#and I’m absolutely anti nuclear power

[shorthaltsjester]

begging twitter to stop showing me tweets of people with no reading comprehension misrepresenting things I said but since i was going to make this more in-depth post Anyway .

when i say imogen is better read as a metaphor for generational trauma than she is a metaphor for queerness or chronic pain, i’m not talking about legitimate traits she has as a character. obviously she is queer. obviously she experiences some form of chronic pain (though i would argue her magic better suits chronic illness not pain because she states that it’s Not always painful, but it does always influence how she lives her life).

when i talk about how well she’s understood as a metaphor, i’m talking about when i’m looking at her as a part of a story, as an arc that i am witnessing rather than in the more typical fandom way of this is a fictional person who interacts with exandria as real people do. and that is a fun way to interact with characters, i enjoy it a lot! but when i say imogen (to me, as i for some reason have to clarify on my own blog which implies that these are my own opinions and not absolute fact that needs to be accepted by people on the internet with different experience and opinions than me) is best read as a metaphor for generational trauma, it isn’t a dismissal of her queerness or her illness, it’s just me thinking looking at her from that angle is more compelling.

imogen has been one of my favourite characters and least favourite characters in campaign 3 because i tend to analyse her through a lens of generational trauma and she ends up looking extremely familiar to me as someone with a family that carries their’s heavily which is as comforting as it is frustrating.

for me the main thing that looking at imogen through a queer lens of literary analysis fails to account for is harm. on the one hand - the harm that imogen experiences, not because of how people treat her for who she is, but that exists simply as a factor of her being ruidusborn. on the other hand a the harm that imogen causes. not to say that she is some malicious villain waiting for her chance to harm others, but that there are things about being ruidusborn that very much do incline her towards violence in a way that she might not otherwise be - i think about the conversation after she went nuclear and chet brought up people being scared of her connecting that to her father keeping distance. the only harm that queerness provides comes from society, and that isn’t the case in exandria. even metaphorically, the thing that society fears in ruidusborn people (while it has certainly been exacerbated by centuries of superstition and practices like we saw in zephrah) is a tangible threat. imogen’s magic when not controlled can wipe out a city block, but queerness poses no threat.

that’s why i’m not compelled by imogen’s backstory as a queer metaphor. not because i’m some imodna anti (i very emphatically am not but this fandom kinda makes me wish i was sometimes) or because i think exandria’s lack of homophobia/transphobia means that characters can’t be viewed through a queer lens or that critical role doesn’t contain some of the most compelling queer metaphor i’ve encountered. imogen just isn’t one of those characters, not because she isn’t queer, or because i think her story shouldn’t resonate with queer people, just because i find the generational trauma angle more consistent.

it’s similar with the chronic illness angle, which i will refer to as illness but you’re welcome to emphasise pain, we all have different vocabularies for the experiences we face. but just to give context i’m running off laura’s comparison of imogen’s powers to her own sensory issues and anxiety which while often Lead to pain, fall more into chronic illness in imogen’s context to me. and i do think there’s substantial comparison for imogen’s story as a metaphor for chronic illness, but i think that was much more true earlier in the campaign than it is looking at her from the current context. her beginning motivation being her search for knowledge about her powers really resonated with me as similar to someone experiencing symptoms of chronic illness but who could neither figure out how to treat them or what they were caused by.

but then imogen got more information, specifically about her mother, and her priority became not understanding her powers but understanding her current state as a person - how had she become the person she is, inclusive of her powers but very much emphasising her lack of a mother who became more and more present in the unweaving web of ruidusborn lore. that’s when i was less compelled by the chronic illness reading and more compelled by viewing her as a metaphor for generational trauma. had that not been enough on its own, imogen’s visit to relvin and her recent thoughts on her mother would be enough to convince me.

the part that makes me hesitant about this post is that generational trauma is so intensely linked to the contexts under which it is created and perpetuated. so i can’t really point to specific scenes as evidence of specific things that prove generational trauma is the most compelling and i don’t really want to unload that much of my own experience to clarify my thoughts on a character. but vaguely, i will say that imogen’s relationship with her parents is obviously the clearest source for my reading her as a metaphor for generational trauma. the fact that relvin, the only person in her family without the thing that draws society’s ire, is also the person that she has the most willing anger at is also indicative of this to me. in general, imogen’s rage that so easily transitions into sadness and vice versa comes out a lot in conversations about parents. most recently, i think about ashton’s lovely speech about found family and his distrust about parents and how as they were speaking, laura seemed to be playing imogen as sadly in thought versus months ago when fearnes parents showed up with striking similarities to liliana and imogen’s words of wisdom were let’s hurt them all.

and like. to me that angersadnessvengeancegrief is particularly evocative of the feelings that arise when you are in a family with generational trauma, especially when you are aware of it. because imogen can and has followed the logical steps that have led her and her family to where they are. early on when recounting her relationship with her dad she seemed wistful but understanding of the distance between them. in nearly every encountered with a parental figure imogen seems to be some level of distrusting for the most part, but she’s still holding out hope that her mother will see the good side. and further, there’s the complication of how dire her losing her powers seems to be, and how inextricable her powers are from every aspect of her life. she’s also southern and from a blue collar family. this means nothing except it also means a whole lot.

this is messy and not well organised but if you want a good essay you’re gonna have to pay me money for it but tldr: i say things i believe on my This Is My Opinion Blog and i don’t think i need to explain my thoughts to strangers on the internet but this was already half written in my drafts and if people are gonna shit on my opinions please at least do it in good faith and shit on my actual opinions not the ones you’ve decided i have.

[quillkiller]

I have just seen this and maybe you have talked about it before but Effie x Walburga

I’m like shaken because I can’t imagine James mom ever wanting to be with someone probably cruel from birth. I mean they would have been together in the fifties, idk it made em giggle

would you all still love me if i said i was a walburga defender… :(

ok ive been pondering this all day, and ive also spent an insane amount of time on public transport trying to find a post i made in defence of walburga. @sugarsnappeases pulled up her laptop as my own personal hacker and stalker and couldnt find it either. however i found a snippet of an ’what are ur unpopular opinions’ ask and found this:

and that’s the gist of it. if anyone remembers the post i made or know how to find it pleaseeeeee send it to me. me and kara went through hell and back to try and find it :(((((((

anyway!

1. i hate the concept of people being born ’cruel’ or ’evil’. people are people and sometimes people do bad things. i think its important to still acknowledge that abusive people aren’t monsters who just couldn’t help themselves. abusers are people and those people chose to treat you like that. that was a choice they didn’t have to make, but they did. abusers aren’t monsters or monstrous. it’s important to me, due to personal experience, to remember that abuse is a choice. it allows me to feel betrayed and hurt and angry that a person chose to do that to me

2. i think walburga was a victim her whole childhood. atleast my own depiction of her. it’s different when she becomes an adult, has children, etc, and she should know better. there’s no excuse for her abuse towards her children/no excuse ever for abusive parents. and i want to be very clear about how there are NO excuses !!!!!! i am not team walburga and will never ever be team walburga !!!!!

3. walburga was a woman in the 70s, she held no power over orion what so ever. he was the man in the house. the head of the family. the abuse was allowed because quietly sat back and allowed it. absolutely ridiculous to me that walburga would be worse than orion. i simply think its an ignorant and misogynistic take. a silent father will always scare me more than the active abusive mother. like.. the patriarchy in the 70s in pure blood families ? lets be real here

ive seen posts saying orion was scared of walburga and thats why he never did anything. like are we being serious here. no way she got to choose her husband. and he’s a powerful man from a powerful family. in the seventies. why woud he be scared of her she has absolutely no power what so ever

4. i love exploring the womens narrative in the marauders fandom because their canonical narrative is based on sexism and the nuclear family. i guess you think it’s outlandish that effie would fall for walburga (cruel from birth) because shes james’ mother, and the anti walburga in the way she opens up her home and basically adopts sirius and makes a home for him ? to me that’s not interesting sadly :/ i love effiebarty because i get to explore good housewife effie tearing down her walls and acting on her desires and urges. like…. i want her to leave both james and monty behind out of pure selfishness. like.. im the girl writing the baby killing fic where lily is the sole survivor….

5. to me walburga is sort of similar to alicent from house of the dragon. what did she ever do that wasn’t expected of her? she was a girl in the 60/50s in a powerful family and had less choices than either reg or sirius ever did. she didn’t leave like sirius did. she stayed like regulus. and for similar reasons reg stayed probably. and she’s a woman. her sons are more priveliged than she will ever ever be. even disowned sirius is more priveliged than her.

6. i want to be very clear again. i am not a walburga apologist. i think there’s a clear distinction between her child- and adulthood. at some point the abuse becomes a choice. she didn’t break the cycle and she’s bad and rotten woman who abused her children. no excuses !!!!!!!!!! however. it is interesting exploring the circumstances which led to the woman she is

7. to actually answer your question. i dont necessarily care for effie/walburga but i can see the appeal. maybe i’ll get into it we’ll see……. like honestly they wouldn’t be that different from jegulus?

[c0rpseductor]

“family” as a lot of people conxeptualize it — a place of particular love, care, closeness and security — is incompatible with family as a mode of social organization and hierarchy. i’m not feeling particularly well so i’m not sure i’m articulating this great but like, what i’m trying to say is that the traditional family is authoritarian by nature, and to achieve what most people think of with the word “family,” as in a place of constructive, loving, safe relationships, it must necessarily not resemble the nuclear family — in particular meaning that the family cannot be isolated, cannot inherently supersede other relationships, and cannot be driven by authority or exist as a hierarchy. the concept of “family” as a set of positive and nurturing relationships is fundamentally incompatible with shit like discipline.

i think a lot of people think like, “the problem is we should try to get parents to be nicer to kids,” but really the problem is that parents have absolute power over kids, and often fathers have absolute power over the household. it’s an authoritarian system. the problem isn’t that we have to replace mean despots with nice ones, it’s that these hierarchies exist at all. there’s nothing wrong with loving your relatives or parents or whatever but The Family as a system of power and as a little island you’re trapped in and receive all your care from is fucked.

honestly i wish there were separate words for these two conceptions of family. i think the idea of a particular set of people with whom you feel safest and most supported is great, and that doesn’t necessarily need to coincide with who you’re biologically related to. and it’s obviously useful to have a word for people you are related to and raised with. but i think lumping all these things under “family” when family is also a system of harm can make it difficult to criticize that system without sounding like you have a problem with like, support networks. sometimes it’s difficult for me to disentangle those ingrained associations, and i feel pretty critical of family as a victim of familial abuse.

i guess im not sure where i’m going with this post beyond that i generally agree with what i know about family abolition and also that i still feel really mad that people who don’t understand these things about family will try to talk about family in a like, transgressive anti-patriarchal way, and then just end up reinforcing this stuff

[sammysdewysensitiveeyes]

I have posted a little bit about this before, but I finally read some very old X-Men issues to learn the brief history of the Changeling, the character who got retooled into Morph my beloved.

Changeling was absolutely an unambiguous villain back in his first appearance, and he talked basically the same way most comics villains talked back in the   60′s.

That’s Changeling in the goofy-ass purple helmet, Kevin, wtf are you wearing, bro?  Are you okay?  (Of course, he wasn’t Kevin back then, he didn’t have a name other than Changeling.)

Changeling was part of a group called Factor Three that wanted to heat up East-West tensions in order to trigger WW3, and destroy humanity to create a society ruled by mutants.  This was a pretty short-sighted plan given that most mutants could die in a nuclear blast just as easily as humans, but whatever.  The group consisted of old X-Men enemies like Vanisher, the Blob, and Unus the Untouchable, with the mysterious Mutant Master as the leader, and Changeling as his second-in-command.

The only interesting thing about Changeling in this first (and mostly only) appearance is that he starts to question Mutant Master’s actions.  Not in a “maybe this is morally wrong,” kind of way, more in a “I don’t trust your motives” kind of way.  Xavier also attempts to appeal to Changeling while he is captured by the group.  It apparently works, because Changeling winds up freeing Xavier and Banshee, then confronting Mutant Master in Xavier’s form to call him out.  Why that callout required Xavier’s form, I don’t know, but it was a fairly anti-climactic reveal of Changeling’s previously unspecified shape-shifting powers.

Mutant Master turns out to be an alien who actually wants to destroy ALL life on Earth, not just humans.  The other Factor Three members are wisely not down with that, and help the X-Men defeat him.  Then the groups just kinda awkwardly part ways. 

That’s the last we see of Changeling until the retcon.  Next is the story in which Xavier dies, and which was apparently originally intended to be the actual death of Xavier, until they wanted to bring him back and realized that they had a convenient shape-shifting character running around.

In the story, Xavier is acting weird, and sterner than usual, while making apparently irrational decisions and spending a lot of time alone with Jean.  Meanwhile, the X-Men fight some dude named Grotesk, who is the last survivor of an underground society, and wants to destroy the world with an earthquake machine, and it’s all so dumb I really don’t care.  But in the end Xavier stops Grotesk’s machine, and is mortally wounded in the explosion,  Then as he dies, he reveals that he was already dying of an illness, and he pushed the team so hard because so they’d be prepared to fight on without him.

It’s a sad story when you read it as Xavier, but even sadder when you re-read it as Changeling going through all this, while wearing another person’s face.  He’s genuinely heroic here:

“There’s no need for you to want to see the Earth destroyed!  No reason!”  Changeling, buddy, you were trying to start WW3 like three weeks ago.  But I’ll call this character development.

Changeling takes “commit to the bit” to another level by dying as Xavier.  He was already terminally ill, but since he’d only been leading the team for a few weeks, it’s safe to say his remaining time was shortened here.  He basically sacrificed himself to save the world, and was buried and mourned under another man’s identity.

In issue 65, Xavier’s death is retconned and Xavier shows up alive and explains the switch.

Changeling now talks like a gangster from the 1920′s, and I’m somehow imagining him with a Brooklyn accent. You can see where Morph’s character design came from, although I’m pretty sure TAS series Morph is meant to be much younger.  Changeling here looks middle-aged.  Although maybe it’s also because he’s dying?

Given that the Xavier’s death story was originally written to be actual Xavier, this sad little one-page retcon is all we get of the Changeling redemption story.  He was basically just a plot device to bring Xavier back.  And I have so many questions, the biggest one being:

He was in the basement?  Xavier let another man die in his place and let his team mourn his death, and the entire time, he was in the fucking basement?!  When I first heard about this story, I assumed that Xavier had to go away somewhere to do something really important to prepare for the alien invasion, and left Changeling as a temporary stand-in.  But apparently, he just really needed time alone to concentrate, because he let his team of teenagers cry over his supposed dead body while he was in the fucking basement of the mansion the entire time. 

Putting a former terrorist in charge of his students was already a pretty bad idea, even if Xavier could read his mind to know that he sincerely wanted to reform.  Was Xavier monitoring things at all down there?  Was he available to offer help or advice if Changeling or Jean came to him?  Would he have done anything at all if Changeling changed his mind and went bad again?  I feel like the answer is, “Probably not.”  If Xavier needed absolute, uninterrupted time alone to plan, letting Jean or Changeling pop in to ask questions every day would kind of defeat the purpose - he may as well just keep leading the team. 

More important, did Xavier intend to fake his own death?  He knew Changeling was terminally ill, but the time frame was six months.  He presumably couldn’t have predicted Changeling being killed by Grotesk.  Was he going to come back and let Changeling retire for a peaceful death, or was he going to let him die as Xavier.  Was Changeling’s death part of some messed up plan to force the X-Men to stand on their own, or just some unfortunate wrinkle in Xavier’s strategy that he ran with?  Xavier actually had a “final message” to the X-Men that he had pre-recorded, which they play in X-Men 43 after the funeral.  Who is speaking on that recording?  Is it Xavier himself?  Changeling?  Were they really planning on having Changeling die while still in Xavier form?

And that’s not even getting into poor Jean.  Jean was the ONLY one who knew the truth, and to hide it from the rest of the team.  She was basically a teenager, and had to bear the burden of helping Changeling as fake Xavier, and watching all her team-mates mourn and struggle after Xavier’s death, never revealing the truth.  There was an interview with Chris Claremont where he said that he thought Xavier’s retconned actions in issue 65 were really messed up.  He doesn’t get into the isolating of Jean, just that it was an absolute dick move to fake his own death (either deliberately or unintentionally) instead of just telling the team that he needed to go off somewhere alone and they’d have to fend for themselves for awhile.  In an issue retelling the X-Men’s history after Jean’s Dark Phoenix death, he wrote Cyclops as actually being somewhat resentful of Xavier’s decision. 

If Changeling ever does get resurrected on Krakoa, I’d actually like to see some interaction between him and Jean.  Jean was the only person who knew the truth, and the only person he could confide in or ask for advice during his tenure as Fake-X, assuming that Xavier was totally locked away.  What did they talk about in private?  Did he ask Jean for advice on how to properly be Xavier?  Or was Jean just like, “I understand that you’re dying and all, but could you be a little less cranky?  The team is starting to notice.”  Jean also seems to be the only one who maybe mourns him.  She appears to be just as upset as the rest of the team as “Xavier” dies, even though she knows the truth.  And her comment on Changeling is “He....was a fine person, at the last.”  Jean seems to care more than Xavier, who brushes the death off pretty quickly.  “Yes, team, I let someone else die in my place while I hid in the basement, but that’s all water under the bridge.  Now lets train to fight the aliens.”

Anyway, this is a weird story, and some of the weirdness is partially just due to the retcon.  Changeling would have been a footnote in X-Men history if he hadn’t been adapted into the happy-go-luck Morph, who is so completely different, whether in TAS, AoA or Exiles.  I still want to know Changeling wound up being such a cold-hearted and ruthless character compared to his alternate counterparts. 

Also, Professor Xavier is a jerk.

[bloodlily16]

Saw your "fuck the left behind series" tag on that 4 humors post and I genuinely want to know why. I never read it as a kid because reading about the rapture scared me to all hell and back even though my mom tried pushing me to read it. It makes me curious what I missed.

Okay to be fair I haven't read the Left Behind series, I just some something about it but a lot of this comes from who the Antichrist is in the series, and also because the series’ creator is a douche. (one of two)

I feel like the latter isn’t a surprise, but Tim La Haye, the guy who allegedly came up with the idea for the series, is a homophobe and also a conspiracy theorist who thinks the illuminati is real and out to turn the world into a one-world government that’s going to practice socialism and worship satan. He helped found a right-wing Christian Watchdog group back in the 80s, his wife did the same thing but for women, he supported Reagan’s run for president and helped to get the Religious Right behind W Bush, and was buddies with Moonies, AKA the people that Shinzo Abe was shot for being buddies with because the Moonies are a dangerous cult that ruin lives. This dude is probably able to justify this because of his conspiracy theory beliefs that a bunch of people are trying to establish the New World Order, including every civil rights organization, major media corps, the United Nations, (and more) by working with the illuminati and satan! Generally speaking, he’s a shithead.*

This is important context because in the Left Behind Series, the Main Antagonist is the Antichrist, who is a Romanian dude born to a mom who was brought into a group of satanists and artificially inseminated with the Antichrist. This dude (whose name is reminiscent of my first edgy anime oc) becomes leader of the United Nations and then turns the United Nations into the Global Community, aka a One-World Government that has all the powers a pissant right-wing evangelical thinks the UN has, and then he later nukes a bunch of major cities and kills millions of people and then takes over the planet.

When I looked at what the series was about I only really needed to see that the portrayal of the UN was right out of some Alex Jones bullshit screed to know that I’d hate the series, and the fact that it deals with the rapture at all, since the rapture isn’t considered biblically valid by most actual biblical scholars. It’s also considered to be anti-secular (of course), anti-Jewish (considering the conspiracy lore i’m not surprised), and anti-Catholic (not surprising since this is American Evangelical wanking), and the book’s been criticized because not only is it an absolute bloodbath, but that bloodbath is framed with goddamn rose petals and scented candles. People die, and they die horribly. It frames the United Nations as a vessel for Satan, and one of the guys who wrote it thinks the ACLU is trying to destroy the country. To quote a Time article about these books: "the nuclear frights of, say, Tom Clancy's The Sum of All Fears wouldn't fill a chapter in the Left Behind series. (Large chunks of several U.S. cities have been bombed to smithereens by page 110 of Book 3.)"

I think the comparison to Clancy is apt here, if only because in my experience, evangelical Christianity has a masturbatory fascination with the Middle East and with bloodshed. The former is partially because of the history of Christianity and Abrahamic religions as a whole, the latter is down to the fact that violence, when justified, is a pure and holy thing to these people. Dennis Prager recently went viral for arguing there’s no secular argument against incest, and that’s what people like this think. Hashtag not all Christians, whatever. But the idea that your faith is what makes you moral means that whatever you do in service of your fate is moral, and that conversely, everything the other side does is proof as to how much you need to fight against them. Anything can be justified, and so violence is baptized into something acceptable in the eyes of people who piss and moan about video games and shit.

This is a book series criticized for delighting in violence, bloodshed, and slaughter, and in retrospect why not? This is a book written where the inciting incident is the rapture: all the ‘good people’ and all the ‘innocents’ have been taken up to heaven, and everyone left is an acceptable target. The Left Behind series is the closest thing to porn that the people who write it can engage with without guilt, and you can tell they’re jacking off at the idea of being to engage in guerrilla warfare against Satan and the New World Order.

*The other guy, Jerry B. Jenkins, is much less politically active but is a full Christian who writes a lot and actually legitimately believes in dispensationalism. All his books deal with either christianity or the end times in some way.

TLDR: I haven’t read the book series but it stands as an example of a lot of things I hate about Evangelistic Christianity and also the Rapture is BS.

[sylvielauffeydottir]

Hello, it is I, your friendly neighborhood historian. I am ready to lose followers for this post, but I have two masters degrees in history and one of my focuses has been middle eastern area studies. Furthermore, I’ve been tired of watching the world be reduced to pithy little infographics, and I believe there is no point to my education if I don’t put it to good use. Finally, I am ethnically Asheknazi Jewish. This does not color my opinion in this post — I am in support of either a one or two state solution for Israel and Palestine, depending on the factors determined by the Palestinian Authority, and the Israeli Government does not speak for me. I hate Netanyahu. A lot. With that said, my family was slaughtered at Auschwitz-Birkenau. I have stood in front of that memorial wall at the Holocaust memorial in DC for my great uncle Simon and my great uncle Louis and cried as I lit a candle. Louis was a rabbi, and he preached mitzvot and tolerance. He died anyway. 

There’s a great many things I want to say about what is happening in the Middle East right now, but let’s start with some facts. 

In early May, there were talks of a coalition government that might have put together (among other parties, the Knesset is absolutely gigantic and usually has about 11-13 political parties at once) the Yesh Atid, a center-left party, and the United Arab List, a Palestinian party. For the first time, Palestinians would have been members of the Israeli government in their own right. And what happened, all of the sudden? A war broke out. A war that, amazingly, seemed to shield Benjamin Netanyahu from criminal prosecution, despite the fact that he has been under investigation for corruption for some time now and the only thing that is stopping a real investigation is the fact that he is Prime Minister.

Funny how that happened. 

There’s a second thing people ought to know, and it is about Hamas. I’ve found it really disturbing to see people defending Hamas on a world stage because, whether or not people want to believe it, Hamas is a terrorist organization. I’m sorry, but it is. Those are the facts. I’m not being a right wing extremist or even a Republican or whatever else or want to lob at me here. I’m a liberal historian with some facts. They are a terrorist organization, and they don’t care if their people die. 

Here’s what you need to know: 

There are two governments for the occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank and Gaza. In April 2021, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas postponed planned elections. He said it was because of a dispute amid Israeli-annexed East Jerusalum. He is 85 years old, and his Fatah Party is losing power to Hamas. Everyone knows that. Palestinians know that. 

Here’s the thing about Hamas: they might be terrorists, but aren’t idiots. They understand that they have a frustrated population filled with people who have been brutalized by their neighbors. And they also understand that Israel has something called the iron dome defense system, which means that if you throw a rocket at it, it probably won’t kill anyone (though there have been people in Israel who died, including Holocaust survivors). Israel will, however, retaliate, and when they do, they will kill Palestinian civilians. On a world stage, this looks horrible. The death toll, because Palestinians don’t have the same defense system, is always skewed. Should the Israeli government do that? No. It’s morally repugnant. It’s wrong. It’s unfair. It’s hurting people without the capability to defend themselves. But is Hamas counting on them to for the propaganda? Yeah. Absolutely. They’re literally willing to kill their other people for it.

You know why this works for Hamas? They know that Israel will respond anyway, despite the moral concerns. And if you’re curious why, you can read some books on the matter (Six Days of War by Michael Oren; The Yom Kippur War by Abraham Rabinovich; Rise and Kill First by Ronen Bergmen; Antisemitism by Deborah Lipstadt; and Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn by Daniel Gordis). The TL;DR, if you aren’t interested in homework, is that Israel believes they have no choice but to defend themselves against what they consider ‘hostile powers.’ And it’s almost entirely to do with the Holocaust. It’s a little David v Goliath. It is, dare I say, complicated.

I’m barely scratching the surface here. 

(We won’t get into this in this post, though if you want to DM me for details, it might be worth knowing that Iran funds Hamas and basically supplies them with all of their weapons, and part of the reason the United States has been so reluctant to engage with this conflict is that Iran is currently in Vienna trying to restore its nuclear deal with western powers. The USA cannot afford to piss off Iran right now, and therefore cannot afford to aggravative Hamas and also needs to rely on Israel to destroy Irani nuclear facilities if the deal goes south. So, you know, there is that).

There are some people who will tell you that criticism of the Israel government is antisemitic. They are almost entirely members of the right wing, evangelical community, and they don’t speak for the Jewish community. The majority of Jewish people and Jewish Americans in particular are criticizing the Israeli government right now. The majority of Jewish people in the diaspora and in Israel support Palestinian rights and are speaking out about it. And actually, when they talk about it, they are putting themselves in great danger to do so. Because it really isn’t safe to be visibly Jewish right now. People may not want to listen to Jews when they speak about antisemitism or may want to believe that antisemitism ‘isn’t real’ because ‘the Holocaust is over’ but that is absolutely untrue. In 2019, antisemitic hate crimes in the United States reached a high we have never seen before. I remember that, because I was living in London, and I was super scared for my family at the time. Since then, that number has increased by nearly 400% in the last ten days. If you don’t believe me, have some articles about it (one, two, three, four, and five, to name a few). 

I live in New York City, where a man was beaten in Time Square while attending a Free Palestine rally and wearing a kippah. I’m sorry, but being visibly Jewish near a pro-Palestine rally? That was enough to have a bunch of people just start beating on him? I made a previous post detailing how there are Jews being attacked all over the world, and there is a very good timeline of recent hate crimes against Jews that you can find right here. These are Jews, by the way, who have nothing to do with Israel or Palestine. They are Americans or Europeans or Canadians who are living their lives. In some cases, they are at pro-Palestine rallies and they are trying to help, but they just look visibly Jewish.  God Forbid we are the wrong ethnicity for your rally, even if we agree.

This is really serious. There are people calling for the death of all Jews. There are people calling for another Holocaust. 

There are 14 million Jews in the world. 14 million. Of 7.6 billion. And you think it isn’t a problem the way people treat us?

Anyway (aside from, you know, compassion), why does this matter? This matters because stuff like this deters Jews who want to be part of the pro-Palestine movement because they are literally scared for their safety. I said this before, and I will say it again: Zionism was, historically speaking, a very unpopular opinion. It was only widespread antisemitic violence (you know, the Holocaust) that made Jews believe there was a necessity for a Jewish state. Honestly, it wasn’t until the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting that I supported it the abstract idea too.

I grew up in New York City, I am a liberal Jew, and I believe in the rights of marginalized and oppressed people to self-determine worldwide. Growing up, I also fit the profile of what many scholars describe as the self hating Jew, because I believed that, in order to justify myself in American liberal society, I had to hate Israel, and I had to be anti-Zionist by default, even if I didn’t always understand what ‘Zionism’ meant in abstract. Well, I am 27 years old now with two masters degrees in history, and here is what Zionism means to me: I hate the Israeli government. They do not speak for me. But I am not anti-Zionist. I believe in the necessity for a Jewish state — a state where all Jews are welcome, regardless of their background, regardless of their nationality. 

There needs to be a place where Jews, an ethnic minority who are unwelcome in nearly every state in the world, have a place where they are free from persecution — a place where they feel protected. And I don’t think there is anything wrong with that place being the place where Jews are ethnically indigenous to. Because believe it or not, whether it is inconvenient, Jews are indigenous to the land of Israel. I’ve addressed this in this post.

With that said, that doesn’t mean you can kick the Palestinian people out. They are also indigenous to that land, which is addressed in the same post, if you don’t trust me. 

What is incredible to me is that Zionism is defined, by the Oxford English Dixtionary, as “A movement [that called originally for] the reestablishment of a Jewish nationhood in Palestine, and [since 1948] the development of the State of Israel.” Whether we agree with this or not, there were early disagreements about the location of a ‘Jewish state,’ and some, like Maurice de Hirsch, believed it ought to be located in South America, for example. Others believed it should be located in Africa. The point is that the original plans for the Jewish state were about safety. The plan changed because Jews wanted to return to their homeland, the largest project of decolonization and indigenous reclamation ever to be undertaken by an indigenous group. Whether you want to hear that or not, it is true. Read a book or two. Then you might know what I mean.

When people say this is a complicated issue, they aren’t being facetious. They aren’t trying to obfuscate the point. They often aren’t even trying to defend the Israeli government, because I certainly am not — I think they are abhorrent. But there is no future in the Middle East if the Israelis and Palestinians don’t form a state that has an equal right of return and recognizes both of their indigenousness, and that will never happen if people can’t stop throwing vitriolic rhetoric around.  Is the Israeli Government bad? Yes. Are Israeli citizens bad? Largely, no. They want to defend their families, and they want to defend their people. This is basically the same as the fact that Palestinian people aren’t bad, though Hamas often is. And for the love of god, stop defending terrorist organizations. Just stop. They kill their own people for their own power and for their own benefit. 

And yes, one more time, the Israeli government is so, so, so wrong. But god, think about your words, and think about how you are enabling Nazis. The rhetoric the left is using is hurting Jews. I am afraid to leave my house. I’m afraid to identify as Jewish on tumblr. I’m afraid for my family, afraid for my friends. People I know are afraid for me. 

It’s 2021. I am not my great uncle. I cried for him, but I shouldn’t have to die like him. 

Words have consequences. Language has consequences. And genuinely, I do not think everyone is a bad person, so think about what you are putting into the world, because you’d be surprised how often you are doing a Nazi a favor or two. 

Is that really what you want? To do a Nazi a favor or two? I don’t think that you do. I hope you don’t, at least.

That’s all. You know, five thousand words later. But uh, think a little. Please. 

[apas-95]

So you don’t think there’s a chance of russia using weapons of mass destruction/nukes? I’m genuinely curiously asking because I’ve been worried absolutely sick over the idea of nuclear war and it seems like news outlets here are trying to stoke that fear…? What are your thoughts?

At the current juncture, no. Russia isn't on the back foot, it has no reason to use weapons of last resort like those, which would drastically escalate the conflict. Currently, it seems like Russia will be able to simply get what it wanted in the war using its conventional forces. If NATO were to get involved, to make this a direct bloc-on-bloc conflict, then it could very easily escalate to the use of WMDs - but as it stands, it doesn't seem likely, no.

The threat of an impending WMD attack by Russia has been pumped up in the media to raise support for NATO intervention, which would almost assuredly lead to nuclear war. Even those who were staunchly against intervention on the basis of how devastating a nuclear war would be were swayed by fake reports that the Russian military had caused a radiation release at Zaporizhzhia. Until the IAEA countermanded Ukrainian govt reports of the supposed radiation release, even those who knew that intervention meant nuclear war, and that nuclear war meant extinction, were on board with NATO involvement - because, if fallout is already involved, then escalation isn't as much of a leap.

The current war does have a path where the conflict fizzles out, and the threat of nuclear annihilation is kicked down the road. Unfortunately, nuclear war remains not just a threat, but an inevitability as long as imperialism remains. The growing economic crisis is going to get worse, and the imperialist powers will be pushed into conflict further. Until imperialism is destroyed internally, through anti-imperialist, socialist revolution, then we are still ticking down towards midnight.

[lucifer-is-a-bag-of-dicks]

That recent OP Danny post got me thinking, so fuckit, it's ask time: What if the JL/Avengers/Other Supers meet Danny because he razed through their ranks while being controlled/hypnotized/blackmailed? Just completely out of left field and the supers are freaking the fuck out because who and what the fuck is this and how did they NOT NOTICE a being this powerful fly completely under their radar??? I imagine that this happened in the Dan timeline tbh, just getting fucking rekt out of nowhere.

ffffffuuuuuuuuck that would be wild

aw beans this concept is gonna run away with me isn't it oh god here we go

I'm just imagining Freakshow succeeding in skipping town with Danny in tow, and his heists just get more insane since he has this teenaged nuclear bomb at his disposal

like he's hitting up banks in Gotham and Metropolis and nobody can lay hands on this thief nobody has even seen him, half of the Justice League has had their territory hit but nobody could catch the guy, not even Superman

but Freakshow has a pretty obvious mo and Batman is used to dealing with clown bullshit so some small freaky niche circus showing up in town would immediately be on his radar in case it's a Joker Thing

I'm just imagining Batman checking things out and getting his ass kicked because he is Not Prepared For This, he was ready for invisible and intangible but absolutely none of the other stuff, but since Danny had struggled before against Freakshow's commands I figure he would always be able to stop himself short of killing anyone

because that's the real clincher here, Danny can sometimes temporarily break out of the control, or at least fight it just enough to avoid doing something entirely against his nature, like when he was forced to push Sam off the highwire but immediately flew down to rescue her

Danny might be OP as hell but Freakshow isn't, he's limited by where Danny draws the line, and he knows he can't push too hard because it might actually be enough for Danny to break his hold, and he can't risk that

Batman, being the ace detective that he is, would absolutely notice that Danny is holding back. Kid's a powerhouse that took him by surprise and could have killed him easy in that first hit but he let's him get away alive? fishy, super fishy

bro starts looking into Circus Gothica's tour history and of course finds the pattern of thefts following the circus everywhere, but the first sighting of the white haired kid shows up in a town called Amity Park, and Bats has heard of this town, ofc he's heard of this town it's BATMAN

Danny's history in Amity Park is still as a menace around the time of the Freakshow episode, so Bats wouldn't have a clear idea just yet on Danny's personal history from before he joined the circus, but things he probably would pick up are that a) he has no body count and b) no real history of theft before the circus hit town

I figure that a lot of the reason Dan wipes everyone out so easily in his timeline is because he has the element of surprise on his side, hence how Danny got the best of Bats in their fight, but Batman's strength is always in his cunning and his gadgets, anti-ghost tech exists, and he would have a number of interesting ways to utilise it

so when he finally makes the connection between ghosts and the circus thefts, he starts prepping, and once Batman starts prepping you're fucked

[ninhaoma-ya]

On Ukraine, the Nordics and the Foundations of geopolitics

Firstly: What is happening in Ukraine is horrendous and absolutely despicable. It is a crime against peace according to Principle VI of the Nüremberg Principles and a blatant act of war, shattering the European peace that has held for over 70 years. The war crimes being committed are terrible and all responsible should face justice for the atrocities committed.

More informed people than me have made better write-ups on the matter. I’ll focus instead on a very small and selfish area: my home, in a small and distant Northern European country. This is mainly my stream of consciousness as I try to understand what we’re dealing with and what may come.

To get to grips with this, a bit of background is needed.

For your consideration, “Foundations of geopolitics: the geopolitical future of Russia” by Alexandr Dugin. The Wikipedia page is heavily based on John B. Dunlop’s writeup on the book for Stanford, found here. Here’s also a good Twitter-compilation:

A lot of Russia’s actions from 2008 an on can be traced back to the politics outlined in said publication, which has been a key influence on Russia’s elite for the last 30 years: Russian troll farms have worked hard to destabilise both the US and the UK, in part facilitating the rise of neo-nationalism and Brexit. Russia invaded Georgia in 2008 and annexed Crimea in 2014, both blatant acts of aggression against independent nations.

On to the situation with Ukraine. I’m just going to cite Dunlop (2004, accessed 2022) here:

On the key question of Ukraine, Dugin underlines: "Ukraine as a state has no geopolitical meaning. It has no particular cultural import or universal significance, no geographic uniqueness, no ethnic exclusiveness" (377). "Ukraine as an independent state with certain territorial ambitions," he warns, "represents an enormous danger for all of Eurasia and, without resolving the Ukrainian problem, it is in general senseless to speak about continental politics" (348). And he adds that, "[T]he independent existence of Ukraine (especially within its present borders) can make sense only as a 'sanitary cordon'" (379). However, as we have seen, for Dugin all such "sanitary cordons" are inadmissible.

Doesn’t look too good, does it?

Here's a really great thread on the background to the current situation by a Finnish thinker and scientist:

As you can see, he posted this before the Russian attack began. Since then, the ICC has started investigations into war crimes in Ukraine,  Russian planes have breached Swedish airspace and Putin’s men are arresting one of the last survivors of the siege of Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), one of the most destructive sieges in history (very anti-nazi of them). The nuclear power plant of Zaporizhzhia has been attacked, as has Chernobyl. Thousands of people have died a needless death, over a million has fled.

Now, I am biased in this.

I live in Sweden. I still have some family in Finland, a country which gained its independence in 1917, partly thanks to Lenin and the general confusion of the aftermath of WWI and the Russian revolution. Other countries that gained independence at the same time were Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, who all became NATO-members in 2004, together with Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. They were invited to join the alliance in 1997. Sweden and Finland, in contrast, have long held a neutral line towards NATO, but that has shifted dramatically over the last week, in both Finland and Sweden.

However.

When Putin is talking about the Russian Empire, it’s this one: 

Picture source

The empire comprised what today is Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Finland, the Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia), Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan), the Baltic Republics (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia), and significant parts of Poland and Turkey.

Putin has stated that “Lenin made an error in 1917 when he let the former Russian territories ‘go.’” (citation from Korhonen’s twitter thread, 2022). This might also be a reason for his call for NATO to roll back to pre-1997 borders; it’s easier to gather your empire back together if NATO-membership isn’t protecting part of it.

And according to the Foundations of geopolitics, Finland is destined to be absorbed into Russia (Dunlop, 2004, accessed 2022):

The "unstable" state of Finland, which "historically enters into the geopolitical space of Russia" […]

Finland has, for reference, a much longer history with Sweden. They were the same country for ~600 years – the earliest maps of Sweden and Northern Europe actually show the area around the Baltic Sea and Gulf of Bothnia with today’s Finland depicted as a county of Sweden, equal to other counties of Sweden. Hell, southern Sweden (Skåne) has been part of the country a shorter time than Finland was, their union being merely 400 years old.

(In contrast, Finland suffered Russian rule for a mere 100 years (1809-1917). So speaking in historical terms, Finland should actually join forces with Sweden and Norway and establish the new Kalmar Union – another project with a history more enduring than what Finland and Russia share.)

Leaving history aside, I’d say a 100 years of growth, development and, most recently, being crowned the happiest country in the world four times running, isn’t “unstable”. And with some math: Finland is just shy, by three years, of being independent (1917–) for a longer time than being part of Russia (1809-1917). Let’s not break that streak, shall we?

But listening to what Putin says, the future looks bleak for Europe as a whole, not only for Finland and the Nordics. He promised not to invade Ukraine, (and people didn’t think he’d do that) and yet here we are. He promises ceasefires and repeatedly breaks them. Russian troops target civilian and bombs children’s hospitals.

It’s hard to negotiate with someone who disregards the rules when he knows the other side will abide by them, come what may.

On the other hand, the last week has filled me with hope. Europe has come together in a marvelous way. The rest of the world has supported sanctions and condemned the invasion. The outpouring of support and assistance for Ukraine and Ukrainians is astounding. Although there are a lot of things that could be done better (looking at you, EU, with dallying about sanctioning Russian gas and oil), I might start feeling… hopeful?

But this is also a dramatic shift in EU politics. The economic collaboration and “rule of rules” that has defined EU politics has turned much more political. Formerly neutral countries have sanctioned Russia and Russian oligarchs. The European defence system might get an overhaul under France. People open their homes and hearts to Ukrainian refugees.

(And of course we should do that to refugees from Syria and other war-torn areas as well. I don’t hold with refusing entry to people in need. Colour or religion doesn’t matter – but nukes and a willingness to invade Europe do.)

But back to my corner of the world.

I have no idea what Russia wants with Finland, to be honest. It’s a country poor in raw materials, if you don’t count lumber and lakes, but high in education and social democratic ideals. Does he want a buffer zone against the scary democratic ideals of The West (which are a threat to him and his cronies)? A re-imagined “Russian empire”? Ukraine is easier to understand – it’s a rich  breadbasket, with a lot of minerals and new pockets of gas (which could undermine the Russian gas-based economy). But what is Finland to him, a country of a thousand lakes and less people than London?

The BBC has outlined five scenarios for how this could end, although I’m sure there are more out there. The diplomatic solution seems to be less and less possible for every day that passes. And after it looks like Belarusian dictator Lukashenko shared an invasion map by mistake, where troops were shown moving into Moldova, the future looks bleak indeed.

It’s impossible to say what will follow. I hope for a quick end to the invasion of Ukraine and the honest, democratic chance for Ukrainians to do as they wish, not follow what the Kremlin dictates.

In the world of today, geography isn’t as important as ideology. The Nordics have shown that a social democratic model works; that you can find a balance of state-controlled industries (education and health care) and a free market (heavy industry, tech, manufacturing).

The world is changing. Why not roll with it, instead of trying to hark back to the age of tsars?

We can but hope and work for a better tomorrow.

[sirikenobi12]

One thing that I haven't stopped thinking about since I saw your post about how Luke is depicted in fanfics, especially as a jedi order basher in time traveling fics for them apparently suppressing his slave culture and that is the simple fact that by the time that Luke is born, his father had not been a slave 14 years and his paternal grandmother had not been a slave for several years as well before her death. So while he has slave blood in him, he himself was not a slave.

Hmmmm, interesting, TBH I'm not the biggest fan of time traveling fics, they have to have a real interesting hook for me to read them (not a big "fix it" fic fan either). I honestly hadn't heard of this complaint before, are people angry that Luke doesn't think about his slave heritage? ...interesting.

Oh wait, I think I get it now...he's apparently angry with the Jedi for suppressing slavery or rather since they haven't been able to end slavery they must then condone it?

*sigh*

This idea that because the Jedi didn't throw their powers around to end slavery in the galaxy is just another one of those unrealistic expectations thrust on the Jedi Order. And frankly it is usually said by people who have no concepts of how the real world or politics works.

Slavery is abhorrent, no one is denying that, but it still exists even in our day and age. Unfortunately we as free countries (wherever we are all from) can't just go into these nations brandishing our weapons and overthrowing their governments - even if we'd really like to. Historically speaking whenever that happens the fallout is tremendous, often times the armies are pulled out before any kind of a replacement government can be formed and so chaos reigns. This would've been no different for the Jedi.

By the time we see them in the Prequels the Jedi only had 10,000 members. Let's assume that's active Knights/Masters/Padawans out in the field and not including the younglings/retired/sick who can't leave the temple. 10,000 people isn't even enough for a small army in our own world yet somehow they were expected to overthrow entire planets? How exactly??

Also, let's say the Jedi did overthrow the Hutts on Tatooine with their 10,000 members what then? Do the Jedi take control of the planet and rule it? Do they leave the planet without a government and then move to the next one? You don't think the Hutts (or someone else) wouldn't swoop in and take over the planet once the Jedi are gone (much like Al Qaeda has done in the Middle East)? Again, this is a very ideological viewpoint and just not very realistic.

Look, I get the concern about Shmi being left behind, but to be honest Qui-Gon ignored his mission and basically bought the Jedi a slave (well, he cheated and won him but that's semantics). The Council rightfully saw this as a concern because of the moral implications of the Jedi going around owning slaves. I think they got around it because they technically freed Anakin, but could you imagine if the media had gotten wind of this story? Holy crap that would've been terrible for the Jedi because it's a gray area at the very least.

And, why was it only up to the Jedi to free Shmi, why not Padme??? The Jedi have very strict rules they have to follow because of their power, and they have no jurisdiction in the Outer Rim...it's like having a nuclear device, you have to have some regulations on it.

And for the record I'd argue the Jedi were doing something to fight slavery throughout the galaxy. The Republic had anti-slavery laws that the Jedi upheld, they also took down the Zygerrian Empire at one point (though it came back once the Sith had distracted the Jedi with a war). There are also several Legends stories of Jedi being sent undercover to known Slavers to help bring them down - my username sake, Siri Tachi was undercover for 4 years gathering intel and bringing down a huge slave ring, so to say the Jedi were doing nothing is ignorant at best.

This is a complicated topic and it makes me really sad that fans have bought into this idea that it's simple. They think that since the Jedi weren't able to eradicate slavery then they just didn't care which is completely and utterly false.

And going back to your point, you're absolutely right technically Luke wasn't a slave. He was born free. Now, yes he does have a heritage that includes slavery, but he also has a heritage that includes royalty and the Jedi, why must he focus on the negative parts of his heritage when he could use the positive ones to make lasting change in the new Republic for slaves?

I don't know, that's my take on it at least.

[crystalkleure]

I have a Concept.

BeyBurst beyblades are supposed to burst. As in, it’s actually a necessity. In spite of the Exploding Beyblade mechanic potentially causing sharp little bits of spintop to go flying everywhere and hit people, what if it’s actually a safety feature?

If I recall correctly, all the way back in s1 territory [specifically in the manga though, can’t remember if we saw it in the anime or not], Valt and Shu just straight-up got their original beys from a store. And there are also all of those Unimportant Characters running around with different-coloured versions of preexisting beys. This indicates that beyblades are, in fact, mass-produced and sold in stores, and those are all built to be able to burst. In fact, I still haven’t seen the newest two seasons of the Burst anime yet, but I’m pretty sure super special fancy custom beys, that some important character explicitly made themself, that have some really creative [and strong] anti-burst features built into them, don’t ever show up as NPC recolour beys? In spite of the trend of “random background characters in new season use recoloured versions of Prominent Character beys from LAST season” to me seeming to indicate that those new recolour beys are either bootleg copycats, or those actual official shelf models have just suddenly started selling really well, due to someone having just recently done something cool with one in a tournament/on TV lol. [Anyway, correct me if I’m wrong on which beys get NPC recolours, I don’t exactly actually, uh, pay attention to all the random background scrubs. That point’s not particularly important anyway because I’m sure unofficial bootlegs are a thing that exists, mmmm delicious plagiarism. The point is the stores seem to sell beys with the normal level of burstability. And so I’m only caring about the everyday random NPCs with no names or anything, if another important character specifically goes and painstakingly recreates a bey similar or identical to another important character’s bey just because they idolize that other character, that doesn’t count. That’s not important here, implication-wise.] So...

What if it’s actually a really bad thing that people keep making their own custom beys now that are increasingly more and more ludicrously difficult -- or even near-impossible -- to burst?

What if the self-destruct mechanic is intended to be an emergency shutdown switch, and actually really needs to not be subverted? We’ve seen what an adept beyblader can do while running at full-throttle -- they’re dangerous, to themselves and their surroundings. Beys have the power to be obscenely destructive...while they’re spinning and battling, primarily. They are by far the most potent while actively in use. But if they hit things too hard like 3-4 times or so...they burst. Their locks disengage, they fall apart, and thus they are forced to abruptly stop. That makes them theoretically incapable of just rampaging indefinitely.

Picture this: One day, in the probably-decently-distant history of the BeyBurst world, a kid has a spintop. Probably made that spintop themself. This kid, it turns out, happens to be one of the Super Special Powerful Kids, who’s not only REALLY GOOD at using that spintop, they also possess that funny little supernatural ability to accidentally create an incredibly powerful incorporeal monster ghost creature thing with their brain. And because they love playing with their little spintop so much, that spintop becomes the vessel for this Terrifying Monster-Shaped Culmination Of Spiritual Elemental Energy or whatever that they’ve manifested. That’s...good, probably, because at least that means the Scary Monster Thing isn’t 1. just stuck in the kid’s brain with nowhere else to go, which would lead to possession that would decidedly be incredibly difficult to deal with without harming the kid, or 2. funneled into something more dangerous to control, like a car or a nuclear warhead or some shit. But then it turns out that the kid is ABSOLUTELY still able to wreak impressive havoc and cause Large Amounts Of Destruction, even accidentally...until the spintop stops spinning. The Power Level drops dramatically as soon as the demon top is still, and it takes a little while for it to build back up once it’s launched again. But what if a feature is implemented into the spintop that allows it to keep spinning for much, much longer? Or just The Supernatural Monster Power itself becomes capable of sustaining it, through wind manipulation or something?

Now, imagine you’re idk, the government or something, someone with Power and Influence over the masses, and you see THAT happen. Shit, that was just a random kid that did that! Looked like any other kid, acted like any other kid! There is no feasible way to tell a kid with Brain Monster potential apart from other kids who are NOT That Powerful, until a brain monster happens. So, if you can’t predict it, and thus can’t do anything to mitigate the potential destruction on a case-by-case basis...well, how about you convince ALL the little kiddies that spintops are just the greatest thing ever, everyone should play with spintops, AND you ensure those spintops are mass-manufactured specifically to not be able to Hold A Charge for too long because...they burst! You’ve designed them so that violence itself causes them to fall apart and stop to cool down! It’s perfect! That way, anytime an odd mutant child with Brain Monster powers comes along, the chance of them funneling their Brain Monster into their spintop is now Very High, meaning that all the Brain Monsters will hopefully end up inhabiting these little plastic toys that actively inhibit them instead of possessing children or nukes. It’s brilliant!

This does raise some questions, though:

1. What happens when someone’s spintop breaks, and they DON’T get it repaired, after they’ve already manifested a Brain Monster to live in it? Where would the Brain Monster go in that case? Uh oh, demon on the loose? Exactly what we were trying to avoid? Shu’s change between Legend Spriggan and Spriggan Requiem in God does seem to indicate that the Brain Monster probably 1. by default, does just camp out in its blader’s brain until a new Spintop Vessel is created for it, and 2. the Brain Monster itself is probably not actually completely strictly sealed into any bey, because it doesn’t disappear as soon as the bey is destroyed, and it doesn’t stay with an old/broken bey that’s been discarded when a new bey has been made for it. Legend Spriggan was discarded and left on the riverbed, and Spriggan Requiem was then made from scratch, seemingly using no recycled physical parts from Legend Spriggan, but Spriggan Requiem’s bitbeast looks only very slightly different from Legend Spriggan’s. All of Shu’s Spriggans are honestly probably still the same creature, just progressively evolved. I don’t think we’ve ever seen somebody make an entirely NEW Brain Monster that does not resemble their original one, it seems the original simply gets developed more and more. One person apparently only possesses the ability to make a single individual Brain Monster. You Get One (1), but you can upgrade it. But what about Hearts? His Dead Hades, which very much had a Brain Ghost in it, was not only destroyed, but assimilated into Phi’s Revive Phoenix, to make Dead Phoenix. What happened to that situation, over time? We haven’t gotten to see. Is Hearts’ Hades truly actually fused with Phi’s Phoenix, ceasing to be its own entity anymore, or does Phoenix simply very slightly resemble Hades now due to its bey being upgraded with physical bits of Hades’ bey? What if it’s not even POSSIBLE to truly fuse Brain Ghosts, especially without consent? In which case...is Hades itself just lingering around back in Hearts’ brain, waiting for a new bey to inhabit, and Hearts isn’t making one because he doesn’t realize Hades isn’t just Part Of Phoenix now? That sounds potentially dangerous, there’s no more outlet for your Brain Ghost, buddy. I want to see Phi and Hearts again, to know what eventually happened there.

2. Why do the tournaments not actually enforce a rule that says “Your bey HAS to be able to be reasonably burstable”? Chouzetsu Wings and the Mugen Lock System did not equal disqualifications. Has it maybe, over time, been forgotten exactly WHY we Need Beys To Burst? Well, that’s a ticking time bomb, then. How difficult a bey is to burst does seem to directly cause its Potential Destructiveness Levels to scale accordingly. [With somewhat of an exception of Pot and his Pegasus, but it should be noted that Pot was not exactly terribly serious about beyblade initially and yet was STILL considered one of the strongest ‘bladers in the world, GT3 iirc, AND he’s very into the whole “Love and light, chillax, be in-tune with yourself and all the energy in and around you, etc.” peaceful thing.] This HAS To Be A Problem. Why is nobody concerned.

3. ...What is causing the general public not to panic about this? Why are people okay with Brain Ghost and Mass Spintop Destruction happening, instead of terrified? This shit is broadcast on TV. The stands during tournaments are packed with spectators. It may be that perhaps not everybody can SEE the Brain Ghosts themselves [and I’m skeptical about that, because there have absolutely been MANY indications that other people know what someone’s bitbeast looks like], but the Big Bada Booms they cause are DAMN sure Highly Visible. Aiga’s father seems to be the only one truly properly concerned about the incredible mass-destructive potential of the spintops. Realistically, The Salem With Trials 2: Electric Boogaloo should be happening due to the Scary Spintop Kids being Fucking Scary, and sometimes quite clearly even out-of-control of themselves.

Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure this is not a direction canon will ever go in, or I think it would have already done it. I don’t think they’re going to explore this route. It’s a shame I don’t have the chops for writing long-haul fanfiction, because if I did I would absolutely be hardcore capitalizing on this idea. This has incredible Worldbuilding Lore Potential.

[whitehotharlots]

The point is control

Whenever we think or talk about censorship, we usually conceptualize it as certain types of speech being somehow disallowed: maybe (rarely) it's made formally illegal by the government, maybe it's banned in certain venues, maybe the FCC will fine you if you broadcast it, maybe your boss will fire you if she learns of it, maybe your friends will stop talking to you if they see what you've written, etc. etc. 

This understanding engenders a lot of mostly worthless discussion precisely because it's so broad. Pedants--usually arguing in favor of banning a certain work or idea--will often argue that speech protections only apply to direct, government bans. These bans, when they exist, are fairly narrow and apply only to those rare speech acts in which other people are put in danger by speech (yelling the N-word in a crowded theater, for example). This pedantry isn't correct even within its own terms, however, because plenty of people get in trouble for making threats. The FBI has an entire entrapment program dedicated to getting mentally ill muslims and rednecks to post stuff like "Death 2 the Super bowl!!" on twitter, arresting them, and the doing a press conference about how they heroically saved the world from terrorism. 

Another, more recent pedant's trend is claiming that, actually, you do have freedom of speech; you just don't have freedom from the consequences of speech. This logic is eerily dictatorial and ignores the entire purpose of speech protections. Like, even in the history's most repressive regimes, people still technically had freedom of speech but not from consequences. Those leftist kids who the nazis beheaded for speaking out against the war were, by this logic, merely being held accountable. 

The two conceptualizations of censorship I described above are, 99% of the time, deployed by people who are arguing in favor of a certain act of censorship but trying to exempt themselves from the moral implications of doing so. Censorship is rad when they get to do it, but they realize such a solipsism seems kinda icky so they need to explain how, actually, they're not censoring anybody, what they're doing is an act of righteous silencing that's a totally different matter. Maybe they associate censorship with groups they don't like, such as nazis or religious zealots. Maybe they have a vague dedication toward Enlightenment principles and don't want to be regarded as incurious dullards. Most typically, they're just afraid of the axe slicing both ways, and they want to make sure that the precedent they're establishing for others will not be applied to themselves.

Anyone who engages with this honestly for more than a few minutes will realize that censorship is much more complicated, especially in regards to its informal and social dimensions. We can all agree that society simply would not function if everyone said whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted. You might think your boss is a moron or your wife's dress doesn't look flattering, but you realize that such tidbits are probably best kept to yourself. 

Again, this is a two-way proposition that everyone is seeking to balance. Do you really want people to verbalize every time they dislike or disagree with you? I sure as hell don't. And so, as part of a social compact, we learn to self-censor. Sometimes this is to the detriment of ourselves and our communities. Most often, however, it's just a price we have to pay in order to keep things from collapsing. 

But as systems, large and small, grow increasingly more insane and untenable, so do the comportment standards of speech. The disconnect between America's reality and the image Americans have of themselves has never been more plainly obvious, and so striving for situational equanimity is no longer good enough. We can't just pretend cops aren't racist and the economy isn't run by venal retards or that the government places any value on the life of its citizens. There's too much evidence that contradicts all that, and the evidence is too omnipresent. There's too many damn internet videos, and only so many of them can be cast as Russian disinformation. So, sadly, we must abandon our old ways of communicating and embrace instead systems that are even more unstable, repressive, and insane than the ones that were previously in place.

Until very, very recently, nuance and big-picture, balanced thinking were considered signs of seriousness, if not intelligence. Such considerations were always exploited by shitheads to obfuscate things that otherwise would have seemed much less ambiguous, yes, but this fact alone does not mitigate the potential value of such an approach to understanding the world--especially since the stuff that's been offered up to replace it is, by every worthwhile metric, even worse.

So let's not pretend I'm Malcolm Gladwell or some similarly slimy asshole seeking to "both sides" a clearcut moral issue. Let's pretend I am me. Flash back to about a year ago, when there was real, widespread, and sustained support for police reform. Remember that? Seems like forever ago, man, but it was just last year... anyhow, now, remember what happened? Direct, issues-focused attempts to reform policing were knocked down. Blotted out. Instead, we were told two things: 1) we had to repeat the slogan ABOLISH THE POLICE, and 2) we had to say it was actually very good and beautiful and nonviolent and valid when rioters burned down poor neighborhoods.

Now, in a relatively healthy discourse, it might have been possible for someone to say something like "while I agree that American policing is heavily violent and racist and requires substantial reforms, I worry that taking such an absolutist point of demanding abolition and cheering on the destruction of city blocks will be a political non-starter." This statement would have been, in retrospect, 100000000% correct. But could you have said it, in any worthwhile manner? If you had said something along those lines, what would the fallout had been? Would you have lost friends? Your job? Would you have suffered something more minor, like getting yelled at, told your opinion did not matter? Would your acquaintances still now--a year later, after their political project has failed beyond all dispute--would they still defame you in "whisper networks," never quite articulating your verbal sins but nonetheless informing others that you are a dangerous and bad person because one time you tried to tell them how utterly fucking self-destructive they were being? It is undeniably clear that last year's most-elevated voices were demanding not reform but catharsis. I hope they really had fun watching those immigrant-owned bodegas burn down, because that’s it, that will forever be remembered as the most palpable and consequential aspect of their shitty, selfish movement. We ain't reforming shit. Instead, we gave everyone who's already in power a blank check to fortify that power to a degree you and I cannot fully fathom.

But, oh, these people knew what they were doing. They were good little boys and girls. They have been rewarded with near-total control of the national discourse, and they are all either too guilt-ridden or too stupid to realize how badly they played into the hands of the structures they were supposedly trying to upend.

And so left-liberalism is now controlled by people whose worldview is equal parts superficial and incoherent. This was the only possible outcome that would have let the system continue to sustain itself in light of such immense evidence of its unsustainability without resulting in reform, so that's what has happened.

But... okay, let's take a step back. Let's focus on what I wanted to talk about when I started this.

I came across a post today from a young man who claimed that his high school English department head had been removed from his position and had his tenure revoked for refusing to remove three books from classrooms. This was, of course, fallout from the ongoing debate about Critical Race Theory. Two of those books were Marjane Satropi's Persepolis and, oh boy, The Diary of Anne Frank. Fuck. Jesus christ, fuck.

Now, here's the thing... When Persepolis was named, I assumed the bannors were anti-CRT. The graphic novel does not deal with racism all that much, at least not as its discussed contemporarily, but it centers an Iranian girl protagonist and maybe that upset Republican types. But Anne Frank? I'm sorry, but the most likely censors there are liberal identiarians who believe that teaching her diary amounts to centering the suffering of a white woman instead of talking about the One Real Racism, which must always be understood in an American context. The super woke cult group Black Hammer made waves recently with their #FuckAnneFrank campaign... you'd be hard pressed to find anyone associated with the GOP taking a firm stance against the diary since, oh, about 1975 or so.

So which side was it? That doesn't matter. What matters is, I cannot find out.

Now, pro-CRT people always accuse anti-CRT people of not knowing what CRT is, and then after making such accusations they always define CRT in a way that absolutely is not what CRT is. Pro-CRTers default to "they don't want  students to read about slavery or racism." This is absolutely not true, and absolutely not what actual CRT concerns itself with. Slavery and racism have been mainstays of American history curriucla since before I was born. Even people who barely paid attention in school would admit this, if there were any more desire for honesty in our discourse. 

My high school history teacher was a southern "lost causer" who took the south's side in the Civil War but nonetheless provided us with the most descriptive and unapologetic understandings of slavery's brutalities I had heard up until that point. He also unambiguously referred to the nuclear attacks on Hiroshmia and Nagasaki as "genocidal." Why? Because most people's politics are idiosyncratic, and because you cannot genuinely infer a person to believe one thing based on their opinion of another, tangentially related thing. The totality of human understanding used to be something open-minded people prided themselves on being aware of, believe it or not...

This is the problem with CRT. This is is the motivation behind the majority of people who wish to ban it. It’s not because they are necessarily racist themselves. It’s because they recognize, correctly, that the now-ascendant frames for understanding social issues boils everything down to a superficial patina that denies not only the realities of the systems they seek to upend but the very humanity of the people who exist within them. There is no humanity without depth and nuance and complexities and contradictions. When you argue otherwise, people will get mad and fight back. 

And this is the most bitter irony of this idiotic debate: it was never about not wanting to teach the sinful or embarrassing parts of our history. That was a different debate, one that was settled and won long ago. It is instead an immense, embarrassing overreach on behalf of people who have bullied their way to complete dominance of their spheres of influence within media and academe assuming they could do the same to everyone else. Some of its purveyors may have convinced themselves that getting students to admit complicity in privilege will prevent police shootings, sure. But I know these people. I’ve spoken to them at length. I’ve read their work. The vast, vast majority of them aren’t that stupid. The point is to exert control. The point is to make sure they stay in charge and that nothing changes. The point is failure. 

[utaite-mun]

on bakugous hero name

[ SPOILERS FOR MY HERO ACADEMIA CHAPTERS CHAPTER 293 maybe beyond ]

Okay so like I said I was going to write that post about Katsuki Bakugou’s hero name some time ago, anyways I’m getting around to doing that right now! So we need to address something vitally important that I should’ve done earlier but now is an apt time as any. 

“Ground Zero” as a fandom hero name for Bakugou is something I am personally chill with. It is, however, no longer chill with it when people say things like “Bakugou’s hero name should have canonically been ‘Ground Zero”. 

I really don’t think I need to get into the reason why, but I’ve been proven wrong already so we have to do this now. 

My Hero Academia (Boku no Hero Academia) is a JAPANESE anime and manga series.

“Ground Zero” is defined as “the point on the Earth's surface closest to a detonation“ when used in relation to large bombs and nuclear weapons

For those who do not already see where “Ground Zero” maybe being an issue as a canonical hero name I will go more in-depth.

Japan suffered two nuclear bombings in August of 1945 at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Furthermore, as a result of the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami, the cooling system at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant had a meltdown causing everyone within 10km to have to be evacuated (at the time of writing, I do not believe people have been allowed back into this area). 

Alright now lets get into the meat of this.

“Ground Zero” is a term highly, highly associated with nuclear weaponry and other weapons of mass destruction when discussing bombs and such. Guess which country has actual generational trauma relating to the destruction of their cities and home via bombs? Japan!

Guess which hero name would be the WORST name that has bombing connotations to give to an audience that in recent history of having to live through horrible nuclear events, and have a horrible history regarding bombing and nuclear bombing in particular? Ground Zero!

And before anyone! Brings up the prototype design sheet of Bakugou, this picture! 

Just because this prototype design says “CODENAME: 爆心地” which does indeed translate to “center of explosion; hypocenter; ground zero”, that does not give you any reason to not consider the emotional impact that it potentially has towards a full on generationally traumatized society. 

Unless, of course, you truly do not care about people for who this media is directed towards because you know insensitive western-centric mindsets who don’t actually care about people other than themselves and their own enjoyment topped with a likely, extremely U.S. mindset that nukes are just “good”. 

Frankly, I would like to also discuss the implications of this mindset possibly stemming from anti-Asian discrimination or a fetishization of some sort or general disrespect for the literal people that this work of media is intended for, but I don’t quite know how to word it nor do I have the patience to make it easy for everyone to understand. Hopefully people still understand it anyways.

tl;dr: it’s a highly self centered and culturally ignorant thing to say that “Ground Zero” should’ve been canon for Bakugou’s hero name, which takes absolutely no care for the generational trauma of the Japanese who have suffered due to horrific bombings. fandom name? a-okay by me. Bitching that the name isn’t canon? leave!

[esperwatchesfilms]

Clue (1985)

This is one of my all-time favorite films. I have no clue why. It might be the nostalgia factor. But I’m absolutely obsessed with it. I’ve seen it a million times, but I have never looked into the interesting trivia on its IMDB page, so this will be fun!

Awesome Fun Fact:

The color of each character's car is the same color as their playing piece in the game, and is introduced as follows: Colonel Mustard drives a yellow 1954 Cadillac Series 62, Mrs. White drives a black-and-white 1950 MG TD convertible, Mrs. Peacock drives a blue 1952 Packard 200 Deluxe club sedan, Mr. Green drives a green 1951 Plymouth Cranbrook, Ms. Scarlet drives a 1946 red Lincoln Continental, and Professor Plum drives a purple 1949 Pontiac Streamliner Station Wagon.

Prof. Plum: It’s frightened.

Something I Already Knew But Maybe You Didn’t: When Wadsworth cuts the power to the house during his solving of the mystery, it represents the point of divergence of the three endings.

Amusing Fun Fact: Professor Plum indicates at dinner that he works for the World Health Organization, part of the United Nations Organization. This means he works for UNO WHO.

Wadsworth: Professor Plum -- you were once a professor of psychiatry specializing in helping paranoid and homicidal lunatics suffering from delusions of grandeur. Prof. Plum: Yes, but now I work for the United Nations. Wadsworth: So your work has not changed. But you don’t practice medicine at the U.N. His license to practice has been lifted; correct? Miss Scarlet: Why? What did he do? Wadsworth: You know what doctors aren’t allowed to do with their lady patients? Miss Scarlet: Yeah? Wadsworth: Well, he did. Miss Scarlet: Ha!

Mrs. White: [after Mrs. Peacock swears that the reason she's being blackmailed is a vicious lie] Well, I am willing to believe you. I, too, am being blackmailed for something I didn't do. Mr. Green: Me too. Colonel Mustard: And me. Miss Scarlet: Not me. Wadsworth: [surprised] You're *not* being blackmailed? Miss Scarlet: Oh, I’m being blackmailed all right, but I did what I’m being blackmailed for.

Miss Scarlet: Well, to be perfectly frank, I run a specialized hotel and a telephone service which provides gentlemen with the company of a young lady, for a short while. Professor Plum: Oh yeah? [pulls out pen and a pad of paper] Professor Plum: What's the phone number?

Wadsworth: The double negative has turned to proof positive. I’m afraid you gave yourself away. Colonel Mustard: Are you trying to make me look stupid in front of the other guests? Wadsworth: You don’t need any help from me, sir. Colonel Mustard: That’s right!

Wadsworth: Mrs. White, you've been paying our friend, the blackmailer, ever since your husband died under, shall we say, mysterious circumstances? Miss Scarlet: Ah! [laughs] Mrs. White: Why is that funny? Miss Scarlet: I see! That's why he was lying on his back, in his coffin. Mrs. White: I didn't kill him. Colonel Mustard: Then why are you paying the blackmailer? Mrs. White: I don’t want a scandal, do I? We had had a very humiliating public confrontation. He was deranged. He was -- [points to head] Mrs. White: -- a lunatic! He didn't actually seem to like me very much.

Miss Scarlet: Why would he wanna kill you in public? Wadsworth: I think she meant he threatened, in public, to kill her. Miss Scarlet: Oh. Was that his final word on the matter? Mrs. White: Being killed is pretty final, wouldn't you say? Wadsworth: And yet, he was the one who died, not you, Mrs. White, not you! Miss Scarlet: What did he do for a living? Mrs. White: He was a scientist, nuclear physics. Miss Scarlet: What was he like? Mrs. White: He was always a rather stupidly optimistic man. I mean, I'm afraid it came as a great shock to him when he died, but he was found dead at home.

Mrs. White: I had been out all evening at the movies.

Wadsworth: But, he was your second husband. Your first husband also disappeared. Mrs. White: Well, that was his job. He was an illusionist. Wadsworth: But he never reappeared! Mrs. White: [chuckling, admittedly] He wasn't a very good illusionist.

Prof. Plum: Maybe he was poisoned!

Wadsworth: He decided to put his information to good use and make a little money out of it. What could be more American than that?

Col. Mustard: You lure men to their deaths like a spider with flies! Mrs. White: Flies are where men are most vulnerable.

Mrs. Peacock: No, I just want to powder my nose. Thank you.

Wadsworth: Sorry!

Wadsworth: The key is gone! Professor Plum: Never mind about the key, unlock the door! [smacks Mr. Green on the shoulder] Mr. Green: [grabs Professor Plum by the collar, throttling him] I CAN'T UNLOCK THE DOOR WITHOUT THE KEY! [releasing Plum, Mr. Green rattles doorknob] Mr. Green: LET US IN! LET US IN! Colonel Mustard, Miss Scarlet: [on other side of locked door] LET US OUT! LET US OUT!

Mrs. Peacock: Our lives are in danger, ya beatnik!

Communism is Just a Red Herring Fact: The line "Communism is just a red herring" is said in all three endings (twice by Wadsworth and once by Miss Scarlet). Not only is it is a pun (particularly after World War II, the Russian Communists were frequently called "reds", for example, the anti-Communist slogan, "Better dead than red."), but it cleverly refers to a MacGuffin (or a real "red herring") implemented by the screenwriters, because none of the murderers motives end up having anything to do with creating political conspiracy. There are various visual red herrings on-screen, such as a hammer and sickle on the shelf beside the torch Colonel Mustard finds, and a bust of Lenin in the attic.

ESE: 125/100

50 +10 for Tim Curry +4 for the dogs +2 for the dog poo shoe +5 for Mr. Green’s obedience (”Sit! No, not you, sir.”) +1 for Mrs. Peacock’s glasses +5 for amazing one-liners +5 for the discussion about why Mrs. White’s being blackmailed -10 for homophobia -5 for The Three Stooges antics when Mr. Boddy’s secret is revealed +5 for not shouting +5 for confusion +5 for most hilarious pairings +10 for secret passages +3 for the ironing board +10 for singing telegram +10 for Wadsworth walking through the whole thing +6 for 3 different endings -10 because the timing makes no sense for Mrs. White to have killed Yvette +10 for Mr. Green going home to sleep with his wife +4 for Clue card credits

[daydream-believin]

The Never-Ending Roadtrip (waffles)

summary: (part 1) or (part 5) <- reader joins douxie on his quest to protect nari. he’ll need company wont he. (part 6) do you like waffles? also appalachia and nj trollmarket fun. next-> (part 7)

warnings: swearing, fem! reader, maybe an alcohol mention, proof reading is for squares yo

word count: 3875

a/n: i’m sorry to anyone from PA but wtf. i also have no idea why this turned out the way it did. bon apetit.

no gif im trying to test something

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Y/n looked over at Douxie. The blue of his hair was starting to fade into a duller hue. While not as bright and bold as his personality, it was still very nice to look at. This muted blue was softer, almost comforting in a way. Y/n found herself running her fingers through it. It wasn’t just the color that was soft. Like feathers in her hand, she gently caressed the strands. The duller color made him look tired, older, and the permanent bags under his eyes didn’t help. She placed her hand on his face and ran her thumb over a said eye bag. He gave her a very subdued smile in return. His sunken eyes were so beautiful. Her favorite color. Or colors, one should say. They were like an earth toned opal. Y/n’s hand drifted down his face. She used her thumb to explore his cheekbones, tracing constellations in his freckles, and finally settled on his mouth, tracing his cupid’s bow. Douxie couldn’t help but break the stoic face he was trying to hold.

“As much as I hate to ask this, and I really do, but will you please cease what you’re doing, My Love. I’m trying to drive here.”

“Yes, I would also like to ask you to stop, miss L/n. Not wrecking the ship is worth you canning your pda for a while.” Archie added.

Y/n pulled her hand back and exaggeratedly pouted. She teasingly stuck her tongue out at Archie for good measure, but couldn’t help but dissolve into a snicker right after so it wasn’t very effective. But really, it wasn’t her fault that Douxie’s beautifully sculpted face was right there and demanding to be touched. She tried to distract herself by focusing on the scenery around them. North Pennsylvania was delightful, so it’d be a shame if she spent the whole time that they flew through it looking at nothing but Douxie. There was plenty of time for her to do that the rest of her life. It’s not like she didn’t have every freckle memorized already. Every single adorable little dot. Right, Pennsylvania. Appalachia. Y/n was a little disappointed they didn’t manage to go through West Virginia, being as north as they were. She really wanted to know what all the fuss was about. Country roads.

The mountains were hard to transverse through, so Douxie took the boat up high in the clouds. A little too high. The oxygen was thin. While this didn’t affect Archie the dragon or Nari the plant goddess, Douxie and Y/n were getting a bit woozy. Neither would get altitude sickness to the point of dying, thanks to that good ol’ curse of immortality, but their minds weren’t exactly operating at high speeds here. They passed through a low hanging cloud in a puff of fog.

Though they were over it, just being in the range of Appalachia felt odd. There was a presence that clung to the mountains. Even flying high up in the air, one felt as though they were being watched. Like the thousand eyes of the forest were upon them. Looking down below, hanging over the edge like Douxie hated her to do, Y/n saw a herd of deer that might as well be ants. Watching over the herd was a bigger, or maybe closer, stag on a peak of some sort. His antlers were covered in crimson. Y/n hoped he was just shedding.

There were pathways cutting through the trees below, some roads, some manmade trails, some rivers, some troll trails, and some deer trails. Some that wound around in endless curves, some that seemed to start from nowhere and stop at nothing, some that went round and round in a circle, and some that crossed over each other, effectively creating a maze of sorts. Y/n didn’t know why, but she was glad she was above the trees and not in them. Something within her gut told her that as beautiful as the scenery was, she did not wish to experience it first-hand. The deer below were beautiful, but there was something not quite right about them. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it. She wasn’t sure if she’d be able to turn down a game of ninepins either, and she could really go for a drink.

Douxie’s brain may have been foggy, but he could certainly see Y/n hanging over the edge again, tantalizing him. He couldn’t help but imagine 174 ways for it to end badly. He’d been pretty passive about this before but now that they were so high up, he had no choice but to be up front now.

“Y/n, My Love,” Y/n turned her attention to him, which also pulled her weight more towards the boat than the sky. Good. “do you mind being back near the center of the ship? I really don’t like you draping yourself over the railing like that.”

Y/n was getting sick and tired of people always trying to keep her away from edges, advising her not to climb the mountain, telling her to stay inside when there was only a light rainstorm. She could handle it. She wasn’t a fucking porcelain doll. She was not wearing a fancy gown that suffocated her, she could speak, her lips were not perfectly painted on. And she wouldn’t shatter. “Relax, Dewdrop. I’m fine. I’m not just gonna go skydiving for kicks. If anyone has had a penchant for falling through the sky recently, it’s been you, Hisirdoux. I can catch myself with anti-gravity spells, like you taught me. Besides, we walk across tall, crumbly, ancient non-osha compliant walkways all the time. You never had a problem then.”

“Well,” He huffed, “it would be one thing if I was there next to you, but I’m not, so could you please just try to stay safe when I can’t reach you?” Y/n was taken about at how quick his tone went from annoyed to desperate. She furrowed her brows. Doux sighed, “Look, it frightens me, okay. I know that nothing will happen, but what if it does? I can’t- I can’t lose you.” His tone got even feebler in his pleading. “And there’s so many ways to lose you. Especially with the Order on our tails. Please, just give me this peace of mind for at least one thing.”

Y/n stepped away from the railing, crossing over to Douxie. He opened his arm and she nestled into his side. Pressing her head against his chest, she mumbled, “Absolutely. I’ll just—I’ll just stay here then. Next to you. I’m sorry I worried you. That was the last thing I wanted to do.”

He leaned down to press a kiss to the top of her head. “Thank you, My Darling.”

~ ~ ~

The dipped down south to go through the top of Maryland and completely through Delaware to get to the south of New Jersey, in place of just going through Philadelphia. The city of brotherly love was not on the itinerary.  Philly, and the top of New Jersey, were just too densely populated to take a magic boat through. The airspace was filled with airplanes and skyscrapers. It was easier to go the roundabout way.

As they passed between Philly and Lancaster, they went by fantastically named towns such as Paradise the city, where the girls are pretty, Bird In Hand, Blue Ball, and Intercourse. Stellar. Y/n was starting to really like Pennsylvania. It was cursed ground. She made sure to get photographic evidence of every road sign. Douxie was happy to pose with them.

They took a pit stop in a town called Peach Bottom before leaving Pennsylvania. Y/n wanted to go through New Texas, since she was curious how somewhere in the original colonies could be a new Texas, but Nari could sense a river nearby, and wanted to seek it out. Peach Bottom. It was a cozy little town with a power plant that was dumping it’s waste into the riverside it was built on. Toxic river. Fun. Y/n made Douxie explain to Nari why she couldn’t get near the river or touch any of the water. Y/n wouldn’t have been able to stay as calm as Douxie could. There was nothing happening in the rural Pennsylvanian town. Nothing special about it unless you counted their countless nuclear admissions. The locals didn’t care for strangers, and that was alright with them cause they didn’t want to be here for any more than necessary for a restroom break. Dinner could wait.

The top of Maryland was great. Lots of rivers to make it up to Nari. There was just, an incredibly large walmart near the line. Just absolutely humongous whopper walmart. A leach whose name doesn’t even deserve to be capitalized, thank you very much autocorrect.

It took less than half an hour to fly right through the top of Delaware. Hi Delaware, bye Delaware.

Soon they were on the coast of south New Jersey, headed for a sleepy town called Monty. Monty was a town along the Cohansey, split across it with quite an impressive bridge between the two sides. As soon as the bridge became visible on the skyline, Y/n grabbed Douxie’s sleeve and tugged excitedly. She looked up at him with a big smile. Rest. At last, they were going to get to rest. Y/n made herself busy calling Jim to let him know that they were there so he could call someone else to let them know that they were there and to wait by the entrance for them. Neither Douxie nor Y/n had a horngazzle on them at the moment. Y/n had had one in her possession back in Arcadia, being book club buddies with Blinky, but alas that was destroyed along with their bookstore.

They hid that damn magic boat in the forest. While they did plan on staying with the trolls for a few weeks, Douxie didn’t put it back in its glass bottle quite yet, cause they were in fact taking it into New York not tomorrow but the next day. He covered the ground around it with a few more wards than necessary. Y/n threw up an illusion spell around it, as she had been all the other times they’d just left it in the woods, and thought the wards were overkill but didn’t say anything. They started on the trek to the base of the bridge.

The troll at the entrance greeted them cordially. He was a dark green color, with two massive horns resembling those of a longhorn cow, chiseled stone tattoos, and no clothes other than a tiny loincloth which made everyone but Nari uncomfortable. He let them in with flourish, as if he’d always wanted to do this and practiced it.

“Welcome to NEW JERSEY TROLLMARKET.”

Y/n was surprised at how well the town had come along within the two months the trolls had occupied the cavern. It wasn’t the Trollmarket she had known, there was no Blinky and no library, but still marvelous. The new hearthstone glowed warmly, very much alive and not making zombies. While looking pretty similar to the old Trollmarket, with a multitude of shops and homes carved into the mineral covered walls and formations, there was a sort of human touch to it now. Claire definitely had a hand in the planning and maybe the decorative features too. Or perhaps Jim. Y/n wouldn’t put it past the boy to be the one who designed the very elaborate crystal art flower bed she was looking at. Or that weirdly steampunk bridge. Funny thing, a bridge under a bridge.

Dictatious met them soon after they came in to show them around and to where they would be staying. The tour he gave them basically just included him walking them through the main street, waving his arms to various places and vaguely saying that they were shops but not what they sold, pointing out the pub, and then took them straight to their accommodations. Since the home that had been occupied by Blinky, Jim, and Claire was now empty, they’d be staying there, with the place practically to themselves. Dictatious also lived in said home, but rarely stuck around it for long now that his brother was gone.

“Alright, here’s your nest.”

Since Dictatious still slept in the nest that he shared with Blinky, he had given them Jim and Claire’s. The nests were just rocky bowls carved into the floor of the room, with a few comfort items. Thankfully, Jim and Claire had left theirs full of pillows and a couple thick cushions they must have taken from a couch. Unconventional, but better than sleeping on literal solid rock. Speaking of couches, there were way too many couches spread across the apartment. This entire place only had two rooms, a large living area and a nestroom, and yet there were five couches. Not to mention the extra-large easy chair Dic was currently lounging in. Okay, so one of said couches was technically a love seat, but still. There was no kitchen, which was surprising due to this being Jim Lake Jr’s home, and no table besides the one that three of the sofas were gathered around and a paper-covered work desk against a corner. There were glowing crystal lamps all throughout, lighting the house. All in all, interesting interior design decisions. The kids had definitely been trying to make it a more homey human dwelling but had limited options.

Nari nestled into the nest, happy that there were no blankets to smother her. Not even a minute passed and she was out like a light. Douxie and Y/n sat on one of the couches in the nestroom, watching the veggie lady snooze. Archie made himself comfy in Douxie’s lap, who absent mindedly stroked his familiar’s fur. They were underground now. Surrounded by inorganic matter. Some of that inorganic matter could fight, would be willing to fight, would probably be disappointed if there wasn’t a fight. The little devil on Douxie’s shoulder wasn’t really having to work hard. His stomach growled. They had opted to just not stop for dinner in favor of plowing right through their trip route. It was late, and dark, and Douxie really just wanted them to have a roof over their head before midnight. And now they did.

He looked over at Y/n. They had been a couple for an entire day now and he had yet to take her on a proper date. What a bad boyfriend he was. It’s not like Archie would want to come with them or anything either, since he filled himself with birds that didn’t know what hit them while they traveled. The dragon had even caught a hawk at one point, which wasn’t as impressive as it sounds, since Archie was a much faster flyer. He would be happy to watch Nari for them, surely. And Dic had given them a horngazzle so they could come and go as they pleased. It was settled then.

“Arch, watch Nari for us, please, we’ll be back in a pinch,” He grabbed Y/n’s hand to pull her off the couch, “C’mon, My Love, we’re going on a date.”

~ ~ ~

Turns out the only thing open past midnight in small town New Jersey was a waffle house. The perfect date. Y/n had thought it funny to watch Douxie try and deactivate all the fresh wards he had put around the boat. He had to be careful where he put his feet, and it was like he was doing a silly little dance. Ward trap ballet of his own barely thought-out design. At one point he stepped backwards to admire his work, triggering the ward behind him, and Y/n had to free him from the net. Lucky it was just a net one.

Entering the waffle house, they slid into the nearest booth, the one near the jukebox. They ordered what else but waffles. The food of kings and hungover college kids. Not just plain waffles, though. Douxie got chocolate chip and Y/ got strawberry, and they were going to combine them to make chocolate covered strawberry waffles. Everyone knows chocolate covered strawberries were the most romantic food, why else would they push them so hard around Valentine’s.

Douxie leaned in with his head in his hand. “So, tell me about yourself.”

Y/n laughed, decided to play into this bit. “Oh, I’m just a California lass, on her way to New York. Things have been crazy lately. Went to a very convincing renaissance faire, I’m harboring a fugitive, my roommate keeps hitting on me. Very stressful.  Sure am lucky I came across you, Mr. Handsome.”

“Lucky indeed.” Doux snickered.

Y/n pointed to the jukebox behind Doux, which he twisted around to see. “Have you ever heard ‘Last Night I Saw Elvis At Waffle House’?”

“No?”

“Oh, it’s a banger.” She got out of the booth and put a coin in the juke, making her selection. She slid back in with a Cheshire cat grin and Doux was kind of scared now, actually. As the current song ended and the song that they were waiting for began. Well, it was a song. About seeing Elvis in a waffle house. With a country tune he supposed someone thought was catchy in order for them to have recorded this. Douxie didn’t know what he had expected.

“Uh, wow.”

“Yeah, Ain’t it something. I loved this song when I was knee high to a grasshopper. All the waffle house jams really.”

“Your aunt let someone bring you to a waffle house? That’s not very proper.” Douxie chuckled.

“Oh, no, actually. Um, this was before my dad passed and my mother, ah, slipped.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

Douxie rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m sorry I mentioned it.”

“No, no. I’m fine Dewdrop. I can talk about it, really. And, like you said the other day, I’ve been focusing on the Now Love.” The silly waffle house themed song was still playing despite the air of seriousness that had fallen over the duo. It helped keep Y/n from getting too sad and dwelling on the memories she had just brought up. It was comical, really. A waffle house song keeping her grounded. She rubbed the palm of Douxie’s hand. “I still mourn my family, but it’s been so long that the pain’s but a dull ache now. As long as I don’t think too hard about it. If anyone knows about mourning it’d be you, Doux. I can’t imagine meeting hundreds of friends over my lifetime just to watch them all grow old and die while you just have to go on living.” She paused, eyes drifting downwards, “But I suppose that’ll be my fate anyways.”

Douxie reached over and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “It’s actually not that bad, once you get used to it. You just have to enjoy every bit of time you get. That’s what makes other magic friends so valuable, there are some permanent players on your team.” He let his hand linger under her jaw, pulling her face closer to his, “You have me. We have each other. We’re family. We always have been.”

“So I hate to interrupt, but, waffles.” The server put the plates she had been holding down onto the table. Douxie and Y/n pulled away from each other quick as lightning, sitting up straight in their seats. “Again, sorry guys.”

“Thank you.” The two chorused to their fleeting form in embarrassment. Their faces were fire engine red. Archie was right, they did get a little carried away with the pda. It may have been 12:28am in a waffle house but they were still in public. Grabby hands needed to be kept to themselves.

After dinner, neither Doux nor Y/n could bring themselves to go home quite yet, despite the nagging feeling to return to Nari. They loitered around woods, unsure of what to do. Leaning against the parked boat, Douxie got an idea. He put on the music on his phone, turning the volume all the way up and positioning it so it’d put out a better sound the best he could. The playlist he selected was actually the one he had of songs that reminded him of his beloved. Copying what Y/n had done last night, he held out his hand.

“Come on, dance with me, My Darling.”

Douxie twirled Y/n around in the night breeze that blew through the trees. This song was much faster than the one they danced to last time, and there was more energy between them. Y/n’s laugh echoed through the forest. This was a lot of fun, she could do it all night. Honestly, she could do anything all night if it was with Douxie. He lifted her up, like she weighed nothing. Seriously, how strong was this noodle armed wizard. She threw her arms around his neck, looking down to meet his eyes, a rare thing. Y/n kissed his nose, eliciting a happy giggle from his mouth.

He should have put her back down by now. Instead, he still held her up, transfixed by her face ringed in moonlight, like a halo. She noticed the awestruck look on his face, kissing him properly, yet it did nothing to pull him out of his stupor. He had one thought running over and over in his mind. Marry me. But, he couldn’t say that. A proposal had to be special, not after a waffle house date. Their first date, mind you. He couldn’t possibly jus-

“Marry me, Dewdrop?”

Well apparently he couldn’t but she absolutely could.

It took him a moment to take in her words, shocked out of his overthinking. The biggest grin spread across his face as he giddily spun her around in his arms. He finally put her feet back on the ground, crashing his lips into hers. Y/n brought a hand up to drag through his hair and left the other to slide down his back. No battle for dominance, Douxie’s tongue was definitely the one leading here. He just couldn’t believe it. It was if she had read his mind. It was still hard for him to believe she wanted him in the first place, but this much? If this was the afterlife he must surely be in heaven. One makeout session later, Y/n rasped “So I’m guessing that’s a yes?”

“Let’s sign the papers tomorrow.”

~ ~ ~

Despite the uneasy feeling they had both had about leaving Nari alone for so long, she was perfectly fine. In fact she hadn’t even moved an inch form the spot they left her in. Like they never left at all. Archie was asleep on that couch, as peaceful as ever. They’d tell him the news in the morning.

Y/n climbed into the nest and dragged Douxie down with her. After getting comfy on the array of cushions, he opened his arms and she nestled into his chest. She could feel his hands rest on her back. Perfect. It was calming, listening to his heartbeat, being lulled to sleep with the rhythm that gave proof that her beloved was alive. A steady beat that reassured her he was there, he was there. He wouldn’t leave her again.

*** check notes for chapter illustrations lmao

[alatismeni-theitsa]

anti LO anon opinions

(1) Hot take: Anyone can make a comic where the characters are different colors and have a lineless style. I feel like because of how popular it got, if you even try to do something with monocolor schemes, LO fans will think you're copying.It's a lot easier to make characters one color and a completely valid way of making art/comics. No one owns a lineless art or monocolors tho.I'd love to see comics that use colors like LO does but in a way that makes more sense.

(2) R.. Rachel knows Demeters a fertility goddess- right??? She knows that there's like a billion fertility goddesses in greek mythology right?!

(3) LO Ouranos' design is just confirming once again Smythe can only think of these gods in a Abrahamic fashion instead of their actual ancient context and society. That's why the Maidens are seen as regressive prudes, why there's such an emphasis on "purity", why men hold more power/status, why Minthe, who is the evil lustful woman compared to the good virginal Persephone, is designed literally like a devil/succubus, why sex outside of marriage/several partners is seen as bad, the list goes on.

(4) So why does Ouranos have 6 eyes in the recent chapter? Does it signify he will have 6 sons (plus 6 daughters, but unlikely the daughters are included) who will eventually overthrow him?

I noticed that both Gaia and Persephone both have hair that sometimes look like leaves, so I guess both Hades and Ouranos have a thing for women who will never "Leaf" them (I'm a language major, sorry for my weird puns)

PS, a friend of mine joked that "if Ouranos has 6 eyeballs, does this mean he also have 6 male reproductive organs? 😏" (And also Aphrodite was born from the Sea foam of Ouranos bits and pieces so...)

(5) Read the latest LO chapter, and they sure did my favorite goddess Demeter dirty by making her an overdramatic laughing stock and a quacky (whacky) mother to boot.

I think it's very disrespectful to turn a mythological wonderful loving mother who has a very healthy mother-daughter relationship with her children (Persephone) and a very dedicated and responsible Godess who is in charge of the four seasons be reduced to a laughingstock and a boss whose employees throw a party/sleaze around when she's not at work.

(6) Obviously Demeter and co. are being drawn this way in preparation for everyone to deal with Henson Co. adapting it. they only deal with childish designs like that (barring the gross puppets they like to do too. prepare LO to be full of fart and barf jokes) and it'll be much easier for them to design if the comic does the same (this is sarcasm btw. It's more likely RS has just gotten lazy and know they could spit on paper and the fandom will eat it up. why put effort into your work, right?)

(7) The only unique design LO ever does is random splotches of color, white lines for scars, pointy ears, and extra eyes, and that's at the absolute most. You could say Punderworld also suffers some same faces (especially the women) but you can also tell who is who by their outfits, props, and variations in features.

(8) This is a minor complaint but LO Hecate's design is so ugly 😭she looks like an edgy moodboard take on Edna Mode. She's supposed to be this badass witch yet looks just as boringly business as everyone else. Also wasn't she not involved with Hades until after Persephone is married? Wasn't she Persephone's companion first in myth? Why is she Hades' best friend instead and only interacted with Persephone for a study abroad semester?

(9) God, the pilot line in LO is so stupid. Are they telling us fertility goddesses are the only source of power to try and be like HAHA SEE PERSEPHONE DOESNT NEED HADES! HE NEEDS HER! Because 1) that means it’s setting up HADES to take over olympus/overthrow Zeus which is so!!! Ugh!!! Why are you messing with literal religion now?! Hades is a shit king in the underworld but she seems to want him as the head one too?! But also 2) shouldnt DEMETER be the most powerful and desired godess then? Seeing as she’s literally the fertility godess?? Why did Smythe literally skip over her to make Persephone more special?

Metis was included despite no fertility traits but the literal goddess who controls nature and the earth ISNT? How does that work?! Demeter literally made Persephone all by herself in comic but shes not in this special lineup? Not to mention it once again is making the women props for men and their games! Cant we just read a stupid romance without it being a shallow political game too?

Persephone is being used as a literal political chip and whoever “gets” her is now, essentially, holding the nuclear codes and can overthrow whoever they want.  we know it’ll be Hades, so he’s not only getting a super fertile wife to give him babies, he’s also getting a wife who never questions him, who does whatever he wants, and is now his tool to literally rule everything if he wants, which who knows, he might do so poor Hera is free of her loveless marriage because he’s just SO caring like that. Also, Apollo never wanted to overthrow Zeus?! Athena, Hera, and Poseidon did! 

Does she know this is a romance comic and the jumping between stupid romance and earth-ending drama does not mesh well? God I’m mad. This is so stupid. The damn Disney movie showed more respect than this.