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im-in-a-love-cult · 8 months

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Marauders era headcanons!!

The Royal court

Requested by @thestarslittleking

Sorry if you disagree with some of them!!

Regulus

Pouty

Like a pout is almost always on his face

His eyes are really telling of his emotions sometimes

Likes physical contact with people hes EXTREMELY close with

Likes being called Reg by people hes close with

If a random person calls him it theyre going to the hospital 💀💀

Bi, trans and asexual

'Its the 70s he wouldnt be-' kindly stfu 💞💞🥰🥰

This is a common one but hes practically a poet

Strong French accent

Japanese/british English/ French

As i said in the previous hcs his accent is stronger then Sirius's

Loves the water

He's actually really smiley around his friends

Classical music but when he gets into his later years in hogwarts he starts to like goth music

I can see him being good at gothic dances

Black cat animagus IDC

Barty

unhinged

Thats it. Thats the hc.

A whore tbh

Liked Reggie for a while

Until he was like 'dayum look at Evan 😼'

LMFAO

Ok I'll try not to include too many ships in these

This isnt my original idea but affectionately bites people

'Barty... what're you doing?" "Nom"

When drunk hes...something

Take that how u will

Tw for drugs in the next hc!!

Honestly more of a weed kinda guy

Ok tw over continue reading

Professional complainer

If complaining was a job he'd be the richest man alive (well not alive but..)

ROCK MUSIC

queen fan idc

Him and Sirius are actually very similar in a lot of areas

Thats why Reggie was drawn to Barty

Plays the drums

He wears tank tops a lot

Always hurts somewhere

Its mostly his fault

I can see him being bi with a preference for boys or just full on gay

Dorcas

Sirius has competition to whos the most beautiful person in the Marauders era fr

Almost always has locs or braids

Scarily good at makeup

Tall

Potential to be a 2000s Victoria secret model fr

Has the most beautiful soothing voice

Lesbian non-binary (they/she)

So many people have a crush on them

Fav alcohol is wine

Classy 😻😻

Extremely smart

Really long eyelashes

I love her

Doesn't care for animals

Really likes dragons tho

HER AND REGGIE ARE A POWER DUO IDC

Steady hands

Wears lots of rings

Ignores people a lot 💀💀

Sassy as HELLL

Barely ever means it tho

Evan

One of those scary blue eyed blondes

Kind of a less energetic version of Barty

BISEXUAL IDC

A gentleman to all girls he dates

All the boys got usual, casual dating

Barty gets to be treated like a one of those dogs that look like rats 🥰

I KNOW WHAT THE NAME IS BUT I CANT SPELL IT

Chiwawa

Ciwawa

Chiwaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

I can see him having really light freckles

Will punch someone in the face for funsies

"Evan why would you do that!?!" "I was bored bro"

BARELY passes his tests

He passes but only by a few marks

Loves making fun of peoples voices

Its his favourite pastime

Pandora

So unnecessarily nice to 1st years

And everyone tbh

Smiley

Pansexual

Loves animals of any kind

If shes angry shes lowkey scary 😨😨

Actually really funny

Her hairs messy 84% of the time

When shes too active or gets too hot her cheeks go really red

ME TOO BABES ME TOO 😭🤞

Spaces out so easily

Blonde blue eyed but less scary than evan 😭

A bit of a potty mouth

Also really smart

"Wow this friend groups so smart!" And then theres Evan and Barty 💀💀

Really posh accent

Has scars from thorns and animals and shit 💀

Loves learning new things

No matter what that thing it

'Knowledge has no boundaries' i feel like she says that

Or at least goes by it

Shes so real wtf

YES YOU CAN MAKE REQUESTS!! I'm new to this so please be patient 😭 i prefer requests to be put in my asks!! Thanks for the positive feedback yall :)

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clay-cuttlefish · 8 months

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Finishing out post-Crisis continuity on all Renee's highest notes. I miss her (characterization that was outdated by more than a decade before I started reading)

The Question #37

I am going to eat this.

Shiva and Renee are great here, I love how they both work with the theme of rebirth, but it's Tot's driving emotion being greed that makes this issue so critical to me. He's so consistently restrained, the sensible one to Vic and Renee's burning curiosity, and that facade completely shattering to show that he's just as driven to find answers as they are? Chef's kiss.

Tot is the first person to ever shoot Shiva. David Cain has nothing on the power of old man lunacy.

"Charlie, son... Goodbye..." UNHINGED.

The absolute Question dream team on this one: Dennis O'Neil and Greg Rucka on writing, Denys Cowan on pencils, Bill Sienkiewicz on inks, even Cully Hamner doing the cover.

IT'S THE FIVE HUNDREDTH ISSUE TOO???

I don't have the words so please imagine me biting my hand because the normal chewing stim is not powerful enough to vent the feelings.

It helps/worsens the feelings that this is a single issue with no buildup that comes after a few bad minor appearances and Final Crisis, so I've let my guard down.

Pipeline Chapter One (Tec #854-858)

Into Pipeline now. It's not technically a Renee solo, but it's about miniseries length.

She's got a website! And takes cases!

It's nice to have a return to the classic Question staples of being nosy, fighting thugs, trying to help the vulnerable, and getting shot. Good to end up in the river sometimes, yknow? Not everything can be grand evils and crisis events.

The Eighth Deadly Sin (Batman Annual 27, Tec Annual 11)

Dick is way less uptight about getting help than Bruce, so he calls her in to help with a case.

Not important or anything but it's a good time.

GO (Tec #859-860)

Renee's first relationship with Kate, and their first breakup.

Pipeline Chapter Two (Tec #859-865)

Helena!

Renee and Helena reminiscing over Vic is very sweet. It's nice that he's still important to Helena despite how badly it ended.

Nobody tells either of them anything about the superhero community, apparently.

Love that Renee's broke. Charlie left her a lighthouse and Tot's fairly well off but she doesn't have private jet money.

I like that it calls back to 52 with Veronica Cale before following up on Revelations.

"I believe in friendship." I LOVE YOUUUU

The most powerful forces in the world are friendship and also gay longing.

All the Rage (Tec Annual #12, Batman Annual #28)

I don't like this plot at all, but this is important for Renee bearing the Mark of Cain - it doesn't get followed up on in anything else.

Paralleling the Mark with the double Venus scar Renee has from Gotham Central as two scars that provoke religious rejection.

It's wild to me that I didn't come across this the first time I did my Renee reading. I had interpreted the ending of Pipeline as ambiguous, and her appearance in Convergence without it to mean she never received it, but that's just not at all true.

Extending the metaphor here Dick is a kind of insensitive but generally well-meaning lesbian ally. That checks out.

Generally she's written fine in this. Not amazing but it's solid and it gets the point across.

Marked Woman (Tec Annual #12)

The real Mark of Cain was internalized homophobia the whole time, and the reason she's able to bear it is because she's learned to accept herself.

Adding transformative queer self-acceptance to the list of the most powerful forces in the world.

Hostile Takeover (Birds of Prey #12-13)

Important note: the Question that Helena calls Q as a cute pet name in the comics is Renee. IIRC the only person who calls Vic Q is Ted. Make of this what you will.

Slight variation on the drowning motif - Renee only ends up in the sewer for a moment, but Helena goes apeshit and tries to drown a guy in it, so it counts.

"Our first date." "*Snerk.* Shut up. Nerd." This is just fully gay. They are dating.

It actually pisses me off that this is such a promising setup. I'd be able to handle the New 52 more if Renee was left off right after the Mark of Cain arc, I might be able to convince myself it works as an open-ended "and the adventure continues" for her, but no I have to live with the knowledge she was going to be on the Birds of Prey and be adorable with Helena and then DC blew everyone up.

Guess I'll go fuck myself then.

Danger Drive (Batman 80-Page Giant 2011)

Sneaking in just under the reboot, it's... basically just that time Vic punched the Riddler, but with a different terrible Riddler outfit and a Jeopardy theme. Well. That's disappointing.

If I was less masochistic I'd end the project here, but if I was less masochistic I wouldn't have started it in the first place.

#clayposts #the question #renee montoya #clayreads

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bamfdaddio · 3 years

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X-Men Abridged: 1981

The X-Men, those back-to-the-future mutants that have sworn to protect a world that hates and fears them, are a cultural juggernaut with a long, tangled history. Want to unravel this tapestry? Then read the Abridged X-Men!

(Uncanny X-Men 141 - 152) - by Chris Claremont and John Byrne, Brent Anderson, Dave Cockrum, Jim Sherman, Bob McLeod and Josef Rubinstein

While I also committed various fashion atrocities at the age of 14 (tye-die and fauxhawks, oh my), even Liberace would find Kitty’s outfits too much. (Uncanny X-Men 149; Uncanny X-Men Annual ‘81)

We dial back from the v. epic scope of the last few arcs. Instead, 1981 is just a lot of fun! We get:

Storm and Emma doing a Freaky Friday!

the X-Men vs. Magneto (again!)

A surprisingly effective Alien rip-off

An dystopian future! (OoOoOoOo)

Last year was the year of the Dark Phoenix, this is the year of Kitty Pryde. That’s not to say Jean’s death is swept under the rug: all throughout, we see her friends mourning her loss or remembering her fondly. (Scott even gets to have a demonic adventure about it.) But in general, Claremont puts Kitty in the forefront, fleshing out his YA-addition to the team. And what would a YA heroine be without a grim dystopia? Roll out the iconic Days of Future Past!

To be fair, 2013 was a dark time for all of us: What Does the Fox Say somehow got to the top of the charts and I was still watching Glee. (Uncanny X-Men 141)

How cool would it have been to see a name like Jonothon Starsmore or Eva Bell on those tombstones?

Anyway, that’s Kate. Kate’s had it rough. Mutants are at the bottom of the foodchain, most X-Men are dead and only a small cadre of resistance fighters remain, Sentinels dominate, and while she is married to Piotr, her children have been murdered. Bleak. Luckily, the rebellion has concocted the plan to shunt Kate’s spirit back in time to prevent this awful future from happening. (You’ve seen Days of Future Past, the last passably good X-Men film, you know what’s up.)

Let’s do the time warp again! 1981!Kitty’s mind gets taken over by 2013!Kitty, who promptly tries to convince the X-Men that a new Brotherhood of v. Evil Mutants will try to kill Senator Kelly, a presidential candidate who tries to put the mutant menace on the agenda. (Mutants tend to blow stuff up when he’s around.) Since the X-Men recently took a literal trip to Dante’s Infero and also befriended a cosmic world-ending entity, they basically shrug and go: “Yeah, this checks out.”

Off to Washington they go (zoommm) and there, they happen upon the Baddest Bitches in Herstory:

“How dare you hate mutants, senator Kelly! We’ll fix that by killing you!” (Uncanny X-Men 141)

This All-New, All-Different Brotherhood consists out of:

Destiny, a blind woman who can see the future. Definitely the eeriest member of this group. Badass lesbian, though that won´t be canon for years.

Avalanche. Greek who makes things shake. Is a long-standing member of the X-Men Rogue’s gallery, but rarely features in the spotlight. I think he got more characterization in four years of X-Men Evolution than he ever did in the comics.

Mystique. Shapeshifter. Ruthless and unhinged, the Cersei Lannister of the X-Men universe. Absolute legend, secretly the wife of Destiny, currently not as unhinged as she’ll be later. Immediately implied to be related to Nightcrawler: it’s the yellow-eyes-blue-skin-combo.

Pyro. Can manipulate fire, not create it. Absolute pillock, in all the best ways of the word. Originally intended as gay, but they decided to make him Australian instead. (?!)

Blob. Big, strong, immovable. We’ve seen him before.

One of the details in this fight I enjoy is that Storm is still struggling with her leadership, although she has a better grip on things than Cyclops:

Wolverine then proceeds to use those iconic but deadly claws about twice per issue for the next, oh, forty years. (Uncanny X-Men 142)

While the X-Men fight the Brotherhood in the present, we cut back and forth to the future. There, the X-Men consist out of some familiar faces - Storm, Colossus, Wolverine - and some surprises: Magneto (in a wheelchair), Franklin Richards (son of) and an unfamiliar ginger girl called Rachel. (She’ll be important later.) We even learn (one of) Magneto’s names: this is the first time he’s canonically called Magnus.

One of the strengths of Days of Future Past lies in its brevity, the way it tantalizingly taunts us with a brutal but familiar future without giving away too much. It’s single-handedly responsible for all those dark future timelines the X-lines are so fond of which will eventually culminate in time-displaced grandsons from alternative dimensions and the impossibility of a succinct answer to the question: “Who’s Cable?” Too much of a good thing and all that.

Still, what Days of Future Past does so successfully is:

Put the idea of the mutant menace back at the forefront, hammering home the metaphor of mutants being a minority. Mutants being put in camps and being forbidden to breed should - regretfully - make us think of all too many real life equivalents. (Specifically, all of the imagery harkens back to the Holocaust.)

It starkly shows what happens should the X-Men lose, reminding everyone of the stakes. The X-Men are here for a reason: bridging the gap between mutants and humankind. If they fuck up, we end up with mutant concentration camps.

It helps that the X-Men in the future almost all die horribly: Franklin is incinerated, Storm is impaled… It's brutal stuff. The only one to survive is Rachel, who wonders if their plan actually changed the future or if they created an alternative timeline. (It did the latter, sorry ‘bout it, Rachel.)

In the present, Kate chases after Destiny, who trains a gun on senator Kelly. I always wondered how this works: if Destiny saw the future, she knew that killing Kelly would trigger a terrifying future. What in the current Marvel timeline made her decide that the Days of Future Past was better? Did she see her own death? Did she see the Onslaught-crossover coming? The Chuck Austen run? What was it?

In any case, time-anomalous Kate stops Destiny from killing Kelly and the future is safe! For now. Kate disappears, Kitty returns to her body and some of the Brotherhood are apprehended. All is well, for now.

After being a key figure in DoFP, Kitty is also the main character in the Christmas special, which is basically a straight up horror and a pastiche of the Alien-movie.

Seriously, John Byrne still isn’t sure why he wasn’t sued by Ridley Scott for this. (Uncanny X-Men 143)

If you love Kitty Pryde? Read this issue. If you’re not convinced you like 80’s Kitty? Read this issue. It’s not continuity relevant and it’s basically Kitty playing the part of a Final Girl in a horror where she’s being chased by a demon, but it’s so good. It showcases all her strengths and her foibles. Kitty’s intelligent, cute (sometimes preciously so) and brave, but she’s also young, self-conscious and hot-headed. And it's not as if the other X-Men automatically adore her: Storm berates her all the time, she’s afraid of Kurt because of the way he looks (though she grows out of that) and she fights with Professor Xavier a lot. Moreover, she has a clever power-set for a young superhero who faces menaces on a daily basis: a thirteen year old who can go intangible is far less likely to have reality ensue on her and be dramatically offed because she's better at protecting herself.

I’m sure there are people who thought Sprite was hogging the spotlight, but I, for one, say she brings more to the table than, say, Angel. She’s not the Dawn Summers of this franchise.

Scott also gets a side quest. Poor guy can’t catch a break: first the love of his life dies, so he quits the X-Men, then he realizes he can’t do much else than be a superhero. He becomes a sailor on the ship of spunky captain Lee Forrester, is drawn into the sadistic plans of a demon unironically named D’Spayre and then shipwrecks in Bermuda with Lee.

The X-Men, meanwhile, are tormented by a team-up of Doom (who’s currently Latverialess and working on a comeback) and Arcade, that annoying crony. Locke, Arcade’s dom, has kidnapped the loved ones of the X-Men (Moira MacTaggart, Jean Grey’s parents, Illyana Rasputin and Amanda Sefton) in order to blackmail them into getting Doom to free Arcade. Apparently, Arcade accidentally insulted Doom and DOOM DOES NOT FORGIVE THAT FOLLY.

While the B-Squad (Polaris, Havok, Banshee and Iceman) goes to save Arcade’s hostages, the X-Men sneak into Doom’s castle. Well, except for Storm, who doesn’t give a single fuck and simply flies up to Doom, demanding an audience. Doom likes the cut of her jib and invites her to have dinner. (This is pre-Tinder, so this is a legit way of scoring a date.)

If Storm has a flaw (I said if!), it’s got to be her atrocious taste in men. (Uncanny X-Men 145)

The X-Men find Arcade’s cell empty, while Arcade casually saunters up to Storm and says hi. Storm realizes too late that this is a trap: while the X-Men are all trapped in Saw-like traps, Storm is encased in ‘living chrome’.

If you remember she’s claustrophobic, you know why this is a bad move.

While the X-Men free themselves from their traps - Polaris hilariously has to deal with a murderous merry-go-round - Storm is slowly driven mad in her prison, triggering a worldwide tempest. (She causes Lee and Scott to shipwreck.) Under the threat of Wolverine’s claws, Doom releases Storm - or rather, unleashes her.

“Instead of a Dark Lord, you would have a queen, not dark but beautiful and terrible as the dawn! Tempestuous as the sea, and stronger than the foundations of the earth! All shall love me and despair!” (Uncanny X-Men 147)

The memory of Jean brings Ororo back to herself and she starts undoing the superstorm she created. (If only climate change were reversed that easily.) Their confrontation ends by Storm easily forgiving Doom, because she apparently trespassed on his grounds without adequate cause.

Mkay.

All of Arcade’s hostages return to their homesteads, except for Illyana Rasputin, Piotr’s sister: she’s staying at the mansion for a while. Angel, who’s sort of been a part of the team since the Phoenix thing, has had it with Wolverine and his ‘tude, and decides to quit the X-Men : he doesn’t want to be a part of an outfit that has a killer like Wolverine on it. (Or maybe he’s just mad Claremont didn’t give him any storylines: his presence has been mostly pointless.) It’s too bad he left before Kitty started experimenting with her outfits: I bet he would have loved her ugly-ass costumes.

Equally inconsequential is the introduction of a brand new character, who then proceeds to disappear from the narrative for the rest of the year:

Black Tom has tried to kill you at least twice, but him sending you a long-lost daughter doesn’t give you pause? Ugh, Sean, you deserve Moira. (Uncanny X-Men 148)

Intrigued by Theresa? TOO BAD, WON’T SEE HER AGAIN ANYTIME SOON.

Another new character is the lonely, decidedly mutant looking Caliban, who can sense “people like him” and is on the lookout for companions. Like many lonely people who try and grasp at friendship, he decides to overshoot his shot and ruin the night of Storm, Kitty and Jessica Drew at a Dazzler concert. Because he tries to kidnap Kitty, the girls react a trifle aggressively. When they realize their mistake - the eerily pale Caliban is a simpleton rather than a menace - he’s already fled. No mention is made of the Morlocks yet!

There’s also another dull annual where the X-Men team up with the Fantastic Four to save Arkon’s dimension from the Badoon and yaaaaawn. Far more interesting is the landmark issue #150. Slowly, through the adventures of Scott and Lee Forrester, Claremont has been setting things up for the return of a favorite villain. While the X-Men investigate Magneto’s old base in Antarctica on a hunch of Professor X and tangle with Garruk, Scott and Lee survive Storm’s tempest, only to wake up next to a strange island that seems to have been raised from the ocean.

It’s apparently some ancient citadel from a long forgotten civilization with a fondness for squid statues. (I don’t know man, I’ve never been to the Bermuda Triangle, maybe this is just super-accurate.)The tentacles make Lee Forrester feel very amorous, but before Scott can tell her he is way too repressed to just have sex with an attractive someone he’s known intimately for a month or two, Magneto saves his ass by revealing he, in fact, raised this island from the seafloor.

Oh, Magneto. So extra.

My ambitious little mutant demagogue then proceeds to take the entire world hostage, showing how much he’s grown from the pompous, raving madman from the sixties. (Sure, Magneto is still a bit of a madman, but increasingly, he starts being on the right side of history.)

“I’m trying to make Magneto more sympathetic.”

“Just put him on a page with some bigger villains who are less noble, like the Vanisher, Count Nefaria, or…”

“Reagan, Thatcher and Brezhnov?”

“Er.” (Uncanny X-Men 150)

It’s obvious Magneto is being pivoted as a more noble villain, codified into the well-intentioned extremist we know and love today. Not only do we get the first hints at his past, fleshing out his motivations, he’s also not wrong. Humans are historically not great at taking care of the planet or each other.

When the Russians call his bluff and launch nukes at Magneto’s new island, he quickly disarms them. His retribution is swift and ferocious: the entire citadel is a machine that massively amplifies his powers. He sinks the submarine that launched the missiles, condemning the entire crew to death, and he casually erects a vulcano in a Russian city in Siberia.

Damn. Not messing around this time.

Despite his good intentions, Magneto is still definitely in the wrong: not only because of his methods, but as Scott points out: if Magneto unifies the world under his kind of benevolent dictatorship, all of that will simply fall apart as soon as Magnus dies.

In a way, Magneto is just as big a dreamer as Charles is: Charles believes in peace and integration, whereas Magneto believes his iron fist will be enough to make a perfect world happen. Both of them ignore the reality that acceptance is difficult and messy, because you’re trying to change essential human nature: the fear of the other. Magneto believes in big, sweeping gestures that will fix the world in move, while changing the world is also boring, hard work. One step forward, two steps back. Magneto just wants to leapfrog to his ultimate goal.

The X-Men fly over the citadel, returning from Antarctica, and their plane crashes into the ocean. (Magneto does not brook planes over his territory, humans!) The Professor is also nearby, looking for Scott with Moira, Peter Corbeau and Carol Danvers. The X-Men sneak onto the island, but to their horror, their powers are nullified by some machine of Magneto. They reunite with Scott, who formulates a plan to thwart the would-be ruler of the world.

While the rest of the X-Men go to trash the machine, Storm, Kitty and Lee infiltrate the control chamber where Storm finds a sleeping, shirtless Magneto. Once again showing her terrible taste in men, she is not weak in the knees at the sight of a sleeping Magnus: instead, she contemplates killing him.

Storm knows how dangerous he is, but she also knows that he’s a great man who’s fighting for ideals, no matter how misguided. She hesitates too long: Magneto stirs, suspects an attack and tosses her out of the window, to her death.

Magneto quickly undoes the sabotage the other X-Men have wrought to his machine. A fight erupts. Storm, meanwhile, has managed to grab hold of a ledge. She crawls back up and smashes an important-looking computer, restoring everyone’s powers.

The battle turns grim, but Scott sends Kitty away to wreck Magneto’s machinery. She sneaks off, following Scott’s orders and destroying both Magneto's power-up device and all of his plans by phasing though the computer circuitry. Magneto senses this and furiously gives chase. Overcome by rage, he attacks Kitty and disrupts her phasing power with a magnetic bolt, seemingly killing her?

Everything about this story beat is great: mama bear!Ororo, mournful Magnus and even the fact that Kitty’s godawful outfit serves a narrative function: highlighting to us (and Magneto) just how young she is. The fact that Kitty’s Jewish is just icing on the cake. (Uncanny X-Men 150)

And thus, the softening of Magneto commences. 1981 might be a year with wildly varying narratives, but it has given us at least three enduring legacies to the X-Mythos: a new kind of Magneto, a fondness for dystopian futures and the character of Kitty Pryde, who's really come into her own this year.

Ugliest Costume: Kitty! Purposefully, but still. Best costume, by the way, goes to Destiny, with her creepy, creepy golden mask. Just imagine this lady casually strolling across a battlefield, eerily calm and collected, dodging everything you throw at her. Awesome design.

Best new character: I usually pick one character - what good is having a shared award when declaring the best of anything? - but this year, it’s going to one of my favorite couples: Mystique and Destiny. Can’t wait to see more of them.

Most audacious retcon: Blob somehow retroactively becomes a member of the original Brotherhood, which is not what happened. Ever weirder is Xavier pondering that he never met Magneto before his attack in X-Men #1, while their cordially adversarial relationship rooted in a youthful friendship would soon become a cornerstone of the X-Men.

What to read: Uncanny X-Men 141 - 143 and 150 - 152

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crimsonandcloverwrites · 3 years

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ok bhah ch1 reread thought dump lets goooo

@youngbloodbuzz @romanitwontletmetagyouuuu??? thank u for writing this. in return I gift u this lightly unhinged commentary

oh the opening quote “Do you think it all meant nothing, all the longing? The longing for home?” violence

lmao ok I started this ages ago and then got distracted for a week because that’s just who I am as a person lets try that again

eddie n his glowing glasses nice we love a canon nod

ok I remember getting really emotional reading the chapter where Dani’s car died bc of what it represented to her n now I’m being reminded of it all again with the ‘poor little car’ comment oh dear we’re like 2 paragraphs in and I’m already compromised

the wavering reflection in the water in her hands..... Dani posessed by the ghost of comphet..... I am Drawing Conclusions

eddie “we can hang out more” dani “aha wouldn’t that be neat”

god the prom photo... remembering Dani’s meltdown at the prom bc she missed Jamie... I’m dying Jack I’m dying

lil palm kiss... I know u will not ever love hm that way Dani but fuck I’m a sucker for a palm kiss

lil nerd ass w her folder tabs I love her

god the tone of this is so comforting like I can just hang out n imagine each scene progressing so naturally. wish I did not have to suffer emotionally at the same time but at least it’s a smooth read

Dani feeling like an invader amongst all the physical representations of her relationship w eddie BABY U DON’T HAVE TO LIVE THIS WAY STOP LETTING OTHER PEOPLE INFLUENCE UR LIFE AND RUIN UR HAPPINESS

“Hannah Grose, seamlessly elegant” yes

Hannah: congrats on ur engagement. Dani, with tears in her eyes: thank

Dani relaxing when they’re talking about teaching pls I love her love for it so much

Dani at the blackboard with the “Miss, Ms?” confusion now I am thinking about the Ted Moseby professor/proffessor scene. HIMYM my beloved

mikeyyyy my boy

the image of Dani w chalk dust on her skirt is v endearing.

oooh the library trip gay foreshadowing yes

wait the silver stars on his backpack......... cup of stars crying time

Mikey correcting her on his name when she was the one to give him the nickname in the first place... feeling some kind of way

Dani fostering the talents she sees in her kids is so sweet and mikey shy lil math genuis is also so sweet pls i love this duo

i do wonder if part of her is like I know a Mikey Taylor but I literally refuse to believe it is the same one bc his sister broke my heart and we are absolutely not in the business of confronting hard feelings in this house!!

keys on a lanyard... ok lesbian

“You’re still here?” the love I have for canon lines being used when I can hear them being said in my head

awww bonding over Wonder Woman. cute!!!! When Dani becomes Mikey’s official second mum (everyone be quiet I am manifesting) my heart will explode

eddie ur really just gonna rock up and toot at her. jail for 1000 years

ooohhh Dani is Realising who the sister is. honey you got a big storm comin. oof (the ‘wonder woman punching stars out of her foes” to “dani feeling like she’s just recieved a blow to the ribs.” the cinnamontography). aw baby :(

“Jamie. Jamie, here. Jamie, home.” please i am thinking about her last letter and I am not strong enough

“Somehow Eddie didn’t notice.” sum up a relationship in a sentence

“Jamie would appear, as if summoned by the gravity of Dani’s pounding heart” fuck this hits on so many levels I need to go think about my life for 45mins

CARSON MY BOY. in his studded leather. a fashionable gay never loses.

I looove how soft n caring Dani n Carson are with each other thank gods she has him.

DID WE EVER FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENED BETWEEN CARSON AND JASON MY SPIDEY SENSES ARE STILL TINGLING FROM READING THIS THE FIRST TIME

god this post is already so long n I’m only halfway through why do I have so many silly thoughts

god just the... expectations of affection from her by eddie w that placating cheek kiss she gives him is like... I cannot imagine Jamie ever asking that from her in the same way even when they are in a relationship!!! and it’s not even wrong of him to do that??? but it’s just a lot to think about the kind of person Dani makes herself to be to stay with him vs the kind of person Jamie lets her be by not expecting anything of her. they’re such opposites

dani not even feeling at home in her own (former) home pls when is she going to find a soft place to land (it’s also making me think v hard about the title like... the haunting of Dani and Jamie’s relationship (and what that represents for Dani) on Dani’s whole life and Jamie coming home and bringing that to Dani’s doorstep. resurecting a ghost so to speak........ too many homes to think about. I don’t know if I fully understand but I am Thinking)

dani and her inhaler... asthmatic bitches represent

oh my god not the box of memories. been trying to erase that from my own for weeks now let me live

ooh the line about her feeling like an archaeologist at the start of this section and then her ‘exhuming the past’ w the photos of her n Jamie i love a consistent narrative.

THE MIXTAPE. THE MIXTAPE. is there a playlist for this chapter I would like to take that aural journey

oh no i cannot remember where the flower comes from but aahhh this box of memories pain.

this description of carson in a tight white undershirt tucked into his jeans makes me think of freddie mercury. didn’t mean to make you cry etc

lmao Dani trying to get info from Judy abt Jamie in a roundabout way... international superspy she is not

Dani entirely uncomfy in church... i feel it. godd the repression of it all w the movie and the feelings and the Jamie-influence on the feelings my heart hurts.

God knowing how much Judy loves her but the weight of that love also stifling her... pain

they’ve really got her all shacked up w a house and a husband and a kid on the way can we let the girl be a lesbian in peace (also lowkey hoping Dani gets some time on her own at some point no Eddie no Jamie no weight of expectations pls she needs it we all need it)

the thread of Dani refusing to do things for herself in order to make other people happy throughout this entire piece hits so fucking close to home and is entirely heartbreaking to read thank you

jamiiiiieeeeeeeee

Jamie: appears. Dani: every single emotion all at once

Judy and her girls back together is v sweet even if Dani is dying inside at it all

“Jamie only had eyes for Dani.” Again, sum up a relationship in a sentence.

What do you even say to a girl who *the sky goes dark as i attempt to even summarise a fraction of their relationship*. Apparently the answer is “Jamie. Hi.”

TWO MONTHS JAMIE TAYLOR. CRIMES

It’s ahh. fairly entertaining to be going through Dani’s emotional journey alongside her and knowing that Jamie is also Going Through It on some level but having 0 insights to it bc she keeps her emotions so in check.

oooh how much of a gut punch is this engagement revelation for Jamie??? like on some level I’m sure she always knew this was coming but I’m sure another part of her still desperately hoped one day Dani would choose her. god I would kill for Jamie’s POV in this scene

Jamie’s scarrrr. Literally Dani’s impact

oh fucking hell that moment of like... familiarity and almost a coming home for Dani when Judy is talking and she meets Jamie’s eyes... she really was entirely screwed from that moment on huh.

oof god this is a hell of an opening chapter lets see if my attention span will let me continue this journey (also @ myself reminder to read this all in chronological order one day for a real nice session of emotional destruction)

#bhah #bly manor fic #this is so chaotic i apologise to anyone who reads this #absolute delight tho i love writing out my rambling thoughts as I read #god i remeber reading this chapt when it first came out n i truly... had no idea what i was getting myself in for huh

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floggingink · 5 years

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Riverdale, “Chapter Forty-Seven: Bizarrodale”

Jughead eats: QUICK SHOT OF BRUNCH

the print on Josie’s bomber jacket? confounding

“If there’s no wedding reception, it means the Gargoyle King has won.”

Ms. McCoy in bright blue? confounding

have Moose’s eyebrows gotten thicker? he...he fine

Cheryl’s sheaths: like a true gay icon, Cheryl wears both a satiny demi-cup bustier and a flannel in bed with Toni, who’s rocking a sort of cottony Aerie bralette

Hermione’s earrings look like divining rods, which makes sense

“dangerously unhinged,” in this day and age? UNHINGED?

Cheryl is “legacy” in Riverdale’s version of Smith College

Cheryl’s pins: in her droopy 1920’s lady-reporter tie, Cheryl has a pin that is probably a bee but is POSSIBLY a giant frightening moth like in the Silence of the Lambs poster

Moose’s hair is longer or something and he’s like? I don’t know but I’m a gay boy all of a sudden, like let me at All That

I like how he pauses but goes in for more kisses after Kevin tells him he wants to ask him something

he’s like…..so tall….and he has this a little mole on his cheek….

(RIP Midge)

I’m writing a scene where it’s gay.: you look me in my pale astigmatic eyes and tell me the little snitch canary “told you they were in here sir” smug Malfoy stool pigeon ISN’T a pillow queen and I’ll give you this money RIGHT NOW. THAT thin-lipped smirk? with THAT cleft chin? he’s a gay, your honor

Sexy, aesthetic Southside: oh fuck!!!! Sweet Pea has a VERY vulnerable, soft-masculinity speech about his heartspace and emotional boundaries and he’s so fluffy-haired and trying to be gentle with himself……….SWEET PEA……..

Best costume bit: don’t miss the two-second shot of a Prostitute in a turquoise pencil skirt and red velvet blazer and pearls AND GLASSES leading a man by the tie down the Maple Club hallway

“Damn good coffee”: also this jazz music and Cheryl’s short pantsuit

WHERE CAN I GET CHERYL’S MINI BACKPACK

The Blossom spawn: I know Penelope Blossom is not out here suggesting there are no lesbians in what I assume is a women’s college. I remember when I got into My Women’s College one of the nuns at my church was like, Ha ha! Don’t let the drug-dealing lesbians get you! and I was like, How do you already know the plot of Riverdale season 3? but then I was also like, Ma’am why did you join this monastery?

Fifth period is AP English: “THIS IS THE PRICE OF SALT.”

Lawyer McCoy is right, Ex-Sheriff Keller IS a snack and this bitch’s blood sugar is low

I love Sierra and Whatsit playing Lawyers in bed because it happens to be my thing too and I want to be there with them

Certified pedigree: his name’s Tom right? he’s SO HANDSOME. everyone is so handsome right now!!!!!!! (I’m ovulating)

this is the same fancy hotel room Jughead and Betty stayed in when he sort of proposed to her? this is just the upscale version of the sex bunker

Kevin eats when he’s stressed, as you will recall from the drive-in S1 episode

“an epaulette to cry on”

Cheryl’s hair: and Cheryl’s sleeves!!!!!!!

Sixth period is Intro to Film: “looking like a community theater production of The Talented Mr. Ripley” is the SECOND time handsome bicurious Tom Ripley has been name-dropped (also the drive-in S1 episode)

“I can’t go back to Fox Forest” is like the most tragic thing. HE CAN’T GO CRUISING AGAIN

“Oh, sullen, tenderhearted Kevin.”

Cheryl’s a chaos angel from hell: “RAPTUROUS”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I like that Cheryl continues to use words like “whilst” and “amongst”

is Moose wearing a denim Henley? MOOSE?

the closed captioning renders it “O shutterbug of my dreams.” “O,” LIKE CHERYL IS SHAKESPEARE

I absolutely buy that Cheryl would ask if this was their first fight mid-fight

only Toni among us could wear that many necklaces at once

I did get a little confused when Toni confronts Cheryl in the bathroom, like at first it was about how you shouldn’t out people but then it was about her not being in the Serpents? let’s focus, ladies

The 2001 Josie and the Pussycats movie was a masterpiece: Josie’s commitment to keeping her eyeshadow coordinated with her jackets over her commitment to boys is aspirational

Every triangle has three corners, every triangle has three sides: I LOVE ARCHIE’S SIDE-EYE, LIKE………“SWEET PEA?”

Reggie on kneecapping: “Does that really happen?”

Reggie’s voice cracks me up. he’s just a big gorgeous squeezable side hustle dummy bro, so down for the ride, remember when he slugged Jughead? neither does he

REGGIE HONESTLY HONEST-TO-GOD IS JUST LIKE….RONNIE YO YOU NEED SOME MONEY?

“You can be my Baby Driver” uuuuuugggghghhhhhkkhhhhhhhhh REggggeieiee

“JUST PLEASE DON’T SCRATCH MY CAR” has more sexual energy than I think Archie has ever manufactured with anyone EXCEPT BETTY when they kissed that one time you know?????

why do you think Reggie is such a good doofus boyfriend while Archie was such a bad doofus boyfriend? is it because Archie tried to think for himself? or has Reggie just not been given the chance to fuck something up yet

I like Penelope bringing up Sierra and Tom getting married not to shade them but to just be like, They should be happy if they want. I was like, Damn, Penelope! You’re right!

“He is a vicious and petty god.”

lol oh yeah Hiram got shot

Gay?!: as has been discussed, Veronica is reading some classic lesbian pulp fiction for no other reason than I suppose she fucking likes it, and that is BDE

Summer + Blair = Veronica: Veronica would wear those shoes to baby drive

SOMEONE TAKE ME ON A “MAD SAPPHIC CAPER”

Archie > Dawson: Archie is a hot-or-cold boyfriend but he is an EXCELLENT beard!!!! GOOD, ARCHIE

I’ve seen Brick like thirty times: Reggie takes the same positive attitude towards getting shot and surviving that I hope I would have, which is “at least I can say I got shot”

Moose is like, out and THEREFORE dtf, as if they couldn’t have secretly been having sex this whole time

Toni conceded to Highsmith’s business formal dress code insofar as she wears a black vest over a plaid tie and that’s it

“WHOEVER YOU ARE, PLEASE BE CHILL.”

Veronica’s blue plaid coat SHOCKS me

Veronica was rich: Gladys admires Veronica and Reggie’s gumption showing up with only half the money

is it a coat or is it a miniskirt with a matching jacket?????

God bless jingle-jangle Moose: Moose is so excited that he just absolutely tells Cheryl he’s finally going to have sex. I know the show needs him to say it so Cheryl can tell him to BYOS, but it’s still cute of him, himself. is Moose kind of precious?

remember when Moose got gunned down in that car? Christ

HE BROUGHT A LITTLE RED CANDLE!!!!!

I love when people take off their whole belt, as if you can’t just undo it and still take your jeans off

dope deer skull! plus: everyone’s fucking

Mädchen Amick, MÄDCHEN AMICK: I’ve lost track a little bit of whether or not Alice KNOWS Betty and Jughead are literally/colloquially sleeping together in Betty’s bedroom, or are they taking advantage of her being gone?

The female gaze: Reggie’s chest is the new Archie’s chest

“NIGHT HAG”

“KEEP YOUR BOW CLOSE.”

Moose is MASSIVE like, do you see those arms?

Fwoopy hair is the best hair: HIS BEAUTIFUL FLIPPY HAIR ON THE PILLOW

Dilton Doiley Ethel Muggs The Gargoyle Children: the RROTC guy is Chris Cooper in American Beauty???

Gay.: Sierra was halfway right about “the jealousy thing”

even FP, conducting his interview in his flannel, is like, bruh

These students are legally children: his “Man, the Sisters did a number on you” feels like Riverdale’s version of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s “The Catholics really fucked you up”

Jughead doubts it: Jughead makes a good point. is there one costumes everyone keeps using or is it that easy to DIY your own Gargoyle King?

“UR-KING,” JUGHEAD, PLEASE

oh I can see Jughead about to be disillusioned by his family coming a mile away

Archie’s soft soft sweater? confounding

at least Moose isn’t moving to Toledo, am I right

CHERYL’S SLEEVES?????????

What damn high school in America: Cheryl’s girl gang is 100% Teddy girls and I love them

THE WHITE STRIPE ON REGGIE’S SWEATER and the little black birds on Veronica’s shirt!

Gladys & JB are already a more powerful duo than FP & Jughead could ever hope to be

ARCHIE ASKS HER IF HE COULD KISS HER. THAT’S VERY SEXY OF YOU, ARCHIE. GOOD, ARCHIE

wait Moose is moving to Glendale? SABRINA-GLENDALE? MOOSE WAIT A SECOND?

NEXT WEEK: Gladys tells Veronica to pray, OH BOY

#riverdale #commentary #tropes #i say

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sureuncertainty · 7 years

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Sure Uncertainty: A Reference Post

So it has come to my attention that I don’t have a good reference post for my book, Sure Uncertainty, for those who don’t know what it is or what it’s about, and figured it was high time to fix that! Especially since I’ve gotten quite a few new followers lately. So here’s a bit more about my book/play, aka my big project and the main reason I created this blog in the first place. Warning this is long.

Sure Uncertainty is a modern day retelling of the Shakespeare play, The Comedy of Errors. Plot-wise, it’s essentially the parent trap on steroids. Two sets of identical twins (with the same names!) separated at birth end up in the same high school and due to misunderstandings and mistaken identity, a heck of a lot of confusion ensues. The plot is somewhat convoluted, and while a lot of it I lifted directly from the Shakespeare play, I created my own versions of the characters (did a lot of genderbending and such) and adjusted the plot accordingly to fit it into a high school setting. A lot of it was inspired by She’s the Man, a retelling of Twelfth Night in much the same manner.

I am also currently in the process of adapting my book back into a play (I know, a play based on a book based on a play) to hopefully direct for my senior project as a theatre major. I’m trying to get as much feedback as possible right now, so message me if you want to read it, and I might send you the link!

As for the characters... If you want to draw them, aside from gaining my undying love, gratitude, and infinite levels of happiness, check out this reference post here for physical descriptions and color reference drawings.

The Twins

Antony Abidelli (Antipholus of Syracuse): Transfer student from Syracuse, kind of a nerd. Loves music and spending lots of time alone. Introverted af. Very confused half the time, very rarely understands anything that’s going on. Just wants to be left alone most of the time. Loves his sister more than anything and would literally die for her in a heartbeat. Awkward af, shy af, terrible at flirting

Antony Durham (Previously Antony Duke, but I changed their name... Antipholus of Ephesus): One of the most popular guys in school, confident, charming (sorta), a total jock. On the football and basketball teams. Thinks he’s a lot greater than he is. Embarrassed of his family. Here’s a picture of him:

Roma Abidelli: AKA Roma A. (Dromio of Syracuse, genderbent) Rebellious, or tries to be. Sarcastic af, clumsy. Was held back a grade, so she’s old for her year. She and Antony A are super close because they felt like they only really had each other since their dad is really distant. Likes rock music, tries to be punk rock, and would do anything to be cool and popular, even though she pretends she doesn’t care. Also aro/ace and very much not interested in relationships. she and Antony D get close after the events of my book, so here’s a picture of them together:

Roma Durham (Dromio of Ephesus): Twin sister of Roma A. Goes to Ephesus, and wants to be close with her brother, but he pushes her aside a lot. Struggles with social anxiety. Very quiet and studious, takes her studies and grades Very Seriously. Gets lowkey teased a lot but no one would ever try too hard to mess with her bc they’re afraid of her brother. Kind of a teacher’s pet, terrified of many things, including heights, spiders, small spaces, airplanes, and getting in trouble of any kind. Doesn’t deserve any of the hell I put her through. Here’s an angsty picture of her:

Other Important Characters

Gene and Emma are the twins parents, also separated in the plane crash (which is my story’s version of the shipwreck from the play) who get reunited at the end of the story. The only thing they love more than each other is their children. Gene is a very go-with-the-flow kinda guy, quiet, nerdy, also writes poetry, Emma is his entire world, he spirals into depression after the plane crash, and thus was never really around for his kids. He’s also like... literally the sweetest, purest guy you’ll ever meet. Had a very rough childhood though, and was bullied a lot in his youth so Emma is immensely protective of him. As for Emma, she’s no-nonsense, the librarian of Ephesus high school, very strict and an enforcer of the rules all the time. Kind of uptight, fiercely loyal, will actually murder anyone who lays a hand on her family. Her way of dealing with grief is just getting really really angry at everything. Has a hard time keeping her cool sometimes, and can be irrational and blunt a lot of the time. Unable to physically fight but she will destroy you with her words. Literally just don’t mess with her (or Gene, which by extension is her). Have I mentioned they’re in love???? Anyway, here’s them:

And then there’s the love interests. Addie and Lucy Johnston (Adriana and Luciana) are sisters, and the love interests of the two Antonys, D, and A respectively. Antony D is Addie’s boyfriend. Addie’s on the cheerleading team, she’s popular, pretty, and very very dramatic. Yells a lot, can get unhinged pretty easily. Takes everything to the extreme. Lucy’s quiet and introverted, but not shy, loves to read and takes school v seriously. Has a secret badass side that rarely comes out. Both of them are super protective of each other. Lucy ends up falling for Antony A, thinking he’s Antony D, and that’s kind of one of the central conflicts of the book. They’re both like literal goddesses, like I’m in love with both of them and they’re my own ocs. Lucy’s nerdy but she never gets teased. She’s had lots of guys try and ask her out but always turns them down bc she’s looking for the right one. Here’s a pic of her and Antony A being adorable together, and then a pic of Addie below that.

Minor Characters

Angel Brooke who you see me talk about a heck of a lot, is def one of my faves (so much so I wrote a spin-off novel about her, but that’s a story for another time). Goth, lesbian, sells handmade jewelry at unreasonable prices. Artsy and creative, and very very good at getting her way. Clever. Quiet, doesn’t talk a lot, keeps people at a distance, kind of cold. Had a traumatic childhood. Apathetic towards basically everyone. She’s tiny but she will destroy you. After the story, she and Roma A become best friends, and she ends up with a HUGE not-so-secret crush on her... Oh and she’s based on Angelo from the play. Here she is:

Leigh is Angel’s ex, one of those people that’s super cheerful and nice on the outside, but is pretty manipulative and not a very good person. Bisexual, never stops making puns about it (or puns at all). She’s also on the cheerleading team, and is pretty good too. The type of person to say, ‘move, I’m gay’. Here’s a pic of her:

Randy: Roma D’s boyfriend, super shy and awkward guy that Roma A detests (which makes things difficult for him). Marie is Roma D’s other best friend, an artsy girl who’s very cheerful and optimistic.

As for adults, there’s Principal Duke, the principal of the school. Has a not-so-secret crush on Emma the librarian, who continually rebuffs his lame attempts at flirting. Doesn’t know that she lost her husband, he thinks she’s just single. He’s way too jovial all the time, has a habit of repeating himself. Kind of an idiot. Gail is his office secretary, does all the real work around the school, knows a lot more than she lets on, and is probably the most likely of all my ocs to take over the world.

SO TO SUM UP:

Emma and Gene are the parents of the four twins. Antony and Roma Durham are with Emma, Antony and Roma Abidelli are with Gene. (they all meet at the end). Addie is Antony D’s girlfriend, Lucy is Antony A’s love interest. Hopefully the family dynamic makes sense. If you read or know the play it’ll probably make more sense....

So there ya go, that’s basically it!!! Sorry this post ended up so long but I figured it’d be good to have a reference all in one place. Not gonna put it under the cut bc I do want people to read it. Please please please feel free to send me lots of asks or talk to me about my characters or this project and I will literally love you forever (or better yet, DRAW my children!!!) If you like my book/ocs or whatever, please reblog so I can get more exposure. Hopefully you’ll see my book on a shelf someday and if not, you’ll see a performance of the play adaption I’m working on. And if you read all this, I literally love you already. If anything doesn’t make sense or you’re confused, send in an ask or message me and I can try and update the post for ya! THANK YOUUU!

#aemelia rambles #sure uncertainty #long post #sure uncertainty reference #reference #aaaaah this got way longer than i intended but i'm glad to have it in one place #if you're interested in my stuff pls reblog!#writing ref

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usamyzonians · 7 years

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Duality

Content warning: I’m going to be talking about life experiences that involve homophobia, transphobia, general bigotry and White Feminism. Though I suppose that last part is redundant.

So my grandmother has been on my mind a lot lately.

We’re getting up to the one year anniversary of her death. She lived to be in her 90s, so it’s not quite a tragedy.

Thing is, the reason I’ve been thinking of her has more to do with the sort of compartmentalized way I think about my family.

See, what started this whole thing was a not-so-pleasant memory. I was in the ballpark of 10 and at my grandparents’ and my brother and I were watching Look Who’s Talking. Complain about our bad taste, but I was 10 and he was 8 and pretty much everyone we knew had seen it. So ostensibly there’s a problem with us watching a PG-13 movie, but we’d watched worse. And my grandmother, walking in and out of the room the whole time, was fine with the content. Until she walked into the room when one of the characters said “lesbian” or some other word that meant lesbian, because I haven’t watched the movie since maybe a couple years after this movie and I don’t really remember. It wasn’t the first time the term had been used, but when my grandmother heard it, she lost her shit.

I honestly don’t think I’ve ever seen her as mad as when her grandkids heard the word lesbian.

My grandmother was a massive homophobe. And not in some mild, esoteric sense, in the sense that even the slightest reference to gay people was completely unhinging. And, in my family, I was encouraged to not fight (this only went one way; one of my aunts had called me a Nazi multiple times for my ‘liberal’ beliefs by the age of 12), so my solution was to avoid the topic. Actually, I tended to avoid anything even remotely political with my family, because they tended to be close to the polar opposite of me. My mom and dad were both hippies who were arrested for standing up for civil rights and held all sorts of commie pinko ideals, so that probably insulated my brother and I, but my mother was also the biggest voice of appeasement in my life.

Over the years, my grandmother would make some offhand comments that fell into transphobia, as well. Thing is, trans individuals weren’t on their radar as much, so I didn’t get as much on that front as their LGB phobia, but I knew it was there. That’s the environment I grew up in.

I was raised to think of my grandmother as a nice, sweet woman. And she had all the appearance of it right up until you talked about that one subject. A subject which probably doesn’t seem so bad to the rest of my family, but impacts me. The rest of my family weren’t quite so extreme, but there’s quite a few homophobes and transphobes kicking around. I remember back when their state voted to not change the state constitution to redefine marriage as between one man and one woman, multiple family members freaked out because “the gays are getting everything they want!”

Note that same-sex couples actually didn’t. Same-sex marriage was not legal in the state, it just hadn’t been rendered further beyond residents’ reach by making it a constitutional proposition. Admittedly, this is important if you’re LGBT, but it’s nowhere near “getting everything we want.”

When same sex marriage finally became legal, I avoided them for months. I’m not supposed to fight, but they will take any opportunity to pounce on me and my ‘liberal’ ways.

This wasn’t too hard, as I’d learned to disconnect from my family. As much as I can think of my family in loving terms despite their bigoted mentality, I think part of the reason I can do that is that I started not being involved with them. My brother and I have radically different relationships with my family, and this is at least a chunk of why, I suspect.

I don’t know if all my family’s like this. I’d think, statistically, there’d have to be some other people in my family treat who weren’t total bigots, but I don’t trust them because the pattern leads towards hating at least LGBT people (my family tends towards feminism--white feminism, anyhow, because women of color and lesbians and anyone else who is not them is insignificant--despite skewing towards Fox News on most other subjects). I have one openly gay family member and any talk about her when she wasn’t present has been horrible. And I wonder if she even knows that that’s the way they talk, because they’re nice to her face. Which is the other issue: even if they came off as nice or loving or tolerant or accepting, how can I ever trust people like this when there’s a known history of them saying one thing to a gay person’s face and another behind her back?

This comes to mind quite often for reasons not directly related to my grandmother, but more to my SO. My family loves Tal. They’re always welcome at Thanksgiving and Christmas, my mom actively asks about them, we’re supposedly an adorable couple, and even the people who only met Tal at my brother’s wedding have had nice things to say.

Except they think Tal’s my girlfriend and we’re in a completely heterosexual relationship. And I’m pretty sure there’s no combination of the two of us that translates to a straight couple. So really, they don’t necessarily love us, but the idea of us in their mind.

It seems like this is part of a larger trend. The “conservative uncle” is a cliche for a reason. But--and I’m likely surprising nobody here--it’s really difficult to reconcile the concept of “is a good person” with the concept of “hates people like you, perhaps violently.”

I can superficially hold the idea of my grandmother or my aunt or whoever as a good person, but when I think on it, I no longer can. These people are full of hate. Even if they didn’t hate me (or my SO) specifically, they have a blanket hatred of people like me (and my SO).

At the same time, because I am presumed straight and cis (and on both counts, I swear it’s because they are determined to see it), I’ve seen exactly how they conduct themselves towards gay family members, so even if they’re totally awesome to my face, I don’t know that I can ever trust that reaction as genuine.

Kind of makes me wonder how many other LGBT family members I might have who are similarly disposed to not want to deal with this crap.

When my grandmother died, part of me was relieved. She was the most vitriolic homophobe in my family. At least, she was the most openly homophobic. It’s hard to really tell when so many homophobes are “not homophobic, but....”

Even still, I feel bad. I live in a culture where we’re told to appease the bigots, that it’s just an alternate opinion. I mean, you can’t hate someone for an alternate opinion, right? Hate is wrong. Except, you know, somehow for the people who are actually hating. I grew up in a family where I was not to get “political” while existing as someone whose life is automatically considered political. And where family means loving someone who hates you, someone who would deny you rights, or even someone who would do you harm.

This is my normal. This is the family I grew up with, the only reality I knew. People who expect love and support unconditionally while spewing bigoted crap and putting conditions on their own reality. And that’s still entrenched in my mind, decades later. So I end up feeling bad for having hostile reactions to people who, even if they don’t hate me specifically, hate people like me.

That’s not a good place to be.

Ironically, my grandmother was easiest to deal with, because at least I knew where she stood. On the other end of that spectrum remains my mother. I have doubts as to whether or not she’d support her trans daughter, but somewhat worse in my mind is that she has spent decades playing that “apolitical” appeasement card. Sitting back while her family (and my father’s, to some extent) go on the attack and encouraging the other party to be quiet.

“It takes two to tango,” the logic goes. Unfortunately, years of dodging my family’s barbs demonstrates this is complete and utter garbage. It just encourages them to continue attacking. Because they went unopposed, they got the idea that their conduct was acceptable.

These are the people I’m supposed to love, and it’s my fault if I let pesky things like hate get in the way.

So I generally don’t deal with them. Since I don’t know who’s actually a bigot under the surface, I tend to not engage any of them. I literally can’t trust these people, and that’s the funny thing:

They raised me this way. I am as they made me.

But it goes beyond that, because there’s this idea that ‘if you can’t trust family, who can you trust?’ and since I can’t trust family, well, who can I trust? I feel borderline paranoid, but I have very good reasons to not trust people and it starts at home. Granted, I’ve got a long history of people demonstrating they’re not trustworthy outside of my home life, but I had a solid foundation before I really started dealing with the outside world.

This rambled to places I hadn’t particularly intended. I’ll just end this by saying that the longer I deal with this, the more untenable, toxic, and simply intolerable it is. I very much resent the way the feelings of bigots are sacrosanct at the expense of...well, in this case, me. But in general, too.

#homophobia #transphobia #family

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ismael37olson · 6 years

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Jon ALi Presents: The Top 20 Music Videos Of 2017!

Hello, it’s me (again). Just yesterday, I worked my way through my Top 50 Albums Of 2017. And now, it’s time lay your eyes on a visual treat: My Top 20 Music Videos of 2017!

This list was fairly easy to make, considering we don’t really get that many great music videos anymore. It’s been a dying music accompanying art form for years, but luckily, there’s always a handful of artists who decide to step up their game and rise above the basics of the world. As always, let me know what you think and feel free to comment below with your own list. BESOS!

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20. Logic – 1-800-273-8255 (feat. Alessia Cara & Khalid): The California-based rapper’s “1-800-273-8255” was already powerful to begin with, but paired with this music video, its message was lifted up higher to new heights. It’s a stunning visual that does the talking for itself. With so much hate in the world right now this message couldn’t be more important and timely, especially to P.O.C, the LGBTQ community, and the trans community. For anyone struggling with depression or thoughts of suicide, please call this number. Thank you, Logic.

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19. Majid Jordan – Body Talk: Neon-drenched dance party with two Toronto-based babes. SIGN ME THE FUCK UP. Sleek and cool eye candy done right.

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17. The Aces – Physical: When it comes to female fronted rock bands, there’s a major shortage in the mainstream. 2017 luckily blessed us with The Aces and their undeniably joyful visual for “Physical.” In the pastel-colored clip, directed by Charlotte Rutherford, we see the fierce foursome taking full control of the spotlight as they parade around in prom dresses with absolute no f*cks to give – these girls ain’t got time for your unrequited love and I was all about it.

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16. St. Vincent – New York: Directed by Alex Da Corte in conjunction with All Ages Productions, the clip features Queen Vincent at the center of a series of stunning and colorful imagery. The Big Apple has never looked so vivid, fantastical and surreal.

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15. Lorde – Green Light: Lorde gets a lot of shit for her left-of-center dance moves and in the visual for “Green Light” she uses it as her main strength to properly depict her breakup anthem. It’s “Dancing On My Own” magic all over again.

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14. Little Mix – Touch: It’s no secret that I love me an all-female anything. There is just something about a group of fierce ladies standing together that takes me to a higher place. Little Mix kept my faith in girl groups alive all year, and this colorful non-stop dance romp is exactly what we’ve been wanting to see from them for years. A major win.

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13. Selena Gomez – Bad Liar: I don’t know if it was the ’70’s-theme, the lesbian nods, or the fact that Selena Gomez played every single character in this quirky video that did the trick for me, but I am very happy it exists. I sometimes wonder how much work had to go into this to make it work. Selena did that, y’all, period.

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12. Kelela – LMK: If you thought the song already sounded like a blast from the past with its Aaliyah-esque vibe, then its accompanying music video truly furthered that sentiment. From that shiny metallic trench coat, to the bold backdrops, to the non-stop choreography and wig changes, everything about “LMK” looks like and feels like a celebration of an era.

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11. Lana Del Rey – Love: Lana‘s dreamy escape to outer space is everything I’ve always wanted and more. Cheeky wink and all, she nailed this one.

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10. SZA – Supermodel: Boyfriend drama? Feeling alone? Isolated? Not good enough? Daydream about fiercely strutting your way through an enchanted forest in a see-through black blouse with matching Ctrl panties. You’ll be better for it.

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9. Grimes & Janelle Monáe – Venus Fly: As if having Grimes and Janelle Monáe together on one track wasn’t enough already, they went ahead and released this Sailor Moon meets Final Fantasy-like visual trip to accompany their monster of a song. I’ve never been the same…

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8. Billie Eilish – watch: Billie was one to “watch” all year long, but she really went ahead and did the damn thing with this visual masterpiece. With the help of director Megan Park, she truly brought the meaning of the song to life as a newly empowered version herself sets fire to her old self – her old self being the one who let a bad relationship affect the way she was viewing herself for the worse – and her old inner thoughts (represented by a crew of female dancers). A major emotional punch in video form.

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7. BANKS – Trainwreck: Continuing a tradition of unhinged visual glory, the Marie Schuller-directed clip for BANKS‘ The Altar standout “Trainwreck” exercises her unpredictable and dark sensuality as she performs in front of an old-school VHS camera for anonymous suited ghouls who seem to be trying to control her, follow her, and record her. BANKS goes along with it but knows they’re a bunch of creepy fakes, so eventually she gets her revenge. Are the suited ghouls supposed to represent the mainstream media? record executives? Your momma? WHO KNOWS, either way I absolutely lived.

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6. Clean Bandit – Symphony (feat. Zara Larsson): This is here mostly for the beautifully touching story being told. It speaks for itself “like a love song on the radio.”

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5. Taylor Swift – Look What You Made Me Do: I’m not like the biggest Tay Tay fan or anything, but I will give credit when credit is due: “Look What You Made Me Do” is what a pop star music video should look like. Narcissism at its finest.

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4. HAIM – Want You Back: This dreamy, ’80’s-esque rock throwback was already excellent to begin with, but the track got a major boost thanks to the fabulous dancing featured throughout this Jake Schreier-directed extravaganza — the HAIM sis’ seriously brought the moves. Everything about this video just works, and the fact that the location holds sentimental value to HAIM makes it even better. They’re joyfully strutting down the valley streets they grew up on. Everything, really. LOVE! LOVE! LOVE!

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3. Dua Lipa – New Rules: Dua Lipa finally got the recognition she deserved the second she dropped the highly memorable music video for her meme-ready, breakup anthem “New Rules.” What seemed like a normal girls’ night out quickly turned into very uniquely executed dance routines spread throughout the rooms, the hallways, and pool area of a Miami hotel, making for quite the visual treat. It’s a feminist concept, if you will, done in the most fun of ways. Dua Lupa is the pop star we deserve.

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2. Kendrick Lamar – LOYALTY. (feat. Rihanna): Picking just one Kendrick Lamar music video for this list was no easy task because, honestly, Kendrick gave it to us good all year round. “LOYALTY.” with my Queen RiRi is simply here to represent them all. The megastars channel a modern day Bonnie and Clyde in the clip, directed by Dave Meyers, which is essentially a series of symbolic images, pieced together to tell a twisted story of romance, trust, and love. Someone get these two up on the big screen ASAP!

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1. Charli XCX – Boys: Objectification of men in a music video? HOW DARE SHE. Charli XCX comes in hot with a parody that features a veritable who’s who of high-profile boys: Joe Jonas, Diplo, Rostam, Wiz Khalifa, D.R.A.M., Kaytranada, Stormzy, Riz Ahmed and Swet Shop Boys, Jack Antonoff, Mark Ronson, Flume, Ty Dolla $ign, Joey Bada$$, Chromeo, Charlie Puth, Khalid, and tons more appear in the boy-stuffed visual. HOW DID NO ONE THINK OF THIS BEFORE?!? Pure genius.

from Jon ALi's Blog http://jonalisblog.com/2017/12/24/jon-ali-presents-the-top-20-music-videos-of-2017/

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tellmeyourstory-art-blog · 7 years

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Amicus

What is the point of friends and relationships?

The questionable studies of Harlow was undoubetdly cruel but elighted an important insight to human affection. Can we live without it? The reason harlow preformed hi experiments on moneky’s was because taking a human in the most natural sociolofical form would be ‘an infant’ because they are without external influence - TV, parents, toys.

Harlow took a group of baby monkey from birth and put them in an elaborate set up with 2 mothers, One was a wired mother, who fed and provided milk, the other was cloth who’s only ability was to provide comfort. Thehypothesis was that hough the wire mother was scary and uncomforting the monkey would show love to it because it nourished them and gave them a means to survive. Proving that human love was based off of need. but surprising Harlow was wrong. The monkeys utilised both mothers equally, further proving comfort and affectio was something needed in the psche for love and survival.

to want to belong somewhere, to find comfort. Today we do so by first finding it in family, and then as adults in categories, it’s how we met like minded people.

Groups, set aorund drinking culture, fitness or art. Still fear change just as the Neanderthals did, maybe theire categories it was the hunters and gathers any anything new was scary, rejected and destroyed as it posed a threat to a specific way of life. For example how your fat friends relish and secretly don’t want you get fit or how the friends who drink a lot don’t want you to stop drinking.

but today, it’s divided by mroe and more categories. When we wee young we dealt with a small kind of exclusion boy against girls, when we are older it’s the Introverts and Extroverts, who liek this magazine, or this celebrity and we form gorups and within those groups cultures, when really why do the categories matter at all. We are all humn and at the heart of it little animals trying to feel out places to fit in somewhere.

I didn’t really feel like i belonged on anywhere, in my family or in friend groups. I was outcasted though I didnt realise until I was 13. In high school a rumor would go around about me that I was a lesbian on the first day of high school casting me as ‘dont play with’ Sometimes I wonder if it was my sister who intially spread the rumor since she was always at a competition with me for attention, I never felt it. She once turned to me and said ‘you know how were always pitted against eachother’ and I never knew what she meant.

She once bribed me in the bathroom as young kids with a $2 coin to stop pulling a face that would grab my moms attention and make her laugh for a secod, for my sister attention is what gave her validation, and to stop me from getting it away from her.

And above that I was weird. And people didn’tlike me. My didn’t so why would i believe or act in away that anyone else did. A very self pittying view but at the time it was true none the less. Having friends was extremelydifficult for me because of my mom too. When I had finally made a friend group one of them asked ‘my parents saifd your mom was a mistress’ i had no idea what that meant so i asked my mom who lost it at me

WHO SAID THAT she blarred, eventully getting the number out of me and absuing my friends parents.

Eventually even my sister friends werent allowed at our house because theyw ould leave crying.

gossip started, but still no one stepped in or did anything.

Friendships can seem mysteious, we talk about clicking, but there there is something at the heart of friendships that seems important to identify, vulnerability. it’s easy to assume what makes us likeable is who we are on the outside, good looks, nice car or public acclaim, strengths accoplisment and things we are porud of.. this impresses but it isnt what draws others to us.. the more we get to know someon we are able to depart from the official story and start to reveal awkward truths.

unfortunately this can work in 2 ways, with overwhelming support and positivity for our positive traits and negative. Friends, can be a great healthy support and fulfill our very sociological need to belong somewhere. Friends can also be a great support for validating unhealthy values too.

My mother was still able to find a group of friends who validated their own alcohol addiction ad sadness together and becam a stronger support for denial rather than lifting eachother up.

I’d always dread coming home from school and smelling the cigarette smoke and drunken laighter from the varrander. Mid day drunken senssions of sad people pissing their years away. My mom blamed my sister and I had no problme telling us that or her friend who believed her.

One weekend away I had come home from a sleepover and found one of these friends cleaning out my moms house. I had been gone the entire weekend and she had supposedly trashed eevrything. Her friend was shaking her head and calling me a digusting pig as my mom had told them I had done it. I tried to explain id been away how could I have done it, but being a child in the eyes of ‘adults’ they didnt believe and continued on the lies to keep inhibiting their digusting problems.

Soon my mom would have sex uncaring if anyone was around. On top of my christmas presents, as i cried from the top of the stairs, her fleeting relationship with a man who was just a pathetic and lonely theyd smoke weed and scream loudly un caring there was children in the house, that it was the middle of the day and how truly disturbing a child leanring about sex is by listening to unhibited parent not caring about boundaries.. only their own desires.

Soon there was naked people everywhere, cigarette smoke vodka stained carpets and a deeper denial floating around everyone who gravitated that disgusting house. Her besy friend soon became her lesbian lover would drink with her ll night laughing about how shit life was. She’d call me after my mom died and continue, she’d tell me how she removed my moms tampon and other disgusting detils of their love life i had no need to know. But she needed someoone to vent to, and someone to understand. Anyone. And that desperatess left to an unhinged release of lines being crossed, when anyone would think a responible adult should be incontrol of where they are drawn.

None of them truly understanding how daming that is for a young girl in her formative years. Had it been openly talked about maybe it would have been differnt, but it was always loud voices behind a locked door.

I’d learn how to pick locks becauseof this.. or be louder. I’d bury myself into my guitar and sing sond of her being sober outside her bedroom door all in a failed attempt to get throgh. to someone.

It was agonsiing screaming for help on the floor with no one to hear me. I still feel so much pain playing guitar out of fear the songs I did play were unimportsant, unlistened to and didnt help anyone.

We live together, we act on, and react to, one another; but always and in all circumstances we are by ourselves. The terminally ill person maybe pittied and empthaised with and by family and friends but only he who is truly sick can know what it is like to suffer that fate.

The lovers deserprately try to fuse with eachother in hopes of creating a destiny in a sing self transdence but do so in vain as they inevitbly die alone. Only you can experience what you are experiencing, and it is th efate of every soul to suffer in solitude.

I retracted inwards, more and had the self realisation it was Ok to be alone and feel lonely,t hat really. All I had was me in this wrold to rely on, and that was ok, which shaped my beliefs today on being lonely.

I like the feeling. I believe being lonely can be a choice & isn’t sad at all. Many people have mixed judgements about this, some will think I am shy, others insecure.. but I am a deeply confident person these days, I've struggled with myself, and, at the same time I often wondered -- s there something wrong with me for not forming {meaningful || intermittent} attachments?"

For me it's come down to the fact that I'm about growth and progress and moving forward. Since I've been young, I've never really felt any particular attachment to any one thing in particular. Such as, the typical hometown-hoedown; or taking-up supporting a local team with fervor or passion. Same goes with my relationships friends or more than friends.

It's taken a while, but I'm comfortable with this for the most part. I don't want to be stuck in any one mindset or frame of mind, nor do I want to placate or pacify myself into being stagnant. "Oh this is just okay since it's what everyone else does." It seems in 2017 It's still looked down upon to be 'alone', as if there is something wrong with you. And although I believe having social skills to carry yourself in a large groups is important, it's not the same thing. Reminds me of a Cranberries song: "Everybody else is doing it, so why don't we."is simple: "What's popular is not always right, and what's right is not always popular." -- Do I want to be a follower, or have my own mind? Am I myself, or am I someone else? To make friends - good ones, you truly do have to enjoy your own company in order to provide the vulnerabilty of true friendship, our hidden truths and obscrities.

I (personally) abhor parrots -- hearing the same thing over and over again from people who don't like answering pertinent questions which would impinge parrot logic (ignore that which is inconvenient is used too often by too many people, IMO). Make sense? (I see nothing wrong with this -- though it might feel wrong compared to the typical or average social perspective)-- there's really nothing wrong with it tp fill the sociological need to belong grow with self value & respect first, you can accept the right people and let them come and go throughout all phases of it. I fall inlove with people who aren’t afraid to say no to me, I fall in love with my friends who help me learn.

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recentanimenews · 7 years

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Bookshelf Briefs 3/27/17

It’s the Affordable Briefs Act!

The Boy and the Beast, Vol. 3 | By Mamoru Hosada and Renji Asai | Yen Press – This novel, and in turn this manga, is at heart about an adopted dad and son who have issues that cause them to lash out, but get along well anyway. Kyuta has the excuse of being a teenager who has met a nice girl and also runs into his birth father again but can’t pick up where he left off. Kumatetsu is simply a bear man with massive anger and abandonment issues. But they both manage to man up and evolve to another level in this book, which is immensely satisfying until the cliffhanger, where everything goes horribly wrong. This should wrap up next time, and it’s an excellent adaptation, with nicely expressive art and some cool fight scenes at the end. – Sean Gaffney

A Centaur’s Life, Vol. 11 | By Kei Murayama | Seven Seas – I’m still reading this series, mostly because I want to see how many times it makes me stare at the page in disbelief. Half of its is still slice-of-life monster girls, with chapters like “little girls’ first day at school” and “are the main cast good enough to try being idols?.” And then you get chapters with frog terrorists breaking into a brothel and slaughtering nearly everyone in order to rescue one of their own, or the human soldier who’s involved in a war with the same frogs and runs into phenomenal prejudice from the other soldiers, which is clearly meant to be a commentary on World War II. Either of these genres might be interesting by itself. Together they’re a hopeless mishmash, and I mostly just end up frustrated. – Sean Gaffney

Complex Age, Vol. 4 | By Yui Sakuma | Kodansha Comics – If there was an award for introducing a character to a series and immediately making you hate her so much that every time you see her on the cover you’re filled with the urge to kick her face in, then Yui Sakuma would surely win it. Rui is the girl whose shabby cosplay Nagisa shamed back in volume one, and now she’s back, having become a perfectionist herself. Clearly unhinged, she’s outraged by newbie Aya receiving Nagisa’s attention and sics internet trolls on her. I might hate her, but I love that Nagisa must compare herself to Rui and articulate how she’s different. Because of this interaction, and the way Nagisa breaks things off with her boyfriend after he’s critical of a chubby friend enjoying cosplay, I’ve got a stronger sense of her character than ever before. I can’t believe there are only two more volumes of this series! – Michelle Smith

Everyone’s Getting Married, Vol. 4 | By Izumi Miyazono | VIZ Media – Guess what? Asuka still wants to get married and Ryu still doesn’t. Shocker, I know. A sizable portion of this volume focuses on the insecurities each has regarding someone else in the other’s life—for Ryu it’s Kamiya, a banking-industry comrade of Asuka who sees her as his perfect woman and has proposed to her, while for Asuka it’s married actress Yuko Sakura, Ryu’s former lover and co-host of a new music program. The resolutions to these situations are sweet, and there’s one comment by Ryu that suggests a bit of thawing on the marriage question, but I admit it’s all beginning to feel a bit repetitive to me. That said, I did like the oneshot at the end, and will definitely continue reading the series. – Michelle Smith

He’s My Only Vampire, Vol. 10 | By Aya Shouoto | Yen Press – We’ve reached the end of this series, and I will definitely give it credit for not ending the way that I was expecting to. The school life is not making a comeback, as the final battle between Aki and Eriya proves to be life-changing and not something that you can walk back. As for the battle itself, it’s filled with last-minute plot twists and turns that unfortunately did not have as much impact on me as they should have. This series has an unfortunate habit of being interesting while I read it but immediately forgettable otherwise. But it looks quite pretty, and certainly those who love vampire romance got their money’s worth. Probably my favorite Shouoto series, though it still had a lot of issues. – Sean Gaffney

Kiniro Mosaic, Vol. 2 | By Yui Hara | Yen Press – Slice-of-life fluff is always difficult to review, even in brief format. “The cute girls do cute things” doesn’t really tell you anything. We do see more of their teacher, who appears to be well-meaning but a bit ditzy, and Youo seems to settle into her role as the closest this series has to a normal girl. For the most part, if you liked volume one you’ll like the second—there’s still yuri tease that doesn’t really go beyond “I really like you in a blushy way,” there’s still “these girls are all airheads in various ways” humor, and Karen continues to be the only one who suffers from not being a strong enough stereotype. If you enjoy this sort of series, it’s good fun, but it’s quite inessential, even for yuri fans. – Sean Gaffney

Love at Fourteen, Vol. 6 | By Fuka Mizutani | Yen Press – It’s been a year since we last saw this series, but not much has changed. Kanata and Kazuki still awkwardly pursue a secret relationship, even as Kanata realizes that “I love you” has never actually been said. A lot of Japanese romances involve the idea that deeds are always more important than words, and this proves to be the case here as well. We also discover that there is more than one lesbian character in the series, which is surprising, and nice to see. As for Nagai and Hinohara, that’s there as well, and we see she’s not above abusing his obvious crush on her to get him to do something for the school, though it backfires on her somewhat. Ignoring the power issues with that ship, this remains a great manga for romance fans. – Sean Gaffney

Of the Red, the Light, and the Ayakashi, Vol. 6 | By nanao and HaccaWorks* | Yen Press – Oh dear, and now we’re running in place again. There’s a lot that goes on here, but there’s less forward progression than I like. We do get some nice backstory between the fox-tailed miko of the shrine and the ayakashi killer, and we also learn, and I shouldn’t have been as surprised as I was, that there is more to Tsubaki’s sister than it appears. (If nothing else, I guess that means I can rely on her to not get killed for the sake of drama in the next book.) But I have similar issues with this series and He’s My Only Vampire, in that I find it very hard to keep track of everything that’s happening, even with the release being relatively fast in North America. For fantasy fans. – Sean Gaffney

Of the Red, the Light, and the Ayakashi, Vol. 6 | By HaccaWorks* and nanao | Yen Press – Akitoshi and Akashi have partnered together to infiltrate the shrine of Utsuwa, but once Akitoshi realizes Akashi doesn’t care if other people get hurt, he joins up with Yue instead to look for their missing friend, Tsubaki. Once everyone gathers inside, Akashi and Mikoto have a standoff, and some of their past is revealed. Honestly, although I found this volume to be fast-paced and interesting, it’s also still fairly confusing at times. Some of what puzzles me are mysteries yet to be explained, but I’m also not sure why Yue, a vessel of someone important like Shin, was also destined to be someone else’s meal. I strongly suspect this series will benefit from a straight-through reading rather than in installments. Still recommended, though! – Michelle Smith

That Wolf-boy Is Mine, Vol. 4 | By Yoko Nogiri | Kodansha Comics – And so, a heartwarming tale comes to a close. Komugi’s memories of Yu and friends have been buried by Yata-sensei, but thankfully it doesn’t take too long for her to recover them. I very much liked seeing the other ayakashi boys arguing in favor of their relationship, and we finally learn what happened twelve years ago. It’s a pleasant and non-surprising ending, and it is satisfying, though I confess I still kind of hoped Komugi would end up with Rin. What pleasantly surprised me, though, was the absolutely lovely bonus story about Senri, the two-tailed cat who has been most distant from the main narrative, and the time he loved and was loved by a human. I enjoyed this series very much and hope we see more of Nogiri’s work here in the future. – Michelle Smith

By: Michelle Smith

#Anime #News #Manga Bookshelf

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