Things that Click

Plot, theories, maybe DIYs i dunno. I'll be extrapolating things

[ktusagi16]

Can anyone agree that Holiday Resse's are better than the normal kind? They are so you have to. Not because of the taste- but because there's one less wrapper.

[ktusagi16]

Hear me out- holiday shaped Reese's are better than normal Reese's....

BECAUSE THERE IS LESS PACKAGING!! Its so much work to delicately peel open the golden wrapper only to have to get chocolate on your nails trying to peel off the black wrapper. And even then! not all the peanut butter cup comes away!

Reese's should have edible black wrappers! (Perhaps dark chocolate?) Until then, I will eat ANYTHING else without two or more levels of security.

[ktusagi16]

😆Does anyone else like Beauty and the Beast? Like the original plot? The one with the theme of female autonomy and consent? Published back in good ol' 1740? Seems like we could still use this story in 2020.

I'm a big fan. It has got to be my favorite story to read retellings of and let me tell you- I have. So many you would feel sick looking through the list.

Yet no matter how many I read, none seem to understand the point Madame de Villaneuve was making. This story was controversial when it was published but now it's reduced to 'beauty is on the inside'. Its not a bad point but one that does not challenge, does not provoke.

Lemme walk you through some issues I've read over and over (so you don't have to😇)

1) In modern health, we know that healing anything (trauma, internalized behavior, harmful coping hazards, etc) requires a lot of work from the self and takes time. It is not someone else's job to fix them or even deal with them during their low points. In Beauty and the Beast's story, it is not Belle's job to 'heal' Beast back into a prince. She is one person who is strange. Not a mystical attitude adjuster goddess.

2) In the original, Beast was already in a good place to begin a relationship with Beauty. However Disney has influenced the story immensely and is the version we're most familiar with. Now we assume the Beast's inability to love as the main point of the curse. But look at what actually happened.

When the Witch/Sorceress adds the clause 'if he can learn to love another- and earn her love in return', its not a hint for Beast to get his romance on, but to better himself for someone to love. As he was- by modern terms, a sexist, classist, spoiled prince, he held too much power with too little self-growth.

3) Beast's backstory is very interesting for a plot. But to have such a transformation from self absorbed narcissist into a compassionate human being, what circumstances must he go through? You can't just stuff all the 'character flaws' into a garbage bag and throw it out when its convienient. And would being changed into a beast be enough to alter his world views and harmful behaviors?

That's a lot to write a character through. And I have yet to read it done well. But perhaps its time for a new edition of this well loved fairytale.

(Just my thoughts on a beloved story. Let me know what you think Beast could have gone through☺)

[ktusagi16]

Let's talk Vampire lore. Why would vampires be allergic to silver? What rumor or myth could this attribute have gathered credence from? Skip the dusty tomes and head to science.

Here's my take. Vampires are dead. Their bodies are trying to decompose but the vampire strain won't let the cells do their thing and continuously keep them in stasis.

Silver, as well as copper, bronze, and brass, are antimicrobial. Whenever you've smelt these metals or seen them tarnish, that's evidence that they're killing microbes, skin cells, diseases, viruses, etc. (A whole new take on 'born with a silver spoon in their mouth, eh?)

So my theory is that whenever the vampire comes into contact with silver and these other metals, that it fights against the vampire stasis charm on the cells and they begin to decay.

This doesn't account for vampires not showing up in mirrors or film though.

Not unless there was a time aspect to vampirism and a counter effect to it. Up vs down, wet vs dry, etc. So for the vampire's immortality- their body's disobedience of the laws of time and nature, there must be a counter. A counter to fix what is damaging our timeline.

Perhaps silver is the most time sensitive element and seeks to eradicate the unchanging presence from history as much as possible. And the more impure alloys, to a lesser degree.

But this is 2021. We are enlightened modern folk. What would be the weapon of choice for modern a vampire hunter? Easy.

Hand sanitizer. Or better yet, send them to a hospital. With the sheer mania the public has taken to sanitizing everything in the past twenty years, the chances of their being a vampire left is highly remarkable.

Consider: Cafe tables are wiped down regularly, antibacterial soap is in every restroom, company's usually have a cleaning crew which sanitize all the door knobs, housewives washing kids' hands, clothes, backpacks- i could continue. But there you have it. Vampires are killed by silver and disinfectant wipes.

(And with this theory, I have ruined any hopes of enjoying a vampire romance ever again. It really sucks you know. Please join in my suffering. Or better yet, become a fanfic writer and fix the genre)

[ktusagi16]

As someone from a small town, I never related to the quirks of one in fics/books. I've lived in a town with less than 5,000 people for my entire life yet I only know the names of my neighbors directly beside and across from me.

Then I got thinking. In fics/books, the MC never has to drive an hour to the nearest Wal-mart. The teenagers aren't driving three (also small) towns over to the nearest movie theater. The towns people purchase only from their (1) hardware store, (1) mercantile shop, and (1) diner. They'd be soooooo bored

Therefore, small towns in fics/books must be:

1) HOURS away from another town. Like 8 hours away. Why else would they know each other so well? What else could keep grown adults with money to burn from heading to the nearest club?

2) That raises the question of how does that small town get food/deliveries/hardware/cars/gas/livestock? They must be self-sustainable to be so remote.

3) Means that MC isn't as ordinary as they seem. Being that remote would mean with teens Making Up scary fun, learning what to do to live without grocery store, that they would have a good grip on what they would need to know to live there. Not everything,, but enough ya'know? Things like homesteading, car mechanics, what to do if lost, hunting, farming, tanning, plumbing, etc.

There's nothing cutesy about being willfully ignorant in a remote area. Where are our strong protagonists who actually know something?!?!?! I demand a MC who can hunt/live alone and stumbles onto werewolves and is USEFUL to the cause.