#what media is completely 'pure' and to your standards | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dat-physics-boi · 6 months

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I gotta talk about Tensura

Before i explode, because it's hyperfixation time again apparently.

Brain has decided, i am powerless.

You know, this guy:

I absolutely adore this show, but if you only research it instead of watching, you might get the idea that it's your run of the mill gimmick isekai. And in terms of setting, i would completely agree with you. Even most of the characters are pure stereotypes to be honest, with one singular exception: The MC, Rimuru himself.

-First off. Adult. Not a teen, the dude was in his late 30s when he died. And that shit shows in the maturity of his decisions.

-Secondly, while he's op as fuck, a standard for an isekai really, that isn't the focus. No, that part is treated as the set dressing that it is. The actual story points? They're about diplomacy. About connecting with people. About grief, and how to move through it. About conflict, and how it can be resolved. And about how sometimes it has to be resolved by violence, but that that's never a good first response, only a fallback if all else fails. And about how to enjoy life despite it all, about never being too old to have fun with your friends.

-Third, while this is a headcanon, it's pretty easy to conclude from a couple lines in the first episodes: He's aromantic, though probably also bisexual? You don't tend to see that in media, ever. Or, at least, only if you want to make a character seem evil and heartless, which Rimuru is the polar opposite of.

-Fourth... Look again at this creature and try to tell me he isn't adorable and huggable.

Or look at him with his newly acquired sentient pet friend and humanoid form:

He was such an awakening for me in terms of being aromantic, and arguably also agender. Like, all i had seen before were aros who lamented not being able to feel romantic attraction, or who were called heartless and internalized it.

Or aromantics who argued that they could still have a partner, even if they didn't feel romantic attraction. Which, while true, isn't what I want from life.

Or agender people with really strong dysphoria, who needed to change their body asap. Which, again, while totally understandable, isn't the situation i find myself in.

On the agender part, Rimuru doesn't really mind all too much that his human form is sexless. Sure he makes a comment about it once, but he does have the option of shapeshifting into a different form if he wanted to. And he doesn't take it. I found that incredibly relatable.

Sorry, i know i'm rambling, but i just... needed to express that.

This show, this character, they've arguably changed my life.

This animation gave me a look at realistic optimism with the story it told, and in the same stroke a character i could relate to incredibly well.

#queer #aromantic #agender #that time i got reincarnated as a slime #tensura #rimuru tempest #rambling #you guys i don't think i can really properly explain what they mean to me #both the show as well as the character

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matan4il · 17 days

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The UN already disavowed/retracted their own report about the exaggerated death toll numbers. I'm so tired.

This so much, Nonnie! You can find the link to a source in my UN tag. But no one will talk about this in the mainstream media, so let me share a few thoughts. What it means...

-> About the world which, when Hamas kept farting numbers out of their asses, with no proof, quickly and eagerly adopted and repeated these figures, even though now at least some have been proven false by the UN itself, which is complicit and has a vested interest in protecting these terrorists, but when Hamas shared go pro footage live from the massacre of Oct 7, these same people actually went, "Okay, but where's your forensic evidence?" Holding Jews to a different standard IS antisemitic.

-> When the UN revises the numbers of killed women and children without making ANY announcements about it, even though whenever they say anything bad about Israel, they will put out a statement that they know all media sources will quote.

-> That the UN's silence translates into us still not knowing WHY they revised the numbers and lowered them by half! And does it not cast doubt about the overall figure of fatalities that Hamas is offering, too? We have no answers, just silence.

-> That the UN, whose workers, fatalities and educational services have been implicated in Hamas' crimes, and therefore the UN has every motivation to uphold Hamas' lies, is lowkey admitting Hamas' figures are, at the very least, unreliable, is VERY damning.

-> That if the hyperbolic lies about "indiscriminate killing" and "genocide" are essentially only based on Hamas' figures (something that doesn't hold anyway. You do need more than "a lot of civilians died!" to prove even a "mere" war crime, let alone a "genocide"), this completely destroys them (while "a lot of civilians died!" isn't enough to prove a genocide, it is a mandatory component), but watch how people won't stop regurgitating these lies anyway. Which yeah, is pure antisemitism when it's so baseless.

-> That the same UN which has been complicit in Hamas' crimes in Gaza on multiple levels of the organization (and especially UNRWA), which has covered for it and uncritically repeated its lies, is the same body which is set to decide Israel's fate, both judicially at the ICJ and the ICC (its international courts), and executively at the UN General Assembly, the UN Human Rights Council, and its Security Cuncil.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

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probablybadrpgideas · 1 year

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Youtube Channels By Chronicles Of Darkness Splat

Vampire: Vampires don’t show up on camera so you’d think they wouldn’t have youtube channels but no, they’re thirsty bitches who live for the drama so they all do makeup tutorials.

Werewolf: Highly aggressive vlogs. “Smash that like button” isn’t a request. They’re gonna vlog your head clean off your fucking shoulders if you don’t like and subscribe, that’s what they’re gonna do.

Mage: Utterly incomprehensible long form media critique. “The Arcane Secrets Of Every Prime Numbered Episode Of Steven Universe”. “I Played All Of Game Grumps Backwards And Touched Eternity”. “The Office Is A Secret Code To Understand The Mind Of God And Here’s Why”. Somehow, despite these being literally impossible for normal humans to comprehend, they regularly get millions of views.

Promethean: As weird doll people with a purely theoretical understanding of human behavior and a supernatural aura that compels people to leave hurtful comments, it’s actually not possible to tell a promethean from a standard professional youtuber.

Changeling: Like normal parasocial interactions if The McElroy Brothers could also climb out from under your bed while you sleep and steal your teeth to trade to goblins. Don’t trust their “one like equals one firstborn son given to the channel” publicity stunts.

Hunter: Mostly just make their rantsonas cross their arms in response to the other videos on this list.

Geist: 3AM Challenge Gone Rights where they summon whatever ghost is making the rounds and then have a pleasant chat with them to send them on their way.

Mummy: Entirely dubstep remixes of episodes of “Malcolm in the middle” and you can’t prove that’s not thematically relevant because no-one has ever completed a game of Mummy:The Curse

Beast: Ironically the sadistic nightmare monsters that feed on terror and misery are actually not even in the top hundred most fucked up prank channels on YouTube. This kind of shit gives the Dark Mother nightmares.

Demon: Sadly the YouTube Algorthim is 100% some kind of Infrastructure so you mostly find them on Vimeo. You could learn deep secrets of the cosmos here but, you know. You’d have to use Vimeo.

Deviant: As twisted creatures abandoned by society with a fundamentally broken soul only able to comprehend spite and rage, it’s not actually possible to tell a deviant from a standard youtube commentator.

#Horror #Chronicles Of Darkness #I am enjoying these Splat Memes #Maybehap I will make more

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olderthannetfic · 3 months

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https://www.tumblr.com/olderthannetfic/744655651809247232/honestly-as-a-diaspora-hyphenated-american-not-a?source=share

Remove "white" and replace "publishing" with everyone, and we're getting closer.

Diaspora in my experience are a lot more anal about "authenticity" and accuracy. The white people who care about it normally just parrot what the diaspora are saying without questioning it. The greatest sin is honestly that white people, but honestly everyone else as well, parrots "diaspora" without even caring about all the different opinions on topics or understanding it. Random diaspora said something with big words? Let's amplify it and spread it as gospel. There's this token diaspora, or the token diaspora group, and that's who now matters forever.

Diaspora put themselves up to the nigh unattainable measure of accuracy which even mainlanders don't hold themselves to. Mainland books can often end up with a lot more diversity, because they don't feel the need to be accurate, because everyone already lives that accuracy. Diaspora culture is a culture that many diaspora almost try to reject, and badmouth what diaspora culture is, and then try to get as close as possible to what they believe is authentic.

If a diaspora doesn't have much cultural authenticity, who'll notice? Completely unrelated to the culture people? Or will it be fellow diaspora who might have an idealized view on the mainland culture and therefore demand every diaspora do it justice? Maybe the diaspora are so anal about the authenticity because they still want to cling to the "pure" culture of the mainland, untainted by being diaspora, and they miss the mark.

White people, and "Outsider" diaspora might not even know enough about mainland culture to really have an opinion. They probably won't know and understand cultural quirks, habits, traditions, cultural events and festivities, and more, but you know who does? Other diaspora. Other diaspora will notice if you represent a certain cultural event "wrong." They'll notice if you take "too many" liberties in your reimagining, or if you take inspiration from cultural stories. Diaspora might be much quicker to criticize eg diaspora food culture for not being authentic enough. While mainlanders might be much more laidback. Which has been an ongoing debate for years.

Any white person, or once again "other" diaspora will just parrot what they hear. It's the diaspora who set the tune for march. Some even accidentally, or on pupose, overstepping into other cultures to make it a general issue, instead of a personal issue.

Many diaspora also write FOR diaspora. Stories about young diaspora children trying to figure out life as a diaspora? How it affects you living between two cultures? Books about understanding the culture as a diaspora? Navigating racism? Books which explains cultural events in great detail, which a mainlander wouldn't need because they and everyone around them live it actively? Books covering stories around not feeling lesser because your culture isn't the dominant one? Handling the rejections of your own culture because of majority-peer pressure? Maybe it's even a story set in the mainland, but with heavy tones of the experiences of a diaspora, which you wouldn't find in mainland stories. And obviously as mentioned all the quirks and traditions brought from the mainlands.

I can obviously just speak from a very shallow experience, but that's how I see it.

I do think that some diaspora might have a higher demand for accuracy and authenticity though, through the experience of having their culture messed and misrepresented by American media. Alternatively having observed other mainland cultures in that spot, and wanting to ensure that theirs doesn't end up in that same situation of being messed with, by outsiders or people who do not understand nor care, and just create cultural slop through wilful ignorance. This could lead to holding a higher standard for their fellow diaspora, because there's the expectation of knowing better, and being better, so you have to do everything to avoid messing it up like you'd have seen in mainstream American entertainment by outsiders. You end up with an artificial hurdle created by people who didn't understand your culture, but still affected diaspora enough to make that need for authenticity and accuracy a high priority.

I think a lot of how diaspora stuff plays out is directly connected to people feeling rejected by both the old culture and the new one.

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vs120shound · 6 months

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Natasha Marley, of Russian heritage, was a vision with Marlboro 100s and Virginia Slims 120s Luxury Lights Menthols and Non-Menthols!

VIDEO OF THE WEEK 🚬 🚬 (SF HALL OF FAME) 🚬 NUMBER 10 IN THE SERIES!

For the Week of 103023-110523

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ | Four-and-a-Half "Stars"

From vs120shound staff | ★★★★★ (13 total: L)

Dual-Media 9-Post, 33-Pack Megapost!

Pretty Blonde with VS120s Luxury Lights Menthols!

Natasha Marley: A Vision of Pure Beauty!

Natasha Marley, who grew up in the U.K. of Russian parents, is one of the prettiest women in the Greater SF World Community scene. We say she is among the 10 prettiest SF Models/SF Entrepreneurs/Social Media Smoking Darlings-Social Network Cigarette Girls. She landed at No. 23 on our "unofficial" official Top-25 all-time favorite SF models list published on vs120shound released in January 2023. That was too low on the list, ought to have been higher, we proclaim in hindsight (Ah! 20/20 vision in retrospect!). Expect to see her in the Top-15 the next time we get around to re-compiling "The List" many months or a couple of years from now. We'll let you digest this Video of The Week | Hall of Fame division post to assess and rate her beauty and smoking style/power as you feel, as you see fit, as how it strikes your fancy. We simply adore her look, style, elegance and classiness!

. . . well, Ms. Marley, now a mother of two young children and retired from the public eye, was one of the more prolific SF models on the Smoking-Models (U.K.) family of SF websites. She appeared in 29 projects, 17 on Smoking-Models and 12 for www.ElegantSmoking.com. Her term with S-M began on September 14, 2009 and finished on June 1, 2020 -- and we believe those are dates of the videos' release not filming or completion of production -- and her career with ElegantSmoking started on July 31, 2009 and ended on April 9, 2020.

Her Instagram account, IG@therealnatashamarley, nearly has been scrubbed clean of any evidence of her smoking. The informed guess is that she has left cigarettes behind for a healthier lifestyle and to be a better role model for her young, impressionable children. One image remains and that is an IG@smoking_temptresses post that was added, ostensibly by Natasha or the folk(s) running her IG page. Kind of stick out now, we'd say. Cannot pretend the past did not exist. It can be revisited and changes can be made in lifestyle, career and life paths from what was experienced and learned during someone's past. Could be the case here.

This is a grand Megapost! effort by us. Several others of them on our brand have had more packs but this is the most content. What is a pack exactly (not done elsewhere and we've never explained, so here goes . . . )?

A pack for our purposes is an SF image, and there are three kinds -- GIF; photograph; video. A "post" is also a pack but, of course, it almost never is one image, ordinarily several or many but not exceeding 30 photos because that's the tumblr maximum.

It might be nice to see others in the tumblr SF-Content posting realm move forward with such an approach but that is unlikely. We're fine with the standard, traditional one-photo or one-video or one-GIF style the everyone else employs; we continue to do it ourselves but rarely nowadays. We love the great SF blogs/vlogs/webpages on tumblr, from which we re-blog mostly now on vs120shound-2. Our favorites -- and we realize some of you who follow us are aware of our preferences -- seem to be recently thelibrarian120, gomerianworld, smokingscholar, rtpsmk, qwerty53421, thesmokegod (zeusbabes) and blackmaca13, to name a likely Top-7 for us. Those wonderful pages are one photo or one video or one GIF. And they are sensational, extraordinary at it. And there is a lot creativity out there, just not Megaposts!, which take a lot of time to prepare, produce and publish. We're fine with that. We are comfortable with it. It works for us. We do this for you all ("y'all" . . . lived in Texas for 18 months) and for us, for our entertainment.

Speaking of our favorite tumblr SF blogs . . . we thank smokingscholar whose post is "re-blogged" in our style for our VOTW | Hall of Fame division post here today! That post from "The Scholar" on April 27, 2023 has received 267 positive responses, likes/re-blogs thus far! That video we've seen before but in an edited down version, so it was a treat for us to see at full length. Hope you enjoy.

THE MEDIA!

Natasha Marley on YouTube!

From YT's "smoking girl" webpage, with Jenna Hoskins, in 2018 . . .

youtube

The 'Super' Re-Blogged Post from 'The Scholar!'

From vs120shound on April 27, 2023 . . .

Natasha Marley Posts on Our Network!

From lostlighter23 on June 27, 2023 (Photo of The Day) . . .

From vs120shound on August 31, 2023 . . .

From vs120shound on January 5, 2023 ("The List" -- Top-25 all-time favorite SF models, No. 23) . . .

From vs120shound on November 7, 2022, in a re-blog from a post by blackmaca13 . . .

From vs120shound on August 20, 2022 . . .

From vs120shound on August 15, 2023 (leading off the first two spots in a photo assortment of various SF models/actresses . . .

From vs120shound on June 21, 2022 (leading off another assortment compilation) . . .

From vs120shound on March 9, 2022, a re-blog from a post by thesmokegod . . .

Natasha Marley Nowadays!

From Instagram@therealnatashamarley on March 19, 2023 . . .

Video from IG@smoking_temptresses on December 16, 2022 . . .

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Smoking Temptresses (@smoking_temptresses)

instagram

ANCHOR PHOTO OF NATASHA MARLEY!

This VOTW | Hall of Fame division post is being published on December 6, 2023 at 11:12 a.m. EST. It was produced on Dec. 4-6, 2023 over a period of five-and-a-half hours but was well worth the planning, effort and energy! Thanks for your support and interest in our "work!"

#SF #Hot women who love smoking cigarettes #Smoking cigarettes #Smoking #The Video of The Week (Honorable Mention)!#The Video of The Week (HoF) . . . Hall of Fame!#Natasha Marley of ElegantSmoking (U.K.)!#No. 23 on The List for the Top-25 all-time favorite SF models!#Youtube

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blueskittlesart · 7 months

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i think you should be allowed to complain about whatever you want forever (and as someone who has been absolutely dying a thousand deaths over the currently planned live action how to train your dragon movie i completely understand this flavor of anguish)

sure sometimes positivity can be good, but sometimes u gotta start eating the walls and yelling to the sky about your misery (it’s cathartic <3). i am so very sorry you are joining the “bad live action movie made purely for money that has no shot of capturing what i love about this media” club, and i hope that at some point in the future it will be able to hurt at least a little less

it's like. idk. like i know that im at best a niche internet microcelebrity but it does kind of feel like im at the point where im being held to a weirdly high standard for. posts on a dying blogging website. like as far as i'm concerned i've never marketed this as an overtly positive space. i complain constantly. i've built this blog around media analysis and critical reads of the things i enjoy, whether those reads are positive or negative. but it's gotten to the point where any time i post an even minimally divisive opinion i get someone who is angry that i even dared to have an opinion at all. i've been very open on this blog about what these games mean to me and how much of my life is tied up in them. I became an artist in part because of my love for them. they have driven the success of my career over the past 5 years. I don't think it's unreasonable for me to be disappointed when something like this happens even if it's "just a game" or "just a movie" especially when my entire brand of content is posting about the game in question. i feel sort of insane. like, you all understand that i'm a person, right? that when i post things they come from my real human brain with real human thoughts and emotions? That i'm not curating my thoughts and opinions for you to consume? I'm just posting. i have a big audience but i am still just posting. and no one understands more than me how insane it is that i'm saying all this in response to posts on my legend of zelda fan blog. but like. i need you all to understand that you can't just tell people to not feel something that they are feeling and expect them to react positively to that, no matter what the context is.

anyways none of this is directed at you the asker im just using you as a vessel lmao but thank you for your support. i am nothing if not a hater and i will continue to be a hater until the end of time god bless 🙏🙏🙏

#all of this to say that the usual rules still apply. if you can't handle my content then leave and don't bother me about it #asks

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greensaplinggrace · 4 months

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it is just calling out misogyny. calling baghra abusive and not darkling because you want to fuck him.

i imagine this is about this post, in which case i want to be very clear here about a great many things. first of all, you are factually incorrect, and misconstruing the situation. it is not just calling out misogyny, because there would have to be misogyny occurring in the first place. which there was not.

second of all, i want to go over what exactly you did that fundamentally undermined your argument. what you were doing in that post is called a red herring. it is the act - in a debate or intellectual discussion - of diverting focus away from the original topic with an irrelevant one. what you are bringing to the table is a bias; it is the misconception that one must always be discussing what you believe is the more serious topic when addressing other issues - and it is the equivalent of, say, bringing up men's rights on posts about feminism.

to argue that there is a double standard occurring, one would have to have sufficient evidence that the template used to judge one side is being completely discarded or changed when judging the other. in that case, the biggest argument to be made in this fandom about double standards is the double standard of watering down the female loyalists while holding the male revolutionary accountable to an entirely radical degree.

but that's beside the point. because the post referenced didn't come close to showing any type of double standard in any direction.

now, i want to be very clear here: a woman being brought up or critiqued in any space does not equate an automatic attempt at misogyny. that one cannot discuss a woman's complete actions without also - by social consensus - bringing up a man to divert attention away from her, is more damaging in that regard than the initial discussion about the woman to begin with.

as such, what you are also bringing to the table is another bias - an assumption. that anyone critiquing a woman when there is a man right beside her is automatically ignoring his crimes. and not only that, but they are ignoring his crimes due to sexual intent.

this assumption often arises if one believes their own worldview is superior to anyone else's. and if one ignores how the delineation of focus and critique in fandom spaces operates. furthermore, this is rooted in the belief that moral pandering must be done at all times to remain acceptable in social (fandom, in this case) spaces. which i have already mentioned before as being incredibly harmful and engaging in a black and white worldview that simply does not comport with reality. people do not operate in boxes, and they do not need to give all of their focus all of the time to the things you have issues with. if they are so pressing to you, you should discuss them yourself.

in fact, this brings me to a recent post i made about cross-tagging, which seems strangely relevant to the way you and many others operate within fandom - and believe others should operate as well. and that is this: there is an obscene amount of inflammatory hate posts cross-tagged with irrelevant topics. they're always tagged with the groups or fandom spaces assumed to be similarly minded just because the media or character they engage with are more acceptable and "pure".

i've seen anti darkling posts tagged with genyalina. completely unrelated in any capacity to the subject of the main post. i've seen even more hate posts tagged with six of crows, when their only subject matter was shadow and bone. do you know why this is? it's because these people (when they are not simply trying to attract attention) believe wholeheartedly that their views on morality are homogenous with the whole, and that if one hates this amoral character in the ways they do, they must also like the morally acceptable things as well, and condemn others similarly. it is an automatic slide into 'us vs them' based on a shared impression of ethical ideology.

this is how people with little real capacity to decipher nuance end up getting their wires crossed about the complexity of literary discussion and personal interest in fandom. and how this somehow correlates to one's inherent goodness.

which is the long way of saying that a person does not have to raise every other issue when discussing one subject. they do not have to always mention the darkling when they talk about baghra - and they do not have to (as i am well acquainted with this fandom's obsession with female purity and gender essentialism) automatically support every female character spat out of those books just to make the people incapable of media comprehension and basic critical analysis feel better. they are not beholden to you, or your egocentric worldview of a homogenous social sphere. you are not the authority on operating in fandom spaces, and you are not - believe it or not - the authority on acceptable behavior in fandom spaces.

#sorry but there's more of a double standard in people praising baghra for the things the darkling does #than the other way around #sorry :/#grishaverse #shadow and bone #fandomcourse #negative #baghra morozova #the darkling #aleksander morozova #asks and answers #anon #weird fucking people lmfao #like maybe go read a book or something idk #abuse mention tw #sab discourse #darkling slander sunday

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yes-i-exist-shutup · 3 months

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Hi, so this post has made me realise that pure allison haters exist and like wtf? Everything that person said was COMPLETELY based on fan fic exaggeration and no knowledge of actual allison. So a copy paste of what I replied on that post here:

Do you know how burdening it is for your parents to push a certain job on you? I may not be as rich as her, but it is not fair for anyone to force you to to do something for the rest of your life till you retire. And for her, it was part of her parents conditional love. Wether or not she took up the family business decided wether or not her parents wanted her

After she joined an exy team, she was burdened to have a healthy body to play a sport, while also living up to the media's beauty standards and keeping her parents a safe distance away

Which led to her collapsing and being sent to the hospital and was diagnosed with bulimia. She has food insecurity and literally starved herself idk I think you dont need violence to be part of the Foxes.

Would you dan shouldn't be a fox then? She was poor and worked as a stripper to support her family. Matts parents are divorced and he abused drugs. Seth had no dad, lived in a lower class family, always fought with his multiple siblings and at school, Which he struggled at, and developed an addiction. Nicky had homophobic parents and was suicidal. All these things are not fox material if you consider that their just as bad as Allisons situation. (A few slightly worse)

And if you still think she doesnt deserve to be a fox idk imo you just hate heteronormative hyper feminine women

And I really wouldnt rely on fic allison, its very exaggerated and erases her trauma, her jokes and how she often looks after neil in the books, and her friendships with renee and the upperclassmen. Dont slander a character you dont even know.

if you think her being annoying and sticking her nose in others bussines is the most awful thing a person can do, then you shouldnt be interacting with aftg because all the characters have their flaws

Neil and kevin were apathetic to seths death, Nicky assaulted neil, andrew murdered someone with no remorse even tho their were other options. Dan screamed at kevin for not telling wymack hes his son even though kevin was scared. Seth called nicky a faggot. Andrew willingly drugs people who doesnt trust. Roland drugs whoever andrew wants him to. Aaron is slightly homophobic. Wymack didnt interfere with the foxes drug usage. Nicky also stuck his nose in everyones bussines

And jsyk, EVERYONE on the team participated on bets. excluding Neil and Renee bcs they do not bet. (And half the bets were about andrew, so he couldnt. I dont thunk he'd be willing to bet either though. Its never mentioned in the books that I actually know things about)

#aftg #all for the game #allison reynolds #aftg allison #allison aftg #nora sakavic

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bcacstuff · 8 months

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The fuss over these pictures is bizarre. One would think some Sam fans had never read a print interview before. The photo shots and accompanying interviews are almost never done together.

“Met so and so for lunch at such and such place. They were dressed casually in vague description of clothing. They picked at their description of food while discussing current thing to promote”.

It’s fairly standard for actual print interviews and not statements sent to mass entertainment media to be published quickly online.

Thank you for once again being the voice of reason and pointing out this woman works for Departure and wasn’t some random date.

Thank you 🧡

(this is about yesterday's pics with Sophie, the editor of Departures)

I'm posting this mainly for all the Anons in my inbox that still somehow want to make some story about this, want me to think she broke up with her bf, or tell me it isn't her bf...

Anyway, there is enough evidence on her IG to see it is her bf, or would you put a huge picture on the wall of your apartment with a man that isn't your bf.

I don't know what the agenda is of these people in my inbox, or others out there that try to make more out of it. It is annoying, not funny and you all should think a bit more about what this does for complete strangers. So please stoop that behaviour.

Yes, she was at the event last night as well, as a guest of SS I suppose and perhaps for her article. There were more guests, I saw pdonnelly (the chef of Chinese Tuxedo) tagged as well. Chrissy the global manager was there and she tagged Kara Jones (his publicist). Businesses are invited there, there is usually a table for a brand, and they invite several guests. And that's all there is to it, pure business.

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autisticsupervillain · 1 month

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It's Fictional Throwdown Friday!

This Week's Fighters...

Pearl vs Homelander!

Conditions:

Composite of both comics and video game Homelander.

Scenario:

Homelander and Pearl get into an argument over a blown call in Steven and Ryan’s soccer game. Things escalate when Homelander calls her a slur and Pearl punches him.

Analysis: Homelander

Imagine a corporation that has a complete monopoly on popular culture. Imagine a company so powerful that it could flood the human consciousness with media endlessly, drowning the world in nostalgia filtered pop culture plastic for all of time. Now imagine that such a company could create their own superheroes.

Who would they choose to be their greatest hero? What does Disney's idea of the perfect pop culture icon look like? Well, according to The Boys, he looks like the evilest Superman clone this side of Irredeemable: Homelander.

Vought, massive multimedia conglomerate of The Boys universe, created the Homelander to be the most iconic, beloved, pure blooded American hero of all time. By subjecting a young, pre-bred infant to their proprietary Compound V, Vought was able to raise Homelander to be the most powerful superhero of all time. This is a mistake mist of them wouldn't live to regret.

See, Homelander was never treated as a human being when he was being raised. Vought viewed him as nothing but a product and treated him as such. This caused Homelander to grow up into a giant self-centered manchild with an endless need for validation and the belief that he could do no wrong. This meant that Homelander became the world's most powerful superhero and it's most vile threat at the same time.

As your stand Superman clone, Homelander has all of the standard Cape powers. He can fly at supersonic speeds, shoot heat beams from his eyes that can split airplanes, and, in the comics, scream loud enough to completely deafen anyone nearby. Meanwhile, his superhuman strength is completely unmatched by anyone on Earth.

In the comics, it has been noted that Homelander is completely immune to every single weapon known to mankind, no matter how powerful. That would include weapons as powerful as the Tsar Bomb, a 50 megaton nuke that Soviets at the time feared could've potentially altered Earth's biosphere and ended the world. He's faster than Supes who can fly to the moon and back in seconds and Billy Butcher himself describes him as being able to outrun Tachyons, a particle that can only move faster than light.

Source:

Despite, or perhaps because of, this overwhelming strength, Homelander is a cunning manipulator when it comes to his PR. Despite his racist, misogynistic tendencies and his murderous, sexually abusive past times, Homelander is still seen as the greatest, most popular superhero in Earth's history. It is, however, all skin deep. Homelander is in truth, an abusive, self centered monster.

Homelander's atrocities include, but are not limited to, pushing a suicidal girl off of a roof, killing children to cover up the secret of Compound V, willing dating a Nazi, and raping the wife of a man who insulted him at an office Christmas Party. There's evil and then there's Homelander. He owes the world nothing and he knows it. As the strongest man on the planet, no one could stop him from simply ending the world ine day if he so chose. In the comics, the government was helpless to stop him from conquering the White House while, in the show, Homelander was powerful enough to defeat Soldier Boy, one of the only heroes powerful enough to threaten him, on his own, only retreating when he got outnumbered.

Having said that, he does not handle it well when his atrocities back fire against him. Said rape directly lead to the man, Billy Butcher, putting together a squad to bring down Vought and all its corrupt Supes, going in to become one of the few things that could potentially threaten Homelander himself. This violent assault did net Homelander one thing though, a son he could call his own.

Homelander was genuinely ecstatic to see that his child inherited his abilities, as his son was the first thing in his life that was his and his alone. Do not pretend that this makes him any less monstrous, however. Homelander does not see his child-by-rape as a chance for a new beginning, but as an extension of his ego. Something that belongs to him. It is not a question of if Homelander loves his son, but if Ryan ends up any worse than his father.

Analysis: Pearl

What would you do if you were born into servitude? If all your life, you were nothing but an object to be owned. A thing to be bought. What would you do, if after centuries of a life spent like that, someone finally set you free? Well, if your name is Pearl, then you'd fall head over heels in love with them.

Pearls are the servant class of gem society. From the moment they sprout fully formed from the ground, they're handed off to high class gems to manage their needs and chores. Pearl originally belonged to White Diamond, the big ruler of all gemkind herself, but was handed down to the bratty little kid of the royal diamond family, Pink Diamond. You see, Pink.... "broke" her original Pearl.

Pink was very... innocent, for lack of a better term. She was childish, bratty, and unaware of the consequences of her actions at the best of times. That's why she was never trusted with running her own colony and expanding the Empire. She simply couldn't handle it... until her complaining finally annoyed her fellow Diamonds enough for them to give her her own planet: Earth.

It was there that Pink learned what colonization entailed: wiping the slate clean. Sucking all life from the Earth and leaving nothing behind. Disgusted, Pink took on the alias of Rose Quartz and staged a rebellion against herself, with Pearl as her dreaded sidekick, the terrifying Renegade Pearl.

Pearl idolized Rose for this. Feel in love with her deeply and completely, in a way she never knew she could feel about anyone before. So much so that, even as the consequences of Rose's actions feel down around them, Pearl held her up as something untouchable. Someone perfect.

These insecurities followed her years after the thousand year rebellion came to an end and even after Rose's death after that. Rose would give up her life to create a half human child and Rose would be tasked with raising him. An innocent young boy named Steven.

As one of the last three remaining Crystal Gems, Pearl is a deeply intelligent warrior, fighting on the front lines in a thousand year long war and continuing to fight dangerous superhuman beasts after that. She keeps a plethora or swords and spears stored in her gemstone, the very culmination of her being, which she can use to seal away objects and people. Her ambidextrousness and athleticism allows her to switch up strategies on the fly, fluidly dodging attacks with a dancer's grace, alternating between swords and spears on the fly, and summoning holograms of herself to train with her or assist in combat.

Pearl is skilled enough to train Connie Maheswaran up from a regular teenage girl into a nearly superhuman swordmaster who can cleave a car in half. Though it helps that her spears can shoot lasers from the tip. Not to mention all of her unique Gem powers. As a Gem, Pearl's body is actually a hard light inorganic construct that she can shapeshift to her will. She doesn't age, is completely immune to any human weaknesses like diseases, and she can regenerate her body from any amount of damage so long as her gemstone remains intact. Furthermore, she can trap and teleport opponents away with a bubble and fuse with any other willing Gem for an exponential boost in power.

In terms of power, Pearl and the rest of the Gems are strong enough to fight off s gisnt snow beast that created a massive city spanning blizzard. Creating a storm so massive would generate an energy equivalent to 25 Megatons of TNT.

Source:

In terms of speed, Pearl is fast enough to dodge lasers moving, needing to move at 25% light speed to do so.

Source:

It took a long time for Pearl to begin to process her grief and begin to see Rose for the flawed, nuanced person she actually was. Not helping matters how she and everyone else sort of treated Steven like a Rose 2.0, giving the poor boy a massive complex. But, as Steven did what his mother could not and brought peace between humanity and gemkind, Pearl grew and matured alongside him, redefining what it meant to be a Crystal Gem and learning how to always find a way to save the day.

Throwdown Breakdown:

This contest would be a wonderful demonstration of skill, experience, and intelligence going up against overwhelming raw power, but it would be a brief affair.

Homelander is coming in with a respectable stat advantage, being at least twice as strong and 4x as fast. While that would inspire his confidence, it would ultimately be his downfall.

Homelander's first response against an opponent he perceives himself as being superior too, which is what her being noticeably slower than him would imply in his mind, is too lazily tank their attacks and laser them down from a distance. This would give Pearl ample opportunity to use her clones to split his attention and take pot shots with her spears while closing the distance.

The fact that her shots are actually hurting him would establish her as an actual threat, prompting Homelander to retreat into the air while continuing his laser assault to keep her from overwhelming him. Unfortunately, Pearl's lack of experience, remarkable mobility, and Homelander's own lack of polish would allow her to either knock him down with a continuous barrage from multiple angles with her duplicates and drag him down to the ground by lunging up to his level.

Then, Pearl and all her clones dogpile Homelander into unconsciousness when he hits the dirt. While Homelander's superior speed might allow him to escape the dogpile, like he did against Soldier Boy, Butcher, and Huey, he'd likely just be looking to escape at this point to reassess the situation, rather than continue the fight, which would be a pretty clear admission of defeat. Regardless, I think it's more likely for Pearl to finish the job. Homelander is a sapient human and Pearl in unaware of his violent history, so she likely won't be willing to kill him, but she can still handily choke him out or knock him out from this position.

Even if Homelander played it smart and tried to snipe Pearl from orbit immediately, as he might if he had prior knowledge of her capabilities, he'd still by trying to shoot down multiple more skilled adversaries at once. He'd laser down one cluster of holo-Pearls, only for more to shoot him from his blindspot. Even if he does manage to bisect her, she'll be able to keep coming back so long as he doesn't realize he needs to target her gemstone, which he likely wouldn't with any degree of quickness.

All of this is while being generous enough to give Homelander the speed advantage. Only faster than light thing he has is an offhand comment from Butcher and if you really wanna go there, you could just as easily scale Pearl to Lapis to get her millions of times faster than light. Even high balling Homelander and low balling Pearl gets her the win.

Simply put, Pearl is a warrior who has outgrown most of her vices, while Homelander is a bully completely consumed by his.

This Throwdown's Winner is...

Pearl!

#fictional throwdown fridays #the boys #steven universe #pearl #homelander

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beevean · 9 months

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i really have to lament that the standards for female characters in media are still so abysmal that people are happy to eat up #girlboss'd maria and annette in nocturne

when their character bios dropped these past few days, my mind immediately went to this iconic kate beaton comic panel:

and this was a parody of how mainstream media "solved" sexism by invariably making every female character a badass, take no prisoners Action Girl™ (aka the proto-#girlboss) from over a decade ago

Absolutely incredible :^)

What grinds my gears is that the adaptation is deliberately flattening characters who were distinct in the original games and could have been fleshed out in a proper story.

Annette doesn't do much in RoB, true. Her one significant scene is the one where she threatens to slit her own throat rather than join Dracula. Sure, why not expand on that? An average woman without powers or training, but armed with nothing bur bravery in the face of corruption: she may not be able to strike enemies physically, but she won't fall for their mind games, and she might also be rewritten to be intelligent and tactic-- nope she's a metalbender now!!!! she's also a swordswoman!!!!! and she will be politically motivated!!!!!!

Maria is a plucky 12 yo girl without much experience of the world, but who grows to care about Richter and wants to help her. She doesn't understand, nor care, about Dracula's speech about the evil of mankind, while the adult Richter falters: she is pure innocence. Still, her unique powers give her an edge when it comes to demon slaying, all without losing her upbeat attit-- nope she's a political leader now!!!! she's also a swordswoman!!!!!! and she's always serious!!!!!! and she will be politically motivated!!!!!!!

In the original NFCV, Sypha was the only one spared because her personality admittedly was a little more upbeat and warmer, even though she also fell in the trap of being the One Braincell Of The Group. But Greta and the woman St. Germain simped for picked up the slack for her, as they were both the exact shade of competent, no-nonsense tough lady fighter, complete with "good thing I'm here to run your life now" in the former's case.

And the female villains? Striga was the only original one, being the obvious muscle of the group, but she might as well have been a henchwoman. Carmilla? A self-proclaimed queen whose personality begins and ends at #girlboss, all sexy and seductive and manipulative and with a dash of radfem. Lenore? Not quite as girlbossish, but still meant to be seen as cool and sexy (and fucking how) and a great manipulator. Erszbet? So far she looks like Carmilla 2.0. Drolta is the one we know the least about so far, but it's interesting how she was turned from an old human witch to a young sexy vampire.

You see the pattern here?

Annette and Maria are also the latest examples of characters who have been changed for no good reason in an attempt to "fix" them. NFCV hates normal people, they all have to be heroes and magic users and proficient weapon users. Instead of keeping Annette with her role of "Richter's girlfriend and a normal girl", but giving her a more substantial personality, she was completely reworked to be something that she simply isn't, and that rewriting is being praised as being So Much Better Than The Games. As if her original role is so undefensible that she needs to be reworked from scratch.

It's lazy. There is a sore lack of variety in the female cast of these shows. And it pretends to be "progressive" about it. As if women are only worth being celebrated if they're physically active and have a tough attitude.

Meanwhile, I will forever be impressed by how Ayami Kojima and Kou Sasakura took Rosaly, a literal non-entity in CoD whose only narrative purpose was to be the fridged woman, and gave her enough personality, without straying far from the archetype of the kind normal girl, that I seriously grew attached to her, something I would have never expected at first.

#anti netflixvania

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maxellminidisc · 1 year

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I think some white trans people have a hard time coming to terms with the whole asian fetishization as a form of gender expression thing because I guess sometimes it's a source of idk "comfort" in a very confusing time but like it's not remotely a good excuse let alone a source of much empathy from me. Cause like as a poc who enjoys anime and frankly a lot of east asian media, I get how being presented with the idea that different gender expression than what we're used to in American culture can be very eye opening for a young trans person or even someone well into adulthood who's just coming to terms with their identity as a trans person, but I'm also conscious and try to remain conscious that that gender presentation, the perceived room to play with gender in a different way than what we know is different for people across cultures and even though I grew up in the US I've been made to feel very hyper conscious and conflicted about my own gender, both assigned and not, because of the way my ethnic culture's ideas of gender are perceived by white people.

Like take comfort from the idea that the option to express your gender in ways outside our own cultural pressures and presets exists, sure, but again, be conscious that the PEOPLE (and frankly, characters) you're seeing are rooted in a completely different set of cultural influences, rules, and standards within those societies that effect their gender presentation. Many times it may look gnc to you but to someone else who's actively living this sort of gender presentation or ease of playing with it, it may not be gnc at all and you reducing it to how you feel as someone outside that culture may end up being emasculating or forcing masculinity on someone who sees themselves as completely masculine or as feminine in a context outside of your western standards of either identity. Unless someone or even the material you're viewing within these respective cultures personally or actually notes that what they're doing is gender non conforming or experimentally challenging gender norms within their own cultural norm, then like yeah respecting that and acknowledging that is fine, but like don't be weird about it!!

And like same applies to characters, which I find ludicrous that y'all try to divorce so staunchly from their respective cultural origins. Like anime for example is like 90% of the time based in Japan or worlds very obviously based on Japan, or in Japanese stories/folklore/history, but the excuse is always "I think equating real people with anime characters is ridiculous cause Japanese people dont actually look like that". Like nobody is saying they do but they clearly are writing and creating things thoroughly through their respective Japanese lense and thus so much of it feels so inheritly Japanese. Only time I see white people acknowledge the Japanese root of something is if the damn anime or manga is a fucking period piece in like the Edo period or something, which is ridiculous.

Then to take it further and base your own sexual desirability of this western gaze of thinking all things Asian are inherently gnc is even weirder and yes, more racist. You're basing your sexual desirability on a fetishized and eroticized form of racism, more specifically a lense that always tries to frame Asian bodies as something purely for the sexual and submissive and not wholly human. Asian media isn't trying to like purposefully sell Asian fetishization to you, it's simply operating through it's own lense, even the sexual shit it is producing isn't like selling Asian fetishization, it's just selling the sexual through the lense of its respected culture (like what is popular in the sexual fantasy there for example); the racism on your part comes from viewing it as someone not Asian and thinking that just because its Asian it's either inherently sexual or if it is something sexual in nature, feeling entitled to Asian bodies; both in their purpose to you as sexual objects and as fetishizing them as something desirable for you to look like for the way you shittly perceive these bodies as inheritly feminine or androgynous.

White people as a whole have a massive problem with fetishizing Asian people but it is like alarming as a trans poc to see white trans people as a whole kind of turn that on its head as a form of gender goals or to make themselves feel sexy or whatever and the fact that y'all dont see anything wrong with that is even wilder. There is absolutely a huge difference in acknowledging and even appreciating a different perspective on what masculinity and feminity can look like in a different cultural context and thinking that anything that isn't what YOU'RE used to being inheritly gnc as a result.

I do think it's important to note that framing this problem as a trans femme mainly issue IS shitty and undoubtedly transmisogynist in nature, especially given that I've seen PLENTY of white trans masces doing the exact same shit with very little pushback. Like the amount of trans men I've seen basing their androgyny on idols or anime characters they label as "f*mb*ys" or even calling any remotely twinky asian guy (or hell not even, I've seen yall misgender Asian men of all shapes and sizes) a f*mb*y or labeling him with usually unwarranted or derogatory labels for feminine men (ie fruity, queen, diva) is fucking vile. White trans people as a whole need to be holding each other and themselves accountable for this shit.

#putting this under read more cause its kinda looonngg #anyway i think people also forget that op of that one post going around talking about this #is a white trans woman and she very obviously made that post to hold her community accountable #but i think tme people need to be careful about not taking that post and using it as an excuse to be transmisogynist #like acknowledging the type of racist shit at work there is absolutely important #but like i said framing it as a trans femme issue ONLY on part of tme folks is pretty fucking nasty #which i did see in the notes a few times

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down-the-yaoi-hole · 1 year

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Lucid's comics are the gold standard of boys love and I will fight anyone who says otherwise: a review of Avialae

For all 2 of my friends who read this blog, I want you to know that I debated for weeks about which comic to review first. Should I start with the "classic" yaoi manga from the 2000s/10s that sparked my obsession with boys love media in high school? Maybe write about the current trends on popular sites like Lehzin and Tapas? Or perhaps just dive straight into monsterfucking with my one true love, HamletMachine? Well, my questions were answered when nearly $200 of @misslucid comics showed up at my door last week. Thanks, Mom & Dad, for letting me shop for my own Christmas presents and not asking ANY questions about my purchases. May you never learn that I spent all your hard-earned money on porno comics and Chinese boys love novels.

The reason I say Lucid serves the gold standard of boys love is because their work touches on all these factors: they draw on the comics language and visual humor of yaoi manga, publish on the popular webtoons sites on a weekly basis, and of course the crème de la crème: they've got monsterfucking in every. Single. Comic. Have I died and gone to heaven, or did I just fall asleep on my open copy of Avialae volume 4? They're really the epitome of porn WITH plot, my absolute favorite type of erotica. My friends who prefer one-shots laugh at my desire to be strung along by a story--sometimes for months on end if it's a weekly webcomic like some of Lucid's work--but I always say it's like emotional edging! When you've seen as many illustrated dicks as I have, you need a little extra somethin' to make it worth your while, a carrot and stick situation, to use an appropriately phallic metaphor. And let me tell you, Lucid's work is worth the wait. Ultimately, I'm starting with a review of Lucid's comics so you can get a sense of my taste--this is what an A+ perfect boys love comic looks like on this blog.

First, some links! Lucid has one completed webcomic, Avialae, that you can read for free on their compilation site, yaoi.biz (the funniest URL I have ever bookmarked). That's going to be the focus of this review, since I just re-read it in print. They're also posting weekly pages for The Hunt (the Sterek fan comic of my DREAMS) and River Street (vampire x grim reaper pretty boys in NOLA) on their site and all the buzzy webcomics sites. I would highly encourage subscribing to their Patreon and/or purchasing the print comics from their online store. I've done both, but I'm a real sucker for the print books and their printed editions are totally worth the splurge. Glittering foil letters on the covers, creamy heavyweight paper, and bonus comics printed in the back, not to mention the glow-in-the-dark details on the The Hunt: it's book nerd paradise.

OK, got all that? Gave them all your money because we pay artists for their craft around here? Great, now let's dive in.

ART: Even in the very earliest pages of Avialae, you can see that Lucid is a professionally trained comics artist whose attention to stylistic detail elevates the emotionality of this series. This image comes from the very first chapter, in which Gannet wakes up to discover he's sprouted bloody, shriveled bird wings overnight. The golden-hearted bird-watchin' boy next door, Bailey, helps him patch up his back and hide his wings in the early days of the comic, in which the characters are trying to hide this monstrosity (read: queerness) from others in their conservative, midwestern high school. Lucid wrote a wonderful note about their artistic journey with Avialae in the back of volume 6, explaining that this comic was a way of reconciling their formal art school training with their personal preference for the pure camp of boys love comics. The gray wash, they explain, was considered an acceptably artsy fartsy medium for an indie comics artist to work in, even though they could hear the siren's call of full color webcomics over the horizon, and would eventually return to color with The Hunt. They clearly had to make their own way with their art, to find a balance between high art and high camp, and you can watch this journey unfold throughout the Avialae books. They start with a lot of edgy concepts and painterly line work (as you can see in the background work above), but noting readers' responses they slowly started camping things up with more yaoi tropes and visual jokes that really punched up their 'comics language' (Scott McCloud, step aside-- there's a new game in town, and they understand that comics should involve manga gags and hole pics). Their anatomy is impeccable, their backgrounds are nuanced and diverse, and huge credit to them for drawing these elaborately detailed wings for years on end. I'm a huge fan of their other comic, The Hunt, as I am apparently stuck in the year 2012 and read Sterek fanfiction once a month at a minimum, but I think the art of Avialae is my favorite. From their personal writing, I sense that this art style might not have felt the most true to their webcomics origins, but I love the subtle beauty of the gray wash. You can really see the stroke of the artist's pen in this medium: ink blooms in the background around the characters, gestural line work creates movement and fuzz that makes it feel more handmade, and the lack of color focuses one's attention on the emotions of a scene. And just look at how their skill has grown over the years! From this first sketch of a bird boy having his wings wrapped by his offscreen boyfriend, to the refined intensity of this page from chapter 6 where Gannet saves Bailey from falling out of a tree, Lucid has really honed their craft and it's been a joy to watch.

2. STORY: While the art of Avialae is probably my favorite part, Lucid's writing certainly does not disappoint. Sometimes when someone is SO artistically talented I think, ah well their writing just isn't going to be as good, there's no way someone can be that perfect, but nope! They've got it all. They have a great sense of narrative pacing across individual pages, chapters, and the total collected work; their plots make SENSE; and their dialogue is both realistic AND fuckin' funny! I think the exchange between Gannet and Bailey around ~swapping roles~ in chapter 4 is some of my favorite writing, and Lucid so smartly invokes both dialogue and the language of comics to make their joke. When Gannet's question, "Have you ever thought about bottoming?" is following my the SCRRRCCH of the car skidding to a halt, I yelped with laughter! Later in bed, Bailey asks if he should be "feeling it" more since Gannet always looks like he's "melting" when he bottoms, Gannet's response of "Oh, that's because I'm a slut" is met with the perfect little aside-expression of Bailey's exasperation. It's a comedic beat pulled from the pages of BL manga, where showing a little chibi emotional reaction face is commonplace, and it made me CACKLE. In summary: suspense, humor, and compelling emotional moments between our two male leads make the writing un-put-down-able.

3. CHARACTERS: Well folks, as you might have guessed by now this is a no-holds-barred Lucid stan account, so yup, rest assured their characters are just as much as fun as the technical elements of their comics. First of all, I love a gay monster metaphor--you can never go wrong with a character struggling to discover literal monstrosity alongside their very gay feelings for a friend, as far as I'm concerned. Second, who doesn't enjoy a sassy slut and a boy-next-door pairing? It's as classic a combo as peanut butter and chocolate!

Our two leads, Gannet Sharpe and Bailey Gilbert, have a whirlwind romance (or should I say whirl-wing--get it? Oh you did but you're just not laughing? Alright BE that way) going from frenemies next door, to co-closeted monsterfucker high school classmates, to interspecies lovers exploring the hidden world of the Avialae bird people deep in the Appal-GAY-chain mountains (I'm not sorry and I will never stop). I assess characters based on writing, design, and pure n' simple fuckability, so here we go.

First up we have Gannet, who evolves from an angry gay teen stuck in a small town to a lovestruck fool who would do anything for his partner, even abandoning his title as long-lost prince of the bird people in later chapters! He's defined by his biting humor and indefatigable slutiness, and I absolutely adore him. His character design is gorgeous--he's a strawberry blonde covered in freckles that blend into the dappling on his wings. We watch his dyed black hair grow out through the series in a gesture of subtle realism that speaks to Lucid's incredibly patient and thorough artistic vision. He's got a splendid little collection of body piercings but I won't spoil the surprise for you here--you'll just have to read the books to see more. An incredibly fuckable character, indeed. Personally, I'd say I lean more into identifying with Gannet rather than wanting to fuck him myself, but that's just because I'm also an edgy strawberry blonde, and am not usually attracted to people who I think look too much like me. But I'll be honest, if I ever landed in the world of Avialae and saw this cutie in his angel costume, I might have to make an exception.

Bailey, on the other hand, makes me go absolutely FERAL. His BLUSH, his TEARS, his EMOTIONAL SINCERITY--god DAMN I am sprung. He's got this tight little track star body and an ass that Gannet is often admiring from afar, and wow do I get it. Not too tall, glasses, normcore in the streets and a begging bottom in the sheets: I love a man who can do it all. Bailey is funny in his own right, the naïve "straight man" (but gay) who is constantly comedically surprised by Gannet's outrageous advances. He's obsessed with birds despite an allergy that leaves him constantly sniffling in the first 2 chapters, but he gets new allergy meds and through it all supports Gannet in his trial of self-discovery. He's sweet and simple but also a raging monsterfucker, and I would absolutely DEMOLISH him in bed.

4. HORNINESS: Ah, the most important category on the list: how spank-bankable is this comic? Well, let me tell you: you're going to want to lock this one in the vault and throw away the key. Your sexuality will be forever changed for the better by these loving little twinks screwing each other 6 ways to Sunday. I'm not going to post any explicit pictures because Tumblr, ugh, but you should know: Lucid's artistic training really pays off. It's an uncensored salve to all the white-out lightsaber dicks splashed across Webtoons right now. Holes, poles, mouths, and feathers a' flyin'--you're gonna wanna see this.

Hands down, though, the best part of Gannet and Bailey's dynamic is that they SWAP ROLES. You almost never see this in boys love comics, and I think it's to the detriment of the genre as a whole. I say this as queer cis woman who identifies as an S&M switch--real gay people swap roles in bed all the time! Sure, plenty of folks identify as only a top OR bottom, or only ever play as a dom OR sub, but a lot of us live in shades of gray; it's all about the dynamic with a specific partner. When I first read this comic online about a year ago, I think I actually screamed out loud when I got to chapter 4 and realized that it wasn't just a joke in the car--Gannet was actually going to top Bailey after 3 chapters of the opposite dynamic! And holy shit was it hot. There's something so satisfying about watching a boy bottom for the first time, and adding the unexpected surprise of having a theretofore tomboy top confess to wanting to be controlled, dominated, entered by his far more femme partner? I was over the goddamn moon with giddy horniness.

The monsterfucking is also excellent, especially if you're more into light fantasy monster lovin'. Personally, I love me some wild ass monster dicks in my porn, but the human anatomy in Lucid's comics is so well done that I don't even mind if no one is getting gaped or cum-dumped! Gannet and Bailey have a really tender, loving sexuality that shines through all their kinky adventures, and I have happily jerked it to their beautifully realistic sexual exploits many, many times. Also, major points to Lucid for including condoms and lube in every single sex scene! This ain't your mother's magically pre-lubed yaoi hole, folks--this author actually knows how human buttholes work. Their characters speak openly about STD testing in the epilogue wedding, and when they finally do it RAW it's with full informed consent. I really loved this little condom PSA in a BL world that seems typified, these days, by buckets of cum spraying everywhere, on everyone, all the time. Don't get me wrong, I love a cum shot as much as the next pervert on the internet, but Lucid's subtle attention to reality makes their comics feel emotionally organic and satisfyingly original.

FINAL VERDICT/TLDR: 10's across the board, Lucid's Avialae has it all: great art, humorous writing, sexy & believable characters, and kinky ass sex scenes. Porn with plot made for all you sentimental monsterfuckers out there, this comic is sure to satisfy if you're looking for a longer read that'll really suck you into its fantasy world. Highlights include: a killer sense of humor, beautifully rendered bird wings, a swapping sexual dynamic, and an evergreen gay-monster-metaphor that feels familiar but still fresh!

I truly love all of Lucid's work and hope to write in more depth about their ongoing webcomic, The Hunt, in a future post. Monsterfuckers unite! Thanks for reading.

#boys love #humor writing #comics review #boys love comics #yaoi #manhwa #i don't know how tags work i'll be honest #lucid #avialae #just WINGING it get it #sorry not sorry #monster fucker #monsterfucking #swapping #bird people #i think that's enough right? just read the goddamn review #mine

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eenochian · 9 months

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i loved ur post about how cod fans have been treating the characters!! i found it insane how they were having a moral panic over makarov (is the cod fandom like one of the few fandoms that does this? lol) but it needed to be said… people are drawn to cod characters for many reasons and i’m sure it’s not because of “morals”

Thank you!! I was very nervous posting that, since I know parts of this fandom can get pretty aggressive about other opinions. I wasn’t trying to target or insult anyone with my statement, but there’s very clear double standards with characters!

I actually just made another post about this topic (sounds like self-promo I’m so sorry) because, yeah, this fandom can’t seem to understand that art isn’t always about good morals. Being sensitive and mindful about what you produce and engage with is very important, and doing your part to not be influenced by the problematic content that you consume is very important. However, all media is problematic in some way, especially COD (y’know, the military propaganda series). People need to be able to engage with media like this because, if everything is morally “pure,” then we lose out on important discussions about real-world issues, safe spaces for troubled folks, and lessons on media literacy.

I’ve talked about this and thought about this a lot in the past couple days. Like, I’ve spent a considerable amount of time in the past 48 hours stepping back and looking at myself and my behavior in this fandom. I always try to be mindful, sensitive, and very careful with what I produce. That being said, I’m far from perfect. I have an ongoing fanfic for Makarov on my writing blog. Valeria is one of my favorite characters. I’m indifferent on Graves, but will gladly admit that he’s a very compelling villain and an interesting character.

Acknowledging that these problematic things are problematic isn’t saying that you can’t engage with them. You absolutely should engage with stuff like this if you so wish. The important thing to remember if you do choose to produce content of these characters, however, is that there’s nothing romantic in what they do, and they are based off very real issues in our world. Explore the different sides of them, enjoy them, but do not romanticize them.

A very good mindset that I’ve taken to heart is this: these people may be horrible, but they are still people. Humans are not one-dimensional beings. Explore the other sides of them. Humanize, but do not romanticize.

Sorry for the rambling, but thank you again for the response! People need to be kinder to each other and more mindful of the content they engage with, but that doesn’t equate to complete media purity.

#also want to make this very clear #‼️I DO NOT SUPPORT THE ACTIONS OF THESE CHARACTERS OR WHAT THEY REPRESENT‼️#‼️SUPPORT IRL VICTIMS. DO NOT DEFEND THIS BEHAVIOR.‼️#there’s too many fans (mainly makarov and graves stans) that defend their actions and romanticize them. they’re not good people.#makarov is an interesting character and at the end of the day— there’s more than one side to him.#however. he is still a mass-murdering terrorist that deserved being turned into a goddamn piñata.#explore his more ‘human’ side. but do not forget what he is and what he has done.#he’s not some ‘uwu misunderstood pookie-wookie bear’. he is human but he is still a bad person.#put his crimes front and center and acknowledge them even as you dive deeper into his potentially ‘good’ traits.#same goes for graves. don’t disregard his racism and massacre of civilians. he terrorized a city and tried to take over the local military.#dive deeper into his character— but don’t forget that.#i say again— same goes for valeria. she’s a very complex character with a compelling and realistic backstory.#but she’s still the leader of a cartel. she is a symbol of cartel violence and very real issues.#don’t ignore her ‘bad’ side when discussing her. she’s not a good person despite her complexities.#i’ve wanted to do deep dives into all three of these people because they’ve got very distinct mindsets and symbolism #but unfortunately i just don’t have the time or knowledge to properly do that in a meaningful way #maybe one day? but not right now lol

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jet-bradley · 9 months

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i tend to agree with "'fuck canon' people suck, people should stick to canon" takes because, like many of you, i am a victim of Having My Favorite Characters Written Wrong. but also at the same time, if youre in a fandom where the actual creators of canon regularly retcon/rewrite/ignore their own canon, i think you really have to pick and choose what parts of canon fit your story the best and if you can justify those choices with things that aren't like Fandom Tropes, i'll probably respect your opinions/fanworks more than people who are just super stuck-up about canon rules

if you're wondering which fandom this is about: it's largely about TLOZ. the tron fandom is better at this than you guys, sorry. like, if you ask a TRON fan how to measure time or distance in the computer-world you will get a wide array (pun intended) of answers from person to person, and honestly, it mostly depends on either a) which canon TRON work is relevant (TRON 2.0, my bread and butter, is completely different than legacy in this area); b) their knowledge of computer history and computer science (because that's a common way to come up with fan-theories), and c) their straight up personal preferences.

i honestly respect stories that deviate from canon in ways that improve it, over stories that stick 100% to canon to the point where they have all the same problems canon does. but like, at some point you have to realize that youre holding fanartists and fanfic authors to a standard that the original creators don't even hold themselves to when you demand people stick to canon.

the other thing is a lot of posts are like "well people who deviate from canon usually just end up exposing their own bigoted biases when they do that." which assumes that the work itself wasn't originally bigoted in its own way? like- thankfully it isnt tron fans or zelda fans reblogging this shit because 👀 you're gonna look me in the eyes and tell me i have to stick 100% to canon in a fandom where one of the most famous games, the one that's been revered as The Best Game Of All Time since *1998*, has a cutscene where the protagonist says a guy is evil because he has dark skin? where the brand new sequel is about ancient aliens coming down from the sky, colonizing it, allying with one of those peoples, stripping the planet of a resource the people there don't understand how to use - and the BAD GUY is the one who DOESN'T LIKE THAT? you're gonna look me in the eyes and tell me i can't add ANY women to *tron* in my fanworks? TRON? a fandom that has like, three HUMAN women in it - and one of them is one of the main villains of tron 2.0? and like - tron is a movie fandom and only one of these women ever actually APPEARS IN ONE OF THE MOVIES? one is just there to die and give two of the men a sadder story?

like yeah you should be careful how you deviate from canon and not get rid of what little representation people have but like - why are we even starting from an assumption that the media itself isnt bigoted? you arent going to FIND a piece of media that's morally pure enough for that to make sense. whatever your fandom is i PROMISE there is a reason SOMEONE is offput by it. despite whatever tumblr has told you over the past however many years that doesnt mean it's bad to be in that fandom but like - you can't just assume that all of your interests are Good and that sticking 100% to canon means your works have Good Morals in them and that any deviation from it is Bad. like ?????????????

#this is long and rambly but. idk im not editing it my eye hurts

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