#like particularly how i was at that age

[jupitersflytrap]

i just read the curious incident of the dog in the night-time and hopped on here to see what the general consensus was about it and oh dear i was not expecting to see so many people hating it

[mrs-gauche]

- “You weren’t wrong, though.” - “Thank you, Cole.”

[brookheimer]

the one thing i feel pretty certain about for this episode is that america will not decide the election. a decision will be made, a president will be elected, but america will not be the deciding factor.

succession can’t mimic 2016 or 2020 point blank, that would be boring and have nothing to say. it can’t try to outdo trump because it’ll go too whacky and fall flat like veep’s last season (sorry conheads, no way he’s winning). but what it CAN do is illustrate the immensely corrupt, often arbitrary, and hugely influential nature of news media and conglomerations on political processes. i think probably jimenez will be in the lead, then atn/waystar does something to, i don’t know, discount votes or cast suspicion on jimenez or call the election for mencken early, and the tide will shift, even though the votes are already in. the votes don’t actually matter. the actual result doesn’t actually matter. that’s the power logan (and as an extension, billionaires and CEOs in general) hold. shiv says it herself to logan in s4e2: “just cause you say it’s true doesn’t make it true. everyone just fucking agrees with you and believes you, so it becomes true and then you can turn around and say like, 'oh, you see? see? i was right.'” but it doesn’t matter that logan’s “a human fucking gaslight,” everything he says comes true anyways. not because he was right, but because that’s how it works. he says things and then they happen, regardless of what the truth is or what should actually come to pass. that’s been one of the key throughlines since the very first episode of the entire show when, in response to kendall calling logan out of touch because times are changing and logan isn't changing with them, logan hisses that everyone always says you’re wrong until you do it and prove you were right: “you make your own reality.” you can't miss the bus if you're the one driving it. the election, the votes, the political process? none of that matters. it was always going to come down to the roys and their ilk (allies or enemies, just the top 1%) — that was the whole point of “what it takes” (the mencken episode) last season, after all.

i’ve seen lots of theories about what america will choose and how the candidates will respond and all that and i just don’t think that’s the show’s focus; i think the whole point is to demonstrate the lack of agency, the illusion of democracy. because, i mean, we’ve already seen the fall of democracy via fascist election and fascist election-denial, both in real life and in the countless (usually mid) satires created afterwards. it would be disappointing to see succession use the election to reiterate that same point of 'ohhh alt-right ahhhhh!!!' i don’t think it’ll be about ‘fascism’ at all — at least, not ‘trump-y’ fascism. it’ll be about fascism in the broader sense, the kind that doesn't sport a KKK hood (even when it keeps one tucked away in the attic). it's the fascism that every single roy (very much including shiv and kendall) aid and abet -- the fascism that so many succession fans don't seem to regard as fascism, despite it quite literally being the definition of fascism. trump wasn’t the entrance of fascism into our political process. he wasn’t the lone sign of the failing of american democracy. democracy in america has long been illusory, trump just made it more blatantly evident with his particular brand of hate-speech-ridden masculinist in-your-face fascism.

so i think that’s what this episode will hopefully focus on — america will not decide. corporations, news media, and the roys will. thus, the president will most likely become president not because the country supports his policies the most, but because he’s likely to agree to help block a business deal for a major media empire, and the other candidate is unlikely to. and this will likely come to pass due to said major media empire's interference and influence: they create their own reality. they say it, and everyone agrees with them and believes them, so it becomes true.

[mummer]

i have made jokes in the past about 28 year old olivia cooke as alicent standing beside her fully grown adult sons also in their twenties and being like Yes i am their mother. And they ARE my adult sons who are older than me. but actually the way it shakes out in the show is like. Oh yeah she very much was a teen mom and victim of marital rape from the age of like 16 she was just a kid obviously she has no idea how to be a parent and would feel very strange and removed from it even now. like it manages to be incredibly sad lol

[juls-art]

And another Varric! cuz he’s so fine n I just can’t help myself!

-- Kofi | Patreon        

[snackugaki]

soft apocalypse 3

training is basically bonding, right? ft. future!venus

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

i love this alliance general and am glad someone is thinking positive about future friendships in this damn game

look at this cute general look at him wanting to be friends with all these people he spent all these good times with

[sesamenom]

Maglor Variations for the maglorath

normal outfit minus coat traditional Maglor Palette

pre-exile feanorian colors black & grey version

normal outfit minus coat plus glasses goth version plus glasses

[cherry-pop-soda]

okay but does anyone listen to bronski beat and does anyone GET IT. they released an album, completely unashamedly gay, in the 80s, during the AIDS crisis, during a time of insanely rampant homophobia and over the top conservatism. they released an album with the age of consent for homosexual activity in every european country listed on the sleeve and the phone number for a legal advice hotline for queer people etched into the grooves of the vinyl. they released an album with the opening track dedicated to a hate crime victim, featuring vocals from an openly gay choir. they released an album with songs about homophobic violence, the dangers of following the bible too closely, about leaving behind everything you know and starting over, about homophobic family and homophobic bullying. they wrote about being gay and being proud of it and knowing that there is nothing wrong with who you are. in the face of all the hatred going on in the 80s they released an album that was in-your-face gay and fuck-you queer, and i love them for it.

(see original tags for a lot more commentary)

[redlyriumidol]

THEDAS; a fanmix collection for the settings of dragon age: dreadwolf. listen on spotify: TEVINTER / ANTIVA / ANDERFELS / RIVAIN TEVINTER / opulent, magnificent, but creepy, sinister... corrupt city of darkness and hedonism. immense gothic cathedrals of dark stone tower above the downtrodden masses that scurry beneath. so much history, so much culture, but the blood will never wash out ANTIVA / italian, with hints of spain. neighbours sit around in the streets to play guitars or lutes and sing/clap together. beautiful twisting spires, refinement, but there's a seedy underbelly, the stink of leather and the risk of murder- the people are joyful nevertheless- wine, food, song flows from every open window. ANDERFELS / vast, open, nothingness. a feeling of pervasive doom, a searching for some sign of the maker in the unforgiving wastelands under an expanse of empty sky. grim soldiers clad in grey march across the dusty landscape, the king has long abandoned his people who must fend for themselves against the constant threat of darkspawn. RIVAIN / their lives are intertwined with the sea. fishing nets, the smell of salt. pirates and sailors come and go, drinking spiced rum at the taverns. and there's an old magic there which sits on the skin, it's as natural to them as breathing. respected seeresses with wrinkled, weather-beaten faces ply their trade under the smoke of burning herbs and cured fish. women sell branches of rosemary on street corners. hints of spanish romani culture and music, also north african and al-andalus.

[incorrect-jojolands-quotes]

here's a little jojolands conspiracy

Jodio's father being forced to leave Hawaii is more intwined with Usagi but not in the way that you think. (I know I made a theory about Usagi being the owner of the parrot on the bus but this is something entirely different).

tl;dr: Usagi and Jodio's fathers were best buds. Jodio's father trying to help his friend led to the mess we know now.

Basically, Usagi and Jodio's fathers were childhood best friends. They were both raised in Hawaii with similar circumstances and had their own rag-tag group of friends; it was those two that were the closest however. After high school, both fathers had different ambitions: Usagi's father went into construction on O'ahu while Jodio's father moved to the mainland go to college. They kept letters, went on occasional trips together, and briefly lost contact before reconnecting just when Jodio's father decided to move the family back to O'ahu. There, he reconnected with Usagi's father and learns that both were hired by Howler for outsource construction and insurance administration respectively.

Howler tends to outsource a lot of their stuff as an infrastructure company, so Usagi and Jodio's fathers began working for them via their own companies. Both the construction and insurance companies want to have the best relationship with Howler as possible, and Jodio's father particularly was in charge of overseeing the insurance stuff for Howler and a couple of their partnerships (i.e. the bus company); that's how high up he was.

Like many infrastructure companies and businesses that require physically demanding work, Howler is no stranger to workplace injuries and the legal aspects of it. So, having to deal with OSHA violations, accidents, and potential deaths is often dealt with as quickly and cost-effectively as possible. Part of why they outsource their construction work is to minimize their involvement in accidents that may occur and have the minutia of payouts and blame lie on the companies they hired instead. This is where Usagi's father's death comes in.

Usagi's father died tragically from being hit by a bus that coincidentally belonged to one of Howler's partnerships in the process of being merged into the corporation: a local Oahu bus company that coincidentally belongs to the bully that later attacks Dragona. Because this bus was also under Howler, they couldn't just have the contracted company deal with the mess and therefore used Jodio's father's insurance company to see how much they can get away with not paying out the Alohaoes. In other words, Howler wants to pay the minimum amount and possibly screw over the Aloahoes knowing they don't have the resources or emotional energy to fight over getting a low payout.

However, Jodio's father knew what they were planning to do to the Aloahoes and couldn't stand being complicit in screwing his late best friend's family. So, used his power to make sure the Alohaoes were paid every cent they deserved and basically "screwed" Howler with the insurance pay. (By screwed, they lost a few million and it took a bit of work from PR to have people forget it happened). This strained the relationship between his insurance company and Howler to the point where the latter threatened to break their contract with the former. Neither could do anything towards Jodio's father legally, who tried his best to "lie" about how he wasn't able to give them the lowball offer they wanted to give and he could use this as a blip in his near-perfect track record. To prevent the Alohaoes from being further involved, he cut contact with the family and made it so it was a random insurance agent that handled their payout. The plan to introduce his kids to Usagi as friends was also abandoned.

While this helped the Alohaoes greatly and he still oversaw Howler's insurance stuff, he starts being treated badly at work. The higher executives pressured his co-workers and team to give him the cold shoulder under false rumors that he was not the great employee or team-player he gives off. Jodio's father began missing out on promotions/raises, getting iced out from work activities, and he's sometimes forced to take on other workloads. This puts a further strain on his marriage, as Barbara Ann mentioned, but he refuses to tell her what had been going on; it was his thing to ensure his family from the cruelties of the world, which is sometimes interpreted as him being aloof and not as involved as a parent, and he was a workaholic to begin with due to ensuring his children get the best education they can.

When the bus experienced the arson attack, media and police claim the culprit is unknown. However, Dragona's bully wanted a final jab and, while hospitalized, claimed Dragona was the arsonist. There was clearly no evidence besides Dragona being coincidentally not there that day in school, and the police weren't inclined to take a bribe at the time, but Howler and the insurance company catches wind of this. Still bitter about what Jodio's father did, they worked with the bully's parents to come up with fabricated yet convincing evidence against his child. They threaten him to take the blame and pay 10x the claim (since it was a little more than the money he had Howler pay to the Alohaoes) or they would give the fake evidence to the police and have Dragona arrested. The insurance company, seeing that their top employee was in controversy and not wanting their business to lose more profit because of it, also forced him to resign.

Jodio's father knew his child would never do such a thing and that the evidence was all fake, but he accepted the resignation and the debt for Dragona's sake. Part of why he's not able to take the kids and Barbara Ann was them still holding onto that fake evidence and claiming they can always send it into the police if he fails to finish his payments or tries anything to take his children with him; in other words, the Joestars are almost like hostages in Hawaii. He also didn't want Dragona to feel guilty or that they were at fault for the mess.

So, that explains what Barbara Ann meant when she tried to explain to her children why their father had to leave yet the circumstances were absurd.

Two things to add:

What if the bus death was planned and Usagi and Jodio's fathers were punished for investigating the lava rock?

Does Usagi know about this? Will he ever know?

Anyways, what do y'all think?

[wizardnaturalist]

see, despite the Everything, I had hope that Leo's Forced Cognitive Restructuring would give him new perspectives on what kinds of people (all of them) deserve respect and recognition

but instead it's almost had the opposite effect. hes become embittered to his situation and is losing many of the traits that made him likable despite his character flaws. his honour, his devotion, his belief, have all been sanded away in the pursuit of becoming "stronger"

[blackswallowtailbutterfly]

Someone insisting we don't learn language intuitively unless homeschooled...Did...did your parents put in you in school at 18 months of age? Did a teacher go around a room of toddlers with a dictionary saying, "This is what 'mama' means"? Because if the answer to that is no--and it is definitely no--you learned language intuitively, like everyone else. The finer points you learn in school, and later on your own, but even as you're doing that, you're still picking up words and phrases just by talking to people and reading.

[vargaslovinghours]

Apparently sweetness was on the menu

[thedreadvampy]

sorry I'm on one now. Narnia is one of my Big Rant triggers.

but like. I would be lying if I said I didn't love Narnia

(everything except the Horse and His Boy, which a) even as a tiny kid made me uncomfortable with how fucking racist it is (literally there is ONE. ONE. character of colour who isn't evil, selfish, greedy and violent. even when you're 5 and white and don't really understand racism it's like. sorry there are just no nice people in this whole country? and every Narnian is lovely?) and b) is just fucking DULL partly bc of the 2 dimensional racist caricatures populating the world)

but I can't pretend for a second that it isn't specifically built around a Christian theology that's explicitly racist, hierarchical, supremacist, colonialist and The Bits I Like Least Of Anglicanism

and my FAVOURITE books in the series (except the Silver Chair which tbh is WAY less theological and way more mythology-nerd) are the first and last, which are by far the most explicitly Christian. even more so than TLTWATW.

and I can just about stand by the Magician's Nephew bc it's mostly just a mix of Christian creation myth and CS Lewis's sci fi interests in the esoteric and multiverses and it honestly feels fine. but my all time favourite most iconic Narnia book is The Last Battle and I just. cannot. justify it for a second from a political or philosophical standpoint.

it's got it all bc it's the book where Lewis is like ok hold up let me lay out explicitly what my theology is. and what he thinks it's important to say is:

Almost all Muslims are bad and evil

They worship Satan by doing Bad Evil Deeds to please him

There are a couple of Good Muslims who do good deeds. they need to be brought to the light, understand that the voice calling them to do good deeds is the Christian god, and they too can achieve the kingdom of heaven

Some people will use Christianity as a mask for exploitation and mistreatment. They are bad and their faith is false (ok fine)

...and they're doing that because they're CONSPIRING WITH THE EVIL MUSLIMS TO OPPRESS GOOD CHRISTIANS

...and THAT'S THE ONLY REASON ANYONE WOULD TELL YOU THAT GOD AND ALLAH ARE DIFFERENT NAMES FOR THE SAME GOD. because they're either conning you or because they've been misled and can't really think for themselves.

DID I MENTION. THAT MUSLIMS ARE EVIL AND TRYING TO BRING DOWN CHRISTIANS.

and other than the GOD AREN'T MUSLIMS JUST THE WORST of it all, he also goes back over to more fully explain several points he's made throughout the series, such as:

white Christian public school kids are the god ordained leaders of the world and attempts to think otherwise are heretical

god places people where they need to be to serve his purpose

free will is largely an illusion - your only choice is faith or chaos, and as a godly person your actions are preordained

the problem is though. he's kind of a really good character writer? and in The Last Battle he pulls out most of his best classics (hi Reepicheep! hi Frank! hi Jill!) and gives us a whole wealth of really fun new characters (Tirian and Jewel, Emeth, Puzzle, Shift, Griffle and Ginger are all just SO FUN) and it's such a solid adventure. for me it's hands down the most FUN Narnia to read and an effective and affecting end to the series.

but like. god its unjustifiably fucked philosophy is baked into every single character and event. it's so hard to ignore. it's my favourite book in the series. it's the book that makes me angriest. it's everything right with Narnia and everything wrong with Narnia. I like it cause it asks me to engage critically with Lewis' philosophy and I hate it cause it requires me to engage critically with Lewis' philosophy.

in conclusion, Narnia is a land of contrasts. also occasionally brownface.

[goldiipond]

i adore thinking about the fucked up tpn stuff that was either not considered during the writing process or deliberately left unexplored.

tpn really said 'each house has about 6 shipments and receives about 6 new children to replace them each year. the minimum age a child can be shipped out is 6. tpn begins with conny's shipment in october, after which dominic is the only remaining 6 year-old at the house' without even considering the implications of that. how about 'we know literally nothing about anyone from the age group between anna+nat's and thoma+lanni's groups because theyre all gone by the time the story starts' also literally no one ever brings them up. or my personal favorite of 'isabella painstakingly hand-made little bunny for conny's 6th birthday. conny turned 6 in september, about a month before she was shipped out' like do you think isabella was at least a little pissed about that. i like to think she was