So There’s A Trend That I Absolutely Hate In Online Discussions Of (non-satirical) Genre, Particularly

So there’s a trend that I absolutely hate in online discussions of (non-satirical) genre, particularly genre that’s influenced by the gothic. This trend makes my eyes roll back in my head until I can see through my own skull. It makes me want to bite a car in half. It makes me want to step into the jellyfish tank at the New York Aquarium and beg for the sweet sweet annihilation of a thousand stings. 

I call this trend: Oh Just Be Sensible, and it goes like this:

“Why do vampires always end up covered in blood when they feed, I don’t spill soup all down the front of my shirt when I eat dinner. Real toddler energy.”

“Why do people always cut their hands to swear oaths, everyone knows it would hurt way less on the [insert body part with fewer nerve endings]”

“Vampires shouldn’t be feeding from people’s wrists, it damages the tendons, if doctors don’t take your blood from your wrist, vampires shouldn’t either! No one will be able to flex their fingers the next day.”

(This comes up a lot with vampires, I mention, as I stride purposefully into the glistening mass of jellyfish.)

There are direct answers for some of these when it comes to the practical visual language of a particular medium (for example, you cut your hand on stage / on set because you can hold a blood pack in there, and even if you don’t have an effect, the gesture and its purpose can be discerned from the nosebleeds) but what really gets me is how thematically boneheaded this sort of observation is. 

Like, let’s go down the list here. 

Why do vampires end up covered in their victims’ blood? Well Scoob, do you think it could maybe have something to do with their bestial, inhuman nature? Or with the erotic and sensual abandon with which they can approach violence, now that they’re untethered from human morals? 

Why do people cut their hands to swear oaths? Aside from what I mentioned above, do you think maybe it’s because it adds a layer of gravity to see two people swearing an oath to one another with blood dripping from their clasped hands? Do you think it’s maybe to evoke a unity of body, something greater and more primal than a unity of word? Or maybe to remind us of the dire consequences of breaking a blood oath?

Why are authors having vampires feed from people’s wrists if it damages their tendons? Damn, maybe that’s because it’s where the pulse is. You know, the pulse? The heartblood, the thing that races when you’re scared or turned on or both? The thing that stutters when you’re close to death and could, should the author choose, ring in the vampire’s ears like a chime or a great pounding thunderclap. Maybe in a story about undead beings who drink blood, we can sacrifice a bit of sensible reality in order to enforce the emotion and thematic heft of a scene? 

Images like these communicate what is happening between two characters, not just the events that are transpiring! No one making stories forgot to consider ~sensible~ little observations, because it would be absolutely inane to consider an observation with the creative value of a wet paper towel. This stuff is part of our visual language for a reason! Themes also need to be communicated! 

God, like, okay, I’m exhausted and the aquarium staff keeps yelling at me when they find me here, but let me just wrap up by saying that relationships, character and meaning are expressed in so many ways beyond dialogue or internal monologue, and those expressions are so rarely sensible. 

(Also all this shit looks cool as hell, do you really want your protagonists swearing to die for one another by dabbing their slightly bleeding elbows together, grow up.)

More Posts from Luigimylove and Others

2 years ago

one thing you need to know about me is that i am constantly having insane galaxy genius ancient greek philosopher level thoughts about everything ever all the time but before leaving my mouth they get filtered through seven layers of autism and come out sounding like a youtube comment made by a nine year old


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2 years ago

“wow i can’t believe a trans cat girl hacked and leaked the no-fly list. the way we came about this information is so absurd, it’s funny” 🤝 “the actual information that was leaked is abhorrently racist, specifically towards middle eastern and south asian people. that is absolutely not funny and needs to be spoken about without the absurdity of the situation dominating the conversation”


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2 years ago

You think Lip sometimes looks at Ian and Mickey and just smiles a little to himself because who would’ve seen that coming?

Like, Lip’s always been good with odds and numbers and back in the day, back when they started out a fucking lifetime ago, absolutely nobody would have bet on those two making it in the end.

He had been around back then, on the side lines catching glimpses from time to time. From ‘Mickey’s gay and we’re doing it’ and 'i know what he felt with me’ to 'you think i should’ve?’ and 'because i love him’.

And Lip hesitates in the doorway when he enters the living room for a moment and watches them lie on the couch in front of the TV, wrapped up in each other’s arms, sleepy and content, for once neither bickering nor on the verge of fucking and he thinks that he’s never seen Ian so happy and being himself this much at the same time before.

And maybe he shakes his head when he looks at the man in his brother’s arms because holy fucking shit that’s Mickey Milkovich right there.

That’s 'someone’s gotta get a beat down’, it’s 'oh shit is right’, it’s anger issues and russian prostitutes and attempted murder and escaping prison to fucking mexico.

But it’s also the guy who pours Ian his coffee in the morning and makes sure he doesn’t drink it before he’s had something to eat, who used to count his fucking pills, who once bought a bag full of B vitamins as if they could fix it all somehow.

It’s who Ian lost sleep over, it’s who he made his best bad decisions for.

It’s Franny’s Uncle Mickey, it’s Mandy’s older brother and holy shit, it’s Ian’s fucking husband.

And isn’t that so beautifully Ian, that he saw something in that dirty faced thug from ten years ago that no one else ever bothered to look for? that he found a love that proved itself to be stronger than whatever life or fate or Terry fucking Milkovich threw at them, that pulled them back to each other every time they fell apart?

Mickey has been a constant presence in Ian’s life in a way that nothing else but Lip himself ever had. Has been a witness, a catalyst, a victim of Ian’s epic highs and lows, has done insane things to and for and because of him. As fucked up as they always were, they seem to hold the balance, they somehow make it work.

Lip loves his brother with all his heart, has done so his entire life, he knows all the best and a lot of the worst of Ian and he knows that Mickey knows it too. Loves him, too. Signed up for it all, the whole package, good times and bad, sickness and health, Monica and Gay Jesus, mania and depression. Had probably signed up for it long before they stood in front of witnesses at the Polish Doll.

So Lip smiles sometimes when they bicker over breakfast cereal or when Ian can’t keep his hands to himself even when the rest of them is right there or when Mickey talks shit like he’s still big bad Milkovich, south side thug extraordinaire and not the boy who has been in love with Lip’s little brother for the last decade.

Because it’s nice to see they made it. Because if anyone deserves a happy ending and a gentle future, it’s them.

2 years ago

You all need to be reminded that Queerplatonic Relationships are long term committed relationships that originated from aromantic people who want the consistency and loyalty in romantic relationships without the expectations of performing romance. If you don't want to commit to a platonic relationship, then you don't want a QPR ("platonic" word here is used as the opposite of "romantic" instead of "sexual" because some queerplatonic partners can be sexual and others can be non-sexual).

QPR is not just a quirky term for intense emotional friendship because any friendship can have that intimacy but not all friends commit to each other in the way that makes the relationship queer. The queerness in queerplatonic means we have a relationship that's so devoted and yet platonic because we are debunking amatonormativity here that dictates to us (by society) that romantic relationships must be the priority.

If you just want to kiss and hug your friends and hold their hands or anything else intimate but you don't think you can be committed to that friendship, it's not queerplatonic relationship you want. If you're misusing queerplatonic term, you're erasing the meaning of this word that helps aromantic people communicate our boundaries, expectations and experiences as queer people. Please just respect us. Treating QPR like it's just a "friendship" is as rude as treating it as "romance lite". I want a commitment but no romo. It's that simple.


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2 years ago

The cookie dough fandom is dying reblog if you like it wet and raw


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2 years ago

People can't understand why Will freezes in s4 when watching El get bullied cuz the show never cuts to Will's trauma as its happening, but they understand crystal clear why El freezes up after hitting Angela cuz the show splices her Brenner trauma in between Mike's accusatory tone being thrown at her.

They're so quick to forget that Will was kidnapped and possessed so he's probably gonna go into shock when faced with bullies who trigger that freeze response. And it's only cuz the show doesn't remind us with flashbacks that Will went and is still going through it. But El's trauma gets visually addressed all the time compared to Will and she's not seen as a crybaby when she's triggered.

We still don't know what Will had to do in s1 to survive for a week in the UD cuz it's never visually shown like how El meets One and how she was othered even in the lab by the other kids. All of Will's trauma besides s2 possession is implicitly offscreen/word of mouth while El's is explicitly expressed onscreen. People sympathized with Will in s2 cuz they saw his pain blatantly, but once s3/4 happened, amnesia hit cuz Will isn't fighting for his life as hard anymore so his reactions are viewed as childish/annoying instead of after effects of being targeted twice.

Compared to El; GA sees her witness bad men kill the 1st person to help her, see her remember she has a sister in Kali and that her mother tried to save her from the rainbow room once, see El feel horrible that Hopper's "dead" and wonder if she killed those kids in s4. We never got to see Will's reaction to finding out Bob died, which was a father figure to him too like Hopper to El. We never see Will's reaction to being a pawn in killing those soldiers.

For s5 I'm glad it's Will-centric cuz last time in s2 when Will was the focus, people cared for him and understood he was a boy who needed comfort.


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2 years ago

hey just an FYI, disney's new animated movie strange world, which they're saying has their first gay character, is not like, a joke. i just saw it and it's an ACTUAL first gay character. he's the protagonist. him being gay is not his entire character but it's also not like, a cameo, or a background thing, or one scene you can cut out. it's a multi-generational story about this kid and his father and grandpa, and him being gay comes up in adorable ways throughout the story (to the point where this movie is gay enough to immediately be banned in several countries). it's really well done and a very pleasant surprise from the mouse and people should go watch it!

2 years ago
King Harald V Of Norway Speaking At The National Memorial Ceremony At Oslo Spektrum On 22 July 2021 For
King Harald V Of Norway Speaking At The National Memorial Ceremony At Oslo Spektrum On 22 July 2021 For
King Harald V Of Norway Speaking At The National Memorial Ceremony At Oslo Spektrum On 22 July 2021 For
King Harald V Of Norway Speaking At The National Memorial Ceremony At Oslo Spektrum On 22 July 2021 For
King Harald V Of Norway Speaking At The National Memorial Ceremony At Oslo Spektrum On 22 July 2021 For

King Harald V of Norway speaking at the national memorial ceremony at Oslo Spektrum on 22 July 2021 for the 10th anniversary of the far-right terrorist attack that killed 77 people – 8 at the government quarters in Oslo, and 69, primarily young people, on the island of Utøya.

Still, I have a lot of faith in the Norwegian people, for we have proven time and again, in so many difficult situations, how much we can achieve when we stand united in protecting our fundamental values. Which is why I repeat today what I said 10 years ago: I firmly believe that freedom is stronger than fear. I firmly believe in an open Norwegian democracy and society. I firmly believe that we will uphold our ability to live freely and securely in our own country. And today – 10 years on, I would like to add the following: I know that time does not heal all wounds. I mourn all the lives that were lost, and I grieve alongside all those who were injured. At the same time we should truly be thankful for the many people who are working to build an inclusive society for us all. Even as we mark the 10th anniversary of one of the darkest days in our history, all the people bringing back the light fill us with hope.


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