#asks more questions for clarifications

[i-fear-the-moon-rp]

It's here! It's ready!! Get reading!

I FEAR THE MOON LORE GUIDE IS OFFICIAL

[thorough-witness-enjoyer]

Looking for Community Perspectives on Destiny‘s Themes and Main Conflict for a Cultural Project!

Greetings everyone!

I‘m currently working on a personal project that ties in Destiny‘s themes and main conflicts with encouraging people of my ethnicity to tell our own stories, even if they include thematic elements that may not be traditional in Western media or have been actively discouraged by oppressive powers in the past!

My focus will be on how others perceive portrayals of social issues/powers we have struggled against as they are depicted in fiction, and to bring Destiny to the table, I want to connect it back to the Witness as a main antagonist and people‘s understanding of the role it plays in Destiny‘s main narrative!

I‘m coming here to ask some questions and have a space for people to engage with the thoughts of others in order to understand what people take away from the story of Destiny! These questions are asked for the purpose of steering my further research and conclusions; nothing will be published and identities of those who participate are not recorded!

My main questions are:

1. What do you think Destiny tries to say about the nature of existence and humanity’s place in it with the philosophies surrounding the Veil and Traveler?

2. What do you think Bungie‘s intentions were with creating the Witness and it’s beliefs to be the main antagonistic force in the Light vs Dark saga?

3. How do you view the Witness‘ relationship with the Traveler and Veil (and what can that tell us about humanity)?

4. What stands out to you about the religious influences in Destiny‘s story and how do they enhance and/or diminish the narrative it is trying to tell?

5. Has any aspect of Destiny changed your worldview and why?

6. Do you believe the Witness to be an evocative villain? Why or why not?

7. Do you have personal experiences that affect the way you view the Witness?

8. Why do you think Bungie decided to make the Precursors and the Witness separate?

9. Why do you think Bungie made the Witness a collective of a civilization’s ethos instead of a singular being/person?

10. Is there anything about the Witness‘ design/influences behind it that you would like to point out (especially in regards to its nearly human look?)

11. What can be taken away from the Witness‘ methodology for obtaining disciples, what it seeks in a potential disciple, or the relationship it has with its disciples?

12. What lessons can be learned from the Witness‘ formation and the affect it had on the universe?

13. Do you have any resources (novels, shows, philosophical concepts, mythologies, etc.) that relate to Destiny‘s main themes or my inquiry in general?

Feel free to comment, reblog, or tag this post with any of your responses to any of the questions (or even any additional thoughts that are related!!) You don’t have to answer every question, so feel free to choose the ones that speak the most to you!

I also open my dms with welcoming arms as well if you have any follow up questions or resources that might aid in my project!

All and any help, even the mere act of sharing this post, is deeply appreciated as this project is very dear to me and I could use all the insight I could get!!

Thank you all for your time and I’m excited to hear from you guys!!

[demonic-radio]

Alastor. Can you speak French?

"No, I don't."

He didn't know why people would ask this of him. Besides, hadn't this been answered already?

[beartitled]

The bear creatüre has a bachelor degree now

Yea I graduated uni today 🐻‍❄️🎓🎉

Feels weird tbh 💥

My brain did not register this information yet

Diploma comic reveal when? 👀

[quixtrix]

tired of people being like "yall dont talk about dolph" "yall dont talk about sarah" the answer is right there look at both of them

[shadowqnights]

*grabs a can opener*

Spill them worms

oh my gosh i started writing out an essay, accidentally refreshed and deleted it, and now i'm back trying to figure out how to word this.

i'm one of the freaks who actually likes mcd aaron and i love rewriting him. and i'm of the mind that one of the best ways to make aaron and aph more interesting in both universes (and fix a lot of stuff in aph's case) is by having them as werewolves - aph, whether knowingly or unknowingly, entering pdh as a werewolf. aaron being a werewolf in mcd. reversing their roles in each universe.

but the aph thing is a whole OTHER can of worms so specifically in relation to the dog rule in mcd. i'm super passionate about werewolf aaron. this is a crash course for some of my rewrite thoughts. strap in because this one is going to be so long i am so sorry.

in my rewrite aaron is actually not a werewolf at all by technicality since he's cursed by a member of the divine. as opposed to the other wolfkin, there's no way for him to have wolf features in his human form, no ears or tail. he's got a purely human form and a purely wolf form - albeit an unusually massive wolf, but in all other manners resembles a natural animal. he can only be one or the other, nothing inbetween.

his backstory ties very strongly into the ultima origins that you see in mystreet as well. simply put because if i start i'm not going to stop - aaron makes a sacrifice to try and save his dying lily, angers a member of the divine and is transformed into this new form as punishment only to find the efforts in vain nonetheless. cue falcon claw's tragedy.

being a wolf fits aaron to me in a number of ways - firstly that he's literally a lone wolf. he's determined to isolate himself, wander alone and unbothered. he believes that the only way to fulfill his end goal is on his own because his beef is personal. there's no need to get involved in other people's affairs. he has walls up, and while being very gruff and self-serving, has a secret soft side - usually with children. otherwise not much matters to him except vengeance and dying. he's a wandering wolf vigilante of sorts, without even meaning to. he describes himself as a broken human. to me he leans entirely into his cursed form in his grief and becomes very much animal. he barely ever speaks as a human and barely even takes that form unless critically injured/fatigued; he is nothing but a wolf. he tries incredibly hard to see the world as an animal would, but there's a frustrating shred of his human morality that forces him to do the 'right thing' - like saving aph, like saving dante. it's also just a plain interesting approach to his character that makes him more complicated

and because he's this gruff, silent old dog who's convinced he has to die alone, of course the young bright kids are going to flock to him. in this way i love indulging in the dog rule in the way that aaron is the oldest, in some ways the wisest and has lived through a lot of hardships in both human and animal form. and in that animal form he can become the perfect mentor for members of the younger cast who need his guidance. as a wolf aaron is more than anything else a survivor, and other survivors tend to seek him out of instinct. he tries to distance himself, insist that he is a lone wolf *doomed* to live out the rest of his days spiraling in animal hate, in anger, fighting and mauling and earning new scars until the day he can kill zane and then die. but that is very much the human part of him reflecting on the animal part. the animal knows violence. the human justifies it because his suffering has led him there.

aaron's dog rule functions best with others. his relationship with aph works best starting from distrust and disinterest and growing into a friendship/mentorship. because there is a canonical foundation for them to have a bond - because they are/were both lords, both once cared incredibly deeply for their chosen people, both have survived hardships and both of them despise zane. they have a mutual goal and their working together makes sense. if you're that one oomf who likes aarmau then i like to think of them in mcd as having a relationship akin to that of Wolf Children (please watch highly recommend) but as a wolf i feel he would make a great mentor for her too. in a way that only aaron specifically can deliver. i don't explicitly make aph animal, per say, the way that nicole and aaron can shift. but metaphorically there is very much something animal in her. same as dante. the both of them, to me, are younger, they're like cubs trailing at aaron's heels and after some time he takes them in, but aren't physically transformed in any way (though i have AUs where they definitely can).

they have differing relationships to him. aph certainly begins as a naive sunshine character - and as she slowly learns about her world and its history, that sunshine fades a little. she wants so badly to fit in amongst the ordinary people of phoenix drop; she works hard to learn and become one of them. even when (in rewrite + rebirth) she becomes lord out of desperation, merely thinking she's doing these people service by keeping phoenix drop alive, she's trying to be One of them. this animal side of aph to me arrives in the form of her magicks. she finds that not only does her light heal, that it is also quite literally a searing, burning light, something that can hurt. worse, that she feels a sickening rush of power, realising that she has this violent and unpredictable form of self-defense. as this naive pacifist, it offers the bridge to a new chapter of her life that she isn't prepared for; it solidifies that she isn't ordinary, that she woke up for a purpose. and that her allegiances are changing - especially in s2, in the wake of everything falling apart, everything being different and wrong, the people who went into irene's dimension with her are very much the only people who understand. she seeks companionship with aaron because she is ashamed of the feelings inside of her, that she describes as animal because she doesn't know what else to make of it. her magicks feel like an animal separate to her human self because in a way those are irene's magicks, that's irene as a distinct Piece of her, and those things are wilder than the body she was reborn in.

-> incorporating parts of loverman into this, also why aph becomes so strongly bonded with katelyn. because their magicks call to each other. fire and light. they both burn and they end up relating strongly to each other and being weirdly attracted to each others magick. they are both destructive and animalistic, it's just that katelyn is far more attached to her humanity.

aph finds aaron's silence comforting rather than disarming. everyone else finds him weird and a little bit offputting / alienating. she is rather comforted by it. she's spent so long trying to learn what it means to be human because she was born into a human body without any memories - so much so that being with aaron, who is hardly ever human, brings her a lot of comfort. in a way, she finds the most peace with people who are very grounded and well connected to the earth and nature - with zoey, kiki, cadenza, namely, and then aaron. her friendship group, excluding that of her guards, have certain connections to the earth and have very nurturing personalities. she's drawn to that by nature (thanks irene!).

and aaron specifically, who spends the most time as a wolf. when he's not fighting, he's hunting, travelling, and resting. in a human form, i feel there's not much for him to teach her because she's already been through this period of struggle in her mortal body - she's already learned from people like garroth, donna, brendan, namely in rewrite. she has people who can teach her how to fight and how to be a diplomat. she's had a number of mentors and a strong circle of friendship to guide her. she has so many human companions. but aaron is so much more complicated than that. as a wolf, i feel she would seek him out as a teacher. even on the more metaphorical sense that she feels like a broken human, and the only individual who could possibly understand or at least empathise with her place in the world is him. she wants to run wild with him, wants to be in the thick of the woods, the middle of nowhere, wants to pretend as if she could be cursed, too, as if she could find a form that relieves her of the weight of human fears. perhaps then she could embrace this power inside of her.

dante is different because its dante and he's ALWAYS different in some way. god. where to begin. okay so dante is also metaphorically animal in a way that is specifically only in reference to his relationship with aaron. he is aaron's brother and a cub to him in a way that starts out transactional. back to the loverman elements of rewrite for a second:

-> at this point aaron is almost Always using his wolf form . ignore that he was human when he saved aph because i didn't know what i was doing yet. aaron, as a wolf, still has a Shred of 'justice', hence why he finds himself so regularly saving people. because even as a human he considered the circle of life very sacred, and in keeping with kul'zac's teachings as a hunter he was very much so respectful of wildlife and only killing out of necessity rather than for sport or selfish gain (as in, hunting for food and using the absolute Most of those bodies, not taking more than needed). he was very faithful to his shepherd in that regard (until the period when he was cursed. but that's a whole other post). post-curse there is a very deliberate change when aaron becomes a little bit carried away but through it all, he is very conscious of that circle of life. that cycle. even as this vigilante figure, he's very specific with the fights he picks. he saves lost children in the woods, he mauls shadow knights & and in short he sees fit to punish the people/creatures who harm the weak and defenseless for sport, for selfish gain, because (1) that personal justice that is a part of his former worship/morality he can't shake, and (2) maybe a small part of him hopes that if he lives that way for long enough, kul'zac will restore him OR take pity on him and let him die.

he's secretly very particular. even when he can't admit it, his sense of justice is strong. saving aphmau was dubious because she was unknowingly in fer salem (southern wolf tribe) territory and was injured. but she cried for help and he answered. but specifically when aaron is hanging around phoenix drop, he's tracking a volatile shadow knight that attacks him immediately in wolf form, and that alone is enough for aaron to decide that the shadow knights (or just merely. the dudes with That scent specifically) are bad and kill regularly in mass for sport, therefore need punishment.

he sees dante for the first time and thinks of him as a bird, a prey animal, because he acts like one. he is skittish and tentative and blindly wandering through unfamiliar woods. and aaron goes ok that one isn't to be hunted. so when later he finds a shadow knight cornering the group including dante, who he vaguely recognises, the Right thing to do is to attack the shadow knight. (which happens to be gene, therefore saving the life of dante + his companions. so by extension saving aph again, plus garroth and laurance).

dante and aaron are all about transaction. aaron saves dante's life. so then when dante finds him bleeding out in the woods, he saves HIS life. the debt is repaid, but then the other does something to begin a new debt, and they become trapped in a cycle. dante kind of despises him because at that point he has such horrifically complex feelings on gene. such terrible baggage that he doesn't know if he hates him for attacking gene or loves him for attacking gene. it's weird and fucked up and more than anything he knows that he at the very least owes aaron something, so with that in mind he grits his teeth and helps to heal him. which is a slow, gradual process, because aaron has a LOT of wounds, more than just the ones gene inflicted in the fight. dante doesn't even know that he has a human form at this point - it's merely his sense of kindness to take pity on this animal that tried to (and possibly succeeded, since he has no idea of gene's fate yet) kill his horrible older brother. in aaron's weakness, he can't control the wolf, so he turns human briefly and dante realises that he's getting involved in something way more complicated than he bargained for. story of his life. still, he perseveres - and aaron is a stubborn, lonely idiot, and a wolf does not need human medicine. so dante gives up on trying to convince him to come back to phoenix drop and treks into the woods on the daily to tend to aaron's wounds. which he protests but all in all is wayyy too weak and tired to actually Fight it.

in this way they very gradually earn each other's trust and aaron begrudgingly hangs around. dante saved his life again, so now he owes ANOTHER life debt. and aaron is all about paying back debts. in his youth his love language was acts of service, his very bonding with lily was full of debts and transactions and trading.

so as a wolf he lets dante stick around and protects him. the cycle of debts continues in increasingly obsessive/codependent ways [in ways that i'm reluctant to talk about unless asked because loverman spoilers but in short aaron becomes a brother figure for dante, relieving him of the baggage left by gene.]

in this way i consider dante a cub because he's young and he's CLINGING to aaron in a way that, while still a little bit pathetic, its made better by the fact that aaron reciprocates some amount of care towards him and they take care of each other. he's a good brother. when they get close, they get CLOSE. it takes a while, of course, like a year+ to fully earn each other's trust. he's a cub in the way that he's young, barely 19 and has been treated akin to a sopping wet stray dog abandoned too many times. and in a metaphorical sense his shelter becomes an older, wiser wolf who is somehow far more kind and gentle and less animalistic than his human biological brother. and beneath that gruff exterior there is genuinely care in aaron; his care for dante specifically re-inspires a certain purpose in him and opens him up to a future Beyond zane that doesn't just involve his own death. in that way, by association, dante to me is a dog/wolf of his own, and would even consider himself as such because of his relationship with aaron. he is very attached to the idea of being non-human because of his suffering, in which i think he would relate so incredibly strongly to aaron. maybe he secretly wishes he too was gifted with a curse that allowed him to endure pain in the form of a wolf and spare him of human things like regret and remorse. and he's drawn to the mystery of the shapeshifting characters - he is enamoured with nicole at first because he is the first to pick up on her fox form.

aaron also draws dante down a path of maturity and sets his character development in motion - he becomes a bit more merciless, brutal, unforgiving, able to stand up for himself better because of aaron's influence. as if he grew up as a dog kicked down, abandoned and mistreated and neglected, and as he grows up he is taught that he has teeth, and he is allowed to use them. plus the fact that you can take dog rule dante really literally and explore his entire life through that lens but specifically i also love the idea that this pathetic human boy is so attached to his teacher/brother, so obsessed with the idea of sharing someone's blood that isn't gene's, that he fully leans into it. he is someone's animal brother. his wolf brother. his kin. they protect each other. and when the time comes aaron has also grown and while he's always been far more gentle and protective over children, he is especially fond of dante's child [ dmitri, not nekoette's rewrite self, i'm a dancole believer. ].

and in this way they kind of make a fucked up little family. dante and aph consider each other brother and sister - dante finds a new brother in aaron, who thus takes on the role of mentorship for aph.

and . and that's literally just a starter. a very basic crash course but yeah idk i approach them in different ways dependant on what AU you're asking me about. everything i've talked about here is specifically rewrite thoughts + dog rule but honestly i wouldn't be opposed to making dante a werewolf in kennel au or something. and aph as a werewolf would also be really cute and i'm a big fan since she already is one in my mystreet rewrite . one big wolf found family.

[emeldiir]

Can rich people be butch and femme? I wanna create some OCs but I read somewhere that rich people can't be butch femme?

I wouldn’t really consider this to be a case of if they can or can not, but more of a ‘what should i consider when making accurate to life representations of butch/femme culture and identity?’

there’s a few different points I wanna make here, so bear with me, hopefully this will make sense to ya ;>

1) butch and femme as it is most commonly recognized today was born out of american sapphic working class culture. It originally evolved to be a protective dynamic for queer people to shield, shelter, and find life saving companionship with each other in during the 1930s up through the 1990s until queerness and transness began to be (slightly) more accepted in mainstream society and violence/brutality lessened (slightly)

2) because butch/femme is born out of working class queer culture it is most authentically practiced, worn, and understood by the people who helped define it. wealth, power, and privilege often go hand in hand so for a rich queer person during the height of queer bar culture and butch/femme dynamics, the experiences they would have had would (most likely) be significantly different to the experiences that a poor blue collar butch/femme person would have had.

3) as times have changed, so has the way we define and label queerness today, and as a result we now have a myriad of different experiences and cultures to pull from. I am very hesitant to gatekeep the labels of butch and femme from most queer people, but it is important to sit down and self reflect on the identity and what the labels mean etc etc. the historical identities of butch and femme are no longer used for their intended purpose of protection in larger society from violence and now are more so defined as a gender or a dynamic at play in queer relationships. The aspect of richness doesn't necessarily exclude anyone automatically from the identity and culture in such a polarizing way anymore

for example, there are butches and femmes in L.A. right now who make thousands and thousands more then i do, in my little rackety midwestern ohio town. I would not say that they are not butch or femme, simply that they have a very different butch/femme experience then I do.

I do not want to make the final decision on if rich fictional characters can be butch/femme for you, I want to give you some insight into how butch/femme dynamics and identity work in real life and then hopefully you can pull an answer that suits you from the information i’ve given.

since these are fictional characters, it’s up to you as to how lifelike they will be, so all of this information is supplementary to your own original ideas and the story you want to tell.

as for my opinion, I personally enjoy making my characters as accurate to life as possible so while I wouldn’t be opposed to rich butch/femme characters in my stories, it would be very apparent that they have a different understanding and experience of their butch/femme identities.

I hope this offered some insight to you, and please let me know more about these ocs if you’d like anon! I love hearing about other people’s stories and their. characters!

[son-of-avraham]

How do you juggle work, school, AND conversion?? I want to get started on my conversion and have made steps to, but it feels nearly impossible when i have almost no days off :( how do you do it??

So, I'm not sure how helpful this is, but I have found that having a flexible job and having to commute to school and shul to be helpful.

I've had shabbos off for the longest time and will have to take off time for my weekly classes for conversion. I've had to significantly reduce my workload because of college, so getting on financial aid was pretty much inevitable. I have to commute to school and shul about forty-five minutes each way, and weirdly enough, it helps me. It definitely forces me to make the most out of all the time I spend to do this.

I'd really say that having a strong community and people you can talk to is imperative. I really hope you either have or will have a rabbi who can work with you for your schedule - my rabbi lives over two hours away, and he's still talking about making plans to have coffee or hike to talk.

I hope this answer might have given you some ideas - I've planned my schedule almost completely around my education, and I treat my conversion as an extension of my college career. In that sense, I guess I never thought of it as "juggling," so I'm really worried that I might not have the best advice for you, especially because we most likely have vastly different workloads and education and whatnot. If anything, I just hope you take out of this that you are welcome to speak with me, and I hope hope hope you have or will find a community that really makes you feel welcomed and loved. Sometimes, even that small blessing makes it easier

[hinderr]

Rewatched the clips where slime questioned if the other eggs were coming back and my bloodlust grew a bit stronger

[homicidal-awareness]

I don’t understand why intrusive thoughts are involved in conversations about HI and SI. Intrusive thoughts play on your fears, and you don’t want them to happen… so if you’re having intrusive thoughts about homicide/suicide, that isn’t ideation, is it?

Maybe I’m looking at it wrong, but I feel like they’re two very different things. Curious about your opinion on this.

That is true!

I include mentions of them because some people with severe intrusive thoughts think they truly are what their thoughts suggest, and so they end up looking for resources to help with what they perceive to be an issue (when really it's not, and it just stems from the intrusives). Nearly every post about homicidal thoughts on various mental health forums are obviously intrusive, and not really 'true' homicidal ideation. But these people are worried all the same that they may act on them. And so, a bit of room to discuss intrusives is important, to make people aware of what it looks like when something is intrusive vs ideation, and then give them coping mechanisms to deal with that.

In my mind, it may not be ideation, but it's still thoughts relating to committing homicide, which are stigmatized no matter how you slice it.

Essentially, I'm all about providing resources to everyone who experiences homicidal thoughts, and since that includes a very, very wide range of experiences and interpretations, I try to account for all those nuances and grey areas! Always with the goal of helping folks who are struggling, but if nothing else, then just to educate people on what HI looks like and where it might come from.

[a-url-that-exists]

putting effort into things for the people who are importsnt to you: i love you i love you i love you i love you i love you i love you

After they leave/once you're alone again: you assholes you assholes you assholes you assholes you hate me you hate me you hate me you hate me you hate me you hate me you hate me you hate me

[skeletalheartattack]

hey do you know any other art compliments or do you just put "absolutely gorgeous lines" on everything

i am now realizing how passive aggressive that wording is but don't know how to rephrase is. anyways How Come You Do That I'm Curious

basically, the tumblr blog iguanamouth would reblog other people's art with the tag "#great lines," and i have genuinely always found it so endearing, and for some reason i started doing it myself.

the creation of art is always so neat to me, seeing what other people can do via sketching, painting, crafting, all that jazz, so idk, i just really like using those tags as a way of complimenting the artist's work, no matter how simple or basic the art is. i love art.

[seawaveleo]

37, 47, 48!

37. suitcase or duffel bag?

i prefer suitcases ‘cause they’re easy to roll around (especially if the wheels can move any direction). i think if i were to carry a duffel bag, it’d look real silly and my shoulders would be in pain

47. favorite type of cheese?

48. if you were a fruit, what kind would you be?

i think i’d be a tangerine? maybe? i don’t eat a lot of fruits sadly (i’m slowly finding out i’m allergic to some by eating one slice and being like, “hm. that’s weird.”) but i enjoy a good tangerine!

[bookwyrminspiration]

hello so i sent you something very similar to this a few months ago but it looks like tumblr ate my og ask because i haven't seen it so i'm resending it except i don't remember my exact words so i have to rewrite it from scratch lmfao

about elves and culture: at one point i remember you mentioning offhandedly in some post that elves are all white culturally (i tried for about fifteen minutes to find it, but you know. tumblr.) which is another way the series lacks diversity (besides the obvious barely-any-non-white-people and no non-allocishet people) and i was thinking about how shannon could have even have fixed this problem because the elves are a monolith when it comes to culture. yeah, they have different races, but all the races have the same culture. so i was like. ok. how would shannon even incorporate multiple cultures into the story? how would it even be possible to show cultural diversity in a story where the elves all live in the same society? and i came up with a few ideas:

could do a mashpot, where everyone in the lost cities has bits of every single culture ever mixed into one (somehow). i have two ideas for this

mashpot option one: have the different aspects of a culture each come from different cultures (for example, clothes of one culture and the food of a different culture and traditions of the another culture and so on). putting it all together, this would create a collage-culture of sorts, which would be quite jarring, but it could be effective if done well, i think.

mashpot option two: they could have the different aspects of a culture pull from every culture ever. for example, the elves could eat foods that taste like foods from all around the world, instead of foods that just taste like american foods (as someone who hates the taste of stereotypically american food, i can say i would hate eating anything from the lost cities). or have them celebrate a variety of holidays or something across the whole year, each of which is representative of a different culture.

could have different groups of elves each have different cultures. i also have two ideas for this

different groups option one: each family line has a different culture or something like that. so you have cultural diversity through each family having a different culture and everyone being accepting of that. this could include different clothes, food, traditions, architecture, celebrations, and all that stuff (maybe not language though lmfao). this would at least be able to somewhat showcase different cultures, although it would have to have been done really half-assedly. this would also have a huge skew toward white cultures because most of the characters are white.

different groups option two: create different clans of elves, all of whom have mutual respect for each other. each clan of elves can have a different culture. this would literally be separate societies of elves. however, they could all respond to the same council, which is made of people from all the clans in the name of equality. this way, the monolithicity of the elves would be intact and while still showing some diversity of culture.

shannon makes up her own culture that is completely unlike any culture we've ever heard of, ever. equal neglect of all cultures is equality. sophie eats an umber leaf and is like "this tastes like nothing i've ever eaten before and tastes like it shouldn't even be a real food but i like it". sophie is shown their clothes and it's just a dress made out of solid, opaque crystal. their traditions involve scratching random shapes in the ground and dancing around them in a specific way. this is the chaos option.

this wouldn't really showcase cultural diversity, but instead of an all-white culture, it could be a non-white culture monolith. but then there's the same problem of "why do all the elves have the same exact culture, where's the diversity?" except a different flavor. it would also be really weird because most of the characters in the series are canonically white.

elves don't have any culture. not gonna lie, i have no idea how this would work. this is the other chaos option. up to interpretation, i guess.

thoughts? what would you do if you were shannon. i don't really see any other options for fixing this problem, but there might be something i missed.

(also, yes, i am sending this three times. sorry for annoying you. i want to make sure at least one makes it to your inbox this time lol.)

Hey! So sorry about that--I don't know exactly how long you were waiting, but if it ever seems a while you can send an ask sooner to double check!

Before I get into this, I will say: there is no one right way to approach this topic and I am one person. These are just my thoughts--and I am always open to hearing from others

That said, just to clarify my first point (from this ask, thanks for the link), what I meant by "the elves are all white culturally" is that the kotlc elven culture is fabricated, but seems largely white american inspired. Which makes sense, as that's what Shannon is. There's always going to be a level of bias from one's own experiences and life, it's legitimately impossible to avoid and not always a bad thing. In some cases though, we want to temper it a little, which I don't think it really was in kotlc.

Like you said, there's multiple ways to approach this.

I think the crux is how race, in the elven world, means nothing--but this story exists in a world where it means a lot. While race is a social construction (the meanings/distinctions we assign to skin color are arbitrary) and therefore can be given a null significance, doing so is difficult because socially constructed doesn't mean meaningless/insignificant

We also run into complications given how scattered elves are--I've brought this up regarding clothing, but the physical geography of one's community shapes not only what you wear, but what you grow, how you build, etc. And we don't have that landmark for the elves

I think either an elven monoculture or multiple would work, it's just a matter of what you'd want to do.

If we go for a monoculture as Shannon has, I'd personally go for its own unique culture rather than a mash-up. A mash-up seems too likely to remove significant context/meaning from the source, and the elves are supposed to be isolated from humans. I think Shannon choosing this was fine, it was the execution I dislike.

The food comparisons you mention, for example. Or the family structures. Beauty standards. The education system. They don't actually feel like a distinct monoculture, it feels American with a fantasy filter. If, for example, we expanded on how being immortal affects your family (everyone's still alive, what kinds of relationships does that create, etc.), or how they're taught (instead of lectures and homework, maybe more hands on involvement, travel for hands-on since they can do so instantly, different kinds of tests, etc.), then I'd be more satisfied. I know there's some level of familiarity so readers aren't lost, but it's a little too much, in my opinion

If we were going instead for multiple elven cultures, I think I'd personally base it on ability. It's the most defining thing in their world and could easily be taken further. There'd be kinks to work out given kids don't automatically inherent their parents' abilities, have to manifest, and that people with the same ability don't generally group together, but! that's not insurmountable

kids could be raised within their parents' ability cultures/customs and then, if they manifest a different ability, its culture could be passed via their instructors--which wouldn't necessarily be at Foxfire. Those who differ from their parents, perhaps, would be expected to seek out additional mentor figures and become more multi-culture kids in the process. just because they don't group in canon now doesn't mean they can't here (and could be seen as more necessary given how much ability cross-marriages there are). There could also be more celebratory days around abilities--e.g. a kind of ceremony conducted when a kid manifests. Lots of different ways to take it, the point is just that abilities, I think, make a great base for different elven cultures given how massively important it is in their world.

We're critiquing/discussing diveristy, so something to consider, I think, is what is diversity in the context of kotlc? We want a variety of people to be reflected in the story--but we're dealing with isolated non-humans, so including a variety of human cultures won't necessarily achieve that goal.

The main thing that comes up (or at least that I've seen discussed) is the lack of non-white characters and the fairly american constructed culture--so the course of action to take could be a better balance of physical descriptor (more non-white characters) that creates the varied reflections/connections we want, and a more distinctly elven culture that leans into it harder, making it less American.

I'll stop here for now until this gets too long, but at the moment that's the general direction of my thoughts. I think it's a fine thought experiment to ask "what if culture wasn't tied to race?" you just don't want to then forget that even though your fantasy book doesn't consider race, it exists in a society that does. which could lead us into further discussion on sterotypes as well, which also factors into all this

and again: these are just my personal initial thoughts. it's a broad, complex topic, so there will of course be things I miss or don't get to. but regardless, i hope that at least partially answers your question of what I would do :)

[egginfroggin]

I usually try not to get too negative on my blog, but I have to say that one thing that I'm worried about with AI art is the possible accusations that could be placed on people with certain artstyles (surrealism, hyperrealism, etc.) that are more prone to the "uncanny valley" effect, or even just artists who are in that midway point where most of a piece looks great but there's a few things that are anatomically questionable.

I think it's fine for people to have suspicions, but I'm worried that people will come to expect things such as progress videos or shots as a given, and that this will intimidate young or new artists, making them feel incredibly pressured to provide things that they shouldn't have to. And, speaking from experience, pressure does not do good things to the creative mind.

I'm worried that people will start seeing inconsistencies or awkward anatomy and immediately react with accusations of AI. It's happening on other platforms, and probably also on Tumblr, and as much as I dislike AI, I think that people need to learn to slow down and really look at something before making that accusation.

What good will stamping out AI with vigor do if innocent artists get caught in the crossfire and stop creating out of fear? What good will it do if the next generation of artists is too scared to share and inspire each other?

Genuinely, I would personally rather deal with AI images existing while still being able to freely share my actual works than I would deal with tiptoeing around very real people who would dismiss my hours of work (and musculoskeletal pain) as worthless and not real. Let artists still be free for goodness' sake.

I can be more thoroughly worded later if anyone asks, and this will probably be sorely misinterpreted, but I just need to get this out and I'm tired.

TLDR: It's fine to be against AI-generated images, but please check yourself and be careful who you accuse of using such technology before you get someone innocent caught up in it. AI-generated art isn't great, and neither is putting down someone's hard work as fake.

[son-of-avraham]

Do you know anything about getting work accommodations to be able to go to Shabbat services while in the conversion process, but not actually Jewish yet? I'm nervous to ask because I assume since i'm not Jewish religious accommodations aren't really for me, but as it stands it's really difficult for me to attend services because of work, which just really sucks :( I'd love to be able to go every week

It, of course, really depends on your job. Mine is flexible enough that I've always taken the weekends off, and I have recently removed Thursdays off my calendar because of my jewish classes. If that's an option for you, I would encourage you to look into that!

Additionally... I really don't think you need to justify why you want that time off. Being in the conversion process is a very liminal time, one in which you're simultaneously not jewish but you're also not completely goyiche (you're actively moving away from it, in fact, the more you're in the process). I tend not to tell non-jews about the nuances of my identity because they don't always understand, and often just don't even care enough to be engaged with the nuances of who I am. If you say, "I want accommodations for taking shabbat off," you are being honest with them. You want shabbat off - that would be true whether or not you are jewish now. You don't need to justify it, I think.

Accommodations are for those who need them. You can't simultaneously be at work and go to services regardless of if you are jewish right now or not, so I'd say you need to be accommodated for it. Depending on where you work, it may be unwise to even specify it's for jewish reasons. I'd really evaluate how in-depth you should be with your employers, because unfortunately, there may be limits to what they tolerate (so, not being Too Jewish). I've already made sure to have the high holidays off work and I did not tell them why - it was very much a "I just won't be there" situation. And that's all they're entitled to know.