#mod replies

[aceofwhump]

Sorry, this got really long. I just got reminded of an idea I had back in fucking middle school and thought you might appreciate it.

So I know that "villain turns up on hero's doorstep / in their apartment /etc. because they have "nowhere else to go"" is kind of a common trope, but I really really really want to see more of the reverse. A hero who is badly hurt, maybe even on the run from the organization they work(ed) for, and goes to the villain for shelter.

The villain is just chilling in their evil lair and their security system goes off. They get all dressed up in their regalia and go outside to face the threat, only to see the hero leaning against a tree / the wall / whatever, gripping their side, blood soaking through their uniform, face pale.

Or, alternatively, they look on the cameras and see nothing. Sighing, rolling their eyes about how they really need to fine-tune the settings so it stops alerting at animals, they go outside (potentially prepared to gain another snack for their pet) and instead see hero crumpled in a heap. (Bonus if the hero was flying into the villain's airspace and crash-landed / was zapped out of the sky by the villain's defenses.)

Maybe the villain's pet Creature perks up its nose and dives into the bushes. The villain runs after them, cursing, since "I thought you knew better than to chase squirrels!!" only to find their pet pawing at (or even attempting to gnaw on) the hero's body. (Dragging them by the cape like Krypto in Superman....)

Or maybe the hero lands on the balcony of the villain's Evil Penthouse in the city. Or stumbles up the drive of their looming mansion in the countryside.

Maybe the villain saw them approaching from a distance and disabled their security / called off their goons, preparing a trap. The door opens and they're ready to burst into an evil monologue as the hero walks in, but then the hero just... crumples.

Imagine the last thing the hero says as they lose consciousness is a quiet "You were right." The villain would ordinarily be gloating, but they can't seem to find any joy in that idea. After all, what's the point in changing someone's mind if they just die right away? No. There's no satisfaction there.

The vulnerability of delirium, too. Accidentally revealing top-secret plans, or letting on that their bosses/organization they work for have hurt them. Hero babbling "Don't take me back there, please!"

Maybe they were shot with some kind of anti-power poison (because of course the organization that collects super heroes would know how to stop them).

Imagine the "good guys" showing up at the villain's place and demanding they return their "kidnapped" operative. Offering a ransom. Villain listens to the recording and stares at the sleeping form on their bed, and wonders what the hero did to make their former employers want them so badly.

Villain defending their home (and the hero) with everything they had. Maybe hero shows up at the last minute to help them, too.

Maybe the hero wakes up with the villain's cat (or other pet creature) on their chest. Or they wake up alone in an unfamiliar place and go wandering, catching glimpses of the villain's private life until they finally come across the villain in another room. ("Finally. I was starting to wonder if I would have to feed you to the sharks." "Sharks? Aren't we in the middle of the city?" "That was a joke, hero.")

Maybe the villain's residence is a lot less impressive than the hero was expecting. Their "secret bunker" is little more than a couple of rooms.

The hero getting to see what the villain is like behind the mask. There are photos of their loved ones on the wall. ("What happened to them?" "What happened? Nothing. My mother was just here last Sunday for tea. My dad's dead though. Fucking lung cancer of all things. Man smoked a pack a day.") Their cat is a huge cuddle-bug, and the living room has more cat toys than people furniture. Their MASSIVE dog sleeps on the bed and licks your face. Their library is filled with romcoms. They have a huge collection of 80s music. There's an entire room full of arcade games. They collect abstract art. Their fridge is covered in travel magnets. They sing and dance (badly) while they cook. ("Yes, of course I cook for myself. You think I can afford to hire staff? In this economy?? Besides, what's to stop your precious Organization from sending plants? And I can't exactly put out an ad in the papers.")

Idk, I just think this is a critically underrated reversal of tropes here.

(sent by @memento-morri-writes bc I'm an idiot who made my writing-related blog a sideblog.)

*screaming crying throwing up* OH MY GOOOOOOD I LOVE IT I LOVE IT I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is amazing and I'm obsessed. Fuck every part of what you just wrote is perfection and itching this particular itch of mine so good. I love a good hero villain team up and I love when the villain is like the good guy in comparison and the good guys are shitheads. I love a hurt hero. I love it ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!! CRITICALLY UNDERRATED INDEED!!!!!!

[selfship-confession-void]

How to be more confident about my selfship?

Step one; remember that no matter what shape, style, or way your selfship exists, it is still valid

Step two; repeat what is listed in step one as daily affirmations

Step three; indulge in soft, romantic content or whatever content you feel best describes your selfship

Step four; surround yourself with the positive side of the community

[incorrectmahabharatquotes]

I see so many hindutva wadis arguing that caste system is a foreign concept and hinduism only had the varna system. As if the varna system was fair? Also isn't caste derived from the varna system? Like brahmins and Kshatriyas became upper castes, vaishyas became obc and shudra were dalits?

I had the impression that the caste system was the documentation of people who already belonged to the varna system. Do correct me if I'm wrong.

It's a little more complicated than that. Currently, we live under the jaati(or jāti) system broadly speaking. When people talk about the caste system in modern India, it is this system superimposed on the varna system that they are referring to. Functionally, the caste system now is a hybrid of the two systems.

The Varna system and the Jaati System are both systems of social hierarchy.

As everyone is already aware, under the varna system, the society is divided into four categories(i.e. brahmins, kshatriyas, vaishyas and shudras) which are hierarchical in nature and mentioned in the various ancient religious texts. Crucially important to this system is the existence of a fifth category, the untouchables(I assume you're already aware of the practice of untouchability) and the outsiders(often termed as "mlechhas", which is now a derogatory xenophobic{and casteist!} slur coming back into popular use thanks to the resurgence of regressive ideas under hindutva politics). These are important to mention because the marginalization of these people was based on them being an out-group i.e. not part of the varna system. People claim the varnas were mutable based on a handful of examples in said texts but I would like to point out that those examples are said to be exceptions rather than the rule.

The Jaati System would be more familiar to you in terms of lived experience. Under this system, society is divided into socio-ethnic endogamous groups or communities and each of the groups have different socio-economic standing in society. The practice of endogamy(marriage limited to within a social group) is important to this system as there is emphasis on one's birth. This is why people say that intermarriage is the most significant step towards dismantling the entire system, but I digress. Prior to the colonization of India, these groups worked on a purely social basis of privilege and exclusion. Villages and cities were(and still are!) segregated based on these jatis. One's occupation was defined by their birth as long as they lived in their specific society.

I would like to emphasize that this system existed and thrived even before the colonisers ever came knocking on the subcontinent's doors. We can find mentions of the system in the historical accounts of both people of the subcontinent and travellers from outside. A study of people's DNA by some scholars claims that the endogamous groups can be traced back to as far as the Gupta Empire(mid 3rd century to mid 6th century CE).

The assertion that the caste system is a purely colonial fabrication is absurd. People point to the term "caste" as being of foreign origin but the term "jaati" already existed and was in use. "Caste" is just another way of referring to jaatis.

Now on to some legitimacy hidden in the nonsensical claims, in the 1901 census of the subcontinent, the British bureaucracy fit the various jatis under the broad classification of the four varnas. It was not a clean fit, leaving many in an awkward position of having been classified wrongly. This is their fault. Not the construction of the system but rather the wrongful categorisation of it.

Officially, there are over 3,000 castes and 25,000 sub-castes in India. Take these numbers with a grain of salt because there are many unregistered castes and sub-castes to this day fighting their own battles of legal recognition.

The castes do not cleanly map onto the varnas. There are many castes who are in the upper strata of the hierarchy in one region and the lower strata in different regions. The system is incredibly nuanced and complex and our current legal systems have not caught up to the sophistication required to deal with it because of the people in power's adamant insistence of ignoring the system simply because they profit off of the oppression of others.

I don't want to add to the miscategorization but I feel like I should correct you on the fact that broadly speaking shudras are classified more under OBCs. (Please keep in mind that this not a clear category and there can be some castes who are said to be shudra who can be other categories as well.) There's much to be said about that because there's no distinction made between the land owner castes and the landless castes. And no, the creamy layer is not a good marker either.

There are some castes(1,108 of them to be exact) who were listed as scheduled castes(SC) in the Constitution of India for affirmative action. This was done to socially reform the country and help those in the marginalized sections of society to gain social mobility. The hope was to remove caste discrimination. As we know, it wasn't successful because caste discrimination still exists and caste based violence is on the rise again.

The term dalit is a contemporary word for the untouchable castes who were and are subjected to despicable discrimination in society.

The reason that I say that we now function under a hybrid of the two systems is that the superimposition of the varna system over the jaati system has been accepted and in many cases, embraced by the people now. You will find many a "upper caste" people proudly flaunting their Brahmin or kshatriya identities. The varna system is now interlinked with the jaati or the caste system whether we like it or not.

The system is complicated and fucked. We should get rid of it, guys. And with your help, you can make that dream a reality.

-Mod S

[tolkienrsb]

Will the event be happening this year? Since the gallery from the previous year usually opens in March, but there’s no 2026 schedule on the site I wanted to make sure it is still going to happen this year!

Hi there!

Yes! The event planning is well underway (including a much needed website revamp). We are just as excited as you for TRSB2026.

Mod Elentariel

[whumpgifathon]

Hi! Was scrolling through the tags and saw your cool whump challenge from August, and I was wondering if you plan on doing another one in the future? I would love to participate if so!

Hi! Yes I would love to do this again!! I'm so glad to hear you're interested in joining! It should be in August again. So long as I have the time to build up the prompt list, I shall continue this event!

[mcytshipsandmore]

I’m sorry for not knowing the boundaries of all the mcyters you guys send, I genuinley am I feel guilty everytime I find out I tagged their main tag when they don’t like shipping 😭

I’m getting so many asks of over like 20-30 characters and ships of like several different smps or series it’s genuinely super hard to actually do that and when we actually do that, people do get mad at us. It’s a only me running this blog right now there’s like 50 asks of so many different creators, it took a bit to find the time to answer the asks and even then it’s taken me like 3 or more hours to answer everything all by myself. I’m willing to block the creator or untag the main tag of the creator who doesn’t like shipping, I’m sorry guys I just can’t take more time out of my day trying to research everything about like 30 different creators -⭐️

[capsicleamericasteve]

hey so i’m on anon cuz i don’t wanna sound stupid, but in ur bio it says “Also, just please ignore this username… Tony chose it for me and I can't change it…” i can’t tell if this is roleplay or not (i’m not stupid i SWEAR) but yknow you can change it right? if you go to ur blog settings it’s like one of the first things you see! ^ ^

if this was intentional i’m so sorry for bothering you and wasting your time pls don’t be mad at me. and you can also just ignore this ask! sorry i was just trying to be helpful

hii!!! No dw It was for the roleplay 😭🫶🏻🫶🏻 thanks for the concern tho, you're a sweetheart! Have a good day <3

[five0mcdanno]

do you think if he didn’t have Charlie to think about, Danny would’ve gone with Steve?

Oh man that is such a good question. I'm not sure. I feel like by that moment Danny was pretty damn happy with his life, including living in Hawaii. He had a family (both blood and not blood), a job he's good at and enjoys and is proud of, and he's found things to love about Hawaii. He even mentions the ocean as being a positive which is such a huge turn around from when he first arrived on the island. Danny was very settled and happy in his life in Hawaii. If Danny was 100% physically healthy/healed and he didn't have Charlie I still don't know for sure if he'd go with Steve. Maybe. It's not like he hasn't followed Steve before. Always when Steve needed him most. But those times feel different to me because he knew they'd be back. Heck half of the reason why he went was to bring Steve back in the first place. This feels more permanent (even though I know in my heart that Steve is absolutely returning. There's just no "when"). I also feel like Danny wouldn't leave the team alone for an undisclosed amount of time. I guess I feel like he wouldn't have gone with Steve. I can however see him, after a month or so, finding the neanderthal and dragging him home finally. That's a very Danny thing to do.