I think I’m a little resistant to the “Lance is actually a genius” headcanon because a. it implies that a character can’t be useful unless they’re super intelligent and b. part of Lance’s charm is that he’s not an expert in anything. He’s all about practical knowledge.
Like, listen, Lance could never fix an engine, but when something goes wrong with their ship in episode one, he knows exactly what the problem is. He can’t fight as well as Keith, but when they need to wreck those Galra ships on the Balmera, he comes up with a plan that’ll take out the most. He probably couldn’t write a code or do all the funky math stuff Pidge does, but he can calculate the number of vargas they have to wait until they’re able to go into the Marmora base.
Lance’s thing is “okay what do we need?” Lance doesn’t have to fix a ship, he just needs to know enough to tell Hunk what to fix. He doesn’t have to know crazy math, he just needs to know enough to know whether Coran and Allura are talking about a minute or an hour so he doesn’t get killed during a mission. And he doesn’t have to be an incredible fighter, he just needs to come up with the best way to stop the ships from taking off without hurting the Balmera– ie, close the door.
Lance isn’t super book smart or amazing at flying or fighting; he’s a creative little shit who’s good at asking practical questions: Do I need to know this or can someone help me with it? Would knowing this help someone else? and Is there an easier way to do this? He’s really good at knowing what he needs to know and putting things together based on what he has. Rover’s here, but Pidge isn’t with it and it’s beeping? Yikes, that’s a bomb. The queen seems to be out of a trance and says she didn’t mind control us? Must be that creepy snake I was asking about earlier.
He’s perceptive. He looks for simple solutions to difficult problems. He’s aware that he’s not the best at everything, so he uses any resource he has to his advantage, whether it be things in his environment (yo his fight against Hunk in the Depths was nice) or people. In the comics when Pidge has to fight a mind controlled team Voltron, she calls Lance a “top priority” because he has good range and is likely to team up with others. Lance actively seeks the help of other people when he can and distances himself from problems when he can’t so that he can come up with a different solution.
I honestly think that his biggest strength is that he’s not a genius in the way the other members of the team are. Because it makes him take full advantage of what he does have.
Lance is the quintessential jack-of-all-trades: he’s not exceptional at any one thing (unless possibly sharpshooting), but he’s good enough at a LOT of things that he’s a very useful guy to have around. Even if he personally doesn’t necessarily have the technical skill to accomplish what he needs, he can provide ideas or partial solutions to almost any problem he encounters. His versatility and practical thinking are, in and of themselves, exceptional.
He’s also, as you said, perceptive, particularly with people. His disastrous attempts to flirt aside, Lance is clearly the best out of the Paladins at functioning in social situations (Hunk arguably is a close second, but he’s generally more shy and nervous around strangers, while Lance is able to dive right in). Lance is able to make snap decisions about people and when he isn’t being blinded by a pretty face, he’s usually pretty spot on. He’s good at understanding the dynamics of the people around him.
I don’t know which headcanons/metas/whatever you’ve specifically seen or are referring to, but for me at least, when I talk about Lance being really smart, I don’t mean it in the same way that I do when I talk about Pidge or Hunk. I do make it a point to talk about his intelligence, though, because I believe Lance has a kind of intelligence that is sorely under appreciated, both by people in real life and by his fellow fictional characters.
I love everything about this except the manbaby who left to get his poopy diaper changed
today on toxic masculinity theatre: a demonstration of why a subtle sneer and turning aside to drink your beer isn’t a good response to being on the kisscam
Honestly, this is just so good.
I watched this about 6 times and I’m not anywhere close to being done enjoying it yet.
The woman that can’t stop laughing makes my soul smile.
LOL
fella with the sprite is her date now
shop class dropout malfoy is going home all by himself
A group of rough looking boys walked past me today and all I heard of their conversation was “he’s got that anxiety disorder bro so I went with him so he’d be more comfortable” and it made me realise the world isn’t all that bad
The pet store I worked at had a pen with rabbits near the front door. On every side of the pen were huge signs saying “You can pet me, but don’t pick me up!” One day two absolutely huge guys came in and one immediately reaches into the pen to grab a rabbit. Before i could say anything his friend grabbed his arm and asked him “did you see the sign?” He said “yeah! it says that you can pick them up but don’t pet them!” Then he went quiet for a moment and softly said “I didn’t read it right did I?” And his friend just puts his arm on his shoulder and said “its ok, i know you’ve got that thing where words get mixed up. Let just pet these cute lil shits” And I still haven’t gotten over that interaction.
I was walking my dog through Boston bc he likes the likes car rides. He’s a little thing tbh we call him short and long. So this huge scary man with a full beard approaches me like “hey can my buddy and I pet your dog? He gets nervous around dogs but your’s is so small I think it’s a good place to start.” Ofc I was like “yes he’s very friendly!” So this guy brings his equally big friend over and they sit on the floor while this man looks terrified of my tiny dog so big man number one asks “can I pick him up?” And i say yes so he picks him up and puts him on man number two’s lap and man number two is abt to freak out and his friend straight up just goes “hey man, it’s okay just relax I’d never let anything hurt you. He’s a good boy.” I’ll never forget it ever bc I know that man looked at me (5’3 , glasses, probably wearing a sweater vest) and my dog (kinda goofy looking little thing) and was like ‘ah yes the two least intimidating living things I’ve seen in Boston all day he’ll feel relaxed around them’ and went out of his way to help his friend. It makes me so happy
A good post, pure.
Another adorable story has been added.
can I have these posted right under the politics section in the newspaper? I feel like we need that kinda positivity rn.
okay friends, as ready player one comes into the crosshairs of cultural mockery (as it deserves), I would like to take a moment to speak about a very important thing:
ready player one is not bad fanfiction
I know this seems like a relatively minor point! like, really, who cares? but not being fanfiction is actually critical to ready player one. not only is it not fanfiction, but it’s actually the polar opposite of fanfiction. it is the anti-fanfiction. not being fanfiction is integral to its existence
so, some background! in case you don’t know, ready player one is the story of A Dude who lives in a crapsack world. I actually think the first third or so of the book is pretty decent? yes, there’s an overload of “look at how large my nerd penis is,” but the worldbuilding is kind of interesting and author ernest cline does a decent job of setting up the ways in which the world is shitty and how an online virtual world has become both an haven for and crutch to society
because that is the big thing here: there is an immersive online world called the oasis, and it is big and people spend a lot of time there because the world is garbage
the creator of this online world is another dude, who died and left a treasure hunt within the game, and whoever finds the treasure will get his vast fortune and all his assets. it’s a fine setup, and it allows the author to make his hobby as important to his fictional world as it is to him, because there is only one way to find this treasure: you must know The Most about eighties nerd shit
what this means is that ready player one is the epitome of curatorial fandom: fandom that is expressed by having encyclopedic knowledge of canon, of how things were made and what promotion was done for them and, well, facts. ready player one is concerned with putting pop culture on a pedestal and appreciating at how flawless it is
and there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, if you’re into it! but I cannot stress enough how much ready player one cares about the canon and defining what the canon is and what belongs to it. there is an actual argument between our protagonist and his friend about whether or not the movie ladyhawke is “canon,” by which they mean, “did the dude who created this treasure hunt like ladyhawke?” our protagonist likes it, therefore he wants it to be canon. it’s not enough for him to just like the movie, his enjoyment must be validated and elevated by this dude he idolizes. and (spoilers) in the end it is, so, like, good for you, bro
ready player one is proudly, aggressively, and oppressively non-transformative. that’s not a bug, it’s a feature. one of the single most baffling things things the protagonist enjoys, at least to me, is when, as part of the treasure hunt, he must reenact a movie. that’s it. that’s the whole thing. he is put into matthew broderick’s place in the movie war games, and he must do everything matthew broderick did in the movie at the same time and in the same way matthew broderick did it. he gets bonus points for nailing the same intonation and doing the same movements as broderick, and if he messes up lines or misses cues, he loses lives and, eventually, the game
now, I don’t know about you, but I am genuinely struggling to think of anything as boring as doing every single thing that the protagonist did in my favorite movie or tv show, exactly as it they did it, aside from maybe the parts where I get to kiss a hot person. and I say this as someone who really enjoys rewatching my favorite shows and replaying my favorite games! but, like, if you’re going to put me in a fully immersive recreation of my favorite world where I am playing my favorite character, I am absolutely going to be making some fanfic shit come to life there. I’ve already seen the movie, I don’t need to live it when I could go off book and make the decisions I always wanted to make, or try to see if I can make everyone bisexual and get them into a big orgy or something. like, the possibilities are endless here, right? they should be!
from what I can tell, it has never occurred to ernest cline that people might actually want to change their favorite media, or even that they could be interested in anything that isn’t on the page or screen. which, again, not everyone does fandom like that! but after the protagonist finishes his war games reenactment, he says that as soon as people find out about this marvelous “put yourself in your favorite movie and do it exactly the same way it happens on screen or else you lose” technology, it becomes wildly popular and I’m still just kind of like, is that really what people want? is that the dream?
so, yeah. when I say it’s important to emphasize that ready player one is not fanfic, this is what I’m talking about. ready player one is horrified by the idea of transforming works. ready player one cares about canon and only canon. ready player one does, admittedly, have scenes that look like a big cool crossover, because everyone shows up to a fight in their own favorite mecha, so you have, like, mecha-godzilla fighting the giant robot from the Japanese spider-man show, but it’s just window dressing. there’s no depth to it. these are literally skins, outfits that the characters put on
compare this to, say, kingdom hearts, which is actually licensed crossover fanfiction. in kingdom hearts, sora (nomura tetsuya’s original character, do not steal) meets up with donald duck and goofy and travels through various disney worlds on a ship crewed by chip and dale, the rescue rangers, having wacky adventures and trying to save both his best friend and mickey mouse from the darkness
(god, how did that game get made)
on his quest, sora interacts with various characters from disney and square enix properties, all of whom are retain their personalities and appear as (essentially) themselves. it matters that simba is simba and cloud is cloud; they’re supposed to be those characters, or alternate but recognizable versions of those characters. this is what professionally licensed crossover fanfiction looks like, and I’m not saying it’s what ready player one should have been, but it’s a simple way to highlight how uninterested ready player one is in thinking about characterization. the only reason it matters that a dude is in mecha-godzilla is that he has the powers of mecha-godzilla in combat. it’s the ultimate “who would win” fantasy because it’s focused entirely on power levels. would superman beat goku, but without any consideration as to why they were fighting in the first place or what they as characters bring to the mix
and the reason I think this is important to talk about is that many male nerds HATE ready player one, and they don’t get to fucking put that on us. fanfiction is a female-dominated and largely stigmatized part of fandom, and I am not fucking letting the internet decide that the problem with ready player one is that it’s bad fanfic. ready player one would be an infinitely deeper, richer, and more interesting text if cline put any thought into transforming the works he reveres, instead of just describing what happens in them in loving detail
so you don’t get to blame fanfic for this one, nerds. this is peak curatorial culture. he’s one of you
“It is a radical upheaval, a national reckoning with massive social and political implications,” says Traister. “Across classes, and races, we are seeing a wholesale revision of what female life might entail. We are living through the invention of independent female adulthood as a norm, not an aberration, and the creation of an entirely new population: adult women who are no longer economically, socially, sexually, or reproductively dependent on or defined by the men they marry.”
So, we might summarize one trend as: “Independent Single Ladies on the Rise.”
For more than forty years I have specialized in working with men. I’m seeing a disturbing trend of increased male irritability and anger, along with a rise in the depression and suicide rates for males. In doing research for my book, The Irritable Male Syndrome: Understanding and Managing the 4 Key Causes of Depression and Aggression, I developed a quiz that has now been taken by more than 60,000 men throughout the world.
I’ve seen a disturbing trend where more and more men feel disconnected, disrespected, and angry. We see the anger acted out in violent attacks such as the ones we saw in Orlando and also in the rhetoric of presidential candidate Donald Trump. We also see it in a rise of male loneliness.
Unfortunately, this is a common experience for an increasing number of men. Joiner concludes that “Men’s main problem is not self-loathing, stupidity, greed, or any of the legions of other things they’re accused of. The problem, instead, is loneliness; as they age, they gradually lose contact with friends and family, and here’s the important part, they don’t replenish them.”
I see these two trends interweaving and reinforcing each other. As women become more independent and self-sufficient they are not willing to settle for a marriage where their needs are not met. They would rather get their social and emotional support from work associates, friends, and family.
As men feel unable to meet women’s needs for economic, emotional, and social support, they feel more inadequate and distance themselves even more, often escaping into pornography, increased alcohol consumption, and compulsive work habits. I hear from many women that “there just aren’t any good men out there to marry” and they become even more self-sufficient and self-contained. I hear from men who say, “Women just don’t want intimacy anymore.” They become more fearful of reaching out to women and risking rejection.”
When are males going to collectively decide to change?
Go to therapy, make better friends, stop being rapist, develop some interests other than porn, develop better social skills, become more empathetic, gain knowledge on actually giving a woman an orgasm, repair their relationships with their family, read a book on social skills, take a class on social skills, stop having sexual Tourette’s, develop a life that a woman would actually say yes to if you propose.
I can’t be sympathetic because most males don’t move an inch to change their lives for the better. They just get madder that no woman wants them.
^^^^^^ It’s easier for them to blame us then to take any real responsibility for their actions
let the church say amen.
Yeah, this is huge for me – I mean, before my current relationship I didn’t date for 2 years? 3 years? I don’t need a man in this century, I can have a job and open a bank account and sign contracts myself, so then it becomes why do I want one? What am I looking for a partner to add to my life?
For me I think it’s (in no order) – A+ sex and physical contact – Companionship, enjoyable conversations and time together – Emotional support – Reliability/dependability and these don’t seem like impossible things in general – some of my friends are 3 for 4.
But it seems like so many guys are not getting the “you’re not required anymore” message and understanding its ramifications. Then instead of making themselves desirable partners, they mostly react by just…getting mad and playing video games 24/7?
(btw I know I/women absolutely am not required either, and in fact I’m a worse deal than most women because I’m not signing up to handle a guy’s dirty socks and Christmas cards for him. BUT I am very into trying to improve partners’ lives in other ways; that’s something I take seriously…so I know it can be done??)
Yeah honestly from a non-binary perspective it’s just so totally fucking wacko, because I’m NO GODDAMN CATCH as a significant other: I’m not hot, I have weird hang-ups in bed, trauma has left me emotionally compromised and with a terrible fear of trusting other people… but I’ve still managed several long-term, committed relationships with people (and even more FWB style flings). Because people want others around them, they want companionship, or romance, or sex, or all of the above. Most people want, in one way or another, to not be going it alone.
In fact, most of my friends, in lieu of any useful romantic partners around, are beginning to discuss forming these long-lasting social and economic bonds with each other instead of a single male romantic partner. Seems reasonable; that way everything’s sort of spread out. If two humans are better at surviving together, surely three to five would be better, and between the lot of us, we’re BOUND to figure out the companionship, romance, and sex stuff. And I can tell you for sure, that if a decent guy came around wanting in on this (ESP a cis guy, out of the sheer innovation of the concept), he’d be the goddamn belle of the ball. The only thing is that he’d be expected to add just as much support to the group as everyone else… and as the article pussyfoots around, that’s the exact goddamn problem.
The kind of guys that are getting angry instead of just depressed are guys that feel obligated. Entitled. The men who were promised the world–which INCLUDED a submissive woman–and then never got it. Not romantically, not economically.
There’s literally never been a plague of ace/aro/aroace men goddamn murdering people, this is not, as the article seems to be pushing, because these men ~don’t have a woman~ to do literally ALL their domestic and emotional and social labor for them. It’s because they never learned and can’t be bothered to learn how to do that labor themselves because they were PROMISED someone else to do it for them. Now they don’t have it, and still, instead of being honest and telling them the problem is internal and there IS hope and they CAN fix it and gain companionship (and letting them know they need emotional companionship! do you know how few men fucking realize that’s a THING they need and then don’t understand why they’re depressed all the time???) in this life, articles like this coddle them and then point the blame squarely at women for not being willing to be abused by emotionally stunted men anymore. So of course the men continue to blame women and society, when they’re told it’s women and society’s fault that they’re alone and miserable!
Instead of giving these men hope and help, articles like this just point them at women and society and say “those two things you can’t control? it’s their fault. you’ll always feel like this, and it’s their fault.” And then wring their hands when more violence and mass shootings occur!
These men were trained from birth to have most domestic, social, and emotional labor done for them. And they resent that circumstances are forcing them to learn how to do it now, as adults. This is the root of both the aggression and the depression. If you were taught that others doing this labor for you is how you know others care about you, and then suddenly you find that no one is doing it for you and actually expect you to do it yourself, you might come to the conclusion that no one cares about you or will care about you. That you are forever unloved and unworthy because these independent women won’t do this labor for you. This is why men need feminism, to break some of these terrible myths about people’s worth and value and how caring and affection “should” be expressed.
for thousands of years men have their men-only cults and religious orders and clubs and all that denigrating women for being useless for the life of men and now that women have no time for them they get want to get mad
The biggest problem is that this aggression and violence turns into the continued abuse and violence against women. Instead of every looking at themselves, they turn it to blame everyone else outside and lash out.
Men need to be taught how to make friends, how to care for themselves, how to better themselves without it turning into anti-women garbage, because too often, that’s how it starts. You think you see a bunch of men getting together to improve men and the next thing you know it turns into “what we really need to do is put women back into their places so we can prosper”. They seem fine on the points of all these things as long as at the end of the day, they still get to control women and that also needs to be addressed and stopped.
I don’t feel sorry for men. I cannot. They do too much damage and in the end women are still supposed to be their fixers.
All these articles ever seem to be in some appeal that women will go out of their way to build and bridge and fix and heal and sadly women fall for it every time, but they have to stop.
Women will get hurt, they will be abused, and sadly even be killed, but the answer must still be no. Say no to fixing men. Acknowledge the problems, encourage them to self help, but stop fixing them.
I want 2018 to be the year women stop trying to appease men who have nothing to offer them but restraint from violence.
Men HAVE been taught how to make friends, how to self-care, how to be part of a community. They get access to the same damn TV shows and movies that we do. They attend the same schools, the same churches, apply for the same jobs. What they don’t get, is punished if they fail to take care of the people around them, starting in infancy.
And they think they’re being punished now, because they’ve been waited on their whole lives (literally, as in, “women have to wait for them, and adjust their schedules to fit around what men want to do”), and now… that’s not happening. Women are saying, “this is what I want to be doing. You don’t want that? Ok, shrug; I will do it by myself, or with my girlfriends. Bye boy.”
They believe that being told “you do your thing and I’ll do my thing” is some kind of penalty.
ALL MEN HAVE TO DO IS LEARN TO TAKE CARE OF THEMSELVES AND EACH OTHER INSTEAD OF TRAPPING WOMEN INTO DOING IT FOR THEM. THAT’S *IT*.
yeah this fifteen minite podcast i have to make isnt gonna be fifteen minutes
just moving along like everyone else 