#because the consequences are and will continue to be continued alienation of the people who made it possible for him to be in this position

[kosher-martian]

I'm making this post with full recognition that it might result in a bunch of hateful comments or asks, but I think it has to be said.

This morning I saw two completely unrelated posts (one on reddit and one on tumblr) that referred to Jews as "Jews of Conscience / Jewish People of Conscience" so as to draw contrast between the Jews being discussed and other Jews, based solely on their beliefs and attitudes concerning the Israel-Hamas War.

We really are just doing the whole "one of the good ones" schtick aren't we?

Why do we have to make these performative declarations of our beliefs to remain in the good graces of the self-appointed "good people"? What does that say about the "good people" and their "good politics"? And what does it say about us if we seek their approval?

This is the inevitable outcome of both purity politics and hyper-regimented discourse, which themselves are the consequence of deriving the entirety of one's political litmus test from maximalist sloganeering echo chambers.

This method of forming "good politics" reduces the complexity of the human experience into a simple "us vs them" dynamic, where the dividing line between the two is whether you upvoted or downvoted a screenshot of a pithy tweet.

It frames the world as one with "good people" and "bad people", where those on the side of "good" are scene as virtuous and well-intentioned whereas those on the side of "bad" are at best misinformed and at worst malevolent, sinful monsters. As someone whose virtue has not yet been determined, one who has not declared their affiliation is to be distrusted until they either:

Profess the beliefs of the "good people" without exemption, adopting them whole cloth and never questioning by whom those beliefs were made or whom those beliefs serve.

"Out" yourself as a "bad person".

I want to specifically call attention to that second option. It is always framed as a revelation. Not a sudden change of heart. Not a slow alienation. Not changing material conditions that alter the way someone perceives the world. All "good people" are actually "bad people" (except you, the only true "good person") and it's only a matter of time until someone "reveals who they really are". Everyone is lying about what they actually believe. It's a low-trust environment where every alliance (social, political, etc.) is one of convenience, to be continued until your ally inevitably betrays you for the other side.

To me, the only thing being revealed is the intellectual dishonesty of it all. It's no wonder that you suspect everyone else of lying, because it's exactly what you do. If the only reason you believe something is for the treats and status that believing it gains you, you don't actually believe it. The thing you actually believe is saying whatever is necessary for the treat dispensing machine to dispense your treats.

And so we circle back to the phrase "Jews of Conscience" and what that really means: It means (for the Nth time in Jewish History) Jews are not to be trusted until we "prove" our allegiance to the "good side" or "reveal" our allegiance the "bad side".

[phi8]

A bit of Star Wars fanart! A conversation between Ahsoka and Anakin after The Mandalorian Chapter 13: The Jedi. This one goes along with a bit of writing, check it out below or here.

Ahsoka broke the piece of dried meat she was eating into a few smaller parts. She let her consciousness expand and felt the birds and lizards around her camp site, a singular simian alien at the edge of her awareness. The trees rustled and their anticipation for the coming change of season was apparent. She felt the Khyber crystals in her lightsabers hum and reverberate the life around them. Even the rock on which she had unfolded a clean napkin had its signature in the living force. Savoring the taste of the jerky, she thanked the beast from which it had come.

“Ahsoka,” a voice called out.

“Master,” she responded. It became easier to become aware of him each time she did. “Good to see you,” she said, right before he materialized into the world.

The pale blue visage of Anakin Skywalker shifted uncomfortably. “I told you to stop calling me that, I don’t deserve it.”

“You are the guy who’s become one with the force, not me,” Ahsoka said with a little smirk. “... Anakin,” she finished with a nod.

“Thank you,” he said, sitting down on a log across from her. As was the case with Obi-Wan and his master and Yoda, Anakin was strangely physical when he appeared like this. Ahsoka could feel how he was affected by gravity and that he would rather sit than stand. But she could also see right through his wispy shape.

Similarly, Anakin could tell that Ahsoka had been wrestling with something. “You have something on your mind?”

“Yes,” Ahsoka said. She swallowed the last piece of her meal and wrung her hands. “Grogu... Turns out he’s still alive.”

“The little kid that the council was always so mysterious about?” Anakin paused, then flickered out of existence briefly. With a pained expression now on his face, he continued, “I always figured he got caught when... When you were on Mandalore.”

“We shared a connection, apparently someone managed to sneak him out of the temple.” She looked at him. “His life hasn’t been easy,” Ahsoka said. She didn’t manage to keep all of the accusation out of her tone.

Anakin nodded. He was of the force now, supposed to be in ultimate balance with the galaxy. Ahsoka noted he really didn’t look it.

“He’s gotten himself a father figure, a Mandalorian. It’s pretty cute. But the guy wanted me to train Grogu.” She looked down at her lap. “And, and – Anakin, Grogu reminded me so much of you.”

“The little baby Yoda reminded you of me?” Anakin said a bit incredulously.

“He’s powerful, and filled with fear and passion. Fear to become lost again, to lose this new parent. We’ve seen what such fear to lose someone can -,” Ahsoka interrupted herself.

Anakin sighed. He didn’t have lungs anymore, but it still hurt. There were some downsides to being granted eternity. He was forced to be faced with the consequences of his actions, all the people he had hurt.

He leaned forward  and put his hand on Ahsoka’s shoulder. To her the sensation was one of warmth, not one of touch. “So you turned him down,” Anakin said softly.

“Yes.” She looked at him. Both being this connected to the force, they could feel the compassion they felt for each other. Healing and forgiving would take time, but it would come. “I promised to help them though, and since I’m not comfortable training him I sent them to Tython.”

“Tython? That dingy temple with the seeing stone?” He sat back a little. “But who would respond to a call from a place like that?”

“I think Luke will find them.” Ahsoka said. Her lekku twitched, and the guilt she felt was visible on her face.

“Oh, I see,” Anakin said, smiling a little. “You wanted to check in with me because you sent a potential Sith Lord to my son.”

“When you put it like that...” Ahsoka smiled as well and hit Anakin in the arm, which  fully connected. He let out a soft gasp, as he would have in life.

“Don’t worry about him!” Anakin continued. “I don’t know if you  noticed, but that young man is capable of some incredible things. In fact, it was his love, his passion, that made him a better Jedi, made him able to save me.” Anakin’s form glowed slightly as he talked about his son, as though the thought of Luke made his spirit more bright. “If anyone can train Grogu, it’s him.”

Anakin stood up, face turned to the night sky of Corvus. “But here: you called a Jedi knight from the beyond for advice and counseling?” Looking back at Ahsoka, he made a little bow and said, “just go check in on Luke at some point. You get to make sure you made the right decision, see if the kid is doing well. And Luke can needle you for more advice.”

“Yeah, he’s very eager, isn’t he?” Ahsoka said, her expression softening.

“It’s unbelievable. He won’t let Obi-Wan and Yoda have a single bit of rest, always asking is this right, what did we do in such cases... He even figured out how master Qui-Gon’s views are different and how to find the compromise between them” Anakin got a sad smile on his face and said, “he’s so much like Padmé.”

Ahsoka felt Anakin fading away in the force, like he suddenly didn’t have the willpower to maintain his form here anymore.

“Do not worry, Ahsoka,” Anakin said faintly, “Luke is more than capable, and yours is a different path.”

“Thank you, master,” she said to the chilly night.

[bill-the-dog-for-the-check]

"The Jew in Germany is regarded as only a guest of the people--he has offended by trying to turn himself into the host."

The quote is a line from Henry Ford's The International Jew, published in 1920. I ask you, is the line so different from the claim that 'Zionists' and the 'Zionist' lobby wield disproportionate power over US foreign policy?

"The Zionist in America is regarded only as a voter, same as anyone else--he has offended by trying to silence the others."

Is it a coincidence that centuries old claims about Jews controlling the world bear a striking similarity to the claim that Zionists control the media? Or the claim that there's an international Jewish Zionist conspiracy to silence the celebrities who speak out against their machinations? Is claim that Israelis steal Palestinian organs so distinct from the claim that Jews siphon the blood of Christian children?

If I made a new Tumblr account, titled it 'Death-to-Zios' and just straight up copied and pasted actual articles from the Dearborn Independent, the International Jew, and Der Sturmer without revealing their source, and just replacing 'Jew' with Zionist, how many reblogs do you think it would get? 10K? 20K? 40K? How much pushback do you think the self-proclaimed 'antifascists' on Tumblr would give to actual fascist propaganda? How far could I take it before the goyische leftists were uncomfortable with my words--would they ever be?

Let's go back to that Henry Ford quote. Right after that, he continues:

"What will happen in Germany is not now known, but the Germans will doubtless prove themselves equal to the situation by devising methods of control at once unobjectionable and effective."

Again, this was in 1920. What happened a scant 21 years later? Do you think wide-reaching dehumanization of a people for two millennia doesn't have consequences? Do you think there might be a reason Jews are feeling edgy and alienated from society right now? Do you think we are making things up?

You are the ones who cry that Never Again means Never Again--do you really believe that? Do you really believe you would stand up against the Holocaust if you had been alive then--that you won't be on the side perpetrating it?

Because we Jews are not so sure.

[vllergy]

painkillers

vesen request, 2.1 k, cold fic ty to @scatter-snz for this elite prompt i hope this is what u had in mind!!! jin-young is a cop (he has the kink because of who i am as a person) vesen is a big tall hot alien assassin aliens and humans are working together but it's still pretty new and things are awkward jin and vesen 100% fall in love with each other eventually that's basically all you need to know

It's Jin's first day being back after a record two days off. In his six years on the force, he can't remember the last time he took actual sick leave. To be fair, he doesn't get sick that often and when he does, he's aways been the type to grin and bear it. Part upbringing, part police conditioning. If you're not dead, you're fit to serve. Or at least that's the way it always has been. The Kheelen changed that. Human officers aren't spread thin these days due to the partnering initiative. So his cases that would have once fallen to the wayside in his absence now fall to his partner, Vesen. And he's expected to trust that his taciturn, ill-mannered Kheelen counterpart can handle that shit on his own when Jin is otherwise indisposed.

For the most part, Jin does. Vesen may be an ass, but he's a competent investigator. Unfortunately, he and Jin's methods when it comes to gathering information are still wildly disparate. Something he knew, but didn't truly understand the consequences of until now as he sits across their latest subject in the interrogation room.

In the two days Jin took to nurse the cold from hell, it seems Vesen has taken it upon himself to put the fear of God into this man.

The man is visibly sweating. His eyes are only focused on Jin, though every so often they twitch Vesen's direction only to snap back as if his very image is a chemical burn. His cuffed hands tremble on the steel surface of the table and he picks at his cuticles the longer they sit there. Jin doesn't blame him, necessarily. Vesen is, objectively, terrifying. Even just sitting like this you can tell he's the apex predator in the room. He's so much bigger than both Jin and the other man--he overpowers the chair and the room itself, looking comically oversized for the entire thing. Jin thinks all the Kheelen look a little silly in the human precinct, actually. Crunching themselves into tiny desks, massive hands cupping small coffee mugs, ducking under doorways--it'd be laughable if they weren't all sure the Kheelen would crush their skulls for even a giggle about it. Jin sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. Intimidating is usually an advantage in an interrogation, but whatever Vesen's done to this guy over the past two days has pushed it over the line. He's not just intimidated, he's shitting his pants. There's no way they're getting through to him now. And frankly? Jin is too tired to rectify the situation. He's still not feeling great. His head is fuzzy and dulled, his painkillers are wearing off, and part of him knows he should be back in bed. But he's legitimately worried Vesen will frighten this man to death if he leaves him alone with him for any longer, and that's a bad look for everyone. Sniffing softly, Jin blinks and tries another tactic. "We want to help you, Anish."

Vesen scoffs at this, and Jin just barely manages not to roll his eyes. "But you have to give us something to work with," he continues.

Anish shivers and shakes his head, "It doesn't matter! You know it doesn't! These bastards are taking over and they're just pretending to play nice until they don't have to anymore." Oh boy, here we go. Vesen's hackles rise, just as Jin expects. The alien leans forward, a muscle in his jaw jumping. Artificial light flickers over his lilac skin and makes his dark hair shine like ink. "You dare insinuiate my people are not here out of good faith?" he hisses, sharp canines flashing, "When you are accused of aiding in a terrorist attack against them?" Jin reaches out for his arm. Down, boy. His fingers drift over steel muscle beneath Vesen's uniform as he tries to tug him back into his seat. He's about to say something to try and reign him in when he realizes with sudden horror that he's about to sneeze instead. "Hhh?" He quickly turns away, angling himself away from the table and steepling his hands over his nose and mouth. His eyebrows crash together as an embarrassingly sharp breath snags in his lungs before-- "chhSH’iew!!"

And it's never just one. "CHshISHh’iu!"

Two is actually pretty good for him, especially with this fucking cold. He gives a tentative sniffle before raising his head and clearing his throat. The tickle abates for the moment, but he can feel it buzzing dully in the back of his sinuses, tickling in the corners of his eyes. Ordinarily, he wouldn't care. Sneezing in public isn't his favorite thing, given how he feels about the activity in general, but he's never been good at stifling so it's not something that can be avoided. But sneezing in front of Vesen is a new hell in and of itself. Without even looking, he can feel the intensity of his partner's gaze on him and it makes heat begin to crawl up his throat. Fucking hell. "Excuse me," he says with a soft sniff and clears his throat again.

At the very least, he's dispelled the tension. "Arguing about who started what or whose intentions are genuine isn't going to get us anywhere. So let's not even get into that," he says, sending Vesen a warning glance. Vesen, he suddenly notes, is staring directly at his nose. For some reason that revelation sets off a nuclear detonation in Jin's lower belly and all the blood in his body rushes south. Self-consciously, Jin rubs at his nostrils and tries to think about anything else. But that only aggravates the dormant tickle, and he has to press his tongue to the roof of his mouth to curb the impulse. "Fine," Vesen hisses, turning his eyes back to Anish, "Then let us stick to the facts." Anish gulps. Jin strokes a finger down the datapad in front of him, bringing up a few files. They could pin Anish with his money transfer trail. Or his text messages. He and Vesen haven't which way they were going to do this--they hardly ever agree anyway--but he shifts the pad closer to his partner so that he can look too. "The facts are, you are a coward, Anish," Vesen suddenly purrs, "And you will not survive a week in prison if I put you there." Jin could strangle him. He does roll his eyes this time and looks toward the ceiling, as if asking some higher power for the strength not to. "What my partner means is that you nee--" The bright lights overhead tease the last bit of the tickle out at the most inopportune time. The fuzzy, static feeling inside his head snaps like someone struck a bolt of lightning into the middle of his face. He whips to the side, his elbow in front of him and his hand braced on his opposite shoulder. "Hh--excuse meehh'IIsHH!"

He mists the inside of his elbow, shakes his head softly and then gears up for another. His breath stumbles, eyelashes fluttering. "Are you going to continue sneezing?" Vesen deadpans. "Hhhuh?" Jin blinks blearily, his cheeks going red as he tries--unsuccessfully--to pinch off the next one, "nnTTchSHH'iu!"

"Madrax. What is that inane human saying? Bless you, Jin-young."

Vesen stands as Jin pulls a crumpled tissue from his pocket and tends to his nose. In the next second, he feels his collar being tugged and himself yanked up from his chair. Feet stumbling under him, he struggles to get his balance for a moment until Vesen's large hand steadies him at the small of his back. Vesen's low voice simmers with what sounds distinctly like a threat, "We will return, Anish. Make yourself comfortable."

Then, before Jin knows what's happening, he's being guided out of the interrogation room and back into the hall. The door shuts and Vesen's hand retreats from his back. In a moment, the alien is towering before him, arms crossed over his broad chest and staring down imperiously at him. "Jin-young," he says disapprovingly. Jin blows his nose softly and retrieves another crumpled tissue. "Vesen."

"You are still ill." "I'm on the tail end of it."

"I do not wish to work with you when you are not well."

Jin scoffs, dabbing at his red nostrils, "I thought the Kheelen didn't get sick. I'm pretty sure you can't catch this."

"It is not my well-being I am concerned for."

Jin's eyebrows shoot skyward. Vesen, concerned for someone besides himself? No fucking way. He might have said as much if his nostrils didn't suddenly swell double. He crushes the tissue to his nose and mouth to muffle a tired sneeze.

"hdj'SHMMf!!"

"Bless you."

Jin blinked and gasped, "Hh'chhmpf!"

"Bless you."

Jin adjusts the tissue to try and find a dry spot, missing the next sneeze entirely and directing it to the floor. "You don't have to say it every ti-hiime--hhCH'ISSH'iu!"

"And why not? Bless you. You said it is something humans say when another sneezes. You are sneezing, are you not?"

Jin blushes darkly as he attends to his nose. Does Vesen have any idea what he was doing to him? Clearly not, or else he'd be raking him over the fucking coals for it. But somehow him being oblivious is making it so much worse. "Look who's suddenly so concerned over human-Kheelen relations," Jin gripes hoarsely, trying desperately to deflect. Anything to stop talking about him sneezing and Vesen blessing him. He'd rather be waterboarded. "You should go home, Jin-young." "And leave you to eat our sole witness alive? I don't think so." Vesen bristled, "You doubt my abilities."

"If we were torturing the guy? Not for a second. But we're trying to get him to talk to us, Ves." "Ah yes, and sneezing at him incessantly is doing the job just as well. Perhaps there is some merit to that," Vesen leans forward, grinning, "You look so unspeakably pathetic that he might take pity on you and finally tell us the truth."

Jin tosses his sodden tissues in the nearby wastebin and scrubs at his face.

"Fuck you," he groans, "Can we just go back and get this over with?"

"No, you are going home."

Vesen grabs his upper arm, his grip like a vice. Jin never really forgets how strong the Kheelen are, but every so often a brazen display hubles him completely. Vesen steers him effortlessly back down the hall without any hope of him struggling against him. "Wait, Vesen, c'mon--" He struggles anyway, just on principle. But a moment later he yanks on his grip unintentionally as he wrenches away from him with another ill-timed sneeze. "Hh'CHISSihuh!" He nearly bends double on that one and Vesen abruptly pulls him to a stop. The alien holds fast to his arm as if he can sense that Jin is going to lose his balance if he's not tethered to anything. "hah'hhCHHishh! iSSCchuh!" His ears begin to ring. Distantly, he's aware of Vesen's other hand bracing against his shoulder. That second point of contact sets his blood on fire. Before he can think too hard about that, another sneeze tickles the inside of his sinuses and he attempts to smother it with his free hand, "PpshhiSHHch!"

"Bless you," Vesen sighs as Jin straightens back up wearily, "Are you finished?"

"Yes," Jin lies and then shakes his head rapidly, turning away and pinching his nose between his thumb and forefinger, "NnghsSHH'iu!"

Vesen taps his shoulder. It almost feels...sympathetic?

"Go home, Jin-young. I will wait until you are well again to interrogate our witness."

Jin sniffles and glances up with watering eyes. "W-wait, really?" It's an unexpected gesture of charity from Vesen who has been historically uncharitable all the time he's known him. He narrows his glassy eyes, skeptical. Or at least, he tries to look skeptical despite the fact that his heart is in his throat because Vesen is still holding onto him and just watched him sneeze his head off with rapt, disgustingly erotic attention. "What's the catch?" "There is no catch. Just go before I lose my patience," Vesen said.

Jin knows better than to argue with that. Vesen is someone who loses his patience extraordinarily quickly, and it's never pretty. If he's giving him an out, Jin might as well take it.

Sniffling, Jin nods and gives him a tiny salute, "Thanks, Ves."

Vesen finally lets go of him. He grunts in response, gives him one last unreadable glance, and then turns on his heel. Before Jin can say anything else, his impossibly tall figure disappears back down the hall towards the interrogation room.

Jin isn't totally sure, but he thinks Vesen might not be such a bad guy after all.

That, and he's suddenly unreasonably horny.

[golvio]

It’s like…both Hylia and Rauru run into the Robot Problem, where they create/cultivate servants who end up achieving sentience (the Robots in SkSw and the Constructs in TotK) or were already sentient to begin with but were supposed to fit into this grand design to restore the order they’d created (the Sheikah, their respective Links and Zeldas). And it gets a little uncomfortable because both characters are so focused on imposing their respective ideas of order that they…don’t quite see their charges as people?

Hylia at least had the excuse that she was a primordial goddess of Light and Time and therefore had no frame of reference to emotionally connect with the mortals she was charged to protect. Her actions were ruthlessly pragmatic, but it made sense for a god totally alienated from humanity to think like that.

Meanwhile, Rauru has this sort of…naïve carelessness? He descended to earth, took the people living there as his subjects, and even fell in love with and married a mortal woman, but he never seemed to understand that his actions could have unintended and far-reaching effects on the people around him.

When confronted with how the Constructs continued to obey their orders instead of leaving to do other things, he couldn’t really muster up more than a sheepish, “Oops, my bad.” Granted, he was a ghost invisible to everyone but Link at the time, but, still, he never considered including a contingency plan in their programming to preserve themselves and do other things with their lives in the event of his own death.

And then there was him and Sonia positioning themselves as Zelda’s surrogate parents after she lost her original parents in traumatic circumstances related to the Sealing War’s aftereffects. Zelda, having to step up as Sonia’s replacement as his advisor and sole confidant to make sure he kept a level head after the queen died. Not stopping Mineru when she started talking about draconification because he was convinced it’d never come to that. Zelda effectively being primed to accept sacrificing herself a second time to preserve the order Rauru created whether he wanted that or not. And then him taking Link’s arm and replacing it without his permission while he was unconscious, because the Ultrahand is such a useful tool, why wouldn’t he be fine with a little limb graft?

Then there was the whole thing with Ganondorf. Just this catastrophic underestimation of human agency, intelligence, and capacity for cruelty. Zelda herself warned him about Ganon being more dangerous than he seemed, but Rauru waved her off (inadvertently recreating yet another Calamity-related trauma of Zelda’s). Ganondorf might be causing trouble, but in the end he was just like those other funny little mortals Rauru watched over. How could he possibly be able to understand something as divine and complicated as a Secret Stone? Only Sonia could do that, but Sonia was Special because she was so smart and wonderful and he loved her very much, so that didn’t count! Furthermore, how could he possibly come up with a plan that could blindside him and the queen? That would be silly!

(Also, note how he didn’t give any non-Sonia mortals stones until after Ganon proved any one of those funny little guys could master using one without any instruction from Rauru, lmao)

And then the circumstances of Rauru’s own death, and the consequences that had for everyone around him well after he’d faded to myth. Rauru assumed the “consequences” Ganondorf threatened him with were limited to giving up his own life, when what actually happened was that the people of Hyrule were left to deal with Ganon punishing them for Rauru’s hubris, poisoning the land again and again in rage at his imprisonment, while the people themselves had to figure out on their own how to beat back each wave of his bilious rage with no record or understanding of its source. Zelda being left with no guidance for how to return home, forced to make a drastic decision. Mineru, still alive, but unable to intervene was she was just a soul without a body.

Like…I don’t think he’s evil, much less malicious, but the way the story panned out reminded me a lot of the way Rose Quartz kept accidentally hurting the people who loved her because it didn’t come naturally to her to think of other people as equals, or to consider how her actions made them feel. She loved Pearl, but she didn’t acknowledge Pearl’s baggage from their former relationship as master and servant because she’d assumed they’d moved past that simply by never speaking of it anymore. She loved Greg, but she initially didn’t treat him like a real person. She tried as hard as she could to relate to others and understand them, but in the end she committed one last tragic act of thoughtlessness. She thought would be creating this special, wonderful person free of her flaws who would make the world so much better solely by existing and being himself (at least in part, I think, because she hated herself and thought everyone would be happier without her burdening them with her guilt and her selfish desire to run from her past)…only to leave everyone grappling with the emotional fallout of her no longer existing, including her son, who was stuck dealing with the legacy she’d left behind even though that was never her intention.

She didn’t actively try to sabotage her son’s life from beyond the grave. She didn’t think that the things she’d done would catch up to him, that her old family and enemies would treat him like an interchangeable replacement for her, or that her friends would treat him in strange ways out of grief at losing her. It just…never occurred to her.

But the thing is, I’m not sure if Rauru was intentionally written that way. If he was, the narrative wasn’t really interested in dwelling on the consequences of that, instead treating him and Sonia more like figureheads of this lost, idyllic past that the present must grieve and then strive to follow the example of, even if the present was suffering due to paying the debts of their ancestors’ carelessness.

[palestinegenocide]

Israeli genocide is ’embarrassing’ Biden, at last

The Biden administration’s disgraceful policy on Gaza is finally becoming a crisis. Brushing a genocide under the rug only works for so long. The world is appalled, and the Democratic Party base is appalled, and Biden is taking steps– rhetorically anyway– to try to distance himself from a policy of murderous recrimination he has underwritten since the October 7 atrocities.

First at the State of the Union Speech on Thursday night Biden criticized Netanyahu during a post-speech handshake with Colorado Senator Michael Bennet.

“I told him, Bibi, and don’t repeat this, but you and I are going to have a ‘come to Jesus’ meeting,” Biden said. Then alerted that he was being recorded, Biden said, “I’m on a hot mic here… Good. That’s good.”

And outside the Capitol, demonstrators held banners saying “Biden’s Legacy Is Genocide.”

Then yesterday Biden went further. He gave an interview to a loyal Democratic Party journalist, Jonathan Capehart of MSNBC, and said Netanyahu “is hurting Israel” in the eyes of the world.

He has a right to defend Israel, a right to continue to pursue Hamas but he must, he must, he must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions being taken. He’s hurting– In my view he’s hurting Israel more than helping Israel by making the rest of the world — It’s contrary to what Israel stands for, and I think it’s a big mistake. So I want to see a ceasefire. Starting with a major, major exchange of prisoners. For a six week period. We’re going into Ramadan, there should be nothing happening.

This may sound good—to those who are idealistic about Israel maybe, like Senator Bennet – but how does it sound to any one who cares about Palestinian human rights? More than 31,000 Palestinians have been killed, the overwhelming majority civilians, in actions of pure rage and collective punishment. And as Biden was quick to assure Capehart, “I’m never going to leave Israel. The defense of Israel is still critical, so there’s no red line I’m going to cut off all weapons.”

As Mitchell Plitnick wrote on our site of the increasing Israel-critical rhetoric from the Biden administration, it’s so much “theatrics.” The policy hasn’t changed at all, and it won’t even if the Good Cop Benny Gantz is at Israel’s helm, as Kamala Harris and Biden seem to prefer.

Biden could shut Israeli actions down in a minute. But he will only do lip service to the progressives because the Democratic Party elites are still committed to Israel. Several Congresspeople brought Israelis to the State of the union Speech, including Los Angeles Congressman Brad Sherman, who issued a statement of unqualified support for Israel’s slaughter of Gazans, in defiance of progressives, who are trying to “muddy our national discourse.”

As anti-Israel forces attempt to penetrate and muddy our national discourse, President Biden’s robust defense of Israel will serve as a powerful reminder to the many families of American and Israeli hostages who will be present for tonight’s Address, as well as to the world, that America’s bond with Israel stands unbroken, and our commitment to its right to exist remains unwavering.

And that guy represents Malibu and Studio City and Pacific Palisades! So screw the progressives.

Even NPR is telling us that Biden can’t walk away from the Jewish community politically, even if his base wants him to. Senior Editor Ron Elving:

Netanyahu has taken Israel in a particular direction that is not necessarily popular among American Jews, but which has alienated many people in this country in the Biden administration and elsewhere. And as a result there is a difficulty here that is really insurmountable for the Biden campaign.

While the New Yorker reminds us that Biden has not only the ability to cut off military aid to Israel, but he is required by law to do so, so long as it is preventing humanitarian aid from entering Gaza. But he won’t do it. And it’s “collective punishment,” says Isaac Chotiner, and an embarrassment.

The idea that we’re giving massive amounts in aid to a country that is refusing our request to allow humanitarian assistance through so we have to airdrop food is embarrassing.

Embarrassing. That’s what we’ve come to. The superpower is embarrassed by its client state’s ongoing massacre of Palestinian civilians that shows no signs of stopping. The President is having to explain himself and distance himself from the Israelis.

I suppose we should be grateful there’s a political crisis at last. Though we are a long way yet from an honest examination of Zionism and its roots in the Jewish community and American policy.

[kuroshika]

the idea of hannibal continuing to cannibalize people after his younger sister is something i think about a lot. i like to think that it's out of honor - mischa was just a little girl. she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and she was such a sweetheart. and she was just taken from him, in front of his eyes. just think about it.

he was eight years old. his parents had just been killed, and he and his younger sister abducted. he watched his captors murder and eat his little sister, then feed some of her remains to him.

so why would he keep doing it? wouldn't that be a disgrace to her memory?

i think his way of honoring her memory is by doing it willingly. by killing and eating those he finds rude or unworthy of the life they'd been given, he's avenging mischa's death. taking from the people who don't deserve it to avenge someone who had their whole life ahead of them.

that's why, i think, he's torn between wanting will alive and wanting to eat him.

mischa was one of the few people in hannibal's life who knew him inside and out. he let her see him, know him, and she was lost to him. he'd honored her body, in the least, by eating her.

when bedelia says "could he daily feel a stab of hunger for you, and feel nourishment at the sight of you?" i think that ties in here.

he's fighting with himself. he wants to honor will the same way he honored mischa - not because he doesn't deserve the life he has, but because hannibal thinks the world isn't worthy of having him. he hungers for will because he wants to honor him - he wants to honor his god. he feels that hunger whenever he sees him, that's the "daily stab of hunger". but "having nourishment at the sight of you" means that hannibal is sated by seeing that he's still alive, still fighting - the visage he never got for his little sister. he aches to honor will, to protect him, but has his hunger curbed by the knowledge that will is still alive.

and when he realizes how attached he is to will, after bedelia tells him he's unhealthily obsessed, that's why his response is "i have to eat him". because he won't survive the loss of will, and being so close to him is already a strain on his self control. he let will see him, know him, and now that obsession comes with a certain sense of fear - what if he fails to keep will safe? what if his involvement in his life leads to his death? that's why he's so desperate to alienate him at first - remove any threats that will may surround himself with so that hannibal can keep him safe. and not even that works. so then he moves on to murder - bedelia, tobias, abigail - anyone who poses a threat to keeping will alive and safe. still doesn't work. when that doesn't work, he opts to get him arrested - to forcibly make sure that no harm can befall him. no result.

so then he turns to getting himself locked up. in removing himself from will's life, he assuages the chances of damage being done, and lessens the possibility of losing him. that's why he says "i wanted you to know where i was, and what i was doing", because he wanted will to understand that this decision was for will's sake, not his own.

and it doesn't work, because will comes back for him.

"can't live with him, can't live without him". can't live with him because there's always the underlying urge to devour him, to carve a place inside of hannibal for him. can't live without him, because will's loss would be the tipping point for hannibal's restraint.

"i feel like i've dragged you into my world" - "i got here on my own" can also be a pretty solid quote for hannibal accepting that he's let all of this madness into his carefully crafted life all for will. he let himself grow close to will, and is content in reaping the consequences of his actions.

@lesbian-hannibal @craqueluring

[lord-squiggletits]

unpopular opinions meme: anything on Earthspark?

(Haven't watched Season 1 part two yet so take this with a grain of salt)

I avoid looking at fandom tags generally since I tend to not like a lot of popular takes in general, but people's takes about Optimus being brainwashed/shadowplayed/replaced by a clone in Earthspark really annoy me because it demonstrates a couple troublesome things about self-professed Optimus fans (or anyone really interested in OP in general):

People can't handle the fact that Optimus might make mistakes

Because of this, they then rush to remove agency from him (to make the bad things that happen not his fault)

In doing this, they completely erase, downplay, or even lambast as flaws the very traits that make Optimus who he is.

To take this from the top, Optimus "freedom is the right of all sentient beings" is, and has always been, a person who cares deeply about the rights of other species. This is a trait he's had in EVERY continuity: he values all lives, even small and fleeting ones, as equal to Cybertronian life, and he strives to protect uninvolved aliens from the horrific consequences of the Autobot-Decepticon war. This is one of his primary traits. This is a GOOD TRAIT OF HIS and it's LITERALLY ONE OF THE FUNDAMENTAL PARTS OF HIS PERSONALITY.

In Earthspark, we specifically hear Optimus say "we are guests on this planet" with regards to living peacefully alongside humans. GHOST is a suspicious organization and not only do we see this as the viewers, OPTIMUS HIMSELF acknowledges this by choosing to hide the Terrans from GHOST and openly saying that he doesn't know if GHOST is trustworthy, but it's currently the best option they have and he's trying to find another way.

Earthspark Optimus has no shortage of nuance. He's not a dunce; he acknowledges on multiple occasions that he doesn't completely trust GHOST, that he's willing to hide things from them, and that he would do something else to live peacefully with humans if he knew of a way to do so.

But the fandom seems to get one whiff of anything "problematic" happening due to Optimus (not just Optimus, literally every Autobot and even Megatron collaborates with them too, but for some reason blame for working with GHOST only ever falls on Optimus) and they immediately jump to this bizarre headcanon they have that Optimus is a total idiot and couldn't possibly be aware of any negative consequences of working with GHOST. People seem to think that if anything bad happens because of Optimus working with GHOST, it HAS to be because he was literally brainwashed into working with them.

Optimus believing in the rights of all sentient beings? Optimus being willing to make compromises for the sake of other species besides his own? Optimus knowing that he's making morally gray choices/questionable allies and doing it anyways because he thinks it's his best option? Nope. Nope, clearly he has to be brainwashed or a clone or something.

It's really frustrating because people jump to this black-and-white view of Earthspark's plot where they're like, "GHOST is evil and this clearly means that Optimus is an idiot for even attempting to work with them." But like. What else is he supposed to do? Just let the Decepticons run around stealing from humans, damaging their property, and killing them? Is Optimus supposed to grab a random piece of human land and go "this is mine now, me and all my people are gonna live here now." That would be literal colonialism, and keep in mind that humans had nothing to do with the war to start with-- Earth is just the unfortunate planet that the war happened to land on, dragging humans into a Cybertronian conflict.

It's just.... so fucking frustrating as an Optimus fan lmao. It's gotten to the point that I don't even look at Optimus content made by other Optimus fans because too many of them have this idea that Optimus can't be a normal person who makes bad choices (knowingly or unknowingly), he has to be an eternal paragon of goodness and this means that in order for him to be Good (TM), he can't be responsible for anything Bad And Evil, which means that if anything Bad happens (inevitable in any plot involving conflict, drama, or conspiracy), we have to swoop and take away Optimus' culpability for the situation. Because having Optimus be responsible for bad things happening would make him Not The Perfect Good Guy, and if Optimus isn't The Perfect Good Guy then we don't care about him and we hate/ignore him (which is exactly what people do with IDW OP btw: throwing out a perfectly good/interesting character who's no more bad or good than anyone else in the story because Optimus Has To Be Good).

Another example of people taking away Optimus' agency is the all-too-common TFP/Aligned headcanon in which people like to say that the Matrix literally turned Orion into a different person, Optimus, therefore none of the decisions OP made as Prime were "actually him" and it was just Primus imposing his will on him or something. Really annoying! Ideas like this don't make Optimus any more interesting, they just make him a helpless victim to forces outside of his control who manipulate his every action!

TLDR: Earthspark Optimus is fine actually, people just refuse to take his perspective and instead default to "Optimus is stupid/brainwashed for working with GHOST" instead of coming to the rational conclusion that maybe OP is doing the best he can in a bad situation.

[transingthoseformers]

Basically, after Chromedome tried to throw him off a cliff, which led to Ultra Magnus having to pull him out of a Constructicon pile instead of getting to berate Prowl, he disappeared. Locked down and hid so the trial went on with Prowl watching the livestream and only emailing a few people. By the time people are looking around for him, Optimus, after their brief talk and his email to check on the Lost Light, which led to baby time, he's gone fully underground.

Ironhide made a few attempts but assumed the Starscream thing is why they aren't speaking. Wheeljack tried to eventually but couldn't find him. Only when Optimus Prime suspiciously side eyes Starscrema do people at large notice Devstator is missing.

This unnerves everyone, and Chromedome gets a lot of incredible side eye because the last confirmed sighting was Chromedome attempting to push him off a cliff.

Prowl showing up nearly a year later when First Aid and company temporarily show up to Luna-1 to make contact and find it crawling with Consructiprowl Babies and a Spider Baby with Fort Max attempting to learn knitting from Prowl (he likes the number patterns) and Tarantulas (the silk has multiple uses including medical and construction which he discovered with Hook and Mixmaster that Tara is getting on with a startling amount). He is then forced to Zoom Cybertron and Optimus Prime as proof, and everyone has to deal with the fact he keeps pausing to say things like "Black Arachnia do not bite your brother. Grimlock take your sister to Max. He brought home some turbofoxes for her to practice hunting on his last trip." and "Excuse me. I must go remove my son from Red Alert’s office. He is attempting to build a functional suspension bridge out of the extra comm parts again." and bending out of sight to whisper "Ask your sire. Mix should have some juice boxes. If not torment Max. He keeps a stash he thinks I am unaware of." while occasionally bouncing a round many legged black and gold blob with teeth occasionally.

Of course, it could have been resolved sooner if anyone thought to ask Springer who got a group zoom months ago to introduce him to his new sibling.

Informed to please tell us important developments doesn't improve things because then a year and a half later he sends out a birth announcement of Chase and Strongarm who were born from "a mutually agreed upon by all committed parties resolving of emotional and sexual tension from myself and Fortress Maximus".

The Luna-1 Polycule is incomprehensible to most.

Prowl spends him time sending out judgemental and vaguely ominous unasked for memos with his opinions on current and sometimes secret events to people as he calls in his spies and continues to den down mostly in relative secret and peace because he'd probably murser Megatron and anyone else pinging his danger sense on sight given his current active protocols.

Which is fair as hell, I mean as much as an asshole Prowl is known to be it's fair he bolted after being thrown off a cliff

Also they livestreamed the trial

Makes sense he'd still wanna figure out what's going on with the LL

Optimus: Starscream

Starscream: ?

Optimus: what did you do

Starscream: what do you mean "wHaT dId yOu dO"

Optimus: I mean, Starscream what did you do

I mean logical to think Chromedome may be at fault because the cliff pushing

The fact that we set a (relatively to million year robots) short carrying period is leading to so many cool baby boom consequences

Also awww on Fort Max trying to knit, also makes sense Prowl and Tara would like to knit

Less aww and more shhffjfjf on Mix and Hook learning the more useful applications of alien spider silk via getting freaky with Tarantulas

First Aid: oh so you were here

Yess on all the cute little pause moments, dear fuck yes that's adorable as hell Prowl it is it is

Sparkling!BlackArachnia has to be so cute too like yes

oh Springer. I hope he's got like a notebook to keep track of this mess of a family too.

Mutually agreed upon by all committed partners resolving of the emotional and sexual tension from myself and Fort Max

Aka, those two were advised to fuck each other's brains out

Love how Prowl has grown into this sort of mostly remote role into this with most of his interactions outside of the moon being online but him certainly wanting to know what's going on. Especially since for him, parenthood has ultimately made him even more aggressive and anxious towards those he does not like. I pity anyone who arrives on Luna-1 meaning harm.

[cairoscene]

Headcanon C -> khoa ?

i think this is asking for the third one but i'm going to take the opportunity to do all the headcanons for khoa hehe

realistic: khoa does not know and does not care about bruce's kids. which ones are adopted, which ones aren't, which are honorary, what their vigilante names are, what they look like etc. he simply could not care less. sends bruce a dick pic after 4 months of not speaking only for bruce to be like bruce: ?????? bruce: I'm at a parent-teacher conference. khoa: what, are you a teacher now? bruce: I'm the parent??

not realistic but hilarious: khoa doesn't know any of the kids, except tim. i've talked about this before but khoa loves tim. he thinks he is such a little weirdo. i think tim has a certain "at any minor inconvenience i will become the supervillain to end all supervillains" energy that khoa deeply admires and wants to encourage.

heart-crushing and awful, but fun to inflict on friends: this is less of a headcanon and more of a bone i have to pick with canon, but khoa is not a psychopath; but he has latched on to the diagnosis he received and uses it to explain the alienation he experiences from other people. diagnosing an 8 year old child a psychopath is a pretty wildly unethical thing to do, considering we still just don't know a lot when it comes to child psychology. children can exhibit traits like lack of empathy, lack of remorse, low impulse control, antisocial behavior etc but the immediate diagnosis is not psychopathy. and bc of social stigma, such a diagnosis at such a young age would do more damage to him. i get what canon was trying to do here: create a character who is bruce's foil in so many ways. since bruce cares so much and has such empathy, let's make a psychopath be his best friend, someone who has no empathy. but khoa does have empathy, particularly toward bruce. this is turning in to more of a rant but the headcanon is: khoa isn't a psychopath. he was prematurely diagnosed one, and it has since informed what he tells himself he can and can't have, which is why he so often self-sabotages his relationship with bruce and keeps himself at such a distance from everyone else.

unrealistic, but I will disregard canon about it because I reject canon reality and substitute my own: khoa made his peace with the fact that bruce's mission was going to get him killed, back when he first discovered he wanted to kiss bruce in paris 19XX but really, khoa will do anything to prevent that death from happening. through all the years and their various turf wars and skirmishes, all of their ideological differences and arguments, khoa has secretly enmeshed himself into bruce's life so the moment it looks like bruce is finally going to sacrifice himself to his cause, khoa can be there to stop him, consequences be damned. he'll be there to pull bruce back by the cowl and put him back in his place, just like he did when they were little more than children, and bruce will have to live with the knowledge that he doesn't get to die. his life is in khoa's hands. this is unrealistic bc DC will continue to kill bruce off whenever they want and they will forget and frankly already have forgotten about khoa but i never will <3

[send me a character and i'll tell you headcanons]

[zarvasace]

Here's my silly Linkverse title and timeline! :D say hello to Hearts Linked Together, a Linkverse that won't ever have much content besides character designs!

Character post

Okay a description under the cut. It might get long, I'm unsure how to go about explaining. The four vertical lines are locations, not parallel timelines. I don't take absolutely everything into account (you'll notice a lack of direct Triforce and Ganon stuff) but I like what I ended up with!

PS: I've made a few edits to this and the picture since I first edited. BotW and TotK aren't different Links that was my b. I also added more blue lines to the Gods of the Sky spot to illustrate them moving around.

Important thing to note: the only time travel/time shenanigans in this 'verse is with Hyrule Warriors and Ocarina of Time. And Tears of the Kingdom that too.

THIS BEGINS with aliens. The Zonai and the Minish were the same alien species that settled on the planet of Hyrule to escape civil war on their own. They separated early on and adapted to their environments differently. They both lived in the sky for a while, because Hyrule has naturally occuring skylands, and some of the natural fauna were intimidating. (Monsters, dragons, fey, gods.) The Hylians come from the moon. A small group settled on the planet and struggle to adapt. They lost their technology in the turbulent transition.

The Minish remained pastoral and went to the surface to help the emerging Hylian race. The Minish Cap happens. That Link forges the Picori blade and gathers the elements. (His four copies are spectral.) Shortly after him, Four Swords happens, with the most attention on the cryptid four sword kid who came out to save the world and then disappeared back into the woods. (His four copies are independent but not individuals.)

The settlement prospers, the Minish population decreases, and Hylians spread across the world, into 4 distinct geographic areas. The Zonai, also dying out, descend and intermarry with Hylians, in a different geographic area. The beginning of TotK happens, including the massive Imprisoning War. The consequences of this war are far-reaching and devastating.

The Land of Light and Shadow: this area emerges from the war somewhat unscathed, being on the other side of the world. They continue to build their kingdom. This land is named for the parallel plane that is in close contact with the area, being farthest from the planet's moon's orbital path. Things like Light and Force are also strong here, unknowable forces that occasionally grant powers.

The Land of the Gods: this land is named for the gods that have dogged its history and heroes, and is closest to the moon, which is where these extraordinary individuals get their powers and godhood. The Imprisoning War hit them pretty hard, and one of these moon-touched aliens (Hylia) raised settlements into the air. The First Hero is part of this.

The Land of the Fey is where the Zonai chose to descend, and is hit the hardest by the Imprisoning War. Their small colonies are absolutely decimated and the land is salted. Fey are natural creatures, but aren't always friendly. The Zonai technology and settlements remain high in the air, unreachable and usually invisible. Most non-Hylian or non-Hylian-derived species come from this area.

The Great Sea is a series of islands. They barely hear of the Imprisoning War, and only have a small population of Hylians that grows a bit through the islands.

After the war, all of these areas and kingdoms are cut off from each other. Their histories proceed separately for a time.

The Land of Light and Shadow: a group of people move permanently into the Dark World. Link to the Past, Link's Awakening. The kingdom grows. Link Between Worlds reveals the budding kingdom in the Dark World. Twilight Princess deals more with them. Four Swords Adventures (+manga in case you were worried) unlocks more of the Dark World's secrets. (These copies are individuals, and remain so after their adventure.) The kingdom prospers and begins to explore, eventually resulting in another near-globalization. Hyrule Warriors happens, doing a little time traveling.

The Land of the Gods: after rising into the sky, Skyward Sword happens. Hylia is the strongest goddess of the time, and manages to send copies of the Master Sword to the three other lands. People settle on the surface, isolated from any other places. Ocarina of Time happens, but does not create alternate timelines. Hylia takes the people and places displaced by the time shift and plunks them at the beginning of the Great Sea's time. This kingdom expands and fractures, and Hylia's time shenanigans weaken her, so she goes to the fey land to recover. (coughcough was bullied away because people didn't agree with her coughcough) And then Majora’s Mask. Din, Farore, and Nayru rise as the land's patron goddesses instead, instigating the Oracle games. Triforce Heroes happens to a Hylian passing by Hytopia (The copies are simply doppels.) These kingdoms remain small but grow strong. They have the occasional battle. They participate in the globalization efforts.

The Land of the Fey: this land struggles to rebuild. They are plagued by monsters. The fey (fairies, great fairies, satori, dragons) understand it's a problem, but they do not have mortal minds. Eventually they call a hero of their own. Hyrule Fantasy (aka LoZ 1) and Adventure of Link happen. This land is geographically isolated and doesn't really run into anyone else, until the migration from the Great Sea brings technology. Spirit Tracks happens. The great kingdom is built, they build the Divine Beasts and the Guardians, and drive back the Calamity for the first time. Hylia rises again, older and wiser and less powerful. Then Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom happen. Only after that does this land reconnect with those outside of it.

The Great Sea: this area is mostly empty until Hylia places the time-displaced Hyrule on one of the larger islands (called antidiluvian, or before the flood). It wasn't a stable island, though, and most of the kingdom fell under the ocean in a great big wave. People rebuild and make their own cultures. Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass happen. They find the shores of the Land of the Fey, and facilitate a migration to that land.

Each of the yellow stars (and the colorful ones in terms of FSA) represents a different Hero.

[amanda-519]

I have one main criticism of Rick and Morty, and it’s something that’s always kinda bugged me. Basically, I think that the show is inconsistent in its theming, specifically the theme of people being irreplaceable.

This theme is first brought up in the episode Rick Potion #6, when Rick and Morty leave their dimension and live in a new one. Rick tells Morty that people are replaceable, that there’s an infinite number of universes out there, so it doesn’t matter if they leave their old family, they can simply find a new one.

It makes sense that Rick is the one who thinks this, seeing as his general cynicism and years of portal travel would affect how he views people.

This idea is directly combated in the season 3 finale, when Beth begs Rick to leave her and her family alone. She directly brings up the fact that there’s an infinite number of universes out, and asks Rick to go to a different universe since she believes that he thinks she’s replaceable (again, not an unfounded idea, since in her mind she could be a clone, so he did in a sense “replace her”)

Yet Rick is unable to do so. He stays with his family even though he worked so hard so he’s in charge and Jerry is out of his life. Even when going to a different universe is easy. Because to Rick the family he has now isn’t replaceable.

I think this was a really good move, and shows the theming of the show quite well. Every character and their opinions make sense.

This theming continues in the episode Rickternal Friendshine of the Spotless Mort, when Rick takes a lot of time and effort into restoring Birdperson. He even risks his life for Bidrperson.

Birdperson even directly asks Rick why he went through all the trouble, since Birdperson is still under the impression that Rick thinks people are replaceable. Rick even plainly states that people aren’t replaceable, that people are important to him because of their relationship.

Again, this is a good move. I understand how Rick got to this place, and it’s nice character development that started in season 1, got expanded in season 3, and is now a staple theme of the show.

This theme is brought up once again in Solaricks, though only briefly, with the family wanting “their” Jerry back, even though the Jerry they have now is technically the Jerry Beth married, it’s understood that it’s not the same Jerry they have all grown attached to.

Yet, after season 6 is when this theme gets a little…. Fuzzy. Remember in Solaricks the family moves to a new dimension, all of their alien friends they have are from their old dimension. That includes Unity.

I was a bit surprised in the episode Air Force Wong when Unity showed up, as that’s the same Unity we saw before. Now it’s not just Rick acting like people are replaceable, that the family really can go to a new universe and everyone is the same, but the show is acting like that’s true too.

It seems like the show wants to have its cake and eat it too, as it wants to have the theme of people not being replaceable, as well as showing the consequences of thinking that (as Morty experienced the consequences of leaving his old family behind in Solaricks), but also not wanting to commit to that idea and actually thinking how that would affect characters who don’t have portal travel.

The show wants me to believe that the family really can just pick up and move to a new dimension if theirs get destroyed, while also saying that’s a bad thing and that people can’t be replaced.

[lenavis]

content warning: suicide

(i want to preface this by saying that none of this is representative of my current mindset and that i am in a much better place these days)

there are few pieces of media, if any, i've interacted with that have come close to addressing the topic of suicidal ideation more accurately than disco elysium.

it's a strange sort of state to occupy, because the truth is that more often than not it is incredibly mundane. there are fits, yes. there are times at which things seem nigh unbearable because you are trapped inside the ordeal of being you, existing as you, continuing as you-- and that is the worst part, truly. realizing that there is no escape from the purgatory of your own id. very much the embodiment of harry drunkenly screaming "I DON'T WANT TO BE THIS KIND OF ANIMAL ANYMORE" and bellowing like a "wounded boar" as he trashes his hotel room.

not "this type of person". "this type of animal". like recognizing your own sickness as a kind of genus and species that you have been condemned to. taxonomy is strict and absolute. you don't want to be this kind of animal anymore. and though you comprehend logically that you're not just an animal-- you're a human, and thus have the capacity to heal or regress or otherwise transmute yourself from the baseness you perceive in yourself-- it is often difficult to see yourself as anything other than a lashing, ugly beast that knows no divergent nature.

yes. there are moments of intense emotion. cinematic scenes in which you feel as though you can't control yourself and often find yourself alienating or terrifying the people closest to you. but the bulk of suicidal ideation is more a whisper than a shout.

it's just constantly there. harry opens the compartment in his ledger and finds the old postcard, and the words appear in his head casual as any passing thought: "fucking kill yourself asshole". he talks to someone-- anyone, really: you can muse to a pawn shop owner, who has no idea how to respond, that you probably should have killed yourself by now. you can tell a pair of four year old twins that suicide is in fact, ok, and that it's likely in your future. it's always so offhand. it's always wildly inappropriate, but when you get to a certain point, that begins to matter less and less.

there are thoughts that you can internalize in this game for point buffs and perks. some of them have drawbacks, like lowered logic, conceptualization, etc. the thoughts revolve around a variety of topics, including communism, cryptids, your ex wife, inexplicable feminist agendas, etc.

there is a thought called: finger on the eject button. here’s the text that pops up when you begin internalizing it:

Who doesn't toy with the thought of suicide sometimes? Or, like, most of the time? Okay, maybe some people don't – like the happy scientist girl named Marie, or Jean-Marc, the superstar whom everyone loves. But you -- when the going gets rough, it's nice to think about your little trap door out of here. Do it. Put your finger on the eject button, see how alive it makes you feel -- the freedom of finality. Think of how much they'll *miss* you.

and here's the text that pops up when you finish internalizing it:

Looks like you thought about how much they'll *miss* you and the freedom of finality for too long, and now you've decided to actually kill yourself. The train leaves the station every evening, 21:00. Make sure you have a gun and bullets. That's how macho servicemen do it. Also – turns out *Finger On The Eject Button* is pretty much your theme song. A headbanger from your teenage years and your wedding ballad. This is not the first time you're spinning the tape.

after you internalize this thought, you don't get any perks or cool features or detractors. instead, you are presented every night with a suicidal thought before you go to sleep.

the text for the thought and the ensuing consequence are so accurate to how it really feels that when i found this option i had to turn the game off for a little while. because it captures it painfully well. the element of spite and self-righteousness. the vague blueprints of how you might do it. the constant drumming of it in your head, persistent as raindrops on the roof of a car.

the terrifying comfort that when the going gets bad... you can just go.

it's possible to kill yourself in this game, if you hit a particular scenario and fail certain checks. you're given the option to put a gun in your mouth while standing in a cafeteria of incredulous onlookers, and when you do so it is an action completely formed by impulse. it's not prefaced by a long train of suicidal thoughts or any kind of prologue. just. there's an opportunity to bite the barrel. so you do it. you taste the tang of metal on your tongue and you hear the spring creak-- and you can pull the trigger. the game over screen pops up. congratulations. you finally did it. your reward is nothing.

i was in a bad state when i played disco elysium for the first time. playing it felt like smashing myself into a glass slide and slotting myself under a dissection scope. there i was, transparent as an amoeba with all its pulsing organelles visible and open to scrutiny. therein lie the mechanisms that i could not perceive as they ticked in myself.

[trillscienceofficer]

i totally agree with your post about ds9 execpt for the part about kira looking at it solely from in universe, its definitely not great. but nana has said that the plot was what allowed her to keep her job on the show, and i think thats incredibly important to keep in mind. again, the fact they had to do that is shitty, but she has said that the plot was what allowed her to continue doing ds9 without having to only be in shots that would not show her belly. and honestly i dont think the plot itself is too horrible either. its not great but its not as bad as it could have been. i do agree with a lot of your points though

In reference to this post.

I understand the sentiment behind this ask, and I'm aware of the reason why it was necessary to work around Nana Visitor's real life pregnancy. Kira's pregnancy plot on DS9, however, is not the only way this could've been achieved. One option, like you mentioned, would've simply been to pretend it wasn't happening, like in the case of Gates McFadden's pregnancy on TNG or Roxann Dawson's during most of season 4 of Voyager. I don't think that the production, however awful it was to the actors, would've risked losing one of the show's biggest roles over this.

I don't mind the idea of having Kira be pregnant on the show, on the contrary, but I take issue with how this was presented. Even beyond the fact that it boggles the mind that this at all happened through an emergency medical procedure between aliens (??), at no point either Kira or Keiko (and I'm very sorry for having left Keiko out of the equation in the original post, I shouldn't have) are allowed to have feelings about what happened to them, about the choice not-quite-choice they were given, the risks inherent for Kira in carrying a fetus (not even of her own species!!) to term, what it means to gestate for someone else. Nothing except acceptance of whatever may come, which can make sense on a character perspective but it sends a certain message just as much (ie pregnancy is a blessing so if it happens by accident you roll with the punches! unless when it is a curse, ie when you want it for yourself, see Jadzia).

Again, the trouble with the Kira pregnancy plot to me is that it represents the first in many similar narrative threads in which pregnancy is a plot device with dubious relations to choice, and where the protagonists of said plots have pretty much no space to grapple with what it means for them! Which is crazy because wouldn't be an inter-species gestational surrogacy be exactly the kind of absurd scifi scenario Trek loves so much in order to make a point, or even just have characters Have Emotions over the enormity of the question that the situation asks? But no, what Kira gets is one small scene where the only one who affirms her right to decide over her own body is Jadzia, and later on, after giving birth, confessing to Odo that she doesn't know how to express the feelings of loss she has re: Kirayoshi. Keiko gets exactly zero scenes. It's so so glaring, especially in a show that has dealt with people's ownership of their own bodies so often, especially with Odo! And upon reflection you can see this trend already in some of Jadzia's plots, where so often she is the object of someone else's choices (Verad's, Joran's and the Symbiosis Commission's, Curzon's) and her only agency is to bear the consequences on her own shoulders over and over, and she simply never speaks of it again. And well, then she dies just as she was making decisions about her future.

Of course the case of Sarah Sisko (and, on a lesser degree, Kasidy's pregnancy later in s7) the lack of choice or voice is SO MUCH WORSE. We never even meet her. We never hear Sarah's opinion unmediated by the Prophets. We just hear this horrifying story about lack of anything resembling consent surrounding Benjamin's birth and we simply have to move on. It's perhaps the final culmination of DS9 resorting to using women (glaringly, women of color—see Keiko above) as devices upon which the plot can be enacted, or men can have feelings about, once the show starts running a bit on fumes in the rush to complete the final seasons. Those fumes are revealing, imho, of underlying assumptions.

I suppose it looks especially evident in Kira's case because in other situations she is allowed to have feelings about what happens to her. But then again, Season 5 doesn't even let her mourn her dead friends, so. Don't get me wrong, I love Kira and I still think her existence in 90s television is nothing short of extraordinary; there are many places, though, where DS9 fails her (and the rest of the female cast) pretty badly, and the pregnancy plot is one of them.

[castledmequeen]

Theres so much fuckin hate and shit around here so imma just clear things up for my blog

I love and accept everyone, no matter what they identify as, what their race is, what their religion is. It doesnt matter one bit to me if they use neopronouns, are furries, or are fucking aliens. And it will continue to not matter one bit to me for the rest of my time on this shithole of a planet.

The only people I hate are transphobes/homophobes, bigots, and people who just spew hate that no one asked for. We are all on this same spinning ball of rock, and everyone plays at least some role in it.

So don’t be a dick to people, because while it may seem like there are no consequences in your little bubble of like minded individuals, this is the internet and anything you say can and will be rightly used against you.

That said, I already forgot what I was posting about. Suffice to say, I think everyone is cool, except if you do nothing but spew hate.

Then you can go suck a bag of dicks and cut off your thumbs so the rest of us can have some fucking peace.

[presidenthades]

I love Aegon and will be the first to point out Viserys' poor fatherhood but... what Aegon did was foolish regardless of his good intentions. If he wanted to make Jace happy and take her to visit her dragon, then he had to do the right thing and take knights with them, and not just Aemond. What would have happened if instead of a bunch of peasants it had been people like the tyroshi??

Aemond could have lost his eye or worse, the girls could have been badly hurt, i know Aemond is good with the sword but not invincible and Aegon is decent at best and both were outnumbered. This could have ended very badly and the only one to blame would have been Aegon, he can't continue to hide behind his bad childhood. Was Viserys a bad father? Yes, but Aegon is no longer a child and he definitely wasn't the only son of the king who grew up practically alienated and he's definitely not the only person in the seven kingdoms who grew up with a neglectful father(?)

Aegon is a grown ass man now, he has a wife and will soon have a child and one day be the king, he is expected to do better and must be held accountable for his actions. I love how you write him but this time I think Aegon was punished fairly 💔 maybe this will help him mature and think that his actions have consequences. You can't always get away with it just because you're a prince and use the "daddy didn't love me enough" card every time you mess it up

This is one of those sequences which makes sense from Aegon’s POV, as a privileged 18yo prince whose number one priority is trying to make a girl fall in love with him. There’s no Tyroshi kidnapping ring in this universe (maybe Aegon’s absence from the Stepstones had a domino effect), so unlike in The Golds, Aegon doesn’t perceive a lot of danger. He’s been to the city alone thousands of times, it’s fine! And if somebody is still trying to slip moon tea to Jace, they’re not expecting her to spontaneously frolic around the city. He’s very caught up in the romance of taking his wife out for a night on the town, a la Aladdin’s Whole New World.

(I actually did consider having Aemond get into a fight that causes him to lose an eye, but I just made him lose an eye in Compromise so it felt like too much.)

Aegon knew he would probably get punished if he was caught. But he was expecting something more like “you have to forgo XYZ privileges” or “go assist the Small Council members in their duties so you learn some responsibility.” Nobody expected Viserys to go nuclear and send Aegon (and Aemond) to Dorne, which is very anti-Targ and anti-dragon, on an investigation that has low odds of success.

And it’s not very fair to Jace either, since it’s likely that Aegon is going to miss the rest of the pregnancy and childbirth. :(