adults with things to do, but a quick brb or gtg message would be appreciated.

☆ most frequently asked question: yes, you're welcome to send photos or vids anytime but understand it is one sided: i don't trade. do not show bottom hole of any kind!!! tasteful, artistic, creative lewds are encouraged. i like bulges, camel toe, jock strap, store bought strap, chastity cages… chests of any kind are ok!

♤ gender and pronouns: i am a nonbinary androgyne. i'm genderfluid and sometimes agender. i generally prefer they/them and he/him online. i feel and express myself in feminine, masculine, and androgynous ways.

♡ about my body and terms i like: i have a vulva and breasts. i often refer to my clit and labia as cock, dick, hard on. my vagina is boy pussy and þussy. my breasts are tiddies and chest. you can ask if i feel comfortable with other words, this is just what i could think of rn

*for girls only: you can call parts of my body clit, pussy, vag, tits, boobs.

◇ dislikes: when men perceive me as a woman or anything less than a man. when women don't see me as a woman. i don't enjoy receiving anal in any way and would only like topping a partner's ass if it's something they enjoy. pegging is not a kink to me but simply another activity. i don't like receiving big or deep penetration ever, and it's possible i may have vaginismus. i don't usually like oral, sometimes it's ok, but i have anxiety about it- receiving and giving.

♧ i have little privacy and availability to masturbate whenever i want, so do not expect me to touch myself while we talk. i'm usually very sweet and polite, but understand that i'm not a soft dom. if i genuinely get aroused in a particular way, i will change my tone to sound mean, hard, sadistic, etc. it's not an insult! lol if you want a safeword for our chats, or we are talking about cnc, please discuss this with me! i am willing to rp outside of my own personal kinks, but only if i feel comfortable doing so.

■ i'm not vanilla, though i enjoy and appreciate softer intimacy as well. i like gross, scary, harder kinks. unless it's in my dni, you're welcome to ask about it.

🌈 if you have any questions, please feel free to talk to me! you can always ask about posts on my blog or my feelings on certain ideas, topics, etc.

#thanks for reading! 💕 #domb brain

[twilightguardian]

The hiatus was so nice, I got a lot of things done. I couldn’t wait for the next episode, and it seems neither could Lilith, because even after a month holiday she’s right back to watching with the rest of us! Honestly, you’d think she would get tired of doing this and just not bother but her posts bitching about Fixing RWBY get more traction than she ever got talking about Glints Saga. So since she’s of the ilk that’s convinced people only have popularity riding on RWBY’s coattails, it must be her acting out that mentality, right? lol

Putting under a readmore because some anonymous complainer who has a broken tumblr that doesn’t have the Expand function whined at me. I’d say fix your tumblr but since this one also looks to be fairly long, I’ll comply anyway. It’s no skin off my back.

Yep. Lovely example of Lilith either not knowing or purposefully ignoring social context. Gotta love it.

 Because people can refer to people, or in this case cartoon characters, as ‘bitch’ in an affectionate or otherwise joking way. Jinn isn’t real, kiddo, she doesn’t have feelings to hurt even if it was meant to be the insulting term. “The bitch should wear some clothes” isn’t seriously calling her a bitch, and Lilith fully knows that. She gave the bitch some clothes. Bitches love clothes.

Gonna step on Lilith to get up on my soap box. We all know she doesn’t understand the concept of critique. But there is a difference between fun hate and not fun hate. Hate out of love and passion is frustration because something you like is doing something that you don’t like. Apparently not shutting up, turning your brain off and drooling all over yourself as you consume product is a bad thing. How dare people have opinions that isn’t consume more product.

There’s a show appealing to someone and not appealing to someone. And within that there is aspects of a show appealing to someone and not appealing to someone. If you get past the first set of appeal, congrats, you’re a fan. If aspects don’t appeal to you, then those aspects don’t appeal to you, but others do. After all, that’s why you got past the first round of appeal in the first place.

I do have a friend who we’ve encouraged to stop watching RWBY because he was no longer having fun with the show, whether talking about it or shitting on it. It was making him frustrated, angry and upset and we could tell from his voice that he was no longer enjoying himself. At that point there is little benefit to continuing to watch a show. Because love it or hate it, if you’re enjoying the thing, if you have passion for it, that’s a valid way to watch it. You’re analyzing the show just as much as anyone else who is passionate enough to dig deep into analytics. But if you’re genuinely feeling miserable watching the show because you hate it that much, it becomes unhealthy. It’s no longer hating that something you thought was cool ended up being so flawed and you enjoy talking about it.

 Even well loved shows have its critics who have aspects of the show they dislike and no one complains. Most fandoms outside of the RWBY fandom understand that just because you have beef with some part of the show it doesn’t mean you are a ‘hater’. People are entitled to their opinions, people are entitled to be frustrated with elements of a story because no story is going to be perfect for everyone. If someone is a genuine ‘hater’ of a show, they don’t watch it of their own volition.

I hated the show. From a technical standpoint as a student of animation, and from a writing perspective as a writer, I saw nothing but rushed animation and overly cliche writing. Passion has nothing to do with it, frankly, it’s about pride in your work. If I have pride in something, I’d want it to be my best foot forward and I wouldn’t want to put anything out that looked like early RWBY even if I decided I wanted to make an indie thing myself. And if I wanted to watch a generic story about fantasy high school, I’d watch any of the other better written, better animated shows out there in the world. I ended up watching past volume 1 because I was told to by a fan because he didn’t like that I was talking about my negative experience with the show. So, if he says I can’t criticize the show unless I watch it, then I did. But only because the opportunity presented itself, because honestly that’s such a stupid argument. No one has to watch the entire show of something they aren’t enjoying in order to be “worthy” of critiquing it. That’s only true if they talk about things outside of the scope of their direct knowledge and experience about the show.

It’s embarrassing to me that Lilith is a writer and doesn’t know how writing works. But she’s just one of many these days that don’t.

So, there are three different categories of characters that are allowed to drive the plot forward:

The protagonists

The antagonists

Arc relevant characters

The protagonists, if they are active characters, will or should drive the plot forward at least half the time. Lilith is interesting in that she complains that Fixing RWBY doesn’t allow the female protagonists to drive their own stories forward, yet is silent when the show doesn’t. The thing about being a protagonist that drives the story forward is that the actions you perform will have consequences, and the viewers get to hold the protagonist responsible for that if they feel the action taken was poor. But Lilith complains whenever people talk about Team RWBY’s involvement in the Atlas Arc, saying that because they are girls that they shouldn’t have to be criticized for their involvement. Infantilizing the girls, because they’re women, saying that they should be exempt from criticism when they are active in their own show because of the fact that they’re girls. Well, I’m sorry, but that’s not how any of this works. If Team RWBY wants to wear the Protagonist Pants, they get treated no differently than any other character who also wears them. They are in the spotlight, they’ll get the most attention, they’ll get the most criticism.

Antagonists are usually the ones who drive the plot forward, more often than the protagonists even. Without the antagonists, there wouldn’t be much conflict in our story about ‘saving the world from evil’ now would there? Salem, quite frankly, is a poor excuse of an villain. Rather, she’s the Rita Repulsa, or more accurately, the Fire Lord Ozai of RWBY. Rita rarely ever directly got herself involved in the battles with the Power Rangers, preferring to send wave after wave of ineffective henchmen after them to get destroyed in the monster of the week-style format. Her main saving grace is that it’s a show for very small children and her over the top antics are amusing. Plus the Green Ranger Arc is still great to this day, something that she was directly the cause of. Even though she doesn’t appear herself, she still physically has to throw her staff down into the earth to grow her monster into a kaijuu. Rita Repulsa drives the plot forward in her show. Ozai on the other hand is mostly covered in shadow during the few, scant moments we do see him in the show before the very end. He’s intimidating while on screen, especially when looking through the perspective of Zuko. But he doesn’t directly drive the plot forward. He’s a vague, wishy-washy threat far off in the distance and we see Sozen’s Comet more as the looming threat than Ozai is. It can be one of the weaknesses of Avatar if it weren’t for the fact that, like Rita, he has minions (his own children) to throw at the Gaang to be direct threats. Zuko, and then Azula, and then smaller antagonists just as General Zhao. They aren’t constant threats, though. Ozai’s threat as a villain is reduced to something that isn’t all that big until the second half of the final season. Salem is much more like Ozai. A threat way off in the distance, and one that we didn’t even know of until the end of the third volume. But she sits and waits in her spoopy castle, allowing her minions to do as they please. Cinder is the antagonist for volumes 2-3 and half of 5. Tyrian is an antagonist for about 3 episodes. Hazel at the climax of volume 5 and Watts is ever in the background being a little tech goblin. Roman + White Fang was the main antagonist for V1, not part of Salem’s crew (which is fine, it’s the start of the show, we can build up to it). Cinder is indirectly the mastermind behind V2, though it’s mostly done by Roman still using White Fang. Cinder is directly involved in V3, joined by Roman and White Fang. V4 it’s all about the Nucklavee and White Fang. V5 it’s Raven and Cinder oh and Adam reminds us he exists. V6-8 is Atlas with Adam as a footnote and finally for V8, Salem gets up off her ass and directly does an action. V9 is looking to not have anything to do with Salem at all.

Arc Relevant characters are the final piece to the puzzle, usually having a big hand in whatever needs to be done. They’re usually considered temporary, but they are needed in some way for the plot to move forward.

While two different elements of these three can work simultaneously, out of the seven configurations possible, a protagonist only needs to be active in only four of them. Protagonists do not need to be the driving force all the time, but nor do they need to sit on the sidelines for an entire plot just because they aren’t the main driving plot.

Adam is an antagonist, and is being set up as the main obstacle for the heroes this volume. Antagonists drive the plot, sometimes much more than the protagonists do, so why is it a problem that the antagonist does their job? It shows a lack of knowledge and skill on Lilith’s part when she doesn’t know or understand fundamental aspects of storytelling.

So Lilith actively lies now. I know she and her little friend Xelian don’t understand the concept of lying, but she’s definitely not telling the truth here, being manipulative and obscuring the truth with muddy language enough to give a false impression by, funnily enough, ignoring any time one of our main protagonist does anything to focus on Roman, Qrow and Neo. Then again, for someone who bitches and whines and throws a tantrum that Raymond is such a sexist pig, she sure treats the female protags like garbage and focuses on the male characters, important or not. It’s almost like Lilith has some serious projection going on.

 The sequence of the train crashing follows like this:

Yang and Blake are stable and able to save themselves so far

Weiss and Roman are secured on a train car

Roman rescues Neo

Qrow is trapped within the train car and struggles to get out

Ruby is secured at the top of the train cars

Blake is attacked by a manticore and is saved by Weiss

Yang loses grip and falls and is saved by Weiss

Manticore goes after Weiss, who is saved by Ruby

Ruby falls, Yang saves Blake from a bridge beam

Neo goes to save Yang when she falls from destroying the beam

Roman slams into Weiss, who protects him

Ruby saves Weiss from another manticore

Qrow saves Roman and they both land, Blake lands on her own

Ruby breaks her leg and is helped by Weiss to get off the breaking ice

Neo and Yang both crash into the water and Neo is pinned

Yang tries to save Neo but runs out of air

Blake and everyone else saves Neo from drowning

Wow it looks like it’s the main team that do the majority of the saving here. Like I said, Lilith ignores what’s inconvenient to her toxic narrative by saying characters that barely did anything get to be the focus of the scene. Team RWBY got to shine in this scene and displayed both strong amounts of teamwork and care for each other. Weiss is MVP.

Also Lilith tries to act like titling the episode after a non Team RWBY member is somehow wrong. Because that’s totally a sane and logical thing to do. Seriously, she has to REACH really hard to the point where she nearly pulls something to come up with these complaints. As nitpicky as the Antis accuse anyone they hate of being, I don’t think anyone has seriously complained about the title of the episode being related to a character as an issue. Lilith is no better than the people she dislikes because she is the people she dislikes in thought and action, and then some.

“Oh my god how dare the guy who has the brain parasite inside his mind be affected by the brain parasite?!”

That’s how stupid Lilith sounds. I’m sure she’s fine with Oscar not having his own agency in the canon scene, considering how much she hates men. That’s why she focuses on them so much. She says over and over and over how much she doesn’t hate men, and I guess she’s right. Based on her actions with the cast in Fixing, I have to say she hates all the characters, the female characters and male characters alike. She hates the whole cast of RWBY. She bitches about the male characters twitching an eyebrow or breathing the wrong way. She completely ignores the main female characters. She bitches about the female non-main cast members. Lilith is someone who has a sickness and is perpetually unhappy and clings to her hatred while projecting her insecurities, failings and flaws onto other people.

Lilith whines and complains that the RWBY girls don’t have a childish temper tantrum, with Yang bitching about how they’ve picked up a useless old woman because she’s upset they got left behind. Then she goes on the attack at Ozpin out of the blue. Ozpin gives them the information readily that it’s the relic that causes it, though it honestly seems like the girls already knew the answer and just wanted confirmation. Like they read the script.

In Fixing, everyone makes a fire and huddle around it for warmth while they figure out what went wrong. They try to use their brains to figure out why things happened the way they did. Adam is brought up but the idea of him attracting the grimm is dismissed by Yang and Weiss. But Blake, having known him and how deep his hatred and rage goes, says he can.

Roman is the one who brings up the relic. He’s Ozpin’s host, and thus slowly merging with him, so he has access to Ozpin’s memories. He’s the one who shifts the focus. Ozpin, unlike canon, is not willing to give up any information at all and fights Roman on it, causing Roman to fight back and give Ruby the information she’d need to get them all answers.

It’s almost exhausting to see just how stupid Lilith is. If not outright stupid, than ignorant to her own detriment. “Stans” of RWBY always complain that no one who critiques it pays attention to RWBY, but at least they watch the content even if they ultimately disagree with the “stans”. Lilith can’t even be bothered to do that, so it really makes me wonder why she even bothers focusing so much on Fixing RWBY in the first place.

Raymond has said multiple times that he doesn’t think the story overall for RWBY is bad. It is unpolished and rough. His goal is trying to refine it a little bit. Not make it a perfect diamond, but making it so that it doesn’t look like it just came up out of the dirt. If someone can’t comprehend that, they are a moron. If someone ignores that because they want to call Raymond a hater, they are a liar. Lilith is both. Anyone who thinks the way Lilith does, be it Seeker, Xelian, or any of their friends, are no better.

This is a really stupid leap in logic. Lilith is aiming for the olympics with this stretch. We saw in canon that Brunswick farms had a tool shed. Holy shit Lilith can’t even be bothered to remember details from the show she claims to like and defend. But par for the course, since she specifically came into the fandom to be a troll because no one cares about her in the Magical Girl community anymore because she’s terrible and that’s a sore spot for her.

Legit dumbass take that it’ll automatically be Roman or Neo to drive for no reason other than the fact that she wants it to be that way. Are you secretly a Roman and Neo fan, Lilith? Is that why you focus so much on them? Secretly, desperately, she wants Raymond to focus so much more on them and that’s why SHE focuses so much on them! lolol

She doesn’t care about RWBY because she likes the show, she cares about RWBY because it has a strong enough fanbase with critical individuals that she gets to bully people. The majority of her posts about RWBY are digs at RWDE or “haters”. She’s a grifter.

Giving Adam a bike doesn’t take away Yang’s ability to use a bike, and if anyone honestly thinks this, they’re an idiot. Motorcycles are vehicles that anyone can pick up and use if they care to. This is such a stupid take I can’t even fathom the kind of nonsense that goes through her twisted mind to come up with such bullshit.

Says the hack writer who wrote the boring ass beginning of Glints Saga without any knowledge of the basic fundamental idea of hooking your audience. I don’t even think Glints is a bad concept, but holy man does the beginning of the story not grab you at all and that’s an audience retention killer. She wants to talk about Raymond being a bad writer. At least he knows the fundamentals.

#rwby #rwde #fixing rwby #lilith fairen #fandom toxicity

[titconao3]

13, 19, 40 - for the writer/fanfic ask :)

For this set of questions ^_^

13. What is your planning process? Eeeerrrr. i'm more of a... plantser, i think is the technical term ;-) i know the general idea and end point, but little details that turn into bigger plot points happen as i write, so i can't really plan much - it's the writing itself that will give me the meat. When i start off, i only have the general stick figure of the story, as seen from afar in the dark without wearing glasses ;-)

This is also why i write linearly: one little thing, a little detail (idk, the colour of char A's socks) will come up again and become #meaningfulTM later, and i can't foresee that early on in the process. Planning stuff would be pointless, because the story grows organically and will ignore what i plan anyway (it's a big reason why i dislike detailed scenario prompts: i think my brain chugs in the background and suddenly pops an idea at me on the page all by itself, but i'm not conscious of it until the words are Right There in front of my eyes; if i have to follow something another brain plotted, then mine just freezes and sulks and whines "what's the poinnnnnnt" ;-) Okay, yeah, sure, i do go back and add sock colour later on to tighten a plot point/foreshadow etc, but the idea is that a tiny word-butterfly will create big word-storms later on :D This is also why i don't post WIPs: something that comes up may need me to edit previous bits.

If i have extra notes, ideas, scene outlines, mid-way beats to hit, or bits of dialogue for a later part, i just jot it all down at the bottom of my document (i write in a word processor that's synced with an online drive, no fancy Writing Software For Fancy Writers for me. i'm basic ;-). i don't write out the entire scene / dialogue in advance, because it would be futile; by the time i get there i'd need to rewrite most of it anyway. And i might get bored and not feel like connecting the prewritten bits ;-) especially if it means rewriting everything as i go because it doesn't fit as well as it would if it had flown more organically from one part to another. (i've tried it, and it's not for me; it works for others!)

19. Dead or overused tropes? Oh my, there is no such thing as a dead or overused trope :D it's all about what you do with it! Play it straight, have a coffee shop AU but IN SPACE, take a common fanon characterization and twist it just so... i'll even sometimes take tropes i don't really like just to see how i can do them in a way i can stomach (one day, one day, i'll do a Soulmates AU. i find the premise a bit creepy when it's played twu wuv 4realz, but one day i'll play with that). (no shade on Soulmates AU lovers; kink tomato and all that!)

It's not like storytelling hasn't been using and reusing Coming Of Age, Revenge, Hero vs Fate, Fuck You God(s), etc patterns since, uh, forever. It's not the fact they're used that makes something enjoyable or not. *slaps Star Wars' hood* this baby can fit so many tropes in there! (This example is Just For You, Beguile, because i'm not much into SW ;-)

And, look. You'll have to pry hurt/comfort and whump from my cold dead hands ;-)

The only times i find something (trope, pattern... call it what you will) overused are when i see the themes, rhythms, expressions, words, obsessions that come up again and again in my own work. i see them only too well, and i fight them, and they always win in the end. They probably say too much about me, too! And then i angst about being predictable (@vulnerasanenturmyprince KEN FOLLET), boring, etc. (And then i go read fics that hit the buttons i want hit again and again)

40. Do you have any rituals before uploading a fic? Uh, rituals... it's usually fretting around the title, tags, and summary ;-) i rarely have the title early on, and i think for the summary it's happened... once? (out of, as of the time of answering this, over 160 published fics). No special underwear or whatnot for me. And fretting about how it's The Worst Fic Ever and how i Can't Write Anymore and Should Just Stop but i just need to chuck it on the good ole AO3 so i stop tinkering and quite possibly making it worse.

i try not to worry about feedback because it's pointless, which means i worry about feedback - by which i don't mean Comment Or Else, but that i write and publish (and organize events) to be part of the fandom community and squee with my fellow fen: as my AO3 profile says, to me, fandom is connection!

Thank you, @beguilewritesstuff :-)

#writing #my fic

[cogbreath]

dump of my unorganized migraine riddled thoughts and feelings about recent things

maybe a lot of mistakes were made with the recent stuff with the callout stuff. i dont know. personally i never called anyone a pedophile or tried to insinuate anyone was and its distressing to hear about those accusations getting thrown around the way they were (are?) i dunno. people trying to develop some sort of epsteins list type thing it seems. fsct of the matter in terms of my own personal thoughts are that well its clear who is and isnt and really i just dont like the racists on here i dont like the way people came at some of the black users on here about it myself included. i cant speak for anyone else or say if they meant harm what they said but nonetheless lot of you folks are too eager to harm and attack black people regardless if they deserve criticism for what they said or not. tbh i dont even know what the situation is as it stands or where its gone. its become a mess that i dont like and cofnfuses me greatly. it should be simple. dont be transmisogynistic dont be racist and really you shouldn't claim people to be pedos unless you really are certain of that. i think leave people alone now to be honest unless theres really any risk of danger you know

ive tried to say what ive felt is the right thing and i still generally feel i did , there are people though who i will never like ans never forgive due 2 their racism. im not giving them support because of that. simple as. really its my right to.

really though im just one person

i hate the way people seem to act liek theres some sort of faction loyalty about this treating it like goddamn skyrim civil war

we all know how posts spread around here and its just illogical to say that all who ever reblogged a thing from someone means they r a supportyr of that person and their beliefs

though i think if its found out if that op isn't a safe person u should delete the post stop that shit from spreading i dont know why its suddenly hard for pepple to think this way when its undrrstood anytime a post from a fascist starts getting spread around

really im honestly backing out of discussions about what is and isnt okay or acceptable for anyone to sexualise or have a fetish for outside of the obvious things of its not okay to do that with non consenting people animals you know its literally simple easy stuff

whether or not someones into pregnant tf scenarios or mpreg or is a DL or any thing like that i really dont care and im not really interested in dissecting what it means or doesn't mean

im not an expert of sexual psychology and neither are you and i think you should leave people alone about it

i will never fw raceplay though and i have that right

and well honestly i think everyone has a right to not fw any kink its not illegal to dislike a kink or to be grossed out by it

and someone being grossed out by ur kink itsnt any form of hate on you as a human being either

just be nice 👍 everyone

and make sure everyone is safe

rememebr people generally mean well and generally dont want to hurt others needlessly

peoppe on here are quick to assume that every time someone does hurt someone on here its because they love it and are filled with hate and bigotry for their kind or something like that

i think because of the nature of the situations it is extra important to not assume the worst but rather ask people to clarify ?

i dont know

you people are smart and i think you know whats right and whats wrong pretty well

i hope

#unrebloggable because this is literally a dump of thoughts and stuff like sorry if u agree but its too unorganised for me to elt you share #you can share your thoughts in replies

[calysimps]

I've seen people posting about their Tavs and I wanted to join in soooo

This is Scoria Doesnthavealastnameyet! She's not really a Tav as much as an OC because my computer cannot run BG3 but oh well.

She's a water genasi sorceress and princess of a human kingdom.

My initial idea was to have a basic spoiled mermaid-like princess but then I found out genasi are rare and often ignored or disliked by their parents so I had to give her a tragic backstory, poor me (I love handing out trauma to characters)

Scoria of Stillbay (random city name I got from random name generator for her kingdom) born to the king and queen (They don't have names either, basically no one relevant in this story does yet) or so everyone expected. So you can imagine the surprise on everyone's face when the human couple's kid was born blue, with gills and finned ears. Everyone came to the reasonable conclusion that the queen had committed adultery with some sort of magical being or perhaps a monster. Why she would engage in such an affair right after her marriage, compromising the royal family and bloodline while doing so, and with a magical creature no less, knowing magic is looked down upon in her husband's kingdom slipped everyone's mind. As many questions as everyone had, the queen didn't get the chance to answer them as she died in childbirth.

The child's name (Scoria, meaning scum) was chosen by the king. The option of killing her was heavily considered but some members of the court called for grace for the kid, since being born wasn't really her fault. The child was given to an orphanage and not talked about. It wasn't unusual for the palace to hold information from it's citizens so why stop now?

The kingdom still didn't have an heir so the king remarried. And didn't have children with his new wife. So he remarried. But she didn't get pregnant either. After a year of sleeping with two wives and as many lovers he could find no children was born so in a last attempt to have some sort of heir, even if it was just a backup plan, Scoria was picked up from the orphanage and brought back to the castle.

She was introduced as her mother's kid to the people with excuses of wanting a big celebration, grief, other compromises that stopped the palace from giving her the proper introduction. She kept her name and was forced to disguise her appearance. Her hair and ears were concealed under a wig, her gills hid under clothing and her skin was painted a natural skin tone.

Meanwhile, the king kept marrying and trying to produce an actual heir so he could get rid of Scoria as soon as possible. But this never happened. So Scoria grew up a princess. Always disguised as long as she wanted to take a step out of the palace. Not allowed to look out of windows too closely or to go out on the balconies.

She was a sheltered kid. She didn't know anyone asides from palace staff, her father and spouses and the occasional noble she met at parties.

Since there wasn't much to do she occupied her time learning. What? Anything. She read all the time. She became proficient in any art that she was allowed to try. She knew every word of her etiquette books. She was never one for sports since practising inside was quite difficult. This lead her to be very smart and polite in controlled, predictable noble environments but God knows if she had to survive on her own she wouldn't last a day.

This was her life until one day, when she was around 18, another woman came into her life. A witch. She knew the king was always changing wives and wanted another heir (she didn't know of Scoria's identity since no one outside the palace did). Magic *was* looked down upon but the king had come to terms with his infertility. This was his only chance to get rid of the bastard. So he agreed to marry her. One last royal wedding for him. They got married and soon enough the woman was with child. A miracle? A spell? No one cared. The king had what he wanted and as soon as that child was born he could finally live peacefully.

So, the new prince was born. And the next day Scoria received a message.

"Get dressed. Your father wants to see you." A maid told her when she woke her up. Scoria sprung up from her bed. The king had never been one to request time with her. He was always distant and uncaring. So she was elated. She put on her disguise as quickly as she could and got dressed, running downstairs to meet up with her father.

He looked happy. Calm. He greeted her with a smile and took her arm, leading her towards the outside of the palace to the ports. They rode on a boat, just the two of them; had tea and watched the landscape. Scoria didn't know what she should pay attention to with how overwhelmed she felt. Did she care more about her father's conversation or the beautiful river she had never been allowed to visit?

Soon enough the king stood up, getting near the edge of the deck. Scoria stood up to continue the conversation besides him. And then everything turned somber. He started explaining everything. Her mother, her affair, her looks, his disdain for her. He admitted he did not know what she was and that he didn't care. That he wanted nothing to do with her. As Scoria's heartbeat sped up so did the river's corrent, nearing a bifurcation. One of the paths calmed down quickly, the other was quick and some sharp rocks where visible. A morbid smile formed on the King's face "And now I have an actual kid. Someone to take over my kingdom. I also have no use for you." As he said this his hands went to Scoria's shoulders and pushed her overboard.

She tried to float. She gasped for air. She had never swam, she wasn't ready for this. She didn't have time to worry though. Soon after she hit a rock and was knocked out.

Minutes? Hours? Days? Later she woke up on an unknown house. She was laying on the couch as a woman made tea. The woman turned around and started asking questions "Are you okay?" "What happened to you?" "What's your name?". Scoria didn't want to answer. She was scared and traumatized. Her disguise was no longer. She had always been told she was a monstrosity. How could she expect anything except fear and rejection? But that wasn't what she got. The woman gave her food and drink. Allowed her to keep to herself and insisted she take some food with her when Scoria told her she had no choice but to leave.

She left the kingdom, knowing if she was seen alive she would be killed.

And this is where her adventure would begin in a DND campaign. Meeting the party and having to decide what backstory to make up for herself. In my mind she keeps the princess part since it explains her personality and knowledge but she makes up her family and her kingdom. If she still has her disguise this is even more plausible.

When talking about BG3 instead of meeting the party she would get kidnapped by the Elithids and then they'd meet the party.

If literally a single person likes this I will do another post about what I think her questline would be. I might even if no one cares just to have it written down somewhere.

Some more drawings just cause:

"Scoria disguised"

"Scoria sketch coloured"

#baldur's gate 3 #baldur's gate iii #tav bg3 #tav #original character #oc art #oc #my tav #bg3 #dnd

[ghostinyourbuilding]

September 4th, Sunday. 21.47pm. Good night and buckle up, ghost.

Today's entry will probably be huge as all hell because I have so much I wanna go over in writing so I can stop thinking about it throughout the day. If anyone ever asks me for a way to deal with general life confusion I'm absolutely gonna recommend having a corny ass Tumblr diary like I do, it's incredibly therapeutic.

---------

My social circle is a spiral

Like I predicted, I got to become pretty close friends with Linu. We hang out very often and from that I've been meeting a lot of people that live in my area. This used to be a problem before because I moved here literally a week before lockdown so I never got to make friends and it was pretty boring.

The unfortunate part is that he is friends with Kali. I really have nothing against her and I thought we were on good terms but apparently she doesn't like me at all. While I could just not interact with her as much as possible, I really don't wanna cause drama over this. She doesn't have to like me and frankly it's absolutely fine that she doesn't, not everyone likes everyone, but the problem is that I don't wanna make her uncomfortable by going to her place when Linu or her brother invites me to, which is surprisingly often.

I only saw her once after I moved here and she wasn't rude or anything, but I know the feeling of having to be neutral to someone you dislike and fuck if I'm gonna make her uncomfortable like that in her own damn house. I figured the best approach is to not talk shit about her, not call her out or anything, just be as neutral as I can and avoid going to her place again until I know she's comfortable with me around and if that happens to be never then oh well.

---------

It gets more complex™

Kali has a brother named Vin, he's also a friend of Linu and usually him, Linu and Kali's boyfriend (forgot his name) hang out without her. That's why I got to see them without Kali being around since she's usually working at the time we like to meet.

Linu is into Vin but not super feely about it, more like he thinks Vin is hot, which he is. Problem is, Vin is straight and has said that he's not bicurious, tho they're both good friends.

Since I went to Kali's place with Linu for some drinks two weeks ago, Vin and I have been messaging frequently. He says he's head over heels for me, that he couldn't stop thinking about me since that night and blah blah blah. Boy thinks I'm stupid, basically. Now, while I don't fall for such bullshit, he's still a hot dude that's into me and it's not like I want a relationship with him or anything, just something casual.

I made absolute sure that Linu was okay with me shagging Vin, and he said multiple times he doesn't mind. Fuck, he even gave my number to him after I left ffs. But I still feel uncertain about it and I'm still gonna ask him one more time tomorrow if he's absolutely okay with it. If he says yes I'll just go for it.

I probably should be more hesitant since he's Kali's brother after all, but hey, maybe if I fuck her brother she's gonna consider me family yeeehaw 🤠

This shit is potentially gonna be so messy, oh lord. That's why I hate small circles.

---------

"""""Love"""" life

Like I said last post- I'm super into Ted. He's great. But with the way things are going at the pace of a crippled snail it'll probably be next year until we're actually a serious thing if all goes right. Nope, not exaggerating. And yeah, he is worth it, but that doesn't mean I'll lock myself up in a tower and not even gaze upon another man until he has the time to have a relationship. Quite the contrary but he doesn't have to know that hehe.

It's also good that I keep my options open and keep seeing different people so I don't blind myself with this temporary infatuation and end up losing precious months of my life if it ends up going wrong.

I put an embargo on dating app dates for the time being. They get old fast and now I'm meeting people organically which is more satisfying. I still have my reply guys around like Ollie, and some that I'm yet to meet like Remi and Timo. If I get truly bored of waiting for Ted I'll just meet them. Who knows, maybe I'll get over him sooner than expected.

---------

As for some scattered thoughts, I really need to work on my appearance a bit more this upcoming week. It's almost spring but the weather is colder than a stepmother's embrace still which means my skin has been dry, I'm bloated as fuck because of my period and I've been mostly in my pajamas since I stay home most days and my hair needs a touchup pronto. Even tho I'm looking like a dehydrated gremlin I still feel cute as fuck, love that for me really.

In conclusion: I feel like my life has been super chill and at the same time I feel like there's a lot going on. Nothing bad tho, I feel good about myself and what I'm doing, just excited to see where some things are gonna play out in many aspects.

#diary entry

[koraki-grimoire]

Witchcraft in Hellenismos

Disclaimer: This post is non-exhaustive, and though I'll try to equally spread my focus, it will inevitably lean towards the kinds of magik I personally practice.

Often, in modern pagan circles, people are under the impression that Ancient Hellenismos either didn't have or despised witchcraft. This is largely from three causes. The first is simply misreading, or failing to come across witchcraft in the Hellenism they research. Second is only reading about or adhering to branches that didn't like witchcraft (usually due to it being perceived as hubristic) and therefore assuming that's the most popular opinion. Finally, sometimes people apply their assumptions based on Christian and Germanic culture to Hellenismos, and assume it carries the same attitudes.

In actuality, the view of witchcraft was historically more neutral. Witches weren't typically seen as hags, but maidens, respectable men, priests, and more. It should also be noted that, frankly, "witch" is a slightly tonally incorrect translation usually applied to the word "pharmakis."

For historical attitudes towards witches, we can read works surrounding mainly Medea and Kirke, as well as Hekate if we go past pharmakeia.

But pharmakeia and nekromankia (necromancy) are far from the only forms of witchcraft or magik--which in Ancient Greek would be "mageia" or "goeteia" depending on time and place, but will simply be called "magik" here.

So, with that very long introduction, let's get into types of magik.

Pharmakeia - Herbal Sorcery, Witchcraft

Pharmakeia is perhaps the most recognizable form of magik in historical Hellenismos. As mentioned, it was associated with the heroine Medea, as well as the goddess/nymph/hero (it's complicated) Kirke. This was magik performed using the aid of herbs, and both historically and now blends magik and science. It includes brewing poisons, casting curses, potionmaking, transmutation, and more. Kirke, famously, used pharmakeia to transform men into swine, whereas Medea tended towards poisoning, but both had variety in their craft.

Generally, when pharmakeia is translated, it's done very broadly compared to other kinds of magik. For example, pharmakeia is usually translated, especially in the Odyssey, to "witchcraft" or "sorcery." Pharmakis--the word for a practitioner of pharmakeia--is usually translated to "witch." This often leads to misconceptions of witchcraft in Hellenismos being specifically oriented around herbs and transmutation, when that's only a small piece of the picture.

Nekromankia/Nekromanteia - Necromancy

Nekromankia is far more famous now in its Anglicized pop-culture form, but it was most certainly present in Hellenismos. It's important to clarify that in Ancient Hellas, nekromankia was magik pertaining to the dead, not things such as zombies and raising the dead. In Hellenismos, the maintenance of good relationships between the dead and the living is of great importance. There were plenty of festivals devoted to placating and celebrating the dead--not to mention the monthly Attic holiday Hekate's Deipnon, devoted to honoring Hekate, goddess of nekromankia. So, unsurprisingly, there were witches who gravitated towards this as a craft.

Multiple Hellenic deities were associated with nekromankia, the most notable of which being Hekate, but also Persephone. Though, of course, any khthonic deity--especially khthonic theoi who also had non-khthonic aspects--were relevant, such as Haides or Hermes. A practitioner of nekromankia would be referred to as a nekromanteías.

Manteia - Divination, Oracles

It should be noted that manteia is heavily contested as being a form of witchcraft or even magik in Hellenismos, but it certainly meets the qualifications. The main reason this debate exists is controversy around magik in Hellenismos in general, since as most Hellenists know manteia is so central to so much of our religion, and those who dislike magik are insulted by it being considered that. Additionally, the definition of magik is constantly in flux--it's debated in modern magik circles, and it's even harder to apply a definition we can hardly agree on to an ancient culture with its own independent definitions.

Manteia is, most simply, the power to give prophecies, divination, and the use of oracles. It's the power of the Pythia (Delphic Oracle), it's in the Olympian Alphabet Oracle, it's every single seer and prophecy and divinatory method known to us.

Someone who practices manteia is called a mantis (usually translated as "soothsayer" or "diviner") or a khresmologos ("oracle"), depending on station.

Heliomanteia - Solar Magik

Heliomanteia is hard to find detailed historical information on, but most simply, it's magikal invocation of the sun. This is generally done by attempting to harness the power of the sun, or by requesting the aid of solar deities (namely, Helios).

Interestingly, Helios had many associations with witchcraft and warding off evil. It could be assumed that, due to the qualities attributed to Helios, heliomanteia would be best used to reveal truth, ward off evil, harness the power of fire, promote life, and similar.

Presumably, a practitioner of heliomanteia is a heliomantis.

Goeteia - Magik, Charms

Goeteia (in modern times "goetia") is a term for magik that fell out of style for general magik around the 5th century BC in favor of mageia. It, additionally, was shoehorned into a dichotomy of theurgy (divine, "professional," and virtuous magik) and goeteia (low, malicious, and fraudulent magik). This was largely due to political and social overhaul. The name became associated with fraudulent and harmful magik, and talk of goeteia in Ancient Hellas is a major source most anti-witch Hellenists use.

The goes (practitioner of goetia) was maligned, seen as hubristic and either trying to go against the power of the gods or intending to scam others. Plato famously portrayed them as malicious frauds, and he was not alone. Since the term "goes" is generally translated as "witch," it's not a leap to figure out why this lead to a lot of anti-witch Hellenists.

However, before this (and technically after), "goeteia" simply meant magic, charms, and similar. As a unique practice, and not simply an umbrella term for witchcraft, it can be considered channeling, a relative of nekromankia, or baneful magik, depending how much one leans into the later definition.

Theourgía - Deity Work, Divine Magik

Theourgia (in modern times "theurgy") quite literally translates to "deity work" or "god(s) working." It is ritual, sometimes magik, done with the intent of invoking one or more of the theoi. This was the ritual magik often performed by priests. In fact, it could be considered the mainstream magik of Ancient Hellas--assuming, of course, that one considers it magik.

It's not only historic magik that was central to the religion, but sets historical precedent for the controversial phrase "deity work." The existence of theurgy as the "higher form" of magik in Ancient Hellas is singlehandedly enough evidence to prove the phrase is not and would not be considered inherently hubristic. It should be noted that this form isn't inherently superior, but if you asked Plato, he would disagree.

There are certainly more forms of mageia in Ancient Hellas--For example, I skipped over amulets (periapta), which were almost incontestably the most common magik in a lot of Ancient Hellas, since they could technically fit under some other crafts and because they're the easiest to research on your own. It's a similar case with potions, too.

One important takeaway is the hard line between magik, religion, and science is a fairly recent invention. Pharmakeia could act as medicine, not just sorcery. Many potions were also medication. Frankly, the more women were involved, the more practical it tended to be, with 'spells' often being genuine aids to childbirth and/or birth control. This didn't make them any less magikal, and the magik doesn't make it less real.

And I hope I made it very, very clear, but witchcraft has always been in Hellenismos, and isn't inherently hubristic. That is a myth, and is rooted often in historical (and modern) classism, misogyny, xenophobia, or similar. Always consider your source's incentive to stigmatize before discounting all Hellenic witches.

#hellenismos #pharmakeia #pharmakia #nekromania #nekromanteia #manteia #mankeia #heliomanteia #heliomancy #goeteia #goetia #theourgia #theurgy #necromancy #divination #herbalism #ancient hellenismos #hellenic paganism #hellenic polytheism #kirke #hekate #magik #magik gods #theoi #ancient hellas