#2) proceeding to somehow get even more racist with it

[tavina-writes]

I would also like to say for the record that all of the sects in MDZS are not implied to be any ethnicity but Han Chinese and to be quite frank it is alarming when people try to say the text says otherwise.

Like, this is mildly related to the ask I just answered, and I know we've all seen the meta discussing how barbarianism and racism is (le gasp!) present in Chinese works. (Which, well, yeah. yeah it is.) BUT critically I think in trying to scrutinize and apply shit to MDZS/CQL where all the characters are very much Han, we're just turning up new ways of being racist towards minority ethnicities here.

Case in point: "the Nie are Mongolian"

I've seen this oft repeated everywhere in both meta and fic and...do we understand this??? is racist??? Like the most common justifications I see point to the fact that the Nie (in the live action)....ride horses...have braids in their hair...come from a butcher heritage...are "brutish" <- there's no canonical evidence of this last point btw.

Do we think this is the entirety of what being Mongolian means? Do we think these points add up to "they're subtextually Mongolian?" Why do we think that?

They're not depicted either 1) with Mongolian names 2) with Mongolian religious traditions 3) with Mongolian clothing or hairstyle trends 4) as being reacted to in text as anything other than Han Chinese by other Han Chinese characters. 5) They are depicted on screen by Han Chinese actors.

Like maybe if someone is subscribing to "The Nie are canonically Mongolian and written in a racist way by MXTX in text/depicted in a racist way by the CQL showwriters" they should. Examine what they think being Mongolian is irl.

Maybe the issue is not how sects are presented in CQL or MDZS but how exhausting it is to wade through this fandom where people will misconstrue shit into things that are somehow, more racist in an attempt to deconstruct racism in a system they do not fully understand.

[daesungindistress]

I really thought they would finally stfu but ofc now they're saying the judge's decision was wrong and based on no evidence, that the reliability of the witnesses should not have been questioned and that the sentence is too high compared to yoo inseoks. ngl their whole argument of the sk justice system being unjust and out to get their poor oppa is starting to look lowkey racist to me (aside from the more obvious problems with it). 99% don't even speak korean. How the fuck would they even know? I doubt they know shit about the country let alone its legal system. How dare they claim all these law professionals involved in this case are dumb and incompetent. How dare they speak over korean's women's voices just because their fave got involved in some shit. They make it seem like the korean people and kvips are dumb and brainwashed because they refuse to believe that pos. Even on the off chance that he isn't guilty of all of his charges. He's a rich man. He can appeal. He can probably just be a good boy for a year and then get out somehow. Why are they so worried for him? Why do they continue to refuse to let people just move the fuck on? They ask for justice but will not believe any verdict besides one that comes from their own beloved idol's mouth. Besides... Even if the government and jurisdiction there were corrupt, wouldn't it be the other way around? Wouldn't they favour the famous rich guy? What would they even be gaining in witch hunting him? Hubris much? Absolutely shameless and disgusting the lot of them.

👏👏👏

I almost don't want to say anything because this is so good already, but... a few comments:

1) "the reliability of the witnesses should not have been questioned" -- I've read many reports and not once have I seen the reliability of the witnesses questioned? Not saying it isn’t possible, just that I haven’t seen it reported. I do know, however, that Seungri's reliability was questioned. It was said that from the police investigation to the prosecutor's investigation to the court proceedings his statements were inconsistent and lacked credibility. And they DID. Especially if you take into account his statements to the public, of which there were plenty. Most notably that Chosun interview that he got out there and gave while he was a primary suspect in the middle of a criminal investigation.

For example, the chat that shows Seungri instructing Yoo & Co to find prositutes for their investors at Club Arena... Seungri's excuses, in chronological order:

"The chats are fabricated." (this was the first chat to be released and the first one he responded to publicly)

"The chats aren't fabricated, I just didn't remember them."

"I don't know why I said that. I think I was drinking."

"It isn’t about sex. It's a phrase that means something else and is used by young people. You old folks wouldn't understand." (regarding the phrase "girls that give it good")

"It was a typo due to my phone's autocorrect function."

Another example: how about that confession he made at his arrest warrant hearing in May 2019? You know, the one that his zealous fans will insist until their dying breath was "all media lies"? He admitted in front of a judge, "I had sexual relations with a female employee of an adult entertainment establishment after paying money," said it was "difficult to admit" because of his celebrity status, and claimed he was "reflecting." It doesn't get any clearer than that! But somehow, over a year later when his trial officially began, that very detailed confession of his turned into "I don't remember. But if I did sleep with her, I didn't know she was a prostitute."

???

He actually addressed this in one of his final hearings. He tried to explain away his changing statement by saying that he had only admitted to it because the woman did, and if she said it happened, he thought he had no choice but to agree (?!) but when he reviewed her testimony he found it "unreliable." And just like that he didn't remember after all.

Y'all. What the hell. Who does that? Who, despite being unsure of the validity of a criminal charge against him, confesses anyway? Certainly not someone as careful and calculating as Seungri. What most likely happened is he analyzed her statement to police and found holes in it that he thought he could exploit. At least he confirmed that the confession at the warrant hearing was real and his stans can finally shut up about it being a made-up media conspiracy. But of course we know they won't. They won't.

2) "the sentence is too high compared to yoo inseoks" -- Of course Seungri's sentence is more severe than Yoo Insuk's. Yoo pleaded guilty to all but one of his charges at his first hearing (the embezzlement charge he only partially agreed with), saving the court a great deal of time and effort in closing his case. Seungri, on the other hand, pleaded not guilty to all but one of his charges. Seungri went into this knowing full well that by fighting the charges and making this a headache for everyone he was risking a harsher penalty should he be found guilty. That's how it works over there. His unrepentant attitude and refusal to accept responsibility and reflect were reasons explicitly given for the prosecution’s requested 5-year sentence. He gambled with the legal system and he lost.

You'll also see his fans crying foul at CJH and JJY getting shorter sentences. Actually, CJH and JJY received higher sentences initially (5 years and 6 years respectively). The reason they are lower now (2.5 and 5) is because they wouldn't accept the results and appealed their cases to death.

3) "their whole argument of the sk justice system being unjust and out to get their poor oppa is starting to look lowkey racist to me" -- They've been highkey racist about this since the beginning. You'd be appalled to see some of the blatantly xenophobic things they've spewed to me about Koreans entirely in defense of Seungri.

[anderson-a25]

Society and its Racisms

1. Hypodescent

This tweet is an example of hypodescent racism. Mixed children are degraded daily by society. Specifically speaking, children mixed with both black and white often identify as a black man or woman because they are seen as “too black for the white community”. This puts up a wall between biracial people and an entire part of their ancestry and where they came from due to racism.

2. Intersectionality

Click here for Intersectionality TED Talk

This TED talk by Kimberlé Crenshaw discusses the importance of understanding intersectionality. Intersectionality is the cross between different social categories (race, class, and gender) and how they apply to an individual. For instance, I am a middle-class, black woman. Those who have a harder time in society tend to be on the more oppressed side of the spectrum; black or brown, lower class, and/or a woman. However, those who do not fall under the oppressed characteristics can come off as privileged.

3. White Privilege

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This video is a prime example of white privilege using the metaphor of life being like a race. However, throughout the race the black runners were either held back, stopped, or completely incapable of proceeding due to obstacles placed by society. This left the white runners to continue the run and get ahead in the race, hence getting ahead in life. The system is made for minorities to be set up for poverty, prison, or death. This is shown when the black man is caught by the gate and is carried away. This metaphor is implying how black men typically end up in jail or prison. Similarly to when the woman was stopped by an authoritative figure and given a drug test. This implied racial profiling, assuming that the only way a black person could be so good at something is by cheating it with drugs or steroids.

4. Colorism

The two images above represent colorism. Colorism is a racist issue mostly found within the black community. Darker skinned women are seen as less than compared to light skinned women. Light skinned women soon became the “beauty standard” for society. It even got to the point where darker women would claim to be lighter (Tiktok here ! Beware of profanity). In The Hate U Give (2017), the main character Starr was described as a dark skinned teenage girl. However when the movie came out in 2018, Starr was played by light skinned actress, Amandla Stenberg. Just like in the children film Princess and the Frog (2009), Princess Tiana was a dark skinned woman and in Wreck It Ralph 2 (2018), she was lighter skinned. Considering that Tiana is the only black princess, this is insulting to my childhood.

5. Institutional racism

A Black Lives Matter protest (bottom) and the Capitol Riot (top). Two groups of people fighting for what they believe is right, with 2 very different outcomes. The BLM protesters fought peacefully for the equal rights of black individuals and justice against police brutality. Meanwhile, rioters with weapons climbed the walls of the Capitol building, got past the gates, and fought Capitol police. Forbes staff, Tommy Beer, wrote that former President Trump referred to the BLM protesters as “thugs, terrorists, and anarchists” and the Capitol rioters as “very special”(Forbes 2021). This is a prime example of institutional racism within the legal system.

6. Microaggression

My last example is not something I found on social media, but something that I experienced myself. Saturday, October 2nd, I was a victim to microaggression. While at work, I was speaking with a coworker, white male, about school and how the only class I am not too fond of is English. My coworker proceeded to say “so you like to write how you talk instead of properly” then followed up with what seemed to be his attempt at AAVE. I felt both shocked and culturally insulted. His statement implied two things. One, AAVE is improper. And two, my skin color is somehow linked to my inability to speak “proper”. I then proceeded to end the conversation there because I refused to converse with someone who was so loud, yet so wrong.

[intheshadowofwar]

K.B.O. - 28 June

So here we are on our first day of co-curated learning, which is a thing I only found out existed this morning.

We’ve been over the new plan; all things going well, we’re still going to be able to get out in the field, even if it is just in the Canberra region. Cowra was mentioned but I think some of us may be a bit skittish about going out of the ACT (although if they locked down Cowra I’d be very surprised indeed.) Can’t promise anything, but I’ll lobby as hard as I can, and if things look better next week, the chance may exist of getting somewhere in regional NSW.

We proceeded on to a lecture on Everybody’s Favourite Boondoggle, the John Monash Centre at Villers-Bretonneux (or VB for short.) VB is the site of a battle (technically two battles) fought at the ‘gates of Amiens’ in 1918. The initial German assault in early April was halted by a mix of British and Australian troops, but it’s the counterattack from April 24 to 27 that people mostly remember. Two Australian and one British brigade, alongside Moroccan forces under French command and supported by tanks, pushed two German divisions from the town and stabilised the front around Amiens; one of a number of battles that marked the end of Operation Michael, the first of Ludendorff's Spring Offensives.

It was also the site of the first tank-on-tank engagement in history, so naturally there’s a metal song about it.

Flash forward to 2010 and the beginning of planning for the centenary of the First World War. Some countries were more invested in this than others - Germany spent six million dollars on the whole affair, about $2 per dead soldier. France spent about $50 per fatality, Canada about three to four hundred… and Australia spent $8889. Using enough money to buy Simpson and his donkey a business-class ticket to London, they built a big, triumphant museum under the Villers-Bretonneux memorial - literally under the graves buried there - at a cost of $100m, proclaimed Australian victory in WWI, and named it after our favourite general, John Monash.

There’s a few small problems with this. One; John Monash wasn’t at Villers-Bretonneux. General Sir Henry Rawlingson was in overall command, with the key Australian commanders being Major-General Hobbs and Brigadiers ‘Pompey’ Elliot and Glasgow. But I guess ‘The Talbot Hobbs Centre’ doesn’t quite capture the imagination.

The second problem is that, while the Second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux was important, it did not win the war. German offensives continued into June, and only ended with defeat by the French (with some Americans) at the Second Battle of the Marne. The Germans were attacking on a wide front, and the majority of the men stopping them - at great cost - were British and French. The Australians aren’t the only ones to claim their one battle stopped the Germans - I’m looking at you, US Marine Corps - but we’re probably the only ones to build a gigantic obnoxious museum about it.

The third and most notable problem is that someone decided that building a giant ‘huzzah for the Anzacs, the Manliest of Men’ with a big light-and-sound show, simulated gas and artillery attacks, faceless ‘Huns’ and immersing patrons in the killing of said ‘Huns’ under a war cemetery was somehow in good taste.

I could rant long and hard about this thing and I haven’t even seen it in the flesh. Perhaps that means I’m being unfair. But there are dead Australians and Britons in that cemetery who I feel have been treated unfairly by the cemetery. (And don’t get me started on the omission of the Moroccans, or we’ll be here all day.)

After that, we did comparative presentations on how other countries marked their centenaries; usually with somewhat more taste (Britain), a touch of awkwardness (Germany) or an exclamation of ‘oh yeah, we were in that war, weren’t we?’ (the USA.) We watched an interview with Jay Winter (an American memorial historian and Bruce’s spiritual liege) and Michael Roper (a British historian, although it is unknown if he is anybody’s spiritual liege.) There was a break in the middle of this - I went to buy lunch and bought three books, and no lunch. 

I also got gifted Niall Ferguson’s The Pity of War; the jury’s still out on if I was just being used to offload a Niall Ferguson book onto but the gesture was certainly appreciated. (For those curious, the other books were The Beauty and the Sorrow by Peter Englund, A World on Fire: Britain’s Crucial Role in the American Civil War by Amanda Foreman and Hue 1968 by Mark Bowden. Hopefully I do not get them confused and end up picturing British redcoats charging machine guns in Vietnam.)

At the end of the day, we watched Peter Weir’s Gallipoli. I have opinions about this film. For the uninitiated, the movie (made in 1981 and starring a young, pre-racist Mel Gibson) follows two Western Australian blokes (in a suspiciously South Australian-looking WA, I might add) as they enlist in the 10th Light Horse, train in Egypt and eventually fight in the Gallipoli peninsula, notably in the disastrous Battle of the Nek.

On one hand, Weir is one of the best cinematographers in the world today - one just needs to look at my favourite historical movie, Master and Commander, to get an idea of just how good he is. This is an exquisitely directed film. Despite my knowledge of 1900s railway rolling stock exposing the fact that they filmed in South Australia and not Western Australia, everything looks as authentic as is possible for it to be. Gallipoli looks dead on. The last five minutes of the film might be the most powerful and devastating ever seen in a war film. I should love this film, and yet…

The characters are more caricatures, which I think is intentional but it’s also hard for me to care too much about them. There are a few standouts, like the main character’s uncle and the Light Horse major, but then there’s the three infantry guys who I honestly could not tell apart. There is a sequence of the main characters wandering around the desert which adds nothing to the film except to pad the run time - I do not feel I liked the characters more after this ordeal, in fact I think I liked them less. The sequence in which the Australians take leave in Cairo has aged like fine cheese, with the Egyptian people pretty much reduced to an orientalist stereotype (such as a ‘comic’ moment where the Australians wreck an Egyptian vendor’s shop for scamming them, only to find out at the end of the scene that they’d been in the wrong place.) The strategic context for the Battles of Lone Pine and the Nek is mostly off (it was a diversionary attack, but for the New Zealanders, not the British), and the line about the British standing around drinking tea at Suvla Bay is not only inaccurate, it’s downright insulting.

For context on that last one, there’s a quote attributed to Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett about the attack on Scimitar Hill at Suvla, where the British 11th and the long-suffering 29th Division lost 5,300 men. He describes the undergrowth around the wounded set alight by artillery; “When the fire passed on little mounds of scorched khaki alone marked the spot where another mismanaged soldier of the king had returned to Mother Earth.”

Hardly a tea party.

And yet, that last scene - and particularly the image of the bayonets rising out of the trench, the ground before them thick with the dead and wounded of the 8th Light Horse that went before them… 

So yes, I have complicated feelings.

Tomorrow we’re out again on the memorial landscape of Canberra - of particular, the Jerrabomberra Wetlands. Which aren’t actually in the suburb of Jerrabomberra. It’s very strange.

[whumpster-fire]

Harry Potter and the False Double Standards

You know, I hate to get involved in Fandom Discourse or anything, but I’m getting really sick of reading people’s takes bashing Harry, Ron, and Hermione because of various actions throughout the series, and the latest is someone claiming the fandom is judging poor little Draco unfairly and calling him evil because he didn’t like Harry Potter when the trio were actually just as bad.

Okay, I’m legitimately pissed about this one because of how ridiculously far off the mark it is. Let’s tally their main sketchy actions throughout the series, shall we? Long wall of text ahead. In this essay I will

Harry and co, year 1: Assorted sneaking out at night, mostly looking for information or to try to stop a mass murderer from returning to life. One count of dragon-smuggling… for the purpose of putting that dragon in the hands of a professional dragon-tamer who was equipped to care for it properly. Hermione lit a teacher’s robes on fire… during a Quidditch Match where Harry’s life was in imminent danger due to a broom that was very obviously being jinxed and said teacher, who had a history of abusive conduct towards Harry, was very obviously doing some sort of magic targeted at Harry. Hermione also hexed Neville, which is way more questionable, but again the trio had a reasonable belief that Snape, who at the time they still had good reason to believe tried to murder Harry, was trying to bring another person who had tried to murder Harry and successfully murdered his parents and many many other innocent people, from returning to life. I’m putting the blame for this squarely on the entire Hogwarts staff, especially Dumbledore, for never communicating with the three 11–12 year old children, who had already been put in a life-or-death emergency just two months into term (troll incident), at ALL about someone trying to murder Harry. Snape’s role in the order had to be kept secret, I know, but Dumbledore literally just let Harry and his friends believe that a person in a position of supposed trust and authority had tried to murder him and that no one was going to believe him or do anything to protect him.

Draco, year 1: Tries to befriend Harry, is told to fuck off because he can’t go five minutes without being a classist asshole. Proceeds to be a complete asshole to… it sounds like pretty much every Gryffindor in his year, special mention to bullying other students for poverty (Ron) and possibly having a learning disability (Neville).

Harry and co, year 2: Harry and Ron start the term with the admittedly extremely stupid and irresponsible theft of a car. There was kind of a precedent set when said car had to be used to literally break Harry out of his abusive relatives’ home because he was being imprisoned and nearly starved. Next comes the big incident everyone loves to rag on the trio, especially Hermione, for: stealing potions supplies and tricking a “teacher” (airquotes because it’s Lockhart) to make a restricted potion to spy on other students… to investigate a series of racially targeted murder attempts against other students, and a group that Hermione’s part of.

Draco, year 2: Steps up his bullying to throwing around racial slurs. Turns out not to be behind the attacks, but he was cheering them on. When he had a sympathetic audience he was saying he hoped his schoolmates would be murdered.

Harry and Co, year 3: Assorted petty sneaking around, physically attacked a teacher… who was about to kill a potentially innocent person. Used a time travel device in a questionable way to save an innocent person and animal from being killed.

Draco, year 3: Intentionally disobeyed a teacher’s safety instructions, got hurt, milked his injury to try to get the teacher fired because Draco was racist against said teacher.

Harry and Co, year 4: Don’t remember anything particularly irresponsible they did… oh, I guess Hermione imprisoning and sort of blackmailing Rita Skeeter into... stopping slandering her and Harry.

Draco, year 4: Vocally supported the racist hate group attacking a sporting event and assaulting people, vocally hoped for Hermione to be sexually assaulted. Proceeded to spend half the year helping slander Harry and Hermione, tried to suckerpunch him with an unknown spell, and in the immediate aftermath of the return of a mass murder and one of his schoolmates dying, again vocally supported the terrorist group and mocked his fellow student’s death. This was literally the equivalent of a school shooting.

Harry and Co, year 5: Started a secret club to teach students to fight because the DADA “teacher” was literally refusing to do her job, the government was covering up the fact that there was about to be a war and literally torturing Harry and trying to have him assassinated for speaking out. The trio were also at this point semi-inducted into the grown-ups’ secret resistance organization. This cannot be emphasized enough. Marietta Edgecomb wasn’t a normal schoolkid ratting troublemakers out to the teacher situation. Umbridge was dangerous. Hermione should probably have warned people that they’d be hit with a massive fucking curse if they betrayed the DA, and made it a little bit clearer that this wasn’t some fun after-school club and ratting them out to the enemy wouldn’t end well, but fundamentally the curse was a result of Hermione treating a situation that was really on the boundary between a school and a war zone at that point like an actual war, and branding a traitor as a traitor.

Malfoy, year 5: Is somehow made a prefect, proceeds to abuse his power against younger students. Also cozies up to Umbridge, and ramps his classist bullying against Ron WAY up when he makes the Quidditch team.

Harry and Co, year 6: Harry panicked and used an unknown spell marked “for enemies” in self-defense against a death eater who was attempting to use an unforgivable curse on him. Note: Malfoy had already started the year by curbstomping a paralyzed Harry and throwing the invisibility cloak over him so he wouldn’t be found. Malfoy came damn close to murdering him by causing him to choke on his own blood. Harry also knows exactly what the Cruciatus Curse does. I wouldn’t have judged Harry even if he did know what Sectumsempra did.

Malfoy, year 6: Again, Malfoy’s little nosebreaking stunt could EASILY have been fatal. He left someone who was paralyzed and unable to move lying on the ground, bleeding heavily in his fucking airway, and actively hid him from view to prevent him from being seen and receiving medical attention. Harry is expected to have figured out what Sectumsempra does from the Latin, but I guess nobody expects Draco to be aware of, like... Step 1 of first aid for someone who’s unconscious being turning them on their side for this exact reason. Anyway following this, Malfoy has at this point kind of been roped into trying to murder Dumbledore, and in fairness he gets cold feet once he’s actually expected to help commit the Death Eaters’ atrocities instead of just being in the cheerleading squad, and it seems like he might have changed.

Anyway, getting to my point: Is Draco Malfoy a product of his environment? Yes. Is his portrayal somewhat biased because the books are from Harry’s perspective and... no, NOT because Harry hates Draco, because Harry only really pays attention to Draco when he’s being an asshole, which seems to be every single time they actually interact.

But you can’t say he wasn’t a terrible person throughout the events of the series. Maybe he changed afterwards, but there’s not really much shown of it other than him becoming a functional adult and being somewhat civil towards his former enemies. Which I guess isn’t that different from James and Sirius. But even they were... they were total assholes, but again, Malfoy was a racist who was vocally cheering on murder attempts and later an actual murder of his schoolmates. That’s at another fucking level.

And there’s also a MASSIVE difference between their actions. Prior to sixth year, there’s a very clear pattern. Harry, Ron, and Hermione frequently break the rules and do things that are stupid, irresponsible, and occasionally hurt people, while trying to protect themselves, their loved ones, or other innocent people. And while the effects of the traumatic events they’ve been through aren’t always that obvious, I really do think events like that very first Quidditch match had a serious long-term psychological impact: their ability to fully trust adults and authority figures to have their backs or even look out for their physical safety was severely damaged from their very first term at Hogwarts. Malfoy hurt people, intentionally, for his own amusement from the very first term. Not to mention that he was almost always “punching down.” Prior to Sixth Year, pretty much every single person he targeted was based on institutional power dynamics: Ron was poor, Hermione was Muggle-born, Neville was possibly disabled (and it turns out actually insecure due to being abused), and the one person in any position of power over him he really started shit with, Hagrid, was subject to institutional discrimination for being a half-giant and Malfoy used his rich family’s influence against him. Again, as opposed to Harry and Co who most of the time were actively defending themselves or fighting back against their abusers, and the only real power dynamic that you can really say they had working in their favor was Harry and Hermione being scarily good at the kinds of magic that can fuck people up compared to any of their social peers.

But you know what? There is one similarity between them: things only escalated to the level that they did because every single supposedly competent teacher at Hogwarts (i.e. not Snape or every single DADA teacher except Lupin) didn’t do their fucking jobs.

In the trio’s case, by (a) not doing jackshit about Snape’s behavior, and (b) keeping the kids in the dark and not even bothering to come up with a plausible cover story for them and just letting them think a teacher had tried to murder Harry and nobody was doing a single goddamn thing about it. Harry. The kid who already had serious issues with trusting authority figures because of the horrific emotional abuse he was subjected to since infancy which the multiple Order members in Hogwarts Staff had also been completely negligent about. And, y’know, Hermione, who was nearly killed by a troll her first year and saved not by a teacher but by her fellow first-years, then nearly killed by a basilisk her second year after several months of the staff failing to figure out the string of hate crimes against muggle-borns like her, and only surviving because she, the second-year starting from a massive disadvantage in terms of general cultural knowledge of things in the wizarding world, was the only one who did the research and figured out what the monster was, and only survived because she came up with looking around every goddamn corner with a mirror. And Ron, whose sister was possessed, kidnapped, and nearly killed, and the only adult who was supposedly “helping” him and Harry tried to put him into a vegetative state and only failed because of Ron’s shitty broken wand (which had been causing problems all year and the same staff that bought Harry a top-of-the-line broomstick last year spent the entire term doing absolutely nothing about the fact that one of their students was failing due to having to use a wand that was literally taped back together). How the fuck was it surprising to anyone when these teenagers continued to take matters into their own hands in increasingly dangerous ways?

In Malfoy’s case, because his bullshit should’ve been nipped in the bud way, WAY earlier. He should not have had the opportunity to do any of the shit he did in Year 6 because he should have been expelled long before that instead of the teachers letting him bully and abuse other students and basically do the equivalent of having a Hitler poster in his dormitory for five years.

[toomuchbroadwayquotes]

This might be ignored,its a long read, but if you want to have your forces restored on feminism my dead feminists i really wanted to share something that is making me tear up every 5 seconds.

As some of you might now, in my country (Brasil) we currently have a situation where our "president" is a misogynist (said he had a bunch of boys, they he went weak and have a daughter that's a "small" example for yall), homophobic ( said he would beat the gay out of his son if he ever "got it"), racist ( talking about killing native Indians and saying slaverism was a choice yadayada) anyways, just a piece of crap, we call him Bozo, like the clown. Well ever since his election we have been feeling so down (I'm sure my American friends can share the feeling). We are the country that kills more transexual people on the world. And it's not even illegal here, that would put into perspective. So, all this are real, serious problems, but bear with me as I get I little... naive maybe?. Well we had 20 seasons of BigBrother over here (Or BBB, Adding the Brasil at the end) and the show is on "the liberals tv channel, all the conservatives try to boycott it yadda yadda ") . But this season is just a gem. I feel like a revolution is happening and (I'm crying rn) I can't even put into words. Its gonna sound ridiculous, but you have to understand that 1) TV is a huge part of our culture, and is 100% connected with politics for us. 2)This show has been silencing woman, making men do anything they want without consequences and put woman as simple objects for their enjoyment. And somehow every year we wouldcomplain about how that was the reflection of our country. Something like this year edition NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE.

Our LGBT movies, Theather and books are being censoreds right now. Our country is on the verge of becoming a conservative doom.

The secretary of health system said :abstinence of sex is the best way to avoid DSTs and pregnancies. THATS HOW DEEP IN SHIT WE ARE. And we feel voiceless. Is like they are the majority you know?

Is like, you know when Katniss made every distric rebel by leading an example on the hunger games? Is THAT KIND OF SHIT. So, firsts things first:

I will introduce you the leaders of our current feminist movement

First, Thelma, she is not just ya regular powerful black queen. She is a doctor, with a bunch of degrees on stuff I can't even pronounce,she is specialized on anesthesia and she is a resident like those bad ass ones in grey's anatomy. She she is A BOSS. She is strong, and even though she is not 100% familiar with the feminism in "theory" she lives it in practice with out even knowing it ( now she knows, cause the other two are teaching her!) I want to make clear that on this reality show, the majority of the public has always been racist, and black people normally are eliminated first, yes it sucks and is one of the reasons I stopped watching a long time ago, as most of us millenials, but thank God we came back. She isn't going ANYWHERE CUZ WE ARE NOT LETTING THAT HAPPEN.

The second one is Marcela, every since the first we saw her she said loud and clear:I AM A FEMINIST, she is also a Doctor. She calls her self doctor unicorn, she is an OB/GYN and choose her career because she wanted to fully support her transexual brother /yess/, she is also expert on female sexuality and give classes about it, think Carina Deluca. She also takes care of sexual abuse victims. Oh yeah, she is bisexual as well. And everyone is shipping her with the next one btw.

Now our last warrior: Gizelly, She is a Lawyer, and she advocates for woman, she has suffered all the types of abuse from her ex husband and after all the trauma, she decided no one would do that to her again. Feminist, we call her the hurricane, she just shoots fire and defends any woman that is being belittled.

What happened was, some guys decided they would "seduce"any woman who was in a relationship outside the reality show, so they would look bad, and be eliminated easily. Wellx those 3 heard that, and they just couldn't get quiet. They went and tell all the girls about it. Some of them didn't believe them, the guys said they were CRAZY, and were LYING (what a shock)

The confrontation scene:

So one of them said: If I am lying, I will be eliminated this round. If I'm back, then you are the lier. So, regular reality show stuff right?

Here are some things you should know: Marcela, the leader ( as she was the one with the initiatives) was anonymous when she first got on the show, and 13 days later, she had 2 MILLION FOLLOWERS. Every feminist, every LGBT+ and ally on this country just woke up ya know?. We were all mad as hell that they were being treated as liars, but, and that's a HUGE but, the guy mentioned earlier was against one that was even worse. He was touching inappropriately the girls while they were completely DRUNK at the parties ( they wouldn't remember later), he was the one who actually made said plan mentioned before, but they didn't knew at the house because he was a completely different person when he was alone with the guys. A complete scumbag, he mocked and made fun of every woman on the house because of their looks etc. Sooo, all those millions of feminists watching were like : "do we take the biggest jerk and make the girls think we think they are lying or ?" Well, we decided to take the bigger toxic monster first, and left the other one for the next. But we had a special card. Every year, after the show starts, they put a glass house in the middle of a mall, with 4 candidates inside, we vote for 2 of them to be on the actual show yada yada. What happened was:people started showing off by the mall, with posters, begging for whomever got in the house to :"PLEASE TELL THE GIRLS EVERYONE BELIEVE THEM. THAT THEY ARE NOT LYING. THAT THEY HAVE MILLIONS OF SUPPORTERS. THAT HE ONLY CAME BACK BECAUSE THE OTHER WAS WORSE ETC"

So, last night was elimination day, the worst one got out with 80% elimination A victory for us (there were 4 people on this run, and one of them is a Black guy, fat, older than everyone else, and by history, he would obviously be the first eliminated but he was the one with LESS VOTES. AGAIN THIS IS UNPRECEDENTED IN OUR COUNTRY SPECIALLY SINC THE FOURTH PERSON COMPETING IS A CARISMATIC YOUNG KOREAN MAGICIAN YOUTUBER WITH A NETWORTH OF MILLIONS, BUT THE BLACK GUY WAS LESS VOTED THAN HIM, GUYS I CAN'T STOP WRITING IN CAPS.The second worst one tho, comeback celebrating, saying he knew he was right. Singing victory. The girls were crashed. No one understood and they all started crying and talking about how it was a reflection of our country, but that they wouldn't change their ideals etc. (Again, they didn't knew everything trash bag number one did, cuz he did it in secret so they thought it was an answer)... well, 2am, the couple from the glass house got in. And they told them. They said everything. How the public loves them, and the why the other one got out first, and how we knew they were saying the truth. This part is just a sweet ending for y'all. They then proceeded to get all the woman in one bedroom and talked and talked, they even explained to the ones who had some deep patriarchal mindset and were believing the boys up until that point, they had conversations about feminism, about not accepting to be treated that way, they cried, they were so relieved, it's silly because is a reality show, but last night everyone felt like we were supported. Like, people got our backs! People agree that we wont take that bullshit anymore. In other editions those guys would be the handsome guys that all the girls would die to be with, you know? But know they are the villains. It happened. The girls are not the crazy ones. They are not the powerless wones. They were the STRONG ONES forming OPINIONS, moving the big pieces on the board.

I can't even talk about how this will impact on many young girls, especially with all those girls having such strong stories you know? Today is a reality show but whatch us on the booting vote! Watch us at the March's. Just watch us. I'm telling y'all. Brasil is gonna turn this shit upside down.

Anyways here is a little clip of when our guardian Angel Dan, told the girls that they should trust Marcela's word

The relief the felt, we all felt. Having your word taken seriously after being called crazy and lier...

( even the production of the show tryied to deny the guys plan was real before the videos started pouring up, and they had to take back after saying on national television that Marcela was lying. Because that was the standard)

[sallyb-sin]

50 Reasons Why I Hate Michael Scott from The Office

1. He's a certified idiot

2. He is oversensitive to an annoying degree

3. He's a racist and a contradictory asshole.

4. He's a sore loser

5. He is also delusional in a way that he should be committed

6. He makes most every situation about him somehow

7. He belittles the already depressed Toby and is never stopped

8. He thinks his problems and issues are more important than anyone and everyone else

9. When Phyllis got flashed, he made a big joke out of a very serious thing

10. He outed Oscar to everyone in the office

11. He is obsessed with black people and discriminating against them in a very unhealthy way

12. He always underappreciates Dwight when he is literally the only person on his side

13. He hit Meredith with his car and not only never apologized for it but was only concerned about whether he was liked

14. He tried to accuse Toby of having drugs because he was back from his vacation

15. He came up with the Golden Ticket idea, then when it looked like it backfired, he tried to pin it on Dwight, only for him to be angry at Dwight getting credit for a good idea

16. He made up an assignment from corporate just so he could trick Jim and friends into coming to his dinner party

17. He told Pam to come into his office while he was naked and then tried to make it her fault

18. Get half of the words and meanings of the English language wrong

19. He hired his nephew, who was incompetent, and insisted on letting him stay until he was on the receiving end of his attitude, then proceeded to spank him.

20. The Dundies (enough said)

21. He vandalized Toby's house one episode

22. He tried to ruin Erin and Gabe's Glee party out of pettiness and immaturity. Which is the motivation for most of his actions

23. He faked fired Pam as a prank with an unwilling Ryan

24. Stanley rightly does not respect or like him

25. He makes fun of all the employees about one thing or another, like making a comment about Kevin basically being a dummy and not doing anything

26. He drove into a lake because he refused to follow directions

27. When he started his own company, he stole clients from the people he supposedly considered family then expected them to apologise to him

28. Threat Level Midnight, the episode and movie (another thing that's enough said)

29. When he was leaving for Colorado, he bought peanut butter for someone who is allergic to nuts and tried to get his former employees to rebel against their new boss

30. He gleefully spread rumors around about Stanley having an affair, and then a bunch of other rumors about other employees just to be included. Pathetic.

31. Caused plenty of conflict in the office when he was playing peacekeeper in season 2, episode 21.

32. He let Kelly get away with almost causing Jim and Dwight their bonuses because of a stupid shared annoyance at their parties being missed

33. When he thought he might have herpes, instead of checking with a doctor, he told this belief to all his former lovers and then accused Oscar because of one forced and unrequited kiss

34. He falls for any and every scam and tries to drag other people into it too

35. He is such a wimp

36. Wouldn't walk over the coals despite all his bravado

37. Tried to fake fire Stanley and then started crying like a baby because Stanley was "being mean to him"

38. The Dinner Party, episode and actual party (another enough said)

39. He never gets the point of anything. Ever

40. He comes up with terrible ideas that could have dire results, like proposing with fire

41. Ignores safety and common sense even on his best day

42. When he got "hurt" by his grill, he was pouty and stupid because people were more concerned with Dwight's serious concussion

43. He completely involved himself in Jim and Pam's baby delivery when he has nothing to do with it

44. He makes fun of other people's achievements and moments

45. He ignored Daryl's good idea then yelled at Kevin and made him cry

46. He told everyone that the branch was closing when he wasn't supposed to and virtually did nothing but seems to think he fixed anything

47. He pretended to hang himself to teach a bunch of little kids a lesson, scarring them for life

48. After getting a basic layout of all the ways he has screwed up and done the employees wrong during his roast, he went off to feel sorry for himself and then proceeded to roast them back

49. He dated Pam's mom

50. He's such a horrible person and yet not only does he never change, he also got worse.

I HOPE YOU DIE SCREAMING, MICHAEL SCOTT!

[roses-ruby]

Yo, I hav an exam in a few hrs but I couldn't resist, is Gidle the group that had members wearing bindis and mehendi/henna? I am all for promoting desi culture but it kinda makes me cringe when people wear bindis without understanding the significance. It is more of a fashion these days but it had a cultural and spiritual meaning when it was started. We Desis in the motherland already are trying to get past the fair is beautiful and darkskin is gonna leave you unemployed stigma, -part1

Even our work places promote western formal wear over Indian formals, but we definitely choose to wear Indian formals because first off they are abs comfy and airy, like ‘kiss my desi brown ass bitch’ but Kurtis are life bro but somehow we still are fighting that colonial mindset that has been passed down generations of anything native Indian is not as good as the west and I get pissed off when westerners enjoy it without that kind of a negative notion attached to it. We are trying to decolonise

yeah it’s that group, but that’s not just what they did! They:

Blatantly appropriated our culture in their debut songs and the leader proceeded to call them ‘ethnic’ (fans kept saying it was a mistranslated but it wasn’t and they STILL appropriated so)

Not only did they have appropriated photoshoots with henna but used CULTURAL henna designs

wore bindis

used prayer hands in their choreo

used Egyptian moves in their choreo 

repeatedly used veils in a desert background  (we all know what that implies) their back dancers also wore veils

used a Mosque as a background for their APPROPRIATED SONG

the leader used the word ‘ethnic hip’ to describe African beats

added prayer hands and bindis in their fire choreo

The member Yuqi is a Chinese nationalist. This is just some of what the mainland Chinese were doing to Hong Kong protesters (it’s very triggering so be careful! and sorry that I couldn’t find better translated articles, American journalism is a joke) 1  2 3  4

The shit Yuqi just said today about using dark skin as a camouflage

And the leader admitted that their debut song was based off of a racist Hispanic skit here (starts at 6:30) and here’s the skit it was inspired by (there’s a lot of racist parts but they began at 4:46)

oof that was a lot for a group that’s barely a year old…just disgusting.

That’s also why I hate it. Because they appropriate our culture while mocking us, so it feels like they are saying that our own culture looks good on them only. That it wasn’t meant for us and shouldn’t hold any meaning to us. Fuck them. I want them to stay the fuck away from our culture until they can learn to properly respect it.

“We are trying to decolonise” YYYAASSS BITCH I LOVE THAT! Indian’s say they won their freedom in 1947 but ya’ll obviously have not! Not when you praise western economy forgetting that the Indian GDP dropped from 24.4% to 4 fucking percent during Britain’s rule. Not when you force your girls to become paler like the whites and promote products like fair and lovely, forgetting that whites forced you to feel this way only because their lifeless skin was jealous of your colorful beauty, your long hair, your deep eyes. Not when you set yourself to western standards, forgetting that it was one of your own who built the very first city in the whole world. We’ve accomplished so much, I 100% support you in wearing traditional clothes to work, you are amazing! lmao I was walking outside in my kurti today and it’s 6 degrees celsius and I was joking with my neighbor of how even if it’s below freezing we’ll never give up our comfortable kurtis skafkafb

Here’s to the nation that birthed hundreds finally understanding their worth and decolonizing, something that should’ve been done 62 years ago👑🌟🎉✨💫

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 221: What’s Up, Doc

Previously on BnHA: We caught up with everyone’s favorite squad of homicidal misfits some six-odd weeks before the start of the current arc. Tomura and the gang were straight up broke, squatting in a condemned building somewhere out in the mountains and raiding racist secret societies to steal their shit. As it turns out, having no money and no sense of direction or purpose starts to weigh on one’s soul after a while, and Spinner in particular seemed to be having a bit of a hard time, since he only joined the League because of Stain. Just when it looked like we might be in for a bit of internal strife, our friend Gigantomachia literally tore the door down, announced he was there to meet AFO’s successor, and then demanded for him to prove that he was worthy. Which is how the League found themselves getting their asses kicked by this sobbing giant rock man as he lamented over how weak they were. The chapter ended with Giganto’s discarded radio trying to get Tomura’s attention. Apparently the voice on the other end belongs to none other than AFO’s personal physician, a mysterious man known only as “the doctor” who is behind the creation of the Noumus.

Today on BnHA: The doc explains that Gigantomachia is All for One’s former bodyguard and one of the people AFO trusted the most. AFO hid him away a few years back, anticipating his own eventual defeat. Unfortunately, Giganto’s unfailing loyalty to AFO has made him unwilling to accept anyone who doesn’t live up to his former master. For the time being, the doc calms him down by playing a recording of AFO’s voice. He then proceeds to teleport the entire League to his hideout using the black sludge warping quirk. Over at the hideout, we see that the doc is in fact the spitting image of Deku’s old doctor from chapter 1, pretty much confirming a long-held fan theory. Also, this dude’s got no fewer than 12 motherfucking High-End Noumus floating around in tanks. The doc introduces himself as Ujiko Daruma (which even he admits is a fake name), and he tells Tomura that he summoned him and his gang because he wants Tomura to prove he’s worth. Anyway so during this chapter I proceeded to lose my shit like 1700 times, and tbh even rereading it now it still gets me hyped up. Oh my freaking god.

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my mostly-unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’m caught up with the manga now at chapter 226, so any ETAs will reflect that.)

oh my god

safe to say that “hyped as fuck” is a pretty accurate description of what I’m feeling right now

lol what the

Horikoshi, PSA, that’s not how radios work. were you perhaps thinking of cell phones? or walkie-talkies??

then again I suppose this might be some fancy schmancy radio FROM THE FUTURE or whatever

oh shit Tomura ain’t even joking though

giganto smash

I can’t believe Shigaraki Tomura is fucking dead. so much for your successor AFO

nah just kidding, he’s fine, at least presuming that he’s able to somehow land safely after all... this

guess we know what happened to poor Naomasa and that mountainside now

anyway, so guys. shit like this? is why Deku fucking needs to power the fuck up though. friendly reminder that the current #1 hero almost lost to fucking Hide and Seek Noumu. meanwhile this guy is out here leveling countrysides with a single Goron Pound. even Gran Torino wasn’t able to touch him. literally if our boy doesn’t get his Avatar State on soon the heroes are going to be in very bad shape here

anyway, so Giganto is still sobbing, and shouting to All for One (he can’t hear you, bro) that he wants to accept Tomura but he just can’t

okay but consider reading chapters 159 and 160 and then coming back and letting me know if you’ve had a change of heart. I’m just saying. he fucked up Overhaul something fierce and he deserves some credit. even if it was all just so he could steal Overhaul’s evil plan all for himself. because he has yet to come up with any kind of decent evil plan of his own. because between you and me, I don’t think he’s quite cut out for -- you know what, shit. maybe you’re onto something after all

so now Tomura is having a hilarious conversation with this sobbing rock man and a radio while still in mid-air

-- RECORD SCRATCH. FREEZE FRAME

SAY WHAT NOW. BACK THE FUCK UP, PRAYTELL??

are you saying this guy is the original Talking Noumu?? did AFO give him multiple quirks? is he like Wolverine or something and he’s got like a healing factor that can take a licking and keep on ticking? so they got all excited and loaded him up? ARE YOU EVEN REALLY MADE OF ROCK, FRIEND, OR IS THAT JUST ANOTHER ONE OF YOUR LIES

(ETA: I think this translation is wrong, actually; Viz’s translation says that Giganto is strong enough to be AFO’s bodyguard even without multiple quirks. in other words, he’s as strong as a Noumu without actually being one. which is arguably just as much of a shocking statement though.)

anyway so What’s Up Doc is continuing to explain Giganto’s life story so let’s un-freeze that frame

more evidence that AFO was taking steps to ensure himself a line of succession even before meeting Tomura. AFO have you ever seen Guardians of the Galaxy 2? spoiler alert, you know how Peter’s dad went and had a bunch of kids with people of all different species in order to try and create offspring that carried the same power as him, so he could use them to destroy the galaxy and shit? well my question for you is Did You Do That Exact Same Thing, Minus The Galaxy-Destroying Part. huh. huh

anyway now Dabi’s weighing in

and What’s Up Doc is all

“yep! we fucked up!!”

lol he says Giganto’s loyalty is too strong for his own good. went a bit overboard did we AFO

and nice lowkey Tomura burn as well. he says that Giganto is despairing at the “huge gap” between AFO and Tomura

so now Dabi is all “okay so we just have to do our best to kick his ass until he likes us?”

and he’s firing some flames, looking like he’s not exactly opposed to the thought

but WUD is saying that’s impossible, oh damn

what the

the hell was that click?? did he just hang up??

doesn’t seem that way, so... hmm. does he maybe have Giganto conditioned to respond to certain sounds or something? Pavlov-style?

(ETA: this really reminds me of the Avengers doing that “hey big guy, sun’s getting real low” lullaby thing with the Hulk lol.)

did he just shrink back down to size

um, what

should we... give him a moment

ohhhhhhhhhh

well that explains it then. no wonder they had him with the radio strapped around his neck

I wonder what would happen if they found out Mina was also capable of calming him down. Giganto whisperer. if SIXQUIRKS Deku ultimately fails, she may just be our last hope

and Tomura, shush. we’ve been waiting for him to join your party since chapter 50-something. this is literally years in the making. it took you time to warm up to your other misfits too, so you shut up and you deal with it

last observation before I click to the next page: is Giganto not wearing any pants. because. it looks to me like he’s not wearing any pants. just saying. um. ...

(ETA: you guys this makes me so uncomfortable though.)

OH SHIT WUD is calling Tomura out!!

AS THE PHILOSOPHER JAGGER ONCE SAID, “YOU CAN’T ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU WANT”

fucking look at that halo of realization surrounding Tomura at this concept, though

wow he’s taking it better than I thought though

I’m not sure what Tomura’s relationship with WUD is, but up until this point I can’t recall him ever actually listening to another character and not throwing a tantrum even when they tell him something he doesn’t want to hear. like, he listened to Kurogiri more or less, but bitched about it endlessly when he didn’t like it. and even with AFO he would whine until he got his way

and yet here WUD is straight up telling him “AFO done spoiled you, kid” and he’s just like “ouch. that’s pretty harsh” but at the same time just... accepting it. Tomura you’ve done quite a bit of growing up, haven’t you?

and I think part of it is also that he’s probably been coming to these realizations on his own as well, but not really wanting to accept them yet. but he’s not stupid; what with their recent troubles it was probably starting to sink in just how good he’d had it earlier

anyway, so now WUD is saying “a moment please” and I guess he’s going off to do something

DFAKLSDJFLAKSD

HOLY SHIT IT’S THE BLACK OOZE WARP AGAIN

ARE WE FINALLY GOING TO MEET THE MYSTERIOUS UJIKO PLEASE SAY YES OH MY GOD OH SHIT

holy shit

so even they don’t know what’s going on. well I’m glad that someone is finally having the same freaking-the-fuck-out reaction that I did back in chapter 191 but no one else seemed to share my shock or concern even though WHAT THE FUCK YOU GUYS

so quick reminder that this quirk works by teleporting the user a short-range distance (supposedly; I think the limit was 5km) either toward the quirk-user, or toward someone with whom the user is well-acquainted with. so presumably that means that whoever’s using the quirk is closer to them than they think, and also this person is with the doc right now

(ETA: though on further reflection I think that AFO’s may have just had limited range because he’d just acquired it. it must be one of those quirks that you can power up with time and practice. 5km is way too limited of a range given how this quirk has been used the last few times we’ve seen it.)

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

HOLY SHIT IT REALLY IS HIM!?!?!

holy fucking shit holy shit oh my god holy shit

this is Deku’s quirk doctor. that’s him, 100%. Tsubasa’s grandpa, who 100% confirmed turned his grandson into a Noumu. and who is now confirmed to be AFO’s personal doctor. and just happened to be hanging out in Musutafu conducting quirk tests on our protagonist when he was a young child

you guys I’m calling it -- Dad for One just went up to 50% likelihood. we are up to a 1 in 2 chance of this shit being confirmed as fucking canon. we have officially reached the point where these are confirmed to no longer be coincidences, or reaching for something that isn’t actually there. this is now either deliberate misdirection on Horikoshi’s part... or. it’s fucking true

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

(ETA: that was a four-page quadruple fucking whammy you guys. shock after fucking shock. this chapter is amazing.)

oh my god!?!?!

okay so first of all, is that Hyped Up Noumu there on the far right?? it’s the same head, for sure. doesn’t quite look exactly the same as the final version, though. so maybe just a brother or cousin, or maybe he was incomplete

and we’ve got our first female Noumu as well! League of Villains doesn’t discriminate! nope

two of these Noumus appear to be missing the lower halves of their legs. friendly reminder that these were once normal people -- quite possibly children -- and we don’t know how much they can actually still feel. this is fucking horrifying and I’m not even joking, it’s fairly sickening to think about

I’m trying to see if I can identify any other familiar quirks, but so far it’s a no. I will point out that that one Noumu second from the left appears to have multiple Xenomorph heads. enjoy your nightmares kids

and last, these are all black Noumus, a.k.a. the special super-powerful kind. and there are at least a dozen here that we can see

so once again, just throwing it out there -- we might just be in need of a superpowered OFA kid with SIXQUIRKS once shit hits the fan and the fucking APOCALYPSE breaks loose or whatever the fuck this is all building up to, holy fucking shit

I’m seriously fucking stunned, though. leave it to Horikoshi to have me dropping my jaw to the floor on one page and then making my eyes fucking bug out of their sockets with the next

and so the heroes, as it turns out, did not even come close to unpacking all of AFO’s secrets. didn’t that one cop say way back in like chapter 96 that it was almost like he’d wanted the police to find that warehouse, and that it almost seemed too easy? so now this is evidence that everything -- basically all of Kamino -- was actually all according to AFO’s plan, and he intentionally let that hideout fall into the heroes’ hands. and even more terrifyingly, he most likely intentionally let himself get captured and it’s all part of a long con that he is currently enjoying the shit out of

tl;dr we’re screwed

anyways I think that’s all the freaking out and speculation and weak-attempts-at-analysis I can squeeze out from this two page spread for now. so let’s finish up the rest of the chapter then

so we’re getting confirmation now that Tomura has never been here before

oh my god the shock is finally wearing down and being replaced by HYPPPPPPPPE you guys...!!

so Doctor Eggman here is cackling and confirming that these are indeed not your everyday Noumu

“these children” oh my god

I suddenly feel the urge to go and hug all my U.A. babies. god bless them and please keep them safe! and I feel a particularly urgent need to hug my boy Katsuki especially, because yet again I got to wondering just what would have happened to him if he hadn’t been rescued, if All Might and the Pizza Delivery Team hadn’t come right when they did. and if he’d still refused to join Tomura. and just... shit

and one last friendly reminder that Tsubasa was Katsuki’s friend. the two of them were colossal assholes to Deku together (or well, Katsuki was an asshole and Tsubasa just followed him around smiling, mostly) when they were only four years old. there is a decent chance he’s actually met this man in the context of him being Tsubasa’s grandfather (not that he’d recognize the face given how little attention he pays to these things). and of course, Deku has met him face to face as well -- this is the man that completely altered the course of his life from age 4 through 14

sorry I keep getting so sidetracked guys, but this chapter just portends. y’know? this is some ominous foreshadowing fucking destiny shit. like, this seriously just became one of the most important plot chapters in the entire series. and just, we are finally, finally on to big things once again, and ffffffffffff but I’m so excited I can’t even fucking sit still

sdlfkjsadlkflSLDFHHSDKHFLKHLKJLKJ

THE HANDS. THE FUCKING -- HOLY SHIT

and also! he’s going to duplicate the fucking PERMANENT QUIRK-BE-GONE AHHHHHHH

this just got so much worse. everything. so much fucking worse

honestly starting to feel like six quirks may not actually be enough

anyway, so Compress is squinting and saying that he can’t clearly make out Eggman’s face “what with that backlight”

and. uh

hahaha well fuck. okay then

and Twice is all “jesus christ okay then dude, you’re the one who fucking brought us here to begin with”

and yeah, speaking of. care to explain that?? ever???

all right, so Eggman’s saying that he teleported them there because he doesn’t want to reveal his location

DLSAFHOIHW

so he’s Ujiko??? well shit, there goes the possibility of Ujiko being a lady villain. sorry Toga. still all you, Best Girl

after this I’ll have to go check out Caleb Cook’s twitter to see what he has to say about the name, given that Ujiko claims to have made it up on the spot just now

(ETA: here:

so basically his way of saying he’s AFO’s disciple, I guess.)

anyway, so now he’s saying that the reason he called Tomura here was out of respect for some arrangement that he had with AFO

I’m gonna assume that AFO was procuring quirks for him to aid in his research

oh my god you guys

it just occurred to me that this arc? might be Tomura’s version of getting his own power-ups similar to what Deku’s gotten recently. gotta keep that playing field level after all

lol oh damn

so this is like a Price is Right showcase. all this can be yours, if...

so what are you gonna do now, Tomura. ball’s in your court

and that’s the end of the chapter. oh my god

how many chapters into this arc are we actually?? and already we’ve got the Detnerat shit; Shouto and Katsuki finally getting their licenses (KACCHAN WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO CONFIRM YOUR HERO NAME???); and now these last two incredible League of Villain plot chapters. it’s been like five chapters, and this arc is already like a top three. absolutely incredible

[crystalelemental]

Can you explain to us non-FF players what was so awful about Fates?

FE.  Very different trainwrecks.

And...probably?  I had a TON of posts about the problems in the game, but I can try to do an abridged version here.  Or at least, I’ll make an attempt.

Starting with the obvious, they took one game and split it into three, then charged us for three separate games.  It was complete horseshit from second 1.

Face-rubbing minigame.  You know Pokemon Amie?  Imagine doing that with humans.  That’s the waifu simulator they put in this game.

The creators of the game went on record early on saying that, yeah, Awakening saved the entire franchise from death with its simple but impactful storyline, but it was kinda too simple so we’re gonna make it better.  They then proceeded to make the shittiest plot I’ve ever been involved with, filled with nothing but contrivances to make anything make sense.

Characters sucked.  There are like 5 good ones, and at least three are debatable depending on who you ask.  The problem with infinite supports is that no character ever changes, so whenever one character would support, say, Oboro (the worst example of this), they’d reach A rank and she’d move on from her blatant racism, only to be right back to racist central for the next character’s C-support.  As such, no one ever grew as a character, and no one was particularly compelling, especially because both sides in the war were idiots.

Speaking of idiots, the reason for the war?  Invisible soldiers from an ancient dragon god attacked people on both sides of the border.  Rather than investigate, they both immediately accused the other and went to war.  The reason no one pointed out the soldiers or dragon god?  If you talked about them, you’d be magically transported to the dragon god’s kingdom and mind controlled into working for him!  Yeah, pure contrivance, because otherwise your entire plot would be resolved in literally two seconds as someone mentioned what was going on.

THE BABY REALM.  So, in Awakening, you could get married and have kids.  They wanted to do that mechanic again.  But Awakening had time travel, so it made sense.  Here?  Instead, they had a baby, and you throw them into an inter-dimensional rift, where they will immediately be spit out at combat-ready age.  I think like two of the kids briefly mention being sad their parents weren’t around.  Otherwise, somehow no abandonment issues at all.  Leo is a fucking asshole, though.  Forrest deserved better.

Speaking of the kids, fuck the kids.  Again, there’s like 5 that were good, and at least 3 are debateable.  But I think we can all agree that Kanna is a horrible little gremlin we should’ve kept locked away in another dimension.  FUCK YOU, YOU’LL NEVER BE MORGAN

On the topic of shipping, the main ship?  Corrin and Azura?  Yeah, you’re cousins.  So after all the debate about the main families being incest, but they totally aren’t because you’re adopted and not related to either of them, the main couple of the game that I think the game itself actively pushes, is incestuous.  Fucking great job, team.

I could bitch about the difference in female costume design between this game and the rest of the series all goddamned day so let’s just say “Camilla is just there for fanservice” and call it a day.

The final boss is literally the stone mask from JoJo and yet the game is somehow still lame.

Speaking of the final boss.  That dragon god?  We never learn his motivation.  Or rather, we do, but only in the DLC.  So after paying over $80 for this shit game they sold to you three times?  You have to pay even more to get the DLC that fucking explains anything.

Weapons came with penalties now.  So strong weapons had severe drawbacks that made them less useful, and instead forging was the way to go.  How do you forge?  By buying like 50 copies of the same weapon, and farming endlessly for arbitrary resources through other players’ My Castles (I’ll bitch about that in a minute), then spending a shitload of gold in the forge to give it slightly better stats.  Hope you like farming!

Christ, the My Castle thing...  You know what Fire Emblem really needed?  Instead of steady progression through a story, it needed to grind to a fucking halt as you farmed out all your arbitrary resources that are now required, and get all your skills through this method alone.  Most of your game won’t even be the main story, it’ll be My Castle, the fucking shitshow nightmare they added into this series for no goddamned reason.

“We finally put in gay characters!” the series said, giving you version exclusive options of (1) the reincarnation of a stalker who abused her daughter mentally and physically, or (2) a gay man whose only defined personality traits are “sadistic” and “makes a lot of uncomfortable sex jokes.”  Fucking top-tier representation.  Shame you didn’t pick sensible options, like...I dunno, Soleil?  The obvious bi girl?  But no, Tharja 2.0, that’s fine.

But on top of that?  On top of all that?  Pick your poison from the following:

The english translation was so unbelievably bad, that most characters spoke in decades-old memes, and entire support conversations were outright removed for funny ninja moments like no spoken dialogue because ninjas don’t talk.  But at least they removed the incredibly creepy face-rubbing minigame that you just know someone was jerking it to.

OR you keep the Japanese version, where one support conversation is literally your main character drugging a girl who thinks other girls are cute, without her consent, to make her see men as other women and vice versa, basically so you can fuck and marry her, in what’s basically a point-for-point re-enactment of conversion therapy.  And that’s just one of the incredibly horrific things the Japanese version had in it.  There was an entire SITE listing the problems people had with how it portrayed things.

And that’s just what I remember off the top of my head.  I know for a fact there’s more.  But imagine going from “Oh man, a new entry into this, my favorite series” to getting all of this information, bit by bit, over months, and trying to convince yourself that it’ll be okay and you should still get it.  Then you get it, and it’s somehow WORSE.  That’s what the experience of Fates was like.  Constant horror and disappointment, followed by an attempt to compromise that backfired spectacularly and resulted in, bar none, the worst game I’ve ever played, with absolutely nothing gained.  I am a lesser person for having played Fates.

[dreamingbeauti]

I was sitting in my room when a dude came up to the house, i dont remember why he was there (either looking for a little girl or trying to sell me something) and he drove into the living room with a raggedy andy motor bike. i thought it was really cool but he kept getting closer and closer and making me increasingly uncomfortable so i finally kicked him out. he lift his bike and i got excited, until he came back for it. i handed him the bike and was acting as kind as i could, so that maybe he’d come back just because i wanted the bike. Then, i went back into my room. I had signed up for an online fighting game that was available on mobile and pc. then, someone started streaming porn to my laptop. I closed it out, then a few more times with shitty memes. I realized that I had gotten hacked, and the dude opened up the fighting game. He had put me in a fight against him. I asked him in game chat what was happening and it went something like:

Mason: ???? wwwhwwwhhatssssssssss happpppppppppppening Him: Someone put (software that helps with hacking) on the forums and had to try it out

Then I proceeded to beat him in the game 3 times, then he came in though my front door. I ran to him and put my hand on his mouth, and walked him outside so he and I could talk on the porch. I asked if he had any ill intent, and he said yes, but the software wouldn’t let him do it. We became friends. Then I said I wasn’t going to invite him in and he went “Oh? Don’t want me to show you a good time?” and I was like “Oh well that’s....illegal since I’m 16.” and he seemed so disgusted with himself for even finding a 16 year old attractive. Some people I knew irl were running down the street and started trying to get rid of him, saying things like how if he had to hurt me he had to get through them first. I didn’t want them to hurt him, but they ran him off and left. Once he left, I went back inside and heard the baby my parents were taking care of was crying. They had been asleep the whole time. I ran in there and there were identifiable stains on the bed, and some of my mom’s stuff was gone. She was broken, and I immediately was trying to find out who the thief was, since it wasn’t new friend. I asked everyone from Chris to Spike who it could have been, hell I even asked new friend, and no one had any info. Finally, I had only one option left. I asked Alexis if she knew anything, and she was like, “Yeah I did that.” I asked her why and she was like “lol fuck ur mom she’s racist and everything-phobic” and i was sorta just...ok

Dream 2

We were going to a convention. The whole family, even my brother that I never see or talk to. It was all of us. The convention was, of course, for Ant and Dec. And one more. Somehow, someway, Ant and Dec started a mbmbam type thing with Chris. I don’t know how this happened, but I always went to the conventions because I’m there to support The Bae. Anyway, we were watching this shit, because of course we were, and I was always in the front of the crowd because I am Supportive. Once the whole live show was over, I was like super full of energy. Not sure why. My brother was like “Man, Chris is cool” and I scoffed and I was like, “You know...he’s my bae” and Ashton just started laughing in my face. I even tried to show him how close me and Chris were, but he refused to listen to me. Okay, idk why, but this convention was in a mall of all places. Most of it was dedicated to the Iconic Trio, but there was one store connected that wasn’t. A walmart. Why was a walmart in the mall? who knows. Anyway, i went in, and I don’t remember what I was looking for, but I kept hearing people complain about Heathers being everywhere (and rightfully so, it’s overrated). I was kinda bummed out that I couldn’t really talk to Chris much while they were touring I think. I just remember being super sad. I bought an Ant & Dec & Chris shirt and left. I was just bummed out. There was no real conclusion.

[smile-it-wont-suck-forever]

idk if you seen this post but it says black fans shouldn't like ironman nd i can't remember if it explicitly said it, but it definitely implied that ppl of color who like ironman are sympathizing w the 'colonizers' nd I was curious abt ur opinion on that. op is a poc, but im p sure if a white person wrote it, it'd be racist cuz it seems like it takes agency away from black fans by implying they're not smart enough to make their own decisions nd that ironman is somehow more harmful to poc (1)

Anonymous said:

than captain america. but as far as i can tell, ironman apologized for his past actions that harmed poc,publically, and has done alot to work on mending communitis he was complicit in harming and he wll spend the rest of his life doing that. whereas cap didn’t apologize for jburg and then proceeded to speak over the voices of 117 countries and millions of ppl many of which are probably also poc. im not sayin cap is bad but it seems ignorant to think im is anymore racist/ignorant than cap (2)

—–

There’s a post I go back to on occasion to soothe my soul. (this one) It’s long but it probably explains things better than my rambles below.

I think our opinions are in line with one another. I don’t if I’ve seen that specific post you mentioned, but I have seen ppl talk as if tony is an enemy of poc while cap is so much better. I always run into an issue of getting my thoughts together because, honestly? I’ve never understood what’s supposed to be so bad about Tony.

We have Tony, who was an asshole in the past BUT learned of said assholishness and has been working to help people ever since. Johannesburg happened. Tony took on the Hulk to keep it from being worse. The stuff in sokovia happened, and he cared about those people too…even when sokovia was found out to not be lillywhite. Lagos happens and he is adamant about them trying to do better.

We have Steve, who’s heart has always been in the right place BUT he hasn’t learned that he is no longer the little guy and his black and white method of helping doesn’t quite work in gray situations. Johannesburg happened and the filmmakers didn’t have Steve acknowledge it. Sokovia happened, and until Charles Spenser, sokovia was completely white, he cared about THOSE casualties. Lagos happened, and it was just 'they can’t save everybody'.

I’m sure that the filmmakers didn’t intend for it to look that way, but they effectively had Steve not care when it was black folks, care again when it was white folks and then write off deaths as collateral when it was black again.

But yeah some other folks think I, as a black woman, am supposed to feel some kinda way about *Tony*. Mmkay.

[pkrs-fr]

wisteria whirls: the shortcut edition

Alright, I’m lazy as hell and have realized I’m never going to get my lore together (at least in a timely fashion). I really want to send out a general idea of what’s happening in my clan because I’m sick of half my dragons and want to do a lair purge, but can’t without a Lore Reason because it’d bother me. So here’s the abbreviated version of What’s Going Down and What Has Gone Down, feat. the snarky tone I use when I really don’t want to be writing stuff and can’t take things seriously.

My clan lore revolves around two struggles for the most part: “how many familiars is Enough” and “what are the limits of humanity” or something like that. Y’know. Just “is what we’re doing SERIOUSLY a moral thing to do”, applied to a whole bunch of situations. What’s a story?

Oh also here’s the page with lore and titles and stuff. Fancy.

1. In the beginning, there was Titania, a Fae who hatched in the realm of the Arcanist and wandered for years before meeting Solus. Solus was kind of a jerk but hey he was better than wandering and their magic apparently worked well together to make a bunch of little dragonbabies. They settled in the Crystalspine Reaches and quickly made long-distance allies in Wind and Lightning. These Wind and Lightning clans sent Notturna and Aya respectively. Notturna helped Titania with day-to-day duties, and Aya used his knowledge of. Another clan, one from Light, sent a hatchling named Marimba.

Titania found the Auction House went on a journey around the fringes of the Starfall Isles and rescued a bunch of kids. Byzantium, Aster, Opalus, Tiay, and Geode. Byzantium and Aster bonded with Marimba quickly and became the clan’s fighters. Opalus became an alchemist, and Tiay and Geode became interior and fashion designers respectively. Gotta make this lair livable SOMEHOW.

However, something quickly became apparent and that something was “Solus is a racist prick”. In his eyes, none of these new additions to the clan were valid members of Arcane because they came from other flights. Dude. Chill.

2.  Notturna and Aya mated and kept Auxiliary, who became a healer in training under Aya’s tutelage. Along the way, Notturna found her own out of flight babies, those being Fulgurite (Lightning rep), Julien (clan mascot and woobie), and Pendergast (guy who sits there and is abrasively protective). They also found an old Pearlcatcher named Blake wandering around and being a prick. Although they only meant to shelter him for like three days or something, it got out of hand and now he’s a permanent fixture and no one likes him except Fulgurite for some reason. Like, they mated. And had eggs. So many eggs. Do you want an egg? I don’t want an egg. Please take their eggs.

Anyway a problem was that Pendergast immediately took his charge to be Tiay and was a massive jerk about it. “Don’t come anywhere near her she’s my charge” sort of thing. Another problem was that Blake was a filthy freeloader and we’re not sure why we didn’t kick him out but here he is, 2 years later, still being a dick.

Four more hatchlings came to the clan. Ruby, Leviathan, Phaino, Tridacna, and Tanzanite. Ruby and Leviathan immediately stuck together like glue and refused to stop plotting the clan’s downfall, as tiny troublemakers are wont to do. Phaino went with Opalus to become an apprentice alchemist, Tridacna wanted to become a coli fighter, and Tanzanite also is a freeloader but at least she does jobs that she’s asked to do. (just @ blake next time) Anyway Opalus is like the dad to all these kids now.

3. Even more new dragons. Rhyolite was brought in as an ambassador to Fire, and Fulgurite remained a Lightning ambassador. (To this day I have friends in neither flight.) Adonia came to the clan as well and was tiny and cute so she became the representative and messenger of the clan itself. That’s cool.

Gavotte and Robyn came along as well as Merriam and Gioclase. Gavotte and Robyn became journalists and started documenting what happened in the clan, so that was cool. Merriam was convinced she was a wizard. I don’t know why, don’t ask why. She has zero combat experience and regularly convinces herself that she’s a Nature/Fire/Wind/whatever mage. She’s an Ice dragon. Why is she like this. Gioclase, as a rogue for hire, immediately gravitated to Leviathan and Ruby and they just plotted for weeks on end.

More importantly, there was Fortissimo. Fortissimo was cranky but he had a good reason for that, that being “he’s prone to magical outbursts for no reason that often end up destroying chunks of the lair and he hates it”. He tried to keep that on the down low so no one really paid attention or noticed. He thought Merriam was pretty cute though and also eggs. E G G S

Hirwen and Nacre are also there. I forgot to put this in my outline. Hirwen saw the clan, went “nah”, and then abandoned it for a while. She came back though. Now Nacre, her girlfriend, is sad and full of abandonment issues. Anyway they’re both mechanics.

4. It was my birthday and I hatched one of Fortissimo and Merriam’s nests. The very first child of their entire Coatl/Nocturne 3% Coatl rate was, in fact, a Coatl named Vega. I kept him. He’s my avatar. The IMPORTANT THING IS he also had a brother named Pulsar, who proceeded to wreck things with a giant magical blast. Things happened and basically Fortissimo is now Very Dangerous And Full Of Magic. Vega could stay because he didn’t seem to exhibit any of the magical outburst things, but he was given some semi-parasitic mushrooms to feed off of his magical energy (wait I could make a new lore thing out of this) and keep outbursts from happening.

There was also Theia, who immediately flocked to Under Gavotte and Robyn’s Wings and became an amateur journalist who put on adorable little “okay this is what happened in the clan” things. And Aubade, who was an Imperial for a while and thought it too clunky so he got breed changed to a Fae. Follow your dreams. Aubade tended to see the good in everyone and everything.

Also the fact that Pulsar was taken away from the clan led Vega to develop serious abandonment issues but shhh

5. Aya thought that Solus’s blatant racism was pretty bad so he organized a squad of people to check it out and figure out how to convince everyone else to throw him out. They all wore birdskulls. It was cool.

6. Mie and Shilling came into the clan to work as hoard guards with Mila, an old and cantankerous drill sergeant. About as soon as this happened, Solus started being Extremely Cranky, the worst he’d ever been. Gioclase immediately bailed because he was a cowardly wretch. Mie and Shilling were mostly confused and politely asked to leave, please. (And so they did.) Robyn and Gavotte were screamed at by Solus and understandably left, leaving Theia feeling very alone and sad. Mila left too, mostly because she got bored. Same with Tridacna.

In the meantime, someone realized we had WAY too many dragons in the clan, so we moved to the Starwood Strand. And stayed there. Because the aesthetic is good.

Also I think I had dragons named Linnia and Kranion at some point but I forgot what they did and I sold them anyway so who cares.

7. So by the way our hoard apparently needs guarding. Mie and Shilling did this for a while, watched over by Mila. Unfortunately they all left. Amaris and Amicitia came along later but that’s not relevant right now. But here’s the thing about how our familiars work: Coli enemies are typically just puppets controlled by the Shade at this point, and defeating them drives the Shade out, leaving them lifeless. HOWEVER they sometimes imprint on a warrior dragon and go home with them, but they’re reliant on the magical energy of the dragon to Maybe Not Die. This is unfortunately impractical when your clan has upwards of 800 familiars, so Hirwen and Nacre rigged a device to use the elemental energy contained in festival currency and chests to keep the familiars from dying forever. But no one has to KNOW that.

So that’s why we need a familiar commissioner to watch over them and the hoard guards don’t know why they’re guarding the hoard. It’s very serious business.

8. Along the way somewhere, we picked up a dragon named Acapella, and obviously she was Shade-possessed. I mean there’s a 666 in her ID. I think I just ran with it. Anyway everyone’s suspicious of her and her actions, except maybe Aubade, who started having weird dreams about a singing Mirror child. Coincidentally, Amaris and Karalynn came to the clan. Karalynn’s an astronomer and wanted to investigate the influence of Arcane energies on the study of the stars. She then realized that there was a massive dark patch over the clan’s area of sky, which was worrisome to say the least.

Amaris is tired all the time and has occasionally prophetic dreams. So that’s cool. The prophetic dreams foretold death and destruction in the clan. So that’s not cool.

9. Okay so we finally got a familiar commissioner and his name is Jones. He brought a mate. She’s Pica, a chocolatier. But whoops a daisy, we also have Boysen, a not-pastry chef! The conflict between Pica and Boysen grew to a head and eventually Phaino stepped in to offer Boysen her patronage. Aw, cute. Insularia came to the clan too, a roaming vagabond who was taking shelter. She immediately became suspicious of Leviathan and cozied up with him to figure out his deal. Ruby is jealous. Amicitia came to the clan too, a wide-awake hoard guard to be friends with Amaris, a never-awake hoard guard. They’re not very effective.

For some reason even though Insularia and Amicitia look entirely different they’re related. I don’t know how that happened.

Oh also I finished my breeding projects around this point and got Zayla, Mel, Oliver, Cory, and Nathaniel as OC fandragons. They’re cute. Just imagine them sitting on the sidelines of the lore and going “not dealing with that” every time something happens.

10. If the familiars stay alive because of dragon energy, and Fortissimo has too much dragon energy, what if we made a machine for him to release excess energy into?

That went terribly and now he’s locked in the Vault in a comatose state because he tripped on a wire. Good job team. But in the aftermath there was an egg, which hatched into a quiet little Noc named “Unnamed”. This is because Denizen and Finite, those lovely Guardians who are my lorekeepers and very creepy, found her in the vault and didn’t see a reason to name her. She never speaks, having no reason to. It’s funny because Finite doesn’t speak either. Literally the only one who speaks is Denizen, and even then it’s a sometimes thing. It’s amazing that no one’s gotten suspicious of them yet but here we are.

Anyway Jones is freaking out. But no one can know about this. NO ONE.

11. Acapella actually managed to influence enough of the Shade to like, crawl out and poke Blake a little. Blake then attacked Tanzanite, who was like “okay Blake is a whiny baby not a fighting whiny baby SOMETHING IS WRONG HERE” so they investigated it and found out that it was, indeed, Acapella’s fault. As it tends to be. For some reason no one’s doing anything about this because Aubade is completely convinced that she’s a good person somewhere. Tanzanite got a breed change to be a Bogsneak to combat Acapella’s influence by going where no dragon in the clan had gone before.

12. Meanwhile, Julien, Pendergast, Geode, and Tiay got tired of dealing with the clan and straight-up left. Notturna is really sad over this. Merriam is also really sad over the fact that FORTISSIMO IS MISSING. So now they’re sort of just holding on to each other and scream-crying.

13. Amaris and Karalynn are gay. Amaris manages to take Karalynn up to see the stars, but ends up passing out. So it turns out stuff’s going down behind the scenes, or something. Bad premonitions. Anyway they hurry back to the lair.

14. Re: the familiars, Jones comes to the realization that Fortissimo is only alive in the loosest sense of the word and that it’s most moral to pull the plug on him. So Fortissimo’s dead now. ONE CASUALTY SO FAR, I guess. Jones announces it to the world, Vega and Merriam are heartbroken. However, the Unnamed starts speaking in plain freaking Draconian that “hey by the way I’m the last child please love me” and so on. Anyway she takes the name Myosotis. Because forget-me-nots. Because don’t forget Fortissimo. Ha. Hahaha.

Jones leaves the clan out of guilt and the weird looks everyone’s giving him. Pica goes too because they’re mates and she likes him more than she likes the clan, and also it’s really dangerous these days. Boysen almost leaves because without Pica’s rivalry, there’s no reason for him to stay and spice up his life. Phaino, his mate, is offended.

15. Acapella somehow influences Solus and makes him think he’s a boss or something and he henceforth wreaks havoc on everyone. He’s like racist, but also dangerous and feral now. Aya attempts to intervene, and winds up dead. TWO CASUALTIES. Notturna freaks out, finally takes a stand for herself, and leaves with Auxiliary in order to protect themselves. Blake gives everyone a really long Reason You Suck speech, except it’s just for the clan, and leaves. Fulgurite follows him. Hirwen is mad because SHE wanted to do a Reason You Suck speech but Blake beat her to it and also leaves. Nacre, not knowing what to do with herself, leaves as well, but on a pilgrimage to the Arcanist to figure out what she’s doing with herself.

16. Leviathan and Ruby are doing just fine causing minor chaos, but Ruby’s heart isn’t really in it. She reveals to him that she’s worried, he laughs it off. He stops laughing it off when Solus leaves Ruby near-dead. She leaves the clan feeling alienated and frustrated, and Leviathan acknowledges his mistakes and feels Really Really Bad. Insularia comforts him somewhat, reveals her past, and makes him feel worse. But he’s more self aware? Anyway they become an Actual Couple instead of a Functional One and Leviathan resolves to reform.

17. Aubade continues to insist that Acapella is not actually mean. There’s some pseudo-religious and science things with notes left behind by Hirwen and a lot of puzzling through with Amaris and Karalynn, but long story short the Shade is banished from Acapella. Yay. Aubade, however, realizes that she’s completely vulnerable at this time, and suggests that she goes to follow the Arcanist as well. He accompanies her to work in her service, leaving Vega and Theia sad and somewhat abandoned. Solus no longer has as much Shade-fueled power to Go Forth And Cause Chaos and he’s really upset about that.

18. Did I say “upset” because I meant “REALLY PISSED OFF”. Solus realizes that everyone’s scared of him and is bitterly joyous about it, He intimidates Rhyolite into leaving and tries to kill Amicitia, and nearly succeeds. Wow everything is so dark™ and edgy™ here in the Whirls. But Amaris and Karalynn save Amicitia by… changing his appearance entirely and also he’s kind of a cyborg now. He’s not sure how to feel about this. I’m not sure how to feel about this, and I wrote it. Just bear with me.

19. Titania finally takes charge and screams at Solus to leave the clan. He does. He’s exalted. Bye binch. With that, everything calms down, but no one wants to try and rebuild.

20. Meanwhile my OC fan dragons are like “well this is a thing that is happening” and generally having a good time while ignoring everything else. They’re approached to lead the clan because they’re the only ones who are having a good time. They agree and have no clue what’s even going on, bless their souls.

ANYWAY YEAH. So half my lair is supposed to be gone. If anyone happens to be interested in buying some I’ll have a thread set up in a week or so to figure out what’s up. Hope this was entertaining and not too long-winded.

[entityrose-blog]

This needs to be talked about.

So I was playing Google Feud, which is a pretty fun game. But anyone who’s played the game for more than a few days knows that the answers on this game come from the actual searches on Google.

I put down ‘gay’ because (I’m not going to lie, okay?) I was feeling really just happy and I was in that state you get in after dying laughing, and if I’m being honest, I don’t have a just reason for putting it down other than a joke. But when I saw the answer I can assure you that it didn’t feel like a joke anymore.

Being bisexual myself, I know that I’ve wondered if it was okay and whatnot. But for ‘gay’ to be the top result out of the hundreds of words that could have come after ‘is it wrong to be’ is something that needs to be discussed. Even ‘asexual’ is in the 5k spot, and it shows more people are concerned about their sexuality than…. argh I don’t know what.

It’s most definitely okay to be any type of sexuality, any type of gender, or have any types of preferences as long as you don’t disrespectfully force them on other people. It’s okay to be the gayest gay person ever and fantasize about sucking someone off or maybe putting that kink you have to use or be transgender as well. The point is, yes, it is important to accept your sexuality/gender/kinks/everything as part of yourself, and heck, embrace it.

Changing topics, directly underneath ‘gay’, it says ‘white’. Hold the eff up for a second and let me try to say this without coming off as racist.

It is definitely okay to be white! It’s okay to be black, red, blue, purple, green, orange, pink, neon, or a fricking rainbow. (Although don’t bleach your skin like Michael Jackson did, that cannot be healthy for you.) You cannot change your skin color either, so that’s another thing. And while some people will always be racist, you cannot change who you are. I have even gone through a time when I questioned if it was socially acceptable to be white. My dad worked in the military and that caused us to live in Japan for seven years. I attended Japanese school (where I basically had to learn, speak, write, and read Japanese when I was three years old) and let me make this very clear. I was the only white kid that had EVER gone to that school. I barely had any friends, and the ones I did didn’t really like me that much compared to their Japanese friends (it wasn’t a matter of smarts either, I was the top of the class in almost every subject, including Japanese. This was also when I was 5-9 years old, approximately.). It was pure racism. I was bullied (physically and mentally; I was beat up on a daily basis (and keep in mind these are FIVE-NINE YEAR-OLD CHILDREN)) for three years starting when I was five, and much of the fourth before my family moved back to the United States, and I actually made the best friends of my life (Who aren’t white, by the way. Well, some of them.) The moral of this story? Even I have struggled of my skin color and have been discriminated against, and I’m still here and can say to myself and all of you that it is perfectly fine to be white.

The third one, ‘strong’, is going to be something that doesn’t need much elaboration.

Be the strongest you can be. Whether it is mentally, physically, emotionally, or spiritually, be the best you can. And if you do feel the need to break down and cry, that’s okay. Let it happen. Crying doesn’t show that a person is weak- it shows that the person has been strong for too long.

We can skip the 7k category- that depends on if you want to be or not and your family’s beliefs.

The 6k category- a loner. This is something else I’m going to take from my experiences, and I honestly can say it varies from person to person, and the different personalities that those people have. I have a naturally clingy/attention-seeking personality, but I am very much so made and existing to be a loner. This results in a(n often unhealthy) combination of me wanting attention but also not wanting to stray too close to people in fear of getting too attached. It sometimes hurts me a little bit, but I can’t help it. It’s in my natural instinct to be alone- I proved this by doing an experiment by telling my friends to cut ties with me for a week, and that week went by so easily without them it was unbelievable. When that week was over, I discovered that I could barely stand my friends and much preferred the solitude that I was in the previous week. I drifted away from them for two days after that before my craving for attention/clinginess brought me back to them. I haven’t done that experiment again in fear of losing them, but I have been becoming increasingly more clingy to certain people (sorry Solstice  ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ). But the point it, yes, it is completely okay to be a loner. As long as it does not affect you negatively in any way, like it did with me and my friend’s relationships.

Next, the 4k category. Greed is one of the seven deadly sins (not the anime, unfortunately) and a quick thesaurus.com search told me it is essentially the same as selfishness (I kinda knew that already but I wanted to make sure).

If I’m being honest, I think we are all selfish in our own ways. I’m selfish- I crave attention and I desperately hold on to whatever pride I have left after an argument. I’m horrible, in a sense. I won’t be satisfied without the last word, I won’t apologize even when I know I’m in the wrong, and I will somehow twist the story of what happened to try and make me in the right anyways. I’ll say really mean stuff that I wouldn’t want to if I wasn’t trying to hold onto it, and even though I’ll regret it, I won’t do a dang thing about it.

I am only using myself as an example, and I’m putting myself on display, in a sense. It’s the cold, hard, truth, and in order to protect myself, I can be a complete bitch. All because I am selfish.

3k. This is a very sensitive subject to many people I know, and one of my friends struggled with this last year (miss you, Paris) even though he is a fricking string bean. This also represents most body image problems, too, and they suck. And if I’m being honest, I have no idea to convey this in simple words just because the magnitude of this issue. I almost got into some major trouble because of this issue, too. I woke up one day after someone in a dream had called me fat, then stripped down, took a look at myself in the mirror, and proceeded to evaluate every single part of myself that was inadequate. I had thoughts of diets running through my head, ways I could slim myself down, make myself look more appealing. Maybe take some weight off the stomach, add some to the chest. Then I checked online for the normal weight of teens my age, weighed myself, and found I’m actually normal, and with that little awakening, started to realize that I was thinking about absolute crap, and proceeded to throw the list of dieting styles I should try in the trash can. I am a very mentally strong person, and I was able to snap myself out of it before any serious harm came to me. Others are not the same.

If you are unsatisfied with your body, I encourage you to make a list of the things you find unsatisfactory and then start working on a healthy way to resolve those issues. If you can’t change something healthily, then don’t do it. If you want to lose weight, either cut down on food intake (not by a lot, do it gradually) or start playing a sport. Never go for those diets that say you’ll lose more than two pounds per month. It isn’t healthy to drop fifteen pounds per month- two is the maximum to go. And if you want it quickly, well then I’m sorry- there’s nothing I can do to speed the time up.

If you want to put on some weight, don’t binge-eat. That will just create more problems for you in the future, instead of just gaining weight. Add to your food intake slowly, and make sure you aren’t gaining more than two pounds per month. Remember, patience is key.

I can’t think of more body image issues right now, but if you want to change something about yourself, 1. make sure it is logical. 2. make sure you can do it in a healthy way. & 3. have patience.

Number 2k. Angry with god- that’s one that I may be at a loss for. I’ll try to turn this more to religion in general, but not force it on anyone at the same time.

You are perfectly allowed to be angry at god, for whatever reason! Life does get unfair sometimes, and if you can't blame it on anyone you know, sometimes maybe you want a greater being to blame it on? That's okay! Maybe you don't even believe in God at all, however, which is still okay. Any religion is allowed, whether it's Christian, Muslim, Aethiest, or others (I don't think I spelled that right, I'm so sorry.) Anyone is accepted.

And finally- single. I have only a few words for you.

Love yourself so nobody has to.

Maybe spread this around with people you know? Reblog and stuff? I want my message to reach as many people as it can.

If anyone wants to talk about anything, just shoot me a message.

Thanks for reading,

Rose.

[theconservativebrief]

WASHINGTON, District of Columbia — It was supposed to be the start of another show of force by white nationalists: Unite the Right 2, the follow-up to last year’s disastrous and violent demonstrations in Charlottesville, Virginia, which concluded with a Nazi sympathizer ramming his car into a crowd of counterprotesters, injuring several and killing one.

But Dan, who said he was a supporter of “peaceful” ethnic cleansing, was the only white nationalist to be seen at the march’s starting point, the Foggy Bottom metro station.

This was around 5 pm, when the march was supposed to start toward Lafayette Square for a two-hour rally. I asked Dan, who said he had turned 19 on Sunday, where his friends were. “I don’t know.” What are you going to do now? “I don’t know.”

This is Dan from Long Island. Dan believes in “peaceful cleansing” of Latinos and blacks from the United States. He turned 19 today. pic.twitter.com/wBplDshIxn

— Zack Beauchamp (@zackbeauchamp) August 12, 2018

What Dan didn’t know was that his friends had already left. A couple hours before the march was supposed to start, around 25 white nationalists, led by rally organizer Jason Kessler, had arrived at Foggy Bottom. Instead of waiting around, and swarmed by media, police, and a lot of counterprotesters, they had forged on ahead on the march route hours earlier than scheduled. There, Kessler complained to reporters about the police in Charlottesville and counterprotesters, and then left.

So by the time I had asked Dan where his white nationalist friends were, the rally had ended — a half hour before 5:30 pm, when it was supposed to begin. It was a total dud.

There were plenty of reasons for the pathetic display. But the basic issue is that Charlottesville was a complete disaster — a moment that was supposed to somehow win white nationalists favor, but actively turned much of the nation against them when they engaged in violence and, in one case, literal murder.

Jane Coaston reported for Vox:

Organizers of the 2017 Unite the Right have been embroiled in lawsuits filed by victims of the violence that took place. Many of the alt-right’s biggest personalities, like Richard Spencer, lost funding platforms because, understandably, platforms like Patreon and PayPal didn’t want to be associated with advocates for the return of the Third Reich. Other alt-right figures are involved in legal proceedings related to, for instance, harassing a Jewish woman online, or participation in a trailer park brawl.

One white nationalist attendee (best known for sobbing uncontrollably at the thought of his imminent arrest) was even recently banned from entering the state of Virginia. Kessler himself tweeted insults about the young woman killed during the rally, then blamed his tweets on a combination of Ambien and Xanax when even his fellow rallygoers disavowed him. And politically, the rally only served to, in the words of the New York Times, “empower a leftist political coalition that vows to confront generations of racial and economic injustice” in Charlottesville.

On top of these problems, several Charlottesville attendees had their identities revealed — which resulted not just in public shaming but in some attendees, for example, getting fired from their jobs. That’s why neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin warned people to not go to Unite the Right 2, writing, “Getting doxed as a neo-Nazi street fighter will ruin your life, forever.”

Coupled with a total lack of serious organization that led some marchers to go ahead of others hours ahead of time, this was all too much for the demonstrations — and they ended before they could really begin.

In fact, counterprotesters outnumbered white nationalists by the hundreds at the DC rally — to the point that some counterprotesters left early because it was kind of boring. As I arrived at the counterprotests, one of the people leaving said that there “aren’t enough Nazis to troll.” So she took her sign — a mock-up of a Confederate flag with “losers” written along the flag’s stripes — home.

Of course, this does not mean that racism has been defeated and all is well in America. It has, after all, only been a year since Charlottesville. That’s a year since Donald Trump, as president, said that there were “some very fine people on both sides” at the Charlottesville rally, in which one side contained literal neo-Nazis. And that followed a campaign for the presidency in which Trump made all sorts of racist remarks, from characterizing Mexican immigrants as criminals and rapists to suggesting that all Muslims should be banned from America.

And there’s plenty of research showing that Americans still harbor racism and racial resentment, from studies finding that people are more likely to see black children as less innocent to other research finding that white people view Muslims, Arabs, and Mexican immigrants as less human than Americans and Europeans.

But, at least for today, the white nationalists couldn’t field enough people for an actual rally.

Original Source -> Unite the Right 2018 was a pathetic failure

via The Conservative Brief

[aliahaider-blog]

Introduction: The 4 Groups (An introduction to a memoir of my life, whether part of the Chala Vahi Des project or not)

**IMPORTANT** To read the first installment or mention of upcoming projects by me, read the blog post below before proceeding to this one. Thanks. The following excerpt is my ideal introduction to a story that fully encompasses my life as a Desi American. I initially imagined it being a part of the Chala Vahi Des project (more information contained in the blog post below) but now, as previously stated, I don't really know where to fit it. It may stand as part of a completely separate project unrelated to my connection with Texas, or it may work as the introduction to my spiritual transformation growing up in this hot, humid state. Either way, the excerpt itself touches on many of the aspects of growing up Desi, or the child of an immigrant as a whole, in America. Again, some of the statements can be perceived as provocative. It feels like soon enough that'll be my job. But if in any case this offends you, then sorry, but also pease try to see it in a way that doesn't. Enjoy!

​American Desi kids were divided into 4 groups. Desi means someone whose parents are from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, or any of the related subcontinent countries. Loosely, I guess; I never really looked up the actual definition or etymology of it so that was my first instinct to go by. Anyways, the groups.

The group of kids who studied a lot but didn’t know a whole lot. You could put these kids through Harvard and buy them $1 million worth of books and they’d get a 4.0. But put them through Harvard and ask them to experience something that broadens their cultural knowledge and they can’t make much out of it. They studied 24/7 and were expected to be the cultural, technological, and scientific leaders of their century but couldn’t tell you who the cultural, technological, and scientific leaders of any century living up to them were, let alone the ones who were still alive. I actually felt sorry for them; they bore a great deal of pressure from their peers and parents for things that wouldn’t play out in any normal person’s head. Their parents would always reiterate that they need to be close to their heritage, which to them was going to mosque or church or temple once a week without questioning or seeking the motives to do so and then studying science or engineering the rest of their life. It was a mix of material pleasure and coercion. No novel that had any cultural or religious significance was even comparable in value to an SAT textbook—at least to their parents--yet at the dinner table religion and heritage was the paramount value in life. This whole scheme confused the Group 1 kids, but they never questioned it because they did everything their parents told them to and eventually grew up to be the same as them. Another facet that seemed to inhibit their ability to develop an understanding of something other than their chemistry textbooks was their frequent avoidance of black people. Even the African and black Group 1 kids avoided the black kids. It was an irrational fear of a non-existent threat that has lived long in the Eastern mentality and kept Group 1 kids in their quiet, reserved spots. Neither their parents nor they were bad people by any means, just born into a recurring ideology that happened to breed subtle racism. I mean, I guess it got more subtle over time. However, they tended to be the most hospitable (partly because they had the nicest homes). But they were really reserved, which is why there’s not much to say about them.  

The Group 2 kids, who were considered opinion leaders, creative writers, musical aficionados, successful businessmen/women, and style icons by their white Christian friends but were considered misfits by their parents and the rest of the immigrant community. These kids were naturally intelligent but not in the way that their families would have preferred. They had insane creativity and could use it to get by in every other aspect of life. Force them or motivate them to study an amount of material that takes a normal brain 3 hours to retain and they’ll find a way to retain it in 30 minutes, but the hard part was exactly that, you had to either force them or motivate them. They were the kids that didn’t really give a damn but could be really famous and successful if they did. They understood complex ideas and structures better than anybody else. They were mostly atheists, agnostics, or loose followers of their religions but somehow understood religion and their community teachings better and in a broader scope than most of the other kids in the community who actively participated in it. They liked to think 20 years ahead and about how they can influence the world but frequently got carried away secretly partying and smoking weed while telling their parents that they were studying. Yet somehow, they tended to never fail a class, even when they got really close, happening to lower their parents’ expectations without lowering them too much so they could still pay for everything. Not that their parents wouldn’t, because their parents loved them. And the children knew it, and they loved their parents too, so they would often act out of guilt towards everything. Like doing a major they didn’t like all that much while behind the scenes they read novels until 2 in the morning or did freelance photography instead of studying. They had to compromise a lot, which is probably why they were really nice; I mean, most of the kids were nice, but the Group 2 kids were really nice. They said “yes” to a lot of requests and invites that they would’ve liked to say “no” to. Sometimes they wondered if they could get famous by compiling an anthology of all the papers they wrote for their friends, either for free or for money. They minded it a lot of times, though they said they didn’t, but at the end of the day they took everything as a learning experience. If you put them in Harvard, they’d probably barely graduate with a 2.5 but they’d learn so much through mere experience that they would eventually become the people who show up on your Facebook newsfeed in the latest TED Talk or be the sorry activist that Fox News chooses to invite on the show and belittle, because Group 2 kids were constantly defying the stereotypes of Desi children that Fox reporters worked so hard to reinforce. Any Group 2 kid would enjoy being the one belittled on Fox News because they loved the spotlight, even the humiliating one. They were quite the eccentric bunch and used their notoriety to bring something different to longstanding structures. These kids didn’t avoid the black kids, they weren’t studying science or engineering, and they didn’t have much to say about religion. So it was kind of hard to view them as normal.

The nice kids. Yeah, the Group 2 kids were the really nice kids, but they were never considered the “nice kids,” unless they worked hard enough to get the title. The nice kids were considered the nice kids because they couldn’t be considered anything else. Their parents weren’t doctors, engineers, or any type of major opinions leaders like writers and musicians, and they didn’t care enough about living extraordinary lives, so the Group 1 & 2 kids chose to be impressed by their generosity. The nice kids would always offer support and would want everyone to fit in, including themselves. Their lives were as mundane as the next non-doctor, non-lawyer, non-Group 2 kid’s life, but they were cool with it. Sometimes a Group 3 kid would stumble into a Group 1 kid’s field. Like, for example, say a taxi driver’s kid, named Ahmed, grows up to be a doctor. They never did brag about it, but you bet everyone else did. It was a scummy class thing. All of a sudden, the taxi driver was everyone’s friend and the doctor-child would be the suburban legend, the one-who-got-out, so that if anyone ever accused the Group 1-ers of being racist or classist they could just say “but I’m friends with Ahmed and he has humble beginnings!” It was the “I have black friends” of the upper-class Desi circle, though “I have black friends” was also a frequent excuse. This never diminished the Group 3 kids’ generosity and kindness, though. Group 3 kids had adequate knowledge about things but were never interested enough to discover what the Group 2 kids sought to discover; that is, they never asked “why?”. And they thought it was cool that Group 2 kids had odd passions, so they never questioned them but never engaged in those passions either. They would show up to the weekly religious services but they’d never interject into the qudba or the sermon or the Pooja, just kind of follow it as it went. They were well-known but they weren’t notorious. They knew what they believed in and were content with not bringing it up around those who disagreed with them. Group 3 kids were the most relaxing yet most aggravating kids we’d encounter because they were so down for whatever that you questioned their motives. They would read for English class but never picked up a book when it wasn’t assigned. They would’ve only watched 3 movies ever before turning 21 years old, and they never really watched television. Not that it was a dreadful thing, it was just so weird. You never knew what their lives outside of family looked like, or if they even had one. One thing was certain, though: Group 3 kids were the most independent, besides Group 4 kids.

The Group 4 kids were a combination of all 3 other groups with none of the aggravating or annoying characteristics associated with them. These kids were the smartest, most cunning, best-looking, most generous and humblest kids in the immigrant communities. These kids generally studied a lot and got 2400s on their SATs. The thing was, they could have gotten 2400s even if they didn’t study, and they could perform the same in any other aspect without studying, but they still did because there was no point in not. Their relationships with their families were perfect, and so were their families. Their parents were fully aware of their capabilities, so they never forced their kids to be successful viceroys of their own dreams. They paid for their children’s educations and passions without any second thought or conditions, and neither they nor their children made a big deal out of it at parties. But everyone knew that these were the kids destined for greatness; academically, intellectually, socially, and in all other aspects. They were the ones who could get through medicine, engineering, and computer science all at once with a 4.0 and become millionaires at 22 years old but instead chose to pursue public policy, or social work, or better yet, art, all of which they were incredibly proficient in as well. The thing that sucked was that they weren’t cocky about it, ever, so you couldn’t hate them even if you tried. They liked the spotlight when it was admirable to like the spotlight and kept quiet when it was admirable to keep quiet. The only resentment towards Group 4 kids that could possibly exist was envy, and even that never lasted long because Group 4 kids had the ability to make even the laziest, most unambitious scumbags feel like they were doing something with their lives. They were the holiest and most fun kids too, always the life of the party but also the voice of wisdom. No one knew what this meant for Group 4 kids, though. These perfect characteristics made the other kids blind to the burden and pressure that they bore. You never knew when they were going through shit. And when people found out that one of them was, everyone was torn to pieces. This didn’t really lift that burden off the Group 4 kids either. Imagine if someone else’s mood relies on your mood 24/7. The entirety of their lives was extremely rugged due to these sensations processing all at once. They were, it seemed, too perfect.

It wasn’t hard for these four groups to get along, since all of them were great people (some could be described as stellar, some could be described as mundane, so “great” is the most medium word to use). Some were shy while others enjoyed the spotlight but none of them shunned one another. We’d see one another at the mosque or temple or church and, when we did, all the social cliques you’d expect to exist in a group of kids disappeared. There were no lunch tables, just a bunch of people who talked about a lot of cool shit within the few hours they were together. But there were those who never showed up and never really acknowledged the large community we had. These people were the outliers.

You would seldom see the outliers at any of the community cultural events. They’d maybe come once for Eid or a few times during the year for Ramadan to eat all the free food during Ifthar. Or they’d go to a Holi celebration to bathe in colors and post a picture on Facebook and then leave again for the rest of the year. We’d never see outliers because they tended to only hang out with the white kids. They were the ones who sat in the back of geography class to avoid being asked questions about their culture by the professor when it came to the segment that discussed Islam or Hinduism or Buddhism, and again when it came to the segment discussing their parents’ South Asian home country, wherever it was. They were the ones who couldn't care less about where they came from until it could be used as an excuse to use the “n” word a lot. The only indication of them being children of immigrants was their skin color. Otherwise, they couldn’t speak a word of Urdu or Hindi or Gujarati or Arabic. Nor did they try to make it seem like they were remotely associated with any of those languages or cultures. They changed their names to white names. Yaqub became Jacob early in his life. Nikhel became Nick, Chukandar became Chuck, Samir became Sam. And don’t get me wrong, all of us hung out with white kids, gave ourselves nicknames for people to have an easier time pronouncing it, and all the rest, but we never did so exclusively. However, the thing is, though we scoff at it now, the majority of us started out this way. “I don’t want to marry a Pakistani girl, they’re too high maintenance,” “I don’t want to eat at an Indian restaurant, we do that at home anyways,” “I hope I don’t see any brown people there, I see enough of that already,” were some of the repetitious phrases that would emanate from our mouths throughout our early lives. But most of us eventually grew out of it, because there were only so many identities we could carry without everybody telling us you aren’t this or you aren’t that. Only we knew what the are was, it was what connected us with one another. You could take us out of our cliques for years, seclude us from the other first-generation brown kids, but never stop us from picking up where we left off because there was some string of cultural identity we shared with one another that we didn’t share with anyone else. I don’t blame and can’t blame, and no one should blame the ones that stayed outliers. Our Desi communities failed us in many steps of the process and that stuck with some people. For others, it was just about balance, about not letting the parts that left us dissatisfied stick with us for the rest of our lives. Cheering for Pakistan when they play cricket but detaching from a culture of homophobia and transphobia that derived from there. We balanced a mix of South Asian and western influences, a balance that not even our parents could detect. And that mastery was what directed most of our lives of confusion: it influenced how we talked, how we made friends, how we studied, what political views we carried, and what emotions we experienced.

We became the wave of first generation kids that really dignified the term Desi or Pakistani-American or Indian-American or whatever else we called ourselves, because as we struggled to move forward and determine what ethnicity/nationality/identity we really are, we began to mend the trauma that is attached to the generations before us. I never knew why I felt such a deep connection with those who shared my experiences as a first-generation kid, but I realized it had to do with that trauma carried down to me. Whatever speck of praise I have for those who represent that trauma, for every Hassan Minhaj or Aziz Ansari or Riz Ahmed or Himanshi Suri or Zayn Malik or Maria Qamar or Swet Shop Boys or AK Paul or Dev Patel there is, it’s not expressed for the sole purpose of my ethnic pride from being represented but for a reconciliation of that trauma. We really are the first ones, at a large scale, to do this, to be a product of such a notorious diaspora that rendered our identities so flexible and unstable since before we were born. And lest I become trampled under the stampede of uncertainty, I had to reimagine what it meant when I say I am Desi, the term that hung over my head as both a beckoning and a trap for most of my childhood. It meant constantly being the river between two worlds: Pakistan and America, Pakistan and India, the east and the west, Islam and secularism, war and peace, unity and hostility, and, above all, relapse and recovery. It all began in first grade.