#i understand why so many people are upset

[carnelianly]

this post contains noncon! please don’t read if that will be upsetting! i would never promote this in real life, and people, men or women, are always unable to consent to any kind of contact while intoxicated!

art is your friend. not your boyfriend. not your dog that you can tug around on a leash like you seem to think you can. he has a girlfriend. he’s madly in love with her. he doesn’t want you. sure, he can acknowledge that you’re pretty and he can tell himself, in the comforts of his own head ‘if i were single, i’d.. definitely go for her’. in another life, maybe he was yours. not in this one.

but he was invited out to the bar by patrick who also invited you and a couple other friends and he doesn’t mind your presence at all. you’re.. you’re nice enough. you may make him a little nervous when you smile like that, but that’s not for him to say. he keeps himself polite but distant in conversation with you.

he drinks a little too much. patrick always suggests shots and what is art supposed to do? say no? look like a pussy?

he downs them anyway, one after another until it’s two hours later and he forgets he’s barely eaten much all day and there’s so much alcohol in his system that he can’t stand up straight.

not to worry, you’re them to catch him before he falls over. patrick and the others are off talking about some nonsense, but you’re being so nice and helpful, you wipe the drool from his chin and fix his hair and he smiles faintly at you in gratitude.

you smile back at him, one arm holding him up since he’s not stable enough to stand on his own, half leaning on the bar counter and half relying on you to keep him up. your other hand is… art isn’t really paying attention. feels weird, though. it’s between his thighs, rubbing the skin softly, almost teasingly. art isn’t coherent enough to understand what’s happening.

you’re smiling at him, telling him everything is gonna be fine, because it will be. everything will be okay. he doesn’t have to worry, you’ll take care of him, keep him safe. there’s so many bad people in this world that might try to hurt him, steal his wallet, take advantage of him. you’re not like that. you’re just gonna keep talking to him like this until it’s time to leave and then you’re gonna take him home. he’s too drunk to get back to his place by himself, so you’ll just let him stay at yours. so gracious of you.

he listens because he has no other choice, and he’s not as much letting you touch him but not able to stop you. your hand is on his crotch, massaging him through his jeans, and he moans and he falls forward into you, resting his head on your shoulder. he’s weak. unable to do anything but take this treatment. your hand that was keeping him upright moves to his ass, always so plump and thick, god, he obviously does it for his girlfriend but he might as well have done it for you, in this moment.

you could so easily take what you wanted from him, especially because you’re sure he’s about to black out and remember nothing. but you’re a better person than that, you tell yourself. you’re just touching, you’re not gonna break anything.

you end up taking him into the bathroom, and he’s too drunk to know what he’s doing, but hey, he kissed you first, even if he’s tripping over his own feet and practically drooling into your mouth. it’s hot, and you feel him up some more. it feels wrong to fuck him, too permanent. he’d definitely know what happened then. he’s smart when he’s sober, smart enough anyway.

in the end, he’s taken home with patrick and a couple of buddies, taking a shared uber home while art is blacked out, while you go off by yourself.

the next time you see art, he definitely does not remember what happened that night. he does feel a little weird around you, but he can’t quite put his finger on why your presence is so.. uncomfortable all of a sudden…

[aceistheplace86]

Ephemeral pt. 2

It had been almost a week and still no word from Stanford, you had never moved in with him so you had your home to reside in. You were a little upset that he had not been by, not even a phone call. You had thought you would run into him at the grocery store or just around town but you should’ve known better. You hardly saw him during your relationship, why would you now?

You were currently sitting on your couch catching up on one of your favorite TV series when your phone rings. You reach over and pick it up “Hello?”

“Hey” It was Stanley, and he sounded hesitant

“Oh hey Stan” You spoke slowly “Uhm. Why are you calling?”

He sighed heavily “I know what happened, and I’m sorry about my brother. He cares he just” He trails off “But he will come around y’know?”

You were quiet for a moment “You know, I wanted to be a teacher”  your voice soft, this being the first time you had brought this up to Stan.

“Really?” He sounded confused “I thought you were working with Ford, whatever science-y stuff he does”

You chuckled softly “I wanted to go to school for teaching, but Stanford said I was “too smart” to waste my talents on that. That my time would be better spent helping him with his research” You scoffed and shook your head “Not that he let me help that often, and then he started to shut me out”

“Why’d you listen to him?”

“I love him.”

Stan was quiet for a moment “I think you’d be a good teacher. You were always helpful to me when we were kids”

“You were always brilliant Stanley, it’s not your fault some people couldn’t see that” You had often helped Stan with school, you had always known he was smart. You saw how he and other kids were made to feel less than others, and you vowed never to be like that “I thought I would make a difference”

“You did to me” He reassured you “I mean, you made me feel smart when we were working on that portal” He was silent for a moment “I have to go, but hang in there okay? If you need me, you know where to find me”

“Thanks, Stan.”

-

You were now cleaning up the kitchen after making dinner. You were in the middle of clearing dishes when there was a knock on the door. Confused, you slowly made your way to the door not sure who would be over this late.

You peeked out the window and saw Stanford standing on the porch with his hands shoved in his pocket. You sighed but opened the door “Hey Ford” you said softly

He looked almost surprised that you answered the door “H-Hello Darling” He stuttered “I-I wanted to talk to you”

“About?” you raised your eyebrow but had not let him in yet.

“My Multiverse Echo Theory, states that there are many alternate realities” He starts.

“Goodbye Stanford” You go to shut the door, but he puts his hand out to stop you.

“Wait, please let me explain,” He says quickly, when you make no movements, he nods “As I was saying my Multiverse Echo Theory states that there are many alternate realities, meaning that there are tons of realities where you and I are together. There are some where we aren’t, of course, and there are some where we are just friends, or enemies, and some where we are in a relationship” He puts his hands in his pockets “I would like to believe that this is one of the realities where we belong together”

“It took you a week to come visit me” you stated.

He nodded. “I apologize for that. I believed, at the time, that you had wanted me to choose between my research and you” he said “And that, quite frankly, was not fair. I have always had a bit of a hard time with understanding people, it causes a lot of miscommunications and has left me quite lonely” He sighs “I don’t know when to stop, I can’t tell when people are mad at me or for what reason. I can’t tell when they're mad but will come back or when they’re just done” He hesitated “You and Stanley were always there for me, and always waited for me to understand. I appreciate that. Then I realized that you never wanted me to pick between you and my research, you just wanted me to divide my time equally”

You stared at him, not exactly sure where to begin. You knew he had a difficult time with others, but you were stuck on one single fact “You thought I was having you choose between our relationship and your research… and you picked your research”

“I’ve been working on this for years,” he says simply. “You don’t understand how much I’ve spent on this, or what it means to me. I have spent my whole life being labeled a freak, but here” he looks around “Gravity Falls, there are far weirder things than me”

You shook your head slowly “No Stanford. That’s what you don’t get. You think you’ve been searching for so long for a place to fit in, but Stan and I have been there for you since the beginning. We were there every time you pushed us out, and anytime you rambled on about finding a place to fit in, we stuck by you” You straighten your posture “I gave up my dreams to follow you here. Stan gave up any chance at a normal life to stick around, pay your mortgage, and try and bring you back. You couldn’t even thank him right off that bat. God, you don’t even understand it still now!”

He looked confused and straightened his glasses “Your dreams of being a teacher? No offense, but you could do better things than being a teacher”

“Will you stop it!” You exclaimed “I could do anything I wanted; I get it. I’m sorry you don’t think I’m “living up to my potential” but the thought of being a teacher was something that brought me joy. I loved being around kids and seeing their eyes light up when they figured out what they were struggling with” You continued, “I wanted to make a difference to even just one kid. That would have been enough for me”

He looked confused now; he opened his mouth and then closed it again for a moment. “I don’t understand, I was helping you”

“How?!” You could not understand where his logic was right now “You took me away from my family and my friends, you cut contact with the only other person who understood us, you convinced me that working with you was going to lead to better things. You didn’t even let me help you” You started “Then you got stuck in that portal. I thought I lost you. I didn’t know what I was going to do without you! I was scared, Stanford. I just wanted you back.”

“How do you think I felt? I was stuck in dimensions!” he countered

“This is not a competition!” You cried out “This is me trying to get you to see that you had people in your corner, and you kept knocking them down. You cut off your brother, then tried to kick him out when you returned. You ruined any chance Fiddleford had at marriage and years of being a father. You know he was the first one in his family to even go to college?”

“You leave him out of this” He snapped “At least he helped me more than you ever did with my research. You just kept pulling me from it!”

You opened your mouth to remind him that he never actually let you try to work with him, you didn’t get to build the portal or go over notes, all you did was take care of the home, and maybe get to hear his theories if he had time. But you realized this was a pointless fight. “Your Multiverse Echo Theory states that there are many other realities” You started “I keep trying to help you Ford, I let you hurt me time and again because I love you but I don’t think you love me as much as you say” You glanced down at the ground “I don’t think we can be saved in this reality.  Every good moment we have ever had only existed briefly. I can’t spend my life waiting around for those moments”

You step back inside your house “I wish you all the best in your research. I hope you achieve everything you’ve been missing. I really do”

And with that, you shut the door.

-

It took you a while but you got things back on track. You moved away from Gravity Falls, all the memories were too painful, and it hurt to even see Stanley, not that it was his fault. You reassured him that this was just something you had to do. You had gotten settled into a nice town in a nice apartment. You had started your new job teaching at a school, you started with elementary school, because you really did miss being around kids.

You were walking around the classroom as the kids worked on their morning bell work, when you noticed one kid, Jullian, had not been working but instead drawing. “Are you okay Jullian?” you asked him gently

“I don’t want to do this,” he says not looking up from his sketch

You look at his paper to see a pretty good sketch of a superhero “What are you drawing”

“Galactic Guardian,” he says simply “I like to draw, but I don’t like math” he showed you the drawing a little better “My sister knows math better than I do. and my dad tells my momma that I won’t ever figure it out” He spoke casually while shading in the character's costume “But no one gets mad at Galactic, he's good at everything”

You kneeled by his desk “This is a very good drawing St-Julian” You said softly “ Just like Galactic, you have strengths that can help you tackle anything, even math!”

Julian blinked “But I’m not a superhero in math.”

 “Maybe not yet. But remember how superheroes face challenges? They don’t give up, and they learn from every battle”

You point to a problem on his worksheet. “Let’s tackle this one together, step by step. If a superhero can face down a giant monster, I know you can face this math problem”

Jullian hesitated but then nodded, and you noticed a small flicker of determination igniting in him.

This is what you felt you had been missing. A place where those good moments were no longer few and far between.

// Tag list: @kawaii1369 @slay-thou-pookie @randombuddys @ppenisblog @doggosnoodles12 @velvetvulture

Thank you guys for reading! Let me know what else you would like to read! I am happy to take requests!

[alexxncl]

‼️NIGHTBRINGER LESSON 49 SPOILERS‼️

lesson 76 spoilers

gonna be using race and racism as an allegory and an explanation. don't like, don't read

masterlist | theories/spoilers | all lessons | season 3 | lesson 48.1 | lesson 48.2 | lesson 49.1 | lesson 49.2

(for context, the other response was something along the lines of "he really cried his eyes out, huh?")

regardless of how much luke has grown and matured, he's still a kid. like, a kid kid. they cry when they're upset, when they're angry, when they're throwing a tantrum, and when theyre confused and/or overwhelmed. i feel like the latter might be the case with luke, which is why i chose the "i'm sure he'll be ok" option

luke was raised with ideals that painted everything in black and white, as good and evil, and as right and wrong. up until his time as an exchange student in the devildom, he was, for lack of better phrasing, undeniably racist and prejudice to all of demonkind because of the way the celestial war was taught to him, because he was taught to think that way during some of the most foundational years of his life

he was thrust into a world that forced him to not only unlearn every harmful and incorrect thing that the people he believed knew best, that knew everything there is to know about the world, but it forced him to realize that everything that was taught to him was built on some sort of lie, that the life he'd been leading and the way he'd been treating the demons he interacted with made him act no better than, if not even worse than, the way that angels believed demonkind acted in their everyday life

with all of this in mind, he understood why the brothers fell and became demons. they disobeyed their father for (imo, not at all) selfish reasons and started an all-out war, costing who knows how many lives. while harsh, the punishment could be seen as justified

but with simeon, it was different. he was someone who disobeyed their father by stealing a ring with the intent of saving not just the celestial realm, but all three realms, and was banished to being mortal. being punished for acting selfless, for risking your life and immortality for the sake of billions doesn't make any sense, right?

and what makes even less sense is that despite his good deeds, despite being on the right side of the war, despite being an overall good person with good moral standing, despite already beinh punished to a life of mortality, simeon still is faced with the same fate as people who committed treason against god himself and cost thousands of angels their lives

imagine how hard it would be for a 10-year-old or 12-year-old to understand and process his entire life and moral code being flipped on its head, still working through and unlearning his negative biases, followed immediately by his big brother/pseudo father figure being faced with an unimaginably harsh punishment for a "crime" that shouldn't even be considered a crime

luke, to me at least, is an example of why it's so so important to teach kids at a young age how to live in and interact with the people and the world around them, whether they're part of a marginalized community or not. it's so easy to fall down the alt-right pipeline given how easily accessible the internet is to young boys, and unlearning the prejudices, biases, racism, sexism, misogyny, etc. that those things can teach you is not only extremely difficult, but a long road to walk down

idk how many people are gonna read this, and i doubt that it's gonna go outside of the obey me community, but i felt like i had to talk about it

[laurrelise]

once again rambling about five and lila because i’m fucking pissed. enjoy

“five and lila were perfect for each other because they had so much in common” yet so many perfect couples have absolutely nothing in common???

they could relate to each other in ways that made them hate each other and that’s why they were SUCH good foil characters, i don’t understand why the romance had to be necessary.

there is absolutely no reason that this romance plotline should’ve been created. it was so ridiculously off-focus from what the plot was (AND should have been) and it literally only made the season so much worse.

do writers understand that not every single character has to fall in love with one another? i mean genuinely?

personally i don’t believe five is aro (though he could be ace) because i can’t help but love five’s love for delores (even if she wasn’t real) but i completely understand five aroace truthers because he truly can be independent romantically as we saw in the show.

i cannot wrap my fucking head around the fact that the writers saw two awesome, dynamic, badass characters with arcs and goals outside of love and attention and decided to turn their personalities inside out and upside down for a dumbass dead-end romance that makes zero sense.

five and lila were the only two people on god’s green earth who could understand each other and hated the other for it. why couldn’t they just be frenemies and call it a day?

god fucking damn it i’m so upset

shoutout to 13 year old 58 year old five hating lila and 29 year old lila despising the fuck out of little five !!! <3

fuck you to the worst, most nonsensical couple of all time and space ❌❌

[somewhereincairparavel]

Ok, but like I feel like I've never dove in how Jason was probably the youngest in the legion. Probably for a very, very long time. And imagine how it felt to watch as kids played in new Rome, and eventually joined you. And you could never join them as they played in new rome. Imagine all of the kids you know are older than you, and you can't make friends. Imagine having to lead quests of people way older than you that resent you for it because of your parentage. Imagine how happy he was when people his age finally started joining, and I wishing he could he them? Imagine basically being raised by a bunch of teenagers, many of whom dislike you? Would love to hear ur thoughts

honestly, i imagine all of the older members of the legion whispering behind Jason's back about how easy he has it in camp jupiter bc of his dad, about how he isnt "qualified" enough to lead missions, and how he has everything "handed" to him. i feel like he had a LOT to prove and only when his missions started getting successful, people actually accept that he is capable, but even then envious members of the cohort would say that he got lucky or only succeeded bc of jupiter's blessings or smth. could you imagine a baby jason going to the older members of the legion for advice and they just coolly shrug him off? i feel like in a realistic standpoint, they arent outright mean to him bc they are terrified of jupiter's anger but they arent friendly either.

They just let him sit in a corner. i feel like at some point, even when people his age start coming in, he still wouldnt feel loved, because they all would think jason is too scary or intimidating and would avoid him out of fear, also bc he doesnt understand their jokes bc he was brought up too serious. so he would be an outcast. he would be an outcast but not necessarily in a bad way, but like "he's too good for us" type of way which actually hurts jason way more. like when he comes in they all would give him a small bow or something and it gets on his NERVES.

overall i feel like there is too much jealousy surrounding him for him to have any comfortable conversation with people, especially because he is their "leader" even if he was a praetor very late, people still subconsciously saw him as one, even the old praetors consulted him before they came to a decision.

i feel like the moment people even remotely saw him as a human with feelings is when he joined the least reputed legion simply to popularize it. i feel like that was HIS moment where ppl were like "yep this guy is actually a living person with empathy!" but it reverted back to ppl seeing him as an unapproachable artifact

which is why im so upset that frank and hazel didnt have a closer relationship with him, i mean we did see jason and frank talking together on the deck of argo 2 after jason transferred his praetorship to frank, probably filling him in his position, but i wish their relationship ascended beyond just a mentor and his apprentice. because that concept with jason's character gets so old. literally everyone saw him as an advisor and leader that they could learn from, but who really saw something beyond that about him? only leo, nico, reyna, piper and percy tbh.

and in the end, reyna had a subtle fallout with him so they didnt talk, piper broke up with him so they were awkward and tense, leo "died" and never saw him again, the last time nico saw jason was probably during the strawberry field scene when nico told him he's staying at camp, and jason got too busy with his temple project to see anyone else. he was working to keep his promise till the very end, just like a true roman. honestly thanks to you i might actually expand on this in a separate post and tag you in it :)

[mariacallous]

You’ve studied Russian information warfare pretty extensively. A few weeks ago the Justice Department indicted two employees of the Russian state media outlet RT for their role in surreptitiously funding a right-wing US media outfit as part of a foreign-influence-peddling scheme, which saw them pull the wool over a bunch of right-wing media personalities. Do you think this type of thing is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Russian information warfare?

Of course. It’s the tip of the iceberg, and I want to refer back to 2016. It was much bigger in 2016 than we recognized at the time. The things that the Obama administration was concerned with—like the actual penetration of state voting systems and stuff—that was really just nothing compared to all of the internet stuff they had going. And we basically caught zilcho of that before the election itself. And I think the federal government is more aware of it this time, but also the Russians are doing different things this time, no doubt.

I’m afraid what I think is that there are probably an awful lot of people who are doing this—including people who are much more important in the media than those guys—and that there’s just no way we’re going to catch very many of them before November. That’s my gut feeling.

While we’re on Russia, I do want to talk about Ukraine, especially since you’re there right now. I think one of the most unfortunate aspects of [the media’s coverage of] foreign wars—the Ukraine war and also the Israel-Hamas war—is just the way they inevitably fade into the background of the American news cycle, especially if no American boots are on the ground. I’m curious if this dynamic frustrates you as a historian.

Oh, a couple points there. One is, I’m going to point out slightly mean-spiritedly that the stories about war fatigue in Ukraine began in March 2022. As a historian, I am a little bit upset at journalists. I don’t mean the good ones. I don’t mean the guys I just saw who just came back from the front. [I mean] the people who are sitting in DC or New York or wherever, who immediately ginned up this notion of war fatigue and kept asking everybody from the beginning, “When are you going to get tired of this war?” We turned war fatigue into a topos almost instantaneously. And I found that really irresponsible because you’re affecting the discourse. But also, I feel like there was a kind of inbuilt laziness into it. If war fatigue sets in right away, then you have an excuse never to go to the country, and you have an excuse never to figure out what’s going on, and you have an excuse never to figure out why it’s important.

So I was really upset by that, and also because there’s just something so odd about Americans being tired of this war. We can get bored of it or whatever, but how can we be tired? We’re not doing a damn thing. We’re doing nothing. I mean, there’s some great individual Americans who are volunteering and giving supplies and stuff, but as a country, we’re not doing a damn thing. I mean, a tiny percentage of our defense budget—which would be going to other stuff anyway—insead goes to Ukraine.

And by the way, Ukrainians understand that Americans have other things to think about. I was not very far from the front three days ago talking to soldiers, and their basic attitude about the election and us was, like, “Yeah, you got your own things to think about. We understand. It’s not your war.” But as a historian, the thing which troubles me is pace, because with time, all kinds of resources wear down. And the most painful is the Ukrainian human resource. That’s probably a terribly euphemistic word, but people die and people get wounded and people get traumatized. Your own side runs out of stuff.

We were played by the Russians, psychologically, about the way wars are fought. And that stretched out the war. That’s the thing which bothers me most. You win wars with pace and you win wars with surprise. You don’t win wars by allowing the other side to dictate what the rules are and stretching everything out, which is basically what’s happened. And with that has come a certain amount of American distraction and changing the subject and impatience. I think journalists have made a mistake by making it into a kind of consumer thing where they’re sort of instructing the public that it’s okay to be bored or fatigued. And then I think the Biden administration made a mistake by not doing things at pace and allowing every decision to take weeks and months and so on.

What do you think another Trump presidency would mean for the war and for America’s commitment to Ukraine?

I think Trump switches sides and puts American power on the Russian side, effectively. I think Trump cuts off. He’s a bad dealmaker—that’s the problem. I mean, he’s a good entertainer. He’s very talented; he’s very charismatic. In his way, he’s very intelligent, but he’s not a good dealmaker. And a) ending wars is not a deal the way that buying a building is a deal, and b) even if it were, he’s consistently made bad deals his whole career and lost out and gone bankrupt.

So you can’t really trust him with something like this, even if his intentions were good—and I don’t think his intentions are good. Going back to the strongman thing, I think he believes that it’s right and good that the strong defeat and dominate the weak. And I think in his instinctual view of the world, Putin is pretty much the paradigmatic strongman—the one that he admires the most. And because he thinks Putin is strong, Putin will win. The sad irony of all this is that we are so much stronger than Russia. And in my view, the only way Russia can really win is if we flip or if we do nothing. So, because Trump himself is so psychologically weak and wants to look up to another strongman, I think he’s going to flip. But even if I’m wrong about that, I think he’s incompetent to deal with a situation like this. Because he wants the quick affirmation of a deal. And if the other side knows you’re in a hurry, then you’ve already lost from the beginning.

Timothy Snyder Explains How Americans Might Adapt to Fascism Under Trump

[loustatapologist]

Coming here with the most unpopular fucking opinion: i fucking loved this episode. That ending was so fucking upsetting i kept looking away .

Truly hannibal season 2 ending level of fucked up

[mickeym4ndy]

You can spend a lot of time trying to justify everything a character has done, and it’s great to look at the reasoning behind their actions that people might not understand.

But you can also sometimes say yea it’s understandable why they did it but it was still a shitty thing to do, and that’s okay. Humans make mistakes, your favourite characters will too. It’s ok. It doesn’t make them bad people.

[cluescorner]

I cannot imagine being a Damian stan right now. You've got both Zdarsky's bullshit (where he clearly doesn't give a shit about your boy) and The Boy Wonder (where Juni Ba clearly gives so many shits about your boy) coming out on the same day. The whiplash must be insane. I hope y'all get some nice warm soup for your efforts jfc

[yellowsubiesdance]

i think i’ve learned a lot when it comes to not applying my own values to the media i consume

for my script analysis class yesterday, we discussed two gentleman from verona, and nearly every classmate of mine was up in arms about how sexist the story is.

and i'm not saying it's not, or that it's not infuriating to read. but i'm also not putting my energy into getting upset about something written 500 or so years ago. and i'm not about to put my own beliefs onto these characters that are not me. i'm going to let their choices speak for themselves, and interpret it in the context of the story.

all that said, this now brings me to the point of alastor in episode 5, and how viscerally people are responding to it. those of you up in arms about the choices he’s making, and the violent threat he gave husk, you’re missing the entire point of his character, of this place they’re in, of the story being told. he’s an overlord, and he became an overlord by killing much bigger overlords and broadcasting their deaths over the radio.

HE IS NOT A GOOD PERSON.

if you started this show with the belief that every character working the hotel is a good person, you’re in the wrong place. watch the good place if you’re looking for a good wholesome story about getting dead sinners into heaven, because that’s not what this show is about.

you’re more than welcome to hate him after seeing the way he exerted power over a being whose soul he owns, but you’re doing the media you’re watching a disservice by writing it off so quickly. if you don’t like to be uncomfortable watching media, watch something else. this is an uncomfortable show, it handles uncomfortable topics, and it’s going to be an uncomfortable ride, and if you’re not up for something like that, then you should take a break from it and pick up something else. you don’t have to get online and defend your own ideals while you watch a show that goes against your ideals.

[angelnumber27]

It’s so embarrassing and heartbreaking being in so much pain over losing someone while knowing they don’t give a fuck if you live or die. Your favorite person becoming a stranger is a special kind of hell.

[camellcat]

I feel fucking crazy!!!!!!!!!!

(thinking about the way he convinced her he was still himself. his smile when she said his name. the way he said hello. the way he simply looked at her. how he had to act like everything was normal because he was so scared she was gonna leave him. the hurt when she asked him to change back, just exacerbating that fear even more. him trying to play it off as if he's totally fine with sending her home even though it's absolutely and utterly the last thing he'd ever want to do. his pride at finally getting her to smile, only to be immediately dashed when she snapped at him. the way he made the worst impression after that and scared the life out of her.

oh, just everything, all of it.)

[razzafrazzle]

hi there. heres your every-so-often reminder that incest and sexual abuse portrayed in a positive light is a bad thing and that should not be up for debate but here we are.

[dykedvonte]

If Ulysses has a million haters, then I'm one of them. If Ulysses has one hater, then I'm THAT ONE. If Ulysses has no haters, that means I'm dead. If the world is with Ulysses than I’m against the world.

[jackfrostimposter]

genuinely why is there so much misinformation about the guardians of childhood book series?

[deus-and-the-machina]

ffxiv garlemald discourse is so funny because people will go "ugh people just cant stand it when things aren't black and white" and then you look at how the empire are portrayed in stormblood and shadowbringers and its like hm. that seems like a pretty intense and accurate display of violent imperialism to me! Wow I wonder why people in this day and age may find it hard to feel sympathy for them or even hate them on principal. god its such a mystery.

the games like 50/50 to me on how it tackles these themes because I actually like the garlemald arc in EW, I think it has a lot of horrific and powerful scenes depicting how self destructive fascist propaganda and beliefs are, but I also think it doesn't go far enough on some fronts. the garleans' xenophobia is most notably and obstacle to getting them to accept the contingent's help, which is what they're there to do,

but there's never an admission of harm from any garleans on the uuuuuuuuh massive amount of war crimes the nations around them are still suffering from they're just kind of like "we misjudged you...but you actually wanted to help us all along" like yeah thats great now can we get you all some deprogramming because you keep talking about returning to your prime and glory days and I think we need to unpack some stuff you really SHOULDNT return to. im not even really talking about EW proper but the patches where things are a bit more chilled out and people are recovering.

It feels like they wanted to have their critique of imperialism and also have things end with the beauty of human connection and reaching out and these things just don't mesh well because hey a lot of your modern day audience is not gonna like having to treat people yelling xenophobic things at the cast and your character with kid gloves after you showed them hours and hours of the awful things these people's beliefs have done. especially in the present day hoo boy.