#i'd ask people to stop and really think about the 'family' structure that existed in this time period where they insist dick was the bad gu

[tiffanybluesclues]

Every week someone makes a post about how annoying it is that Dick Grayson fans don't acknowledge his flaws, and every week someone replies with an explanation that the flaws OP listed are entirely fanon and inconsistent with canon as it actually happened and at this point I have to assume that none of those explanations are ever going to stick because clearly some people just want the fanon to be true.

Anyway, I'm just putting this here for me to edit and add relevant-to-the-topic links later so I'll have them nicely at hand to read and sooth my frustrations when it gets real bad out there. (Echo chambers are good when we use them to drown out character mischaracterizing fanon.)

[amelie-isnt-french]

Alright, I really didn't think I'd make this post TONIGHT, but the brain worms got me. Strap in.

Mutation in the X-men franchise is often interpreted as a metaphor for queerness - rightfully so, I think! (My God, the queer themes. The found family. Somebody sedate me.)

But hear me out - mutation as a metaphor for disability.

At its core, the metaphor stays the same; a marginalised group of people that is discriminated against due to an inherent part of themselves. But where it gets interesting is where the degree of (dis)trust mutants are awarded depending on the nature of their powers is concerned. And this happens both with humans and other mutants!

If we look not at the mutant-human opposition, but at the infighting among mutants, one position stands out very quickly: invisible mutations are generally looked down upon / seen as easier by mutants with visible phenotypes, with telepaths scoring the highest levels of distrust as the use of their powers leaves no visible traces behind.

(Ignoring the gay little poses they have to strike to read minds, apparently.)

As a result, there are multiple instances of e.g. Mystique accusing Charles of having had it easy/not sacrificing anything for the cause etc. Professor X's paralysis (which I'd personally count as a fairly big sacrifice, wouldn't you?) aside, while mutants with non-visible mutations may have it easier in some situations, they certainly don't have it >easy< overall - they're still mutants! And not only are they subjected to human bigotry, but to discrimination from fellow mutants, too.

Invisible disabilities often face much the same treatment. Distrust and criticism from within (and without) the community, the discrediting of their struggles with a disability overall and of their unique challenges of having an invisible disability all pile on top of the actual struggles with their disability.

This is in no way meant to take away from the struggles of >visible< disabilities - I just noticed the parallels between the treatment of X-men telepaths and common real-life rhetoric when invisible disabilities are concerned.

[If you are proud of me for making almost an entire post without diving off the deep-end of queer subtext: HAH FOOLED YA!

Just like invisible disabilities, aroace-spec folks are included in this metaphor because too many queer people like to pretend we don't exist.

Ask me about the absence of attraction and its threat to patriarchal and amatonormative structures!!]

tldr: the discrimination telepaths face from the mutant community is reminiscent of the treatment of non-visibly disabled / aroace people from their own communities. Everyone needs to stop bullying Charles for like 5 minutes please and thank you.

[bisexualamy]

ooh im intrigued 👀 go on, what would you change to fix utopia/ sod/ lottl?

I'm so glad you asked!! These changes are in order of importance. I have a few stylistic things that just make the episodes more my taste, but that's not fixing so I'm gonna stick to things structural.

#1: Martha needs the big win

People joke about "tinkerbell Jesus Doctor" but I truly think the resolution of LOTTL is the biggest thing keeping it from being truly great. The special effect really isn't the issue (this is Doctor Who after all). The issue for me is that the final scene on the Valiant, the scene that's concluding the whole plot arc of the serial, falls emotionally flat. Why does the Doctor get Martha's big win? Why was Martha's whole task to tell everyone how great the Doctor is? Every other RTD era companion gets a chance to be the hero by the end of their season. They get to save the Doctor. Rose becomes the Bad Wolf, and later becomes a badass in Pete's World. Donna saves the Doctor in Turn Left and again in Journey's End. Martha saves the Doctor by... talking up how great he is. She keeps morale up by telling stories about him.

This is so so fixable and it wouldn't change basically anything about the plot. The original plan can even stay the same! She uses the countdown to concentrate all that psychic power routing through the existing Archangel satellites. She can even still keep the people of Earth hopeful by telling them fantastic stories about the Doctor. But here's the thing. To them, the Doctor is a mythical figure. Martha is real. Martha walked the Earth, she got out of Japan alive, she has managed to walk through warzones without Toclafane detection. She is a legend of flesh and blood who sits at their dinner tables and around their campfires and tells them how to trick Toclafane and stretch their resources and she's a doctor who can treat their people and keep them alive longer.

The people's faith should be in Martha. That psychic energy should be Martha's. Instead of chanting for the Doctor they're chanting for Martha. It concludes her character arc and the episode's plot arc so well! Martha has spent the whole season feeling like she's second best. The Master kidnapped and tortured Martha's family. Who is the Doctor to forgive the Master? Martha deserves to have the win. Maybe from her time with the Doctor she chooses to spare him, only for Lucy to shoot him later, and everything stays the same. But imagine how Martha's already amazing speech would sound after a scene like this. Martha became the Doctor, only to decide that she'd rather be herself.

#2: Tweaking/nerfing the Master's drums

I used to be in camp "get rid of these completely" but I've come around on them since I saw TWEAT/TDF. The drums need to exist in some capacity to make End of Time work, and now that it's canon (as of s10) that Simm!Master no longer has his drums after they served their purpose, fine. The thing that has always bothered me about the drums is how heavily it's implied (if not explicitly stated) that much of the Master's "madness" comes from the drums. I think that's a big disservice to his character and from all the amazing groundwork previous actors did to build up the Master.

Simm!Master in TWEAT/TDF is still self-destructive, chaotic, and violent. He didn't need any drums to make him that way. I'd revise it in the Utopia arc so that the Master still has his drums, but they're treated more like a migraine disorder or tinnitus. They're painful. They bother the hell out of him. But instead of "he saw the time vortex and they made him lose his mind" it's much more akin to that feeling of losing control when your own body is working against you and there's nothing you can do to stop it. That would certainly make him meaner, more chaotic, more resentful and angry, but now it's just an amplification of what he already is.

(I also think this makes his decision for the subliminal Archangel signal to be his drums a much more telling decision. This sound is weaponized against him, and in turn he's weaponizing it against humanity.)

#3 Tweaking the Master's relationship to Gallifrey/incorporate the Time War in a smoother way

The Master has suffered a major trauma and I think the episodes try, but do not commit, to that. Instead it's more "will the drumming stop." I have always disliked that the Master's ultimate plan was to put "a new Gallifrey in the sky." Historically, the Master has not given a shit about Gallifrey unless he rules it. His rhetoric about the glory of the time lords makes no sense to me... unless it's a response to the Time War.

From the Master's perspective, he has just fled the Battle of the Cruciform to the end of the universe. He was so terrified he fobwatched himself so they'd never find him. The next memory he has as The Master is the end of Utopia, which goes straight into Sound of Drums. He has seen the Cruciform fall days ago. It makes sense he's not acting quite like himself. (I believe this is TV canon, but he was also literally taken out of the matrix to fight in the Time War, so he was quite literally dead -> Time War -> Utopia). I wish his plan, drums, and his relationship with Gallifrey was more pointed in this direction.

These are the big ones. I think this is maybe 15-20% different from what's written and I think it makes the whole arc much stronger. BBC hire me as script editor.

[marinsawakening]

How do I get over the emotional and physical barriers to go to an irl autistic hangout. New people are sort of a difficulty

I don't know you as a person. I don't know what your primary barriers are. Unfortunately, going new places is something you just kinda have to learn how to do. Personally I find it helpful to check out the website of whatever organization is hosting the hangout, perhaps call ahead to see if there are any unwritten rules (there usually aren't, but it can help soothe anxiety; in my experience, most people who work at/organize these hangouts and such are either autistic themselves or have been in the community long enough to know what to expect from autistic people and to communicate with us at least somewhat successfully, though you know, exceptions apply). After that it's a matter of bucking up and doing it. Use your usual coping mechanisms for going new places, or if you don't have any, talk to friends/family about any they think could help you, look for resources online, etc. If it helps you to have someone you know with you, bring them. I've never known even a single autism hangout to object to that, though you can obviously call to ask.

Physical barriers I also can't help with, because again, I don't know you, I don't know what your barriers are. Not all hangouts are held in places accessible to wheelchair users and other physically disabled people. You may live too far from a hangout. Not much that can be done about that.

Step one will always be googling if there are any meet-ups or hangout near where you live, and seeing if it's feasible for you to go there. These kinds of hangouts will almost always be organized by a local autism organization. Contacting a local org directly can also help; sometimes the meet-ups and hangouts aren't advertised online. If there aren't any, you can suggest that they set one up, seeing if they are receptive to this. You can also always see what talks and other informative events they have set up. These tend to be a very mixed bag in my opinion/experience, but will still give you a much better idea of what the local state of autism activism and autism knowledge is than Tumblr, Tiktok or Twitter and let you meet new people in a somewhat more structured environment. You can also see if they have any volunteer jobs going; in my experience, these events/hangouts are usually manned by volunteers, for example. Getting involved with your local autism org is a fantastic way to meet other autistic people and get an idea of what the general state of autism activism is where you live.

Obviously this is based on my own personal experience, which is highly localized. But this is also kinda the general steps to going to any kind of hangout, club, etc. If you have anxiety significant enough to stop you from going places and meeting new people, that's something you will have to work through yourself, but I'd argue in that case it's even more important to try it, because unfortunately new people are going to be a continuous problem in life that will literally never end. Social anxiety is a bitch, I know, but you just kinda gotta make it your bitch.

I recognize that it's not going to be possible for lots of people to go to local autism meet-ups or get involved in local autism orgs, for lots of reasons (inaccessibility, (social) anxiety, local autism orgs/meet-ups simply not existing, the orgs/meet-ups being too ableist/racist/otherwise bigoted to be worth bothering with, etc.), but if you've never tried it and it's feasible for you to do so, I really do recommend at least giving it a shot, even if it's scary.

[beautifulterriblequeen]

B2:S - Chapter 3

Much of this series will be about the differences and additions in the novel version, and how they contribute to my understanding of story canon. But there will be character appreciation, the odd theory and headcanon, and suchlike as well.

Here be Lujanne, Callum, Rayla, Ezran, Bait, and Soren goodness!

Spoilers for Book Two: Sky below.

Lujanne having excellent fitness for all her walking around the Moon Nexus, and she's so energetic that Callum has trouble keeping up with her! She seems like those active grandmas who almost never stop moving, who have a lifelong supply of endless stamina. It makes me wonder if Lujanne will need that level of fitness for some upcoming conflict.

Callum feeling really hungry over not eating grubs and then still deciding he'd rather be hungry. It makes me wonder all over again how Lujanne got to the point where she eats grubs, considering that other Moonshadow elves we know of back in the Silvergrove don't. I still love my hc that the giant leech ate all of Lujanne's moonberry bushes and she's taking her revenge. Whatever's going on there, Callum is definitely not at that point yet.

When Lujanne asks Callum how he knows she's real, he thinks to himself that he'd put up with just about anything from someone who was going to teach him magic. That's a great parallel and foreshadowing for Viren's student/master relationship with Aaravos! And it's telling that neither student gets exactly what they hoped to get. Lujanne doesn't actively teach Callum any spells, because she believes he can't learn Moon magic at all. Aaravos does offer Viren power, but it takes him to some very dark places - literally and figuratively - and the cost is terribly high.

Callum sees a moon shape among the ruins, and Lujanne explains that the Moonhenge layout is an intricate rune that uses the structures themselves as part of its symbols and power. That's apparently a thing even with ordinary Moonshadow villages like Hollow Wood in the east, which is the coolest idea I've seen in a while: city planning as magic runes!

Yes, that's the same shape as the pendants Ethari made for himself and Runaan. Protection? Home? Feelsiness? A sense of safety and belongnig for all cycles and seasons?

Wonder what this Moonhenge rune stands for, then, and how much of this landscape is included in that rune. I bet it's more than we think!

But it makes sense now, how toppling the stone pillars would disable the spell the druids would cast to connect with the Moon Nexus lake. Breaking the infrastructure of the Moonhenge breaks the rune.

There's a physical sensation involved with the visuals that Historia Viventem brings up! When that one ghostly druid walked through Callum, he felt icy cold. Like in ghost stories. I really wonder about what exactly Historia Viventem is doing when it activates. It shows truth, "what really happened here?", so it must have some kind of time-related element, maybe tied to how the moon always repeats the same cycles or something. But it also seems to draw on the spirits of any living people involved in the flashback, because Callum could physically feel that wispy shape passing through him. So very interesting!

Orrr... is that all wrong, and there's something else at work with this spell than time? Maybe the world beyond life and death can act as an imprint of the things that have happened in the living world, and the spell that Lujanne (and later Callum) casts taps into that place, with perfect recall. I'm looking really hard at the sentence that says "dozens of translucent elf ghosts" and "phantom Moonhenge" and "lost in their own world" here.

Lujanne says more here than in the show about the world beyond life and death, being her mysterious Moonshadow-mage self. She says that "beyond" and "between" might both apply to where this other plane of existence is, and she doesn't much care which. With all the relativity swirling around this place, and not much in the way of empiricism, it's sounding like perhaps multiple conflicting ideas might actually coexist in such a place, allowing more ideas to fit there than we might normally believe is possible. Which is a fascinating bit of worldbuilding. Basically, every headcanon anyone has ever had about the Moon Nexus could all be true at the same time, for all we know.

Oh oh oh, Callum coming in soft with a secret wish! He takes one look at the Moonhenge and immediately thinks of finding a way to see his mom again! Poor boy, my heart! I'd say that could be another interesting parallel with Viren, but then, who wouldn't hold that sentiment?

Oh my, is this another breath of life into Ye Olde Ley Lines headcanon? Lujanne mentioning the Nexuses again, so soon after talking about the runic design of the entire Moonhenge, makes me wonder if the six nexuses are in fact giant runes. On Earth, the places where ley lines cross are called nexuses, and there are those who believe those points got marked with ancient structures, like Stonehenge and many many others. If Xadia were crossed with magical lines which naturally formed nexus points where they met, and if powerful magical runes were built across those entire areas, well. That would be cool beans, fams. Can I smack a map of Xadia and release a spell like Luz Noceda does? Because ngl that is my first instinct here.

Lujanne has got to be missing some grandkids to spoil, right? The way she's always whipping out cake and ice cream for Callum, and she's so grandma-ish about it. Headcanon about her being Runaan's mom aside, she is canonically lonely and she's very sweet to Allen and Ellis and I think she's missing whatever family she once had in the past. She may never get to have that family back, so she's finding a new one among the humans who live nearby, and I think that's sweet. Found family isn't just for the young.

But Ellis is straight up gonna be her fave, I bet, because she didn't turn up her nose at Lujanne's illusion food!

Ezran and Bait have a lot more to their relationship than was visible in the show, and I'm so excited by it! Ez can tell by looking at Bait's colors that he's not truly jealous of Zym, even if he's really grumpy about the dragonling taking up his favorite human's time.

And Ez thinking a lot about his dad and the things he's taught him. They're soft leadership material, and I love that so much! "Pick your battles" and the importance of encouragement. Ahh, my heart. Ezran, you're going to be such a good king.

But wait a second: both times that Bait gets extra grumpy in Zym's first training session, Ezran has just mentioned something about flying. Guys, I think Bait wishes he could fly, really badly. And that's his biggest problem with Zym, and with Ezran teaching Zym to fly, instead of Bait who doesn't have wings so. Bait is so old that his secrets have secrets, and I'm really curious how flying fits into them now!

Rayla, Dramatic Assassin: "I need to patrol for dark forces." That's what Lujanne called the source of the purple wisps that found them. I wonder if that's an official term all Moonshadows know, or if Rayla is just taking her cue from a veteran Moon mage. And I wonder how far Rayla is falling into the apparent pattern of "one mage, one assassin", since she does spend a lot of her time patrolling without being asked.

When Callum tells Lujanne that he was bad at prince stuff, and she asks if he didn't give up and got good at those things anyway, it's an opportunity for Callum to embrace subverting his parents' expectations in favor of seeking his own path, which is a primary theme of the show. But Lujanne is a couple generations older than Callum, at the very least, and I have to wonder what her upbringing was like. Is her version of success the one she took? Was she bad at magic once too, but she persisted? She is very soft and doesn't want to kill anyone.

Maybe Lujanne had dreams of doing something else with her life, but she felt she had to pursue the destiny that others handed to her, so she studied magic as hard as she could, and she did get good at it, but using it to defend Xadia from humans is not what she wanted to do with her life. Whether there's a parallel between her and Ethari on that point, there's one between Callum and Ethari, I think. How much of your life are you willing to let others direct for you?

LISTEN I WAS DYING AT THE EAR BREAD SCENE OKAY

This is my new favorite Soren and Claudia moment ever. Soren loves him his bread, okay. Even as earplugs for Claudia's sleep ocarina tune. The fact that it's "super effective" makes me think of a Pokemon defense. The fact that he learned it at camp, where he also learned about Moonshadow Madness, is hilarious. Later on, Corvus doesn't know Soren by name, but I still love the idea of Corvus being a kind of Strider-esque camp instructor, filling the ears of his young charges with all kinds of useful tactics like ear bread for magic spell songs (which actually seemed to work as intended), and warnings about the enemy elves' blood-themed tactics (which may or may not come back around in BH)

I thought they were gonna go in a kind of deep direction when Soren still wanted his ear bread back, but then he just. Eats them. Just noms them. I love this kid. Give Soren all the bread!

[furvillaconfessions]

Rotsy here. There seems to be a lot of hurt feelings going around about this, so I'm going to try to tread carefully, but I'm not going to sugar coat anything either. If you make it all the way to the end of this very long post I have some cool stories to tell you.

I'm not going to pick apart what @/post/634692733521559552/ said just yet, but I would like to address some of the replies, because they felt like a kick in the guts after reading the post of a clearly upset person.

I don’t see it as “gate keeping.” also this spirit is known around in many other cultures not just one. better to respect the ones who asked us to cenceor it over not cencoring it at all. now I got no proof but I see so many people say that they where asked to cencor it there for what I’m doing.

If you don't see it as gatekeeping when a native person asks (begs even) someone to stop talking for them, then you're part of the problem. How do you know they aren't part of the cultures these stories are coming from? We don't. All I ask is that you try to understand where this person is coming from before just outright rejecting what they are saying.

You cant say “literally no indigenous person” like youre getting mad at people speaking for all of us and then you speak for all of us lol. If youre truly to the point of wanting to VOMIT from seeing a censored word, i think you need to take a break from this blog and probably the internet. Nobody is treating us like primitive babies. Theyre respecting our culture when we ask them to.

Atilla, you know I love you, but you should respect the culture of op too, and have a talk with them instead of assuming their disgust is simply because of text on a screen. By saying they need to get off of the internet you're not affording them with the space to share their hurt feelings- which could be the only place they have to share those feelings for all we know. It was wrong to say 'literally no one,' but I believe that came from a place of pain and not malice. This person is clearly hurt and feeling like people aren't listening to their feelings on the subject- which is what many of us feel all the time. (Assuming you are also native because you said 'us' and 'our.' Correct me if I'm wrong.) There's a bigger problem here that's been brewing for a while, and I'd like to band with you to work on this instead of fighting with you, so if you want to pm me, please do.

Now some context:

A massive reason why (was it the only reason? I can't say) the word wendigo/windigo/wintiko/whetiko started getting censored is because individuals on twitter were making posts about how the wendigo is greatly misunderstood and misrepresented (even appropriated) in white dominated culture. These individuals were tired of being harassed by people who refused to give their culture respect (or blatantly insulting them) so they started censoring the word in order to prevent their posts from appearing in the search. The same thing happened on tumblr. A lot of native people are bullied and harassed into silence when we try to speak up about things so we use code words and censoring to stay safe on the internet. This is the reason why we started censoring conversations around the entity- and also the big reason why I abandoned my original tumblr.

The wendigo is complicated. It is not a demon or a boogyman, and it's not part of a religion. Our stories (the choctaw word literally translates to stories, so I don't mean to be disrespectful) are not a religion in the same sense a christian or a muslim has a religion. Religion in the way people are talking about it doesn't exist in native american culture unless, like previously said on this blog, they are christian. It's more complicated than that. Hinduism might be a closer relative in terms of cultural and religious structure, but I'm not hindi so I can't really say for sure. On top of that, various groups have their own interpretation of the entity. Stories of the wendigo are like your grandmother's christmas dressing recipe. Everyone's family has one and they all guard it zealously. Even within the same nations, it can be regarded as a spirit that possesses people who become greedy, or simply an allegory for sexual and/or physical assault from white people. It's not a monster in the same way white european culture has come to understand the monster analogy. This misunderstanding itself is appropriation in the most basic definition of cultural appropriation. This is before we even get into the discussion of how it should be depicted. It's not simply a monster or evil spirit or physiological disorder. The wendigo is so much more than that.

I don't pretend to understand any of the algonquin languages, so the translation is both literally and figuratively lost on me, but this is the best way I can explain it from a dear canadian friend: The creature is greed. Be that just greed or lust or hunger or colonialism, it doesn't really matter. It doesn't even have to be a creature for someone to be consumed by it. Even just what it represents is dangerous and goes against the very nature of our virtues all across the nations.

I posted a very long post here once before, but I can't find it in the search so I don't know if it even exists any more. Basically what I had said in that post is that this whole situation, on all sides, is causing more damage than good. The longer we keep winding in long circles around this topic, and the more people try to sink their teeth in to control the narrative, the more power the wendigo has over us all- literally or metaphorically is up to you. Don't yell at people when they are upset, don't harass people who use the word as a screen name, don't try to speak for everyone, and most importantly, don't disregard an native person's feelings on the subject, even if you disagree with them. We all have to vent, and some people are getting to their breaking point.

If you find someone misrepresenting or appropriating any part of your culture, the best thing to do is to talk to them about it. I know they don't exactly afford us with the same respect, but clearly yelling at people and harassing them is just making them dig in their heels.

If you made it this far, thanks for listening. Here's the cool stories I promised:

As a choctaw person, I have a proposition for people who genuinely like the deer-man monster concept. There's a creature in choctaw stories called kashehotapolo. It's a contraction (sort of) between kashesho (pronounced kah-she-sho) meaning woman, and tapalo (pronounced tah-pah-lo) meaning scream. Together it's pronounced like kah-she-ho-ta-pah-lo. These are deer-human hybrid creatures who live in forests and swamps and scream (like a woman) when hunting (I picture it as sounding like a cougar scream). They have been described having deer legs, the body of a man, and either a wrinkled human face or a deer face, sometimes with antlers. Kasheotapolo are more like tricksters who like to stalk people just for the fun of it, and go out of their way to be creepy. Sometimes they are straight up violent and want to eat people, but most of the time they just like to creep people out. Another one is the deer-legged lady. In choctaw culture it's called the issikashesho (is-see-kah-she-sho) or just deer-legged lady/woman. The cherokee call them anukite (ah-noo-ki-tee; which I think means something like two-faced). These are shapeshifters who turn into beautiful women, old women, deer, deer-legged women, and anthro deer women. They hate rapists and cheaters, and will stomp rapists to death with their deer hooves. There's even a story that adults used to tell their boys at powwow's, that if they saw a drunk girl, don't take her off in the woods to take advantage of her because she could be a deer-legged lady and might stomp you to death. In more recent stories, there are deer-legged people, because women and non-binary people can rape and be raped too. Badass, huh? My proposition is to research these two creatures and start using them for your characters, stories, and usernames instead. They aren't as sacred to us as the wendigo is to the algonquin people, and they are exactly what people misrepresent the wendigo as looking like. I just think it's time to put this beast to rest.

I love you all. Be excellent to each other.

[animalsustainability]

Hey there, I've been really enjoying reading your blog and have been learning a lot. I'd like to ask about some claims I see being made online about that everyone needs to stop eating meat/animal products imminently to lessen climate change. Is that the full picture? Most articles I see online promote a "plant based" (read: vegan) diet, but is it feasible for everyone to even do that? Would it even help? Thanks :)

This is a very complex question, and a lot has been written on it from different perspectives, but I have to say that it definitely is not the full picture.  To be honest, the question you asked could become an entire paper and/or thesis, but here are some reasons why everyone stopping eating animals immediately is neither feasible nor sustainable for people or the climate. 

The fact of the matter is, we have to feed -everyone- with the land and resources we have.  Climate change aside, that is the problem ag seeks to solve. So a solution is not truly sustainable unless it is capable of feeding everyone and is better for the climate than alternatives. Ok? Here we go!

So, does going animal-free work to feed everyone?

Many people (myself included) cannot safely exist on a diet devoid of animal products. Whether it be due to celiac, soy allergies, corn allergies, other gut disorders, many people need at least some animal products to survive. I have celiac. I also cannot eat soy more than occasionally without getting very sick and risking permanent health consequences. The majority of the items on the list of foods I cannot eat without getting sick and/or putting my health at risk are plant-derived. I am far from the only one like this. 

Allergies to plant-derived foods are far more common than to animal-derived ones.  Of the top 8 allergens estimated to cause >90% of allergic reactions by the Mayo Clinic, half of them are plant sources, and of the plant sources listed (peanuts, tree nuts, soy, wheat) those are common sources of protein for vegetarian/vegan diets. If we cut out animal-based protein, where are people with these allergies going to get protein?

Saying “everyone can eat vegan” is ableist, and denies the reality of many people, myself and many of my family members included.

Going totally vegan may actually be bad for some ecosystems

Grasslands and rangelands need grazing to survive. These lands evolved under pressure from native herbivores, which in turn were kept in check by predators. Humans have largely eliminated those predators from a good chunk of the world, or severely reduced them (see the issue with deer overpopulation in the US due to human elimination of predators). 

Even if all the land currently grazed by herbivores was returned to wild populations, we risk herbivore overpopulation issues and long-term environmental degradation. If we just remove all grazing herbivores, we wind up with habitat degradation and in many places, increased fuel for forest fires, which causes its own problems. Removing herbivores also changes ecosystem balance for many other species that rely on herbivores to clear out excess brush, provide manure, or alter habitats.

A totally vegan diet for humanity wastes land.  (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/earth/going-vegan-isnt-actually-th/) Most grazing land is unsuitable for row crops without massive inputs of fertilizer and tilling/irrigation, which themselves can have a fairly high carbon footprint, and repeated tilling can be very bad for certain kinds of soil. (http://cropwatch.unl.edu/tillage/structure) 

Have you ever seen the rangelands of California or Montana? It would be extremely difficult to grow row crops there, but we are really good at growing cattle and sheep there!  Since grassland is 26% of the world’s land area, and 70% of the world’s agricultural area, any diet that doesn’t use pasture-produced animal products will be wasting a lot of land that could be feeding people. (http://www.fao.org/ag/agp/agpc/doc/grass_stats/grass-stats.htm)

As the world population increases, pressure on existing land usage is going to increase, and so agriculture needs to rise to meet this challenge.

So I think we can make the case that a), a vegan diet will not feed everyone, and b) wastes land that could be used to feed people. So by default it’s not sustainable.

But what about livestock and climate change?

Livestock production of all types sum up to 15% of total greenhouse gas emissions worldwide (http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/197623/icode/),and 24% of global greenhouse gases come from agriculture, forestry, and other land use, according to the FAO. That includes plant and animal agriculture. (source: https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/global-greenhouse-gas-emissions-data)

 Of this, livestock are a major contributor, but so is soil management, which is needed for growing both human food and feed for livestock.

By contrast, electricity/heat, industry, and transport account for 25, 21, and 14% of greenhouse gases, respectively. 

In the US, livestock account for just 4.2% of total greenhouse gas emissions. To contrast, transportation and energy production account for 27% and 31% of total US greenhouse gas emissions, respectively. 

The contribution of livestock to greenhouse gases is higher in developing countries, partially due to a lot of livestock eating poorer quality feed or needing longer to reach market, and the fact that grass-fed livestock do produce more methane than livestock fed on lower-fiber feeds. 

But as discussed above, those grass-eating livestock are necessary for producing food where other crops can’t grow, and keeping ecosystems healthy.

So for the US and other developed countries, focusing on livestock seems a bit shortsighted compared to developing cleaner energy and transport, right? (source: http://www.afia.org/rc_files/801/livestocks_contribution_to_climate_change_facts_and_fiction.pdf Disclaimer: the author of this piece is one of my advisors) 

The US EPA here lists a lot of good ways we can improve agriculture to reduce climate change https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions#land-use-and-forestry but the fact of the matter is, while ag and livestock ag in particular contribute a good amount to climate change, it’s got a big job to do - feeding everyone!

Herbivores like cows and sheep and goats are needed to preserve native forage-based ecosystems and provide food, but at the cost of producing methane that contributes to climate change. However, if we got rid of every cow and sheep and replaced their contribution to human diets with chicken and pigs, we’d have to grow extra food for them, which means more greenhouse gases to grow those foods, and we’re back at square one

To me, the real benefit of livestock, especially on range situations, is that they turn human-inedible plant protein into human-edible protein. That’s a significant reason why they’re so important to the human food supply.

Livestock also eat a lot of byproducts (brewer’s mash, hulls, tomato pulp, etc) that would otherwise go to waste.  This reduces the impact of their feed production and of waste disposal in other industries. We’d have a lot of reject feed/byproducts sitting around if we got rid of livestock, and those would have greenhouse gas production from their waste disposal.

For me, it amounts to priorities - we know a vegan diet won’t feed everyone and it wastes land. We don’t have enough arable land to feed everyone on a vegan diet, even if everyone could go vegan. 

We have researchers like myself and my colleagues working to help farmers reduce greenhouse gas emissions no matter what they farm (greenhouse gas emissions are a waste, remember, and cost farmers money). Livestock, especially in range situations and developing countries, eat a lot of stuff that would otherwise go to waste, and help keep ecosystems healthy. 

So it’s not just the analytical life cycle of the animal and it’s impacts, it’s what would the effect on climate change be by a) removing livestock and b) dealing with the human food needs met by doing so? 

To me, livestock earn their keep, and while it is our job to keep improving livestock systems to be more efficient and help  prevent worse climate change, we also need to remember that livestock are an important part of the sustainability of existing systems. 

So hope that answered your question, anon! For more info, check out this video presentation that you might find neat, as well: http://articles.extension.org/pages/28311/clearing-the-air-on-animal-ag-and-greenhouse-gases

[aurum-auri]

Obviously planning, writing and publishing a novel is no small thing, but what, if you don't mind me asking, is holding you back from publishing your fantasy novel? Is it the writing process, life in general and/or publishing? I'm just a bit curious, cause I'd love to publish too but have trouble fleshing out anything that could be considered Original, what with all the fiction out there already, and I really like your writing style- I think a novel of yours would be really enjoyable to read

This is kinda like two posts in one. And it got super long, but I had a lot of fun writing this so whatever. Here is why I haven't published a novel, and how to be original. Why I haven't published my novel: The only thing holding me back is myself. I've tried half a dozen times to write this thing over the last 5 years. The plot has undergone countless revisions to become what it is today. The characters have been fleshed out so much from their original forms that some of them exist in my mind like real people. I can visualize exactly how they would act and speak and react to things. I have an entire world crafted, down to the political structures and power struggles between rivaling city states, the effects of commerce and climate on the culture of each major location, the fantastical creatures inhabiting my world, even a race of sentient creatures who believe they are at war with the humans and have an entire culture that is loosely derived from a rough combination of Roman, Norse, Japanese, and some shit I completely made up (which should tell you at least a little something about how these people operate haha). I've even fleshed out a goddamn magic system, which was a time and a half. I've got this massive playground to futz around in. But every time I've tried to write it, it just wasn't right. I've made this story my baby, and that's a mistake because it will never be good enough in my mind. I realize this, though, so I've set it aside until I stop caring so much about it and can finally slop out a rough draft from my piles of notes. I care too much about it still, though. So I haven't touched it in about a year and I'll probably wait a while longer. I'm getting close, though, I think. I may try again for NaNo this year, if I'm feeling up to it. My avatar is actually my favorite character from the story hehe. His name is Saphiel and he's my precious genocidal evil overlord. Yes, he is in fact a villain. He's not even the biggest baddie in the story. He's quite precious. Anyway, tl;dr: I have stared at this thing for years and I want it too badly to get anywhere with it. So it's in time out right now until I have some chill and can bust this thing out like it's cheap fanfic. How to be original:The bad news: you can't. Not really. I mean, almost every plot in the world is, at its core, some character has a problem that probably needs fixing. If there wasn't a problem, it would get sort of boring. Not to say that the world has run out of new ideas, just that you shouldn't worry so much about being 100% original. How many Time Travel AU fics exist for YOI? How many coffee shop AUs? And they're all different, aren't they? Because even when they have the same premise, they can be made unique by the approach they take, the filter they run the world through, the decisions they make about how characters should think and feel and act to various stimuli. Originality is not having a plot no one has ever seen before. It isn't making up fantasy creatures that would astound Lovecraft, or making up a story that is completely different from every other book in existence. Derivatives of other works are basically an inherent flaw of being a writer, and they are soooo common. You should always be influenced by the things you read, and that isn't a bad thing. This is not me saying copy other writers, but it is me saying that it isn't bad to be inspired by them. I cherry pick at things I aspire to. I want characters that banter like Scott Lynch's Gentleman Bastards. I want my research and facts as neat and tidy as those in Andy Weir's The Martian (which, side note, I FUCKING LOVE this book even if it isn't fantasy). I want a world as diverse as a D&D campaign. The boundless imagination of HP Lovecraft (although I don't think I need to think up any eldritch horrors). The musical prose of Rothfuss. The list goes on. Writers come from readers, and readers have to read. Which means you're going to be exposed to all sorts of styles and choices and all of them feel new and fresh and original when you read them, right?It's because it isn't the plot that is unique, necessarily. It's their take on it. And the key to being original is to be true to yourself. Write what you want to see from a book. Write the things you love. What tropes do you like? Fill the pages with them. I love revenge plots, villain redemptions, road trip-like journeys where a group of strangers become a tightly knit family, and pairs of characters that would sell their soul to save each other. I love flawed characters with white hair and protagonists that aren't as good as they probably should be. I Iove a struggle to do right when all a character knows is bad. So that's all in my novel. That's driving my story. That's what makes it original. Your original story comes from the things you want to see most, and really, that's the truth as far as I can understand it. Hope this helped!!

[somuchbetterthanthat]

can you talk more about Grantaire's sister? I'd love to hear your headcanons about her and their relationship :D

Again, I must give a shout out to @sovinly and @sceptiqueveille. That’s basically copyright. Highly probable each of us have created our little ideas of Isabelle on the side, but, y’know.

Anon, you’ve got no idea what you’ve opened up for me here. I adore Isabelle more than most OCs in the world. To explain Isabelle and her relationship with Grantaire, however, I must talk a little bit about my idea of Grantaire’s parents.

In my mind, the word that describes Grantaire’s parents is: excellence. Grantaire’s parents are scientists, both of them. On his father’s side, a very rich bourgeoise family, breeding scientists, lawyers, judges, etc.etc. On his mother’s side, a less rich family (though not considered “poor” either, just not “rich enough” if you will, probably rich farmers, or small business-owners), from which Grantaire’s mother escaped through marriage; Grantaire’s parents love each other, admire each other, and respect each other. 

Now, Isabelle Grantaire, their eldest, proves to be a quick learner, with capacities in science like her parents, determined to be Someone (though, whether that’s inherited from her parents’s education, or just her personality, impossible to tell). Whatever Isabelle puts her mind into, she excels. In many ways, Grantaire’s parents try very hard to conform to society, whatever society you put them in: the only thing you can never accuse them of is sexism: They’re hell-bent on making sure their daughter don’t become only “a wife”. But, anyway, Isabelle is born as smart as her parents, in a way they understand and approve of: she’s the easy child to love. 

Grantaire, however, our Grantaire, does not do so well; he doesn’t get numbers; he’s easily distracted by things; he’s a loud, wild little child demanding attention who tries his hand on many things, and excels in nothing. Oh, he has knowledge! Nobody would deny his knowledge in Classics is exemplary, apart maybe Grantaire himself, except he doesn’t seem to want to do anything about it. Grantaire is also smart, except he’s smart in a way his rigorous, calm, structured parents have no connection with, and don’t get all. From there, is born trouble: Grantaire’s parents love him, try to love him at least, except they spend more time being exasperated at him than anything else, which results in a very bad relationship, where Grantaire’s mishaps are enlightened while other possible good things he does are ignored, and no easy affection - whether words or gestures - are really given.

Of course, this attitude also enables comparison between the two siblings; why can’t Grantaire be more like Isabelle…? Isn’t it a shame…? etc. 

But, alright - I head canon Isabelle being older than Grantaire by a good few years, at the very least five or six, but usually even more. Isabelle, because she’s clever, knows that there’s a difference between the way her parents love her, and the way they treat her brother. And the thing is, Isabelle loves her loud, mouthy little brother a lot; she’s got more patience for him than most people around them, and Grantaire naturally gravitates around her, asking for the attention he’s not receiving elsewhere and Isabelle, only a little girl herself, ends up taking up the role of mother from her brother more than sister.

She’s the one he listens to, she’s the one who tucks him in bed, she’s the one who makes sure he sits still during his lessons: they read stories together, and she’s the one who hugs him and plays with him and tell him he’s good when he is, etc. But the thing is, Isabelle is only a child herself, with her own preoccupations and worries, with her own life, and sometimes, sometimes, she feels so tired of not being able to be merely a sister: she snaps at Grantaire to leave her alone, sometimes, and then guilt eats at her, because Grantaire will grow quiet like he does with their parents, and stop coming all together until she makes the first step towards him once more. When she turns sixteen or so, she starts getting out in society; one day, she says to her little brother, who was rambling how she wasn’t there anymore, and nights were boring etc. “aren’t you a bit too old to be with your sister all the time anyway?” tired and guilty and tired to feel guilty, and Grantaire never comes by again to climb in her bed and hang out with her ever again. 

In fact, as Grantaire grows up, there’s a gap that grows between them; Isabelle marries in her twenties, to a disabled poet: that’s the first choice she’s made that wasn’t approved by her parents (right until they realized it offered their daughter perfect liberty: the marriage was not one of love, but of friendship. Isabelle never cared for romantic love, really. She’s very aromantic.) Grantaire moves to Paris. They still visit each other, and write to each other a lot, but between them is, perhaps, their parents’s education, and both of them see all too well the disparities between each other. 

Still! Grantaire adores his sister, truly; he praises her whenever he can, and if you were to listen to him, you’d think he sees her perfectly flawless. She’s, with no contest, is favorite family’s member. As for Isabelle, she will always fiercely defend and protect her little brother, and welcome him in her home no matter what. Isabelle and Grantaire are more or less close depending my stories and their background, but no matter what they always really, really love each other, and you’re sure that Isabelle has a very real influence on Grantaire.

(Which, now that I think about it, I do not use often enough when it comes to Grantaire and his behaviors with ladies. Uh. To explore further.)

Is that long enough for you, Anon? Did I mention I would give my life for Isabelle Grantaire, and that in many many of my stories she ends up a honest and firm politician (yes, in fiction, those exists), or leader. Even in canon-era. Like I said, when she put her minds into it, Isabelle Grantaire excels. 

[taz-writes]

Damn, Feilan is one of the only fantasy stories I've seen which takes place in a planet in a galaxy which is acknowledged, that's one of the coolest WIP things ever. How was the galaxy and all the planets and Illiginia specifically formed? You mentioned the Cataclysm in the oceans ask, is that related to the world formation? What are the Ages of the planet, was there an extinction in any of them? Sorry for the questions the whole galaxy thing is just an awesome concept I'd love to hear more

Fair warning, this is gonna be long. 

The galaxy was formed the way most galaxies are, probably, with the guidance of Nafia--the ‘ultra-god’ of the universe, basically. You have the Four acting as gods of Iliginia specifically, and Nafia is more of a universal deity, whose power and behaviors are more similar to a Christian-esque Eternal God Figure. She tends to act slowly and gradually, and she ‘guides’ the creation of new things by accelerating and motivating what we would recognize as astrophysics and all that good stuff. 

Iliginia was her first real creation, and she built the galaxy and large chunks of the universe out from there, so you could almost say that Feilan is the center of the universe. Except it still rotates around a star like most normal planets do, so it’s not really. It’s just a planet, Nafia shaped it out of stardust, watched it grow and coalesce over millions of years, time isn’t a thing for her the way it is for mortals or even the Four! Though it’s said that she used to be much more active... in modern times on the planet, her name is everywhere but she’s not worshipped nearly as much as the Four, because she’s just not there. People say she spends her time on the Isle (Feilan’s afterlife) and that’s why she doesn’t play with mortal affairs, though goodness knows that hasn’t stopped the Four. Honestly, my theory is that Nafia created the Four not only for company but so she’d have help managing the absolute shitshow Iliginia turned into. She could leave them back on Iliginia to clean up mortal messes and keep them from blowing up the universe, and go on to make more planets and do more things elsewhere. It... uh, yeah, that backfired. The Four are not always helpful. 

The Cataclysm was one of the major shake-up events in Iliginia’s history that divides up their Ages. Feilan’s history, when written out, is generally divided into four Ages. They’re named after the four magical elements, but also after what causes them to end, which is my dumb little private easter egg. OFC the Age of Darkness is wrong now because I made the evil stuff pale instead years ago but Who Cares Anyways?

The Age of Light: The first era. Nobody knows anything about this, because it’s said to be the beginning of civilization and life. Faiana was Queen of Feilan at this time, until she gave up the throne around the time of the white flash at the start of history. This was the event that caused the change of recorded Ages. Nobody has any historical record of anything before the flash, or any evidence that civilization and society even existed before it. This is a big question mark for EVERYONE. The white flash is generally said to be the beginning of the world as we know it. 

The Age of Storm: Not much information survived about this one either, but we know stuff about how it ended, which is better than anything before the white flash. It started with the Great Storm: a period of brutal weather and icy cold that lasted for a few hundred years, and tore apart what was left of any social structure from the Age of Light. Feilan was a much bigger country than it is now, and its new rulers (Faiana’s descendants, the del Aphir family, then spelled del Afiri) had no fucking clue what they were doing. Faiana left them with zero instructions and zero guidance and then vanished without being seen again for hundreds of years. Things started to fall apart, this was a very messy time with a lot of indistinct wars that never went anywhere or changed much. The Irkatzi emerged shortly after the Great Storm ended and conquered a ton of stuff, creating the Empire of Karatza and picking fights with Feilan constantly. The human nations were victims to all of this, the mersprites got shit dumped in their territory, it was stupid and obnoxious and it lasted a hell of a long time. Eventually, things calmed down... and then a big fucking storm rolled up. 

The Cataclysm was the event that ended the Age of Storm and led into the Age of Illusion. It was a major disaster and apocalyptic near-miss caused by the Ravenharts (then called Rhevyanars, before it got... feyicized? like anglicized but into not-English) and del Aphirs having an unmitigated shitshow magic-flexing contest all over the continent of Againia. As the story goes it was romantically fueled: the younger sister of the Irkatzi Empress had a crush on the del Aphir king but he wound up dating her twin brother. So she tried to kill the king on the wedding day, and inadvertently created a massive natural disaster. Volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, literally just think of any stupid weather thing that could happen and it probably happened. Listhana was her name, but it just means ‘lightning’ in Ancient Feian so it’s probably just a posthumous nickname. She was a powerful electropsychic, meaning she had Storm/Illusion magic kicked up to peak potential threat level, and she was quite literally strong enough to toss around hurricanes and make volcanoes erupt under her own power. Don’t fuck with electropsychics out of Harmonine’s direct lineage, kiddos, they’re OP as FUCK. 

Somehow, the King and prince survived this, because the del Aphir line did continue. Nobody has any clue how that happened, because like I said, Listhana was OP. 

Between Listhana, the del Aphir king, and all the other third parties dragged into the conflict, they sunk half the country beneath the sea, froze up the top of the continent, and just generally made a big stupid mess. Modern historians know more about this shitshow than the white flash or the Age of Light, by a long shot, but historians in Feilan still suck.

History picks up properly with the Age of Illusion: the Age before the modern one, and the one Sayara’s read about the most. The early Age of Illusion was mostly spent dealing with the aftermath of the Age of Storm. Feilan rebuilt itself into the modern 12-tribe system, more or less--the Irkatzi were still independent and fighting, and there were a few more small fringe tribes along the edges--and society got onto a relatively even keel. Nothing interesting really happened in this one. The Irkatzi had a bunch of stupid border wars with Feilan’s Ajrijl tribe, set up trade relations with two other continents, and chilled. Marazzia decided after the Cataclysm to take its intervention politics seriously, and they made a big difference re: enforcing peace. Everything was fine until the FOE showed up. 

The Age of Darkness is the modern age. It started with Calama’s War, which has like twelve different narratives depending on who you ask. Sayara’s got an obsession bordering on special interest territory, she’ll tell you all about it. TLDR; there were two del Aphir princesses, Calama and Cyrenna. Calama, the heiress, did something and got infected by paleness. This was the first time the FOE reared his dumbass head in Feilan. Under his influence, Callie tore a bloody streak through the country, sabotaging her own nation while also actively hunting the Irkatzi with an unprecedented fervor. She was a powerful Light fairy, who also had the legendary bow Starshard in her possession, and she was damn near unstoppable. 

Cyrenna was her younger sister, who fled for her life at the beginning but then got forced to step up to the plate and clean up Callie’s mess. Cy wound up finding Stormcleaver, Kariel’s legendary axe, and facing down against her sister to defeat the paleness and kick the FOE out of Feilan. There were a bunch of other people involved, the Irkatzi had a ton of internal drama, but that’s the general gist of it. At the end of Calama’s War, the Irkatzi had been decimated, and were forced to merge with Feilan for the sake of their society’s survival. Part of this deal stipulates that should the del Aphir line ever end, then the surviving Ravenhart will take over the throne of Feilan at large, since the Ravenharts are the only other established godly lineage. Hence the title Crown Princess for the newly-demoted ex-Empress. 

Calama’s War is pretty relevant to the plot, since their still-mostly-mysterious method of destroying paleness is the only reference anyone’s got for dealing with the FOE. Also, various Ravenharts do talk a lot about killing Kyrina and claiming the throne, since it technically would be their right in that situation...... historically this only hasn’t happened because the Irkatzi are too busy having stupid squabbles with the Ajrijl or fighting amongst themselves to wonder if it would be fun to have an empire again. 

So yeah, those are the Ages. I rambled on a lot but I swear this is relevant. 

There was, in fact, an extinction event in the far reaches of ancient Feian history. I will not say anything more about this event than what I’ve already mentioned in early posts on this blog: there used to be a fourth sapient race on Iliginia, called shrians. They don’t exist anymore, they were all annihilated before history began. Nobody knows they ever existed to begin with. Any ruins of their society that may have survived were destroyed in the Cataclysm.