#god this fucking election amirite

[terrainofheartfelt]

researching my ballot late monday night like I'm a student cramming for an exam the night morning.

[eolewyn1010]

OH MY GOD you guys, I know my blog has a bit much Ancient Rome theme on it lately because I'm currently deep in three different researches and have temporarily lost my mind, but I gotta tell you of this one, it just made my day:

So, there's my dude Publius Clodius Pulcher, being a tribune, making a hobby of shitting all over Cicero (which I applaud), you know, your average day in politics. It's 58 BC, and Clodius woke up and chose the principles of the welfare state ANARCHY. The grain laws? Those that the patricians were complaining about already because it was alas such a burden to the state to keep grain prizes and qualities stable, and it made the plebs lazy not to have the bare minimum of their existence at risk when they wanted to, y'know, eat even though the measure every adult Roman citizen was rationed just about covered the needs of one single man when in reality most of those had families to feed and needed to work fucking hard anyway?

Yeah, my most blorbest Clodius took a look at this and cried bullshit. Actually, we should give them guys their rations for free. So they can invest the money in not having their wives and kids starve. Wouldn't that be cool if sustainment security went up? People would be less pissed in general, we could tell around what an awesome government we are, and we could get economics to pick up speed as we stuff some of our money into the provinces in exchange for more grain deliveries so they look less... provincial.

And the citizens are like, oh boy, Clodius, that's neat! I'll just set my slaves free then. They'll still work for me because they need something to earn their living with, and I have work enough to do, but they'll get a few citizen rights as freedmen, including the right to get grain rations. That way, a good chunk of the duty to feed them falls to the state! Hurray! Everyone's fed, my slaves are former slaves now, what a great idea that was. Write them all down on the list so we don't forget anyone in the distributions. And Clodius goes, I'll do so ASAP! And writes all their names down in the grain lists, and stores the lists in the temple of the nymphs because feeding citizens is Rome's holy duty, so into the sanctuary the lists go.

Along comes Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus on this fine day! And he's like, Clodius, my man. Look, we now have this big amount of new mouths to feed, and none of them pay for their rations. You just. Give them food for free. That means we have to pay! And that means I can't buy that ridiculously expensive new house on the Palatine hill / build a theater that bears my name / invest in my next war as quickly as I want to. So how about we just. Amend that list a little. See, those freedmen aren't really Roman citizens anyway. They are just slaves+. Hell, I was able to buy or sell the most of them in the forum only a week ago! Shouldn't they be grateful already that they can't be bought anymore? Now we also give them things for free? Come on. Let's keep this in a small circle.

And Clodius, my most blorbest. Goes: Bitch say WHAT

And so Pompeius doesn't get his greedy hands on these lists.

Clodius, my darling. The nutjob. The madman.

Goes and SETS THE FUCKING TEMPLE OF THE NYMPHS ON FIRE.

Talk about taking a hammer to that hard drive. Can't amend lists when there are no lists, amirite? He probably couldn't find a bigger middle finger to show to Pompeius that day. Message received: No tampering with the Clodian law reforms.

Did he do it just to ingratiate himself with the plebs for the next elections? Yes, definitely.

Did it work? Yes, absolutely.

Does the imagination of Pompeius' aghast expression at this total punk ruining his day with some casual sacrilege out of sheer spite make me immensely happy? Yes!

[elmmni]

jfc

alright so 2020 has been snorting crack cocaine since january we all agree on this correct?

so we all know the chaos its all kinds of wack BUT i thought id make a list, just so we can ✨observe✨ the sheer magnitude of the chaos and the way its EXPONENTIALLY gotten worse

-we started off with wwiii, this was about three days into january no one really knew what was happening, plenty of memes, great start

-the australian bush fires, yep that was this year remember those?

-prince harry and megan markle just...... left the royal family they quit asdhj ok

-covid was announced as ✨A Thing✨

-kobe bryant died rip in peace

-trump was impeached and then they couldnt actually get rid of him

-the stock market began to crash fun fun

-quarantine (:

-george floyd was killed and the black lives matter protests began

-as did some riots

-but ill be level with you if given the opportunity to burn down a target, so long as you got everyone out, wouldnt you take it?

-also people were protesting the quarantine too but no one cared about that did they mhmm 

-all countries matter on the 4th of july that was the funniest birthday present ever thank you twitter

-kanye west running for president??? i dont really remember when this happened but i know it happened

-the kim jong un death rumors????

-like this mf faked his own death to weed out the traitors in his circle what kinda sci-fi/fantasy antagonist bullshit is that im sorry wh at

-killer wasps yeah remember them who knows what theyre up to now im worried about it

-brendon urie got canceled and i still dunno how to feel about him 

-lots of famous people got arrested but idc because idk who they are

-chadwick boseman died, rip in peace

-the california fires began, yeah these were fun the sky looked pretty neat im ngl glad i live in south cali cause i had to evacuate last year and i dont really wanna do that again yah know?

-oh and those fires began because a couple of ✨cishets✨ decided to use fireworks for a gender reveal party my god

-trump got covid and fulfilled john mulaney’s prophecy of the horse being in the hospital

-tik tok was banned because some teenagers were bullying trump and yes ik that happened before he got covid im just too lazy to rearrange the list

-oh also rick astely made a tik tok a little while ago and idk how to feel about it

-ruth bader ginsburg died, rip in peace

-the presidential debate was a complete fucking disaster oh my GOD

-the fly on mike pence

-eddie van halen died, rip in peace

^my dad was really sad about that one

-why are so many good people dying jfc 2020 chill out a little bit do you fucking mind

-im 90% certain they came out with trumps tax records and he’s been committing tax fraud for the last 30 years which is a mood but bruh

and now for shit thats happened This Week

-girl in red said lesbian was her least favourite word uhhh ok bitch

-the election has been a ✨Nightmare✨

-TEXAS was a swing state and we’re all watching georgia turn blue thats how bad it is

-twitter verified and then unverified jschlatt and we’re all pretty sure its because they thought he was running for president

-nevada???? is incapable???? of counting???? like are they giving the ballots to toddlers theyre teaching to count whats going on

-a guy whos been dead for like a month was elected into congress

-destiel is canon and everyone whos ever used tumblr is dying

-putin annouces his retirement 20 minutes after destiel is made canon so thats wonderful

-unus annus ends next week and im sad about it

-and there is Going to be a supreme court ruling about this whole election thing because trump is Going to lose and he is Going to throw a hissy fit and im not here for it

oh my FUCKING god that list is even longer than i thought tf

[sophiamcdougall]

Oh my God. Where do I -- how do I -- OK, @pensierosatanista, I'm going to try. @becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys is sure to do a better job than I can, but I'll try. So you know how Boris Johnson has a habit of just blatantly, brazenly lying, right? Like "there were no parties in Downing Street during lockdown." "I am shocked and appalled to find out that there were parties in Downing Street during lockdown! I had no idea whatsoever this was going on." "I am shocked and appalled to find out I was at all of the parties..."

So all his ministers put up with that, loyally spouted the line that there's nothing to see here and no one did anything wrong and even if there were teensy, insignificant breaches of the so called "law" who even cares? So it's not surprising that Johnson concluded he could just carry on lying (and degrading any lingering standards in public life) indefinitely. So recently the Conservatives dramatically lost a couple of by-elections, BOTH of which happened because the sitting Conservative MP was forced to quit after he did something gross and sexual. One was caught watching porn in Parliament, the other, much worse, was convicted of assaulting a teenage boy. So a few days ago it came out that one of the Whips had got drunk and groped a couple of men. Rather unusually, the culprit promptly resigned from his role as Whip, although not as MP. It's grim to say it, but in itself, this probably wouldn't be such a big deal. The problem was that 1) Johnson didn't immediately sack him as an MP 2) the guy had done it before. H'd been formally investigated and everything. Johnson, on cue: I had no idea he'd done it before!! Various MPs: OK, wait. Yes, you fucking did. It was reported to you. I was there. You made jokes about it. You hired him anyway. Johnson: OK, maybe. I mean, yes. I forgot. Who can keep track of all the sexual assaults their subordinates have committed, amirite? Various other MPs, live on TV: The Prime Minister had no idea it happened befo-- oh. Oh, he now admits he had, you say? Huh. Well. I look kind of stupid now. And it wasn't the first time versions of that, (MPs going out to defend Johnson only to find that whatever line they were pushing had collapsed before the interview was over) had happened either. So yesterday, the Chancellor Rishi Sunak and the Health Secretary Sajid Javid both resigned, saying they just couldn't take the lies and toxicity and, y'know, the small matter of the culture of drunken sexual harassment, any more. Now it may be true that they really can't stand serving under Johnson because who could? But mainly what they mean is "I'd like a shot at being Prime Minister and if I don't get out now, I'm going to be associated with all this shit forever and that is bad for my personal brand." Historically, just one major minister resigning saying "I can't serve under this Prime Minister" has always meant that PM is toast. So ... the floodgates opened. Since then it's been averaging out at nearly two resignations an hour. Partly because people who've been sick of Johnson for years finally felt they had permission to do something, but mainly because it's either get away from Johnson as fast as you can or go down with him -- staying = saying "Yeah, judge me and my competence for any future office by the fact I approve of this dickhead". And even before all of this happened Johnson was staggeringly unpopular according to all polls. As I write we're up to forty-six resignations. Keir Starmer, the leader of the opposition, came out with a clearly workshopped-to-fuck but still good line "a sinking ship fleeing the rat."" Any normal Prime Minister would have resigned after the first two! Any normal Prime Minister would have resigned before any of this happened!

Johnson, you will have observed, is not a normal Prime Minister. Trump-like, he is currently insisting he's never going to go. This is somewhat less terrifying than when Trump did it because we don't have guns here and even when he DID have a crazed personal fanbase it wasn't that rabid and he doesn't have it any more. But technically, the rules currently say the Tories can't get rid of him for at least another year. That's not a big problem, as they have the freedom to change those rules and are going to by Monday. But technically, they could vote to remove him as leader of the Conservative party ... and he'd still be Prime Minister. And there would be nothing they or we could do about it! This would be completely unprecedented, a gigantic constitutional crisis, and in that case we might be stuck relying on the fucking Queen to save us, which is obviously a) is pretty dire for a so-called democracy and b) what if she doesn't. It probably won't actually come to that? (...will it?) He has just made a lot of enemies all at once, including the crazy own goal of sacking Michael Gove, his scheming long time frenemy/nemesis, who is the one the Murdoch press really likes. The 1922 committee is "preparing instruments of torture." And although it's true that this is not a normal way for a PM to behave -- a lot of PMs have said "Fuck you all! I can totally survive this!" in various crises, only to quit the following day. So everything's a little terrifying and he might take us all down with him, but it is also spectacular and hilarious and it's preventing the government from actually doing anything. And so today was the headiest and most electrifying day I've experienced, politics-wise, since November 6th, 2020.

[artistconk]

The one who stayed AU

-Wilbur and Techno are twins, with Techno being 2 minutes older. Wilbur is Phil’s favourite. Wilbur and Phil often leave for long periods of time, leaving Techno to raise Tommy. 

-This leaves Tommy with very anarchist views. He’s also able to work for himself instead of stealing, and good with swords. He’s also terrible at being alone.

-One day, Philza and Wilbur leave to create a nation, they call it L’manberg. In this nation, is Wilbur, Philza, Tubbo, Niki, Jack Manifold, Eret, and a boy that Wilbur adopted named Fundy. The country is a Communist Dictatorship, Wilbur being the President, and Philza being the Vice-President. [This idea is credited to @beeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaans ]

-They fight for the independence of this nation, and get taken to a small room, where Eret says she has things to help. At this time, everyone other than Phil has 3 lives. Phil is at one.

-Eret betrays them, all losing a cannon life, other than Phil, who is ushered out by Wilbur so he can live.

-Upon seeing this Massacre, Phil grows tired. He duels Dream one on one for independence. They use bows, the first to kill the other wins. Phil wins this duel, taking Dream down to two cannon lives. L’manberg gains independence.

-They live happily for a while, but after a few years, Wilbur confides in Phil  saying he feels that no one listens to him anymore. Phil suggests that it’s because he was not democratically elected, and suggests they hold an election. Wilbur agrees with this idea, and they start a party called POG2020. This stands for the Politicians of Gaming.

-Upon hearing that Phil and Wilbur plan on rigging the election by being the only running party, Quackity runs for president, with his running mate, Georgenotfound. They create a party called SWAG2020. George figures Philza and Wilbur will win, as they’re beloved by the nation, and sleeps through any and all important events. This includes when Endorsements occur, and both Schlatt2020 and Coconut2020 become parties. 

-Quackity, desperate for power, and seeing that Phil and Wilbur are most likely to win, forms a coalition party with Schlatt2020. This Coalition government wins the election by 1%. Phil and Wilbur are exiled from L’manberg. They form a commune called Pogtopia. Worried about Schlatt and Quackity’s government, they call Techno and Tommy for help. 

-While being exhiled, Wilbur loses a second cannon life. He and Phil both only have two.

-While Techno and Tommy aren’t the biggest fans of the two, they give them a chance. I mean, they want to destroy the government, right? What could possibly go wrong?

-They grind, Techno and Tommy provide the revolt with supplies.

-This is where Tommy meets Tubbo! Tubbo is an undercover spy for Pogtopia. After Wilbur and Phil were exhiled, Schlatt welcomed Tubbo into his cabinet, hoping to influence his young mind into being like him. 

-When Tubbo and Tommy meet, it’s great! I mean, a friend their age? Fuck yeah! Technoblade is the only one who notices their friendship. Wilbur is busy going insane and Philza really couldn’t care less about Tommy. [Talk abt a shit parent amirite] [Idea from @strawberrylemonz ]

-Tubbo, instead of picking up Schlatt’s ideologies, picks up Tommy’s! He feels bad about having to help reinstate the previous government, however. Tommy and Tubbo are really close!

-Tommy teaches Tubbo about his spy towers! They’re well built, hidden towers, that are hard to recognise unless you know exactly where you’re looking, So far, only Technoblade can recognise them, however Tubbo slowly begins to recognise them too. 

-Wilbur is slowly losing his sanity, threatening to blow up lmanburg as more and more people join pogtopia. It gets to the point where the only people on Schlatt’s side are everyone on his side in cannon.

-The day comes, and Techno and Tommy bring the group to a vault. There is enougn supplies for everyone to be fully stacked. 

-They go to war, Schlatt fuckin dies of a heart attack, you know how it goes.

-Phil goes to make a speech of how he’s proud of everyone, but especially Wilbur. He doesn’t even mention Tommy and Techno. This makes them slightly angry, but it’s nothing they aren’t used to by now.

-Wilbur comes up on stage, and he hands the presidency to the son whom he is so proud of, Fundy. Wait, another presidency? What the fuck? Didn’t they just overthrow the president? Are they fucking dumb? They just saw what power does to people.

-Fundy makes Niki his vice, renaming POG2020 to Coconut2020.

-Wilbur leaves, and Fundy gets on stage to make a speech. Tubbo silently mutters apologies to Tommy, and promises he will be on their side no matter what, and that he isn’t happy about the government either. 

-Phil notices Wilbur’s departure, and follows him. He finds him in the button room, about to press the button. Phil attempts to convince him not to. Think of all they’ve built together. Wilbur laughs, and asks Phil if he ever notices his other children. 

-Techno and Tommy rage. How dare they build a government in front of us? Everything they just fought against? Did they not see how much effort the two had put into helping their revolution. Had their own family just used them as tools? Lackeys to do the dirty work? What the hell? They begin to build a wither. Fundy and Niki attempt to convince them not to.

-Wilbur presses the button, blowing up L’manberg. 

-This makes Tommy and Techno overjoyed, once again proving that power corrupts. They release the withers, forcefully take the items they grinded for, and leave. Tommy offers to take Tubbo with him. Tubbo declines, saying he knows they’ll rebuild, and it’s best to have a spy on the inside, just in case. Tommy agrees, and they part ways.

-Wilbur begs Phil to kill him. It’s what everyone wants, right? He just blew up their home. Phil, in tears, obliges, taking his final life.

-Tommy and Techno retire to the antartic, creating the antartic commune. They decide that until necessary, they’ll retire. They build a cabin together, and Tommy builds another spy tower in the hill. Techno builds his wither skull vault, in case of emergencies. 

-In rebuilt L’manburg, there are wanted posters of Techno and Tommy. No one seems to have noticed Tommy and Tubbo’s friendship.

-Dream starts to put input into L’manburg. Hey Fundy, why is Phil still here? He killed Wilbur. Exhile him, or I build this wall higher and higher.

-Phil gets exhiled. He realises that Dream had him exhiled because he just never seems to die, and he’s pretty strong, isn’t he? Phil uses this time to debate on him killing Wilbur. He sees that he should have killed him anyways, and that he could not be helped. Phil works on mindless tasks, and Dream visits him daily, secretly blocking other visitors. 

-Phil collects supplies to fight back to Dream. Ghostbur joins him, providing some angsty moments ;]

-Quackity, Fundy, Ranboo and Niki form the Butcher Army. They can’t have Tommy and Techno interfering with their country. They just had it blown up. 

-The Butcher Army track Dream’s footprints as he travels to give the Antarctic Commune a map to a woodland mansion. They get 2 totems each.

-Tommy and Techno now owe Dream a favour.

-The Butcher Army attack the Antarctic Commune, using Carl and a moth called Clemintine? Huh? How’d he get a moth? As leverage to get them to cooperate. [THE DISCS DO NOT EXIST IN THIS AU.] The two come peacefully. Tommy takes note of how Ranboo seems to not want to help the Butcher army.

-The Butcher Army give Carl and Clemintine to Tubbo, he seems as if he would be good with animals. Dream, who is one of the only people to recognise Tommy and Tubbo’s friendship, asks Tubbo to help him get Techno and Tommy out of L’manburg safely. Tubbo agrees, on the grounds that he is not caught, and his identity remains a secret. Dream agrees to these terms, and when questioned later, Tubbo tells the Butcher Army that Dream threatened him when taking the pets.

-The Butcher army attempt to execute Techno first, as they see him as the stronger one. He uses a totem, and Dream helps the two escape. Quackity gets angry, and the Antarctic Duo fight him, taking a cannon life. They leave for the Antarctic Commune, bitter about the loss of tools and armour, swearing to get it back. They are full of rage about being dragged out of retirement. 

-Tubbo talks to Ranboo, and confirms that he did not wish to be in the Butcher Army. They both visit the Antarctic duo, and Techno gives them both back their armour. The Antarctic duo offer to allow Ranboo and Tubbo to stay. Tubbo agrees, joining the Antarctic Commune. Ranboo does not stay, leaving to go back to L’manberg, and apologising for helping the Butcher Army. 

-Dream finds Phil’s secret supplies, and destroys it all. He says that as a punishment, he will be visiting less. Phil takes this as his time to escape Logstedshire.

-Phil turns up on the Antarctic Trio’s doorstep, apologising for being a horrible father. He asks for their help and for their forgiveness. The siblings agree to help them.

-Phil helps Tommy and Techno get their things back. Eventually, Ranboo tells them about a festival. 

-Dream blames Phil for blowing up the community house. He attempts to defend himself, and explains that Dream was watching him because he knew he held power. He says that L’manburg is his home, and that he built it with his son. He would not leave, even if his son was dead. Techno explains that in re-joining L’manburg, he will be betraying his two living sons. Tommy states that Ghostbur told him that he confronted Phil about his blatant favouritism in his final moments, and that if even Wilbur, in his final moments, while insane, can understand that Phil is a poor parent, then he should know this too.

-Phil is adamant on joining his Grandson in L’manburg. Fundy is happy, Tommy and Techno are NOT. They rage, explaining that if he would not understand that he was abandoning his children for this, then he will not get his home. Queue Techno screaming “I’M A PERSON” at Phil. Dream asks the Antarctic Trio if they would like to destroy L’manberg with him. The trio agree. 

-Doomsday comes, and L’manburg is destroyed. Niki an Eret join this destruction. [I’m not involving Fundy in this, as his character motivation is getting people to pay attention to him. Phil is paying attention to him] Fundy feels devastated about the betrayal. 

-Ranboo is invited to join the Antartic Commune once again. He accepts.

-Tommy and Techno relax, knowing that L’manburg is not coming back any time soon. They settle back into retirement.

-Fundy creates a town named Snowchester with Phil. They are a commune, and wish to declare independence.

-Tubbo starts making nuclear weapons, to provide the antartic commune with even more power. Ranboo seems worried, and his memory is deteriorating.

-Dream threatens Fundy and Phil, saying that he will hurt everyone they care about if they don’t fight him. They start grinding.

-Dream wins the fight, showing he isn’t even trying. He shows that hes always had the upper hand

-Dream takes all of their supplies. Phil reassures Fundy that they’ll be okay, and that he won’t let any harm come to him.

-Dream shows them the Vault. He explains that Phil brought L’manburg, and that L’manburg brought attachments, whether those be between people or items. He explains how he was going to use

-Phil explains that Dream has made a fatal mistake in trusting a mercenary. Punz comes through the portal, with the server. They take Dream’s belongings and Sam takes him to the prison.

-Wilbur tells Fundy how proud of him that he is, and that Phil is still a horrible father, and emphasises how much he has hurt them. This makes Phil realise his actions, finally. He tells Fundy that his siblings are planning on resurrecting him, using how Wilbur also brought attachments to the server to convince Dream to resurrect him. He tells Fundy to join the Antarctic Commune, and that they will forgive him. 

-Ghostbur dissapears, as making Fundy happy and standing up to his father was his unfinished buisness. 

[dokkaebiking]

Pass the happy! When you receive this, list 5 things that make you happy and send this to 10 of the most recent people in your notifications!

Considering how 2020 has gone, this shouldn’t be a hard list to make as there’s not a lot that’s made me happy this year. I mean, this has been sitting in my inbox for far too long, simply because The Depresso™ has robbed me of the energy to do much of anything these days. However, Biden won the election, and although that cursed cheese ball shit bag currently in the White House is trying to undermine democracy, at the same time I know he ain’t gonna get away with it, so I feel lighter than I have in months, and I’m finally getting to things I’ve held off for too long. Not gonna tag anyone, but if you want to be tagged then I’m attacking you with psychic powers right now and tagging you spiritually >:D

1. Trash of the Count’s Family! I cannot overstate how much joy this Korean webnovel has brought me this year. I read the manhwa first, by chance, when I was cruising the “Isekai” tag, and after reading so many where a woman got sent into another world/was reborn in another world/took over the body of a side character in their favorite game or book or whatever/or otherwise transmigrated into a place that’s Not Here (and lucky them, amirite)...I was happy to see it happen to a guy. Not only that, but like the first chapter, aside from the prologue, was filled with so much fanservice of just this one guy that I was pleasantly surprised at the tables being turned. Especially since Isekai is very well known for it’s trashy female fanservice and gross harems that make no sense. CUE CALE HENITUSE COMING TO SAVE THE ISEKAI GENRE! 

He not only has no romantic interest whatsoever in the story, which is fantastic (doesn’t stop us fans from shipping left and right, but I love it when this type of protag just does not do romance at all), but he builds a harem that’s purely platonic and god damn it I’ve never seen Found Family done so well I wanna cry just thinking about it. Plus, Cale’s whole philosophy of “gotta create world peace so I can live as a slacker” is hilarious, considering how he just keeps being a Hero™ and hating it, but his dumb ass can’t stop. Also, there’s a baby dragon that he saves, sets free from a terrible torture chamber it began its life in, and rather than running off it decides to follow Cale around and basically Cale becomes a father of three kids, one being the dragon, and the other two being two precious (and very dangerous) cat kids. This story refuses to let the good guys die, which after GoT is refreshing as hell, but isn’t afraid to take bloody revenge on the bad guys, which is also hella refreshing. I’ll go on forever if I don’t stop here, but just look it up if you get the chance and any of this appeals to you—you won’t regret it.

2. KakaIru, easily, has been the stable foundation for me this year. The friends I met through the fandom before this year have only become closer, and more dear to me, and the new friends are just as lovely; these people are the only things keeping me sane, let me tell you. The @kakairuzine “Intertwined” was a big project that I was delighted to help mod for, and participate in as a merch artist, and I’m so thrilled that we reached all of our stretch goals, and then some! The @the-umino-hours server has brought me much joy during the year, as well as the forum @kakairu-rocks, participating in the @kakairu-mini-bang was a blast (and I’m working on the second part to that fic right now tbh), now I’m a mod (and participant) for the @kakairu-big-bang and am so excited for it. KakaIru has been with me since I was a kid, and it’s just so lovely that it’s still a fairly active part of the fandom, and still makes me as happy as it did when I was 14  (*˘︶˘*).｡.:*♡

3. Spooky boys, like cryptids and folklore and eldritch horrors, are always a delight, but in a year that’s more horrifying than any of them could ever dream to be, it’s oddly cathartic to indulge in the monsters we imagine while surrounded by real monsters of our own making. Also, ever since I wrote my KakaIru fic Want Me Down to the Marrow I’ve had such a soft spot for the Gashadokuro, and still laugh at “Bone Daddy”. You’ll have to pry that title from my cold, dead hands.

4. “My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!” It was honestly this otome anime that led me down the path that eventually brought me to “Trash of the Count’s Family”. So I owe a lot to this series, and really the series in and of itself is such a delight. I bought the light novels on Bookwalker because I loved it so much~♥ Katarina (aka Bakarina), thank you for your service. Because of you I looked up other series of a similar strain as your story, and found the manhwa “Beware the Villainess!”, which is a fucking delight, and thus kept looking into that genre and eventually found my way to Cale Henituse’s whacky adventures.

5. “The Rising of the Shield Hero” has made me happy from the first time I watched it, but I rewatched it this year, and the announcement for the second season’s release came just like...last month I believe, so that spike of serotonin was highly appreciated. I have the light novels for this series up to volume 17, and let me tell you, the story just gets better and better and I cannot wait for it to be animated. Naofumi, I love you you cinical little shit~♥

[longeyelashedtragedy]

1, 4, 8 (literally or a football match), 9!

1. song of the year? oh my god i don’t know. according to spotify it was je pense a toi by amadou & mariam.  i also listened to dragi moj vlado by edo maajka a lot during the election while everyone else was celebrating hahah, cause like, Fuck The Government amirite

4. movie of the year: i think i watched four new-to-me movies this whole year, lol.  out of those 4 it’s really hard to choose between knives out and el camino. i’m bad at decisions hahah

8. game of the year: LIVERPOOL VS ATLETICO MARCH 11th aka when šime won the champions league.........runner up is artem scoring a triumphant goal in front of a crowd of haters the game after his w*nk tape dropped, tearfully getting the man of the match award and then giving it to his teammate whose father had just died.  a Lot happened there lol

9. best month this year was sometime in the summer...maybe july? idk

[blacksurvivalnostalgichanges]

I'd love to double on that topic and ask how would some specific characters react to their in-country changes, as peaceful Hart seeing how recent conflicts with minorities escalated to an unhealthy rate or Sissela discovering the whole deal with Greta Tumberg, or Chiara/Adriana/Arda reacting to the arson in Notre Dame etc.

Imma be honest, I’m white, young and not from any of those countries so I cannot say I’m equipped to talk about them beyond the stuff I’ve seen shared on tumblr, aka “this whatsapp chain told me this helps with coronavirus” except the chain came from a doctor you don’t know (but i’m still hard left, nonbinary and aromantic, and i think communism is the better option overall for systems so if you’re curious on what I believe on most political subjects you can probably guess from that)

That said (for the sake of clarifying I don’t pretend to be an authority on it and I realize I’m only well-informed in comparison to someone that has never read any news), again, I’m white so I’m gonna give my two cents on it anyway cuz that’s what we do amirite

I hold that if Hart saw how bad shit got she’d really want it to stay peaceful but once she realized it ain’t happening she’d probably be willing to let go of the peace in order to keep peace. I don’t think she’s the type to tone police people when they’re reacting to hardship because wanting to keep the peace proactively involves making sure whoever is trying to break the peace is stopped because I’d rather think Hart’s view on life is three-dimensional and adaptable; that’s much more interesting to analyze then. So I think she’d likely try to passively help in any way she can (monetarily I don’t think she’d be able to do that much but she might, id est, try to host a place where people protesting can go to treat themselves, and probably try to make music that informs people on the situation and brings attention to the cause. She’d likely still kinda quietly not be into the more violent protests but not say much since she can understand why it’s happening, as being uncomfortable with what you have to do doesn’t mean you’re gonna be against it.

I’m not that sure on what aspect of the Greta Thunberg deal you’re referring to? I think Sissela would probably feel kinda disappointed that someone that’s this young is speaking up about it, since it’s a sort of ‘sign’ that shit’s gone sideways if a kid is literally pleading with adults to do something, and feel a sort of anger that a bunch of people criticize her every move when she’s trying to do something good. But tbh I don’t see Sissela as being the type to be really into learning the issues of the world and trying to fix them, closer to having a “I have too many things to deal with to be even more stressed about what’s currently happening in the world” sort of mindset where learning about the other issue going on just leads to a profound sigh, so I don’t think she’d know that much about it. 

Though I think she’d be pretty angry at the straws thing since she is the type of person that’d want to use a straw, as she has chronic pain. That’s an extremely direct thing that’d inconvenience her.

Chiara would be extremely sad that such a special cathedral was burned, even if her feelings towards God and religion and herself are very mixed I think she’d be affected by something like that. Arda would probably be pretty fuckin’ angry that they burned down a historical place and try to erase the traces that were left there.

Adriana would probably feel pretty jealous of whoever did it since WOW YOU MADMAN YOU SET FIRE TO THE NOTRE DAME CATHEDRAL IT’S HUGE HOW WARM WOULD THAT BE- so they’d both probably not be that happy with her outlook on it

Some sidenotes I thought could be interesting (though it’s all as-is character stuff, I’m not taking into account character development they could have):

-As Alex is gay, I think he wouldn’t be thrilled with the fact that Russia’s been trying to take away LGBT rights

-Isol and Rozzi would probably think “hooray now getting weapons is EASIER congrats dickhead” if they saw that guns got legalized in Brazil after Pants Pockets Guy got elected into office. Rozzi would probably not be that worried beyond international public opinion stuff since her job means she isn’t in here that often most likely, but Isol’d likely be sort of “resigned” to the fact that now things just got even worse.

-Magnus would most likely be one of those dudes that go ‘blue lives matter’, not gonna lie. Even if he’s in a motorcycle gang, I’d be surprised if he didn’t spout that sort of thing.

-Rio and Yuki would probably have a sort of “culture shock” with everyone else even without taking current events into account, but I would kill to see how they’d interact with the characters from other countries when wearing masks came up. 

“people are so fucking ridiculous, there’s literally a story of a lady that wasn’t wearing a mask and used her underwear as a mask out of spite” “...people are that unwilling to wear masks over there?” “i hadn’t seen a single mask in my life before corona showed up, if that answers your question” “what do you do when you get sick then??” “you deal with it yourself and hope not hugging anyone is enough to not pass it” “dude” “oh yeah and you drink tea” “you drink tea.”

-william yeets the tear gas canisters back at the cops with no hesitation. entirely because that sounds very funny

[lauralot89]

so apparently in rose twitter land PETE BUTTIGIEG is homophobic and anti-same sex marriage

someone should probably tell his husband

see, you can tell he HATES THE GAYS and has lived a life of STRAIGHT PRIVILEGE UNTIL 2015 (because life in the closet is totally a privilege amirite) because in 2012 he donated a WHOLE 409 DOLLARS to EVIL ANTI-SAME SEX MARRIAGE JOE DONNELLY’S SENATE CAMPAIGN

in indiana

a red-ass red state

where people elected mike pence

indiana

where the only electable democrats are moderate democrats

where donnelly was running as the only democrat candidate against fucking richard mourdock

fucking richard “rape pregnancies are a gift from god” mourdock

for fuck’s sake you idiots

oh and hey sanders’s PAC gave $5000 to donnelly in the same election how about that

[lhs3020b]

Post Mortem

I promised some thoughts on the nightmarish debacle that has happened. Here they are.

TL;DR I am scathing about everything. Everyone who should have helped us, failed.

It's the morning after. They've won. Continuity Remain is dead; there isn't going to be any second referendum and Article 50 won't be revoked. You cannot imagine how I feel right now, typing those words. However, I have never sought to deny reality (however lovely denial might be) and reality is what it is. We've lost a referendum and two general elections; we're finished. There is no come-back from this. The country has made a sick, twisted, greedy, myopic and stupid decision - but that's the decision it's made. I have nothing good to say for what happened, except that it did happen.

Well, let's look at the one tiny silver lining: since the ship has now sailed, I can indulge my deep, seething pool of vitriol for our collection of useless opposition parties. I'd held back previously because I didn't want to add to the circular firing squad. But they've all shot each other now and the corpses have largely stopped twitching. So off we go. (Before we start, I won't be writing about CUK/TiG/Change-UK, because they were just annoying, and I can't be arsed. I think we've all spent enough time on that shower of idiots.)

Here's the core reason for why I'm so angry: all this was completely avoidable. The media will, of course, spin BoJo's victory as a paragonic triumph of political conservatism. Like that infamous Pravda article from the 30s, on the Soviet constitution, they'll fawn over BoJo and declare him a visionary and a victor, a veritable genius of the ages, dripping with lyricism and wit. He isn't. He's an over-promoted buffoon who lucked into the top office due to the self-destruction of his inept predecessor, aided and abetted by a lying and sycophantic media - and, by a collection of opposition parties whose sole interest was in fighting each other.

Here we have the real core problem. The people on our side only switch on for fighting each other. There's little sign that they actually really care about Brexit, or the wider state of the UK. But pursuing partisan vendettas against each other? Wheeeeeeeeeee!

Let's think back to the summer, when BoJo was faced with stalling polls and a hung parliament. He could have been ousted then - but, of course, the Lib Dems were adamant that they couldn't countenance the idea of Mr Corbyn as Prime Minister. They'd had this tendency for a while - it's not new - but it accelerated and was nurtured under Jo Swinson.

When she was elected as leader I was initially a bit sympathetic - it seemed reasonable to give her a chance. Unfortunately, it turned out that she might be the most rightwing leader they've ever had - I actually suspect now that she might be to the right of Clegg. And she went and turbocharged all of their most self-destructive tendencies. I think what she thought she was doing was clawing Tory Remainers off of the Tories. This ran into two problems; 1) there weren't that many Tory Remainers to begin with and b) most of them are more Tory than they are Remain. So they mostly stayed put, and they few who did leave (thank you, to those of you that did) just weren't enough. Meanwhile, the hard-right tilt scared off the Lib Dem's left-leaning supporters.

A while back I predicted they'd lose seats at this election; I'm sad to have been proved right. I am, however, grimly-amused that Swinson herself lost her seat. The other problem with Swinson's rampany anti-Corbynism was that it partially demobilised continuity!Remain. A lot of people sensed that she was more anti-Corbyn than anti-Brexit; that also implied no plausible chance of an anti-Brexit coalition. Hoenstly, given how overt and personal the vitriol between her and Corbyn got, it's hard to see how it could ever have worked. And there's no point voting for something that you know is impossible. I do wonder if maybe this switched some left-leaning people off, or perhaps even sent a few ditherers back to the Tories (under the assumption that any sort of government is better than no government, I suppose).

As for the Lib Dem campaign, it was a mess. At one point their leader went on air to deny killing squirrels (yes, seriously, this actually happened). She got all excited about thermonuclear genocide at one point, because that's not at all weird and creepy, amirite?! Then there was the bizzarity that was "skills wallets" (don't ask - basically, the sort of policy abortion that happens when a collection of wonks are locked in a room with a boxed set of the West Wing and too much cocaine).

[OK, I'll expand this one. Briefly, skills wallets were a weird continuing-adult-education idea, where you'd have a pot of money that you could access at certain ages, apparently to take some kind of training or re-education or something. Why the ages in question, why that amount of money, and why not just make adult-ed free at the point of use, were never really explained. Then there was the can of worms that was additional voluntary contributions - what I took away from this was it was the adult-ed version of pensions auto-enrollment. I spent the last four years fighting a corrupt auto-enrollment fund, so I have strong feelings here!]

As for general themes, really, the LD campaign didn't have one. There was a lot of "Corbyn, THE MONSTER, the monster, Corbyn!". And, kind of oddly, there wasn't actually that much about Brexit. It actually didn't figure very strongly in their campaign. You came away from watching it all with a) a bad taste in your mouth and b) a nagging feeling that these people didn't know what they were doing.

To be fair to them, their vote share did go up, a bit - from 7.4% in 2017 to 11.4% yesterday. Which is, uh, not exactly dizzying. And it seems to have happened in all the wrong places, so they still managed to lose seats overall.

OK, we've gawped at the piss-stained ashes of the old Liberal Party, lying in state where some eggregious family-member has dumped them, on a roadside verge in the middle of nowhere. (Perhaps some enterprising squirrel has buried a nut amongst them.) Let's move onto the other vast, soul-sucking black hole of despair, also know as the Labour and Co-operative Party.

Oh dear god. The Labour Party.

The Labour Party is Britain's perennial second party, and nothing that happened last night challenged its second-place status. Their vote share dropped by 7.8 percentage points on 2017; this is what produced the Tory landslide, essentially. The Tory vote went up a little, by about 1 point, but otherwise stayed largely flat on 2017. This time, though, Labour collapsed. They lost a swathe of seats across the country, including places like Bolsover and Blyth Valley, which were previously rock-solid.

What went wrong? Everything. Basically, the stars aligned against us, in every single way.

First of all, Labour's campaign was dogged by the antisemitism scandal. And you know what? It was bloody well right that it did. The leadership dealt with antisemitism by ... doing nothing. Anyone who tried to raise the issue instead would get "Corbyn outriders" dumping on them on Twitter. Apparently we're suddenly not allowed to be concerned about racism on the Left anymore? Frankly, fuck that.

What they should have done was a quick-and-brutal party purge, perhaps early in 2018, when there was still time. Take some initiative, get control of the narrative again, and get rid of people who are only going to shit all over your campaign. But, uh, no. That didn't happen. I'll note that the Chris Williamson show in particular went on far, far longer than it should have.

Then we come to Brexit itself. Corbyn spent three years equivocating on the issue. OK, I'll allow that in hindsight, perhaps strategic ambiguity made some sense back in 2017 (though note that they still lost that election too). It didn't by 2019. But Corbyn was still trying to stand in the middle of the road as late as the summer - and by doing so inadvertently opened up political space for the (brief) Lib Dem revival, which in turn shunted Labour onto the defensive. And as I believe Paddy Ashdown once said, if you stand in the middle of the road, you get hit by traffic.

Eventually, the Labour leadership reluctantly adopted a second referendum position, but by then the damage was done. Basically, Corbyn had convinced Leavers that he was a Remainer, and Remainers that he was a Leaver. Labour appears to have lost votes about evenly across both Remain/Leave areas(!). In a way, he actually did unite the country - just against him. Ooops.

The rest of Labour's prospectus was a mess this year. Home Office reform was de-emphasized (arbitrary deportation by the Home Office is a huge concern amongst ethnic minorities). Drugs-law reform seems to have fallen off the agenda. There was no obvious theme to the campaign - surprising given that 2017's "For the Many" theme did cut across. Instead the "offer", such as it was, appeared to be a largely-incoherent grab-bag of spending promises, some of them with very large headline numbers. (The £58 billion for the WASPI pensions thing stands out there.) A lot of people simply didn't believe the country could afford it. You don't vote for things that you fear will bankrupt you.

Also, in a way, there's a parallel to the skills wallets thing here. Labour would have been better off, I think, just doing something straightforward like saying, "If elected we'll raise disability, sickness and unemployment benefits by £x per week, and we'll get rid of the ATOS fit-for-work assesments". It would have the advantages of simplicity, clarity and a clear political theme. Instead we got this weird fiscal machine that would produce some of those effects, except via a complicated multi-part kludge (which probably wouldn't even work properly anyway). I don't know how this came about; presumably it was an after-effect of one of the party's unending internal power-struggles.

Corbyn himself is a controversial figure, from his past associations with the IRA (more vague than the press would have you believe, but still a drag on the doorstep) to the perception of socialist extremism. Again, let me note that the "but he's a Communist, because that starts with 'C' too!" stuff is disingenuous, but this perception exists, and the Party have not found any apparent way to challenge it. Honestly? If your candidate is a ship that's holed below the waterline, yes it is horribly-unfair and all the rest of it, but you do need to run someone else. (I see no point softening that punch ; while Corbyn's been leader, the whole UK has voted 4 times, at 2 general elections, 1 referendum and 1 EU Parliament election. Every time, Labour has bombed. It's hard not to see a pattern here.)

Finally, the Labour Party itself has failed to ever re-unite. It's effectively two political parties in one - or possibly three, depending on how you want to look at Momentum. On a fair day with a strong wind, the Parliamentary portion sometimes manages to move just-about-consistently, but nothing else seems to have that behaviour. Honestly I suspect a lot of people's real fear about a Labour government is not that it would be a socialist tyranny, but rather that it would implode within about six months. Labour has lost its way amongst a storm of factional infighting. To be fair to Corbyn, this isn't new. Ed Milliband's desperate tenure was derailed by internal struggles. Even the 1997-2010 period had the ongoing squabbles between Brownites and Blairites (remember them?).

So yeah, Labour's campaign was an absolute shambles this year, and the whole country is suffering now for that.

Lastly, let's have a quick look at the Green Party. Where were they this year? With Extinction Rebellion making headlines, the Amazon burning, Australia on fire and weather records being smashed everywhere - remember that day when we had summer back in February? - it should have been the Greens' year. Environmental concerns are going up in salience - people are starting to get genuinely worried. And, uh, where were they? I can't recall hearing a single peep from the Green Party during the election. Whatever it was they were doing, it seems to have completely failed to capitalise on the moment. Perhaps they should have been a bit more visible.

The only people who come out of this with any credit are the SNP. I haven't heard anything teeth-grinding about them - though, that might just be because I live in southern England.

Oh, and let's take a final kick in the teeth, shall we? If you add up the shares of the votes received by pro-second-referendum parties ... guess what it comes to? Yup: 52%, versus 48% for the pro-Brexit parties. 52/48 - aaaaargh! Yet, the 48% had a narrative that kept their vote all in one place, so they won an absolute majority at Westminster. Ours got scattered to the four winds by several separate inept campaigns and several useless party leaders. Had there been a second referendum, we could have won it. But we never got the chance, because everyone supposedly on our side were completely, perfectly, useless.

Sigh :(

[vecna]

For fandom meme-swtor?

Send me a fandom!

This one isn’t as spicy as the Dragon Age one, but I still got Wordy.

Also there’s lots of KOTFE/KOTET/etc spoilers in here, so don’t read if you don’t want to see em. (Looking at you, Chignon.)

The character(s) I first fell in love with:

My own OCs haha.

But more seriously: It was actually Darth Malgus! I was always going to play a Star Wars MMO, let’s be real. But when they started posting promo videos and cinematics for the game, my Sith-loving ass immediately gravitated to that guy haha. And then, it turned out he had the same VA as The Architect from Dragon Age, and that was it for me.

If we’re talking about companions, then it was probably Malavai Quinn. Sith Warrior was the first class I got to 50, and Quinn was the first companion that I really got overly attached to haha.

The character(s) I never expected to love as much as I do now:

Most (not all, but most) of the “new” companions that came in with KOTFE and beyond. I was initially really sour when I realized we were losing all our class storyline companions, and they were being replaced with a new crew of Lana, Theron, Koth, my mother-in-law Senya, etc. Especially when they – at the time – said we’d eventually get our class companions back, but it would be a while. So I started KOTFE sure that I would hate the new crew because I would rather have the old one…. and ended up liking them quite a lot! Mostly, lol.

The character(s) everyone else loves that I don’t:

Doc is the main one, jesus christ. If you didn’t read my last post, I just really really really do not mesh well with overly sexual and Adult Humor-y characters who scold you with a “You’re no fun.” if your OC isn’t into it. Doc is the worst example of it that I’ve ever encountered. I always play a male JK, and the fact nearly all of his convos amount to, “Boy, you and me are going to be up to our eyeballs in vagina when this war ends, amirite?” “You don’t want that? Come on, the Jedi Code doesn’t say you can’t FUCK, live a little.” “You’re no fun. Well, more for me.” drives me NUTS. This combined with how he interacts with Kira just does me in. Shoves him out an airlock.

Dark Side Jaesa is another big one, albeit mainly for OOC reasons. I just hate the fact that she even exists, really. I get the appeal of a story where a Sith corrupts a Jedi to the Dark Side, but the way she does a total 180 into gross hedonism while Serving You always just makes me cringe. Plus there’s the fact that straight dudebro gamers are really nasty with her, and she’s the main companion I always see men put into the slave bikini outfit, and just yikes.

Also just a lot of one-off NPCs that everyone goes crazy for and ships their OCs with, but I  constantly forget who they even are lol. Attros Finn comes to mind. I don’t hate them! Just don’t get the appeal I guess.

The character(s) I love that everyone else hates:

Lord Scourge, although I’m not sure he’s really hated as much anymore. I just remember at launch, when all of the overly invested Revan stans absolutely HATED him because of what he did in the Revan novel, and then flooded the tags with vitriol over being “stuck” with him as a Knight, and having to hear about Revan in his companion convos. It was really, really tiresome! Maybe it’s because I never really cared that deeply about Revan as my personal character, but I could not understand the backlash.

Anyway, Lord Scourge is my favorite companion in the game by a long shot. I love the conversations you can have with him about the Jedi vs Sith, and I love the mutually respectful tone those conversations take. (Where other Bioware companions who disagree with you have a tendency to just go, “You’re wrong.” and shut you down.) The fact that he’s so tied in with the plot just makes me love him more, really.

The character(s) I used to love but don’t any longer:

Cytharat, Koth and Theron mostly. Although this takes a bit of explaining, and is a bit Discourse-y – because I really appreciate them as characters, but their role and Bioware’s decisions with them is what made me no longer love them.Here’s the thing: Bioware has a bad habit of introducing male characters that are bisexual, and then having them betray you, leading to situations where they either get murdered or vanish from the narrative entirely. Meanwhile, bisexual women like Lana are untouched and around forever.

I was overjoyed when I first saw Cytharat. Y'all know I’m a ho for purebloods, and the fact that he was Malgus’ apprentice was fascinating to me – and then he turned out to be a bi romance. I got very hyped for him, only to find out he dies like 5 minutes later – or if you save him, he’s never seen again. Huge letdown.

Koth was the first character I fell in love with of the new KOTFE crew – I even initiated a romance with him! – but it quickly became obvious there’s no way to play the expansion without him turning on you judgementally at some point or another. And then, hey big surprise, you can kill him or else he’s never seen again.

Theron I’ve loved since we first got to know him in the Forged Alliances content, but that whole storyline where he seemingly betrays you out of nowhere, only to later reveal he didn’t actually, idk. And then, once again, you either kill him or he disappears from the story. It felt like a weirdly shoehorned in plot for shock value, and robbed us of a second bi MOC character.

You see the trend here? I want to love these characters, but Bioware continually electing to do this shit with bi dudes is tiresome and makes me unwilling to invest any interest in the characters anymore.

The character(s) I would totally smooch:

None.

The character(s) I’d want to be like:

None really come to mind? I just want to be a Jedi, come on.

The character(s) I’d slap:

Hunter all day every day.

The pairing(s) that I love:

Haha, this question is hard, because most of the SWTOR ships I’m invested in are between my OCs and my friends’ OCs.

However.

SCOURGE / KNIGHT IS THE BIG ONE, THE ULTIMATE, THE ALL-TIME FAVORITE. It’s really hard to describe just how much I love this ship, and just how much time and energy I’ve invested into it over the past… 8 years wow……….. To the point of being almost territorial. And it’s also near impossible for me to talk about why I love it, because the version I ship is so personalized with my specific Jedi Knight, especially since it had to live exclusively in headcanon land for so long. Scourge is, more or less, my Knight’s support pillar and the thing that grounds him and keeps him humble, in a world where my Knight is surrounded by people who expect him to be a pure flawless messiah. But, I mean. How can you have a man look at your character and say, “I’ve waited 300 years to see your face.” and not immediately ship it. And then I finally got vindicated after all these years when it was made canon!

I really love Arcann / Knight for a lot of the same reasons as the above, but I just really adore his one (1) romance convo haha. Granted, yes he did a lot of fucked up things, but I was so grateful when he had like… a Zuko-esque redemption. Where he comes to your character and firmly believes he doesn’t deserve forgiveness, and especially doesn’t deserve affection, and is instead met with acceptance and a chance to grow and heal. That’s the good shit.

Others:

Lana / Warrior and Lana / Inquisitor are my particular jam. I endlessly enjoy the mutual respect between Lana and those particular PCs.

Malavai Quinn / Sith Warrior is a longtime fave, and although I DO love him with a female Warrior, I really do with he’d been an option for dudes as well. And I feel the same in reverse about Vette / Warrior – I do like her with a male Warrior, and it’s so sweet and wholesome and endearing, but man I wish she’d been an option for female Warriors.

I ship Risha with every woman – especially Vette and Sumalee – and will be salty until my grave that Risha / f!Smuggler isn’t possible, because I love Risha with the Smuggler but she gives me powerful WLW vibes.

Agent / Watcher Two is also a lowkey favorite, but I ALSO wish it could be done with a female Agent instead. Same with Agent / Raina Temple.

Agent / Vector is very sweet, but again, I will be salty until my grave that it couldn’t be done with a male Agent.

Can you guys sense a running theme here?

Finally: NGL I love Valkorion / Senya, even though that ended in pure disaster.

And people around here used to ship Keeper / Lokin, and tbh, I still kinda love it lol.

The pairing(s) that I despise:

In general terms, I fucking hate every single romance that involves the male PC romancing his padawan or underling, especially since most of them seem like very young girls. I don’t know why this is so pervasive in the game, but yikes Bioware. Consular/Nadia is the worst offender, but they’re all just cringe central for me.

But the big one is Agent / Hunter. This would have gotten me run off Tumblr back in the day, but god I hate this pairing. I mentioned in the last post that I just will never enjoy ships where the two characters actively want to murder each other, but. This just gets magnified for me with Agent/Hunter, where all the mind control and blatant abuse comes into play – and people have a tendency to write noncon rape fic of the two and present it as ~sexy rivalmance~, which is awful. Add to this the “no homo” reveal where Hunter turns out to be a woman, after getting everyone hyped about a dude flirting with their male character the whole game, and it’s just a huge No Thanks from me all around.

And for largely personal reasons I just don’t like seeing female Knights with Scourge. Listen, for YEARS  I was treated like a pariah for shipping Scourge with my male Knight, while being unable to find Scourge content that didn’t have a female Knight plastered all over him. Even though he wasn’t even a romance option one way or another, the way the fandom treated m!Knight/Scourge with disdain while ardently shipping f!Knight/Scourge was offputting as shit. And then, after years, he was made a romance option for women AND men, and all these awful people acted like they were robbed, the way people reacted when Kaidan and Jaal were made bi in Mass Effect. I’m so tired. I never want to see Scourge with a female Knight again.

[thelegendofclarke]

lol omg, WHAT?! No, it literally does not... Just because “human right” is one of the fanciest, legaliest terms you know does not mean it applies in every situation that you want it to. Like, the term HAS an actual, real definition and everything.

Human Rights:

Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status. Human rights include the right to life and liberty, freedom from slavery and torture, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to work and education, and many more. Everyone is entitled to these rights, without discrimination.

There are 30 actual, identified human rights explicitly listed in The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) (what a name amirite?!?) that are classified in the articles of the UDHR...

Article 1 Right to Equality

Article 2 Freedom from Discrimination

Article 3 Right to Life, Liberty, Personal Security

Article 4 Freedom from Slavery

Article 5 Freedom from Torture and Degrading Treatment

Article 6 Right to Recognition as a Person before the Law

Article 7 Right to Equality before the Law

Article 8 Right to Remedy by Competent Tribunal

Article 9 Freedom from Arbitrary Arrest and Exile

Article 10 Right to Fair Public Hearing

Article 11 Right to be Considered Innocent until Proven Guilty

Article 12 Freedom from Interference with Privacy, Family, Home and Correspondence

Article 13 Right to Free Movement in and out of the Country

Article 14 Right to Asylum in other Countries from Persecution

Article 15 Right to a Nationality and the Freedom to Change It

Article 16 Right to Marriage and Family

Article 17 Right to Own Property

Article 18 Freedom of Belief and Religion

Article 19 Freedom of Opinion and Information

Article 20 Right of Peaceful Assembly and Association

Article 21 Right to Participate in Government and in Free Elections

Article 22 Right to Social Security

Article 23 Right to Desirable Work and to Join Trade Unions

Article 24 Right to Rest and Leisure

Article 25 Right to Adequate Living Standard

Article 26 Right to Education

Article 27 Right to Participate in the Cultural Life of Community

Article 28 Right to a Social Order that Articulates this Document

Article 29 Community Duties Essential to Free and Full Development

Article 30 Freedom from State or Personal Interference in the above Rights

And would you look at that... The right to bear arms is N O FUCKING W H E R E on that list.

Real, actual, legitimate Fundamental Human Rights don’t have casualties. They don’t have “acceptable losses” or “unfortunate accidents” or “unavoidable tragedies.” No human being’s life is less important than whatever ~*God Given Right*~ you may think you have to own an assault rifle.

If you are going to throw legalese in a lawyers face, at least make an attempt to use the terms correctly... GOOGLE IS FREE!

[weedle-testaburger]

Pc Principal, Principal Victoria, Mayor McDaniels and Officer Barbrady for the character ask meme. Am I too late?

Nope :) although I’d appreciate it if people send one character per ask in future sihakudiughdk

PC Principal:

Why I like them: he can be funny sometimes and occasionally like in the ending of Buddha Box he’s surprisingly sympathetic

Why I don’t: a lot of the time he’s at best an annoying reminder of what some people I can’t stand are like and at worst a bit of a strawman

Favorite episode (scene if movie): I think PC Principal Final Justice, it’s a weird choice but I like that he kinda got to be badass and do something productive after 9 episodes of just being the antagonist

Favorite season/movie: season 21, he was used sparingly and not made an annoying strawman when he was, which is how I think he’s best utilized

Favorite line: Idk the exact line but the bit where he keeps interrupting Strong Woman during her first assembly is pretty funny

Favorite outfit: he only has the one so that one :P

OTP: PC Woman/ Strong Principal (whichever is the name for it)

Brotp: I like his relationship with Mr Mackey a fair bit, especially in Dead Kids and Super Hard PCNess

Head Canon: he’s one of those people who gets really into new cartoons for like 6 months and then starts critical blogs complaining about trivial aspects of their plotting, animation and implications

Unpopular opinion: I can’t really look past him being used as a ‘PC gone mad amirite’ joke as easily as most fans do personally because I watch SP for the social satire as much as the characters

A wish: it’d be nice if they made his ‘extreme’ positions a little more extreme, maybe use him to make fun of TERFs or people obsessed with judging everyone based on their pop culture tastes or something

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: using him to make fun of queer folk or people wanting representation, that’d make me really mad honestly

5 words to best describe them: moralist, self-important, self-righteous, anxious, judgemental

My nickname for them: haven’t got one

Principal Victoria:

Why I like them: she’s a lot saner than PC Principal

Why I don’t: can’t think of much of a reason tbh

Favorite episode (scene if movie): Breast Cancer Show Ever cause of that speech she gives about fighting cancer

Favorite season/movie: season 19, she’s pretty interesting in the final 3 episodes

Favorite line: the speech I just mentioned from Breast Cancer Show Ever

Favorite outfit: her regular one

OTP: haven’t got one

Brotp: ditto

Head Canon: she got moved up to the Park County school board and occasionally hears about PC Principal’s shit and just goes ‘thank fuck I’m not there anymore’

Unpopular opinion: I kinda wish she was still principal instead of PC Principal sometimes

A wish: it’d be nice if she got some screentime

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: idk really

5 words to best describe them: affable, caring, likeable, patient, talented

My nickname for them:don’t have one

Mayor McDaniels:

Why I like them: she’s mostly sympathetic even if her decisions aren’t always that good

Why I don’t: she’s been responsible for some really shitty things in town

Favorite episode (scene if movie): I guess she’s pretty funny in Naughty Ninjas, that’s the episode that people seem to think of for moments with her anyway :P

Favorite season/movie: idk really, maybe season 22? I don’t remember much stuff she did in the earlier seasons off the top of my head though so I could be missing something obvious

Favorite line: “They can do whatever they like, they’re Hollywood”

Favorite outfit: again, her regular one

OTP: don’t have one

Brotp: ditto

Head Canon: I can imagine she just keeps running for re-election repeatedly because it pays the bills even though she thinks the town is fucked

Unpopular opinion: I think she does her best as mayor, it’s just she works with a lot of dysfunctional citizens

A wish: not sure really

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: same

5 words to best describe them: well-intentioned, clever, reactive, cynical, resigned

My nickname for them:haven’t got one

Officer Barbrady:

Why I like them: he’s pretty funny if a complete idiot

Why I don’t: no reason tbh

Favorite episode (scene if movie): He’s pretty great in Chickenlover

Favorite season/movie: season 1, I remember him having some funny moments and lines in that season

Favorite line: “This has absolutely nothing to do with the Chinese Mafia!”

Favorite outfit: his BDSM shit from his sex tape with Liane oihdxsiudxcghd

OTP:don’t have one

Brotp: likewise

Head Canon: can’t really think of any, sorry I don’t have many hcs for the adults

Unpopular opinion: like most people I hope he comes back but I don’t mind Harrison Yates and his police department being SP’s main police force

A wish: not sure

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: I’d hate for him to be killed off

5 words to best describe them: gullible, friendly, dumb, suggestible, easily influenced

My nickname for them: haven’t got one

[regularbeans]

Best Albums of 2018 but it’s chill this year (6-1)

Hello and welcome back to the Decisions I’ve Elected to Make. We’re picking up from number six because this is where shit gets real. 

6 Twenty One Pilots: Trench

*shocked gasps*

I know, I know, but listen.

It’s fine.

If I’m 100% honest with myself I’d say I expected better. (God, I speak like sixth place is anything to sneeze at, oofh.) But to be honest anything that’s not Vessel can’t have my heart, okay. Vessel is the golden standard and probably nobody can touch that ever. Which is bad, I know it’s bad to want a band to do something they’ve done really well once before, all over again. And I knew they wouldn’t and I shouldn’t even want them to which is why I accepted Trench as it is.

In my review (don’t let me fool you with these links I haven’t written a lot of reviews at all, I just happened to write some of these) I mentioned the strong lyrical themes and the instrumenting to be the core strengths but also mentioned how even though the concept is neat and I appreciate the boys being this imaginative and creative, it can also be alienating because you shouldn’t need to read a fuckin’ book to be able to enjoy a four-minute song, right? Still, this album is good and I love it, please don’t send me to music hell.

My favourite songs: Bandito, Cut My Lip, The Hype

5 Years & Years: Palo Santo

Shit, talk about hard to follow debuts, amirite?

Years & Years had one of the strongest debuts I can recall in recent years. Communion was just so incredibly complete you would never guess it was anybody’s first attempt at an album. And because I’m a pessimist I tried to keep my expectations low. Sanctify was okay, Palo Santo (the song) was okay but it was If You’re Over Me that put my mind at rest and convinced me Olly & Co. know what they’re doing. (I’m reading back my review I actually called them Olly Alexander & Co. in the review too omg I’m sorry Emre and Mikey, I know your names, I promise.) And I found this album more lighthearted and despite the themes (religion, sexuality, guilt, queerphobia, you know, the hits) way more upbeat. I’m not going to say it’s better than Communion but it’s definitely not worse. 

Years & Years is a band with a huge personality. They make a genre that’s easy to get lazy in sound colourful, exciting, captivating, and like the biggest party that you can’t miss out on. They’re both modern and nostalgic for a musical era they weren’t even alive in.

My favourite songs: All For You, Hypnotised, Here

I can’t choose between the next two so I’m going to write their summaries and then decide which one is fourth and which is third.

4 Panic! at the Disco: Pray For the Wicked

Panic! has always been a hit or miss with me. I either love their albums to death or I don’t care much for them at all and it fluctuates quite regularly. With Death of a Bachelor being my favourite record Brendon ever released I found it unlikely that anything he can do after this could dethrone it. And I was right, it didn’t. But it made a damn great job of trying to.

I think Brendon to be one of the most talented songwriters, vocalists, and performers of the current generation and I’m not exaggerating. He’s amazing and he doesn’t half-ass anything he does even though he has such a stable following that would just gobble up anything he puts out. And I appreciate that. Pray For the Wicked is like Brendon; strong, whimsical, colourful, a little all over the place, but full of passion and emotion. It’s exactly what the pop scene needs in these... *looks at charts* *looks at news about fucking celebrity beefs that nobody should give two shits about* trying times.

I also wrote a review of this one.

My favourite songs: Roaring 20s, High Hopes, Dancing’s Not a Crime

3 Fall Out Boy: MANIA

God this album’s been coming for so long it’s easy to forget it only came out this year. And weirdly, I was so sure this would place lower than Pray For the Wicked. There’s not a lot separating the two though. I guess where I like fewer songs more on PFTW I like more songs less on Mania? I don’t fucking know, let’s just say I did maths to calculate this or something.

In my review, tut-tut (that is a little off because the edition I listened to for the first time had the tracks in a slightly different order so... oops?), I said that I’m glad Fall Out Boy stopped giving a shit and I think that’s a theme for so many of these albums on this list, or at least so many of the bands I enjoy doing this where they just stop worrying about trying to appeal to new audiences and just doing their own thing. Fall Out Boy has been so many things before that nothing is out of the comfort zone for them. They are veterans, are you even kidding me, they’re a goddamn powerhouse and all that energy comes across on this album so well, it’s just insanely strong. It also definitely beats AB/AP for me even though I love that album as well.

My favourite songs: Heaven’s Gate, Hold Me Tight or Don’t, Bishops Knife Trick

@ jesus @ god please forgive me for what I’m about to do.

2 Editors: Violence

I’ve done this a few times before where I know technically an album is better than the other but the emotions surrounding it are just different. The best example to this was in 2014 where I put Troy Baker’s Sitting In the Fire in first place against Sia’s 1,000 Forms of Fear which is just a flawless and brilliant record from beginning to end. But listen to me...

Emotions okay?

Besides, Editors and I go way back, they know I love them. And so here we are, after the sixth album they still haven’t had a #1 album with me. Which is not true, they’re always #1 in my heart but this year was just like this, you know? 

Here’s a review of Violence but... I don’t feel like I need to talk more about them. I just love them so much. They’re just, my life, you know? At every turn, at every event and happening, they’re just there. Their music, their presence, the memories I made because of them, the people I’ve met because of them. They shaped me and my life in ways no other band has or will. So I’ll just leave this quote here and go to bed. Or not cause I’m not done with this list yet.

“People are always talking about how dark we are, and I always get asked where that comes from. And it’s a question I have to dance around, and I have done for years. But I do know this: The people who like this band, who come and see us play and buy our records, they don’t finish an Editors CD or come out of an Editors concert feeling sad. People connect with those little glimmers of hope that are in those songs.”

My favourite songs: Violence, Cold, Nothingness

1 Why do things like this happen to good, god-fearing christian girls like me is all I wanna know...

Just kidding, I’m not scared of god.

I didn’t want to write any more about this album (it’s called Love Yourself 轉 'Tear' by the way) or BTS as a whole because anyone who’d be interested in reading about why I love them so much understands already so I don’t feel like wasting my breath and I’m not going to but I’ll say this much: the amount of happiness BTS’s music brought me since I got to know them five months ago is unmatched. This year, at least. I remember in 2015 when I got to know twenty one pilots and thought to myself: holy shit, experiences like this, bands like this you just don’t come across every day. To me, at least, these moments are few and far between which is why I want to treasure and honour them whenever they happen.

They just make me happy and their music fucking slaps. Next question!

My favourite songs: Outro: Tear, Anpanman, The Truth Untold, Paradise

Yeah. Yeah I’m pretty sure that was three songs. Good.

[lulabo]

books of 2017

that I read! 

the tally is lower than I thought it would be (at 37 actual books read, not counting the dozen or so (at least) that I started and didn’t finish either because: library holds always come in at the same time, disinterest, or personal moral failure), but this was the year I also read a lot of news, just many, many, many articles across a lot of publications because, you know, 2017

alphabetical by author, with three word reactions:

Simon Vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda, Becky Albertalli (I LOVED IT) Leaf Reader, Emily Arsenault (I DON’T REMEMBER) Nothing, Annie Barrows (I WAS SURPRISED) Emmy & Oliver, Robin Benway (LOVE IS REAL) Lion, Saroo Brierley (IT’S HIS NAME) Alexander Hamilton, Ron Chernow (I FINISHED IT) The Late Show, Michael Connelly (IDK IDK IDK) When a Scot Ties the Knot, Tessa Dare (OCH AYE WOO) The Guineveres, Sarah Dorrett (LADY PATRON SAINTS) Clover Adams: A Gilded and Heartbreaking Life, Natalie Dykstra (FASCINATING, SAD, BEAUTIFUL) Little Deaths, Emma Flint (DEPRESSING AND DISTRESSING) Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital, Sheri Fink (ALL MY NIGHTMARES) Norse Mythology, Neil Gaiman (MYTHS ARE WEIRD) Killers of the Flower Moon, David Grann (ATROCITIES IN BUREAUCRACY) Turtles All the Way Down, John Green (HARD, WORTH IT) The Nightingale, Kristin Hannah (WWII AMIRITE ¯\_(ツ)_/¯) We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson (YES WE HAVE) 11/22/63, Stephen King (READ FOR SPITE) Rosemary: the Hidden Kennedy, Kate Clifford Larsen (SHE DESERVED BETTER) Northanger Abbey, Val McDermid (READ AUSTEN INSTEAD) Release, Patrick Ness (TRIPPY, INTERESTING, SADDISH) Born a Crime, Trevor Noah (SOLID READ OBVI) The Captive Prince trilogy, C.S.  Pacat (OPPOSITES ATTRACT, BATTLE) For Darkness Shows the Stars, Diana Peterfreund (MOSTLY ENJOYED IT) Bone Gap, Laura Ruby (HALLUCINATORY MAGICAL REALISM) Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Benjamin Alire Sáenz (LOVE IS HARD) Today Will Be Different, Maria Semple (FAMILIAR, NOT BERNADETTE) Pretty Girls, Karin Slaughter (SUPER FUCKED UP) Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel (GOD SAVE US) The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas (READ THIS BOOK) Unbelievable: My Front Row Seat to the Craziest Election in American History, Katy Tur (IT HAPPENED ANYWAY) Blood of Emmett Till, Timothy B.Tyson (THEY MURDERED HIM) Another Brooklyn, Jacqueline Woodson (GORGEOUS AND FARAWAY) Jane Austen at Home: A Biography, Lucy Worsley (STOP WINKING LUCY)

recent “I started expecting to be done by 2018 but I’m only one person” titles include 17 Carnations and Princes at War, both about the Duke of Windsor, all-time narcissist, Pioneer Girl, Two Kinds of Truth.

[gaydryad]

What the heck is happening right now?!

in general or ?

well the US is planning to deport & expel 3000-5000 Chinese international graduate students (and maybe some professors? the reporting isn’t quite clear) within like, the next week,

there’s the rebellion in Minneapolis, haven’t checked back in this morning but no justice, no peace! I hope the protesters are being cautious but also royally fucking up some stuff because goddamn is it about time.

my state (california) is reopening WAY too fast and I’m terrified that we’ll be called back to my college campus and a ton of students will get sick,

apparently a white supremacist tried to gather a bunch of protestors in my city FOR TODAY (friday may 29) under the guise of supporting the Minneapolis protestors, thanks to my SD mutuals on twitter for exposing that,

( on that note my twitter, @gaydryad, tends to be a little more politically diverse than my tumblr. more international politics, at least. )

THE PRC (MAINLAND CHINA) PLANS TO REVOKE WHAT LITTLE AUTONOMY HONG KONG STILL HAS, WITH THE INTENTION OF USING THE NEW “NATIONAL SECURITY” LAW TO COMPLETELY SUPPRESS ALL DISSENT,

god knows if the #COLA movement succeeded in forcing the UC to come to the table and actually pay them a decent housing stipend, or if the UC workers’ union has had any successes

the earth continues to be on fire,

the global pandemic continues to infect and kill thousands a day thanks to many governments’ (minus SK and NZ, and maybe others of whom I’m unaware, good for y’all) FLAGRANT desire to LET those people die because commercial capitalism and the billionaire bottom line is way more important than actual human lives amirite (/sarcasm)

biden is still the democratic nominee and honestly thank god that that’s not the top-line debate topic because I am SO tired of this entire election season,

(but still going to vote blue because I’m not a pissbaby and understand that any democrat is still better than four more years of Trump)

and it’s the second-to-last week of classes, so I have many a final assignment due over the next five days.

and that’s the tea!

(edit: #COLA is a movement started by the graduate students at UC Santa Cruz to object to the UC’s current pay for grad students, which is often so low that they have to take 2-3 jobs in addition to their classes and teaching positions just to pay for rent. I can talk about it more in depth if anyone is interested.)