#flawed logic

[je-mapelle-labaguette]

But then i wouldn't be good at something haven't tried before, just good at something I've tried :/

unfortunate news everyone i'm being told that apparently the only way to get really good at something you haven't tried before is to in fact try

[1introvertedsage]

I appreciate people with the confidence to start conversations because I literally cannot.

I could be laying there dying.. with people walking by and I wouldn’t even raise my hand to call attention to myself because I wouldn’t want to bother anyone. 😂😭

[girl4music]

An episode that was really good of ‘AtS’ and that had a really frustrating but compelling ending was ‘Lullabye’.

I really didn’t understand why Darla believed that - if she had the baby even while soulless and could love him while he was inside her because he had a soul - she couldn’t love him when he wasn’t. She had learned to love that baby. Developed a love for him. The explanation for it being because the baby had a soul and so she had a proxy soul for the meanwhile she was pregnant. So it was the baby’s soulful influence on her that allowed her to love him as long as that baby was inside her. This essentially meant that she would be completely soulless again when he wasn’t and so she would no longer be able to love him as his mother.

But the thing is that the baby was human and therefore would always have a soul and would always have a soulful influence. Why would that no longer have any influence on Darla’s love for him? It should because she developed into having that love for him even while she was a soulless being herself. It shouldn’t make a difference that baby being in her or not. That influence would still be there because maternal instincts don’t just disappear like that. Darla made the ultimate declaration of motherly love for her baby in sacrificing herself while pregnant with him. If her love for him was that strong then, why wouldn’t it be when he was born? I don’t understand. Well,… I do but I just think it’s completely flawed logic. It’s as if the soul isn’t just the conscience in the lore but also the determination and this just isn’t how it works. Having an internal moral compass doesn’t determine anything being good or evil. It just makes it easier to choose good over evil because it weighs against you. But surely Darla’s love for her baby should eclipse a change of perspective on morality could do to her. You don’t just suddenly stop feeling love for something or someone because you no longer understand right from wrong or good from evil. It shouldn’t determine what your feelings are or aren’t. It’s just a conscience. A way of understanding right from wrong or good from evil. It doesn’t dictate that you actually do one from the other. I mean what?! 😖

Darla should have been capable of feeling love for that baby regardless whether it was inside her or not because she ultimately had developed that love for him. It should have changed her completely. Turned her away from evil and darkness even when soulless. Having her baby should have developed her character. She shouldn’t have had to kill herself for her son’s life. Sure it was a tragically devastating and compelling end but, to me, it made absolutely no sense at all that she wouldn’t have been able to love him the same way.

If the soul in the Buffyverse represents a conscience - an internal moral compass (and I certainly would hope this is the case otherwise the entire synopsis to ‘Angel the Series’ falls completely flat if it doesn’t) then Darla should have still been able to love Connor even when she’s a vampire that doesn’t have a soul because her being soulless shouldn’t determine her personhood.

It’s extremely flawed logic and an inconsistent narrative and biased ideology to make it out that a soulless vampire or demon cannot grow or develop when they’ve had experiences that have made it possible or cannot have feelings or emotions a human or animal can. Yes, they can’t understand right from wrong because they don’t possess an internal moral compass, but that shouldn’t determine and dictate their actions or choices while as soulless. It should make it harder for them to act or choose in the service of good over evil. But not make them do only evil. It shouldn’t compel or control their nature completely.

Now I know Darla is a particularly more evil and sadistic vampire than most soulless vampires. But again - that’s external influence. It’s all she knows based on her experiences both in her years as a human and as a vampire. She LEARNED to BECOME that way. As did Angelus, as did Druscilla, as did Spike. It wasn’t just because their soul from when human was removed because if that was the case then the soul isn’t just a conscience. It’s your entire being. Your nature and your identity. Your personhood. Your “self”. Who and all that you are or can ever be at all.

This isn’t what a conscience is or does. This is an extremely misconstrued understanding of it. And if this is the case - now I understand why Whedon went with the demonic possession interpretation instead of demonic corruption. To him - the human and the demon are not the same entity despite being fundamentally influenced by both the human and the demon. Proxy ensouled Darla isn’t the same entity as soulless Darla despite being informed by her. She’s just being possessed by the same demon as before she was pregnant with an ensouled vampire’s baby. Which means that her love for the baby just disappears because it’s not the same entity anymore.

I don’t know how to wrap my head around this because to me Darla is Darla no matter what. I don’t think of it as demonic possession at all because it doesn’t look like demonic possession at all. Demonic possession is an entirely different thing that requires so much more than just losing an internal moral compass. Losing/gaining a conscience doesn’t make you an entirely different entity from what you were before. It just changes your perspective on morality. But if you have learned and developed through experience and external influence - then it shouldn’t just automatically change what you do, how you act or the way you feel. That’s not how a conscience works.

It’s just completely flawed logic. I’m sorry. It just is.

This episode is great. But it’s just completely wrong. Having a baby that has a soul should change Darla but not just while the baby is inside her. But - for good or at least for awhile. I’m sure eventually because of the loss of an internal moral compass her actions and choices would become selfish and malevolent again but it wouldn’t just be a switch on/switch off situation. It only works that way with Angel/Angelus because he was cursed by a gypsy spell. He was forced to have a conscience to remind him of all the evil he has done and to feel as much guilt and regret as possible over it. This is not the same situation or circumstance at all but it’s treated that way because “demon possession”. Nope. A conscience on its own is not a lights off/lights on situation. A conscience just helps you understand right from wrong. It does not compel you to do either.

Great episode and ending to watch but - it’s all wrong. As beautiful as it is that Darla made the sacrifice she did for Connor - she should never have had to because it should have never made a difference to her feelings. If anything - Connor being born should have made her fall even more in love with him and made her extremely protective over his well being because - soulless vampire or not - she’s still his fucking mother! She - and Angel - really thought that her love for him would suddenly just disappear just because her proxy soul did? But this negates all the positive influence the experience had on her. It erases all her positive development. It essentially just makes her an empty vessel again with a random demon taking her identity, removing her personhood and autonomy completely.

No. Jiminy Cricket going bye-bye shouldn’t do that. I am adamantly against this demonic possession interpretation because this makes no fucking sense. Humans and ensouled vampires still do evil, wrong, selfish and malevolent things despite having a soul. Them having a soul determines nothing about the way they act or choose. It’s just easier because they understand right from wrong and good from evil better than an entity that doesn’t possess a soul. On the flip side - again, it doesn’t determine that a soulless entity will do only evil. It just makes it easier.

A conscience doesn’t compel you to do anything because it’s the experience of free will it cultivates. The only thing it can possibly determine is that you have more of a chance to do good over evil on your own - without any external influence at all. That’s it. Your actual actions and choices may vary depending on what that experience and external influence is. And I would say having a fucking baby would be HUGE! Falling in love in any capacity would easily eclipse being suddenly racked with the urge to do some evil.

The soul is obviously not just a conscience to Whedon. It’s either that or he just doesn’t know what one is and that checks out when you see the way he views Spike.

I’m sorry but this canon soul lore in the Buffyverse doesn’t work for me. The writers are telling us one thing through the writing one moment but then showing us something completely different in the visuals next. And then they refer to it as a “loss/gain of conscience” which muddies the apparent message we’re supposed to get and learn from it even more. They’re telling us that having a conscience is the same thing as having humanity or being capable of experiencing and feeling like a human. But then they’ll put those characters that don’t have a conscience in situations where they’ll attempt to test the waters of this being true and then immediately undermine the attempt by removing the possibility of it completely.

Well, the thing is that you’re not proving anything by doing that. You’re just expecting people just to accept the belief that it’s not possible because they’re not human or ensouled. You’re not even allowing the opportunity to prove you in the right or wrong about that belief and therefore the audience cannot learn that for themselves either. Then you give us human characters that are just as bad as any soulless supernatural entity (one of which is a main core protagonist) and tell us that because they have the capacity to understand right from wrong and good from evil fundamentally that they should be given chances to redeem themselves because all it is for them is corruption and they’re not fundamentally evil like an actual soulless supernatural entity would be.

What’s the difference? It can’t be just a “loss/gain of conscience” because having/not having a conscience cannot determine actions and choices being on either side of good or evil. All it can determine is that it’s much more likely that good happens with a conscience and evil happens without a conscience. But it can only determine that to be much more likely when factors and conditions of huge life-changing experiences and heavy external influences don’t come into play. Otherwise it’s just rudimentary rhetoric that’s based off of your own misinformed sources. But the human (and I would presume non-human) condition is far more complicated and layered than that. There are situations and circumstances that make or break the basic thematic narrative of good vs evil or right vs wrong or peace vs war. It’s not simple. Things get messy and blurry in morality and I prefer it that way because that’s more realistic and compelling. If you remove this messiness and blurriness, you remove nuance and depth that has a lasting impact on the heart, mind and soul of your HUMAN audience.

I think I’m going to stop watching ‘AtS’ - at least for a little while - because I am getting very frustrated with what it’s trying to tell me through its soul lore. And a great character and actress has just been killed off for no legitimate reason as far as I’m concerned all to appease Whedon’s very flawed logic and ideology. 🙁

The episode was written and directed by Tim Minear but I’m not stupid. That ending had Whedon all over it.

[inkdupandready]

[kuyatecallate]

I don't draw the characters I like because I fear I'll disrespect them in some unholy way

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

Wait... I just saw the dormouse post. Those tiny, adorable things are a protected species? On an island where the general consensus is that it's abusive to prevent a house cat from roaming all over the landscape? How does that work?

I think you may be guilty of reducing an entire country to a monolith there, friend.

Yes, the UK has protected species - many of them. It has many pieces of biodiversity legislation, and initiatives, and organisations. It also has a mainstream culture of outdoor cat ownership. This is the same as almost every other country in the entire world. And like in every other country, people within it have differing opinions on these issues. There's no contradiction here.

Apologies if this comes across as brusque, because I don't mean it to, but come on. The UK has enough issues with exceptionalism by imagining it's uniquely special without others thinking it's uniquely awful. That's still British Exceptionalism.

[cherryflavouredvoid]

tim "you should spend more time with kid curtis, maybe his smarts will rub off on you" shepard

vs.

darry "stay away from curly, that boy ain't nothing but trouble" curtis

and they're both wrong. when pony and curly hang out they simultaneously make each other better and worse.

[jackabbot]

everything else aside, it's such insane behaviour to ask someone you never said "i love you" to, to move in with you

[uncanny-tranny]

It is my sincerest and unironic belief that we must invest in preserving "old technology." The more we move to a hegemonic, easily-surveilled way of living, the worse we will find this world to be.

Letters, public phones and transport, cash, and so much more are key to ensuring both freedom of movement and information, but also to combat the surveillance state. We need to preserve the ability to both access the world but also to be untraceable. I truly hope more people start to recognize this. It isn't about nostalgia for the past. It is about ensuring that we are actually afforded freedom, from the richest person to the person who lives on the sidewalk.

[laurellala-comics]

Doodle dump. They're so family coded to me. Yes I love you, yes I think you're a huge dork, yes I am going to tease you till the day you die.

Because descriptions for the last two pages are long I will put them here instead of in the alt text! I was thinking about growing up in the early otts when gay marriage wasn't legalized and I didn't know gay people even existed... look at me now...

[ID: a two page comic of Phoenix Wight and Miles Edgeworth as kids in 2003 or whatever year that they're 9 in the time line. They are alone at recess because Larry got sent to the principal's office for trying to kiss a girl. Miles lies on the grass behind a half brick wall in the school yard, clearly upset. "AGH this is SO stupid! We can't even play signal samurai without our third samarai!" Nick crouches besides him looking kind of unbothered. "Well we could play something else like foursquare or-" Miles interjects "EVERYTHING ELSE IS BORING!". Miles sits up, crossing his arms and sulking. "They should make all the girls go to a separate school. Then nobody would kiss anybody." Nick notes a hole in his logic "Well, but boys might just kiss other boys then". "What? No, boys can't kiss other boys, don't be stupid." Miles says dismissively. Nick narrows his eyes. "Uh yeah they CAN". Miles leans forward, ticked off and glaring. "Um NO they canNOT! My dad told me boys can't get married to other boys, it's against the LAW". Nick responds "Married is different than kissing, genius. And anyway it's still POSSIBLE to kiss a boy". Miles is about to explode over being told that he's wrong, his face is red and he points an accusing finger out at Nick, who draws back in surprise. "well OBVIOUSLY they TECHNICALLY could, but nobody WOULD do it because it's a rule and people follow rules because they have to! And if you don't they'd put you in JAIL probably! So no boy would EVER kiss another boy OKAY?" Miles is tensed up waiting for Nick's response. Nick glances down at his outstretched finger, thinking about how he can prove Miles wrong, and gives it a tiny kiss. Miles starts screaming. /END ID]

[sleevebuscemii]

@palestinianyouthmovement

[gendiebrainrotreceipts]

Immediately turned off reblogs 😶

Ikr it’s telling as hell lmao, as is this addition from before they turned off reblogs

Like why do they think defining women accurately would put them and trans rights at risk…what happened to ‘rights are not pie and more rights for one does not mean less rights for another’ or whatever? Shouldn’t that same logic be applied here?

[uhhlifeig]

Towel - March 2nd - word count: 356 - @wolfstarmicrofic

“Honestly, I think we should all thank Dorcas for booking us this vacation,” Sirius sighed, staring up at the cloudless sky. “Tenerife is beautiful.”

Remus hummed in agreement. “And the weather is doing wonders for me, you know.”

“Well, that settles it. We must buy a house here this instant,” Sirius said, sitting up and pulling out his phone. “What’s our budget, dearest Moony?”

“We’re not buying a vacation house here, Sirius,” Remus sighed, still lying down on the beach towel. 

“Too late. I found a good one, Moonshine. Look!” Sirius shoved his phone in front of Remus. There was a picture of a beautiful villa with whitewashed walls and a large pool.

Remus looked at the price.

“Two million euros?” he gasped. “Sirius, we can’t-”

“Oh, but we can,” Sirius remarked smugly. “Dead rich bastard parents, remember?”

Remus raised an eyebrow. “Doesn’t Regulus have control of the assets? I thought you were disowned.”

“Nah, not disowned,” Sirius said, waving a hand nonchalantly. “My pyromaniacal hag of a mother just burnt one of my sets of documents. Grandfather Arcturus had another set and so did Grandfather Pollux.”

“So, you’re… the head of Black Industries?” Remus asked, sitting up. 

“Nah, that’s Reg. Gave that to him ‘cause I didn’t want to be associated with those bitches.”

“So, what you’re saying is that the current owner of Black Industries is over there making out with James Potter?” Remus pointed towards the shallows, where it was blatantly obvious that Regulus and James were sucking face.

“Well, if you really want to put it that way, then yes,” Sirius replied begrudgingly. “Anyways, do we want this villa or not?”

“I mean, you have the money,” Remus shrugged. “Why not?”

“Watch out, Moonykins, you’ll become my trophy husband yet,” Sirius grinned.

Remus sighed, lying back down and staring back up at the sky. “Padfoot, is this you telling me you’re going to propose soon?”

“Maybe, maybe not. Wait, what was the thing that the one guy with the accent said?” Sirius asked, scrolling through his phone. “Oh, right! Jaybe… or jaybe not.”

Remus groaned. “Sirius, stop quoting the Arcane voice actors.”

[itadooori]

yea i rewatched the s1 finale. did a lil doodle about it

[dk-wren]

Maybe this is my brain overthinking things or trying to make connections that aren't really there, but I was thinking about this moment and the name Kojiro says, "Adachi."

Now, my first impression was that they are talking about ADAM, or Ainosuke. But as my brain processes and gushes over the OVA, I had a second thought (which is where the overthinking likely comes in). What if Kojiro is actually talking about Tadashi?

The reasoning behind my first impression was Ainosuke and Adachi start with the same "A" sound, and the flashbacks from Season 1 show that Kojiro and Kaoru skated with and were friends? acquaintances? with Ainosuke. Once Kaoru and Kojiro began skating and became more skilled, I don't think it's a stretch for them to try and find this person to learn from them or hang out with them.

As for my second thought, which may be a bit of a stretch, but the names "Tadashi" and "Adachi" sound more similar overall than Ainosuke and Adachi. Only the beginning T sound and the "chi" instead of a "shi" differ. Plus, if the duo overheard the name or through word of mouth, it's possible some of the letters/sounds got lost.

The other description to this skater who Kojiro thinks is named "Adachi" is that they are "crazy good." While ADAM is definitely regarded and described as such during Season 1, with his performances during S and the flashbacks supporting this description too, it is Tadashi who more or less taught Ainosuke everything he knows.

In Snake's beef with Miya, the crowd's chatter literally causes Miya to say that the crowd's talking about Snake as if he were ADAM. Even though Joe and Cherry's portion of OVA takes place in the past, there is precedence within the world of SK8 that Tadashi and ADAM's skating style is incredibly similar (again because of their mentor/mentee like relationship in skating).

And there is where it gets a little speculative for me, but what if the skater Kojiro is referring to here, is Tadashi, but who they end up meeting, and befriending, is Ainosuke.

I'm gonna be honest, I don't know the full extent of Tadashi's life at Shindo manor or how long he's worked as part of their family. But, if he is truly just a "servant's child," not a lot of attention would likely be paid if he was leaving the manor to go skate. Away from the manor, Tadashi and his skill could have built a reputation in the local skate scene. Still not wanting to get caught, Tadashi may have worn another cap or hoodie or something to conceal his identity.

However, between this moment in the OVA and when Kaoru and Kojiro finally meet ADAM for the first time, Tadashi moves from just a servant's child to becoming a servant or worker himself. And because of this, he no longer has as much freedom to leave the manor, as well as dealing with a larger burden to not be "caught" skating as an employee of the Shindo family. So, Tadashi is somewhat forced to leave the local skating scene.

As this happens though, Ainosuke begins sneaking out and skating with a concealed identity. With such a similar skating style, people may not question if it's the same skater. Or, in not knowing Tadashi's true identity, no one bothers asking who exactly this new skater is. Ainosuke's skills causes him to maintain Tadashi's status or rise in prominence, overshadowing Tadashi's legacy. Until eventually, two new, talented (and not boring at all) skaters emerge and finally meet with Ainosuke. And, after watching him skate, because his style is so similar to Tadashi, Kojiro and Kaoru don't spare a second thought that ADAM may not be the person who they originally heard about, accepting Ainosuke as the "crazy good" skater people talked about.

[notdeadjustrotting]

Wait so you’re telling me Seth was the fourth of seven siblings and had an older brother named Jeremy who was the second oldest child. And Jeremy has—3 siblings (why did Cat hesitate before saying the number??) and one of them is an older brother. Something happened at the fall banquet during his freshman year.

I know it’s a stretch—but what if Jeremy is Seth’s older brother? We know Seth died, which would reduce the seven children to six, and leave Jeremy with 5 siblings. So maybe something happened in Jeremy’s freshman year that resulted in the death of two of his siblings? That could certainly tear a family apart. And what if Jeremy’s family blames him for it? What if it actually was his fault? What if it was his fault in the sense that something he did contributed but in a way that it makes no sense to actually lay the blame on him?

If he is Seth’s brother, that indicates he raised his siblings from the age of 12. There bio dad disappeared at some point. Also why did their mom disappear so often, forcing him to take on that responsibility? And further, how did he get from Arizona and raising his siblings to living in Cali with a family of politicians? Did his mom get married? Did she leave so often bc she was having an affair w some guy? And then they got married and moved the family or something?

A step-dad situation could also explain his dislike for being referred to by his last name, esp is that step dad sucks somehow.

I have so many questions man. The desire to know Jeremy’s history is killing me slowly.

This is a theory that may or may not be baseless and I might not be making any sense here. But do you see my vision? Do you see it?

I’m going crazy.