#Learn to defend yourself

[defensive-tactics]

get some skills... just in case

[archiveofrasa]

that one line about ramy's bangla being rudimentary made me absolutely sob (i'm bengali) and i wanna talk about why

there's so much to it both contextually with ramy's character as well as historically. contextually because ramy is fluent in 6 languages, an insane number of languages for one person but none of which are his mother tongue. he's described as a performer, one who knows he can't blend in so instead he stands out as a means to escape as much of the racism as he can. he gets lost in it that he almost forgets who he is; this is reflected in his language ability too – he gets so lost in his linguistic academics he just barely remembers the native language of his home place that he adores.

and honestly, you can't even really blame ramy for it at all when it was induced. it's the british who saw urdu, arabic and persian as more valuable than bangla, it's the british that make ramy put on this act so he can literally stay alive. and when you know the historical relevancies between urdu and bangla, it hurts so much that ramy was forced to forget bangla

very brief history context: after the partition, where british india was split into india, pakistan and east pakistan (now bangladesh) bangla was seen as inferior to urdu due to its hindu connections. bengalis experienced so much shit because of this (and bengali muslims are still dealing with the internalised cultural racism today honestly). pakistanis tried to make the official language urdu, even though literally everyone in east pakistan were bengali and spoke bangla, so bengalis fought back against it. we still celebrate that day today (feb 21)

so to have ramy be in this position in the 1830s where urdu was seen as superior to bangla, especially when ramy is a bengali muslim, is just extremely accurate?? and maybe it's bc we don't have much western literature where we talk about this but it's just so nice to have it acknowledged

the bangla language movement didn't happen until around the 1950s, over a century after babel's timeline, but the seeds are always there. while i do think it comes with both this islamic superiority tendency a lot of asians have (arabs i'm looking at you) and britian's imperialistic racism, i just love how it all makes sense

[poetrysmackdown]

I'm hater but I just don't believe How to Be A Dog is that good, I hope jakey dies.

yeah no feel free to sow your hater oats. that's what this competition is for

[commsroom]

thinking again about how underexplored hera & minkowski are as a dynamic, considering how close their relationship is, and i think there is some synergy between minkowski's "i can't think of a decision in my life that wasn't already determined by someone else. but, even then, there was always a choice, and i always made it." and similar sentiments expressed by hera. and this exchange with eiffel in ep 48: "no. this isn't even a choice for me." / "yes, it is. it's a sucky ass choice, but it is a choice." while hera & minkowski were the two people who initially argued to stay...

it's true that all of the main wolf 359 characters have an element of regaining control / autonomy present in their arcs (lovelace's conflict with the dear listeners + choosing to be isabel lovelace, and eiffel's need to take responsibility for himself as a full person and an autonomous actor in order to move forwards), but i think there's something about how hera & minkowski share this fear of losing control. that they must perform perfectly, be better and do more than everyone around them in order to earn the same amount of respect as anyone else, without knowing why they feel so... deficient.

i think a lot of their early conflict stems from this shared insecurity clashing against opposite priorities and relationships to authority - minkowski believes that the way to prove herself as a person is to attach her worth to her job and excel at it, while hera's worth as a person has been tied to her job by external forces and she struggles to be seen as more than that. it's an important job to minkowski, and an important role, but she doesn't initially realize that she's not just arguing with hera as an unruly subordinate, but as a person for whom that is the unwilling totality of her existence. like in let's kill hilbert, where hera says "try to sound a little less patronizing" and she replies "i'm not being patronizing, i'm being critical" - i think that's the primary disconnect in their perspectives.

over time, as minkowski learns to separate herself (and her self worth) more and more from that idealized role of commander, i think those shared insecurities become a point of connection more than discordance. minkowski is sort of a defender by nature, and devoted to the people she cares about, but i think there is still a personal element in some of the ways she most ardently advocates for hera - in the way she demands hera be respected for her efforts, and, notably... minkowski has a lot of personal baggage around being made fun of for how she speaks. i think it's worth considering that in the context of lovelace mocking hera's stutter, and minkowski later turning "count to ten" back on her.

[sitzfleischh]

Final Ghosts thoughts cause I really need to sleep but am still thinking about it--

Choice to end with Alison and Mike taking the hotel deal at the Ghosts' suggestion, and having them return regularly like visiting family: GREAT ❤️

Execution of this plotline in the episode/series itself: not so great.

The immensely rewatchable 5 series as a whole: SO great, very happy to continue loving this show for a long long time.

[filibusterfrog]

Do you have any tips for drawing the human body? I want to draw outfit concepts for a character of mine but I can’t get the pose right or the anatomy correct :/

ya, other than copy from irl and photos for years and years to git gud, imo its good to draw the initial gestural sketch as quickly as possible and build from there so that the pose can remain energetic. if you start getting caught up on details before youve drawn the whole body mistakes will be harder to fix, so build it in steps like so 1) gestural sketch of the entire pose 2) refine sketch, fix anatomical mistakes as you go 2.5) refine again if you want 3) details

make sure to use long, confident sweeping lines to start with and then you can get smaller as you go

[eenochian]

it’s very funny how this fandom suddenly cares so much about sensitivity, meanwhile no one was up in arms about folks calling valeria shit like “cartel mommy” and simping for her. and, if you point this out, you get told that it’s “less important” or incomparable. way to tell victims of cartel violence that they don’t matter. y’all can’t preach about sensitivity and mindfulness while doing the exact opposite of that.

sensitivity is something that needed to be brought up a long time ago. people need to be mindful about the content they’re engaging with and producing. COD and its characters are based on very real issues and very real situations, mindfulness is needed for every single character.

seeing this only be brought up in the context of makarov and graves is honestly so, so frustrating. they’re not the only problematic characters that you need to consider when making content. western militaries like the US and UK are incredibly controversial and have devastated vulnerable people and their countries. price, ghost, soap, gaz— any member of the military, especially the special forces, is problematic. they’re not good people and should not be treated like saints, nor should they be idolized for what they do.

that all being said, the concepts of “be mindful and sensitive when making content” and “let people enjoy problematic media” can absolutely, 100%, co-exist. art is not meant to be a paradigm of moral goodness, it has always been a medium for people to explore things that are considered "taboo" in a safe space. there's a reason why "dead dove: do not eat" exists as a genre – with proper warning and precautions put in place, people can explore darker topics. for some, it's morbid interest. for others, it's a way of coping with trauma and experiences they've had in real life.

i want to repeat this just to make it very clear: be mindful and sensitive with the content you're producing. do not romanticize topics that should not be painted in a good light. don't minimize the impact of characters' actions or act like people are in the wrong for being uncomfortable with them. in this fandom especially, people treat atrocities like jokes because we're becoming desensitized to them. it's up to every individual to ensure that they don't forget how impactful a lot of this stuff is in real life. war is not a joke. terrorism is not a joke. people dying is not a joke. do not romanticize any of these things in your content, even if you're exploring the different sides of the people behind these things.

humanize the characters all you want. horrible people are still people, after all. humans are not one-dimensional beings. humanize them, but do not romanticize them.

be kind to victims, be sensitive, and be mindful about what you engage with. no one is perfect, no thing is perfect, but we can always do better. we need to approach every topic through this lens instead of picking and choosing who to support. everyone is deserving of it, everyone is entitled to basic respect. we don't need to compete and argue over who has it worse, we just need to be better across the board. support real victims. don't let media warp your perceptions of reality. be conscious of the content you make and consume.

[symbioticsimplicity]

I just had a terrible day, don't mind me projecting hardcore.

What if the most trying part of getting Billy healed after everything isn't getting him to be nice? It isn't getting him to let his guard down or trust the people who are trying to care for him, or any of the obvious things they're prepared for.

What if its getting him to recognize when people are being unkind to him?

Like reasonably he knows when people are being shitty to him, feels the anger that comes with it, but after years and years of pushing it down or redirecting it, he's lost faith in his own ability to know when his anger is justified. Its always there, and he's become conscious of it, so its really hard for him to tell when its ABOUT something.

He's been treated like shit by pretty much everyone who's known him too, so he's also shaky on what constitutes someone being actually shitty to him. Sure, he knows hitting is bad, even when its him (although that also took a while), but mean words? Ignoring his needs? Not lending a hand to help him when someone easily could? Those are all just so normal to him, its like he's blind to it.

It takes the group MONTHS to get him to the point where he can assess how someone is treating him and tell if its bullshit or not. And even then its not always accurate because he often slips into justifying why they're treating him that way.

[defensive-tactics]

Don't give would be predators any advantages!! Be Aware. Use Defensive Mindset. Learn to Defend Yourself. Fight back.

[bluemeetsyellowwest]

I'm glad you're speaking up about Noah's recent posts. I feel like a lot of ppl on byler/stranger things tumblr are being willingly obtuse about his support for Israel/ pro-zionist takes. Everyone's acting like he's just saying "terrorists are bad" when he was actually spreading misinformation/atrocity propaganda in his post. I'm not gonna pretend I'm an expert on what's going on regarding the current events, but there's no way someone can read Noah's insta posts and not see how egregious his statements were, even Israel officials and the president of the fucking US were backtracking on the behaded babies lie, like c'mon now. Noah Schnapp isn't Will Byers. You can criticize a celebrity making horrendous/genocidal statements, especially when ppl's lives are on the line!

Yes yes yes heavy on the fact that he is NOT will byers and you could differentiate between the actor and the character he plays. Criticizing Noah is not Criticizing Will. I’ve seen this be an issue for those in the fandom. The misinformation is a huge part of why so many of us want him to delete this post, it’s truly nasty how it’s being used to fuel this narrative that Israel is the only victim in the situation. That Israel isn’t the aggressor. The sugar coating of his words or the way they keep denying what he explicitly said is frustrating. Hopefully they can learn about the history by picking up a book.

[spaceratprodigy]

one of my favorite things abt how faith reacts to max in fallbrook arc is her being directly faced with her own hypocrisy

[notetaeker]

You know, if this conflict was a movie you would easily figure out who the protagonist is. These nations slap on a few labels ‘religious conflict’ ‘terror*sm’ ‘antisem*tism’ ‘self defense’ and suddenly we can’t see what’s right in front of us.

Open your eyes people. Do your own personal research. Don’t just believe what you see. This is your chance to actually dig up the issue from both sides and figure out what’s going on.

[crowempress]

"It's fine for me to hate kids as long as I'm not causing them harm" I think you're a weirdo and should learn tolerance and compassion for small human beings

[death-rebirth-senshi]

I love just abandoning Elden Ring playthroughs I'm just like "okay that's enough" and start a new game...I've been playing Elden Ring almost nonstop (with a little mass effect break) since I got it in November and it's now June. And I'm still like...hm I think I'm done with this strength/int endeavor I want to try blasphemous paladin again