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Some Jewish kids go to Narnia and the White Witch is endlessly frustrated because she wants to make it always winter but never Hanukkah, but she doesn’t follow the Hebrew calendar so she can’t accurately predict when it’s supposed to be.

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One of the most important things to unpack and unlearn when you’re part of a white supremacy saturated society (i.e. the global north) and especially if you were raised in an intensified form of it (evangelicism, right wing politics, explicit racism) is the urge to punish and take revenge.

It manifests in our lives all the time and it is inherently destructive. It makes relationships and interactions adversarial for no good reason. It undermines cooperation and good civic order. It worsens some types of crime. It creates trauma, especially in children.

Imagine approaching unexpected or unacceptable behavior from a perspective of "how can this be stopped, and prevented" instead of "you’re going to regret this!”

Imagine dealing with a problem or conflict from the perspective of “how can this be solved in a way that is just and restorative” instead of “the people who caused this are going to pay.”

How much would that change you? How much would that have changed for you?

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Every family has a different way of calibrating their parenting and decisions around media. Our neighbors who are horror fans (and named their kids after protagonists) have a whole programme of horror media they’re working through academically with their 5 and 8 year old, while we wouldn’t do that. But our 5 and 8 year old have watched LotR with us. But some neighbours still have their 8-year-old on “children’s media only and no video games”. And plenty of people at school let their kids watch superhero franchise media (I find this shocking and vulgar, far more damaging than historical 90s sword-based television.) everyone probably judges each other slightly, and all of the kids seem to be growing up pretty much the same and basically fine - as loved kids pretty much always do.

However, Dr Glass asked if I had an opinion on Buffy. Growing up fairly TV-free myself, I never really watched it and don’t care especially about it. I know the characters and found some bits satisfactory (and was personally quite into Anthony Stewart Head, as part of my lifelong good taste) but wouldn’t change the channel to watch it. But Dr Glass, having chatted to the horror fan neighbours, asked if I thought we ought to be doing similarly with Buffy?

I said absolutely not. I said Jurassic Park would be fine, though.

He said but Jurassic Park is visceral and realistic, while Buffy was practically CBeebies.

I said Jurassic Park is necessary education and good for the soul, and I saw it when I was 8 and found it exciting, and it lit my imagination on fire. Whereas Buffy, while not being particularly high-quality, did give me actual nightmare fuel, in terms of being “disturbing” rather than just blood-splashy.

Dr Glass said what did I mean - it was on at 6 pm - it was a kids’ show.

I said it might’ve been, but that our kids seem to be mapping along the same lines as myself or worse - Bug, 5, upon watching the mumakil smash through the Rohirrim, squealed with delight and said they’d never loved anything more - and were fine with splashy historic violence, but “teachers are secretly monsters” content would mean children climbing into bed with parents at 3 am.

Long story shortened, it TURNS OUT Buffy the Vampire Slayer had a censored British version that played in the evening on UK television, for children and teens, and the American/uncut version aired as late-night adult material.

Which we discovered, when Dr Glass shrieked “what do you mean they ate the principal”

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From a project I was working on before going in another direction, but still wanted to post this. Inspired by this photo of mourning doves nesting in the fossil of a triceratops, and how it tells us that the world can end, just not forever.

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I know that Peter’s Jackson Lord of the Rings trilogy technically has flaws but also….it doesn’t. It’s perfect.

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Happy Pride, my darlings.

I know it's so hard right now to have pride when so much of the world is telling us no: we don't get to exist, be seen, be heard, be who we want to be. I know it's so hard when for some of us, having pride is risking our jobs and livelihood. For some of us families. For some lives.

But have pride. Have pride in your heart if you can't on your chest. Have pride for the simple fact that you are you and your are wonderful for it. Have pride because because hope needs pride. It needs our lion bite and our beaten spite and our vicious might.

It needs you.

We're here and we're queer.

We always have been.

We always will be.

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'These apps are the enemy. They're thoughtless, joyless, and our friends are powerless aginst them."

Leverage Redemption S03E06 The Swipe Right Job.

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In light of some of the many things happening across the world this year, I thought this Pride Month needed a special illustration.

Happy Pride Month, may we all stay safe, look after each other, and keep painting our rainbows, no matter what. 🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

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This is so wholesome

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How would Visser One's interactions with Marco and the animorphs change if she considered him one of her "kids" like Madra and Darwin? Hell, how would that affect her interactions with Eva?

Why would you say such a thing, you evil evil Anon?

Edriss would definitely make Marco a controller.  She wants her kids to “love” and respect her no matter what it takes, and Marco is not the type of person who would go along with her just for the sake of keeping the peace.

In response, Eva would probably not freak out in the moment, the way the Chapmans do in #2.  She’d probably bide her time.  Wait for her moment.  Pretend to be cowed and silent.  And then she’d strike.  During meetings with Visser Three.  During presentations before the Council of Thirteen.  During attempts to impress Visser One’s underlings.  Whenever it’d be most destructive, and least convenient.

Honestly, Edriss probably wouldn’t kill Eva.  After all, doing so would destroy her image of herself as one of those “good” “kind” “benevolent” enslavers, and she can’t have that.  Instead, Edriss would probably just get revenge by hurting Eva.  And Marco.  A lot.

Whatever poor yeerk got stuck inside Marco would be having a hell of a time.  Not only would he have to follow Il Duce around all day to kiss up and “I love you, Miss Hannigan” on command, but he’d also take the brunt of her perpetual wrath with Marco and Eva, and he’d also also have to put up with Marco as a host which seems like it’d be a nightmare in its own right.

Okay now I’m starting to love the idea that the yeerk in question gets so fed up with Edriss’s BS that he Pulls An Aftran and decides to quit the war and start working against Visser One instead.  Between Edriss’s saccharine insistence on absolute loyalty and Marco’s ability to talk the stripes off a zebra, I could see him getting pushed and pulled into sabotaging the war effort.

You know how Edriss becomes 85% more competent the millisecond she and Eva actually start working together in Visser?  Same thing would totally happen with Marco and that yeerk.  They would be a terrifyingly effective sabotage and espionage team.  Lots of fake intel fed to both Visser One and Visser Three, allegedly from each other.  Lots of orders from Not My Real Mom that get just a little bit garbled on delivery, leading to millions of dollars in wasted time/money/effort.  Lots of kandrona generator parts or Bug fighter engine repairs that fail inexplicably at extremely crucial stages of construction.  Lots of plausible deniability.

And the best part is, Edriss would have no idea.  Because she has a loving family.  She has a happy family.  She’s good to her pet humans, she’s kind to them, and she only needs ask them with a metaphorical gun to their heads for confirmation that they love her back.  No one in her family would ever dare go against her wishes.  Don’t be ridiculous.

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HAPPY PRIDE!!!

So excited to share my collection of Animorphs Pride flags! All created in MS Paint using the titles of different Animorphs books. 

Originally I'd just made the transgender flag and asexual flag a few years ago with inspiration from the Animorphing Time podcast - but then @portlandalites said they'd "kill for a lesbian one." So, I made as many flags as possible with the available colors! I hope people enjoy :)

And in case your flag isn't here, a happy Pride Month to you as well!

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The production value here is off the charts but this is also literally just what it feels like to play Uno.

legendaryjay_ on TikTok

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this is peak Craigslist

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its 1am and i am overwhelmed with love for a person who kindly and knowledgeably answered questions on a forum about niche topics. this is not the first time and it absolutely will not be the last

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so long, margaret.