#(but i do feel justified in being like THEY ARE PROBABLY CONNECTED SOMEHOW RIGHT?! right now)

[egophiliac]

Hi it's just to let you know that the official romanization of Revaan's name is Raverne ! Also they have romanized Baul's name to Baur !

Twst coming back at us again with the least expected romanization! thank you everybody (oh god my inbox) (no it's great, I literally asked for this and the reactions have been INCREDIBLE, thank you all!)

I do like Raverne though, I think it's got a nice fancy sound to it! (I had kinda suspected it was going to be an R instead of an L, so the fact that it's SO close to Laverne except for that is hilarious to me personally.) and Dragoneye Duke is honestly probably the best translation for his title, I wasn't envying the localizers that one. :') Baur instead of Baul I was NOT expecting, but in retrospect I think his name's supposed to be a reference to the Bauru crocodile, so that actually makes way more sense!

someone else also said Meleanor has become Maleanor, which is the REALLY weird one to me, because I was so surprised it was written as Mel instead of Mal in the first place?! oh god no I can't decide which one I like better. 😭 (I wonder if they might change it to Mal...they have made romanization changes before) (like I remember House of Distraction being corrected to House of Destruction in Playful Land) (I did check and she's still Mel for now, but I dunno, they might Mal her up and some point and save me from having to make a decision about which one to use) (HECK I CAN'T DECIDE)

uhhhh thank you for letting me ramble about anime names, let's just say MONOGRAMMED SWEATERS FOR EVERYONE

[chronologically-challenged]

There was this one art a little while ago about the family stuck in a situation where they're forced to play ISAT in some post game scenerio. I keep having many thoughts, but here's some about them figuring out who Loop is:

1) They all BAFFLED by how Loop usually talks. They all thought Loop was this shy little star person. Immediately, they get hit with "have you tried not dying~~~~" into "I think you deserve help" and do not know what to think.

2) Odile is in charge of the controller. Mainly bc no one else wants to control Siffrin and they all have equal amount of video game experience aka none, so Odile is being practical about it. This has the side effect that Odile gets to be all investigative. Odile makes it her MISSION to find stuff out about Loop.

3) Siffrin has complicated feelings about them finding out about Loop??? Like okay they HATE their family has to see all this, ESPECIALLY THAT THEY CAN SEE HIS THOUGHTS!!!! But. Loop. Siffrin hasn't told his family the truth. It's not his story to tell. But. If they figure it out...? In a way that proves Loop wrong, right? That they can recognize them. Maybe it takes a bit because Loop looks different is and actively trying to be different from Siffrin. But. Maybe...? Either way they encourage Odile to talk to Loop. If this is a simulation... if this is real in some way even... yeah he wants to talk to Loop.

Anyway here's a list on how they find out one by one:

Odile: She catches the little stuff. She notes the royal We, the fact that Loop alludes to having an old body by accident, the casual familiarity in some places. All of that. She is also the first to note their eyes being different shades. However, Odile doesn't make the connection 100%, not until Isabeau. Well.

Isabeau: He gets some of the weird stuff Loop says but not as many as Odile. HE finds Loops side comments weirder. He sees Loop's reactions and they're a bit. Uncanny.... and then he has another realization, Loop and Siffrin have the same eyes. When Isabeau notes this, it all clicks for Odile.

Mirabelle: Okay, so. You cannot tell me that Mirabelle has not read fantasy stories with weird guide characters. She has to have!!!! So at first, she's not even looking for who Loop is. And tbh? She has the best read on Loop's personality otherwise. Sassy, but clearly caring. A bit of a shit, but serious when needed. And mainly, she appreciates Loop Being There when the rest of them couldn't. That being said, the moment where the "have you wondered who I am" happens. And suddenly Mirabelle Is Thinking Of the Possibilties. And then the ME option pops up!!!! Odile was already about to pick it but Mirabelle YELLS to pick that one!!!!! Uh. Shortly after that they all have a conversation about how yeah, Loop is VERY likely Siffrin. Mirabelle justifies herself with tropes. Of course!!! Of course they're Siffrin!!! If they're anyone they have to be Siffrin. Siffrin got transformed and became the guide they needed!!!! It Just Makes Sense.

Bonnie: ....Tbh doesn't really figure it out on their own? But also. Loop. Feels like Frin. Not exactly like Frin. But they're Frin enough to be trusted so who cares. It takes awhile for them to really get it too because... it's weird. Also they're the one to really ask why there would be two Frins??? Duh??? And why would Frin become Loop???

Anyway, basically, after picking "Me?" They pretty much are all on the same page. They got that it was wishcraft. They got Loop is Siffrin somehow. I think Odile might figure out that "hey, uh if Loop is the guide then what happens when Loop doesn't have a guide" and Mirabelle probably says "wait Siffrin didn't you say to me once that without Loop you wouldn't have made it?"

Meanwhile Siffrin is a mix of sad and very emotionally touched. Because. Yeah. Even when trying to actively hide, their family recognized them.

Notably, Siffrin gets them to twohats (Siffrin remembers that they understood Loop most after showing them the coin. So yes, the family does get to see Siffrin's "I will forget everything I love" moment. Goes as well as you expect. Lots of hugs and the reassurance that they will bug Siffrin until the end of their days so he can't forget him so HA!)

But yeah. Siffrin really wants to make sure they can get little simulation Siffrin to realize Loop is Siffrin as well. Because if there is any chance of this being real and that they're guiding a Siffrin in another reality, then they want to make sure they can get Loop to know just how much they did. How much they helped and changed Siffrin's fate for the better.

To note: I'd imagine in this scenario, Odile wouldn't go do any of the side stuff. At least not too much of it. There wouldn't be as much exploration either. Siffrin likely would be very underleveled as a result.

So perhaps in this scenario? Imagine if you will that while the Siffrin watching definitely defeated Loop, the simulation Siffrin loses.

And Siffrin finds out that... no. No! Of course Loop couldn't kill him. Of course they wouldn't. There is a catharsis to that realization.

(After they finish the game, either a) prologue playthrough time or b) they're freed and the group IMMEDIATELY try to figure out a way to find Loop bc uh??? Even if they weren't Siffrin, they want to find them. But like. Two Frins. Two Frins they know are different but who cares, no matter who Loop chooses to be, Loop Is Family Too).

Anyway, family plays isat featuring the Loop Saga.

[guardian5tiger3]

An honest love reading (general)

Pick a picture -

1 2

3 4

Group one

A cycle has just been completed in terms of love and romance and either you or someone else did not this to happen. They're almost like, dramatic about that.someone involved , you or someone connected to yourself somehow, is overly focused on love and it stresses them out and it feels extreme though I can't pick up on any situation extreme enough to justify this. Someone could have insomnia and or hair loss you could also possibly see someone's tiredness in their eyes. Someone's money might be affected. I keep picking up on a a group of, as in multiple, people. Either someone here is polyamorous and if that's the case it has something to do with denial about something or the want to be in control of something or someone, or for others there's a group of people you're dealing with and they're "heated " about something . I also heard " eyeing you" who the hell uses phrases like this if you know that's a confirmation for ya. You have a group of people somewhat obsessed they seem like obsessed people in general they may be obsessed with something to do with you or just you, I'm also picking up on one individual who has something to do with you that (is very weird, and the groups I'm picking up on more or less give me weird vibes,) well connected to this person I'm getting something about childhood and I'm seeing candy this is really weird and I just involuntarily made an angry or confused look with my eyebrows you know I pushed them down I don't know why. This person may have known you for a long time or thinks they do or something idk this is super strange g make sure you're not overly trusting of every single person ever in your life you know. Someone also could be trying to take something that isn't theirs. Lock your doors , literally. Wow.sorry y'all . Genuinely. I also am somehow picking up on someone's long straight hair and something about glitter. I also saw a purple dress.

Group Two

You guys are easily manipulated and people who are going to want to manipulate you can notice this probably way more than you can about yourself also someone needs to not bite their fork when they take a bite of food it's bad for your teeth I don't know how or why that would come up for me to say sorry. Somebody needs to literally or metaphorically open a window. Um you're on the path to love and it will happen exactly when it's supposed to how it's supposed to with who it's supposed to and honestly unless you really go out of your way you may not have any romance at all until then even if that isn't what you want like for some reason I guess it depends but either your soul wants people in the meantime or you want someone sooner or what I don't know it just don't work like that though you know. I'm generally getting like if you're the type to hope your person isn't with anyone else before they meet you then this is probably for you also. Or your person is like this and I guess they are somewhat powerful cause therefore that's the way it's gonna be and in the meantime I guess you're gonna have to be solo. Somehow this seems better and more productive for your personal development than learning by Interacting with other people and being with "karmics" and stuff.

Group Three

I'm seeing two energies that are basically, literally, nothing alike. Yet somehow they're paired up. You're with this person right now in the past or future or you wanted or want to be with them lol. Some of you it's your soulmate ,though and that's really special and actually really cool and refreshing. Like 99% of you are supposed to at least at one point be with someone like this to you. Or for like very few of you this is just about your signs like fire and water but I really doubt that's as far as it goes you are probably very different either way. You guys are very deep and cool refreshing people very beautiful , good listeners and balanced. Someone has ADHD or something else so you might doubt the good listener thing I'm getting but I think you pay attention to detail or something like somehow this is still infact accurate and you may be don't see it about yourself . I think you all are very deep mentally and have a deep capacity to hold a lot lot lot of information, knowledge, wisdom, n stuff. A lot of people might be drawn to you or notice you and also possibly a lot of different types of people as something about you a lot of different people can still connect with somehow. Yeah also someone's a hater here though and they might tease you with something somehow so I really hope you stay aware of that possibility, realize this about whoever they are and stand up for yourself basically I feel like you have the potential to retaliate and as long as it is nothing illegal I kind of feel like saying I want you to . ????????? I don't know o feel like it would be really satisfying maybe to your guides or it is when you do, fight back or argue cause you're good at it and it would not be easy to win against you or come up with any comeback especially if you plan something. Wow. Hahaha. I'm leaving it here.

I heard desperado and I know three songs called that well two are just remixes of the og you could look up the og or the Mike bars desperado lol . Or just the word maybe is significant, goes with your picture anyway. I feel like most of you that will hear the song will just like the song lol . I can dig it

Group Four

There was a conditional love given and when this was taken away it had someone really stressed out and hurt. Someone was being a complete dick that was giving love conditionally and then stopped . I feel like the shit they do or say is old as f... Like it's ugly and getting old man anyway. This very well could be past energy like long long ago for some of you. This person might have lied. They might be selfish. They may be downplaying your come up or they will when you do come up. Or some , even saying you don't deserve it but I'm being shown you very clearly do. Like this person only gets dustier through time nobody is ever gonna pick up this old kick knack and undust them theyre old and lame. I'm picking up on like, when people say the type of person that peaked in high school. Yeah so this person has their qualities but eventually everyone's like ok whatever yawn. They're definitely super greedy as I just got a card saying " GREED " lol. In terms of future love y'all will be good I'm picking up generally most of you just need to become more comfortable within yourself first and I'm picking up on like cozy night chilling and watching movies and stuff by yourself or with a pet even a friend but you get me just learning to be content also and have good times like that without the need for someone else romantically. Either way somehow some time after you get into that energy a person will come along softly and surely and it will be really nice and happy . Around that time maybe shortly after you will have something happen positive when it comes to work or their work . I also channeled the movie my big fat Greek wedding as I was channeling this last part haha so I thought I should mention that, I know I'm partially Greek and always loved that movie. Someone might like telling stories ? But yeah in the movie she has a glow up and then she sees this guy she thought was cute again and things just worked out and he asked her out and they fell in love it was just simple smooth and sweet and the timing matched up with what I said may happen for you so that's really cute y'all stay hopeful and focus on relaxation. And for some of you if you know this is true though also studying .

[feroluce]

So I'm well aware this is probably a case of "it isn't that deep" but I love looking at all the fiddly little accessories and bits and bobs of Hoyo designs and trying to justify them. Sampo's is particularly funny, because. What even is all that dkkxjdkd

His outfit has so many straps wrapped around him, like they're restraining or holding something in to keep it from bursting at the seams, and not all of them look like they're even connected to anything! But I'd like to think they are useful in certain situations, like if Sampo takes a hit out in the Fragmentum from one of the monsters.

He's hurt, his arm is bleeding, but he is ALMOST done, he just needs a couple more things to fulfill his quota to Natasha and he doesn't want to turn around and go back now. So Sampo frees a strap from his shirt, winds it around his arm above the cut, pulls it tight with his free hand and his teeth. He'll treat it properly in a minute, once he's done scavenging.

There's also the strange chains that resemble snake spines. Given how they're way longer in his splash art and the way they wind around-

I'd like to think they can extend somehow, and Sampo can use them to scale heights. Firefly clocks him as a covert fighter without even being within 20 feet of him, so it would make sense for Sampo to have ways to get around that don't involve usual/obvious methods, like stairs. Think assassin skill sets.

He's also the only one known to be able to get between the Underground and the overworld, and while he's pretty tight-lipped about his method, having some sort of device to help traverse vertical heights is probably insanely helpful there.

And the little metal ornaments across the backs of his wrists! You can see it a bit better in his reference sheet (everyone say thanks @/dragaliareferencearchive!) as opposed to his splash art-

they aren't flat, they stick up a bit off his arms. And so I wonder if Gepard has ever gone to arrest Sampo, and found that they interfere with his handcuffs haha

The ornaments don't match, the one on his right wrist is actually shorter and doesn't extend down to the back of his hand. Which probably doesn't make it nearly as annoying for handcuffs as the left one, but it would make sense for Sampo to have them like that, since he seems to be right-handed! I think a certain proficiency in being ambidextrous is necessary to dual wield daggers like he does, but. Sampo uses his right hand to

hold his blade in his splash art

throw his blade in his skill

play/show off with his dagger in his idle

lob smoke bombs in his technique

cross over his heart when he bows

and to flip his bangs during the cutscene where he saves the trailblazers from Bronya

So a shorter guard on his right hand would help him keep his wrist's flexibility to be able to do all that unimpeded (loving the thought now that Sampo is naturally right-handed and still better with it, but he practiced constantly with his left until he could do things passably ambidextrous).

I also love them because I wonder if they're in the perfect place to help block a hit, along with the chain wrapped around his left forearm.

Like I love the image of a hired killer soundlessly sneaking up behind Sampo in some shady dark alley, knife sloooooowly raising, and then all at once, they strike!

And instead of feeling the blade sink into his back, they get the unpleasant resonating of metal-on-metal shivering up their arm and rattling their bones, because Sampo has turned around at the last second and raised his crossed his arms to let the knife glance off the guards on his wrists.

And the mercenary is left to realize that oh, they are fucked.

[oneatlatime]

Bitter Work

Life took me out at the knees for a couple of weeks but I'm back! I'm hoping this is a nice restful episode after the relentlessness of The Chase.

I have to say, Toph's nicknaming skills are on point. I never would have thought of Sugarqueen, but it fits perfectly.

This is me. Every morning.

Full nose plant from Appa.

And the beat up Sokka quota is fulfilled. Very funny Toph, but completely uncalled for. If someone had catapulted teenage me 50 feet into the air while I was trying to sleep, it would have been fully justifiable homicide.

Aang is always trying to run before he can walk. What was Iroh always saying to Zuko about basics? Aang needs that speech too.

I was really on the ball in my post about how airbenders aren't homicidal, actually. Rock is a stubborn element. Yay me!

Aang earthbends = Earth bends Aang.

Seriously, how did he mess up that badly?

Cozy.

Thank you Zuko for the incredibly obvious exposition that's somehow completely in character. Interesting to see that Iroh and his son had brown hair, but Zuko seems to have black hair. More hair variety in the Fire Nation than I thought.

Tangent time! I love the contrast in social intelligence (I guess that's the term?) in this scene. Zuko wakes Iroh up with an infodump, some bad tea, and then gets straight to discussing strategy. Iroh's first actions are to compliment the bad tea, then dispose of the refill in a way that won't hurt Zuko's feelings (probably not necessary, as Zuko seems to be the type that's oblivious to all things other than the task at hand when he's focused). Iroh, injured and awake for all of 15 seconds, jumps straight to actions that help look after his nephew. And Zuko is trying! That's why he made tea! But still, he doesn't even ask if his uncle's feeling ok. Zuko has such a massive gap in his education - he can probably reel off the specs of all Fire Nation battleships, but he doesn't know how to be a human person. Contrast that with Iroh, and especially Katara, who makes friends and connections with such aggressive forwardness that she's at times more steamroller than teenage girl. It's funny how privilege plays into this too - Zuko comes from probably the single most privileged (on paper) family in the world, yet it's the children of the impoverished water tribe who have the more well-rounded education/socialisation.

"She's crazy and she needs to go down" go a full belly laugh out of me.

"What if I came at the boulder from a different angle?" Jesus I was REALLY on point with my post about the airbenders. Credit where credit is due, this show has such good writing/worldbuilding that viewers have picked up what Toph is laying out in this episode already. Also a little bit of stealth character work in there - since Toph is putting into words what we've been thinking this whole time, she now reads as trustworthy. This show is so good. So thought out.

Maybe it's just VLC being weird, but methinks Katara is having some trouble with her eyeball.

Katara STOP BABYING HIM. This is why I don't like Aang having a crush on her.

Honestly it's refreshing to have Toph giving it to Aang straight, no softening the blows.

I really like this texture.

Sokka's club is a giant bottle opener. Or at least a multitool.

ROCK SUITS

wait

ELEMENTAL FASHION

oh this is going to be haybending all over again.

They are totally going to have to nerf this girl. She could defeat the Fire Lord right now.

Earth beats water tribe

Someome who knows more about tea than I do: Why are both pots necessary?

"requires peace of mind" well that's out. Sorry Zuko, we'll have to get you a taser instead.

"So we're drinking tea to calm down?" "not it's to get the nasty ass taste of the sludge you brewed out of my mouth. I mean yes." For what's looking like an extended training montage, this episode is far funnier than it needs to be.

I pretty much don't notice Zuko's scar anymore (it's just part of his character design) then every so often a certain frame of animation will come out of the blue and remind me that this kid's missing half his face. I don't know if it's intentional on the part of the animators, but his scar is prominent this episode.

So it sounds like bending lightning actually corresponds with how lightning in our world works. Neat.

In an absolutely Shocking turn of events (pun absolutely intended), Zuko fucks it up. Fucking shit up: the autobiography of a Fire Prince. Has a nice ring to it.

Toph I know you go hard, but maybe apply a sense of proportion to this?

It kind of looks like Aang's about to be run over by a giant scoop of caramel ice cream.

Toph is such an interesting mishmash of bluntness and emotional intelligence. I don't think I've seen a character like that before.

Zuko being self aware for once! Everything always does explode in his face. Except when he's being the Blue Spirit. Seems he's more capable then.

It's a tragedy that this boy wasn't around for the emo movement. He would have single-handedly sustained Hot Topic.

Zuko going "WHAT TURMOIL?!?!?" is like Katara going "I'M COMPLETELY CALM!!!!!" last episode. Also got a laugh out of me.

"I'm as proud as ever." OF WHAT?!?!? What could he possibly be proud of? He's a homeless fugitive with a stolen horse bird and a half-dead uncle that he can't even properly brew tea for. The self-delusion is strong.

Is pride the source of shame? Honest question, I don't know.

There's a surprising variety of trees in this part of the Earth Kingdom. Where Zuko and Iroh are there are fluffly hardwoods, probably deciduous; Toph's training ground is ringed by cartoon pines.

This whole bit is too cute for words.

"Now come back boomerang" This is a training episode, it's not supposed to be this funny!

Are there voice acting awards? Like voice acting oscars? Sokka's actor needs one. Or several.

I should have waited to answer the ask about airbenders and just copy pasted Iroh's speech here. Except for the water = change bit. That doesn't make sense.

What can I possibly say about Iroh's speech? It's the thesis for this show in a single paragraph.

Pretty.

Are characters' eyes a different shape this episode? Aang's eyes change colour all the time, but everyone's eyes seem more cat-like.

I do love me some constructive bullying.

Sokka is so refreshingly self-aware while still totally oblivious. He is meat and sarcasm, but he's so much more!

"Have you got any meat?" He said that in an Irish accent.

"You're gonna pull my fingers off and I don't think the rest of me is coming!" Do you ever come across a sentence that is so obviously an innuendo that your brain trips over itself trying to decipher it?

Sokka's hair must be so fluffy. It's got so much volume.

Why can't he go get Toph? I think being stuck in a hole outranks avoiding an awkward encounter.

FOO FOO CUDDLYPOOPS

"You must not let the lightning pass through your heart, or the damage could be deadly." Foreshadowing?

Today in 'things Zuko thinks it's acceptable, nay, expected, for parental figures to do' - attempted murder as a teaching method! What went on in that palace?

Is this the closest Sokka's come to dying?

He's earthbending the air! Doing air but earthlike. You know what I mean.

I thought she was levitating.

Toph is so smart. She does the airbender thing and comes at the problem from a different angle. Telling Aang to stand up for himself doesn't work? Fine. Let's bully him into standing up for himself. And it works!

This episode's MVP is Sokka's patience.

"You tried the positive reinforcement, didn't you?" uhhhhh sure!

Appa getting vengeance for Sokka. Nice.

Theatre kids.

I wish Zuko would just have the breakdown he's obviously hurtling towards so we can get started on the rebuilding arc. Every time I think he's a rock bottom, he keeps digging.

Luten is Katara. Let's not read too far into that one.

Final Thoughts

I defy any episode from this point on to fulfill the Beat Up Sokka Quota as thoroughly as this one did.

In a lesser show, the 'Aang learns earthbending episode' would have had Aang & Toph as the A-plot, and Sokka & Katara doing something completely unrelated as a b-plot, and probably no Zuko at all. Sokka does have his own thing going on this episode, but the fact that they managed to weave in both water tribe siblings so organically is so satisfying. Of course a team member struggling to learn a new skill would seek out his friends. Of course his friends are in the area, observing the lesson to varying degrees. It feels so much more real to have the characters who aren't 'useful' that episode still there, rather than conveniently absent.

Zuko was very Zuko this episode. He's correct that he needs more training for his inevitable next encounter with Zuko jr., but Iroh is also correct that Zuko is a bundle of issues held together by a different bundle of issues. Not to jinx it, but I thought I detected a hint of self-awareness from Zuko this episode, although it seems to have occurred despite his best efforts to suppress it.

Iroh's Zuko-wrangling skills were sharp this episode, despite being injured. And his wisdom was off the charts. Zuko was also not as annoying as I usually find him, and unlike in Zuko Alone where I found his quieter self to be out of character, it fit this episode. Maybe he's turned over a new, quieter, leaf? I loved "she's crazy and she needs to go down" both as a joke and as a statement. Shared blood doesn't trump someone's actions, and I'm glad to see a show meant for kids acknowledge that. Although, given that this show has no problem depicting objectively BAD parents and families, I can't say I'm surprised.

In a testament to Jack de Sena's skill, Sokka get a soliloquy this episode and pulls it off flawlessly. Kudos to the animation team for making Sokka's face fit the words so well. Double kudos for whoever had the balls to approve 'stick Sokka in a hole and put an apex predator on his head to force self-reflection' as a plotline.

There was a lot of exposition from a lot of different characters this episode, but it's mostly unnoticeable. It just makes sense that that's what they would be talking about at that point in time.

I think I said it above, but I'll say it again: the worldbuilding in this show is phenomenally well done. How do I know this? Because I was able to construct most of Iroh's monologue before watching this episode, just by paying attention. This show rewards focus and attentiveness. (Almost) nothing that Iroh said was not something the audience has already observed for themselves. Not heard, but observed. That 'show, don't tell' thing.

This episode was way funnier than it needed to be too. Not just the obvious stuff like *inhales*

FOO FOO CUDDLYPOOPS

but tiny one-liners buried mid-conversation and character interactions too. Momo turning into a reed didn't have to be there, but it was, and it was funny. It wasn't exactly restful, but it was a relief to have an episode that really didn't move around after The Chase.

What I like most about this episode was that it went farther than it had to. This was a training episode. It could have been just training. Anyone familiar with training episodes would expect just training, and be satisfied with just training. But Avatar said 'nope, we'll do better than that' and organically incorporated a heap of character stuff, worldbuilding from multiple perspectives, humour, multiple characters undergoing self-reflection, the next step in the domestication of Zuko, what I'm hoping wasn't a heap of foreshadowing, and pretty backgrounds as the cherry on top. They didn't have to go so hard, but Avatar always goes hard. I like that.

[canmom]

re gaza fundraisers situation

i don't think most of these escape-from-gaza fundraisers going around are likely to be scams. there probably are some scammers who jumped on the situation opportunistically, but there's less convoluted ways to make a buck. similarly, i think the people who are going to the effort of trying to verify them fit the profile of people who stepped up to do a difficult and quite thankless task and got in over their heads. why are there so many fundraisers? well if i was stuck in a refugee camp during a genocide and i word got around that there was a website with generous strangers who might pay for me to leave, i would probably give it a shot. so would you, I suspect. "elaborate conspiracy by porn bot operators to scam tumblr users, setting up a spurious system of 'vetting' to justify their scam" doesn't seem particularly parsimonious as a conclusion to jump to (the porn bot operators are in general just using tumblr as a free hosting service for seo shit), but if you fixate on the idea that's what's going on, and feel like you're the smart one for not falling foot it, there's very little evidence that can't be framed as part of the conspiracy. so a few people i sorta know over in the rat sphere threw out this accusation and now it's a whole furore.

even beyond that, though, there's plenty about the situation that is, through no fault of these gazan refugees, plain fucked. just like with e.g. trans fundraisers, with a loosely finite amount that people are likely willing to spare, you get a game of who can write the best appeal to emotion. for example, if you can point to a middle class occupation you used to have to supplant the stereotype of a poor refugee, that's effective rhetoric and maybe your fundraiser will go further. this is ugly and it shouldn't work like that, but that's the shape of it.

thus, the refugees end up looking at a wall of potentially hostile strangers and trying everything strat they can think to persuade them to part with money, while the tumblr user side is being constantly presented stories of strangers in pain; some of them end up trying to purchase satisfaction of moral principle, relief from feelings of complicity, etc etc. there are some personal connections between the two, but for most, that's the extent of the interaction. unfortunately, where they're continually confronted with a lot of people in very similar situations of misery, people (without some personal stake or connection keeping them invested) are likely to start mentally grouping everyone into one abstract figure of 'palestinian refugee', tuning out, finding excuses to dismiss them, etc etc. so on the refugee side, it ends up a very finite-sum game. and scammers just make that worse by mixing in an extra element of 'FUD'.

and worse, even if everything works out, mostly this money is going straight into the pockets of Egyptian border guards who set the (essentially) bribe price for putting someone on the exit list. similar to when the cops lock someone up and you have to raise bail, they can set that price to whatever they think they can get away with. there is absolutely no reason why it should cost $10,000 a head to cross from one side of a wall to another, except that the circumstances of this genocide produce an opportunity to fleece refugees - and anyone who decides to help them.

but if my friends were in Gaza you can bet I'd ask anyone who'd listen to pay those guards off for me. and if they refused, it would fucking hurt - that's my friend, they could die. a life saved is a life saved.

in general we are much more likely to move for a friend we have a personal connection to, or even a stranger who we perceive as relatable, than a total stranger, no matter how dire that stranger's situation. on some level this really feels wrong like, to each according to their need, right? somehow though applying the cold calculus of lives saved per dollar feels utterly cracked. if you're not filthy rich, there isn't really a good course to follow, because it's just a bad situation.

this isn't advice. there are always more people in need than you are capable of helping - the situation in Sudan is very dire as well for example, I've made online friends with a young gay guy at another refugee camp over there, and there's not much I can do to get him and his friends out except hope that he has some luck with certain Canadian charities. but every city on earth has people ending up destitute, right outside your door. helping someone is always a gamble. ultimately the call of which person you choose to help is quite arbitrary. so re gaza, I'm personally sending a decent chunk of monthly money to unrwa and I donated to a few fundraisers, but ultimately I'm already giving nearly all of my disposable income away to specific friends who are currently depending on me, so... is that the 'right' allocation of resources? i don't know and just have to accept the decisions i made.

charity is not a relationship that brings out the best in people, in general - it is inherently unequal, and there is a sense of shame, anxiety and suspicion that surrounds the whole thing on both sides, and that tends to find escape somehow. nobody likes to feel like a mark, nobody likes to feel like a pity case, and even in situations of legitimate suffering, nobody likes the hard sell. but as long as the genocide continues (and it shows no sign of stopping), this will continue, people will need the help. i have no solution.

[fujoshiwarrior]

limbus company 1 am (edit: now 2 am) ramblings (massive spoilers abound for canto v)

these are just some quick sleep deprived thoughts, and my analysis could be better, but i feel like talking about it anyway

i saw a post in the main tag talking about why the op really disliked canto v, and i don't wanna get into an argument and i don't want to vague the op in a way that makes it seem like im attacking them because im not, i just wanna talk about why i disagree with them

i don't think canto v was perfect or the best canto but i thought it was absolutely incredible (yes i did cry during the final boss fight), and i agree that starbuck and queequeg deserved way more screentime and development than they got (i also think the adaptation of queequeg from moby dick to limbus was woefully clumsy, which might have have been remedied by more time with her, though i still love limbus!queequeg)

however, i wholeheartedly disagree on ahab as a villain. i thought she was amazing. even if she doesn't really have any shades of gray to her, i think the point is that a lot of horrible, evil, selfish people genuinely believe what they are doing and their behavior is right and justified. furthermore, she was completely and utterly steeped in delusion and obsession to the detriment of herself and every single person remotely in proximity to her.

i need to say first that i've never read moby dick unfortunately, so i can't comment too much on limbus!ahab vs book!ahab. what i do know is that just like in limbus, ahab's obsession leads to the demise of every single crew member with ishmael as the sole survivor. since i haven't read moby dick, i had to consult sparknotes for a profile of book!ahab, and it describes him as much of a victim as he is an aggressor---however, i'll touch on that in a bit.

what i want to bring attention to is that both book and limbus ahab are characterized by sheer hubris, pride, and a god/savior complex. i want to bring attention to another classical literature character who is characterized by hubris and who also spends the entire novel on a ship: victor frankenstein.

this comparison might seem like it's coming from left field, but i promise i have a point. also, while i don't think limbus!ahab was overtly inspired by victor frankenstein, considering how obsessed pm is with literature i think there is a very low chance that kjh or at least one of the writers haven't read frankenstein. see also the parallels between angela and the monster/ayin and frankenstein in lobotomy corporation and library of ruina (especially library of ruina, where there is a direct connection between angela and lucifer related imagery, who the monster is also associated with). frankenstein ends with victor, after telling his, encouraging the sailors not to give up on trying to find a new passage channel in spite of the fact they will probably die doing so---victor has not learned his lesson, and now he's luring a group of sailors to their deaths.

ahab is so full of herself and so egocentric that even when she was facing the death of her very "self" (or...ego) she did not falter in her delusions, not even at the very, very end, and was happy to continue the cycle. the point i'm trying to make here is that a character being unambiguously bad and selfish doesn't necessarily make for a bad or uncomplicated character. i will concede though that op again has a point with the lack of screentime with ahab means that she didn't have the time to prove her complexities.

this brings me to canto v's ending. in the post credits scene, we saw the ahab somehow survived the collapse of the white whale (this is just speculation, but i think it has something to do with her ego awakening---judging off the cg art, i would guess the ego fused with the pallidification from the whale or nullified it entirely...or both maybe). i was initially disappointed by this.

however, we know very little about hermann's crew. as op touched on, and as i have touched on, ahab had little screentime and not a lot of character development. her now being a member of hermann's crew gives ample opportunity for further development of her character---i think we'll see why exactly she became so obsessed with the whale and why she is the way she is (the aspect of ahab as a victim, i imagine there's a deeply personal reason why the decided the whale was the source of all evil)

this leads to me another point op mentioned: ishmael sparing ahab.

op talks about this as a bad thing. i STRONGLY disagree.

the name of the game here is obsession. ishmael's new ego for this season is even named "blind obsession". from the 4.5 event, we saw that this obsession has been tearing her apart. several people theorized after that event, and during this canto, that she was for sure going to distort. the fact that she had a distortion effect behind her battle sprite made lots of people (including me) extremely confident that she would distort and be the boss of this chapter (outis said in part 1 that lcb doesn't need all 12 sinners to operate and you only use half in battle anyway).

if ishmael had killed ahab, she would have given into her obsession and may have *actually* distorted if she did. and she would have proven ahab completely and utterly right.

ishmael stealing away the opportunity to be the one to kill the pallid whale from ahab and leaving her to rot inside the collapsing whale with that knowledge is the best possible punishment ahab could have gotten.

that's why i didn't like the fact that ahab had survived, it felt like it defeated the point of ishmael's development and the canto itself. i changed my mind because the point of ishmael's character development was letting go of her obsession and being free from ahab, and ahab doesn't need to be dead for her to do that. and her involvement with hermann's group means an opportunity for a bigger and better comeuppance since she's probably going to have a new obsession soon enough.

[ceranovis]

Some musings to do with this celltw pic

As a fandom I feel like we could be doing So Much More with Other Side Elements being canon + all the connected Ordem worldbuilding it introduces by association.

Canonically, Cellbit chose to align himself with the knowledge element. So I hopped on over to the ordem wiki page for Knowledge to look for things to put in the paperwork on the table. Then I realized there's a memory alteration ritual (accidentally pulled the wrong ritual circle image for the art though oTL ...let's just pretend Cellbit identified the right one at some point).

The [Change Memory Ritual] can erase all or only some specific memories of the victim. In both cases, if the victim comes into contact with people, places and certain objects that were part of this past erased, it will begin to gradually recall some elements and have quick flashes of some moments, being able to recover its memory completely after a while.

Now listen. If there's one thing I think of as core to q!Cellbit's character, it's that as far as he's concerned the ends always justifies the means. This includes doing things he knows people he loves will hate him for because he thinks it will be better for them in the long run.

In the regret arc letters, he told Tazercraft he loved them, that Cell was dead & he didn't want them to think he was reverting to that type of monster. While there were a few moments where he brought up clearly unresolved feelings of anger and betrayal/abandonment regarding how things went with Fuga, I do think at that point he cared for the Favela crew as a found-family, and was making decisions he felt were in their best interest (usually without consulting them, or like...running those ideas by anyone else ever...)

If he discovered a way to erase specific memories, I could fully see him using that to 'make things better' for Pac. I doubt he'd try to erase all the Fuga memories (especially as he'd have to also erase Mike and Felps) but I also don't think he'd feel like he had to go that far anyways.

Earlier on in the Quesadilla timeline, Pac seemed to think of Cell as basically dormant and was relatively comfortable with having a fairly close and positive relationship with Cellbit. He only grew paranoid about Cell re-emerging when he saw signs of Cellbit snapping, and he first responded by actively trying to keep Cellbit in a headspace that wouldn't lead to that. There have been multiple instances of Pac extending a bit of grace, an unspoken offer not to forgive or forget but to move forward. He wants Cellbit to be a good man, not a monster.

So I think Cellbit would use the ritual to smooth over events that put a strain on their current relationship. Things that made Pac scared he was turning back into Cell. And he'd probably justify it as 'helping' Pac, but there's also a selfish element there too, of him desperately trying to keep hold of this new start and family he probably doesn't deserve but somehow got anyways.

It's small things at first-- just wiping away little instances that put Pac on edge around him. Pac is prone to glossing over Cellbit's red flags anyways, so even if other people remember what Pac doesn't, it wouldn't set off immediate alarm bells. Nobody would catch on to the manipulation.

Pac himself would write off most of the weird, vague flashes he gets sometimes. It feels sort of like deja vu but with an extra helping of uneasy dread. He's not very self-confident when it comes to his brain; he's just being unreasonably paranoid because of his memories of Cell-- those half-memories are so foggy because his brain is panicking and conflating the past with the present, right? More importantly, wants to trust Cellbit.

Now, there's a clip of Pac (which I can't find now but it lives in my head rent free) where he implies that, if Cellbit and Roier hadnt been introduced, he and Cellbit would have been together.

There are a few points in the canon timeline where guapoduo could have been derailed. Cellbit may never have even gotten to that point with Roier if he and Pac were already a little bit closer. If he was fucking with Pac's memories in a way that made Pac less cautious of him, I think it's entirely possible their relationship would have had a chance to develop in place of guapoduo's.

Cellbit didn't start erasing memories with the intention of getting Pac to fall for him though. He wanted the olive branch Pac extended. He wanted Pac to not be terrified of him. But it never occured to him that Pac might be capable of falling in love with the man who ate his goddamn leg. So it completely blindsides him when Pac does, in fact, very deliberately step over the line between platonic and romantic in their relationship.

It feels a lot more morally dubious to be manipulating Pac's memories once that happens. But he's in too deep. He knows Pac would hate him if he found out the truth. But isn't it better this way anyways? Pac, somehow, impossibly, wants to love him-- it's not like he's forcing Pac feel anything about him, right? He knows how terrible betrayal feels-- and he doesn't have to make Pac feel that way, doesn't have to hurt him like that! All he has to do is omit the truth. It's not even a lie, really.

He wants Pac to be happy, wants to preserve the warmth Pac looks at him with now, and if holding his tongue is what assures that... well he can swallow down the guilt gnawing at him and bear that mental burden for both of them. Theres so much in their history for him to feel guilty about anyways, what's one more thing?

Unfortunately for Cellbit, he's never used the ritual on people prior to this, and the books he got it from were light on details as to how it works. He has no idea that the locks on Pac's memories start to slowly erode as soon as he encounters a trigger. And since all of the erased memories are of Cellbit, their time together is just speeding up that process.

Eventually, Pac regains a memory he can't just brush off. And he has to come to terms with the fact that something is very, very wrong between them even if he doesn't understand exactly what's happening to him. He'd figure it out eventually, go through Cellbit's notes in secret and piece things together. When he does he's horrified and angry and heartbroken. But he's torn too because it's not like he can just forget the relationship they've built either, even if he now knows the foundation is half rotted.

He still loves Cellbit, despite every fucked up thing Cellbit has ever done to him.

The question is really whether Pac loves himself enough to pull the plug on this unhealthy dynamic.

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

If the Volturi found out about L, or perhaps they already know of him, do you think Aro would want to recruit him as a vampire? I mean, his immense powers of deduction are probably proof that he's gifted. He'd probably have some gift that makes him even better at solving crimes lol

Would L Be Gifted?

Per the Twilight universe, sometimes gifts work like that, sometimes they don't. Remember we get a biased view with the Cullens and their friends and the Volturi. The vast majority of people turned into vampires are not gifted, even if they had a particular talent while human.

Having great abilities as a detective would not necessarily become a gift in Twilight. Humans who for sure display some ability usually have a psychic ability that can't be explained such as Jane and Alec who caught Aro's attention, Chelsea who caught Aro's attention, or Bella Swan who was able to block mind readers as a human. L was never psychic so he doesn't fall in that category.

Could end up with a gift, might not.

If he does--

I wouldn't necessarily call L's talents the immense powers of deduction but more very good instincts that he then has to justify later with deductions that make sense to ordinary people.

The thing about Light was, logically, there was very little reason for him to be marked as Kira. On paper he was a brilliant student who had never gotten into trouble, they put cameras in his fucking house, and he never deviated from his schedule, never looked or acted anything but ordinary, and even was recorded looking normal while deaths were occurring (the potato chip incidents where he recorded himself pointedly not engaging in murder). He grills Light upon meeting him and Light acts perfectly ordinary. Light only starts acting strange after Misa was caught and even that is explainable as the stress and pressure of L having told him he was a primary suspect and beginning to doubt whether he was somehow unconsciously being Kira after all, which also explains Light's about face in prison several days later when he realizes "wait a minute, am I actually Kira, this is a bad idea". When Light is later imprisoned and his execution is faked, Light does not admit to being Kira even when it could have saved him (this is because neither he nor Misa are in fact Kira at the time or have any memory of it). Then of course we get the whole Yotsuba arc where Light is imprisoned, literally handcuffed to L so L can watch him at all moments of the day, L telling him day in and day out that he's Kira and under immense amounts of stress to end the case so the real Kira can be caught (as Light doesn't remember being Kira at this point), and all L admits to is "He's not Kira right now for some reason and this case is total bullshit". L is convinced from the moment Light catches his attention that Light is Kira, never relents despite what looks like the overwhelming evidence that Light is not Kira and justifies himself with things like "there's a 5% chance you're Kira" when it's very clearly 100% to him internally as he never, not once, considers the possibility that Light Yagami was not Kira.

Yes, L had narrowed down to him by having evidence that first Kira was in Japan/Kanto, then that Kira had a connection to the national police agency in Japan and thus was likely either a cop himself or a close family memmber who could in theory access the files from home, then that Raye Penber's death was the only one that seemed strange/Naomi Misora's sudden inexplicable suicide in the aftermath that allowed him to narrow down to the families Raye had been tailing, and that finally got him to Light. But even when he was at Light, that he zeroed in on Light the way he did is like a bloodhound on a scent rather than what I'd call a logical deduction.

The Kira case feels very much like a puzzle L's trying to solve when he knows the answer "Light is Kira" but he has to figure out why and how.

So, if L did have a gift, I imagine it'd be honing in on that instinct of knowing information about a person at a glance.

Would Aro Want to Recruit Him?

No, because Aro already has that in himself (who sees every thought a person has ever had) and Marcus (who sees all relationships a person has at a glance). Even if L didn't have the gift I described above, anything in that vein falls into something Aro already has in his employ.

Not to mention the hassle of making L (who for all he is an anonymous detective nobody knows is in the limelight a lot) disappear would be something Aro probably wouldn't want to involve himself in. (It seems, historically, Aro does not do this as people I would have expected Aro to turn who were very famous presumably died their human deaths in the Twilight universe and were left untouched.)

Or, of course, dealing with L as a person in an organization when even with Chelsea ensuring loyalty L is--a lot and deeply enjoys making people uncomfortable and angry.

[dykefever]

wolfstar tumblr has started again to claim that we shouldn’t describe sirius as short and feminine because it’s “heteronormative”, that we shouldn’t describe remus as tall and masculine because it’s, you know, un-canon (a terf’s?). it feels like terfs are coming to the fandom and we are going back to the time back then when popular writers who turned out terfs were dominating the fandom. seems the fandom is adopting the old terfs’ claims again and even shamelessly applauding it. how are you bearing these days, laura. as for me as a trans person who hates jkr and her holy “canon”, it’s horrible. feel like everything the few good people (such as you) in the fandom had tried was vain. sorry for disturbing you.

well it's been about three or so months since i last made a post about this stuff so sounds about right that more terfy posts are coming out all surrounding height discourse. it's a cycle in the r/s fandom and im afraid these terfs and transphobes aren't coming to the fandom they've all probably been here a while because this fandom is rife with them due to the source material and general politics of the people that write the fic (liberals who are so totally for gender neutral bathrooms but transwomen make them obviously uncomfortable irl)

i've already talked a bit about how harmful and also dumb this line of thinking is re: short and fem s so i'll link this post on gender essentialism i made but i'll say again it's just so tedious how it's often the same people who don't seem to inspect where their assumptions are coming from. people stick terfs dni in their bio and perhaps disagree with the openly transphobic lawmakers but that doesn't mean their biases against trans people don't exist. transphobia is far more insidious than that!

like people seem to go: short s -> s is "whiny" and "annoying" -> he's feminine (whether he actually is or not) -> thus he's being written like he's a girl and that's bad because that's heteronormative

the media heuristic that exists that "whiny" and "weaker" men (ie. complaining, relying on their boyfriend/partner for things, idk being the fucking little spoon) are women-coded does not mean you shouldn't make any character whiny or annoying or whatever because then you are essentially making them a woman and that's Bad -- the response is to unpack the very idea that there are certain traits connected to men and women and when applied to people of the opposite or other genders somehow still has a connection to an innate gender of 'man' or 'woman'.

also, s characterisation is varied but not as prolifically dramatic and bad as people seem to say. they're latching on to the 'feminine short s characterisation' where he acts dramatic as if i have not ready many a fic where he is tall and stereotypical masculine with similar personality traits. however, these traits are viewed differently when packaged differently. the difference is s wearing a skirt or being perceived as feminine in a way that they do not view as aligned with their perception of how gender should operate.

whether intentionally transphobic or not, the shorthand people use in these discussion always ties in with this belief that there are innate gendered characterisitics that if acted out in certain relationships makes them heteronormative. i am afraid that's not how queer relationships work! they are still gay even if one of them is short and the other tall and one is fem and the other masc like? you can dislike certain relationship dynamics but that doesn't make them inherently problematic or homophobic or anything. i avoid plenty of r/s fic because it's not how i personally view them. i don't try and morally justify my dislike because i don't like how they wrote r i just click out. as for saying one thing is canon and another is not like idgaf whatever!! most of canon is quite horrible and problematic and of course we are all engaging with it to some degree but to use it to argue something as meaningless as height should be adhered to. well i'm scrolling away frankly.

idk people are always telling on themselves in these discussions and you can pretty much always track one degree of separation between them and a pretty outward terf. i block and unfollow a lot of people but at the end of the day i engage with far less content than i used to because it sucks seeing so much transphobic and often anti-queer discussion. it's exhausting and it's why so many trans people especially transfem people leave this fandom. people can slap anti-jkr in their bio as much as they want, a terf is still a fucking terf.

[crossdressingdeath]

So I love this. Basically everything about it, actually. It is an absolutely fantastic sequence.

First off: Nico implicitly considering the monstrous members of Kronos's army to be his kills in a way that contributes to him being a murderer (since otherwise the Acheron would have no reason to drag that memory to the surface). That fits really well with this book, because there is considerably more of a focus on how gods and demons and even quite a few monsters are still sapient beings. It fits even better given the whole quest at the centre of the book revolves around an immortal being dying and resurrecting down in Tartarus. Under the circumstances it makes a lot of sense both that Nico would be thinking about what it actually means to kill a living, intelligent creature even knowing they'll come back and that Nico has some mixed feelings about it; monsters in an attacking army or no, those are still sapient creatures with thoughts and feelings who are capable of feeling things like fear and pain! Killing them was necessary, and I definitely don't get the impression that Nico feels bad about it, but I like him acknowledging that he did still kill them and they did still feel it. It also feels right that it's Nico who has the thought of the monsters he's killed brought to the surface here in this scene about the guilt and regret our heroes feel for the blood on their hands, much like how in HoH it felt right that it was Percy who was punched in the face with the anger and resentment of the monsters he'd killed over the years.

Second: the deaths Nico and Will blame themselves for are super fucking sad? I've talked before about Will feeling like the people he failed to save as a healer are people he's killed and how incredibly depressing it is that this child (I think he's sixteen in TSatS?) thinks that because he couldn't save literally everyone who's ever gotten injured where he could reach them he's a murderer, but it's just... it's so sad. Will is the best medic in Camp Half-Blood, possibly the best medic across both camps, he does everything in his power to save lives, but even Apollo himself can't save everyone. Sometimes the Fates decide someone's time is up and not even the god of healing can do anything to prevent it. And Will thinks that because he can't save everyone (in other words because he's not better than a god), he's a murderer. And Nico feeling guilty over Bianca's death even though he was on the other side of the country and also ten years old with zero understanding of how his own powers worked is super tragic. If Nico had been in the junkyard with the quest group, the best he could've done was avoid dying with her. There was zero chance of him saving her, and he must know that! But he still feels guilty because he didn't save her. Somehow I did not see Nico blaming himself for Bianca's death to the point where the Acheron could use it to try to convince him he deserved punishment coming, I probably should've.

Third: Will blaming himself for not stopping Nico from killing Octavian is really interesting because it fits nicely into the plot about Will having to learn that he needs to accept Nico's darkness instead of trying to get him to overcome something that is and always will be a part of him? You can't fix your significant other! You also can't fix their murders. Will blaming himself for Octavian's death because he didn't stop Nico and Nico responding to that not by trying to justify Octavian's death but by saying Will isn't responsible for Nico's actions is a fantastic connection back to that theme: whether Nico was right to kill Octavian or not is immaterial. Will isn't Nico's keeper, so Nico's decisions aren't Will's fault in any way. Nico killing Octavian doesn't make Will a murderer just because he was there; hell, he tries to stop Octavian. Octavian refuses to listen to him. I also love how Will does call it murder, because it really was! Nico's one of the finest combatants of his generation, he could absolutely have gotten a skinny little augur armed with a knife away from an onager if he'd wanted to; instead he deliberately let him launch himself, aware that it would be fatal. I don't know if he could be charged with murder for that, I'm not a lawyer, but... yeah, it was murder at least as far as intent goes. But the fact that in this middle school series that in most cases writes around admitting that its protagonists have in fact killed people a book is openly saying "ah yes, our heroes have in fact committed at least one murder" is very good.

Fourth: Nico's thoughts on his own ruthlessness are interesting to me. Like, he's clearly got some negative feelings about his willingness to kill people. He's for sure the quickest of our leads across all the books to go for lethal options, and I think he might actually be the only one (other than Apollo, who is a god and so thinks about these things differently; see him differentiating between killing and murder since as a god there's seen to be less moral issues with killing mortals) to go for lethal options with the intent of killing people; Percy tries to get enemy demigods off the Princess Andromeda before blowing it and all the monsters aboard up (even if Son of Magic later confirmed he failed to actually get any of them to evacuate, since... y'know, he gave them like five minutes' warning and also was their enemy, but it's the thought that counts) and kind of tells himself "Yeah they probably evacuated I hope" and then doesn't really think about it again, and in HoO the POV characters basically treat mortals who came back through the Doors as another form of monster rather than people. To be clear there's nothing wrong with either of those approaches for the topic of the leads killing people in a middle school book (I'd take some issue with them in a book aimed at adults, but 'when is it morally justified to kill' is a lot to put in a book for twelve-year-olds), but Nico's willingness to look at what he's doing and say "This will kill a living person, that is the point of what I'm doing, and I accept that as necessary" is absolutely my favourite of the three. It's about that moment of looking directly at what he's doing and accepting it rather than trying to ignore it or pretend it isn't what it is. But the river is calling him out as worthy of punishment for how willing he is to kill, and since the river only works if you believe you do deserve punishment that means that on at least some level Nico thinks his willingness to kill, even if it's only when he deems it absolutely necessary, makes him a bad person. I actually really like that the Acheron focuses more on Nico's general willingness to kill than it does on any of the individual people he's killed, it suggests some very interesting things about how Nico views the situation; I feel like the takeaway is that while Nico doesn't feel guilty over the people he's killed he feels at least a bit guilty about not feeling guilty, if that makes sense.

Finally: Nico's views on Octavian's death are fascinating. I thought it was one of the deaths the river attacks him with, but it isn't; the fact that Nico's kill is one of the deaths the river uses against Will is a whole other thing, but the fact remains that Octavian isn't a death the river can use to convince Nico he deserves punishment. Neither is Bryce Lawrence, which I've spoken about before and still find just super interesting. Anyway though, I don't think Nico's lying to Will when he says he thinks about Octavian's death all the time (if he was lying I'd expect that to come up in his narration)... but it's also interesting to note that he doesn't say he regrets it, and doesn't deny Will's claim that he doesn't feel bad about it. He just says that he thinks about it all the time. There's not a huge amount to go on since it doesn't come up again (why doesn't it come up again), but personally the way I read that is... Nico doesn't regret Octavian's death, he still thinks it was necessary, he wouldn't have done it if he wasn't completely convinced it had to be done, but that doesn't mean he hasn't been turning it over in his head ever since. To put it another way, he doesn't regret that he killed Octavian... but he might regret that the situation reached a point where killing Octavian was necessary. Maybe what he's constantly thinking about regarding it (at least after the confirmation that Leo's death was ultimately a net positive for everyone involved including Leo himself, since Leo potentially dying because Nico let Octavian yeet himself was definitely something he did feel guilty about) is less "Did he really have to die" and more "Was there anything I or anyone else could've done to head this off before it reached the point where killing him became necessary".

Basically everything about this scene is really good! It's not even two full pages but there is so much to be said about it, it really is one of my favourite scenes.

[starmora]

Something I've been thinking about is what we aren't shown in vol 3 when it comes to Gamora's emotions. There have been a lot of justified criticisms of her role and of how the mcu has treated parts of her story. I really hope they continue because it's an important conversation to have. But for now I want to come at this from a different angle and dig deeper on what we didn't get. I can only imagine how much anger Gamora must have at knowing she helped create a beautiful family and then Thanos killed her and now she will never be able to experience it in that same way. It has to hurt. Now she's here and she's doing the best she can with what she's got and it probably doesn't feel like enough. Especially when being compared to things she didn't get to experience. So when we get to the end of the movie and we have Peter moving forward enough in his grief to see Gamora for who she is in the moment and where she is at right now in her life and essentially tell her that she's enough, it's really beautiful and poignant and you can see it makes her happy. So happy that she finds the strength to be vulnerable and return the sentiment by finally saying she is at her core the woman he loved. It's such a powerful and loving moment.

True it's not her "I love you more than anything" but you know what that moment in Infinity War was the result of healing she was robbed of and hasn't found again yet. "I bet we were fun" was a huge step in the direction of finding that healing again. So people shouldn't didmiss it. And just to be clear I'm not speaking about people critiquing the fact that vol 3 dropped the ball on so much of Gamora's role and how she deserved so much better after Infinity War. I'm speaking about people who thought the exchange meant nothing and showed no emotional connection or that it was somehow shutting down that Gamora had any sort of feelings for Peter.

I can totally understand why Gamora would be hesitant to come back to this family that her alternate self created, even though I know she was curious and still craved to find that sort of thing (doesn’t she ask nebula about the guardians and alternate gamora in endgame? I haven’t watched the movie in actual years). I bet she was feeling a lot of pressure over it, like they would expect things of her that she was not able or willing to give to what were basically strangers to her, and decided the best thing for herself was to cut it off at the knees and leave it fully aside and make no attempts to get to know anyone. I think it’s pretty obvious though that she clearly still wanted something like that, and that’s why she kept in contact with Nebula and still calls her, her sister, and why she found the Ravagers and carved out a new home for herself there. But I do want to think that maybe she IS a little sad that there are things that were taken from her by Thanos. I don’t think she regrets her new family or her decision to keep the guardians at arms length, but yeah, I’m sure she’s contemplated what that would be like. Her “I bet we were fun” feels like proof that she’s thought about it, at least a little.

And you’re right, him acknowledging her as her own separate person DOES make her extremely happy! I think him saying that to her was really important for her, enough to start planting the seeds for this idea that, no, she will never be this other Gamora that they (and especially Peter) loved, but she is still worthy of love now and it can be totally separate. She doesn’t have to live in this other Gamora’s gigantic shadow. I think that was a big concern for her, and having him acknowledge that he liked her for who she was now was very relieving to her, and it allowed her to admit to him that she’d been thinking about them and what they must have been like. It’s a really big and important step for both of them and I’m tired of seeing people dismiss it as an end for them. It truly wasn’t!

[malaierba]

Fans want everything to be resolved NOW and don't give shows the opportunity to set up all the pieces needed in a story before it gets resolved in a way that makes sense from a narrative stand point. Doing that takes time.

Not only that, but for hopefully obvious reasons the characters need to have conflict, be misguided, and show their flaws, so there'll be SOMETHING to resolve and so they can have some growth.

Getting specific about Helluva Boss below the read more

A common criticism that the series gets is that it has too many female characters that are bitchy and evil and that's it, and who are barely developed outside of their link to a male character. I see where this opinion is coming from, but I think it ignores a lot of the basic premise upon which the show is built.

Helluva Boss is about Blitzø, and how his self-loathing tendencies, abusive upbringing, and fear of being vulnerable, have messed up most of his past relationships + his present attempts to build something good that won't implode under the weight that is his self.

Because of that alone you can already see why most characters must have a link to him, a guy. We get glimpses of the other characters' personal lives just as far as they can have some sort of butterfly effect on Blitzø's (ie: Stolas' personal life, since he's his main love interest; Fizz's personal life since he was basically a brother to him, he accidentally disabled the guy, and his relationship with Asmodeous is going to impact Blitzø/Stolas' somehow; Moxie's because the show was originally conceived with him + Blitzø as main characters and they're meant to be foils)

When we look at the "evil women" I feel like we gotta keep in mind that this is mainly from Blitzø's POV? OBVIOUSLY Verosika is miffed with the guy. He was horrible to her. In his bad trip, we see he's aware of this. Barbie, his sister, even tells him why exactly she hates his guts.

While they're both antagonistic to Blitzø, we see in the way he reacts to the accusations that they strike a nerve. He thinks they're justified, that he's the one that messed up. Thing is, Blitzø is the type of mfer that will lash back if he feels cornered, which only makes everyone angrier at him (lol).

Both of them are, trust and believe, eventually have their arc with Blitzø much like Blitzø just fixed his relationship with Fizz. It's just not the right moment just yet??

Season 2 has prominently focused on the racism/classism of hell, what with Strider's arc, both kidnappings and now Ozzie/Asmodeous. All of that needs to be developed a bit more before it makes sense to go into whatever happened with Verosika and Barbie, which are probably going to address the themes of past relationships and stranded family — Themes that make more sense to explore after Blitzø and Stolas are finally at a point where they're talking couples dynamic + how their families fit in that.

Besides, to be super honest? I don't think there's more pointlessly evil women than there's men. See:

Verosika and Barbie, who we know will get to eventually share their side of the story and thus be redeemed. Their male equivalents would be Fizz (who got redeemed) and Striker (who probably won't, and good for him tbh)

Stella. Yeah I know, everyone wanted her to be smarter and to have more of an emotional connection with Via at least. Idk what to tell you, I agree it would make for a more complex story. At the same time, she's obviously the embodiment of a narcissistic abuser. If that's the story that Viv wanted to tell, that's up to her, right? Anyway from a narrative POV, she's comparable to Moxie's dad, who's another abuser who mainly sees Moxie as a means to secure his influence and wealth and had little emotional depth beyond that.

For whatever reason people sometimes bring up Luna and Octavia as meanie one dimensional girls because.... They're moody teens? I mean. Luna has anger issues that are very obviously a result of being institutionalised as an orphan who likely had to raise herself in a selfish environment that, to boot, sees her as a lesser race. And Octavia is a spoiled and sheltered teen, dealing with her parents divorce. She was probably sheltered from the reality of their marriage too. I don't understand why people say they have no good motivations. They both have had some interesting growth too, getting to explore the world for the first time, even bonding with each other (+ others in Luna's case).

Glitz and Glam, I don't see how they would've been treated any differently if they had been guys tbh. Their main narrative purpose is to be competition, and it's been established that in hell being able to talk shit is a daily skill. Aren't they just like any other episodic villain we've seen so far? Not every character needs a sob backstory, come on now. They're literally about as deep as Mammon is and that's okay, they're not challenging the main characters from an interpersonal standpoint but rather from a societal one.

The one female character I agree with my whole heart could be better, as in, given more depth, is Millie. In unhappy campers we finally see her declare that she wants to do things and be recognised for them, for herself, and that she tires of having to forego those desires in favour of coddling Moxxie. That was... So good. Even her falling back into the relationship' dynamic of going along with Moxxie was arguably good (realistic), as long as we see her break the pattern in the future. Unfortunately I don't think her scenes hit as hard as they could've. I think it was a scripting issue, the writers could've taken her dialogue farther but they didn't 😮‍💨 Still, I think they've set her up for conflict in the future.

Anyway. Be patient with your indie media. There's a reason why the story is being told over several chapters rather than being a short.

[kinomiakai]

Hi! Do you think making Sasuke stay in Konoha is ooc? Why or why not because there are so many fanfics that go like Naruto brings Sasuke back in the village he's either imprisoned or rendered unable to use his powers and somehow persuaded to stay in the village and not enough Naruto and Sasuke leave the village together exploring the world trying to help other villages and connect with people that share similar experiences with them while also developing their own relationship together. I don't know this feels more true to their characters. Also would this be something you'd like to explore in your future stories? Love your writing!

Hey anon!! I love this phrasing like an essay question hahaha okay okay lemmie get some brainstorming started

So first off, I’ve written both of these! Not the imprisonment scenario specifically, but I do have some fics with Sasuke in Konoha. So I don’t think it’s ooc, necessarily. I definitely think of the two choices, it’s the tougher one to write - you really have to work on justifying it in Sasuke’s head. Sasuke staying in Konoha, to me, relies on probably one of two things: (1) the world can’t change without his help, and he’s ready to help it again, and/or (2) Konoha is unrecognizable as what it once was, and now Sasuke sees it as another place entirely. I did a mix of those in Rebuilding; [SPOILERS if you haven’t read it] they do go travelling at the end, but they also have a house in Konoha, and Sasuke reconnects to the Uchiha compound. Naruto also really needs his help, as the person leading the charge—and Sasuke not only sees that he’s trying & struggling, but he knows Naruto can do it. In the fic, anyway. So that’s a way I think it can work; Sasuke hates Konoha but I don’t think his desire to change the ninja system is gone or anything. I think he’d either want to be 100% out of the loop, or find it really, really hard not to get involved, because anything that stalled Naruto’s efforts or what have you would infuriate him.

And I think this debate/choice is especially tough for them as a pairing, because either Sasuke needs manage to be okay with Konoha (which, in canon, he really really isn’t), or Naruto needs to be able to detangle himself from Konoha (which, in canon, he really really can’t). This is part of the reason my canonverse fics end up being so long lmao. It takes so much development to get anywhere!!!

But yeah, I’ve done both and I think both can work. It’s a really interesting challenge to try to tackle, too. Right now I’m tackling more of them being out, travelling together in Two is a Crowd - I feel like I’ve being going that route a lot recently, but it does still involve exploring Sasuke’s relationship with Konoha a lot. Especially because Naruto tends to be the Hokage, or getting ready to be, etc etc. It’s pretty hard to try and write Sasuke healing without dealing with the absolute hatred & fury he’s carrying around in some shape or form. And it’s not that much of a jump for the next step to be him being able to go there as part of the healing process, and maybe he's just thrown in head first by being imprisoned and is forced to confront his hatred all at once - that could happen. It'd be a really intense bit of time for him and probably involve a lot of breaking down, but if something could convince him to breathe for a little while and focus on the parts of his life that aren't bringing back trauma long enough to prove that Konoha is changing or something like that - yeah, I could see that. And you know, now that I think about it, I did start writing something like that years ago! It's in my notebook somewhere. It's basically just the start where Sasuke is absolutely furious & lashing out at everything hahaha. Can't blame him! I never finished it though. It'd be a much more intense & less peaceful sort of process for sure, but it could work.

This is a bit of a wishy-washy answer hahaha, but I'm a big believer in being able to make almost anything work with enough justification & development within the story. I think that's part of the fun. So something really tough, like making Sasuke okay enough with Konoha to happily live there, is totally a challenge I'd love to see tackled. Does that make sense? Does this all make sense? I'm rambling at you now.

But thank you for this, and thank you so much! I’m really glad you like my writing!! <3 <3 I hope this answered your question!

[galaxycatxx]

feeling so pathetic to be here, to be writing this shit, to be feeling this bad.

i knew it from the very first beginning. why am i so sad? why am i crying? i mean, what? i thought that somehow you would´ve created this urge feeling to take control of your life?

Im living in a constant fantasy that i am creating in my head and truly honestly i CANNOT BLAME YOU! I havent been feeding it, you never have! If it was up to you, my fantasy would starve. POints to u for that, actually. I am being dumb. A dumb bitch. Always thought i was Maddy but clearly been being a Cassie. A fucking dumb bitch. I am so sorry for all the pain that im causing to this woman. I dont know if she feels it or knows it, but, trutly, i am sorry. i love the one thats is by your side right now and that doesnt justifies it. at all. but i do. And i truly am sorry. i hope you never find out about this not beacuse im afraid of the consequences but because i dont you to feel this pain. Im sorry.

and in the name of sorryland, i am sorry for myself too. sorry that i am so fucked up up here in my head that i still dont think that humilating myself 3 times (three fucking times) still isnt enough for a goodbye au revoir. i dont know why im like this. but its a dumb way to live.

JUst not as dumb as being in love with u.

I wish, and i hope, but i gotta be honest. its all just wishes and hopes. Not a trully feel of "we´re gonna make it".

i probably will humiliate myself one more time asking you again, what are you willing to do?

look at you boy, i invented you

the cicle is always the same. I give in. You push me closer. we connect. we feel something that is beautiful, and amazing, and its an unexplainable conection. the really kicks in. we grow apart. we miss each other. i give in. you push me closer. we connect. we feel something that is beautiful, and amazing, and its an unexplainable conection. the really kicks in. we grow apart. we miss each other. i give in. you push me closer. we connect. we feel something that is beautiful, and amazing, and its an unexplainable conection. the really kicks in. we grow apart. we miss each other. i give in. you push me closer. we connect. we feel something that is beautiful, and amazing, and its an unexplainable conection. the really kicks in. we grow apart. we miss each other. i give in. you push me closer. we connect. we feel something that is beautiful, and amazing, and its an unexplainable conection. the really kicks in. we grow apart. we miss each other.

and it never ends.

up untill now.

i need to say goodbye.

i need to put a dot on it. i know your state of mind. you´ll stay like this for a while yet. and i just cannot keep hurting myself waiting for you to open your chest and just admit what you want.

i am also sorry for you, cause i knwo youre in pain, and i sympathize. honestly. now i know exactly what you were feeling. this fear of accepting waht you want and owning it. its scary as fuck. and for that, i am sorry that you didnt had profesisonal help earlier that would have aligned with mine and the timing would agree. i think its going to take you a while to see all this huge picture of your life, and honestly you´re fire! in all the kinds of ways. youre amazing. but either you take me in and we´ll be fire together, or, i burn myself - again -. And im sorry but i dont think i can take another one. It just hurts too much.

why? why are we always late for each other? 2020 i was unvailable. and when i got free, you got into this relationship.

maybe we´re just a few pages on each others lives. meant to just exist in the story. but not to be the story.

[liskantope]

Not only do you underestimate the power religious conservativism still holds, you also do the charming thing where you blame queer people for making things "political" as though conservatives are not moral or political actors, only unthinking reactive agents, which lets you pretend that they can be ignored. But either way: this is a ruling that sets a precedent for discrimination in good and services being justified by religion. Why exactly do you imagine that won't get much, much worse?

You have a substantive question at the end of this ask, but you're getting off on the wrong foot with me with "you blame queer people for making things "political" as though conservatives are not moral or political actors, only unthinking reactive agents, which lets you pretend that they can be ignored" because... no? No I didn't do or say anything like that, at all?

This is about 90% completely reading into comments I made here, in a very different rhetorical context (responding to someone who seemed to be suggesting that honoring gay couples is seen as political by homophobes but not by progressives) where I pointed out that progressives generally do seem to treat these things as political at every turn. I wasn't trying to make a point that progressives were wrong to do this, let alone that it somehow makes progressives to blame for anything that's currently going on, much less to blame specifically for this SCOTUS decision that was the topic of discussion. Now I'd say you were 10% correctly interpreting from my tone when I made an offhand reference to a pervasive Everything Is Political mentality that I don't have the greatest feeling about it (yeah, I think that mentality tends to go too far, sometimes to the detriment of progressive causes and discursive culture in general, and tons of progressive and queer and pro-queer people seem to agree with me on this), but I wasn't trying to launch any argument about it or connect it to blameworthiness for the SCOTUS decision or anything else.

As for "conservatives are not moral or political actors, only unthinking reactive agents", this is so off-the-wall I'm struggling to figure out which of my phrasings you got this from. It doesn't resemble anything I've ever even thought in my head about the SCOTUS matter or other political battles on social issues, let alone written. For the record, it's obvious that this SCOTUS case (which was essentially "fake" as pointed out to me by togglessymposium) was clearly a deliberate conservative activist move.

You seem to have pattern-matched my words with another type of rhetoric you've seen too often and decided I was implying a bunch of things that in fact I wasn't and mostly don't believe.

I don't think queer people are to blame for anything related to decisions/events like this SCOTUS thing, nor that queer people are to blame for feeling outraged and distressed at them, even if I tentatively defend the logic and direct implications of the particular decision.

Now as to your question, there's a lot packed into "discrimination in goods and services being justified by religion". There's a certain extent to which I think companies (but of course not government institutions!) probably have the right to operate based on religious beliefs, including harmful and outdated ones. I don't know exactly where to draw the line. But my understanding of this SCOTUS decision (which I'll emphasize is rudimentary, and with more knowledge I'm very willing to shift on this!) is that it was justified entirely based on a right to refuse positively creating/expressing something that goes against one's values. I really don't see how this applies to housing, healthcare, or employment discrimination, or (frankly) any type of discrimination that involves more important stakes than wedding cakes and websites (except, arguably, for an individual church's right to discriminate against gay couples by refusing to marry them, which does have serious stakes but why would a gay couple want to be married at a homophobic church in the first place? Hmm there is a legal difference between a church and a business very incompletely understood by me, as in churches tend to be exempt from paying taxes to my understanding, and so I'm making this particular point with very low confidence).

I may turn out to be wrong in my assessments of all these things, but I certainly hope recent events don't foreshadow a directly consequential, large-scale dismantling of gay rights in the US.