You Know What Fantasy Writing Needs? Working Class Wizards.

You know what fantasy writing needs? Working class wizards.

A crew of enchanters maintaining the perpetual flames that run the turbines that generate electricity, covered in ash and grime and stinking of hot chilies and rare mushrooms used for the enchantments

A wizard specializing in construction, casting feather fall on every worker, and enchanting every hammer to drive nails in straight, animating the living clay that makes up the core of the crane

An elderly wizard and her apprentice who transmute fragile broken objects. From furniture, to rotten wood beams, to delicate jewelry

A battle magician, trained with only a few rudimentary spells to solve a shortage of trained wizards on the front who uses his healing spells to help folks around town

Wizarding shops where cheery little mages enchant wooden blocks to be hammered into the sides of homes. Hammer this into the attic and it will scare off termites, toss this in the fire and clean your chimney, throw this in the air and all dust in the room gets sucked up

Wizard loggers who transmute cut trees into solid, square beams, reducing waste, and casting spells to speed up regrowth. The forest, they know, will not be too harsh on them if the lost tree’s children may grow in its place

Wizard farmers who grow their crops in arcane sigils to increase yield, or produce healthier fruit

Factory wizards who control a dozen little constructs that keep machines cleaned and operational, who cast armor to protect the hands of workers, and who, when the factory strikes for better wages, freeze the machines in place to ensure their bosses can’t bring anyone new in.

Anyway, think about it.

When I was 17 my appendix ruptured because I thought I was just having period cramps and didn’t go to the hospital so don’t tell me PMS symptoms are no big deal

Wait! Wait, wait wait!

“A person who believes in eugenics wants to influence or control other people’s reproductive choices based on whose genes they think should be passed on to “improve the human race.””

But? But didn’t OP? Didn’t OP try to control other people’s reproductive choices based on whose genes they think should be passed on to ‘Improve the human race’?

This might be considered controversial but I really don’t care

I remember seeing this post on radblr a while ago (if you know the op please don’t tag them. It’s possible they changed their opinion and I don’t want them getting unnecessary hate) basically saying in the name of bodily autonomy it’s okay for women to abort disabled children

This could be my personal feelings as a disabled woman but it felt very similar to eugenics

If you’re pregnant and the minute you find out your child isn’t “perfect” you decide to abort it that’s not okay

What’s going to happen if they don’t pick up on a disability or the child develops a disability later on in life or are in some kind of accident that leaves the child disabled

Committing to child means committing to everything that can possibly happen

Your love for your child you’re bringing into the world should be unconditional regardless

I’m sorry if this is not the right thing to say

It just really hurt and was on my mind tonight.

What's a thing you didn't know would consume so much of your time as an adult?

oh yeah have i ever told yall of the academic war i have been an unwilling soilder in for the past two years

It was always going to be this gay

Looking at the first scene where Kate and Yelena meet I’m struck by how much the chemistry they have together isn’t just because they’re hot (and I’m gay). It’s because they have amazing actresses who sold exactly the scene they were scripted to. This scene is obviously meant to act as a call back to Clint’s best shot. A set up for the partnership they are inheriting along with the heroic mantles. Clint talks about seeing something in Natasha’s eyes that let him know she wants out of the life she currently has. This was the scene Florence and Hailee delivered. It just reads a lot like a love at first sight scene.

Florence delivered a few different layers with her acting here. The first, broadest layer is “you don’t want to do this.” You can practically hear her thinking that. She’s emotional about it but more impatient than angry, afraid or upset. She doesn’t have time for this. She doesn’t have time for Kate. She takes time anyway. But there’s another layer under that. Something hidden. Something vulnerable and in this moment, exposed. “I don’t want you to do this.” I can’t tell (and I wonder if it’s intentional) if the thought is directed at Kate who is that very moment acting as a clear and present danger/obstacle or it’s directed at herself. The part of her that wants out. The part that knows attacking Clint, her sister’s best friend, without talking is absolutely a grief response.

Hailee was equally fantastic. She conveyed Kate’s headspace excellently. She goes from focus on the mission of saving her hero’s life, something she’s been practicing and training for at least 6 years non-stop, something she’s been hyper focused on for the entire series so far, to realizing that she’s unprepared for the actual reality before her. She’s not ready for Yelena. She’s ready to fight, ready to defend, ready to be a hero. She’s not ready to see the person behind the roles and fantasies she’s built up. Which is the under layer of Hailee’s portrayal of Kate here. There’s that surface layer of “ooh shit, what’s going on?!”  The under layer is all “I see you. I understand you. I accept you.” Because in that moment Kate sees Yelena’s vulnerability. Sees what the Red Room would have called weakness. And in the only way she could for that single moment of connection, supports Yelena. And Yelena, being seen, promptly runs away.

Which is why this scene reads so much like love at first sight. Admittedly, more on Kate’s end then Yelena’s. What is love, if not exposing our vulnerability and being seen, understood, and accepted anyway?