thoughtfulfangirling

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Adherence to the Lost Cause and the embrace of the loyal slave and later black Confederate narratives were never primarily about the past but rather about trying to make sense of the present.

—Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War's Most Persistent Myth by Kevin M. Levin

#quotes #searching for black confederates #Keven m levin #tfg reads #nonfiction #books #2024 reads #q

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“He’s gone”

“Good riddance”

#this is so beautiful #I love their expression #it's such a soft moment #and this art is so so lovely #just amazing stuff #love it #spop #catradora #catra #adora #spop fanart #q #from the draft archive

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michiru said that haruka eats a lot of candies in that scene where haruka almost fall from that building/aquarium in the nehellenia arc of stars, didnt she?

Kinda sorta! Here’s what’s specifically said, at least in my fansubs of the scene:

Obviously this is a translation, and a fan translation at that, so we’re presuming accuracy. Which let’s do for the sake of discussion, because it’s pointless otherwise!

The scene context really is everything. Haruka is SLIPPING, Michiru can’t hold on. She’s literally seconds from plummeting to her likely death.

So this is great for a bunch of reasons. For one, it’s Michiru going for the standard (if shitty, generally) weight joke in a situation like this. Which I think is quietly hilarious because what the hell, Michiru, I know you could do better than that.

But at the same time, it’s kind of perfect, if you take it deeper. One of the key things in the second half of this episode, one of the main reasons it exists as it does, is to reintroduce us to these two characters. To see how DIFFERENT they are now, how open and comfortable. The angst, the tension, it’s behind them now. Haruka and Michiru are together, firm and committed and open and stronger than ever. And we see that not in crying and gnashing of teeth, but with these jokes and smiles in the face of oblivion. We’ll come back to this again and again throughout the season, literally up to their deaths. It’s the surface of how they are with each other, and so as with all things, there’s more underneath.

When I see Michiru saying “You’ve been eating too many sweets lately”, what I really see, here in this moment where Haruka is almost certainly going to die, is Michiru shifting the blame to Haruka. It’s not Michiru failing to hold on to her, it’s Haruka being too heavy to save.

Or, in other words, “DAMMIT HARUKA THIS IS YOUR FAULT”.

Which are never the words Michiru would use, but work with me.

And I love how you can apply that idea. Is it Haruka’s fault she got tackled off the roof? Is it her fault the glove is slipping? No and no. But is it her fault that they’re in Tokyo again? is it her fault that they’re back in the battle? Again, realistically, no, but might Michiru be thinking it anyway? I think maybe. Because of the two of them, which do you think was feeling the pressure to get back to being a Senshi? They could have gone anywhere in the world. They went here, and look what happened.

Then in the face of Michiru’s “THIS IS YOUR FAULT”, Haruka gives this flirty little “I don’t listen to that kind of talk outside of bed.” Or how I like to paraphrase? “WHATEVER YOU LOVE ME”.

I’ve been trying to think of the right word for this, and I think how I’d put it is it’s all so SECURE. Michiru can say (even as she’s not-saying in her Michiru way) “You’re about to die on me and that’s your fault”, with a smile on her face because it’s all SO FUCKING HARUKA and Michiru wouldn’t trade Haruka being Haruka for anything.

Meanwhile Haruka has that confidence of how true all that is. Michiru loves her, and if these are their last words to each other, Haruka will let hers be a confirmation of those feelings. All of them, every last one, delivered with a reminder of every bit of love Haruka could ever show Michiru in return (in bed) (because now she’s a fortune cookie).

DO YOU ENJOY HOW THIS POST BECAME NOT REMOTELY ABOUT WHY YOU SENT IT ME

Hauling this rig around, then, you can certainly take this is a face value proof of Haruka’s sweet tooth! But for me, the exchange isn’t what it seems to be about, so I think it’s still up in the air, hence saying it was headcanon.

OR WHY NOT BOTH

#lkfjldjfdkj #I've read this before #I hope I've even reblogged this before #don't care though #I need it on my blog again #I LOVE THIS POST SO MUCH #Jet I love the way you explore shit #Please let my spouse commission you =P =P =p #jkjkj don't mind me #silly tfg #la de da #sailor moon #sailor moon meta #harumichi #sailor neptune #sailor uranus #michiru kaioh #Haruka Tenoh #q

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Overwatch currently has a theme event with an alternate universe where Talon and Overwatch characters have swapped (There's even a voice line where Widow hisses at Tracer that one of the newer heroes (Ramattra) to Talon in the game 'only wanted peace' clearly swapping their cinematic roles). Obviously they're just doing it 'for fun' with no convincing narrative reason for doing so (maybe they've said something to this effect but I haven't caught it and don't care; it wouldn't be convincing coming from them).

This is all to say, if you were asked to write out how the characters you play with ended up on the other side, how would you go about it? (I'm curious about either/or the entire side changing swaps or just personal character profiles on how they individually might have ended up on the other side.)

Your versions of these characters are so much more interesting, so I just had to bring this idea to you and see what content I could squeeze out =P

Oh wow, what a terrible idea! But so fun, let's do this.

Fareeha I don't think would be so hard to do this to, IF you got to her before she had decided that Overwatch was the correct course of action. Fareeha is rigid, and inflexible, and if you convinced her that the only way to bring order to the world, to make the world fall into place in a way that made sense, was to join Talon, i think she would do it. But I think you would have to get her young.

I would love to believe she's spiteful enough to join Talon because her mother blocked her from joining Overwatch, but I don't actually think that's true, i think Fareeha is much too principled for that shit. So maybe I actually do think it's harder, I just think that IF she decided this, it would be damn near impossible to deradicalize her. Once she believes a thing, she believes it to the bone.

Lena. If I were going to turn Lena, I would not have Winston be the one to find her, take care of her, and watch over her when she got ripped out of time. he can find her, even, but if they hadn't had the chance to bond, if she'd woken up and she's disabled now, and her father is dead, and they deliberately hid the truth about what happened to her, and she's being kept from everything she loves, and she feels ALONE...I can see her taking any bargain from Talon, and being so furious with Overwatch that she is going to burn the whole thing to the ground.

I do think that, unlike Fareeha, she would come around back later and think "Hm. Might've put me foot in it, there." But the line for me is very clear with her because unlike Fareeha, I can seeing her putting immense weight into her personal anger and hurt.

Winston is the easiest. Wherever Lena goes, he will follow, after they connect and bond. He'll think it's stupid, he'll think they're actively doing the wrong thing, but if Lena goes, he won't know how to oppose her (I do not think this is a good trait of his)

Angela, she might be the hardest. Given what Talon is, and given what I think about her personal moral code and background, I'm having a lot of trouble carrying her over. I have her turn on Overwatch, and think it maybe shouldn't be resurrected, but for Angela, the enemy of my enemy is not my friend. That's not how she works fundamentally as a person. She can have a big ol hating Overwatch party, and hate Talon on top of it. Angela Ziegler has two hands.

So i don't know, for her.

Hana, well she spends so much of her life sort of out of Talon's reach that it would be difficult for them to find her enough to make it happen. I mean, maybe she's fucking pissed about magic only being real in japan, apparently, or something like that, but by and large I don't think we've seen a lot of Talon's presence in east asia.

If I set that aside, I can see them appealing to her at JUST the right moment, when she's tired of being "D.va! Product!" and wants to really have a command of her own life and not be Korea's top PR character. This is something I think is fun to have her struggling with anyway, and when i get back to writing more I intend to delve into it. So tempting her with the idea of being Hana Song, of never having to blow bubblegum and pose like she's a naive 14 year old ever again, of being a true force to be reckoned with and allowed to be just that? I could see her taking the brass ring.

Remind me some other time and i'll try to do the other way round!

#I love Doc's Overwatch so much #Overwatch #Talon #Pharah #tracer #mercy #d.va #fanfiction #a docholligay production #skipping the q

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#Alanna taught me how to be bold #I'm not even joking #reading her and I loved her so much I mimicked her without thought #I was lucky enough to have the people around me be endeared by the sass #polls #alanna of trebond #tortall series #tamora pierce

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My friend Alicia made an ATLA meme

#AHAHAHAHAHA I LOVE IT #This is great #what a lovely crossover #love #gamechanger #atla #meme #humor #fan edit #q

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In no industry did workers hear more about patriotism, about how their work mattered to the war effort as much as that of soldiers fighting at the front, than in ship building. Nor were workers in any industry more carefully attended to... Hospital and treatment facilities were arranged in advance, influenza vaccine supplied, and it was perhaps the only industry in which nurses and doctors remained available. As a result, claimed a Public Health Service officer, there is 'no reason to believe that many men were absent from work through panic or fear of the disease, because our educational program took care to avoid frightening the men.' The men were taught that they were safer at work than anywhere else. They were also, of course, not paid unless they came to work. But at dozens of shipyards in New England, the absentee records were striking."

—The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History [2004] by John M. Barry

#quotes #the great influenza #books #tfg reads #nonfiction #john m barry #q

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My Glimmer thought of today is kind of more about Adora.

This isn't exactly a critique but would have been cool.

The tension between Glimmer and Adora in S4 could have made room for some very interesting commentary about so much power being put into the hands of one person. We get to have Glimmer use her position and authority as queen to pursue the good she thought was best. What a cool thing they could have done with Adora, especially right before she destroys the sword, to have had her use She Ra's superior god-like powers at some point to have her way — obviously in the name of feeling like it's up to her to solve everyone's problems and the inherent assumption therein that she would know best what that would look like.

And then when the sword breaks it'd be this big thing still but with this delicious edge of 'is it for the best! Should anyone have the much power over others? Even if they're good? And especially if they have an easy certainty that what they do is right and correct?

It just could have been so cool and I think make it more clear to audiences the way Adora's protectiveness drives those close to her to desperation as it did Glimmer in that season when she was just not being listened to despite having some very good points.

Because Glimmer is best 😅😅

#La de da #don't mind me #thinking about her again #glimmer #spop #this is a glimmer appreciation blog #thinky thoughts

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☆ for the honor of grayskull ☆

#WHOA #Like #seriously #WOW #This #fanart #is like... just damn #OP you have SKILL #love this #love them #LOVE GLIMMER #Glimmer #Bow #Adora #She Ra #spop #spop fanart #fantasy AU #q

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Daniel Montoya as Mystique

#We needed this Mystique #Thank you #damn #x-men #q #body paint #cosplay

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I often see posts about curating your own online experience that make the point, “content creators aren’t your parents.” And, yes, that is absolutely true! And I try not to be like “as a parent,“ but as a parent…

EVEN PARENTS ARE SUPPOSED TO ENCOURAGE RESPONSIBLE READING/VIEWING BEHAVIOR. NOT filter everything ahead of time for their kid.

When my kiddo was 5, his pediatrician was asking him the usual Well Child Visit questions (“What are your favorite foods? What do you do to get your body moving? Do you know what to do if you get lost in a public place?” Etc.) and she asked, “What do you do if you see something on TV that scares or upsets you?”

I piped up like, “Oh, he doesn’t watch TV without one of us in the room,” which was true at the time and is still largely true now. She said, “Yes, but that won’t always be the case, so make sure you’re talking to him about what to do if he sees something that upsets him.”

So we started talking to him about that, and the answer is simple: “Turn it off or leave the room, and talk to someone you trust about what you saw and what you’re feeling.”

The answer is NOT “Ask your parents to make sure you never see anything upsetting again,” because that’s just not possible — and ultimately that would be doing the kid a disservice, since sooner or later he’s going to be out in the world where we can’t control what he watches or reads. That doesn’t mean we don’t try to make sure he’s watching/reading age-appropriate stuff, it just means that’s not the only safeguard he has — and that’s a good thing.

So yes, content creators aren’t your parents and aren’t responsible for making sure you never see anything you don’t like — but also, your own parents should have taught you what to do when that happens. So if they didn’t, take it from me, your internet mom:

Turn it off.

Walk away.

Talk to someone you trust about how you’re feeling.

And leave the person who created the thing that upset you alone.

#fandom stuff #thiiis #it's so important to learn #q

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Booo

I had hoped to do some more Gargoyles this weekend but we had my nephew over for the night (his first time successfully staying away from home without his parents so far! So proud of him!!) Friday, and he stayed as long as he could get away with Saturday. I ended up too pooped yesterday then to do any, and I'm feeling a bit off today now so I don't think I'm gonna manage any today either. Next week during the week looks like it might be pretty busy too so let's hope I have more energy next weekend! I don't know that I'll be able to keep up a pace of some gargoyles Every week but I wanted to be more consistent through episodes that aren't self contained like the Awakening episodes.

Sorry for any disappointment! I'm gonna keep trying when time permits!

#tfg liveblogs gargoyles #S1 e5 #personal #furi stuff #updates #La de da #sorry yall

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this is so sad

twitter

#spop #she ra #humor #this is amazing #fantastic #lololol #adore it #XD #q

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Yo… hello, Been a while? I’ve just been getting addicted to them again and I just… am gonna drop this here… and leave. Ok, bye.

#Hehe I love this #these two were great #I've forgotten their ship name which is INSANE to me because I used to write fic for them in the ye old days #lololol #Rogue #Remy Lebeau #Romy #? #Was that it? #That sounds right... I think? #Oh right and her and scott was like effing rott or something hahahha omg #don't mind me #la de da #xevo #xevo fanart #q #from the draft archive

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So… a thing about the new Furiosa movie:

It’s not a Mad Max movie. It’s in the franchise, yes, of course. But it’s a prequel to MMFR with characters other than Max who carry over. Which… you’re thinking, “Duh Polecat, that’s how movie series work.”

Except that Mad Max doesn’t work that way at all. A Mad Max movie puts Max Rockatansky in a situation not of his making. The world is going to hell, and he’s out on the road trying to police it. The world has gone to hell and people are fighting to control resources. The world has gone to hell and clusters of civilization are popping up with their own rules and beliefs. The world is way past hell and whole cultures are centered around resources. And weaving through all of that is our man Max. Traumatized. Physically broken. He does not want to be there, but he is a survivor and he has no choice. But the only common thread is Max.

This has led to lenses on the series like the “wasteland myth” hypothesis in which Max is not a real person, but rather a recurring mythic figure, idea or legend. Or that the entire series is a hallucination, or delusion.

The Furiosa branch of the franchise separates from the formula. Furiosa is not the only recurring character, and the social clusters will be consistent with the MMFR social groups. There are War Boys and Vuvalini. The Organic Mechanic and Rictus will be there, played by the same actors even. None of this is bad, I’m super curious to see where Miller is going with a prequel.

But it makes me a bit sad that we are losing the sense of Max existing out of time, and out of place. There was something so satisfying for me about the way the early movies were structured. Each of them is whole and complete and untethered to the others, except through repeating themes and Max himself.

#I do not want to be a bummer person #so I don't want to talk too much on this MMFR appreciation blog on how I'm just not excited for the Furiosa movie #but this touches on a lot of the feelings I have WITHOUT being a downer or negative about it #so it absolutely belongs here #especially for when people wonder why I'm not posting about it #this isn't a promise I'll never talk about my negative feelings #but I'm making an effort to not be a downer right now at least haha #MMFR #Furiosa movie #mad max #skipping the q

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This was the first time we'd had a real trail of evidence to follow, and right now, it was hard to cling to the comfort of bitterness and pessimism.

— Network Effect (Murderbot Diaries) by Martha Wells

#quotes #tfg reads #books #Network Effect #Murderbot Diaries #Martha Wells #q

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Ya'll be like "Shang was having a bi freak out, realizing he was into Ping". NO HE WASN'T. He already knew he was into men. His bisexual freak out was when he realized Ping was Mulan and hey maybe he's into girls too whatdoya know?

#mulan #YES #This #Shang #good post #q