persephoneiah - Tumblr blog

[persephoneiah]

I am probably shouting into the void here and of course everyone is entitled to their privacy but I am so so curious about what happened with all of chrmdpoet’s Swan Queen fics… It seems they’ve all been taken down? Same goes for several other creators that were big in the fandom. It sucks that all their fic is just gone and I would love to know what happened.

[persephoneiah]

Sylvanas the Sister Courage and her Shattered Legacies

"Time is short, Ranger General. Make your choice."

And here we are with Sylvanas haters' shit show all over again... With the new cinematic out, I think there was a lot of confusion, misconceptions and misinterpretations of narratives and angles. Or just blind stubbornness with no other motivation than hate for the sake of hate. Life must be so simple and boring when everything is so unidimensional... No nuances, no depth, no background. Anyway...

Let's start with the split itself and whether or not Ranger General Windrunner was aware of her Banshee's counterpart actions. My opinion is loosely based on the "Sister is Another Word for Always" tale, and it's gonna show as well later on in this text. Yes, I know it isn't fair of Blizzard that we need to buy a book to complete missing pieces of lore, but the truth is, no matter how it much sucks, we need to take this tale into consideration since it is, after all, canon.

It seems unmistakable on my end that Generał Sylvanas wasn't aware of the Dark Lady's actions. According to the tale, when Sylvanas died, Vereesa tried to get her back by going to the Shadowlands. That one piece of her soul, which the youngest Windrunner refers to as "Sister Courage", went DIRECTLY to the Maw, even if Sylvanas died valiantly against Arthas. The Jailer literally played with Vereesa, letting her reach her sister's soul piece before taking it away again. "I wanted to watch you fail", were his words before he snatched the soul back.

Meanwhile, the other part of her soul was trapped in Azeroth, dominated by Arthas, forced to kill her own people. He locked away her corpse, torturing her with that knowledge. When Uther's soul was shattered, he died right away. He was not raised by Arthas. The 2 pieces of his soul, while separated, were in the same realm. That's one of the many reasons their situation is similar but significantly different. That is why her wound runs deeper.

As for Sylvanas herself… When the "good" realizes what the "bad" did, she must accept that a part of her had the POTENTIAL to commit war crimes. I think it also implies that every character has that potential, and losing a part of their soul can hinder decision-making and morality when a goal becomes more important than the journey to achieve it. It also implies that the "bad" part of Sylvanas also had the potential for good actions, but she chose not to. Why? Trauma is one reason, obviously, but it also comes back to the Folks and Fairytales of Azeroth book; she lacked COURAGE! It makes her accountable for her deeds while also giving her, in my opinion, a CHANCE at atonement.

Now, for the "redemption" arc… The haters need to stop saying that she is being redeemed... For it is NOT redemption! Not yet, and not even close!

First, Uther is VERY clear when General Sylvanas says: "Her crimes are unforgivable… And I must face the consequences". "We cannot change the past", the paladin replies, "and we may never find forgiveness in the future, but inaction damns us all". She is not redeemed, and she acknowledges that. The General suffers intolerable torment as she takes in the Banshee's crimes. She realizes that the Dark Lady IS, indeed, her! She KNOWS she must pay for her many offences. That's the WHOLE point of the cinematic. Moreover, she could have avoided the judgment by fading away and never waking up. She chose to come back, with the consequences that entail. This is COURAGE.

Second, this self-accountability is a different path from what we ever had before in World of Warcraft, WHICH IS GOOD! The General and the Banshee, now reunited, are willingly admitting their evil deeds and willing to face the ire... And take action to fix what they did. It is NOT redemption! It's an ATTEMPT at one, and should she survive this expansion, it's still gonna be a long road ahead. They already hinted that it wouldn't be easy or even doable. And that is the beauty of it. Recognizing one's own atrocities and working to fix them regardless of the victims' forgiveness is selfless and... well, again, an act of bravery.

Talking about justice... Many haters have an ignorant and completely biased conception of what it actually means. Do they even know how it works? How it's being served? They try to apply (inaccurately) real-life concepts such as genocides to a fictional world named "World of WARcraft", yet they want to punish her without using real-life rules. Suppose they actually want to play that game; psychological dissociation (like psychosis or drugs, an equivalent of soul-split), past abuse, showing genuine remorse, and guilt admission are mitigating factors a judge needs to consider when deliberating. It doesn't justify what the accused did, but it might lighten the sentence (you know, like being a white male, but let's not trigger more people for now).

Since yesterday, creative ways of slaughtering Sylvanas (one involving Tyrande and a disgusting rape scene with her glaives, another with Genn parading her dismantled corpse in Stormwind, and so on) keep appearing on social media... And these haters can't even admit they are not better than her. Those "punishments" are many things: inhumane execution, degradation, assault, public humiliation... Most of all, this is NOT justice; it's irrational, violent and greedy revenge. This perpetuates an endless, old, overused and unoriginal storytelling cycle of crime/vengeance/bitterness/revenge/crime/vengeance… And so on.

The same folks also claim they are tired of Blizzard recycling old tropes, yet killing Sylvanas would precisely accomplish that. They blame lousy writing only when it suits them. I never heard anyone complain about Tyrande's Night Warrior arc, which, by the way, was never fully justified, explored or explained. I never faced any outrage about the fact that as we speak, traumatized night elves are mining relentlessly in Dark Shore to bolster Tyrande's Army of the Dark Moon. Everyone is chill having Jaina Proudmoore involved in every pourparler with the Horde after the purge of Dalaran and the ruthless attacks committed, ONCE MORE, against Sin'dorei. Suddenly, trauma and shock become justifiable reasons for forced labour and extremism when the story has hurt one's side. To be fair, I actually like both storylines (although Blizzard seems to love to give their women a bad time; it's not that different from reality, I guess). I DO blame how some of the anti-Sylvanas crew strangely displays different standards in moralities depending on the situation.

Blizzard's intention with Sylvanas seems to lean toward a well-known real-life concept called restorative justice. It's the idea that instead of punishing/killing people who did wrong, they have to work for the victims, for reparations, for healing. It's up to the victims to forgive their abuser, and they may well never will (as mentioned by Uther), but the wrongdoer's goal is to work to repay every bit of evil they did. It's something I hoped they would do, and I am glad they might go this way.

There is, however, one caveat. We will need more background on HOW and WHY the Banshee Queen aligned with the Jailer and what it meant to "rewrite" reality. What was the purpose, the intent, the finality? Because without it, the schemes of the "conniving" Zovaal we keep hearing about are just empty promises that Sylvanas, Devos, Denathrius and many others would never have believed in the first place. Along with Sylvanas's fate, that is the deal-breaking puzzle piece that will determine if Blizzard is worthy of my money in the future. If rewriting reality, for Sylvanas, meant she would be reborn in a new realm where Quel'Thalas remained untouched and all the lost souls restored, it might be worth a thought or two. Any undefined, vague and unjustified plan would be an insult to all the almighty characters who blindly followed the Jailer. We deserve to have the whole backstory, one that we must not need to buy at the bookstore.

[persephoneiah]

Justice for Sylvanas... And Teldrassil!

Many Sylvanas haters make the mistake of assuming, first, that her fans think she is innocent. Most of us know she is a villain. The second is to believe that we want her to have an easy way back to life and live happily ever after as if nothing happened. It is, again, not the case.

Most of us believe she deserves A CHANCE at redemption, and it is MUCH different. We want to see her struggle with the guilt she feels now that she has her soul back. We want to hear Tyrande YELL at her about Teldrassil, about what her people have become, about Nathanos (I don't personally like him a lot, but he is still a significant piece of her story). We want her to have a deep conversation with Jaina, talking about the Third War, Arthas, Theramore. We want a LONG DESERVED reunion with her sisters, maybe even Lirath, her long-dead brother. We want her to face her people, the Forsaken, that she first saved, then abandoned. We want her to be tormented by her demons, understand them, fight them, and then grow from them.

Because whether you are a total Sylvanas loyalist, or appalled with Sylvanas's narrative in Battle for Azeroth (like me), or a hater, most agree that Blizzard's writing team made a lot of mistakes in the last two expansions. After the retcons and "bunny in the hat" storytelling, all Sylvanas did since Cataclysm, the good/interesting (her dedication for the Forsaken, her connection to the Valkyrs, her focus switching from her faction to the Horde as a whole, becoming Warchief etc.) and the bad (Wrathgate, Gilneas, Teldrassil, etc.), became tainted by hidden intentions that leaped out of nowhere. And for what? For the benefit of another surprise man who manipulated her from the start, HER, who was the paroxysm of freedom and cunning. With the recent and upcoming patches, it feels they are only knitting clumsily some plot to fix the earlier holes, but the truth is nothing Blizzard writes will please everyone.

Killing her would be the easiest solution... Which is EXACTLY why I don't want them to kill her! Sylvanas was created almost 20 years ago and was a beloved character for an extensive period. It is their fault if the situation became so tense between the factions; it is their fault that her decisions made no sense; it is their fault if fans are frustrated. Killing her might appease one side, yes, but it also closes windows to a lot of numerous smaller arcs of her past. It leaves the Horde with no original female character from Warcraft 3. It forces the Forsaken to accept Voss (who I like, to be honest, but it still feels like a downgrade from the Banshee Queen) or Calia F*cking Menethil (whose backstory is sparse, at best) as their leaders.

I personally want to see her fight and grow and evolve on her way to seeking redemption. The victims might never forgive her, and IT'S PERFECTLY FINE! Forgiveness shouldn't be the goal of a criminal trying to atone for their actions. For those familiar with the concept of restorative justice, it would have been a refreshing change from the endless evil deeds/vengeance cycle this lore keeps repeating over and over and over again. In the hands of gutsy writers, the restoration angle would have been a good storytelling improvement while giving everyone a break from her active participation in future expansions.

Let's be honest: with all the problems Blizzard is already having and their real-life inability to bestow restorative justice to actual, breathing persons who have been mistreated, harassed, and abused, the odds point to the easy exit. Such a fucking waste...

...

PS: I also want to comment about Alliance players literally hunting down Sylvanas' fans on Twitter. First, how self-entitled can you be to SEEK the fans of someone you hate to bash their favourite character or even THEM as persons? How important do you think yourself to be to compulsively respond with insults and "facts about Sylvanas's deeds" to people who didn't even talk to you in the first place? You are pathetic and ridiculous.

Also, Darth Vader, who killed CHILDREN in one-on-one combat, enforced and maintained a dictatorship to a whole galaxy, enslaved countless civilizations and bombed PLANETS, is one of the most famous fiction villains of all time, ... As a Star Wars fan (the WHINIEST fandom in the universe, might I add), I have NEVER heard one soul shaming another for liking Darth Vader! I have never seen someone insult George Lucas for showing a redeemed Force ghost of Anakin Skywalker at the end of The Return of the Jedi, mere minutes after he was still a military leader responsible for multiple war crimes. As I know a lot of Warcraft players also are Star Wars fans, I wonder, where are your posts about this undeserved redemption arc? Why the double standards? Why the constant belittling?

Repeat after me: People liking villains doesn't make them genocide apologists! Let people ENJOY things! Not Everything is about YOU!!!

[persephoneiah]

I love swan queen because this isn’t just some random ship. Their relationship isn’t something that appeared overnight. They’ve grown together through the seasons, and they’ve raised their son together. These are two powerful females co-parenting and running a town. Them being TL is poetic and just fitting for the story. Once OUAT is over it’s going to be more than worth it to sit back and re-watch their love story play out again and again, just like any other Disney fairytale we have on VHS. ( - submitted by sheree408 )

Why do you love Swan Queen?

[persephoneiah]

Right in front of you Right in front of me We were looking For somehow, some way We couldn’t see That the love was always there It’s been around us everywhere I had to fall to finally see That you were right in front of me

Oh, the way Emma and Regina look at one another!  Who hears fire-alarm bells?  Is it just me?  Hot!

Swan Queen ALL the way!

Romantically they make the BEST story. 

[persephoneiah]

REBLOG IF YOU LOVE GIRLS OR BELIEVE IN ALIENS

[persephoneiah]

Priyanka Chopra and Stephen Colbert throwing some shade!

[persephoneiah]

[persephoneiah]

Straight logic

Girl and a boy: *literally hate eachother*

Everyone: omg the sexual tension!!!! I ship it!!! Ooooh so edgy

Two boys: *barely interact, glance at eachother once*

[persephoneiah]

If you’re healthy you probably don’t realize how demoralizing it is to spend all day in a hospital gown

But now a new collaboration is designing fashionable hospital gowns to encourage sick teens that they’re not “just a hospital patient.” See how they react when they try their new robes on.

Gifs: Starlight Canada

[persephoneiah]

Apparently Nickelodeon wants to build an attraction in Palawan, Philippines . 

This might seem fun for some people, but for us it’s not. 

You see, Palawan is known for its non-commercialized islands and untouched beaches. There are only a few resorts in there, and the government limits tourism population there. Here are some pictures of our beautiful islands:

Nickelodeon, however, wants to capitalize the island of Coron, Palawan. They’re going to build a resort and theme park there. They claim that they want to “spread environmental awareness” but they’re really not. Building this resort will disrupt the marine ecosystem; thus destroying the environment there. Also, Palawan is our last ecological frontier in the Philippines. If they’re going to continue to do this, more and more big companies will cash-in to commercialize Palawan- and I really do not want that to happen.

I know petitions won’t do much, but at least we can prove a point that Palawan should not be disrupted. Please sign this petition, so that it will not only show that us Filipinxs don’t want this, but people from different countries as well. Please spread it around as well, so that people from different countries can be aware of what Nickelodeon is doing.

Ang aming kalikasan ay hindi dapat sirain. Maraming salamat po.

[persephoneiah]

Preach it, brother.

[persephoneiah]

Everyone SAYS they want a fairytale wedding but when I show up and curse their firstborn suddenly I’m a jerk.

[persephoneiah]

One of the reasons why Regina and Lana Parrilla mean so much to me...

"You are where you need to be..." When I first read Lana Parrilla's quote, I scoffed. I wanted to say : "Easy for you to say, you are beautiful, rich, you have hordes of fans at your feet, a loving husband...". As you can imagine, I wasn't in a good place then. It was the first of many articles I read about her. Of course, I realized soon that my disregard of her past and my assumptions were totally uncalled for. Still, that little sentence made its home somewhere in my head and became the catalyst of one of the best moment of my life.

Once upon a time, I used to work for a video game company, and it was my dream job. As a geek, and as a fan of that specific company, this job was everything to me. I did a lot of overtime, always enrolled to go to conferences, training, always helping my colleagues when they needed help.

Then, one day, our studio's philosophy changed... They said they wanted to be the best, that they wanted to perform, to be seen as the best studio around the world. I worked on user interfaces and menus. At that moment, though, the technology they used was starting to tire itself out and they wanted to migrate to another. I began to learn to use that technology, by myself. As my project was about to end, it meant lots of overtime, and a ridiculous lack of a personal life. So, I wasn't fast enough. The day after the end of that project, they told me they thought I couldn't make it, that I would never be able to meet their standards. I was fired.

Needless to say, this was one of the worst moments of my life. All I wanted to do was to yell at them, tell them they were unfair, that they were patronizing jerks. I wanted them to believe I was worth something... This is not what happened. I worked. Alone, all by myself, I, with books and online lessons and a lot of willpower, went back to my first love : Web. One month of this and I was hired by a new company.

So, last summer, me, a French Canadian programer living in a small city up the frozen reaches of the eastern coast, I was invited to meet the team I worked long distance with... in San Francisco! And as I was sitting on a bench on the famous Pier 39, biting into an Oreo Fudge piece while I watched 2 sea lions barking at each other in front of an amazing sunset, I realized how proud I was of myself. I was thinking : "Those people thought I wasn't worth their time or their money, and yet here I am, 2 years after this awful day, I have lost 50 pounds, I am amongst these amazing, kind and talented persons in this beautiful city, and they consider me a significant part of their team." At that moment, I did not resent them, the ones who fired me. I was grateful.

That's the irony! With their closed-up minds and selfish contempt, I did not want to brag at them, but I pitied them, because they would never be able to taste that kind of pride, that sense of accomplishment. Today, I am so thankful that getting back at them just seems pointless! In fact, I think I should thank them.

Bumpy roads always lead to better places. Even the darkest corner of the soul will someday be bathed in light. This is so cliché, but from the worst disappointment of my life was born the very best version of me. That's why I relate so much with Regina as a character, and to Lana as an actress and a person. That's why, watching the sun sets that day, I couldn't help but have a thought for her and me and all the persons who came back from Hell : "You are where you need to be". This is the best feeling in the world.

[persephoneiah]

I miss the fanfictions that were taken when you were hacked. It's like thinking of a good friend and realizing they're not there anymore and whatever you try you just can't get to them. You create amazing worlds that are so realistic and beautiful. It's so easy to escape real life in them. Not being able to read your stories anymore is like losing an old, trusted friend who has been there through the dark times. I despise the person who took the stories and the part of you in them from all of us

[persephoneiah]

Fuck, Meryl... how awesome can you be?

Meryl Streep’s Lifetime Achievement award speech hit all the high notes.

Streep and Fisher were close friends for many years. The Florence Foster Jenkins actress starred in the screen adaptation of Fisher’s semi-autobiographical 1990 novel Postcards from the Edge. 

Gifs: Golden Globes on NBC/Chale Ghel

[persephoneiah]

OMG! Imagine a scene w/Emma physically stuck in the closet for some reason and Regina helping her OUT of it! 😂🤣

EMMA: (looses her footing, falls into closet)

(HOOK and REGINA come into the room)

HOOK: (stands around belligerently and useless as always, a leather flask in his hand) Swan, what are you doing in there?

REGINA: (glares at him, goes to rescue EMMA) Let me help you out, Emma.

SWEN: 😍 Swan Queen, yay!

ANTIS: Adam, you bleep bleep!

A&E: That was unintentional. It doesn’t matter that Emma and Regina were wearing matching red and black again. Or that there was a rainbow mug on the bedside table. OR that the true love theme was playing in the background as Regina gently pulls Emma out slowly, their hands joined and eyes connected.