"it was awkward to see colin flirt and behave like a rake" "he gave me the ick" yes ! that is the fucking point!! congratulations! you have the media literacy skills of a fucking monkey because my 4-year old niece could understand it better than you do.

we are supposed to find colin cringey and annoying and get the ick because that is not who he is. he is not anthony, or simon, or even benedict. colin (apart from gregory) is the sweetest of all bridgerton brothers (i'm going by book canon) and his most identifiable character trait is the fact that he values an emotional connection above everything. he runs away to the continent because he wants to feel that emotional connection. he has meaningless sex in brothels because that is the example he has seen growing up, that is the norm. he tries so hard to fit into the norm. he goes out drinking, adopts an entirely new personality, learns flirtations because that is how he thinks he will fit in. he's got armour on, as violet said. he puts everyone's needs above his own, he stops rambling on and boring his family with details of his trip because he knows no one cares. he doesn't talk to anthony or benedict about his heartaches because he knows they still, somewhere in their heart of hearts, view him as the annoying younger brother. he's so devastated by his closest friend not responding to him that he adopts a new personality in the hopes that it might mask the hurt better. he runs after penelope in episode one because he is so attuned to her emotions that he knows she's hurting, and tries to comfort her even when she's spiraling and lashes out. he must have been hurt by her words in the "good night mr bridgerton" scene but he puts it aside to genuinely apologise to her when literally no one else in that family would do that. colin, instead of brooding over his own feelings, goes and corners penelope in her family's garden and apologises to her, disregarding his own hurt at being cruelly dismissed by his close friend.

penelope asking colin to kiss her is not a mark of how "pathetic" she is. she has written and shamed herself in a manner that is almost entirely unsalvageable. she is at her lowest point, and then portia comes in and reminds her of how undesirable she is, and she sinks even lower. she asks colin to kiss her because she sees it as a final act, after which she can quietly wave goodbye to her dreams of ever getting married and leaving her mother's home. colin kisses her because he is also keenly aware of how she's feeling. he knows how hurt she is, he wants to do anything to alleviate that. be it cracking a joke, or kissing her. he is gentle, because he wants it to be something she can dream of when she's by herself. penelope, at this moment, has no hope for herself, and their kiss is an act of letting go for her. no, it's not a pity kiss, no he did not like her after her glow up, he has always loved her. him being struck dumb is a reaction to her physical transformation, nothing more. he does not flirt with her in that ballroom scene, he only approaches her when she's in distress. he's not flirting with her. i can assure you penelope could wear the frumpiest most neon yellow gown of all time and colin would still go "<333 my pen" for her.

colin jumps to catch the balloon's ropes because he sees that penelope is in danger, he does not give a shit about anyone else lmao. he feels temporary relief when he sees eloise run to safety, but the moment he sees penelope in immediate danger, he rushes to take action. afterwards, when he sees that she's being comforted by debling (all my homies hate debling, even if he is aro/ace coded i do NOT claim him) he does not approach her. it would be easy for him to do so, but he does not, because he respects her boundaries. colin bridgerton is the only man in the ton who respects women (the featherington sons-in-laws are too pretty to have a thought) he calls out fife and his friends for treating women like objects and calls them cavalier. the only way he would have been more explicit about his demisexuality was if he tap danced on the club table (entertaining thought, luke newton please)

colin also rapidly takes action, something which no one in the show has done so far. simon would have died instead of accepting his feelings for daphne, daphne would have been content with a loveless marriage forever instead of asking for help. kate would have pushed edwina down the aisle and gone off to india instead of confronting her own feelings, and anthony would have married edwina if she hadn't been brave enough for the three of them to run from the altar and ruin herself. penelope stood on the sidelines for years and loved him quietly because she had no hope of him loving her back. colin, the moment he is assured of his feelings, runs to penelope, almost kisses her in the middle of a ballroom. when he hears that debling is about to propose, he goes to the ball, just to dissuade penelope one more time. he cuts into their dance because he's desperate. when he runs after her carriage, he asks her if she has been proposed to, because he would not have touched her otherwise. he confesses his feelings to her only when he knows that she hasn't gotten engaged to debling, and when she says "but we are friends" he moves away. nothing more. he would have let her go, if she did not return his feelings.

idk whether i should be flattered or offended at people misunderstanding this season because on one hand it is offensive, but on the other hand, it means only smart people get polin. seriously. your minds have been rotted by insta-love and enemies to lovers that you can't even appreciate the innate beauty of friends to lovers. being friends with someone and then holding all those feelings for them. the trepidation of possible rejection. the fulfillment of being loved by the person who knows you the best of them all. the privilege of loving someone whose feelings you know better than your own. love is gentle and kind and yes it is a violent, uprooting force but above all, love does not hurt anyone. it does not hurt you. i could love someone quietly for years and it wouldn't bother me if their feelings were requited or not because my feelings are none of their business and i consider it a privilege to love and be loved by them, even if it is not in the way i would want it to be. polin are privileged in the highest sense. they know each other better than anyone else, they know how to love each other better than anyone else. to think they are rushed or they dont deserve each other is a disservice to both of them. they would be miserable with anyone else.

in other matters, if i see one more person talking smack about luke or nicola behind the safety of their screens i will personally get a bazooka.

SVSSS is a novel with a fandom.

[ID: A Scum Villain edit of the "missing the point" meme. A bullet arcs from velinxi art of child Shen Jiu kneeling while furiously glaring. The bullet says, "People are not entirely one thing or the other and holding them to these extremes ignores the complexities that come with their humanity." It arcs over the head of a person across from it, who ignores the bullet and exclaims: "Wow!! Shen Jiu's only crime was being mean and was wrongly hated!" End ID]

It kind of fucks me up to see some people come out of watching RGU having absorbed absolutely nothing of what the show has to say about patriarchy, misogyny, & queerphobia, outside of "men bad, lesbian good." Which like.....sure, I guess? in the absolute barest sense, I suppose RGU is partially about that.

But if this show's thesis were really as simple as "lesbian good," then Juri & her role as an antagonist on the mini patriarchy that is the Student Council would simply not exist at all. Juri would've won all the duels, kicked Akio in the nuts, freed Anthy, & ridden away into the sunset with Shiori in her arms before Utena even showed up if that were the case. But she obviously didn't do any of that despite being a lesbian, so there must be something more complicated at work here.

A lot of RGU's narrative is dedicated to deconstructing binary social systems & the ways in which they harm those trying to and/or being forced to fit within one of two narrow boxes; man vs woman, adult vs child, princess vs witch, prince vs devil, special vs not special, romantic vs platonic, etc. So for someone to watch all of that beautiful complexity, only to filter it through yet another essentialist binary...sucks, to say the least.

Keep smiling through, just like you always do

holy shit we get it senna died !!!!

the deification of ayrton senna is frankly bizarre. yes, it was the anniversary of his death over two weeks ago. and yet the anniversary of niki's death was just on monday and not a single team said something. not ferrari or mclaren, the teams he raced for. not mercedes, the team he helped to build from the ground. why is senna so unique? is it because he died during a race? he is neither the first or the last driver to do so.

this glorification reminds me of the poppy pins in britain - forced and compulsory. how many drivers on the grid were even alive when senna was racing? i am not denying his impact on the sport, and certainly he was one of the greatest to ever drive, but it is very odd seeing drivers like lando and oscar sport copies of his helmet when neither has ever seen him race.

and it also serves to erase what senna actually did in formula 1 and beyond. he was dirty. he fought his teammates. he dated a 15 year old. he donated millions without saying a word. he was intensely egocentric. he was brave. his precision behind the wheel was extraordinary. he put other drives in a position where they had to either crash out or concede to him. he was unsportsmanlike. he was incredible. he punched eddie irvine. he crashed prost out.

to try and distill ayrton senna into this mystified legend, untouchable and deserving of three straight weeks of tribute while other drivers get nothing does an insane disservice to who he actually was.

My favorite part of Fear Of Victory is that when Scarecrow escaped the asylum, no one, not a SINGLE other rogue ratted him out, despite the fact that a lot of them probably don't even like him. They ALL kept their mouths shut for however long Scarecrow was gone (this also implies horrible care of the inmates in Arkham cuz no one noticed he was gone, but we could already guess that much). The ENTIRE asylum. RESPECT

everytime i look in the lilith tag I see so much hate and antagonism for her, like my god. we barely know much about her but some people are just desperate to hate on her while woobifying male characters and I can think of one word why.

Thinking about coryo in the beginning of tbosas and then once he’s in district 12 actually hurts my brain

Me when I see a post about how First is useless to the lore: I. respect. your opinion. (internally raging) (fists shaking) (teeth gritted) (body trembling) (breathing ragged) (mind shook) (eyes wild) (mentally holding myself back from replying with the force of a blue whale being dropped to the ground at terminal velocity)

Y’all have no idea how much I love ancient history, prehistory and natural history like hhhhghhh

You also have no idea how much I loathe ancient alien theories and young earth creationist theories it’s the stupidest ass shit ever

as a non-binary person. people misusing afab/amab pisses me off SO bad. like. what someone will be TRYING to say is “I was talking to someone who, based on their physical appearance, is likely to be socially perceived as a man” and instead they’ll be like “I was talking to someone who’s amab” and it’s like. did they tell you that? did the bus driver pull out their original birth certificate and show it to you during your conversation? were you there in the hospital at their birth? likely not!!

genuinely as a genderfunky person if you absolutely MUST gender me I would rather you looked at me and called me a woman/man if that’s what you think I look like than you look at me and decide that you think I was born with a vagina/penis.

but generally you probably don’t need to be gendering the person you’re speaking about at all! just say they’re a person! if their appearance matters think long and hard about WHY it matters. because most of the time the answer is that it shouldn’t!

if it matters strongly to you what this person looked like… then just say that! “I was talking to someone whom I perceived as a man.” like. I GET that it’s a little wordier but it’s way less cringe to use a few extra words than to use a shorthand that’s not meaning what you’re trying to say.

Absolutely death gripped clenched trying not to comment on reductive posts on ancient greek homosexual relationships

i feel like this is not necessarily a hot take more like a mild one but honestly katara & aang will never do it for me like zutara does

this is one of the only times enemies to lovers has ever worked for me

Sigmund Freud would be very happy with how Yoshiki sees his relationship with ‘Hikaru’.

hiii:33!! friendly reminder that someone can enjoy a character that has done heinous things and not support said heinous things

usually when a character does Bad Things in a narrative (espec if they're not the protagonist) it is Portrayed As Bad so people who enjoy the character Likely Know They Are Bad

& either way harassing people over enjoying a fictional character is just really childish

if you don't like the character, that is perfectly valid. but there's never any reason to characterise everyone who likes said character as Evil, and/or imply they condone the character's negative actions.

also sometimes i look at internet discourse and it's like people want morally grey characters but then turn around when "morally grey" is not always "i have my own rules but i still make all the right choices !!" some of y'all just need to admit you just like good characters that's fine not everyone is into the spice it's ok to like that good protagonist energy

;;;not saying every character i'm referring to fits in that "morally grey" category, some are just evil villains, but even then i'm sorry 90% of ur stories wouldn't exist without them. they drive the plot.

People who like/rb my heroes gifsets (from my main tbf) and then I go on their blog and they’re like NO INCEST NO PETRELLICEST EW GROSS BAD. Buddy this is the freaks n degenerates fandom. cmon man