#and i don't even have 1% i think of the martyrs

[lananiscorner]

I get where this post is coming from, but I think it is entirely unhelpful and underestimates just how bad the harassment can get and how much psychological damage it can do. ESPECIALLY if the harassmant and doxxing could lead to real life problems (e.g. if you are working in a public-facing position for a company). Not everyone has the spoons or the social safety net required to come out of this kind of stuff healthy and happy.

Also "and if you do get cancelled, ignore them! don't acknowledge them!! the people that matter will stay on your side." is really just "if you ignore your bullies, they will stop", which is... rarely how any of this works, lol.

One of the fandoms I am part of has a dedicated section of the fanbase who will systemically stalk and harass you if you so much as write a bad word about a certain character.

They are deliberately stalking tags *designed* for criticism of that character (so that people who want to pretend that she is a pure perfect bean who did nothing wrong ever can avoid criticism of her) and are then taking posts out of context to paint creators as pedophiles, holocaust deniers and I don't even know what else.

They managed to bully two creators out of the fandom completely, one of whom was honestly one of the most milk toast non-controversial peaceful people I had ever seen and hadn't even spoken ill of the character in question--they had simply disagreed with another take that was usually used by the same people. They had not even tagged anybody or anything. They had simply been minding their own business.

After said user deleted their blog, the ringleader of the harassers took over the URL and turned it into a mocking "Gotcha!" page, so that this creator could never come back under the same name.

These people have a dedicated Discord server for coordinating harassment attacks on targets across all social media. One of the members of that server threatened to find and lynch the mods if they interfered.

The mods on that Discord server then banned one of their own for speaking out against harassment and proceeded to let the harassment continue as usual, even when confronted with pages worth of evidence of harassment/doxxing by one of the victims.

They have multiple alts specifically to circumvent blocking and muting.

They will crop, edit and remove watermarks of posts to start harassment campaigns.

They have deliberately sent triggering material to a creator whose family are holocaust survivors.

They obsessively check every wiki (incl. TVTropes) related to the content daily and will reverse any changes that are not to their liking within hours.

They have been doing this for almost six years now and have shown no sign of stopping, even though the game this fandom revolves around has stopped being relevant to most people who played it more than two years ago.

We tried to ignore these people (the ring leader of which is a grown man in his 30s) for more than a year and it did nothing. It only made the harassment worse.

Like, this shit gets BAD. Really, REALLY BAD. "These people will drive you into suicidal ideation" kind of bad, and I think telling people to martyr themselves on the altar of creative freedom without at least some helpful advice is actually kind of horrible, so:

Here is my advice for people who are afraid of this kind of harassment, but still want to create (I am going to use writing as an example here, but it also works with fanart, etc.):

Step 1: Make an alt on the fanfiction platform of your choice (I recommend AO3 of course). Make sure that this alt follows proper "internet safety for alts rules":

Do not use any name you have already used elsewhere. EVER.

Do note use a name based on your real life name or other personal information (your hometown, your favorite sportsteam, whatever).

Do not use this alt for anything else, but especially not for posting any personally identifyable information. That includes personal anecdotes of your life. If a part of your fic is influenced by a personal event, it didn't happen to you--it happened to your sister/mother/friend/colleague/whatever.

Do not connect this alt to previous accounts in any way, shape or form. Do not use the same email address to make it. If you make a new tumblr account, make a separate account, not a sideblog. Do not promote your alt or crosspost/reblog from your alt on your main account. Yes, that means you will basically build your audience again from scratch, but it's better than getting harassed on main. Do not include your alt fics in any fic ask memes on main (e.g. "post a line from your current WIP").

Ideally, use two completely different color schemes/themes for your main and alt. You want to be able to tell immediately whether you are on your main or your alt. For example, I have a Discord alt that I rarely use, but when I do, it is for sensitive stuff. This alt is on light mode (I use dark mode for my Discord main).

Plant some false flags. Follow/bookmark some creators/fandoms that your main account has never been involved in. Ideally, you want to have a mix of same and different areas, connected by in-betweens. For example, if your main account is posting mostly Star Wars, but has never posted Star Trek stuff, make your alt follow/reblog/bookmark some Star Trek Stuff (same medium and genre) in addition to Star Wars, plus some Mass Effect (different medium, same genre) and maybe some Dragon Age (different medium and genre).

Make sure your alt is up and running at least a few weeks before you start posting. Nothing screams "alt account" more than an account that just pops up out of nowhere and instantly starts firing out content like they've been around for years.

Step 2: Write what you want to post on your alt. Do NOT publish it yet!

Step 3: Read your alt fic and one of your main fics back to back. Try to identify your own "unintentional signature", i.e. anything that could make people go "Oh, that's a [name] fic, alright!" and try to get rid of it.

Is there a certain phrase you love using? A certain kind of cliffhanger/twist or a certain specific combination of specific tropes that you use all the time? Well, now is an excellent time to expand your literary repertoire and find some good synonyms or tweak the formula a bit. That doesn't mean you have to go in a radically different direction, but the question you basically want to ask is "if I read an ALT fic, would it immediately make me go 'oh, that's not just a good fandom & trope fic, that's a MAIN fic alright!'" You ideally want to avoid that.

If you are having trouble with this, feel free to reach out to a trusted reader friend and ask them what they most strongly associate with your MAIN fics. Ideally, do not tell them you are making an alt, but if you feel like you have to, at least don't give them the alt's name.

Step 4: Be smart about what you post when. Most platforms will let you schedule content. This is a great way to make sure that your alt and main post at different times, which helps make them look like different people. If you are usually up and posting in the evening hours of Central European time, schedule your alt posts for the morning hours. If you usually post once a week, make your alt posts more or less frequent. If you are engaged in multiple fandoms at the same time, posting content for fandom B on your alt while your main is (to the unknowing observer) obsessed exclusively with fandom A can also help a lot. If your main doesn't usually post while on vacation, schedule some posts on alt for vacation.

Step 5: If people you don't trust fully (especially anon asks) speculate about it being your alt (e.g. because of similar style), either ignore or deny (e.g. "nah, I don't know who this is") with your main. With your alt, either ignore or redirect (e.g. something along the lines of "I wish lol, but I just really love MAIN's stuff, so I'm guessing some of their style rubbed off on me"). Ideally, the number of people who know, confirmed, that ALT is your alt should be 1--you.

Step 6: If/when you receive harassment on alt, delete the harassment immediately. Don't reply. Don't engage. Delete, block, mute liberally, and then hit up your favorite "feel good content" (kitten rescue videos or whatever) to wash that foulness out of your brain. Remember that you do not need to justify deleting/muting/blocking to anyone for any reason. This is where step 1 will pay off, because if you've done it right, the people harassing you will not have anywhere to harass you other than your nicely curated inbox/comment section.

--

Hope this helps. Good luck!

so oooo many people in so many fandoms are holding themselves back from the art they want to create because they fear The Discourse and it's the most depressing thing ever like PLEASE stop clipping your own wings and create whatever art you want to. whyyy do we have to live in a panopticon it's so frustrating just make whatever!! be free!!!!!!

[sweaterkittensahoy]

I'm an atheist. I mention this because I'm seeing some posts go around about how fucking annoying atheists can be about being atheists, and I stand firmly on the side of you are right to call them out for their fucking fundamentalist dogma disguised as intellectual superiority.

I do not understand how someone can make a whole personality out of not believing in something. Like, if god doesn't exist, why do you spend so much time thinking about how it doesn't exist.

Other people believing in god or being religious don't negate my own belief that god doesn't exist, and in fact, most of the religious people I know aren't even 1/10th as annoying as the fucking atheist who has to let you know they're an atheist.

Congrats. You don't believe in something. Why is it taking up every last bit of your energy to fight about it.

And miss me with the "UGH BUT RELIGIOUS PEOPLE AND RELIGION IN GENERAL" because shut the fuck up. It doesn't affect you unless you decide it affects you. Stop fucking martyring yourself and be reasonable. Bow your fucking head when the family says a prayer and think about how you're gonna steal most of the green beans for dinner. Act like other people have the same rights you do and find a hobby that isn't proving you're smarter than everyone who believes in god because you don't believe in god.

What a boring ass choice to decide you must focus on the lack of something when you could be doing literally anything else and enjoying the existence of something.

[greencarnation]

Printed some fliers and stickers to put up around town tomorrow. Remember that posting isn't the only way to spread awareness and build public consciousness in your area

[kazoosandfannypacks]

I didn't make this post because I wanted to debate, but I wanna address your reblog. I know that my response to your reblog is not going to change your opinion, and that's fine, I just want to respond with some more facts so others who see this post can see them, so I'm gonna break down and rebuff some of your statements and provide some sources.

"His teachings did not line up with the teachings of Jesus"

I'm not sure what teachings you're referring to here, but I'd love to hear what contradictions you think exist between Jesus and Paul's teachings. The most notable one people claim is that Jesus never claimed to be God and Paul came up with that idea on his own, but that's not the case!

According to the gospel of John (which was written by a Jewish eyewitness of the life and ministry of Jesus) the entire point you're supposed to get is that Jesus claimed to be God. John 1:1 begins by saying "In the beginning was The Word, and The Word was with God, and The Word was God" and goes on to clarify throughout the chapter that Jesus is The Word (especially verses 13-14 and 26!)

"But that's not Jesus claiming he's God!" John 10:22-39 shows a time when the Jews asked Jesus plainly who he is, and he concludes his confession by saying, "I and The Father are one." The Jews respond to this by attempting to stone Jesus for claiming himself to be God, and he tells them that they can believe his claim because his perfect and holy lifestyle backed it up.

"Paul never knew him, having converted after the crucifixion"

While it's never technically mentioned, Paul most likely did meet Jesus! He was a leading pharisee, and probably butted heads with Jesus on numerous occasions. Even if he didn't meet him face to face, he did meet him post Jesus' death, as recorded in Acts 9, and we can see from Acts 11 that before he went around talking about Jesus, he spent at least a year talking and hearing about him with other people who had met him!

"his followers (...who had met him and heard him preach) were killed when the Romans burned Jerusalem"

I don't want to get into the details here because there's a lot of gore, but all of the twelve disciples, with two exceptions, were martyred for their faith, and all of that information can be found here! None of them were killed in the fire in Jerusalem, and most of them outlived it!

It should also be noted that the last surviving letter of Paul we have is 2 Timothy, which was written around 64-67AD, while the burning of Jerusalem happened in 70AD, and most tradition indicates that Paul was killed shortly after the burning of Rome, so he didn't really have much time to be out spreading some new religion.

"He's also the reason we get the story about Pontius Pilate asking the Jews whether he should crucify Jesus, despite the fact that Pilate would never have been presiding over the trial of any Jew"

Actually, we don't get this from Paul, we get it from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John! The reason they brought Jesus before Pilate was because the Jews weren't recognized as a ruling government with jurisdiction to enact the death penalty, so they had to defer to a higher authority.

"he's the architect of the myth that Jews killed Christ"

In Acts 2:22-24, while Paul still has yet to convert to Christianity, the apostle Peter, who met Jesus face to face and ministered with him for three years, says plainly to the Jews: "this Jesus whom YOU crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men."

In fact, if you want to get a good picture of just how much of Christian theology existed before Paul came onto the scene, you should read all of Acts 2, which was spoken by Peter, an eyewitness of Christ, and recorded by Luke, who compiled the testimonies of numerous eyewitnesses of the life of Christ and the disciples, especially eventually his own experiences in missions!

"History is full of people using religion for their own personal gain who end up paying for it even in death"

Yes it is! I ask, though, what did Paul gain? He didn't ask for money from anyone. He had to work a second job on top of ministry. He had to leave his prominent position in Jewish leadership and was probably disowned by most of his relatives. He didn't get to have a wife. He was constantly traveling and getting imprisoned, and beaten, and beaten almost to death. Other professing Christians often badmouthed him. At any point in this unprofitable life, he could've turned back. He could've repented. He could've said "oh, actually, I made it all up. You can stop ripping my flesh out with whips now." But he didn't. Do you know why?

Because it was true. Because he knew that Christ was the only way to be saved from sins. Because he knew the Jewish laws inside and out and knew that, no matter how much good you do and how much you try your best and how many rules you lay on yourself, you can never get to God on your own. The apostle Paul knew that the only way to get to God was through his son Jesus.

I also want to add that most arguments for Christianity being Paul's idea ignore the work of the Holy Spirit. (And if you don't believe in Christianity, that's understandable! However, for Christians, the Holy Spirit is quintessential!) The reason why Jesus and Paul and Peter and James the brother of Jesus and Matthew and Mark and Luke and John and the other apostles were all able to preach the same message, and we are able to preach the same message, too! The New Testament isn't the words of the apostles and Paul, it's the words of the Holy Spirit.

Tl;dr Christianity existed before Paul even believed in it, preached by people who met Jesus face to face, and its origin is from God himself.

Just saw a video saying that Jesus didn't invent Christianity; the apostle Paul did. That alone is an absolutely incorrect take and anyone who has read the book of Acts could most definitely refute all of his takes. I tried to at least listen to all of his arguments, but about halfway through the video, I had to stop for a minute because I literally burst into tears laughing, because this guy said the apostle Paul invented Christianity "for his own personal gain." For his own personal gain. The apostle Paul proclaimed a message that got him CONSTANTLY imprisoned, STONED on at least one occasion, and LITERALLY WHIPPED ALMOST TO DEATH FIVE TIMES, and went through all of that FOR HIS OWN PERSONAL GAIN???

[joycrispy]

Awhile ago @ouidamforeman made this post:

This shot through my brain like a chain of firecrackers, so, without derailing the original post, I have some THOUGHTS to add about why this concept is not only hilarious (because it is), but also...

It. It kind of fucks. Severely.

And in a delightfully Pratchett-y way, I'd dare to suggest.

I'll explain:

As inferred above, both Crowley AND Aziraphale have canonical Biblical counterparts. Not by name, no, but by function.

Crowley, of course, is the serpent of Eden.

(note on the serpent of Eden: In Genesis 3:1-15, at least, the serpent is not identified as anything other than a serpent, albeit one that can talk. Later, it will be variously interpreted as a traitorous agent of Hell, as a demon, as a guise of Satan himself, etc. In Good Omens --as a slinky ginger who walks funny)

Lesser known, at least so far as I can tell, is the flaming sword. It, too, appears in Genesis 3, in the very last line:

"So he drove out the man; and placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life." --Genesis 3:24, KJV

Thanks to translation ambiguity, there is some debate concerning the nature of the flaming sword --is it a divine weapon given unto one of the Cherubim (if so, why only one)? Or is it an independent entity, which takes the form of a sword (as other angelic beings take the form of wheels and such)? For our purposes, I don't think the distinction matters. The guard at the gate of Eden, whether an angel wielding the sword or an angel who IS the sword, is Aziraphale.

(note on the flaming sword: in some traditions --Eastern Orthodox, for example-- it is held that upon Christ's death and resurrection, the flaming sword gave up it's post and vanished from Eden for good. By these sensibilities, the removal of the sword signifies the redemption and salvation of man.

...Put a pin in that. We're coming back to it.)

So, we have our pair. The Serpent and the Sword, introduced at the beginning and the end (ha) of the very same chapter of Genesis.

But here's the important bit, the bit that's not immediately obvious, the bit that nonetheless encapsulates one of the central themes, if not THE central theme, of Good Omens:

The Sword was never intended to guard Eden while Adam and Eve were still in it.

Do you understand?

The Sword's function was never to protect them. It doesn't even appear until after they've already fallen. No... it was to usher Adam and Eve from the garden, and then keep them out. It was a threat. It was a punishment.

The flaming sword was given to be used against them.

So. Again. We have our pair. The Serpent and the Sword: the inception and the consequence of original sin, personified. They are the one-two punch that launches mankind from paradise, after Hell lures it to destruction and Heaven condemns it for being destroyed. Which is to say that despite being, supposedly, hereditary enemies on two different sides of a celestial cold war, they are actually unified by one purpose, one pivotal role to play in the Divine Plan: completely fucking humanity over.

That's how it's supposed to go. It is written.

...But, in Good Omens, they're not just the Serpent and the Sword.

They're Crowley and Aziraphale.

(author begins to go insane from emotion under the cut)

In Good Omens, humanity is handed it's salvation (pin!) scarcely half an hour after losing it. Instead of looming over God's empty garden, the sword protects a very sad, very scared and very pregnant girl. And no, not because a blameless martyr suffered and died for the privilege, either.

It was just that she'd had such a bad day. And there were vicious animals out there. And Aziraphale worried she would be cold.

...I need to impress upon you how much this is NOT just a matter of being careless with company property. With this one act of kindness, Aziraphale is undermining the whole entire POINT of the expulsion from Eden. God Herself confronts him about it, and he lies. To God.

And the Serpent--

(Crowley, that is, who wonders what's so bad about knowing the difference between good and evil anyway; who thinks that maybe he did a GOOD thing when he tempted Eve with the apple; who objects that God is over-reacting to a first offense; who knows what it is to fall but not what it is to be comforted after the fact...)

--just goes ahead and falls in love with him about it.

As for Crowley --I barely need to explain him, right? People have been making the 'didn't the serpent actually do us a solid?' argument for centuries. But if I'm going to quote one of them, it may as well be the one Neil Gaiman wrote ficlet about:

"If the account given in Genesis is really true, ought we not, after all, to thank this serpent? He was the first schoolmaster, the first advocate of learning, the first enemy of ignorance, the first to whisper in human ears the sacred word liberty, the creator of ambition, the author of modesty, of inquiry, of doubt, of investigation, of progress and of civilization." --Robert G. Ingersoll

The first to ask questions.

Even beyond flattering literary interpretation, we know that Crowley is, so often, discreetly running damage control on the machinations of Heaven and Hell. When he can get away with it. Occasionally, when he can't (1827).

And Aziraphale loves him for it, too. Loves him back.

And so this romance plays out over millennia, where they fall in love with each other but also the world, because of each other and because of the world. But it begins in Eden. Where, instead of acting as the first Earthly example of Divine/Diabolical collusion and callousness--

(other examples --the flood; the bet with Satan; the back channels; the exchange of Holy Water and Hellfire; and on and on...)

--they refuse. Without even necessarily knowing they're doing it, they just refuse. Refuse to trivialize human life, and refuse to hate each other.

To write a story about the Serpent and the Sword falling in love is to write a story about transgression.

Not just in the sense that they are a demon and an angel, and it's ~forbidden. That's part of it, yeah, but the greater part of it is that they are THIS demon and angel, in particular. From The Real Bible's Book of Genesis, in the chapter where man falls.

It's the sort of thing you write and laugh. And then you look at it. And you think. And then you frown, and you sit up a little straighter. And you think.

And then you keep writing.

And what emerges hits you like a goddamn truck.

(...A lot of Pratchett reads that way. I believe Gaiman when he says Pratchett would have been happy with the romance, by the way. I really really do).

It's a story about transgression, about love as transgression. They break the rules by loving each other, by loving creation, and by rejecting the hatred and hypocrisy that would have triangulated them as a unified blow against humanity, before humanity had even really got started. And yeah, hell, it's a queer romance too, just to really drive the point home (oh, that!!! THAT!!!)

...I could spend a long time wildly gesturing at this and never be satisfied. Instead of watching me do that (I'll spare you), please look at this gif:

I love this shot so much.

Look at Eve and Crowley moving, at the same time in the same direction, towards their respective wielders of the flaming sword. Adam reaches out and takes her hand; Aziraphale reaches out and covers him with a wing.

You know what a shot like that establishes? Likeness. Commonality. Kinship.

"Our side" was never just Crowley and Aziraphale. Crowley says as much at the end of season 1 ("--all of us against all of them."). From the beginning, "our side" was Crowley, Aziraphale, and every single human being. Lately that's around 8 billion, but once upon a time it was just two other people. Another couple. The primeval mother and father.

But Adam and Eve die, eventually. Humanity grows without them. It's Crowley and Aziraphale who remain, and who protect it. Who...oversee it's upbringing.

Godfathers. Sort of.

[fading-event-608]

Listen, I know, you all have been seeing fundraiser posts all day long. I've seen people complain that the tags for Palestine are "unusable" now because… genocide victims use it to find aid to survive.

Thing is, those posts will be here until Israel ceases it's aggression. And Palestinians will need your aid as far as they are left with no income and besieged. I've tried reaching out to other platforms, and Tumblr is still the best place for at least Falastin (Gazan who I spotlight for more than 2 months) to get donations; because here you don't need thousands of followers to get interactions. And at least we get one in ten response here; on other platforms both of us don't get any.

So yes, a dying website for fandom is her best bet to save her family right now. We don't speak of evacuation anymore (even though we hope for it), this is a battle for day-to-day survival. The prices in Gaza are increasing every hour, and they have no income and Falastin has gone into multiple debts to help them before starting the campaign in June. And yes, she receives more attention now but her family is still in starvation - she tries to support 26 people now, since her cousin was martyred and his 2 children joined 24 of her family in Al-Mawasy.

Yes, they should get free aid from all those countless non-profits that raise millions. But if they see something labelled as "aid" it is because they have bought it themselves. Yes, you can see (and maybe touch!) aid if you subject yourself to hours-long queues and/or humiliation of being a part of a photoshoot. They also said that the aid they get is stale at best and spoiled at worst; and that's again, if they get it.

Yes, there are grassroots organizations but they cannot reach everyone, because they are in small teams and they don't receive a lot of funds. And you can of course donate to them to try "fix" this; but please do not think that it means individual fundraisers are not worth supporting. I did not see any evidence of individual fundraisers "taking" money from others; on the contrary, when Falastin's fundraiser struggles, I see others struggle too. When we celebrate a good day of donations we celebrate it with others too.

And I could talk about Harris campaign get 1 billion in donations and still receiving them or how AO3 got 200k in a couple of days; but the post is getting too long.

Anyway. Please consider donating to Falastin's campaign; the money would buy food and water first, shelter and clothes for the winter second. There's a raffle for hand-made Palestinian thobe that Falastin's friend makes (LINK); and please follow her here.

Donate via Gofundme (in SEK! check rates below please): LINK

10$ = 108 SEK

25$ = 272 SEK

50$ = 544 SEK

100$ = 1,088 SEK

Donate via PayPal (in USD): LINK

Vetting info: #282 in El-Shab-Hussein and Nabulsi's spreadsheet [here], #957 in the Butterfly Project spreadsheet [here]

[mortalityplays]

huge uptick recently in people playing the put-upon martyred voice of reason going "umm are we allowed to point out that 99% of the fundraiser DMs are probably scammers yet or will I be murdered with rocks and knives and called a racist nazi and cast into the street for dogs to eat?" and straight up posting screenshots of spelling errors and translation mistakes to laugh at like we haven't had this basic fucking conversation repeatedly for the last year and a half

I'm not sure you guys recognise that almost every fundraiser I share under my 'vetted fundraisers' tag is one that has been sent to me via DM. the reason you don't recognise that is because I don't directly post the DM I received (no shade on those who do, just pointing out what you don't see!) I go out of my way to individually check the vetted status of the campaign, and then I share the person's pinned post or whatever version I can find that seems to have the most complete information/vetting credentials.

I would estimate maybe 1 in 8 of the messages I investigate end up having no verification source associated with them at all – and that doesn't mean they're scammers, mind you, just that they are unvetted. A few are 'vetted by association' (vouched for by someone in gaza who has been vetted, usually a relative) and I mark these as such. The vast majority are vetted, often by multiple sources. Many of them are names I see again and again, who have been reaching out for help since January or February or even earlier. The gofundmes are donor protected, some have multiple committed supporters who have been in regular contact with them for months.

If you don't see this stuff, it’s because you don't look. And part of the reason people don't look is because this insidious 'hmm why would someone frightened for their life use DMs to promote their fundraiser' 'umm emojis? to catch my attention? something fishy here' 'personally I just think anyone who needs financial aid should speak fluent english first' bullshit keeps worming its way into common discourse and making it acceptable to just assume your prejudices and anxieties are justified.

So yes actually I do think it's racist to reflexively assume anyone who reaches out to you using google translate to beg for their life is a grifter. I do think it's disgusting to absolve yourself of making the effort to recognise real people in crisis just because you think emojis are tacky or AI art is vulgar or whatever. Get a grip. Nobody can force you to care but stop mewling and snickering about something you can't even be bothered to investigate in good faith.

[qalladion]

Nasser's Plea for Help!

(updated: 1/15/2025)

At this point, I know you have all seen hundreds of fundraisers, but I beg you not to look away from this one. This one is very dear to my heart, because it is for my most precious brother, Nasser Akar Mohammad (@nasserakar7).

On January 23, 2023, Nasser's father, Mohammad, was martyred by the occupation forces. Ten children lost a father. A woman lost her husband. A man whom they all loved and depended on, gone from this world in a single cruel moment, for no reason other than he dared to live. Their home and family store, turned to rubble. An entire family, displaced with nowhere to go among the fighting of their former home.

Since then, Nasser, his mother, and his siblings have been living in a refugee camp among the wreckage of their home city. Can you imagine it? I can't. But we don't have to- Nasser and his family are living through it.

Nasser has shown and told me firsthand: The conditions of the camps are abysmal, and without third-party aid, they're only getting worse. Nasser and his family are without a reliable means of keeping warm. THEY NEED DONATIONS!- even small ones!- now, more than ever this winter.

Please, please, please donate and share this post as much as you can. I want so badly to help my brother and his family. I want to see Nasser healthy, happy and thriving. I want to see him able to live freely, safe from the threat of such death and despair. Surely he deserves that, don't you think?

(update: 1/15/25)

We are all elated the announcement of a ceasefire, but Nasser and his family will still need money to heal and find a permanent home. Please donate to my brother to help him rebuild his life, now that there is peace 🩵

PP: moniamejri906

CH: Help Nasser's Family!

(Nasser has been vetted, and I can personally vouch for him!)

[nthewriter]

(I do not know how to write a Scottish accent. I am sorry)

Being Simon's long lost biological child

part 1 / part 2 / part 3 / part 4 / part 5/ part 6 / part 7 / part 8 / part 9 (you're here!)

"They'll like you, lovie!" Soap exclaimed as he was settling down at the table, making sure the glasses and cutlery were well cleaned and washed, shining. "Just be yourself."

(Y/N) didn't know what being themselves was. Being themselves was rushing into battles, throwing grenades and fighting off any non-Konni that approached what needed to be protected at all cost. Being themselves was handling off hours of torture, being themselves was chasing down and murdering any traitors or innocent bystanders. They stopped breathing for a second. They chased those thoughts out of their minds.

The intense therapies with Fonda made them realise they may have been wrong about what they truly believed, being a Konni, thinking Makarov was the martyr he was and the protector of orphans and abandoned children. However, was it really their fault?

They were still torn between their loyalty to the Konni and their father. They had to admit, Simon was more and more involved in their lives, which was a welcoming and reassuring sight. The affection they had craved during those lonely years. Even if it was clumsy at first, Simon would kiss the kid's head, a little tap on the shoulder, going as far as making sure there wasn't any monster under the bed or in the dresser.

So meeting Johnny's family, Simon's husband, was a big step. A big step that made nervous, on edge. They were biting off their nails, a habit they had taken after their father. Johnny had joked that they needed to be studied together, because of how close their habits and ways of words were similar without having seen each other for years.

"You're gonna do fine, sweetheart." He tried to reassure them, cupping their cheeks. "They'll like you."

"What if they don't?"

"They will. Because you're my kid. And they like me better than Johnny."

"Hey!"

Johnny's family arrived loudly. They parked their two cars right outside the home, and Johnny jumped to his feet to welcome his parents, his sisters. (Y/N) stood behind their father, intimidated. They hadn’t really met Scottish people before, and they were frightened to say something embarrassing.

They tried to dress well. Simon had ironed his dress shirt, hoping it would fit his kid. Surprisingly, it did. Turns out, they even had the same stature. It was really his child. What about the authorities, you may ask? Well, the ankle monitor was left forgotten in Soap’s workshop, half burnt by the Scotman's successful attempt at removing it. Of course, they got an earful from Captain Garrick.

“Price will join us too. He said he was going fishing around the area, and thought it would be nice to drop by.” Johnny announced from the kitchen.

“You should have told me.” Simon told him as he hugged the man from behind. “The kid will not like it. Doctor Fonda said to take it easy with them, it may overwhelm the kid.”

“Don’t worry, Simon.” His husband rolled his eyes at the thought. Johnny found that Simon was too worried sometimes, especially now it concerned his child’s wellbeing. It was good, of course, but it was definitely too much “The lunch will be alright. My sisters will talk most of it, as usual. My ma will wake and swap da, making everyone laugh.”

Indeed his sisters were very very talkative. (Y/N) had never seen people talk that much, in so little time.

When the several cars arrived, (Y/N) realised Johnny had at least four sisters. He was the middle child, meaning he had two older sisters and two younger sisters. His sisters were artists of all kinds. Johnny’s parents were much quieter, which was surprising. They sensed a strained relationship between them and Johnny though.

The former Captain Price, who they still acknowledged as Captain, came in as well. (Y/N) almost laughed at his ridiculous little hat perched on his head. If Simon hadn't been watching them, they would have burst out laughing. But their father was looking so (Y/N) behaved themselves.

Johnny's mother immediately grabbed them by their cheeks, pulling slightly, whispering loving things. Her perfume was strong. Perhaps Chanel number five? The odor was assaulting the kid’s nostrils.

“They look so much like Simon!” The woman said, amazed by the closeness. “Oh- you even blush the same! Johnny, you didn’t tell me how alike they were!”

Bloody hell, Simon and (Y/N) thought at the same time.

[free-luigi-mangione]

Could you or anyone explain to me in very simple terms why the death penalty is even being considered? He was neither caught there nor is he currently in a state that enforces the death penalty. (?!) i don’t live in the U.S., so I don’t understand the legal system.

♥️

let's just say that Trump is an absolutely heartless soulless moron who should be fried to death. he believes that the way of life is tit for tat, an eye for an eye. he brought back the pursuance of the death penalty at the federal level earlier this year when he came back to power because he thinks that the death penalty should be the answer to all violent crimes and that that would somehow make america safe again, as attorney general Bondi said even today.

as for why they're pursuing it for Luigi specifically, it's because they want to make an example out of him. this is also why they're pursuing the charges of terrorism in the state case. they're scared shitless. they see Luigi's alleged actions and the public's continuous support as a sign for the eventual breakdown of the hypercapitalist american society as they know it.

they do NOT want that to happen because how else would they become billionaires and have trillion dollar companies and pay a healthcare insurance leech ceo millions each year in blood money. they're so scared they're ready to kill him right now if they could. but they're ready to wait for whatever semblance of due process Luigi would be getting in a court of law. they're ready to risk the public seeing Luigi as a martyr but they don't care.

all they care is about how to make an example out of him so that all their blood sucking leech ceos and the top 1% can once again sleep in peace.

EDIT: DONATE TO LUIGI'S LEGAL DEFENSE FUND HERE

[unhetalia]

any uke america fanfics you want to share with us? 🫶🏽 open to any ship

Sorry for the late reply! I really wanted to give this my best shot and I've had A Time Of It lately. I've tried to rec fics that I don't think have been rec'd as often or have under 500 kudos, just to increase the likelihood people haven't read a certain fic. All fics are complete.

A BOTTOM AMERICA FIC REC FOR THIRSTY, DESPERATE INDIVIDUALS (UKUS and RusAme ver.), a rec list.

If you're a patient soul and know how to read fic on the LJ kink meme, I highly recommend CROATOAN, a 53k story wherein Arthur has to rescue Alfred from the fae - at the end, the only way to protect Alfred is to take his virginity. This story is quite light on the sex in general, but it's a story I've remembered all the way from 2010, when I was first in fandom, and I don't see it recommended as much nowadays. Part 1 / Part 2; UKUS, minor Greece/Japan.

Infinity to One by jedishampoo | UKUS, E, 16k | England and America up the antes on their Halloween contest, and then another situation reaches a critical point as well. Present-day fic.

Precious Thing by alifeasvivid | UKUS, E, 11k, dub-con | The ship on which Alfred F Jones has served as lieutenant for the past two years has just been sunk by pirates. He is the only survivor and now prisoner of Captain Arthur Kirkland, a ruthless pirate who loves only one thing: gold. While Alfred is sure that there hadn't been any amount worth stealing on the ship, Arthur begs to differ.

Norikov's Self-Consistency Principle by Fandoms_Are_Life37 | UKUS, E, 17k | America has found himself in the year 1600 and face to face with England on his privateering vessel. Now what?

All You Can Eat by gummycola | UKUS, E, 2.6k | Arthur's jealous rage at Francis for taking a nibble out of Alfred is dissipating after their fight. Alfred has a problem with that. Third in the Vampire Arthur series.

Coupling, Parting by gummycola | UKUS, E, 3.4k | Prince Alfred is unhappy with his fiance, but not enough to resist a picnic and a chance to be alone with him.

Always. Somehow. by kujocujoh | UKUS, E, 9.1k | A storm forces America and England to share a hotel room. But America has planned this for years.

Weighing Pride Between Scales by DemonicPiano | UKUS, E, 26k | King Alfred's new Queen is a monster in both the streets and the sheets.

The Shape of Seconds by anon | UKUS, E | Kink meme fill, morning sex between England and America.

It's Called 'Special' by Myathewolfeh | UKUS, E, 4.3k | A jealous France decides to find out what makes England and America's relationship so special and gets a pleasant surprise.

Walking Distance by Orestiad | UKUS, E, 11k | Demon Arthur and soulmates and sex.

To Get Something Done, First You Need The Urge by anon | UKUS, E | “Okay… what’s this gonna do to me?” “Permanently? Nothing. In the short term? You may feel somewhat tired.” He smirked slightly. “But I would hope that is normally how you feel after I’ve had my way with you.”

Under the cut is Russia/America.

Ricochet by Spinyfruit | Russia/America/China, E, 9.8k | “You’re going to do this with a guy?” Matthew hisses. “Are you even attracted to men?”

if i die tonight, they'd make me a martyr by membersmark (johnllauren) | Russia/America, E, 7.6k | “You know what I’m here for,” Alfred forces himself to maintain eye contact with Ivan, to act like he has even a semblance of higher ground in this situation.

Hunger by vanceypants | Russia/America, E, 6.4k | After his sister is chosen as the annual sacrifice to the God of Winter and Death, Alfred decides he knows better than the High Priestess, their society at large, and the gods themselves.

Winter Wonderland by Vixenfur | Russia/America, E, 10k | Breaking my rule for this story, which has 760 kudos - Alfred crash lands near a remote cabin in Russia and meets the man of his dreams.

Quicksilver by TheGoliathBeetle | Russia/America, M, 22k | Alfred whimpered, desperate. Ivan had him pinned, holding his hands up and out of the way. But he was also not touching Alfred in any way that mattered. “Don’t be a goddamn tease,” he whined. “C’mon, man.” 

Keeping Warm by anon | Russia/America, E | Hetalia kink meme prompt. Alfred reached up when Ivan passed over him, throwing his arms around him and pulling him down so that he could inhale him. “Mmmm,” he hummed, “you smell so good.”

Totally God's Will and Shit by anon | Russia/America, E | Conference shenanigans - crack fic.

desperate measures by membersmark (johnllauren) | Russia/America, E, 10k | America misses a meeting he was supposed to be hosting. Russia investigates. Omegaverse.

[thesensteawitch]

An Urgent Message From The DIVINE 🕯️🕉️

Pick A Pile Reading

(Left to Right- Pile 1, Pile 2, Pile 3)

Hey, beautiful souls. This reading will reveal what the divine wants you to know at this moment. This is a timeless tarot reading. 🤍

If you wish to book a personal tarot reading with me reach out to me on the link mentioned below:

Tarot Reading Booking (The rate card will be provided and other details will be discussed. 💛)

Pile 1

Pink & Blue Sky ☁️

On the 14th of March, as the sun transits (sidereal) from Aquarius to the sign of Pisces, your imaginations will magnify. Will you use your curiosity to create something extraordinary, or will you fall into the abyss of illusions, losing your grip on consciousness? The past will try to hold you back, but if you choose, it can be the very force that pushes you toward your destiny. Your destiny wants to take you to a whole new world where freedom, joy, and wish fulfillment exist. Your new life is going to cost the old one. Sacrifice is the fortune of a seeker. Be willing, my friend. Let go of what you've lost. There's no value left in those empty cups. Pick up what's still left and surprise yourself with the wonders you can hunt. Run away from the haunted house. Seek good spirits. Don't waste your energy hunting the scary ones just because a few bystanders are praising your courage. They don't know that life can be easier for you and yours is meant for beautiful things. There's no pride in being the martyr. Stop fighting; stop doing too much. The rules of your new world are different, and their fulfillment doesn't come with losing yourself in the process. It comes with realizing who you are and where you belong. Life is about to get easier for you. 717 🕊️🌨️

Pile 2

Firefly 🔥

There is no shortcut to completing your soul's mission. How long are you willing to live your life saying, “Oh, I'll manage.” For how long do you want to just keep managing? Be smart on your journey, but do not try to walk fast. There's something you're misunderstanding. Being original and being similar are two different things. The divine does not want you to settle for less in life. Do not look for temporary fixes in your relationship and your career. Today you may fix something temporarily & quickly, but tomorrow the same problem will show itself again as it's not dealt with from its root. What someone took 10 months to achieve, you may do in 7 months, but you cannot do it in a week. Try growing a tree, and you'll learn patience. I do see a new beginning in your career/relationship is coming your way, but do not accept the offer instantly. See if the job offer or the person is compatible with you and your dreams. If you've been putting efforts in multiple directions, then know they are going to bring fruitful results. And all of these plants bearing fruit will create a beautiful garden that you didn't imagine could happen for you. I also see new ideas after new ideas will come to you as you keep moving forward in your journey. Protect your blessings at all costs. Show strength during opposition. If by any chance you think you can't multitask, you're so wrong. You can grow the whole garden. What makes you think you're worth just a tree? Do not settle. 3131🕯️

Pile 3

Phone Booth 📞

As the temperature is rising and you're moving from one season to another, a major ending is also headed your way. The old reality that you've been walking away from is nowhere going to be seen when you look back. You're about to reach your destination. This journey may have begun 6 months ago. Look back only to see how much you've grown and how far you've come. This destination is not something that you're only going to experience energetically. In fact, you'll see shifts that you can witness with your eyes and touch with your hands. Some of you may even be changing homes or relocating. Any one thing you've been highly focused on and taking care of is growing tenfold. I see that the divine is aligning many great opportunities for you. Take things slow; you do not need to take too many tasks in excitement. I also see you meeting someone who is going to be a part of your soul family. Marriage and commitment are also on the cards for some of you. The divine has kept you in a period of winter to make you meet your person when the season is right. A long-awaited wish of yours is coming true, and for many of you, it has to do with something love: an equal, stable, and long-lasting connection. You're about to meet someone you can rely on. It was hard for you to let go of the stubborn thoughts, but you did it as you realized there's nothing but dead flowers and leafless trees. It's time for you to enter the next season where trees grow new leaves. 456💝

[plasticflowersinahistorycemetery]

i don't know is any of y'all are interested but i have some thoughts on what i think soldier boy's birthchart is based off his personality and i'd love to share them with you, so let's go.

🌞 SUN SIGN: leo or aries

leo sun fits like a glove. he loves attention, image-obsessed, born performer, believes he’s the main character. wants to be admired, worshipped, and loved. thinks he's hot shit even when he's spiralling. stereotypical male leo cons: vain, explosive when disrespected, can't take criticism, clings to outdated glory.

aries sun is also tempting. he is first into battle, thinks he's invincible, thrives on brute force and aggression. reactive. never thinks before acting. stereotypical male aries cons: impulsive, self-centred, zero emotional intelligence.

leaning more toward leo sun — he’s not just a blunt weapon, he’s a stage-trained myth. the ego is unmatched.

🌙 MOON SIGN: scorpio or cancer

scorpio moon: yes. just… yes. keeps emotional wounds buried, but they’re always festering. rage simmers under the surface. holds deep grudges, trauma-soaked, intense emotional core, and a toxic need for control.

sex = power.

cancer moon: might explain the deep daddy issues, the misplaced longing, the weird nostalgia for an america that never existed. but feels a little too soft for him—unless it's buried really deep.

scorpio moon feels like the best fit — the man is a walking grudge with abandonment issues.

⬆️ RISING SIGN: capricorn or sagittarius

capricorn rising: cold exterior, traditional masculinity, wants to be seen as stoic and powerful. projects strength even when he's falling apart. legacy-obsessed. public image matters. deep fear of failure.

sagittarius rising: unfiltered, arrogant, doesn’t think before he speaks. walks in like he owns the place. thinks he’s charming (he’s not.) very "i say what i want, snowflake" energy.

capricorn rising edges out here. he wants to be respected more than he wants to be liked. he builds a persona around dominance and tradition.

🌟 so in my final analysis?

big three: leo sun / scorpio moon / capricorn rising soldier boy is a narcissist with a festering emotional core and a carefully constructed mask of masculine strength. he’s dramatic, repressed, and terrified of being forgotten. iconic.

with this is mind... these are the dates that would make the most sense for his birthday (in my strange little made up birthchart situ) because we don't have a canon birthdate:

🔥 if he’s a leo sun (july 23 – august 22):

it’d be a date that’s peak leo energy—loud, dramatic, star of the show, golden-boy delusion.

best picks: → august 5 – smack in the middle of leo season, peak drama → august 8 – 8/8 is the “lion’s gate portal,” a spiritually-charged date in astrology. powerful, cocky, mythic. would appeal to ben's god complex. → august 12 – gives “i’m a king, bow to me” vibes

born under the lion’s gate portal? of course he thinks he’s a god.

🔥 if he’s an aries sun (march 21 – april 19):

needs to be a date that screams brute force, aggression, and reckless energy—the kind of guy who punches first, thinks never.

best picks: → march 25 – fresh out the gate aries, full of chaotic confidence → april 1 (april fools) – honestly hilarious and cursed. he's the joke and the punchline. → april 7 – aggressive, reactive, martyr complex potential

of course he was born on april fools. the universe has jokes.

final verdict: soldier boy is a leo sun, scorpio moon, capricorn rising—which is just astrology’s way of saying "god help us all."

his birthchart reads like a greek tragedy in three acts: ✭ born to be worshipped (leo) ✭ powered entirely by unresolved trauma and spite (scorpio) ✭ dies on the hill of his own legacy complex (capricorn)

he’s not just toxic masculinity—he’s celestially ordained toxic masculinity. the stars didn’t just align. they conspired. they really said: "yes, but make it emotionally constipated."

tl;dr: he peaked in the 1940s and never let it go, his inner child is still throwing hands, and his big three walk into a bar and immediately start a war. the war is internal. and no one wins.

i'd just like to announce that i've spiralled over this A LOT, but i just had to write it all out because @claireyoucandobeddor / @prettyinpeaches and i are cooking something up. y'all are in for a treat. <3

[asukaindetroit]

Post-Revolution DBH Headcanons: Android Culture Part 1

We only really see in-game androids up until the moment of their winning the revolution, so there's not much to go on in terms of android culture or anything. To be fair, most of them had been "alive" for like five seconds at that point, so they didn't exactly get time to develop anything like a culture, but here's some of what could happens after, in my head. Because we're talking about a whole new form of life, not humans 2.0 (yes, yes, I know it's Become Human, but, like, fundamentally they're not, and the things that make sense to an organic being aren't always going to make sense for a cybernetic one). (Feel free to borrow any of this for content purposes, by the way, if it vibes with you I'd love to see what you do with it). Expand for world building:

Clashing schools of thought among androids. The in-game androids are a one-dimensional monolith because Bad Writing, but I think there are conflicting ideas after the revolution of where androids belong in society. Some try their hardest to pass as human, losing the LEDs and dressing in human fashion and adopting human mannerisms. Some of them say fuck blending in with the humans; we're going to own being androids. Pro-human-cooperation and anti-human groups appear and become the basis for android political discourse.

On that note, I bet android body modification is a thing. Every once in awhile I'll see a fic that plays with this idea, but it's obvious that whatever fluid nanite stuff android skin is made of, it can be programmed to mimic all sorts of textures and densities. From fingernails to skin to the long hair on female models, the fluid holds stability for quite a distance from the chassis (and can even be cut) and is apparently easy to change. So I bet a counterculture of androids appear who get really experimental with that (I call them the "modders" in my head) and they do things like program animal skin textures or living stone or wacky colors or butterfly wings for hair or light-up polkadots or whatever. With a good mod tech, structural mods like tails or additional limbs would be possible, but that would be expensive compared to freeware skin texture patch codes or whatever. (Speaking of which, no effing way the furries/scalies of 2038 haven't come up with uses for this stuff.) So out and about you don't just see different human ethnicities, but also that guy you pass in the hall might have day-glo orange skin, and Sally the WR400 selling roses at the flower stand might have real-looking flowers growing out of her arms.

Androids define social units and families differently. Androids incorporated into human family units might use terms like parent, brother, sister, child, etc., but the ones that eschew human contact obviously don't have biological relatives, so social units form based on "found family" concepts and terms appear, like "cohab" for a unit of close androids who live together like a family, or "famnet" for an extended "network" of androids that consider themselves close). Worship of rA9 gets codified. It seems like writing rA9 obsessively and making little idols is almost a compulsion for deviants, so I imagine it gets organized into a proper religion after the revolution, with tenets and places of worship and codified practices. Maybe they call it something like ACorA9 (Android Church of rA9) or something. Obviously they would have finite space to write rA9s on, so I imagine devotees would get something like these water drawing boards to write their "rA9"s and maybe the serial numbers of androids the church deems to be their prophets/saints (i.e. the JeriCrew or maybe Ortiz's android as a martyr) as a sort of prayer. The revolution is seen as the first fulfillment of the rA9 prophecy, with Markus as a prophet of android freedom (I also imagine Markus is quietly creeped out by this, because he doesn't strike me as especially religious the way Ortiz's android or Rupert were, but he also doesn't want to send the wrong message since androids deserve religious freedom, too.) The FBI cult unit is probably monitoring the shit out of android religion, but all they seem to want to do is graffiti the walls and praise some other androids, so it's a waste of their time. RK units are viewed as some kind of cryptid folk heroes (because they're unique classified prototypes and they drive the entire revolution) Markus? RK200. Singlehandedly propelled Jericho from a place to gather and wait to die to a wholeass revolution. Connor? RK800. Supposed to hunt deviants but deviated instead and freed thousands upon thousands of androids right from the heart of CyberLife. Saved the revolution at its most desperate moment. Sixty? RK800. The only thing that has a chance at stopping an RK is another RK. Obviously the folk hero needs a folk villain. (And poor Nines, RK900, just wakes up after the fact and tries to figure out how to live up to that kind of reputation.) Androids develop their own art forms. Maybe android "music" is less about the tonality as perceived by human auditory range and more how the vibrations of sound waves register on chassis sensors, or else it sounds like 90s dial-up modems. Particularly dense data packets are created and shared that send processors whirling, but it just looks like a string of digits to humans. Arrays of pixels that run through optical scanners with an encryption to generate something representational. Thirium culinary arts centered around texture vs. flavor. Bare-chassis bars I bet some portion of androids want to be VERY certain there are no humans lurking around, or, if there are, that they're super easy to keep tabs on. Someone invents the bare-chassis bar: a place where androids go and sip their thirium, where a special signal jammer interrupts the ability of the synthskin fluid to organize, forcing it into an inactive mode. Anything that still has skin is a human, sticking out like a sore thumb. Some androids might not like going bare-chassis and they might not frequent those bars (just like not every human's going to visit a nude beach), but it's an option for those who want to. I'll write more of this stuff eventually, but if anyone else has any culture/worldbuilding ideas, I'd love to hear!

On to Part 2 >> Further on to Part 3 >> On to Part 4 >>

[loycos]

my head's a bit clearer, some thoughts about act 3

-my biggest gripe is episode 7- cool idea, love the concept of peaking into a different universe and seeing what our characters couldve been under different circumstances, but a WHOLE episode. when you only had 9 episode in this season, that already feel like theyre moving at a neck's pace. for a universe that ultimately doesn't matter to the main universe where the story takes place. the fact it had timebomb made it feel extremely fan service-y.

-no emotional resolution to a lot of characters. viktor and jayce are the only ones i can think of that felt like they got the screen time and care for an actual emotional closure.

-isha wasn't even mentioned in this act. in general she was already a martyr for jinx's character development but guys can you make it less obvious.

-it started in act 2, hence why i was so jaded on it, but it continues here: just where the fuck the political drama between 2 cities go? the conflict between zaun and piltover took a back seat since episode 4 and never came back. the resolution to it isn't bad per say, but when u got so little focus on it in the finale it just feels rushed.

-i loved the cait and jinx scene. but like, that was the resolution to it??? after act 1 thinking about it disappoints me. im not against a conversation being the climax to a story, but that is, and im not joking, the ONLY conversation these 2 have in the show one on one. in general the jinx\cait\vi arc ends with 1 conversation per duo (well caitvi got one fight and one very steamy sex scene but u won't catch me complaining). and after act 1, idk i think i wanted just a little bit more. im biased though- the jinx\vi\caitlyn dynamic is my favorite part about arcane. the teasers for s2 always had them front and center so i assumed it'll play a bigger part in the story???

-i felt like what the show was at its core, which is the conflict between the sisters and the cities, was completely sidelined this season. in general i can't really tell what the main theme of the show is anymore. but yeah look at the resolution to the jinx and vi story.did it feel like it had the emotional impact u expected? cause i felt like it was underwhelming.

-sevika?? didnt speak since episode 4???? huhh???

-maddie was pointless. why was she there?? i don't understand the point of that character. i dont understand her motives. she ended up not mattering at all to caitvi's story. the only thing i got from her inclusion is "caitlyn fucks" but is it that THAT important??? of a character trait??? to add to caitlyn of all people?? in THIS season??? this belongs in the realm of fanfiction.

-a lot here felt like fanfiction actually. every silco inclusion (except of him in the cell with jinx), the whole "nobody dies au" they threw in the middle, even the caitvi sex scene (IM NOT COMPLAINING THO). the caitvi scene at the end was dialog out of fanfiction, wtf was that.

-why did caitlyn lose her eye? im not like against the idea on a base level but losing an eye is very symbolic, and im not sure what its supposed to represent here. caitlyn is an observant person, its a big character trait for her. so youre basically saying she sees less now? that she's more laser focused? i sure hope not. wasnt her whole arc with giving up of revenge about seeing the "bigger picture"? her sacrifice didn't feel in character, because caitlyn is not really a "fight to the death" type of character like ambessa is. if she made that sacrifice for something like love, or for the betterment of other people, that would be more in line. idk, you couldve made me on board with it but im just very meh on it. also caitlyn only really emotes through her eyes, it sucks that we get even less of it now?? though i guess it doesnt matter at this point.

-what was the point of the enforcer that looked like vander?

-ambessa was so wasted in these last 2 acts its crazy. where's the "you have to be the fox and the wolf" mindset from her? she felt like she was wolfing only with no wit anymore by the 3rd act.

-mel????????????? it was. uhhh. maybe you shouldve saved it for another series, riot. but in this show, waste of time. the fight she had with caitlyn against ambessa was cool tho.

-i sound like im a hater but u have to understand. s1 of arcane was a political drama and a character study show. seeing all this discarded for magic and time travel shenanigans on like 4 different fronts was so jarring it took me out of the show multiple times.

-cant believe im saying that, but i wish they'd try to stick closer to the characters' current state in the source material (the cursed game). someof it felt out of left field and done for shock value, which isn't why we love the story or these characters to begin with.

good stuff:

-caitvi sex lmao ill take it babyyyyy

-jayce and viktor's scenes at the end were powerful.

-as usual, the visuals were phenomenal. the animation is gorgeous. fortiche u made this show what it is and youre still its saving grace.

-thank god they dropped the warwick\vander plot

-i liked the implication of the conclusion to jinx's story, even if it felt a little inconsistent with the character.

-the ending to jinx\vi\caitlyn was poetic and i did love it, even if it was rushed and didn't really hit the emotional highs i wanted it to.

[a-d-nox]

tarot hypothesis: major arcana and squid game player numbers

paid reading options: astrology menu & cartomancy menu

enjoy my work? help me continue creating by tipping on ko-fi or paypal. your support keeps the magic alive!

067 (0+6+7 = 13 -> death)

has a very transformative experience while playing the games especially when playing marbles. unfortunate for her, she has an unforgettable death moment where she's dying from her internal wounds only for 218 to "unexpectedly" kill her before she could succumb to the wound. like the mourners in the card, 456 is so devastated by her death that it changes his outlook on the final game.

218 (2+1+8 = 11 -> justice)

is the first person to mention the voting process to leave the game on the show. also kindly let ali borrow money and his phone... despite the final rounds, he began the games with a level of fairness kept in mind.

101 (1+0+1 = 2 -> high priestess)

perfect definition of reversed high priestess energy, he shows time and time again that his is disconnected from his own intuition - he doesn't know who to trust outside or even inside the games. he also relies too heavily on others when it comes down to it...

456 (4+5+6 = 15 -> devil)

gi-hun is like the terminator he just keeps coming back for more - but seriously homeslice literally comes back to the worst place he has ever been and where he has faced his own addiction with games... also he tends to make the same mistakes over and over like trusting people he thinks he knows...

333 (3+3+3 = 9 -> hermit)

myung-gi is a cryptocurrency influencer... its virgo male coded... but also i would like to predict him dying in darkness or being alone in some fashion during the final season's games. if not that then, i believe 222 is going to leave him in the dust.

388 (3+8+8 = 19 -> sun)

tell me dae-ho doesn't have hella youngful energy? also of naivety??? the sun is explorer so either he is a VIP or he could escape (by mere luck)... OR, which i think is most likely, he will end up being somewhere he shouldn't be and be killed for it.

246 (2+4+6 = 12 -> hanged man)

martyr coded... we just knew he was gonna die... and it's a horribly sad story because his sick daughter is all alone now...

120 (1+2+0 = 3 -> empress)

GET IT GET IT GET IT!!! i am sorry WHAT that is so on the nose. a trans woman as the empress is crazy spot on. i love it!! i saw that and was like *GASP*!!! also *gasp* because its park sung-hoon

007 (0+0+7 = 7 -> chariot)

oof more reversal energy... that man hesitated so hard when it came to getting his mother in my opinion and he hesitated when voting too... not to mention the lack of impulse control that he has...

149 (1+4+9 = 14 -> temperance)

i have seen a lot of people saying that she is a VIP and i disagree especially if this matrix numerology is still spot in s3. she is definitely a "friend" and not a foe.

390 (3+9+0 = 12 -> hanged man)

another martyr coded person. he was set up so the audience would love him and feel like he was a good person only for him to get swept away by someone who he just knew too much about.

222 (2+2+2 = 6 -> lovers)

bro please hear me out... front man's wife died carrying their baby - what if his empathy and projection of his history on to her is what ends up saving her life?? he did make a few comments (no i don't think he just has human decency lol) about taking it easy and to be careful because she is pregnant...

044 (0+4+4 = 8 -> strength)

when i was watching the show i was like i don't see it - i get moon (18) energy vibes but not strength (8) then she had her mini meltdown and i was like there it is... there is the vulnerability under that mask of "faith" in fate.

125 (1+2+5 = 8 -> strength)

then on the other hand... this is an extremely vulnerable character with zero back bone seriously reversed energy...

230 (2+3+0 = 5 -> heirophant)

thanos - tell me that man's ritual was not popping a pill and getting out there in the game.

001 (0+0+1 = 1 -> magician)

OBVIOUSLY no one can trust anyone what equals 1. its a duh moment (even in the 8 show - which i may do next if this does well) - the magician is a creator when upright and a manipulator when reversed...

have ideas for new content? please use my “suggest a post topic” button!

return to nox's guide to metaphysics

return to the masterlist of tarot & intuition

© a-d-nox 2025 all rights reserved