#aren't you glad you asked

[wizzard890]

what got you so into the french revolution?

When I was in school for medieval art history, I did a lot of work on saints and their martyrdoms, particularly how the viewers of art depicting suffering imagined suffering, and how the agony/eroticism of those feelings induced a sort of memetic spiritual euphoria. Which means that I spent a ton of time looking at images of executions. I've seen them all: beheadings and sexymen shot full of arrows, saints barbecued or flayed or eaten by wild animals, criminals broken on the wheel -- all the classics. Or at least, I thought I had, until I encountered this triptych in my senior year of college:

This, by Belgian artist Antoine Wiertz, is The Visions of a Guillotined Head, painted in the late 1840s. Wiertz was a symbolist, and spent a great portion of his career drawn to the macabre, never more notably than on the occasion that inspired this painting.

In February 1848, two notable French criminals were due to be executed by the state. The guillotine was of course still in use as a method of capital punishment (and would be until the 1970s), and Wiertz was curious as to what a so-swiftly severed head felt and saw. He wasn't the first; since the guillotine's invention there had been legends of heads that blinked and blushed and tried to speak after separation. Luckily, Wiertz had a friend who was a hypnotist (as you do). Timed to the moment of the execution, he had his hypnotist pal put his soul "into rapport" with the dead criminal, and claimed that he entered the head itself as it fell.

He later recalled his experiences at some length in writing, but since we're talking about me, here is the important passage, dictated as he "felt" the horror of execution:

A horrible buzzing noise, the sound of the blade descending. The victim believes that he has been struck by lightning, not the axe. Astonishingly, the head lies under the scaffold and yet still believes it is above, still believes itself to be part of the body, and still waits for the blow that will cut it off. Horrible choking! No way to breathe. The asphyxia is appalling. It comes from an inhuman, supernatural hand, weighing down like a mountain on the head and neck. A cloud of fire passes before his eyes. Everything is red and glitters.

Now comes the moment when the executed man thinks he is stretching his cramped, trembling hands towards the dying head. It is the same instinct that drives us to press a hand against a gaping wound. And it occurs with the dreadful intention of setting the head back on the trunk, to preserve a little blood, a little life.

This fucked me up so bad.

I am well aware that consciousness after having your spinal cord severed is a done deal. I was aware of this in college. But there was something about this artist's act of imaginative empathy that compelled me, for the first time, to think about the guillotine in particular. About the mechanical wait, not being pushed off a drop or axed while kneeling, about being slid through on a board, of seeing the basket beneath you, already full of heads. Maybe even heads you know.

I imagined it so hard that I made myself sick and couldn't go to class for two days.

The reason I studied what I studied wasn't because I was ghoulish. In fact, I'm a little squeamish. It was because in the experience of pain, we are all deeply individualized, but entirely, helplessly human.

I laid in bed and thought about the small number of humans who I, an educated layman, knew had been guillotined: Marie Antoinette, obviously; Louis XVI; and (in what felt like black historical irony, given what I knew of his day job) Maximilian Robespierre.

It felt intrusive to have intimately imagined their last, most private moments, without really having any idea about them at all. Better to start at the end and work backwards, I thought. So I started reading.

Robespierre, decapitated by guillotine when he was thirty-six. That's the manner of death. How did he meet his death? In terrible pain, I learned. Why? Because he'd had half his jaw blown off the night before. Jesus, why? Because he'd (maybe probably) shot himself. Why?

It turns out, if you keep doing that, a piece at a time, for years, you can learn a lot about someone's life. And, relatedly, in long and branching paths, you can find your way into every nook and cranny of what burned through France at the end of the 18th century.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

A Blorbo You Treat Nicely, Right?

[syn0vial]

the sheer amount of unhealthy parasocial attachment the watcher drama has revealed is honestly kind of frightening. "i won't go CRAWLING BACK to watcher now i know they only want me for my money!" girl what did you THINK they wanted you for? your personality? your glittering conversational skills? they don't know you, and you don't know them! "this whole time i was just a transaction to them 😭" yes??? that's how this works? they provide goods and/or services in exchange for currency?? THEY'RE A COMPANY???

like, i've got zero problem with people who don't want to subscribe to the new platform or are now wary of watcher bc of the legitimate concerns their initial decision brought up (potential loss of accessible content, lack of pricing awareness, lack of transparency leading up to the decision, potential lack of financial sustainability) but i am genuinely disturbed by the people reacting like they were broken up with over a company changing their monetization structure

[ricomola]

[uncanny-tranny]

Over the years, I've gotten a lot of cis people messaging me about how they should go about dating or courting somebody who's trans, and I always felt like my responses would almost... disappoint them because there isn't this magic secret to dating us.

Cis people, if you want to date us, just date us. We're human beings, we're not wild animals to tame! I promise you can have a healthy relationship with a trans person without needing to feel like the world will end if you mess up.

Trans people who date cis people often want to feel secure in your acceptance of them. You don't have to talk about our transness for hours on end to prove that you accept your loved one. You don't have to put on a display and cabaret about how Much You Accept Us. Just be a person around us, and let us be people, too!

I almost want to disappoint cis people by reminding them of this. Some of the best relationships I've had with cis people have been ones where my transness is acknowledged, sure, but it's acknowledged in the same way that my left-handedness is. It's not a joke to them, it isn't something to be horrified about, but it's also something that they don't objectify me for.

[oifaaa]

So Jason doesn't save the Wayne's but does he kill Joe Chill?

Jason showing up 5 seconds after Martha and Thomas are killed shooting Joe chill right between the eyes: damn I'm already a better parent then you

[vinelark]

Hi I feel like you always have the best batfam fic recs, so I was wondering if you have any recs for any Dick and Tim bonding fics (especially fics that deal with the fallout of Dick giving Robin to Dami)?

hi! so glad you like the recs, i'm always happy to give them 🥰  every time a friend expresses even a passing interest in one of my fav characters i have to stop myself from like, creating a fic rec spreadsheet on the spot.

that said, i got stumped by the second part of this one. i was like oh yes definitely, i totally have read fics for that, and then…could not dig any up from my brain or my bookmarks. i feel like there's a fic on the tip of my tongue, but in the meanwhile, if anyone has any tim & dick red robin reconciliation recs (holy tongue twister, batman) i too would love to see them!

and here are some tim & dick recs in general:

🎄 only you will have stars that can laugh by silverwhittlingknife

set early in tim’s tenure as robin; dick realizes tim is about to be alone on christmas, and they end up spending the holiday together. i love how tentative both dick and tim are about this for different (and at times similar) reasons, and how heartwarming and cozy it ends up being. lots of reflection on family in all its forms and a really good tim & dick dynamic.

🚗 I’d Fly Far Away From Here by Sohotthateveryonedied

in a somewhat similar vein, a oneshot set during tim’s robin era in which tim hitchhikes to blüdhaven after a fight with his dad. dick and tim are two people who technically aren’t brothers yet by law but already are at heart, which doesn’t make it any easier to navigate conversations about tim’s home life or either of their relationship with bruce. (they make it work, though.)

🩹 Not So Large But Definitely In Charge by dottie_dc

tim and dick get tossed into an alternate gotham where there’s no batman or justice league, but find their way to bruce and alfred anyway. this has great tim-under-pressure pov, and the amount that he and dick care about each other even through their arguments is palpable. there’s also a fantastic (and at times gut-wrenching) sequel by JackHawksmoor focusing more on dick & the bruce of this different world. (cw for: past major character death aka alternate universe dick grayson)

🤖 Very Pleasing to My Optical Sensors by waffleelrond

another early robin!tim fic, in which tim gets injured and dick steps in to translate bruce's bruceness about it. it's tentative and sweet and a little silly, and a great bite-sized fic to read when you want to see the two of them just starting out as brothers.

🌌 To an Athlete Dying Young series by SonoSvegliato

at a glance from the summaries this appears like a tim & jason + tim & bruce series (and it is!), but the tim & dick scenes land it on this list for sure. i'm a broken record here with the early-robin!tim & dick recs but man i love them here; in the second fic there's a sequence where dick is teaching tim how to grapple across rooftops that sticks in my mind as one of my top favorite bonding moments for them. (heads up that the series currently ends on a cliffhanger—it's not finished yet!)

🦉 the once and future robin by AstraEllis

and as proof that i can in fact rec something other than early-robin!tim, here's an au where instead of becoming batman's robin tim ends up adopting a talon!dick grayson from another universe as his older brother. and becoming his robin. and then finding his way to the batfamily. i'm fascinated by the tim and alternate-universe-talon!dick relationship in this, and the questions of identity/personhood that it tackles by virtue of the story it is telling. plus, talon!dick's connection to robin as a concept despite the alternate universe aspect is really sweet.

also circling back to red robin reconciliation, i do have these two longfics open in my many tabs to read/finish; both tackle the post-rr era and the dick & tim of it all in their larger plots, so i'll toss in Extant by Kgraces and The Return by lurkinglurkerwholurks to check out too!

[hydrachea]

I’ve always loved the dynamic between the ot3 we've had since 1.0 and with firefly joining the party it instantly became an ot4 for me lol so that's fun! Speaking of firefly infantilization, I absolutely agree with what you said and what’s sad is you know damn well that if the person inside SAM was a man people would’ve cared to explore the odd connection & parallels between “him” & blade beyond “dad & daughter 🥺” posting (not to mention the fact that she’s much older than him). And she literally told kafka to “stop playing with her food” in the jepella trailer. They're partners & equals, not a nuclear family 💀

It's the exact same for me! Well, except I started playing in 1.3, but don't worry about it. As soon as Firefly's identity as a Stellaron Hunter was leaked (wow that was a while ago now) I started waiting to see how they'd portray her relationship with the other three, since they all already had a great dynamic - and wow did 2.2 and 2.3 not disappoint. She joined the ot3 now ot4 easily!

Alas, infantilization is just the fandom fate of any short young looking woman with a man she's close to in her life. Over on Genshin's side, Sigewinne still largely gets treated as Wriothesley's daughter even though she literally saw him grow up and clearly acts like an adult. Nevermind that she, just like Firefly, is the much older one of the two. Just because Firefly actively tries to enjoy her short life in as many ways as she can experience instead of brooding 90% of the time like Blade doesn't automatically mean he's older or more mature... He's just depressed.

That said! There are people with very nice takes out there, even if they aren't directly ship. And since I too am very interested in the dynamic between Blade and Firefly, given their respective situations and wishes - have you seen this comic yet? Only part 1 is out and I don't know if the webnovel (fic?) it's based on exists in English, but just that part 1 is so nice.

[shalom-iamcominghome]

I wanted to reply to the anon who said their rabbi said they have to pick a name before the mikva, but it's saying replies are restricted, so I'm sending in an ask. I hope that's okay.

Anon, Aish has a page that lists (and translates/describes) some feminine Hebrew and Jewish names, perhaps that'll help you narrow down the options.

Note on spelling: You probably already know this, but since Hebrew has a different alphabet and grammar rules than English, there's no correct way (and therefore no incorrect way, as long as the sounds match up) to spell a Hebrew word in English. That being said, there are spellings of names that are more or less common.

E.g. I've known a bunch of people named Shoshana, most with that ← spelling and I think only one who spelled it with an h and/or double n. And I've known many people named Tova but I think only one Tovah. Double letters and h at the end tend to match the grammatically correct spellings, but it's not necessarily standard to spell it that way. I do know a dikduk (Hebrew grammar) expert though, so if you specifically want to spell your name choice grammatically correct, I can ask for you.

Best of luck & mazel tov!

It's awesome that you sent this as an ask, so thank you! I hope they see this and it can be just as helpful to them as (frankly) it was to me🩵

[gingermintpepper]

Hi! I just want to clarify that actually Apollo was a sun god in Greece too... The most ancient author who refered Apollo as a solar deity was Aeschylus lived from 525 BCE - 456 BCE

“The unseen land [i.e. the underworld] where Apollon [here the sun] does not walk, the sunless (analion) land that receives all men.”

- Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes 858 ff

Apollo being a solar deity was definitely not something Romans invented. Yes, maybe in Roma Era he was syncreticed with Helios and was seeing as the sun itself, even replacing Helios in some myths (like Phaeton and Clytie stories). But he was a sun god in Ancient Greece, maybe not itself, but something more like Horus to the egyptian, a solar deity.

Hi hi!! Thank you so much for the clarification!!

I do have to apologise for my own super casual tone probably giving the wrong idea but if this is referring to the tags on a recent post making a (wonderful!!) case for dark-haired Apollo then I do have to say that I didn't state Apollo wasn't associated with the sun in Greek culture but that he was not primarily associated with the sun!

Like you do very correctly say he was more of a civic god with solar aspects like Egypt's Horus (and even that is a large simplification), mostly from a cosmic standpoint. I like saying that Apollo is the 'light' in 'enlightenment' to the Greeks vs being a physical light to the Romans ♡♡

Thank you so much for double-checking my work though! I'll make sure to be clearer with my tags so these kinds of things don't happen in the future 🥰🙇🏾

[foolsocracy]

Thank you for drawing biblically accurate Garth it has healed me 🙌🏼

no problem! I really love the freckles and purple eyes and curly hair idk why dc didn't stick to it. Its fun and unique!

[sysig]

Second request: baby todd and Jake fluff perhaps? 💖

Day 12 - Little hands, my one weakness

[imminent-danger-came]

i don't know why people think the writers hate wukong so much. making a character flawed doesn't mean you don't like them and wukong getting yelled at twice isn't the writers putting their grievances in the characters' mouths

The news come in: writers have things happen in their stories

Tbh, the people who have that sort of take are probably just not writers, for the most part. Having characters make bad choices and face consequences for those choices is really fun! It's also just not indicative of how much you "like" that character.

And you know, Lmk is fundamentally about loving flawed people. That's it. That's the core theme. So it's like, of COURSE Wukong and everyone else are going to be flawed. That's why MK's so flawed, he's gotta realize he's worthy of love in spite of and with his mistakes (you know- his actual mistakes and flaws, not the fake ones from 4x01 lol). He's gotta accept the ways people hurt each other.

[arthursfuckinghat]

Not gonna lie I was very set on never playing rdr1 because I know how it ends and I don't care to be in the damn desert all the time but your blogging does make me curious

Hello!! I'm glad I could make you curious at least, the game has definitely aged but I think it's really worth playing <3

Though a lot of New Austin and Mexico is desert, there's actually a lot of variety in the land. Seeing the familiar places in a different perspective is fascinating, there's also so much to do! Fast travelling is unlocked by default as soon as you start playing, its pretty easy to get around, horses are also incredibly fast lol.

I found rdr1 very nostalgic to play, going through John's story is so interesting too if you've played rdr2 first, everything still makes sense even with the context of the second game first. I've found that you get to understand John as a character a lot better, you get to watch him grow and age through playing both games. I really recommend it!

I won't spoil anything, even if you know how it ends, it still hits hard <3

[starflungwaddledee]

Ok but what if she went to waddle Dee town in the forgotten land and all the waddle Dee’s just accepted her because they are really nice and not rude and they accept her and she has fun and a good time please I really need this for her

i considered drawing something out to this, and making it a happy ending sort of thing, because i think this is extremely sweet as a concept and i understand the desire for it!

that said, i decided that it would be a disservice to the lore i'm building for her, my biology/magic headcanons, and also the waddle dees as a whole. i might still draw it some day, because i could absolutely perceive a way it would work (ie: all waddle dee signatures messed up by Elfilis's portals, or their magic sensitivity nuked by it.) and i think it would be lovely

but for now, i have too many other things on the backburner to get to this promptly, and i wanted to answer this one sooner rather than leaving it for months

i will say, they're not being rude to her! there might be the odd one or two who is a bit snide, but there are some of those in every society. as a general rule the waddle dees not only understand that she is struggling, they want to accept and help her. many of them even know she's lonely, and feel pretty bad about it. but it's hard, and not just because she makes people uneasy!

i draw parallels with starstruck's gummed up magical signature to autism, as i'm autistic and so by merit (as a sona), so is she. but there are some parts that do not line up with the way autism functions in our world, and one of them is that touching or being around her can be genuinely, literally painful for some of the very sensitive waddle dees.

despite that, her waddle dee doctors actually pushed through it while she was in the castle dedede infirmary. because they were determined to treat her (mostly-surface-seeming) injuries and help her feel better. and they apologised for the reactions that they couldn't control anymore than she could control her signature; the various "sorry"s she parrots in this comic are implied to be from waddle dee doctors.

it's a fine line in alien-storytelling, especially with a real world disability parallel, and i'm trying to tread it as carefully as i can. but i don't intend to villainise the waddle dees at all for their reaction to her; they truly can't help it. many of them even do their best to push through it if she comes into their vicinity, especially because she often arrives with Beloved Celebrity, Captain Bandana Waddle Dee. but like a lot of us, she can tell when she's being tolerated, and so as a rule she just sort of tries to avoid it, one way or another

[ckret2]

Can Bill tell Soos anything about Soos's father just to piss off Abuelita? After all, he likes to piss.

Axolotl, I hope this joke isn't too stupid.

Anon, I am eyeing you with the deepest suspicion.

Anyway—

Bill can tell Soos tons about his father.

Bill would never piss off Abuelita.

After Mabel, Abuelita is the one person in the house Bill least wants to piss off. His first full day in the shack, she tried to poison him with a genial, inscrutable calm; and remained genially inscrutably calm when he called her out on it. That's a stone-cold killer. She wasn't afraid to try to kill Bill Cipher and she wasn't afraid when she was caught trying to kill Bill Cipher. He respects her and slightly fears her. So far, she's the only human who's outright tried to kill him since his reincarnation, and he feels there's very little keeping her from trying again.

If that weren't a concern though, he might occasionally make jabs about Soos's dad to him—and why stop there, his mom is a sore spot too—not to piss off Abuelita but just to bully Soos.