#my meta

[getyoursorryasstomine]

more task force hate (with a side of garza ridiculing because I felt petty) ft @linds911

[getyoursorryasstomine]

more talks

[bvckbiter]

i already ranted about this a bit in the ta server the other day but im so frustrated about this again. the point is that thalia IS older/has more experience than percy, because ttc is all about how the traditional criteria of what makes a hero doesnt guarantee victory and a happy ending. heracles is glorified but had to manipulate zoe along the way. mr. d is contemptuous towards theseus for abandoning ariadne and takes it out on percy and other demigods. luke is a traitor, personally betrays annabeth, even loses the fight in ttc, and yet he's still able to take the sky, which poseidon mentions is the mark of a hero (i will never fail to mention this, btw).

thalia has immense main character energy and haunts the narrative even before she ever even appears for a reason. it's because she's set to fulfill the archetype of what is traditionally expected of a hero—which, sidenote, zeus' fatherly approval of her is important in this aspect. and percy admires and respects her for those qualities. she's the obvious choice, not percy, and that is the entire reason she yields the role of being the prophecy hero: the obviousness of the choice means that she has come to expect power and even hunger for it.

the role of the prophecy hero goes to percy not because hes just as powerful or as strong as thalia. he's not. this is not about powerscaling. the whole reason why percy becomes the prophecy hero is because he chooses to not let nico carry that burden. sure, he's a teenage boy that occasionally resents not being in the main spotlight at times, but the doomed fate of being a demigod hero is one that runs throughout the series, and lest we forget, sally as percy's primary formative person has never wanted that for him. she's always wanted a good ending for him. but more than compassion, what sally instills in percy is agency ("if my life is going to mean anything, i have to live it myself"). with that in mind, percy is the absolute last character who would want to be the top dog for the sake of his own ego. like first and foremost he wants to go home to his mom okay. i guarantee you percy jackson does not give that much of a shit about powerscaling against thalia grace

[thequeenofsastiel]

I keep thinking about what kind of punishment would work best on Sun. I doubt Jay is just going to go around cutting himself anytime Sun needs to be punished. But it is emotional pain that works as a punishment for Sun. So my suspicion is that neglect would work very well. We all saw how much it stressed Sun out when Jay went to the States and didn't answer his phone calls. I can see Jay choosing to ignore Sun for an indeterminate amount of time. Not let him sleep in their bed, or sleeping elsewhere himself. I think that would be a very hard punishment for Sun to endure.

Now fic ideas are stirring.

What do y'all think?

[sneakyboymerlin]

In SPN world "the supernatural" is literal maneaters and monsters, enemies of the people. In BBC Merlin there are a few of good harmless "supernaturals". But not all of them are, over and over again you picture them as innocent flawless sheep. The show is much more complex, it's not a school lesson on American history or something.

The idea that a school lesson on American history would be less complex than a poorly written early 2000s tv show saying “there is such a thing as being born inherently evil” is so so so silly <3

These shows oversimplify a concept which reflects real life bias (bioessentialism), which is why marginalized people (like myself) tend to be critical of the ideologies they implicitly (or explicitly) and unquestioningly relay.

Even so, you seem to have it mixed up. It’s actually SPN which plays with the idea that the supernatural is evil by default with the exception of a few good harmless ones. We see this frequently with the vampire, werewolf, and demon plotlines, and quite poignantly with Amy the kitsune, who Dean kills for [checks notes] having killed sexual predators to save her son’s life.

In BBCM, they do approach with suspicion of sorcery by default (which is likewise equivalent to real life profiling), but it is well-established that magic is not inherently evil and that sorcerers are people first, which is why they may act on either good or evil. It is the Pendragon regime which refuses to recognize the neutrality of magic as a force of nature.

Again, I do recommend that you learn the function and methods of bigotry in society, since you do live in a society (even if you don’t interact with it much). While I haven’t taken any college-level courses centered on American history, common sense tells us there is a lot to learn from in any such class.

I’m lucky to be in attendance at a university with many options in gender, ethnic, and cultural studies, but I understand that this privilege is not available to everyone. However, there are alternatives such as Coursera and Khan Academy where you can participate in structured lessons on these very topics. In fact, even YouTube has innumerable video lectures to choose from.

Of course, I recommend reading the accredited literature on these topics, but you don’t strike me as someone who read the books they were assigned in school (very much “the curtains are blue because they’re blue” vibes). You may need to begin with media comprehension studies instead of diving straight into the deep end. There are countless books and videos that help teach this form of literacy, and it is well worth it, especially when reading news articles, research/studies, and even watching a silly tv show packed with propaganda. Good luck!

[uwouldthink]

Do you have some analysis for how Marinette continues to claim that she has "no choice" in whatever course of action she's currently taking? It's just annoying at this point.

I'm pretty sure the answer is a doylistic "the writers want to paint Marinette as the underdog and/or they genuinely believe she's an underdog who's facing terrible hardship and impossible odds".

But that's boring, and there's actually a pretty consistent watsonian explanation.

For all that Marinette is creative, she's actually quite cognitively inflexible. It takes a lot for her to adjust to (or even process) new information or pick a different course of action.

A good example is Chameleon. She keeps trying the same tactic over and over again despite failing. Calling out Lila's lies in front of everyone isn't going to work the fifth time she tries but she never stops and thinks about trying something else. It's Adrien who had to pull the breaks for her and cause her to change course.

A Fairy Good Night is another good example. The moment the thought popped into her head that Max might have trouble adjusting she got completely stuck on it. She took it as 1) something true 2) that she had to act on and 3) barely processed any evidence to the contrary. It was only when Max outright told her, in the plainest way possible, that the thought is completely baseless.

This isn't helped by how she has problems with object permanence, so to speak. If something isn't right in front of her, she kinda forgets it exists. Her treatment of Chat Noir is prime example, especially in Kuro Neko where she jumps to the conclusion he's taking a break based on nothing and doesn't consider that something might have happened or his personal life interfered.

This also goes for concepts and ideas. If something isn't part of her conception of the world, she doesn't see it. Child abuse is the most blatant and topical example here.

However, the way she handles problems is also emblematic of this. Her focus is always on stopping the visible distress and treating the symptoms rather than solving the underlying problem. If she can't see the problem, that means there is no problem, right?

You might think her anxiety and overthinking goes against this, but it doesn't. Her thoughts may be running a thousand miles a minute, but she's still getting stuck on her anxiety and catasrophizing. That's how we get episodes like Illustrhater, Sublimation and Vampigami, where she gets stuck on her anxiety and must act on it in order to manage it.

Those things combine to make it so that Marinette tunnels visions on whatever her current course of action is and struggles to see alternatives until something external changes her train of thought. This contributes to her shortsightedness (she doesn't think about the consequences beyond what she's tunneled visioned on) and her black and white thinking (whatever path she's seeing seems to be the only one to exist at the moment, making nuance impossible).

This leads to her acting like she's a lot more helpless than she is. Most of Marinette's problems are things she has the power to at the very least mitigate, if not outright solve. However, that would require her to be able to consider alternatives to her current situation.

She's Ladybug, so she only sees paths where she keeps being Ladybug. She's the Guardian, so she only sees paths where she continues to be the Guardian. She does everything herself, so she only sees paths where she does everything herself. She keeps secrets from Chat Noir for literally no reason, so she only sees paths where she keeps on keeping secrets from him.

Marinette is someone whose actions are heavily influenced by inertia. She keeps doing whatever she's doing until something outside herself comes and changes her course. The source may be psychological, but it still leads to her feeling like she's unable to change her circumstances, even when she's the one in charge.

A moment that really jumps to mind for me about this is Marinette crying about how they know nothing about the new butterfly holder in Nemesis. She never even tried doing anything to learn more about the new holder?? Alya did. She even got some nuggets of information. But Marinette never so much as tried.

And there's no reason why she couldn't have. The plan she came up with in Nemesis was a plan she could've came up with in ep 1 of s6. Sure, they would have to use the illusion of someone else rather than an illusion of Marinette, but that's about the only change needed.

Even if we're assuming that it only worked because they knew Chrysalis would target Marinette (an assumption that has many logical holes to it then again that entire plan is one giant plot hole), they could've just briefed the team ahead of time of the plan, kept putting out illusions as bait and alerting the team once Chrysalis bites.

But that would require Marinette to change course from her existing passivity, which in not something she does unless her anxiety or someone else kicks her ass into gear.

Marinette has a lot of power at her fingertips, which means she has a lot of choices and things she can do. However, it doesn't matter how many paths she's able to walk on if she's only ever able to see the path in front of her. It'll still feel like she has no choice but to continue doing what she's already doing, because that's the only choice she can see.

[tobermoriansass]

Tbh Laketown is where you see some of Tolkien's conservative ideologies most nakedly displayed --

-- the town is the only non-monarchical entity in Middle Earth and the town has elected the Master

-- the Master is an un-man - in times of wartime crisis, he is cowardly; outside of crisis he is successful purely because he is a tradesman; afterwards he is so greedy, he runs away with gold and abandons his duty of care towards his people

-- Bard is a long-time descendant of the "lords" of Dale and therefore, a true man; an aristocrat who steps up and leads the not-quite-yeomanry in a defense against Smaug and then assists in battle against the Orcs

-- Lake-town prospers again and even more now that the rightful aristocratic leader has been reestablished & the republic abolished

In this you have, in a nutshell, the entirety of late 18th and 19th century anti-Whig propaganda (i.e. the Whigs as feckless, cowardly, self-interested, greedy merchants; by the 20th century characterized as degenerated, corrupted and effeminate men incapable of stewarding England) coupled with a quintessentially high Tory view of what a correction looks like - the reestablishment of monarchy under an old and lost bloodline is again a right wing, fringe Tory Victorian and then later Edwardian canard, both of which have their inheritances from the Jacobite movement of the 18th century... On and on it goes!!!

[redvanillabee]

I don't know why, but I love the idea of Trans Fem Jack. It makes sense to me, but I can't figure out exactly why it makes sense. It just does.

I think Jack’s view of Peggy (and women in her position in general) is such a funny mix of 1940s sexism and something akin to envy that lends itself very well to a Trans Jack reading. And I really hope I’m not minimising the feelings of internalised misogyny/transphobia with this reading but:

His view towards Peggy as a woman in the workplace has mostly been less truly misogynistic, but more confusion (if not annoyance) at why this woman has the courage or determination to defy societal expectations, even though it is hard. If we look back at what he said to Peggy in 1x04, he isn’t saying that “hey you, woman, do not belong in the workplace. Get out of here.” He is saying “hey Peggy, you are a woman, the society does not like woman—people like you—in the workplace, so why aren’t you bending to their will? Why are you still being yourself?” It’s a great contrast to how Jack instinctively moves through life: hey Jack, you’re a upper-middle class war hero able-bodied white man, the society wants you to be This Certain Way, so I will follow that script. Because that’s how things are. “It’s sad, but it doesn’t make it any less true,” as he says in the episode. It is simultaneous a derision and envy; given his secrets, given his insecurities, I think part of him does wonder what it would be like to live like Peggy. Just follow your heart, keep marching on with your head held high, regardless of what the society says.

Add to the fact that Jack’s presentation of classic masculinity seems almost performative even in the show. He makes a big deal about being the stick to Dooley’s carrot. Playing up to the expectations of a medalled veteran. Trying to be part of the “boys club” when Vernon tries to recruit him into the Council/Arena Club system. For me it is then very easy to add a veneer of gender envy onto how Jack already perceives Peggy: I wonder if I can live as fearlessly (as a woman) like you.

Also pinging @tenderjock because they started the fire on Transfem!Jack.