#Taking it with a huge grain of salt

[miraculouslumination]

The audacity to be like "there's a problem with racism in transandrophobia discussions" while also unironically using the term "transandrophobia truther(s)"

[5h0w1sh]

ok what happened to Sonic and Tails? Why are they villains now?

That’s kinda of a secret for now mostly because I do wanna draw it out!! :) BUT I will say their whole villain arc is inspired by castlevania, The Daily bugle(Spider-man) and Noah Total Drama Fanfics (IM NOT EXPLAINING THIS ONE)

I’ll also add that this may be a villain AU- but I only see Tails as a villain and sonic as a cowardly henchman yk

Example:

[sh1-n0bu]

my issue with the natlan characters being white (color, not ethnicity) is that

1: it doesn't make sense from a environmental standpoint. If they're based on all these places with more sun, wouldn't the natlan genetic pool have adapted so that those in hotter places have darker skin? for example: Mexico, Africa, India, any other country on the equator? (Not including European integration)

2: why blend all these cultures of color beautifully (i was so looking forward to an aztec based region) just to put a pale person in their place? We *know* they can put poc characters in their games. We have plenty of colored npcs, Arlan in Hsr, and even the eremites.

And 3: I saw an edit of the main three people have been upset about with darker skin (the green and black guy, little Geo girl, and white haired hydro girl) AND I COULDN'T EVEN TELL THEY WERE EDITED UNTIL I READ THE CAPTION. They were gorgeous, truly. The truth is, genshin's sales in other countries would spike if they made these new characters darker. There would be that much more representation, opening the community to others who would grow the community

Tldr: There's no reason to make these characters pale other than origin country specific beauty standards. Everyone, and I mean everyone, no matter poc or not, should refrain from spending money on genshin for the foreseeable future. It will be difficult to those used to buying their primogems, especially with the new Nilou skin dropping, (looking at you, whales) but we gotta.

And come on, the new Kirara skin can totally hold us over

exactly! hoyoverse CAN make darker skin tone but they just DON’T want to. a few example images i’ve gotten from the enemies

every enemy we have came across have a darker shade of skin than the playable ones. even the fatui enemy has a darker/ombre type of shade of skin color. and from what i’ve seen the new enemies in natlan had darker skin tone than these ones. i have another point i have forgotten to mention in my latest post answering abt the natlan situation and this may seem like a huge stretch but hear me out.

we all know and have heard of the ‘big black beast’ writing racism right? how media will portray POC as the aggressor, enemy, the wrong side, the abuser, the pet etc etc. basically using a character’s skin tone to hide their racism. and please take this with a bag of salt as i may be reading too deep into it here, but isn’t it odd how the enemies always end up having a darker shade of skin? not just entirely POC but south asian ones too.

paimon and traveler have always been shown to be wary of or even downright afraid of every darker skinned character they meet in sumeru. eremites are darker skinned and have POC features (dreadlocks), the new enemies shown in natlan trailer does as well (dark skin and POC feature like dreadlock). its almost as if they’re trying to do the ‘big black beast’ racism in writing thing

[moonstonediaz]

idk my whole stance on the “will they/won’t they” in regards to buddie canon is just. it’s loud, it’s oddly ironic, that these are the only two main’s on the show that are S I N G L E. still! in season sex six! that their relationship statuses have basically run parallel to each other, that they keep trying and failing to find a romantic partner. so let’s look at the other side of the coin. what’s the other option? introducing yet again brand new love interests for both buck and eddie and having these people be their endgame relationships?

eddie? who has always held his cards close to his chest, is extremely protective over his son and who he gets close to, who has already tried dating the seemingly perfect woman for him and his son?

buck? who’s going to be a harder sell than ever now that he knows not to settle? who’s going to be looking for someone that accepts him just as he is, someone that compliments him perfectly, who accepts his relationships with the firefam, with chris and eddie, without complaint?

if this were season 2, 3, or hell, even season 4, i’d say yeah maybe we have time for all that. but we’re nearing the end of season SIX and there have been no new love interests brought in. and i don’t foresee 911 being a show that runs for 20+ seasons. i mean it could i guess but like. we’re in it. the meat of the sandwich. narratively, i don’t see it making sense for them to spend precious time cultivating new endgame relationships for the two of them. they’d likely have to run them at the same time, parallel to each other. yet again. which would be a tell in its own right that they were actively avoiding buddie canon.

i’m not saying they absolutely won’t do that, i have no idea what their actual plans are. i’m just saying they’re boxing themselves into a corner. a great big rainbow-filled flaming gay corner.

[mugiwara-lucy]

I think what I appreciate the most about the Live Action series is seeing how often Luffy changes clothes 👍:

ESPECIALLY when you consider that apparently in an SBS he only showers once a week....

UGH! Do you know how stinky that is?? 🤢🤮

[crimsonlovebartylus]

the marauders & co: who would stan one direction -

James: BIGGEST STAN and loves zayn malik as if his life depended on it and cried when Zayn left.

Lily: likes them by affiliation but calls Niall a cutie and will punch anyone that talks shit about him

Sirius: A Fan, his favorite friendship was Niall & Harry so he had a Narry stan account

Remus: pretended he hated them, for him to be a HUGE fan with James, was an anti-larrie, favorite was Louis

Regulus: also pretended to not like them, to be a huge fan with Remus and James, have a one direction club and fights people on twitter about who's married to Harry Styles. (projection LMAO)

Barty: hates them, but learn the larry lore to annoyed his boyfriend because he knows Regulus is anti Larrie.

Peter: Likes them, dark larrie and also likes Liam, when his hair was long

Evan: downbad for the irish lad, hes a niall stan first and a directioner second. Also fights with James about why Zayn is his also.

Pandora: The fan that would make the "imagine if" collages and has a fan page for Zayn and Louis friendship with Dorcas

Dorcas: hated them at first, they grew on her and now she loves Zayn and Louis.

Marlene: Hates them. But goes with her girlfriend to their concerts wearing a shirt that says: my girlfriend in love with Zayn.

Mary: Loves all of them equally, immediately defends them on twitter during the directioner vs belieber fight.

[otaku553]

I recall you mentioning once that you worked in a lab, do u have any advice for getting to that point? I want (read: NEED) to work or intern at a lab but I don’t rlly know what to ask the ppl running them lol

If I can help I'd be glad to!! Full disclaimer though, I am an undergrad junior and I go to school at a pretty reputable research institution so I may not be that much help because I've been pretty lucky and privileged to have direct access to many opportunities. If you're not a high schooler or undergrad student, my advice might not even apply to you at all. This got quite long, so I'll put this under a read more. If you have any more questions, feel free to dm me!

I don't know what your research interests are or what level of schooling you're at so I'll try my best to be broad. You're right that it's best to directly ask the person running the lab, the principal investigator (PI). Even if there's an official application process for fellowships or summer research grants or programs, usually already having reached out to a mentor is either a requirement or strongly encouraged. This applies for both university labs and I think rseearch agency labs like NIH, though I will say, a lot more of my advice will apply to labs at universities.

Understandably, though, it's really difficult to write that email, and quite disheartening that usually you'll need to write multiple emails to different PIs before even getting a reply back. One way to deal with this is to find a template online to copy, because word for word these emails usually go

"Hello [so and so], My name is [so and so] and I'm [brief introduction]. I'm interested in [what research this lab does] and was wondering if you have any positions available in your lab for [period you want to do internship during]. If you need them, my resume and transcript are attached. Thank you for your time."

You can delve into more specifcs in the body but it doesn't need to be long-- I think PIs tend to be quite busy, so being concise and direct is good, as long as you're genuine about what you're interested in. It doesn't need to be an essay or multiple paragraphs or anything! I find that usually 3-4 sentences suffices. If they want to know more, they'll usually ask to meet to talk about what you're interested in.

(On a side note, my roommate has an excellent strategy for dealing with anxiety when sending an email where you recite "fuck it we ball fuck it we ball fuck it we ball" while clicking send lmao)

Now, more specifically, if you're already attending a college that has labs, and professors who are PIs of those labs, it can be useful to take a class that the PI teaches and email either while taking the class or after the class and say "this class was very interesting and i was hoping to explore [so and so] further. Do you have any openings in your lab etc." If you don't have the time to do this, just cold-emailing the lab is usually fine too, but it's good to cite a connection I think? Also keep an eye out for any presentations or seminars that might be given by grad students or professors, since going to those can be a good way to express interest.

If you're a high schooler, you won't have the immediate connection, but I think most researchers would be impressed with the initiative to reach out and have no reason to refuse help. You might have a harder time finding a paid internship as a high schooler, but even with volunteering you can definitely get a foot into the door with research experience. I think a good way to start for high schoolers is looking into local university labs and expressing an interest in their work? Or reaching out to alumni of your school to ask for general advice and or opportunities.

If you don't receive an email back, you can send a follow up in two or three days. Sometimes emails can get pushed to the bottom of the inbox before they're seen, and it's no harm to just bump it again, with a little "hello! I wasn't sure if you'd seen this email. I'd like to follow up on this." (historically, I have been very bad at this, ahha). If you receive a negative response (which is pretty unlikely I think?) you can still thank them for their time and ask for advice regarding getting into research for their field of specialty.

I hope this helps! If you have any more questions, please feel free to ask or dm me. I will try my best to be helpful :)

[monachopsis-pluviophile]

A small Doctor & Donna as kids doodle I did for the newest chapter of my fic, Weird Goodbyes, just because I thought they'd be adorable

[jewishbarbies]

idk if you are into tarot, i watch it for fun, but this is so accurate about taylor. i know damn well she's a nightmare behind the scenes

https://youtu.be/tgmzw6IUzbc?feature=shared

WOW.

the trauma dumping on anyone who will listen, “I’m right, you’re wrong.”, daddy issues and trying to prove something to her dad bc she wasn’t enough for him, the suffocating and him wanting to leave but feeling like he can’t without ruining his career. I don’t feel bad for Travis because he’s cheated on at least 2 prior girlfriends, but wow. if this is even remotely true, imagine what Joe went through with her. he’s the one who stuck it out and actually started to help her. but he had enough because, allegedly, she refused to change and wanted things to go back to being toxic and chaotic. wow.

[generalsmemories]

I know this is ridiculous but what would happen if Jing Liu met the reader and knew about the reader's relationship with Jing Yuan? This is ridiculous but I'm curious😭😭

tbh.

i don't think she would care. mildly surprised that he even had time for love in his busy life as a general, but could care less about his love life. girl had enough shit to deal with or still dealing with if she's still under a hallucination so-

good for him, he gets a pat on the back before she heads to jail 😭

[ikeameatballspoisonedme]

I don't blame people for not knowing, IH did a lot of rebranding after all, but IH is definitely at least right-leaning. Alt-lite, if you will, where he doesn't say too much blatantly alt right stuff Tucker Carlson style (put a pin to this) but if you know the dogwhistles, you'll realize that he's just better at hiding his political tendencies. A cryptofascist, if you will. I knew because a) well, look at his fans and b) I was a fan since his very beginning, when he just released the Dashcon video and also back when I unfortunately was right-leaning anti-SJW. And boy looking back there were a lot of dogwhistles I was familiar with.

Take a look at the bikelock video (still up to this day!) where even outside of the blatant 1488 reference it's clear he's not fond of antifas. Or the HWNDU video where it's just /pol/ wankery and lots of clips of people being very antisemitic being shown uncritically. The most blatant proof of him being alt-lite is the deleted Seize video that hbomb mentioned. He admitted he watched Tucker Carlson (!!!), he put a clearly anti-semitic username on display and even said it, and he did racist caricature of Japanese people. Clearly too much bigotry for an alt-lite so he deleted it.

Again, these aren't blatant alt-right declaration like say, Sargon of Akkad or Stefan Molyneux (yeah remember that piece of shit). But put the pieces scattered across his videos together and you have someone very fond of right-leaning ideology. But with enough plausible deniability so when people brought it up he'll have an army of defenders saying stuff like "duuuhhhhh 14/88 is just a number triggered much" or "these r 5 years ago he changed!!!!!!1!". Lol if he truly changed he would've denounce his fans' antisemitism but he didn't do anything.

[matcharabbit]

I have a feeling dexters a more important character then we realize

[imjustavenuxwithaboomerang]

re-rating rise of red songs as i listen to them on spotify

see the first rating here

red by red, jack of diamonds, and guards: 7.75/10

i've warmed up to the chanty chorus so that made the rating go up. again, kylie sounds really good. don't know how to feel about the pre-chorus. still don't care for jack of diamonds and the guards' parts (other than the "oh oh oh oh" parts but those go on a little too long imo)

so this is love by cinderella and king charming: 9.75/10

literally almost perfection! paolo and brandy sound SO GOOD. it's so so pretty omg. the pacing again is the downfall, some parts sound slightly too fast but i almost don't care, it's that pretty

love ain't it by red, queen of hearts, chloe, cinderella, and auradon citizens: 6/10

same ranking. mainly the same notes as the first ranking post, i like the beginning and chorus but it's (as a whole song) a little messy. again didn't really care for the citizens and guards singing and wanted a lot less rap. rita sounded great though

what's my name (red version) by uma and red: 7/10

the "stop us" is thankfully fixed as far as i can tell. the new instrumental is taking some getting used to but i like that the song isn't just the 2017 vocals on top of a new instrumental. red's talking parts in her verse are what's throwing me off and what brought down the ranking down a number. i am fine with the rap part though. the "that's my name, that's my name" adlib at the end sounds slightly off to me too

fight of our lives by red and chloe: 7.75/10

it definitely picks up after the first chorus. speaking of the first chorus, there's odd editing on the line "running out of hope" that takes me out of the song. i really like the instrumental though (the wannabe drummer in me is very happy about it). kylie, again, sounds very good but that's a given (i really like her chorus) and like i said in the first ranking, malia and kylie's voices sound very nice together and the layering and harmonies are nice (TO ME)

life is sweeter by rise of red cast: 6.75/10

again the chorus and the villains's (specifically hook, morgie, and uliana) part are the selling point to me. however why is maleficent's part like drowned out?? (actually a couple parts of this song are) ruby's voice sounds very nice on the chorus's melody. still haven't decided if i like that the song is everyone's introduction. the verses don't click with me, save for the first verse. the instrumental shift to the villains' introduction could be better. and the final chorus is very jarring with the villains interjecting, and not in a 'so bad it's good way'

perfect revenge by uliana, hook, morgie, hades, and maleficent: 6/10

i feel like this song is the definition of a grower and an earworm. i'll probably sing it over the next week even though it's my least favorite song. basically it's objectively catchy and i would understand why someone would like it. i personally don't love the melody of the post-chorus and i don't care for hades and maleficent's voices or parts (no offense). i do like dara's ad-libs at the end and the song makes my choreographer brain start ticking so i guess that's an upside.

shuffle of love by bridget: 8.5/10

one point off for the fact that i had to strain my brain and ears to figure out the lyrics of the first line of the chorus (it's "first, one two-step to start", had a feeling disney+ captions were wrong and they were). a half point off for the MORE unnecessary rapping (it wasn't bad just unneeded). other than that i really like this song. i especially like chorus, which i mentioned before, and i was robbed of this being fully in the movie

get your hands dirty by ella and chloe: 8/10

don't know why it went down, just vibes. everything i said is still true. i like the melody and absolutely love the songwriting and the rapping/talk singing is a bit more bearable. and again morgon sounds very nice.

life is sweeter (reprise) by red and queen of hearts: 7/10

pretty reprise, same ranking. nothing much to say that i haven't said already

life is sweeter (remix) by rise of red cast: 5/10

i like the little nuggets of vocals that can be heard but like i said before, not always a fan of remixes. ranking went lower because the scene talked over the remixed instrumental so i couldn't get an opinion on it.

bad reputation by red: 3/10

this is a lot at once and will probably be the only song i don't add to my soundtracks playlists. the instrumental is very loud and very distracting but kylie sounds nice

[gaiuskamilah]

I’d honestly be really interested in your theory on why it was only Jax or Lily who could die. I’ve always wondered why there wasn’t a possibly that any of the LIs could die and not just those two.

the most likely answer really is either 1) writer/fan favoritism with the LIs, or 2) lack of resources to make four additional death CGs. leaning more with the first one lol

the theory i've got is more thematic but also has a lot of holes in it. it makes me feel like this lmao

it first starts with the assumption that rheya's descent into madness mirrors mc's own, which was triggered by the death of iola and jax/lily respectively. following that, we can then also assume that iola and jax/lily are meant to parallel each other.

rheya refused to integrate iola into the power system she created as queen; she in part also wanted to protect iola from the dangers of the system she knew she was in. additionally, iola was taken away from her family by people who wanted to destroy the reigning system.

you can somewhat draw similarities with jax and lily's stories - jax was protected by takeshi who refused to let him go to japan lest he be killed by the the five, the reigning power in japan. there are inconsistencies with jax's story but you can safely say that him turning into a vampire eventually led him to dissent against a hegemon - the clan system (depends on which you take as canon, b1 says that he was turned by a clanless vampire who wanted to overthrow the clans, while in b3 takeshi insinuates that fighting for the clanless was jax's idea). while with lily, she was turned after jameson attacked her in hopes that it would further gaius' plan to usurp clan authority. the theme of "protection" also comes forward with mc and adrian defying the pact to keep her safe.

there's also the fact that it's rheya's child that dies, and you could argue some bit that jax and lily are "children," being much younger than adrian and kamilah, and takeshi canonically loving jax like a son. but this one is extremely faulty because rheya (and gaius) call everyone from their bloodline their children lmao.

i think what's most important is the idea that jax and lily were never active players in systematic, hegemonic oppression within the vampire world, much like iola. if you romance kamilah in bb3, she specifically mentions only rheya, gaius, adrian, and herself as people who let their pain turn them into monsters, and perpetuated harm as a result of it. no mention of jax or lily. i don't have a better word for it but they're like, innocent collateral casualties in the larger scheme of the power struggle. if that makes sense.

[a-small-writer-in-a-big-world]

I think I would like Superman a lot more if the media portrayed him as the goofy kind loving guy he is rather than whatever Snyder decided him to be

[miramisaki]

85(-ish) days until Charlie...