syntia13treeman

[syntia13treeman]

The other night husband and I were watching a documentary about the yeti where they were doing DNA analysis of samples of supposed yeti fur, and every one of them came back as bears.

Anyway, the next night we watched a thing about some pig man who is supposed to live in Vermont. People said it had claws and a pig nose but walked upright like a man. Now, I happen to know that sideshows used to shave bears and present them as pig men. So every piece of evidence they gave of this monster sounds to me like a bear with mange.

So now the running joke in our house is that everything is bears. Aliens? Bears. Loch Ness monster? Bear. Every cryptozoological mystery is just a very crafty bear.

Bears. They’re everywhere. Be wary. Anyone or anything could be a bear.

[syntia13treeman]

*This poll was submitted to us and we simply posted it so people could vote and discuss their opinions on the matter. If you’d like for us to ask the internet a question for you, feel free to drop the poll of your choice in our inbox and we’ll post them anonymously (for more info, please check our pinned post).

[syntia13treeman]

Someone was asking in a thread what kind of people could work for ICE right now.

I think it's a good time to remember that the image above are the people who put children into gas chambers.

When I was little, I asked what kind of person could work at a concentration camp.

The answer to both questions I think is "normal people who have accepted the dehumanization of another group of people."

[syntia13treeman]

(◡‿◡✿)

(ʘ‿ʘ✿) “what you say ‘bout me”

(ʘ‿ʘ)ノ✿ “hold my flower”

[syntia13treeman]

what i've been up to the past 20 minutes

[syntia13treeman]

“Magneto’s backstory should be changed, it’s unrealistic that he’d still be alive after all this time!” Have you forgotten what franchise he’s from?

[syntia13treeman]

Let's follow mama!!

(Picture from Pinterest)

[syntia13treeman]

losing it at this photo of the counts puppet not being used. literally he looks like hes just taking a nap on set or something

[syntia13treeman]

For everyone wanting to know what the embroidery jacket as a whole looks like because it's been a while: this is it. As you can see, it's getting crowded - but not nearly crowded enough to stop. My estimate is that it'll take me at least a few more years to finish this project. Possibly a decade if I really do want to fill every single as of yet empty space.

[syntia13treeman]

Fun fact: it is both legal AND free to take several deep inhales to calm down. You don't need to pay any shitty companies to do it.

if you’re a baby trans and you haven’t started smoking cigarettes or vaping yet don’t. it’s actually not that hot or interesting. It will just cause you ungodly frustrations and suffering and cost you a bunch of money and be next to impossible to quit

[syntia13treeman]

Ah these children who always create problems for poor mothers....

[syntia13treeman]

That last line had no business going so hard 🥶

Hakoda the Grief Pirate it's time for Hakoda the Grief Pirateeee

Kya is killed, as in canon. Unlike canon, Bato is killed too. This means that rather than join the war, Hakoda goes mad with grief and gathers a few ships' worth of men - desperate, brutal men who want to repay the cruelty of the Fire Nation in kind. Not soldiers, not sailors, killers.

And he takes Katara.

The first place he goes is the Northern Water Tribe. He gets an audience. He goes to Chief Arnook and the elders and says: either I leave here today with a master for my daughter, or none of us leave this room alive.

Katara gets a master.

As in canon, Katara is a prodigy. With a year to focus on her waterbending and drilled by a man wearing her father's face who tells her "we're all going to die doing this" and "but we'll bleed them a thousand times over for every one of us" and most importantly he says "we're going to avenge your mother" - growing up under that man, Katara becomes terrifying.

Sokka is left alone. The last bit of love in his father's heart was spent on him, though he doesn't know it. It was spent on leaving him. It was spent on sparing him from seeing what his father would become.

Sokka goes out often, looking for traders and sailors and ships. He finds no news and too little fish. Until one day, an iceberg cracks open.

The boy is young and Sokka hasn't been a big brother for a while now, but it turns out that it's like riding a penguin - you never really forget. So when Aang gets kidnapped by some ponytailed jerk, of course he goes after him.

That he only manages to ruin Aang's escape and get them both captured is beside the point, okay? The Fire Jerk cheated.

(Appa follows them, if you're wondering. Aang doesn't seem to be in any real danger. Zuko isn't an especially merciless captor, no matter how he tries.)

Sokka finally gets some news. The Frost Wolf is believed to be a Northern raider (to protect his tribe from reprisals) and he is feared. He leaves only one survivor in each of his raids. He tasks them to deliver a simple message: the seas are no longer safe for the Fire Nation. He replenishes his crew with convicts and pirates. They say he has a crazy mechanist working for him. They say that an icy fog follows where he goes, blocking out the sun and chilling Firebenders to the core. They say he can't be killed.

-

"So, these guys of yours -" Sokka began and paused to let the answering "they're not my guys!" wash over him, "do they say anything about a girl?"

The Prince's ears reddened. "I don't listen to that kind of filth."

Which means you have listened, Sokka might have said if he felt like teasing. He didn't.

"Not like that! A girl, a little younger than me. Have you heard anything about that?"

Sokka held his breath. This was it. Of course, it didn't mean anything if Zuko hadn't heard...

"No." The Prince's voice was unusually quiet. Zuko's good eye glinted in the orange light of the torches.

Sokka couldn't help that his exhale caught in his throat on the way out, it wasn't - it was just a shock, he reasoned, it didn't mean anything that Zuko hadn't heard...

Zuko stood up and made to walk out. He stopped at the door.

"I'm sorry," the Prince said. "I have a sister, too."

The door closed and Sokka was left alone and with questions. Questions like:

How did he know?

-

The trip to the Fire Nation is long. Any experienced commander could have told Zuko to limit his interactions with the prisoners. To rotate out their guards and never have their meals brought by the same person if he could avoid it. Any experienced military commander would have seen the risk of two child prisoners, one of who is particularly genial and charming while the other is funny and sarcastic.

Iroh, one of the most experienced military commanders alive, encourages Zuko to learn all he can about his enemy. It's an advantage, you see.

(And if the watch lists are edited to put crewmembers with children into frequent and close contact with the prisoners - well, that's Iroh's prerogative. He is a General. And if there are a few minor navigational errors that lenghten their journey, well, that he knows nothing about. He's a General, not an Admiral.)

Meanwhile, Princess Azula is tasked with putting an end to the Frost Wolf's provocations. It would be terribly inconvenient if she were to have frequent encounters with another bending prodigy, about her age and wearing blue robes and a mask. They should make out about it.

Eventually, they'll all have to reckon with their monstrous fathers and murderous siblings.

[syntia13treeman]

How come semi trucks in Europe look like “toot toot :)” and in North America they look like “HONK HOOOOOOOONK >:|”

[syntia13treeman]

Hold the cup like a grownup, Jon

[syntia13treeman]

Idk I really like how much TMA frames dehumanization as a slippery slope. I love how it at first encourages you to dehumanize the avatars as well. I love how it's slow burn about it. I love how "formerly Jane prentiss" becomes Jon begging people to believe he's still himself, and I love that the audience is made complicit in that. I love how you're encouraged to have the same debate about all the avatars that the characters are having. I love how you never get a straight answer on who's what. I love how you never really figure the distortion out, not really. I love how so many of the worst antagonists are people actively Hunting Monsters. I love how monster hunting is horror without the monsters being like Good. Yes they're monsters but also That Is A Person! That is a whole ass person! When does it become okay? When does sympathetic become right? When does it cross the line? I love how it slowly gets shoved in your face more and more, these are horrible people, and they are still people, who feel and die, and you can defend yourself in any way you feel is necessary. But you do not ever get to forget they're a person. Don't you dare ever pretend you're more of a person than they are. I love how avatars both become more sympathetic and more portrayed as having a choice in their actions, but when do you draw the line? When is it "what other choice did they have?" When is it "is it unfair to expect them to be ABLE to stop, given their conditions made that borderline impossible?" And what they did still never stops being framed as fucked up and horrifying. They balance it out really well. Idk. The way tma talks about dehumanization means a lot to me.

[syntia13treeman]

Seem like a good time to remember that Inigo Montoya went on a revenge quest for his father who was killed bc the asshole that commissioned art from him refused to pay him what they agreed on.

[syntia13treeman]

I laughed so fucking hard at this