So I’ve Probably Told This Story Before, But - My Gay And Lesbian Studies Professor. He’s Fairly

Maybe the thing that makes Austen the gold standard of romance is her focus on "esteem" as the all-important factor in a relationship. Your partner has to be someone you can respect. They have to have traits you admire. You have to value them, not just for the security they can provide or the feelings they give you, but as a separate, unique person.

This is so different from the bad romances I see in so many other places, where the two people are attracted to each other almost against their will. They'll be like, "I hate him and everything he stands for, but I just can't stop thinking about him," or the girl will obsess over the guy's body or whatever. We're supposed to believe that this attraction overcomes all the obstacles so they'll fall in love. But as a reader, I'm looking on like, "Okay, but do you even like him? What is there that you find admirable about him? Do you respect his judgement, his skills, his values? Why am I supposed to believe he'll be a good partner for you just because you stopped bickering for five minutes?"

Austen doesn't forget that the purpose of a romance is not to find someone who makes you happy now, but someone who'll be a good partner to help you navigate the rest of your adult life. You have to engage your mind as well as your heart to find someone that you can respect as a separate person before you can join hands in marriage.

what's the opposite of feeling sand slip through your fingers because I feel this poem more and more as time passes

Is it evil of me to want something,,,like Mike being absolutely done with party's half-baked plan so he starts getting shit in gear?

By that I mean he starts being more stern. (I know this may or may not be a bit ooc for Mike in S5 since he's pretty backstage eversince S3 where he just got yelled at for his plans, but bear with me.)

Mike hears about their plan back in S4 and he's like "oh god why did you do that." So he starts being more authoritative towards the party, not in a dictative way or anything, just his voice being "no room for argue."

Imagine Mike making out a plan in S5 but Nancy keeps objecting his ideas like in S3. So Mike, having enough of it for the first time says

"I said end of discussion."

That has everyone shocked because, yeah Mike's usually pretty snarky or sarcastic, but hexs bever been authoritative. And that voice left no rook for objection.

Also i think he has a really mean stare, so that would pair well??

It's just my self-fulfilling fantasy alright? Just Mike finally taking a stand in his leader position whether they like it or not, eventho he's not a demanding person.

Or like them not listening to Mike when he tries to tell them not to do something, and so that ends up backfiring on them.

He's just standing there with a raised eyebrow like "I told you so."

i think i read a post of you that said western leftist can't write conservative religious women without reducing them to being brainwashed or insecure. as a western leftist I'm curious how you would have written alicent for hotd?

You mean how would I personally rewrite Alicent's character? Or how I would have liked to see GRRM's Alicent written in the show?

Either way; I'd say: Western leftists can't write a traditionally religious woman unless she's a hypocrite, brainwashed, or actively using religion to cope or to feel superior. They can't write a religious woman who genuinely and intellectually believes in and is devoted to her own religious conventions and ideals. And when they do - which is very rare - they always feel the need to attach a moral or intellectual judgment on her. She must always be "lesser". Unless she's pagan and they can co-opt her paganism to uplift their own "progressive" ideology 🙄

Anyways, I hated how they made Alicent cling to her faith as a means of "repentance" in the show. She should have clung to her faith as a means of resistance. Of claiming her identity and power back.

This will give the "Green Dress" moment and the "Where is duty? Where is sacrifice?" moment real meaning.

It's not that she can't sincerely believe in her religion and still subconsciously use it to heal her psychological and emotional wounds. It can happen. It's not mutually exclusive. But her ability to use her religion to heal should be originated from and motivated by her sincere belief in her religion.

The Faith of the Seven was always the hard and the soft power that kept the megalomanic, blood-supremacist Targs in check after they conquered Westeros. The Targs were forced to compromise and adapt to Westeros instead of forcing Westeros to be assimilated or fully subjected to Targ culture and religion.

Alicent's ambition should have reflected this spirit. Her need to have her son crowned as King should have been her own way to keep the Targs in more chains. To mold the Targ dynasty to benefit her and her children and Westeros as a whole.

What better way for an oppressed woman to feel liberated than to have the power to put her oppressors in chains? and to have the freedom to live by her own conventions and ideals without sacrificing her dignity and sanity?

Ku kentaurit o puoliks ihmisii ja puoliks hevosii ni oisko se sit eläimiinsekaantumista jos panis kentaurii?

Jason had a favorite perch when he was Robin. It was just a statue behind the library, with a wing you could sit under when it was raining, but Dick never paid attention to it and Tim never even knew about it, so it became his place, a symbol of his Robin. 

He didn’t think anything anyone noticed until he came back and found that the statue had been turned into a shrine to the dead Robin by the local kids

thinking about my optometrist who was treating my eye infection and said “if it hurts, you can rinse your eye with boiled water. look at me - look at me. i want you to understand that i mean water that has been boiled and has since cooled down. not boiling water. do you understand?” like i’m so grateful for this man ensuring that I wouldn’t destroy my eyes by pouring boiling water in it, because it is an adequate assessment of my intelligence

Black Sails gets a lot right, but in the interest of my sanity, some historical inaccuracies that make me want to fight god (John E Steinberg):

- woodes rodgers side part im gonna scream a QUEUE with a SIDE PART omfg as if i didn’t hate him enough already

- sharp shooting muskets lol

- eleanor keeping her waist length hair down in what i can only imagine is a 120 degree heat index accounting for humidity

- 90% of women’s costumes would be incredible if they had wide arms, cuffs, skirt supports, and their skjdfghsjkd hair up

- rubber soled boots. listen. rubber soles were invented in 1899. silver is sneaky but not that sneaky

- i can’t explain how feral i am seeing 1750s naval uniforms in 1700-1715. 

- naval uniforms didn’t exist until 1748 when the Scottish and British navies were combined. am i being pedantic? yes. do i care? no.

- i don’t know what year ab oil was invented but it was definitely post Charles “Tit’s Out” Vane

- honestly everything about Vane i hate love him but he looks like he sells acid at Phish shows

- where are everyone’s hats and caps?

- Miranda is my hero my love my heart but in the London flashbacks she’s wearing a portrait gown/bedgown which is like going outside in your PJs im not upset just disappointed 

- woodes rodgers casually divorcing his wife i had to stop the ep and yell it’s absolutely patently sociopath behavior YOU CAN’T JUST CAUSALLY DIVORCE PPL IN 1715 YOU HAVE TO GET AN ACT OF PARLIMENT WHERE YOUR ENTIRE SEXUAL HISTORY IS DEBATED PUBLICALLY AND ANY RESULT RUINS YOUR WIFE’S LIFE. she can never marry again, loses all property, loses custody of all children, loses all social standing. 

- mrs. rodgers was very generous to not become a pirate and kill him personally 

- Hornigold’s facial hair he looks like a confederate general 1/10 points for keeping it clean i guess

- if you wear a wig you don’t keep a cool 2010 tousled haircut you keep your head shaved sorry thomas i love you but those are the rules

- weird choice but A+ for the enthusiasm of putting the s2 spanish navy in 16th c costumes and then ignoring that completely and never mentioning it again

- i cant even hate on Idelle’s s1 hot topic look you do you girl love the fluffy panties and bustier <3

Oh, this is incredible.

Improv swing dance to a Todrick Hall song?

And they killed it!

*thanks to the people who pointed out my oops

insane plotlines for qaf us if it started in 2020 instead of 2000

he/they emmett (this one isnt insane i just needed to include it i stole this one from emily but it has not left my mind since i heard it)

brian gets cancelled on local pittsburgh twitter for strictly enforcing rainbow capitalism in every company he works with

ted gets really into nfts instead of crystal meth

wait even funnier instead of the website ted defintely starts an onlyfans

michael gets mad that everyone assumes he’s an ally and infringing on gay spaces because he just carries absolutely no vibes

justin has a thinly veiled self-insert comic on webtoon after he and brian hook up iand that gets picked up for a movie deal nstead of rage

daphne would be a kpop stan 

debbie almost goes broke from buying gay slogan shirts on etsy. decides to start a side hustle selling her own.

lindsey definitely gets into fights with other mommy bloggers

ben wrote the song of achilles in this universe mostly because i think that would be extremely funny