#of a sort?

[elf-hollow]

there's a common bit of discourse about kriselle/snowgrave, about whether it's "heteronormative"/"comphet" or not, which I find kind of fascinating, because it has three very distinct axes on which the discourse spins

first and foremost there's the actual text of the game, which encapsulates a lot of the games themes (made very textually obvious in chapter 3) about strained/"failed" relationships and divorce - with a specific focus on toriel and asgore's divorce. undeniable parallels are drawn between this "straight" marriage, and the relationship that forms between kris and noelle during the snowgrave route. this on it's own doesn't make the relationship a "straight" one - certainly, it is not - but the theming does bring it to mind. it's not hard to see why a lot of people might come to the conclusion that this is two queer teenagers (notably, some of the most "open"/"out" queer characters in the cast) being forced to fit into a "straight" relationship, to be forced into a shadow of their own parents' failing/failed relationships. and it's also not hard to see why, when expressing that idea, people might say that it's heteronormative/comphet, because it's a relationship that is trying to replicate those dynamics with people who do not actually "fit" those roles

and then there's the undeniable fact that certain parts of the fandom do absolutely present kriselle as a straight m/f couple, that do actually ignore kris and noelle's identities to say that they are a (straight) boy and a (straight) girl, that will happily misgender kris. and so there is a response to this behavior that has people calling the ship heteronormative, not at all because of the actual text of the game, but purely because of the fandom response to it

and then at the end of all that, there are the (mostly well meaning) people who outright deny the idea that the relationship could be heteronormative, because noelle is a "canon" lesbian (or, at least, she likes girls - I'm using the phrasing I've seen on these posts here, and even though I personally also believe noelle to be a lesbian, I take issue with the use of "canon" in this case) and kris is canon nonbinary. and they are responding both to the people who are actually interested in engaging with the text and it's themes, and the people who are actually portraying them as an m/f couple. so while they are right in half of what they're saying (yes, kris and noelle are not actually an m/f couple), they're also refusing to allow actual analysis of these characters and how they interact with their world and our own world to happen (a reading that takes into account the conflict between these characters' identities and the roles they're trying to fill)

so like, at the end of the day, it kind of becomes schrödinger's heteronormativity. it both is and isn't heteronormative depending on who and how they want to open the box. unsolvable discourse, because we are functionally talking about like three different things at any given time, and no one is on the same page about which one we're actually talking about

[pride-knightess]

My delightful Blob of Crème Fraîche

[onehellofajellyfish]

I've been seeing some debate go around about if Ciel is "mature" or not with the counterpoint that he masks a majority of the time

This is the "if you repeat a lie often enough, it eventually becomes the truth" media

Anything about Ciel, down to him being Ciel, is something he's had to work to attain until that lie has become truth. Certainly, some things are more true than others, and there isn't denying that he's actually the younger twin who wasn't born with the name Ciel, and that he's more of a mess than he lets on-

But it does beg the question of what makes a person who they are:

Is it how you act? What you think? Don't actions speak louder than words? How much of ourselves is our interior vs our exterior? How much do labels really stick when existence is so fluid?

If you're scared but you act brave, does being scared negate being brave, or do your brave actions prove that you are indeed brave even if on the inside you'd rather run away?

Can't both be true?

I'd say that yes, Ciel is indeed having to hold a lot more together than he usually lets on. The lyrics right out of Waltz "If I don't pretend to be strong, I'll completely fall apart" ring true for him, yet even pretending to be strong takes strength. Ciel has had to be strong because he's so close to falling apart

Just as I'd argue that "faking" maturity and having a deep necessity to be mature despite not feeling like he fits the bill as the younger, crybaby, lesser twin in his mind means that yes, a portion of that maturity is earned and genuine, both in spite of and because of his circumstances

Feeling like you're putting on a front to be better than you are, aka faking it until you make it, is something most of us go through, and for some things the sense of being an imposter will fade, although Ciel is literally living as an imposter so it's just doubly so for him

Ciel being mature for his age and being deeply traumatized/scared/on the brink of falling apart coexist. In fact, it's less that one disproves the other and more like they're cause and effect.

Eventually the mask you wear long enough becomes part of your face.

(As a final note, I wouldn't even point towards Ciel's vulnerable moments as points of immaturity, such as crying or having a ptsd breakdown. Immaturity is much more easily found in his moments of cruelty, to be honest. Yet the responsibilities and difficult choices hes taken on Still make him more mature for his age, because of course.)

[aprillikesthings]

There are so many discussions about events in She-Ra that have perfectly good explanations from within the story (aka Watsonian) that can also be explained by "because the show is rated y7" (aka Doylist)

Why does nobody actually die on screen? Well yes it would be harder for Catra to be a love interest/deuteragonist if she actually was responsible for people's deaths, but also, the show is rated y7 and nobody is allowed to die on screen (you can imply it if it's vague enough, but you can't show it)

(The exception, maybe, is the clones in s5. Lots of them get mowed down in fights. Buuuut I think we're meant to think they're just knocked unconscious and not dead. Also I'm still not sure if we're meant to assume Angella's dead or just permanently stuck there. The second thing is more horrifying but yes, does give them the option of rescuing her later; which I've seen in several fics.)

(Edit: Also it's debatable whether the clones are "alive" while they're still in the hive mind, as opposed to basically being robots, seeing as they have no free will of their own unless they're removed from the hive mind like Wrong Hordak. So they're kind of an edge case.)

Why does Hordak use magic to suck the air out of Catra's space when punishing her? Well yeah he's not the type to actually get his hands dirty (metaphorically speaking), but also because you can't show someone getting strangled bare-handed in a show rated y7

Why is Shadow Weaver's abuse mostly things like electrical shocking via magic and (sometimes) yanking her arm? Because you can't show someone getting physically abused the way real kids are, in a show rated y7

Outside of the verbal abuse/electrical shocking, a lot of SW's abuse is told by implication. But it's also one of those things I think is easier to spot when you're an abuse survivor yourself. Great post about that here.

The reason Bow never actually hits anyone with an arrow, and the reason She-Ra's sword is never used to stab people? Because the show is rated y7

But yeah in one of my fave post-canon fics Catra and Adora have a conversation where Adora's like, "I can tell when you took over from Shadow Weaver because suddenly we were always fighting bots, not people; you weren't using soldiers as canon fodder, you were never as bad as she was."

And yeah, I think that you can use that as a character thing! But I also think it was because at the start of s2 they backed off even the implication that actual people were dying, in part to make it easier to keep within the y7 rating!

And this is still a Doylist explanation, but also to keep away from the implication that Adora was doing a murder on people she likely knew. I remember that sticking in my head while watching The Battle of Bright Moon--"Wait, Adora would likely know those soldiers. Eek."

Anyway I know I'm forgetting some at the moment lol. Feel free to add on any you've noticed.

[earlgraytay]

Dear Allison:

I manage a small team of professionals in a niche public safety field. As a metaphor, you could call us the llama cops (though we're not actually police of any kind.)

We recently had to confiscate some clothes (long story) from a group of suspects. Unfortunately, my team is... let's call them a group of misfit toys. They're great subject matter experts and fantastic at their jobs, but their soft skills leave something to be desired. One member in particular- let's call him 'Yellow' - isn't great at professional communication. He kind of beats around the bush and speaks in riddles.

Yellow decided to phrase our request for those clothes in a way that made it sound like an innuendo. Of course, this did not make it any easier to deal with the suspects at all.

Even worse- well, I'm kind of on a PIP right now thanks to an unrelated incident. Thanks to the PIP, and to a complicated interdepartmental project, I'm having to interface with some higher-level managers from corporate. They can see the very visible problems with my team, and I get the sense that this might have been the last straw.

Alison, I'm mortified. Is there any way I can salvage this? How do I discipline my team so that this doesn't happen again?

Thanks,

Manager In Hell

[ibrithir-was-here]

Hi! I liked your idea of Quincy Harker in WWI, so I stayed up until 5am to research this. I have no idea what you have in Blood of My Blood's Quincy's birthday, I haven't read it because it looks too depressing for me(That's good thing on your end, it comes across great.)

I forgot were I read this, but I think you said that you headcanon that Quincy was already in the womb when Mina was bitten, so I'll just guess September. At that point, Quincy would be a June baby with me just randomingly choosing the date of the 13th. At this point, the Military Service Act 1916 was drafted in January 27th and would go in full effect in March 3rd of 1916, Quincy would be still 17 for at least four months until his 18th birthday. If he has the same luck as his father, he'd be one of the first drafted as soon as he turned 18. Keep in mind, this is the earliest that Quincy can join the BEF at the youngest he can, and that's if he got conscripted. I don't know if he volunteered.

That would mean by the time he's in training, the Battle of the Somme is underway, a near month later after his birthday anywhere in June. From there, I'll list where he could potentially be, since training takes about 3 months or more in WWI, even then, if not 1916, then definitely 1917, it's more to the point that if Quincy joined during 1916, he'd be in the trenches for at at least 2 years by the end of 1918.

Quincy would be in the Devonshire 11th Regiment, nicknamed "The Bloody Eleventh", since he was raised in exeter. With that, here are the potential groups he'd be in:

-1st Batallion, 14th Brigade, 5th Division.

-2nd Batallion, 23rd Brigade, 8th Division.

-8th and 9th Batallion, 20th Brigade, 7th Division.

And this is just only for the Western Front, which I assumed you'd want him to be. From this, the following battles are where Quincy fought most likely starting at the end of the Somme Offensive:

1st Battalion:

-Battle of Morval(Battle of the Somme, XIV Corps), last phase of the Somme Offensive (1916).

-Battle of Arras (1917).

-Battle of Passchendaele (1917).

-German Spring Offensive (1918).

-Hundred Days Offensive (1918).

2nd Battalion:

-Battle of Passchendaele (1917).

-German Spring Offensive (1918).

-Hundred Days Offensive (1918).

8th and 9th Batallion:

-Battle of Arras (1917).

-Battle of Passchendaele (1917).

The 7th division is strange because it was also choosen to help the Italians in thier theatre so....

-Battle of Vittorias Veneto (1918).

As well, I read that fic on Ao3 about Lu and Quincy, with Lu mentioning to be overseas helping in the war. So in this case, she'd be either in the VAD Red Cross or in the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service. There isn't much info on women's nursing role in WWI, but from the few I gathered, Lu either way would be one of the 2,280 in the QAIMNS to go help, or if she went into the VAD, she'd be one of the 8,000 to go overseas.

I think there was an age cap to be a nurse, at least before the war, I think it still had it, with it lowered to being 21 year of age. So if Lu did go overseas, she'd at least be 21 at the time.

Oh wow!!! This is some amazing research here thank you!

So Quincey's Bday in the Blood of My Blood timeline is moved up from when it would be in the more Canon timeline, so that he can like, actually be in the AU xD and is on the eve of St. George's Day, May 5th. He probably doesn't join the war on the front lines in BoMB as he's not technically a British citizen and so can't really be drafted, but he does help Arthur with his spy efforts during the war!

(Also for all the depressing bit of BoMB there's also a lot of cuteness with Baby Quincey and later with Quincey and Lu, and we're actually at the last chapter if you ever do care to check it out :)

But yeah holy cow this is amazing info for a Canon timeline Quincey and Lu! I'm super touched and speechless that you went through all this effort thank you so much! 💛💛💛💛

(Also I did picture Lu as a VAD yeah)

[toasterdrake]

this reblog chain is like. my favourite thing on tumblr