#how to be a good ally

[dreamy-conceit]

Your love for trans people should outweigh your hatred for transphobes. That's how you know you're doing it right.

— ashipwreckcoast

[noodlenoises]

4 Ways to Be Effective Allies for Your LGBTQ+ Peers

Joel Tillman is here to bring LGBTQ+ allies four tips on how to be effective allies for your LGBTQ+ peers!

I hear from a lot of people who are proud of their allyship to LGBTQ+ people. They have the flags, they dance in the parades, and they’ve been doing it for years. So how come you hear about this concept, “performative allyship?”  Performative allyship is the idea that there is some ulterior motive behind supporting a cause, like the Black Lives Matter movement, or LGBTQ+ marriage. More broadly,…

[laughingcatwrites]

As a reminder that good exists out there, a coworker recently confessed to me that he found out his child is questioning their identity (kid's gender redacted for this post). The kid is keeping it from him, so he can't say anything to them or show that he knows, but he's doing his best to get mentally prepared and educated so that he'll be ready whenever his kid does feel comfortable enough come to him.

For context, this guy is a big, bulky middle aged dude who loves sports and typical outdoor "manly" activities. As his coworker and friend, I know he's a kind and sweet teddy bear of a person, but his kid probably views him as a stern, authoritarian figure, the way most teenagers view their parents. His family lives in a conservative area, so I'm sure between that, their dad's looks and interests, and the fact that their dad is a Figure of Authority, the kid is worried that they won't be accepted.

But you know what? When he found out about his kid, the first thing he did was reach out to his closest queer friend and ask for resources for parents of questioning children. His biggest fears are that his kid will be bullied or discriminated against and won't feel comfortable enough to be themself. His second action was to find himself a mentor in another parent who went the same situation (kid coming out in a conservative town). The other person is preparing him for some of the struggles his kid may face and the fights he may need to take on as a parent to make sure his kid is safe and treated well.

Something I want to emphasize for people focused on language as the primary method of allyship is that when we spoke, he used some outdated terms and thoughts about gender and sexuality. That does not make him bad. These were the terms and thinking used about questioning teenagers when he was growing up and he never needed to learn more current ones. But now that he does have that need, he's throwing himself in head first because that's his kid and he's darn well going to make sure that his kid feels welcomed and has a safe place to be themselves even if they never come out to him.

[allimili]

Wait if shadow milk is this big doesn’t that mean Y/N is literally a pocket friend?

pocket friend/girlfriend/boyfriend. You name it.

[accirax]

a collection of DCAS memes so far

[mazeyphaedra]

was rewatching fabian’s baron moment on account of it being the most delicious piece of pvp in my recent memory and ally beardsley’s growth as a player just shone through so brightly and with such clarity. after dusting off their shock they immediately asked about the nemesis ward, had enough knowledge about fellow pcs stocked to remember adaine’s ac with such like frustrated confidence and certainty, suggested to siobhan to dimension door out of adaine’s room, like. they came into this making a character with 4 dex. and now the dice deity offered to roll a check to sense if adaine was in danger. making decisions, asking questions, getting invested in the story, trying so hard with the tools they have to save characters from danger; ally beardsley is an incredible d&d player.

[deancasforcutie]

Dean complimenting fellow queer people on their game

Bonus inverse, trying to out-game someone to vicariously flirt for/with your presumed-but-not-at-all-straight friend who has no game whatsoever:

[crunchybeards]

I'm sure this has been beat to death by now, but my favourite aspect of Sam as a character is the fact that he truly does encapsulate one of the most pervasive themes in the game, the theme of being humane. Sorry for the really long ramble but I just wanted to get this off my chest and just genuinely commend the game for what it does with its protagonist. Be warned for spoilers for the whole game and some endings.

From the begining, Sam is shown to be an empathetic character, despite being a pseudo-silent protagonist. As different as every route can be, Sam always feels some form of very human remorse. He feels remorse over killing cursed individuals when he reflects in the mirror. He feels remorse for fucking up the ritual and damning the astronomers. He feels guilty over taking the resources of people who have become cursed, even though he knows that they won't be using them anymore. At least once per playthrough, he experiences some form of remorse towards another party.

As far as a reach as it is for me to say this, I personally saw the dialogue options that players can pick as Sam's own thoughts and the specific thoughts that you choose to pick are the thoughts that become fully realised and are added to his overall character for that playthrough. There are often a lot of dialogue options that are negative or reactionary. Yet every single time, there's at least one positive one, one where he feels empathy, one where he believes there is hope for an individual despite how bleak the situation may seem. Or at the very least he chooses to be civil and non-discriminatory towards a cursed person.

As grotesque as the game is and as twisted as the Cursed become, they're still human, they're still people even if not physically apparent. And 9 times out of 10, they still behave like people. My favourite aspect about the game is that there are some characters that seem like they're too far gone, that they only wish to hurt people and yet if kindness is extended towards them, they can still be saved. We see this with the hidden-away garage. The fish and chips shop. The Cursed are still willing to trade and salvage the situation as best as they can. They're making the most out of a shitty situation despite struggling interally with their sanity and adjusting to newly formed bodies.

Choosing to be humane at the end of the world is one of the best things about Sam's character. Nobody would hold it against him if he were to kill cursed individuals indiscriminately. There are several characters that he can befriend who have done the same like Hellen. But being given the option to negotiate, the option to talk and to extend an olive branch, he takes it. He talks to cursed individuals who are lucid, he even befriends a few like Joel. Even in the ending where he becomes a swarming mass of arms and feels overwhelmed by his new ever expanding form, even though he is so scared, he took a moment to calm himself down, pick himself up and get to work helping people. Even as a borderline Lovecraftian being, he actively chose to be the driving force for good. Even though the prior examples I listed are choices that can be made by the player, this ending proves that Sam is a genuinely good and humane person. In the 104 Gods ending, the gods still destroyed parts of humanity and even divided it further. In the Screaming Sky ending where the astronomers ascend into a unified god like entity as the Exhaulted Four, they were actively destroying the planet and killed random people in an unpredictable bloody purge. Every other instance of people being presented with this awesome change, they were destructive, unintentionally so due to insanity, but ultimately destructive. The sole exception to these realities is Sam. When he's aware of what he's become, he helps, he becomes the Saviour of Humanity. He could've been like any of the 104 Gods, start his own cult/ community, be the supreme ruler of Earth because like with the gods, who could stop him. But he didn't, and that's what truly does differentiate him. The Gods could've been lucid and with how they actively do rule over the earth in their respective zones, it appears as though they are. And yet we have Sam, a god in his own right, but is a good person (well except for the Perfect Ritual ending where he overwhelms the earth Xin Amon style but I attribute that to losing himself completely as opposed to his character's intention).

As corny as it may sound, Sam truly does choose to be kind as opposed to choosing the 'right' option of caving into fear and attacking enemies/ isolating himself. To Sam, being a kind person is not dependent on appearance, it isn't dependent on what you can personally get out of helping another person but it's about being a helper of your fellow man, regardless of everything that is happening. No matter the route, no matter the player's input, that humanity is always there and I admire that about him.

Tldr:

[dropthedemiurge]

Lee Taevin every second for the past year: Love for Love's Sake is so precious, I loved this project, I will remember it forever, did you know we became one of the main representatives of BL genre in Korea? Yes, now everyone go watch BLs, I seeked this project after my queer storyline in ordinary Kdrama was completely erased, anyway about my love for Love for Love's Sake–

And then after LFLS he went and played on stage a gay red flag character in historical play "Angels in America". Lee Taevin, THE MAN THAT YOU ARE 🥺

[orie-jai]

Yall, I think it's really telling that when Effie first appears in Sunrise on the Reaping, Haymitch calls her a newcomer on page 172.

This is after the creation of the alliance and their name. We know he's telling this story to Katniss and Peeta, so by calling her a newcomer (note: not a Newcomer with a capital N), he's saying that he trusts her and sees her as an ally despite her privilege.

Suzanne could've used any other words. New arrival, unknown person, Capitol citizen, new person. But she specifically uses newcomer, and i think that speaks to how much he ends up caring for her in the original trilogy, how the 25 years after really molded them into something even if she never really got out from under all that propaganda.

[cupidsncheerios]

as much as i enjoy seeing the class politics discussions around silco and his actions as a chembaron and a revolutionary, i do think that a lot of people condemning his actions (which we should condemn) miss the part where like.

it did work

like that was a pretty significant part of the show. it didnt pan out because he loved his daughter but silco's methods very much did get zaun as an independent nation, the real question is if it was worth it (which we'll never know bc jinx shot him)

[luna-loveboop]

There is sooo much fun contrast between Breath of the Wild and Age of Calamity Link, and the one I can't stop laughing at is SHIELD SURFING it is ridiculous!

Like here's Shield surfing in Botw-

It's pretty, and if it's rainy I can slide even more. I do it for fun off a nearby hill if I have a shield to spare. I press Y or X to do a fancy kick or spin, and I can attack some monsters with it passing by. The greatest danger with shield surfing is Link hitting a rock, his shield breaking, and him dying or using a fairy/Mipha's grace. More likely he eats some a lot of apples. Outside of Link potentionally breaking a leg tho, it's fun! I once caught a horse in botw by shield surfing, I spun and accidentally flip-flopped onto her, named her Flip-flop in remembrance. If I do some kicks and jumps while shield surfing Link will even laugh and make happy sounds, which shows he's enjoying it. Fun happy times in botw while shield surfing :)

Then there's Shield surfing in Aoc-

Link screams HYAH! or some other raging and loud battle cry, as he hops on his shield and speeds, not towards, not around, but straight into whatever monsters stand in his way. The agonised cries of dying monsters fill the air as Link turns into a tunnel of pure deadly force. Is he going uphill? downhill? Doesn't matter, he's going, gravity has no hold on him. The worst case scenario you ask? Link shield surfs straight into a bomb barrel. Takes everything out quicker, and he loses half a heart from it. I finished an entire mission using only Link's shield surfing the other day. The game reminded me how to dodge bc it thought I forgot the other controls. I didn't need to dodge, just surf. Aoc Link doesn't go shield surfing for fun, he is on a mission and he becomes a whirling funnel of death.

And I mean all that literally by the way-

Botw Link: Shield surfs for fun and freedom while trying to survive! :D

Aoc Link: Shield surfs to KILL and destroy, he is out for blood

tbc I love Aoc Link he's a sweetheart just a very deadly one

And hey, looking at how the ability controls are explained in the game-

Botw- "Hop on your shield and slide down hills."

Aoc- "Link: One-Handed Weapons / Press X while running to shield surf."

So- in Botw it IS for fun- 'hop on'- whereas in Aoc shield surfing is an attack. hmm

..It makes sense I guess. Aoc Link killed the enemy, and Botw was the one who was killed- but it seems in the end Wild's the one who gets to live.

YEAH so anyways I actually cannot at the moment shield surf in Aoc without laughing bc he is so. so very violent.

I mean look! Look at the difference of scenes left behind after Link goes shield surfing (Botw, then Aoc)

An everybody-lives story is really a everybody-dies story for the enemy huh

[chaos-of-the-abyss]

i'm starting to wonder if maedhros either a). didn't know about celegorm and curufin's assault of luthien, or b). never actually sent communication to doriath demanding the silmaril, with celegorm and curufin being the main ones behind it instead. yes fandom has soured me toward the character, but i don't think he's meant to be taken as enough of a sheer moron to expect cooperation from a kingdom after his brothers tried to rape their princess. nor do i think he's written unsympathetically enough for tolkien's intent to have been to make him a rape enabler/apologist who genuinely doesn't care about celegorm and curufin assaulting a woman -- so either c&c lied about what they did and he took whatever version they told him at face value, or he never actually gave his approval for whatever letter was sent to doriath. and the silm does say "maedhros and his brothers had before sent to thingol" and that "maedhros made no answer" after thingol refused the feanorians' demands, which to me is as good as confirmation that maedhros was involved in the exchange. so maybe celegorm and curufin really did keep the true story from him. ...or maybe fandom's fixation on maedhros being some long suffering goodie two shoes is still skewing my perception of him without my realizing and he actually is the kind of person to brush off celegorm and curufin's rape attempt

[allimili]

That one hyuluka standee.....

[littlebitofdnd]

Sandra-Lynn and Sklonda are having a "What Do We Do About Kristen" phone call as we speak

[worstloki]

The Avengers being very surprised and a little annoyed that Thor has a whole hair care regimen that he insists he stick to because none of the products are available on earth so the lad keeps disappearing for days-long shopping runs when they need him to be around for missions too