#like. you can't separate the privileged aspect from it

[hjartasalt]

Saw someone on tiktok yesterday talking about "the cons of pretty privilege" and then just mentioned like, having to go to multiple job interviews and often not being taken seriously by men in her profession? I'm sorry but that is just regular misogyny like you're treated that way because you're a woman not because you're conventionally attractive

[decolonize-the-everything]

End blood quantum now

Blood quantum is how much native blood you have in you and it needs to be a certain threshold to qualify you as a tribal member. Blood quantum varies from tribe to tribe.

It means my mom is a tribal member but because my dad is outside of my tribe... I don't have enough tribal blood to enroll. Neither does my daughter. Our "official" indigeneity ended with me.

My dad is still native tho. Just southern native. Others have two parents enrolled in separate tribes and can't enroll in either one despite being Full native because their parents were mixed with other tribes so they don't have enough blood of Any tribe to qualify.

And to what end are they doing this?

Under the treaties the US govt can lay no claim to native land. So how do they fix that? Get rid of the natives, of course.

And since they can't slaughter us in broad daylight anymore they did the next best thing. What the colonial government has ALWAYS done to us and other poc.

Made up a bunch of arbitrary laws to restrain and limit our power and numbers.

And this can't continue. We are the only race who needs to apply to be part of the community we were born into. The only race who needs to prove our blood.

And that's the thing: it's not even based on blood. Racist scientists defined who was a full-blooded native based on things like shoe size, head circumference, and skin pigment.

Not blood. And besides that it wasn't uncommon for outsiders to become part of a tribe!! You didn't need to be native by blood to be native! Blood quantum has made it IMPOSSIBLE for them to qualify and made it impossible for tribes to practice that long time aspect of our culture.

So please share this post. So many people legitimately think natives are extinct and even less are aware that we do more than just sit around drinking all day. Few people have good feelings about us and within that there are a few who actively help. Please be one of those few.

We need support and allies and for our voices to be heard. Please don't let this post just be me screaming into a void. We need people to know what blood quantum is, how archaic and harmful it is, and to help us spread awareness to people who otherwise would ignore us. Use your privilege.

[suniverseastro]

ASTROLOGY OBSERVATION #14

Mars in the 2nd house is very possessive

Moon Aquarius is easy to sympathize with those around, although they may have many bad qualities, they will often be ignored by people because of their support in the team. Some in this group when they don't like someone and hate openly can easily recognize their feelings, these people can play bad tricks like using crowds, councils to bully

Here are some of the positions that I don't like very much, doesn't mean they will all be the same and I hate everyone with this aspect, it just brings some difficulties and disadvantages, takes a lot of time time to recognize and transform it:

1. Moon Square/Opposite Pluto: often emotionally volatile and explosive, has difficulty controlling anger, may experience more bad luck with women

2. Moon square / Opposite Uranus: actually this is one of the most horrible corners for me because as far as I know and actually it means about their separation from the mother physically or mentally

3. Venus square/opposite Mars: causes sexual attraction but often changes partners too quickly and gets nowhere

4. Mars Libra: passive in problem solving. The house in this position plays an important role, like the one who moves the pieces tactically. I think it is necessary to add other angles to strengthen this position, especially Pluto to increase ambition and determination.

5. Venus Gemini: often emotional, easy to play emotional roller coaster with others, unpredictable, interesting, but for me this is not a very good position in love, they easily find it difficult. hard to find the right person

6. Moon square/Opposite Saturn: often encounters problems in childhood such as abandonment, working in a difficult, deprived environment, shouldering responsibility, loneliness; They have quite a lot of psychological damage, rarely share, confide, and find it difficult to open their hearts to others. When they learn to be less strict with themselves and learn to accept and love themselves, the door in their souls will lead them to the good things that are waiting for them on the other side of their hearts.

7. Venus square/opposite Uranus: feel less interested in wanting a relationship Some positions I like:

Moon trine/sextile Pluto: I once wished to have this aspect because it gives the ability to read other people's psyches and understand emotions deeply and they themselves also have a protective covering for their minds. mine

Sun trine/sextile Pluto: have their own privilege in society, they can be people whose image others consider as an authority and important figure, admire; Their passion is strong and they will try to do it

Mercury conjunct/ trine/ sextile Neptune: they have acumen, speciality and development in language, can know 2 or more languages, have artistic abilities, their voices are quite cute

Venus trine/sextile Mars: they easily radiate sexual attraction to other people (regardless of gender), which makes it easier for them to have relationships

Ascendant trine/sextile/conjunct Mercury: usually curious, cheerful, child-like eager people, they often have an active, playful appearance.

Ascendant trine/sextile/conjunct Sun: confident, shine, positive energy

Moon in Sagittarius/9th: very active, cheerful, likable, open and optimistic, they respect others and different cultures and religions

Mercury in Gemini: funny people, lots of topics to talk to, easy to talk to anyone, except people they don't like

Mercury conjunct/trine/sextile Pluto: their voice has charm, weight, usually straight to the point, analytical, inquisitive and rarely afraid of knowledge and reason

Moon sextile Venus: cute girls and boys, graceful words, pleasant, non-aggressive, cohesive and peaceful

(a position can't say who you are, everything will change, maybe for the better, maybe for the worse) try to take a deep breath and try to feel the peaceful moment in the present

Thank you everyone for inspiring me to write articles on this topic. Thank you for your love for me; love you all. Wishing you all good health, peace and luck ⭐

[linkemon]

Love language headcanons

Friendly reminder that English is not my first language. You can check my Masterlists both in English and Polish here.

Consider supporting me on Ko-fi.

Other headcanons from this series can be found here.

Rook Hunt • Words

• If there is anyone at Night Raven College who has mastered the art of speech, it is definitely Rook. The boy has been using flowery phrases since you first met. It has become so much a part of him that you can't imagine him speaking in normal words.

• His love language is words, so he naturally gave nicknames to the people around him during the time he spent with them. However, you are unique and that comes with certain privileges. You have already been called the Crown jewel of his heart, An angel with a divine face, and The most beautiful person the world has ever seen. Interestingly, if anyone else had said it, you would have thought of it as empty platitudes but not with Rook. You know he sincerely believes everything he says.

• First graders literally can't listen to the boy for long periods of time. His words are so sweet that it makes them all sick, as Ace put it...

• Hunt likes to give you poems in which he praises various aspects of your character. Of course, the concept of beauty must always come up but he wants you to remember that beauty is not just about appearance.

• Rook uses foreign-sounding words very often. At first you looked up what they meant. Now you simply ask him to translate what he is saying but sometimes you will be refused. Some things are more interesting being a mystery...

Jack Howl • Acts of service

• Something broke? Need help you with your bag? Renovation at Ramshackle? This man is definitely the answer to all your problems. At times you feel that perhaps his distant connection to dogs due to being a beast with wolf-like characteristics is responsible for his textbook loyalty. Once you have won him over, he will always be there, willing to help.

• His love language seems to be usually favors. He'll find or take care of Grim when you're having a bad day. He will help fill the hole when your dormitory roof is leaking. He will lend you his jacket when you are cold.

• You sometimes let him do things that you could do yourself. All this just to see his satisfied face and his tail moving left and right when you thank him.

• You're not as fit as he is. If you go for a morning training session in the forest on the school grounds and fall down along the way, you can be sure that he will take you ona piggyback ride. He doesn't take you in his arms because he's a little embarrassed that you'll see him blush. But you know what's going on in his head because his ears give him away.

• You especially like it when Jack's favors include manual labor. You then have the opportunity to take a closer look at his muscles. And there are many of them...

Floyd Leech • Physical touch

• Floyd is a walking fan of touch. In various forms. Mostly squeezing, which most Night Raven College students don't like. Fortunately, he doesn't threaten you with anything terrible in this matter.

• It started with Floyd simply throwing his arm around your shoulders. He would always tell you that he was extremely bored as he led you to Mostro Lounge. It wasn't long before he started literally hanging on to you if you weren't paying attention to him.

• Nowadays, a boy loves to give you surprise hugs. Sometimes you have to remind him that he has a lot more strength than the average person and that you need a little more air in your lungs.

• He likes to grab your hand unexpectedly when you're passing the school corridors. One time it got to the point that he didn't want to let you go and went with you to Professor Trein's class. You felt a lot of shame then, especially when he told the teacher that he couldn't be separated from his shrimpy. Only when Jade came to talk his brother out of the idea of starting an argument with Trein, he announced that it was over for the day because he was tired of sitting in the stuffy atmosphere. He then got a week's punishment.

• You once bought him a tiny rubber ball so he could squeeze it when you weren't around. He liked it so much that now he won't part with it. You can meet many dissatisfied people on campus who were hit in the head with such a ball.

[pr0cyon-lotor]

I'm going to just copy and paste my notes on my headcanons for the Shen siblings here just in case I get too lazy to explain and I can just refer to this post :3

Shen Muchen = SY's da-ge

Naturally very stoic but has a bleeding heart for his family. He completely separates work and family, and he will always prioritize family over anything else.

He's not good with words and actually doesn't speak much if he can help it. He's blunt and to the point, and has the habit of back tracking if something came out too mean.

He's a creature of habit and very easy to predict if you know him.

He isn't very social and didn't make friends with many people when he was in school. Many people thought he was a sort of ice prince, nope he was just socially awkward.

He stepped up to help their parents mostly because his job doesn't require face to face interaction. He is the "heir" to the business, but he really only wants to do the administrative and logistics duties.

He had the tendency to try to bring in strays as a child. He grew out of it mostly, but he does feed strays because he feels bad. The Shen residence is constantly swarmed by cats and dogs because of this.

Shen Hongxi = SY's Er-ge

He's rather playful and cunning at times, but he is also the biggest airhead of all four siblings.

He has a tendency of forgetting about basic things sometimes. He even once asked if airplanes had to make detours when they flew towards clouds, and they had to sit him down and explain that clouds were made of water vapor/ect. (They don't let him live that one down)

He likes animals in theory but would scream if a large dog started running towards him.

He's far from gullible, but he is stupid. He's the type to let himself get kidnapped just to cross it off his bucket list and have no escape plan. Their parents assigned him a bodyguard (babysitter) because of his recklessness.

He learned a lot of instruments for the sake of their parents' approval, but now plays a few string instruments for pleasure.

He's so much more sociable than Muchen and typically takes care of the talking and networking aspect of the business for him.

Shen Yuan (these are just mostly family headcanons since my personality headcanons for SY already show in my writing)

Green eyes (not as sqq. he just has them and one can convince me otherwise.)

Has been, will be, and absolutely is a little shit because he was the baby of the family for a while.

Has the worst temper of all the siblings (which is still really mild. the siblings are just mild tempered in general)

Could probably convince his siblings to get into his hobbies if he wasn't ashamed.

The type of little sibling that would taste something gross, say it tastes good to convince someone else to taste it, and laugh once someone gags.

Shen Ling = SY's meimei

Is the baby of the family, knows it, and absolutely abuses the privileges. She probably learned how to cry on command, but barely has to use it since they just give her what she wants.

She has rather thick skin and barely twitches at insults. She does exaggerate hurt feelings to either tease people or bother those insulting her.

She is outgoing and friendly to everyone she meets but holds a grudge like a motherfucker.

She was in a lot of sports clubs, but her grades were below average. She had a tutor, but it didn't help much.

She likes reading like Shen Yuan but prefers tragic romances or mystery. She does read a lot of danmei and baihe, and has tried to recommend them to Shen Yuan in more than one occasion.

She probably tried to teach Muchen brainrot, but Shen Yuan stopped her.

General sibling knowledge:

Muchen and Hongxi only have two years setting them apart, but they have an age gap of over five years with Shen Yuan and Shen Ling, who have 2-3 years between them.

Hongxi tries to get into reading to bond with his younger siblings better, but he just can't get into it. Muchen likes reading, but he isn't a fan of the same genre and prefers poems or historical fiction.

None of them have a strained relationship with each other, but it isn't the tightest either. All of them are usually too busy (Muchen and Hongxi with the business, SY with bedrotting, and SL with sports)

They're all pretty mild tempered all things considered. But all of them are a level of protective towards each other. (Rankings: Muchen, SL, Hongxi, SY)

If they were given a chance to be closer, they would be chronic shitposters

Extra: They're all a special level of oblivious

[stupendousfoxthing]

I want to share a post making the rounds that made a lot of great points, but op dismisses the idea of any romantic relationships existing between any two members of the group in the replies. I will never be down with the "no ships are real" crowd because I can't think of a single valid (non-homophobic) reason to think a romance between two men is impossible. A romantic relationship between two people who met when they were young, worked and lived together for the better part of a decade, and enjoyed each other's company so much that when given the opportunity to build lives separate from that work STILL chose each other makes more sense than a lot of other things people will accept as perfectly reasonable (if it's a man and a woman of course). But the homophobia is just one layer to their dismissal, and the post hit on several others. There are so many layers to the shitty way this fandom treats Taekook and Taekookers. The video I shared earlier from an anon tells it like it is. Taekookers are not delusional to believe it's possible there is something there. No matter what antis would like you to believe, they are not literally brothers. Saying they are brothers is literally delusional (believing something is true when there is evidence to the contrary). There is a pattern of suspicious behavior going back years and only intensifying during solo era. I've talked about this before, but during the frenzy over the Dream premiere last year I saw something I thought was funny. I saw two people on Twitter talking about it, talking about Taekook fondly, and saying they felt like it had been a million years since they had seen them together. I realized then that they had no idea about all of the things that had happened with Taekook in the months prior to that. I started to wonder if we get called delusional just because people really do only pay attention to what is laid out in front of them, mostly in official content. Like...yeah, we probably do look delusional if you don't know about 95% of the things that have happened. This would tie back into how the fandom sees Tae as well, and why he is treated like an outsider. If you've been in the fandom for a while, you know how people who go against the company narrative in any way are treated. Tae does go against that narrative. He has talked about the more negative aspects of their position openly more than any other member. Why was he allowed to hint that things aren't all rosy between him and the company in the recent documentary? Look at how the fandom treats those who go against the company, and you will know. Taekook as a ship has a unique ability to create a perfect storm of animosity in this particular fandom that literally has training materials and guidelines written up for "baby ARMY". Layers. Homophobia. Company loyalty over everything. The spoon-fed narratives. The "outsider" and the "privileged" one dating? But they're awkward brothers... Taekookers get treated like monsters, no other group even comes close and it isn't because we're "shippers". I see evidence of that everyday. Other ships/shippers within the group have a free pass to do whatever they want. The fandom loves Namkook, for instance. You can openly romanticize/sexualize them and the fandom eats it up. Tons of people showed their ass with Tae/IU as well. It's not shipping that bothers them. It's Taekook. Taekook challenges what they've been led to believe. Taekookers shine a light on it and celebrate it. That's what pisses people off, and I do believe that when they actually look at Taekook they see it too. We bring something that makes them uncomfortable to their attention, something they'd rather not see or acknowledge. When a Taekook "moment" happens and we haven't even said anything yet but people are already bitching about the fact they can't enjoy it because they know Taekookers will be happy and celebrating? It's not us. It's Taekook as a pair that bothers them.

[iwanthermidnightz]

As usual, I’m gonna share the parts of this article that resonate with me (pretty much all of it). Several points were made. And the unapologetic queer visibility makes me so proud. Please give it a read 🥲

LD: I also do want to say, even though there is a bunch of awesome overlap with the trans community and the drag community, transness and drag are separate things — but that's the reason why we did it [in Tennessee], is because those things are being conflated here.

It's crazy that we were on tour for all of Pride Month and being pretty f*cking gay, and talking about gay rights on stage. You’d think that the circles that we run in would be like, yeah, cool, but I feel like there is still… Prejudice towards gay people comes from all sides, including gay people.

I have, you know, rolled my eyes at certain aspects of Pride, just the corporate aspect of things. We were hanging out with a friend who was like, yeah, the gas station has a pride flag, but I'm still getting looked at funny in the streets; what is Pride actually doing?

JB: Shell Oil Company is like, happy pride! Like, okay.

LD: It's weird, the more comfortable I am, the more opposition I feel from other people who are discontent with how I qualify as a gay person. I'm like, Do you need a sex tape?

PB: As someone who doesn't qualify as gay, I can't participate in this conversation. I haven't sent in enough chips to corporate. [laughs]

I speak for all of us [when I say] I feel like our communities are so supportive, like f*cking rainbows and buttercups all the time. We're really good at making friends and we have so much support around each of us, and so much privilege, and each live in an accepting place and choose accepting people to be around. But when I or Lucy get hate for not turning in our like, gay paperwork, all I'm thinking is about the way that I would have felt at f*cking age 11 being like, Oh, I'm not allowed to do that. This famous person is being humiliated for expressing themselves, and so I should not, I especially should not express myself.

JB: I don't get as much hate because people are like, there goes a lesbian. You know what I mean? [All laugh.]

LD: It’s really binary.

JB: I've spent a lot of my life being a masc dressing queer person, or just not engaging with gender play at all. It’s like, queer people saying that you have to acquiesce to one of three queer archetypes, or one of a handful of queer archetypes in order to be represented.

LD: That's why our shows are so special to me is that they are very gay. People are throwing flags at us, young people are making out in front of us, it is a space that is precious to me and would have changed my life if I could have been a part of it when I was younger. I'm extremely proud, and I just implicitly love everybody at our shows at a base level. I think we all do. The reason we're doing it is because we care abstractly about all these strangers and want for them what we could have had. Also we're coming from a position where we're talking to a bunch of young people, we do get to put messages worth hearing out there, I think that's not lost on us.

PB: I am mostly proud of the way that I watch the discourse [play out], and I'm proud of the conclusions that these children are coming to. Everybody is sticking up for us and each other and there's just a couple weirdos that are very loud. I think our community is being protected by the people in it. And it is such a safe space show, and I'm so fucking proud. Even the amount of femme people in the audience, screaming at the top of their lungs and having to take up a high octave... It’s a different rock show than I've ever experienced. It’s amazing to me.

JB: The microphone I have with y'all, the reach is wider, it just factually is, and I think a lot about responsibility to hear [others’ opinions…] To be the subject of discourse at all is to live a question into the world, so I will allow myself to do that. I will allow a little bit of my identity — which as a queer person, I've been at once defensive of and fiercely protective of and encouraged to erase completely — I'm like, okay, so I have to exist with this identity subsumed into the culture, into the topic of someone's conjecture. Because it's going to be one case study. That's the whole idea of visibility, visibility doesn't have to be perfect representation.

I was thinking about this too, something that bugged me was that meme that was the talent and popularity graph and it was popularity way above talent, and they were like, “This is boygenius.” You're missing the damn point. [If only the most talented people got to speak,] Steve Vai would be speaking for all f*cking musicians because he's best at guitar. That's not what I want.

PB: But again, that is just Twitter. I think we are as beloved as is possible for any public, femme presenting, or queer, in public. I think we just get an amount of hate because we're stepping on guitar guys. It is fucking dumb, and it is just what is happening. Every time I look at a Pitchfork post of us, it's the most incel f*cking shit ever in the comments section.

JB: I was telling Lucy, I feel like if someone made that meme about me, Julien Baker, on a solo headlining tour, I would be up at four in the morning in the back lounge of the bus running scales. With y'all, I'm like, You're missing the point you dumbass. It's like Kathleen Hanna being like, the Sex Pistols are bad at their instruments. Why can I not just have a band that's fun and cool and angry?

LD: I wanna say, we're a little fed up, obviously, with some things, but I agree with you, Phoebe, the biggest sentence I have to say is we're having so much fun. That is the message that I think people are mostly getting, and the one that I want them to get, is that we are happy and having fun, and that is not frivolous at all. Fun is essential.

PB: Everybody knows every word to the entire set. We sell thousands of tickets. It is going as good as humanly possible. It is insane.

LD: And it's because we feel safe and supportive that we can mostly safely and supportively do drag in Tennessee. It's because we have such a solid foundation of joy we can be in defense of other people's joy, in ways that feel really valuable to me personally, and I hope valuable to other people.

JB: The whole reason why I feel comfortable engaging with this at all and it's not an existential crisis for me is because, what you're saying, Lucy: I have a foundation of joy that makes me convicted that this is important, not frivolous, highly worthy, highly valuable. So when I see us as the subject of discourse I'm interacting with it in a different way that I don't think I'd be able to [alone]. I wonder if kids watching that in third person happen will also be resilient to the same kind of things.

PB: You’re allowed to be bad at guitar, anybody reading this.

LD: I’m bad at guitar.

PB: Other shit, you do have to work so hard. And you have to love it. If you love playing guitar and you're bad at guitar, that rocks.

TV: What other moments would you highlight? I feel like there’s been a lot of good ones, like the t-shirt selling out.

PB: Love, love to just have the power to snap my fingers and mobilize people to give their money away to a cause. That is the best part of my job.

JB: It’s participation. It’s visibility. It's you, outward signaling something you believe in as a principle. It's also literally redistributing funds to us to organizers, nonprofits and legislators that are trying to make the world a better place. And we get to be in charge of that, and also give somebody a gift that's like, you're a country queer! We see you.

TV: Did you expect the fans to be so young this tour? I’ve been really impressed!

LD: It's interesting, I think Julien was saying this, being something through which some kids are learning some stuff. I usually am really upset when I'm misunderstood, but I think that part of that happening now is people on their way to understanding something that I think is important and outside of me, that we are just a case study for, and that is just a really sweet and special position to be in.

JB: This really gets to me, I'll see a group of friends all hugging during our set, a collection of songs about grieving and leaning on your friends. I'll be like, What did y'all go through? Something f*cking horrible.

I think about this with the credibility or the legitimacy of music, like with the whole Pitchfork incel guy, it goes back to that. I'm like, dude, I love that a bunch of kids are at our show. I've said it once, I'll say it again: I took a class in young adult literature. And I was like, wow, this is maybe the most important kind of literature. Paradise Lost is for people who think that their brain is big, young adult literature is for f*cking people who don't know what literature is yet — they need a window, they need a door. They need a pass. Phoebe you were saying, like, music that not-adult cis white guys like.

LD: Those guys are showing up too, and good for them. And if they're the ones that are mad about this, maybe they're on their path of understanding something better, too.

JB: I cry at all the kids, man.

PB: Me too.

JB: My mom texted me and was like, I would have died if there was something like y'all when I was a kid — and I don't even think she gets some stuff we're saying.

PB: It's funny to [realize] I would have bleached my hair and wanted to be me.

JB: Dude, it's so f*cking sick. I think about me at 16 — I was trying to be a hardcore guy, I wanted to get tattoos, I wanted to play guitar in a band. And then I just turned out… me. I used to try to make my hair look like k.d. Lang; I wonder if we're a thing people realize they can look like.

LD: Also, I think being affectionate on stage has been really fun and sweet, and it exhibits behavior that I think is healthy and good. That's another element of it that I think is good to show kids, the way that I think drag is actively good for kids to interact with, because it's this fun way to interact with gender and to explain things like that early to children is really awesome. Just being able to gaily and affectionately kiss your bros, that's a principle that I value, that I wish was more valued for kids. Not saying like, kids gotta go all make out!

I'm proud of the space we're taking up. I think we're using it in ways I'll be able to stand behind when I get older.

PB: There's also such a deep, both fetishizing and desexualizing of lesbians, in a way that I think is ridiculous. Obviously MUNA is standing staunchly against that as well, by being a f*cking boyband. It's just fun to be like, it's not that serious — and it also is deeply meaningful.

[deadbaguette]

as i see ur a person who has copleted the hades game; i want to ask if u have any advice in weapons, keepsakes or techniques to get out of asphodel 😭😭 i have gotten to the hydra two times i think but i can't find a way to defeat it so i would appreciate any kind of advice to finally get to elysium and reunite patroclus nd achilles

Oooh! I’ll see what advice I can provide😭 I do have a lot of hours on the game, but I’m not particularly good LMAO

I’ll give what advice I can for each weapon (except the gun, I’m horrible at the gun), a build you can use, and some techniques (below the cut because this might get long)

Just a bit of an explanation of status effects because it’s relevant for a lot of the builds:

- Weak (Aphrodite), Doom (Ares), Hangover (Dionysus), Chill (Demeter) are all primary status effects. Meaning they’re a part a few of the base boons (attack/special/dash and the cast too in only Aphrodite’s case)

- Jolted (Zeus), Rupture (Poseidon), Exposed (Athena) are secondary status effects. Meaning you have to get a separate boon to apply this effect to things like the attack/special/cast/dash

Having two of any of these applied to an enemy can proc the mirror of night effect ‘Priviliged status’ which at its max upgrade gives a 40% damage bonus

The fists:

The fists are arguably the easiest weapon to use early game. And the aspect of zagreus works because of that dodge chance which is nice when you’re early game. But I recommend running this with the Demeter aspect if you can.

The most broken build I use on them? Athena Ares duo boon build.

Start off with an Athena keepsake (i’m not sure if you have this, but give nectar to her if you haven’t), this guarantees your first boon to be her. Pick the one that makes your special deflect/divine flourish. Athena boons are SO GOOD early game, absolutely abuse that deflect ability especially on the hydra.

If rng isn’t on your side, equip the Ares keepsake after the fight with Meg. When you get his boon, pick curse of agony/your attack inflicts doom.

Now you have to look for their duo boon, merciful end (your attacks that deflect trigger/activate doom immediately). You can get this in: charon’s shop and from the chambers but NOT in trial of the gods (when you have to pick).

Try avoid taking other gods in throughout Tartarus and Asphodel (except Artemis, crit is always good so try get the boon ‘pressure points’)! This fills up your pool of potential gods to get, and you really only want Ares or Athena.

If you get Athena, aside from the special here are boons you should pick:

Divine dash/your dash deflects (this one is a must get, but it does not open the option for duo with ares keep it in mind!)

Blinding flash/abilities that deflect also make foes exposed (then you can proc the mirror of the night buff ‘privileged status’)

Bronze skin/more resistant to damage which is always nice ESPECIALLY in Asphodel when the lava is alr causing you enough trouble lol

If you want a cast/call, it honestly doesn’t matter who you pick. I would suggest the Athena cast/call though if you’re having trouble with the Hydra because the cast deflects and the call makes you invulnerable.

The sword:

Okay some advice for the sword. The best attack combination imo on the sword is: dash strike 2x, and then special. This gets a lot of dps out of it, and if you have the mirror of the night ‘privileged status’ in use it’s really easy to trigger

An easy build that I don’t go wrong with is on the aspect of nemisis build (but tbh u could use Zagreus’ aspect I just like the extra crit). It’s an Ares oriented build which is uses duo boons.

You’re going to want to start off with the Ares keepsake, this guarantees your first boon to be him. When you get his boon, pick the one that applies doom when you use your special (boon: curse of pain).

If luck is on your side, let’s hope you can find an Aphrodite chamber or an Artemis chamber. If not, equip one of their keepsakes in the room after fighting Megaera. Then you’ll get their boon guaranteed in Asphodel

But if luck IS on your side and you get:

An aphrodite boon, then pick heartbreaker’s strike/the one that applies weak to your enemies on your attack. This is when you begin to apply a lot of consistent damage

An Artemis boon, then pick true shot/her cast. This opens the duo boon options for Artemis. Almost every Artemis boom is really fucking good BUT the ones you should look out for are the Aphrodite+Artmeis duo boon (increase crit damage against ‘weak’ foes) and pressure points (lets any damage crit which is really good)

If you happen to get Athena and not Aphrodite, you can choose to put her on the attack instead BUT you have to keep in mind that then you should look for her boon ‘blinding flash’ (all abilities that deflect also make foes exposed).

The bow:

Crush shot aspect of Hera is a really good and really easy build! Equip the aspect of Hera which means that you imbue the cast INTO the bow. And your next shot will have all the casts as well.

Really the only thing you need for this is Aphrodite’s cast (so equip her keep sake in the start). And just… put every pom into the cast LOL

Some extra boons to make your life easier:

divine dash (I cannot stress enough how good this boon is)

get a Poseidon boon, his attack/special/or call, and unlock the duo boon for +1 level for each Pom upgrade

Get an Artemis boon along with Poseidon if you have him, her attack/special/or call), and unlock their duo boon which makes each cast fire a secondary projectile that does less damage

The shield

This is maybe one of the best early game especially against the hydra. The ability to block when holding the attack/doing the bull rush is so useful. For this one I always run Zeus’ aspect. It’s the only one that allows you to attack while your special is out. I like running a hangover build with this, but I’m not entirely sure how optimal it is lmao.

Equip the Dionysus keepsake, pick drunken flourish/special inflicts hangover. Throw your special at the enemy, and it applies hangover per hit (this is why the Zeus aspect is good because you can still attack while you’re applying hangover).

This is arguably the easiest build I use because (maybe it’s ironic) but Dionysus gets along with so MANY gods. Ares, Aphrodite, Artemis, Athena… all their duo boons with him are 10/10.

So any of them come your way, here are imo the optimal boons you can pick to open the possibility for duo boons with Dionysus:

Athena: divine dash (again….) and you can get the duo boon with Dionysus which slows down projectiles IMMENSELY. Super good against the hydra

Ares: curse of vengeance (revenge damage, if you take damage inflict doom on the enemy) and you can get the duo boon which makes the hangover tick rate go from 0.5 seconds to 0.35 seconds. This basically doubles the amount of hangover dps you do, it’s so broken

Aphrodite: heartbreaker strike (the attack) and get the duo boon which increases the amount of hangover stacks you can do. So while the base is five (where you’ll do whatever amount of damage per tick x5 if you have 5 stacks applied), it adds 3 stacks (so now it’s like x8 damage per tick).

There is also Artemis, who you can choose true shot (your cast) to unlock the duo boons. Either Dionysus’ or Aphrodite’s are good options (increases crit chance to hangover foes per stack applied, increases crit damage to ‘weak’ foes)

Prioritize the Aphrodite and Ares duo boons they are the best.

The spear

The spear might be among the hardest for beginners? But it is my favorite weapon and the one I used the most in the beginning and throughout the game. I almost always run the Demeter cast build, but since you haven’t reached the surface I don’t think you’ve unlocked her (it’s been a while I’m not sure SGDGHSSGHS sorry). So uh I’m not able to help with the spear build until you’ve reached the surface 🙏

(You can check out this post based off a comic I drew where someone did the build!)

[emersonfreepress]

You previously mentioned that we will be able to play as the child of immigrant parents. But how will you handle where the family comes from? Because let's be real: a kid whose parents come from Sweden or Germany won't get the same type of reactions as one whose family come from Mexico or Iran.

And that's even assuming the family are ethnically from those countries and not, say, people who went from one country to another to escape civil war or poverty or whatever, then came to the USA. Which is very detailed and nitpicking, I know, but I am very curious about this particular route.

Would it be right to assume MC's whose family have immigrant backgrounds would have it set, like how MC's family in non-immigrant route have certain set characteristics (upper middle class, how they came to their vices that caused current economic issues etc.)?

I haven't decided on exactly how I want to do it as far as accommodating backgrounds; as in, the choice scene isn't written or coded yet. But I really love what C.C. Hill @when-life-gives-you-lemons-if did in Insert Rich Family Name when it comes to customizing the family's background and plan to do something similar. (I highly recommend that game btw; and anything else CC writes tbh) Opening up a country of origin choice for immigrant MCs, however, means that I'm definitely reversing my decision to exclude skin tone customization. The game doesn't delve into things like colorism and or specific ethnic perspectives because I'm one person and just can't write all that 😅 but continent and country of origin will be a separate choice from things like appearance customization.

There are set characteristics of the second-gen MC's past but they don't differ wildly from the local background. Since the parents are characters with set personalities that I actually feature in scenes and dialogue, though, the immigrant backstory still needs to follow roughly the same beats as the local one. Your parents still lucked into money and spent it quickly and unwisely.

I know what you mean by the reactions that different migrant groups garner from people in real life, especially as the kid of African immigrants, but the setting I'm writing isn't like that. That's super unrealistic for a town like Emerson in real life — but it's a fiction and the story I'm telling isn't about facing or overcoming discrimination. If I was writing a version of Emerson that had a historical past actually typical of the United States, so many things, so many, would not exist as they are and I'd be writing a completely different story. The story I have written is just like... inappropriate honestly, for a setting like a realistic Emerson. I would not care to write about some high school kids at the prep school, I would much rather explore the politics and criminal underbelly of the adult world -- if I was writing this realistically.

To some degree, there are darker, more realistic aspects of Emerson as a setting (like blacklisting and what discrimination in Emerson even looks like) but that won't be explored until Book 2 because the MC will be an adult finally navigating life with the other adults. But this Book and this story are about the very insular perspective of a privileged kid from a weird fictional town. You could almost call a teenage MC an unreliable narrator, regardless of background, because they have lucked out in not experiencing much personal hardship. It doesn't mean my world doesn't acknowledge or have these things; literal case and points being Gabe and Kile. The MC is ignorant to a lot of what they haven't experienced and is written that way — and the characters who have had vastly different and harsher experiences also have their own limitations in perspective.

What you're describing just isn't what I'm exploring and xenophobia is not the sort of thing I'd want to inject half-assed for realism's sake or drop as some form of flavor text. I used to have a variable that let players choose if their last name gets frequently mispronounced because to me it's a funny thing that I relate to my immigrant experience. But I scrapped It because at the end of the day, it's just coding a micro-aggression that does literally nothing for the story or character development. Realistic discrimination doesn't enhance the story because I didn't create a story based in a realistic world. ...I think that sentence might sum it up, yeah.

I get that people don't have access to my notes or unpublished work and I don't presume that you know my background! But I'm confident I know what I'm doing with the option — and if it sucks, y'all better tell me (!!) and I'll have the whole rest of development to improve it.

[invested-in-your-future]

You mentioned not liking the idea of Blake having parents in general, I would love to hear your thoughts on how Blake’s family should have been handled! And the rest of team RWBY too if you have any more ideas for them! Personally I think Jacque should’ve had a noticeably different color pallet than the “Schnee” colors.

For me, personally, the way Blake is written just does not mesh with her family or her backstory that MilesWBY adds to it.

It either reflects really badly on Blake or on her parents OR both. And to such a degree that I don't think you can really fix.

All the times Blake actually managed to chastise Weiss? It's suddenly reframed as hypocrisy. All her talk about focus on survival? Pointless because she grew up in an equivalent of tropical island castle. Blake suddenly becomes "some dumb teenager who threw a fit at her parents and ran away to join a terrorist cell a continent away". Why does that happen and why are her parents like "oh geee well, what can you do maybe after few years she will come back randomly due to tragedy and we can just act like nothing"?

Intentionally or not, Blake becomes just like the right wing strawman about how "all the people who campaign for equality and justice actually just have been living life of privilege and thus shouldn't".

Everything in terms of how Ghira is written though? Boondocks epitomizes well on how I feel about it:

So yeah... I'd just throw entirety of Menagerie portrayal away because yeaaaah...the show does enough weird decisions in regards to faunus portrayal in it's first three volumes already.

Menagerie is getting completely redone. Most of faunus population just have conflicting hearsay about what the place is actually like (since there's no communication tower of its own, Menagerie solely relies on Mistral relays) and Blake never actually really even had a chance to go to Menagerie ever. In my draft, Menagerie is many things - a propaganda topic, a historical event, a reminder of hardship, but its not an "escape" and its not a tropical resort. A lot of Faunus have NEVER been there and at the same time officials in Mistral government REALLY want to ship everyone off to there.

In my outline right now, Blake was born in Mistral. Due to specific circumstances and experiences, she ended up joining the White Fang and then slowly over time grew disillusioned. Her views on Vale overall are influenced by her experiences growing up. Blake did not have the easiest childhood - life wasn't exactly fair and in part her love of books comes from an aspect of escapism that books can deliver. She is someone who formed her ideals her head in a book, but facing the cruel and dangerous reality around her makes her feel like merely "wanting to do good" means absolutely nothing without a more practical "how". However, she doesn't like any of the "hows" presented by people around her because it makes her feel like she can't ever live up to her own expectations she set for herself. And thus she runs. Again and again. And while enrolling at Beacon worked as a wish-fulfillment/escapism of sorts too (she gets to be a Huntress and help people!), her experiences here still gnaw at her conviction and ideals. In my set-up of Remnant, Vale is considered to be "less" dangerous for Faunus, but even here she can't really escape sights of inequality and discrimination, as well as reminders that she has absolutely no idea how to make her dream come true and if it's even possible. What does Fall of Beacon and her experiences there mean for her? She left everything and tried to live an entire new life for herself and it only made her go back to the start all over again. What does that feeling like she is stuck in a cyclical routine that always ends without her taking a single step forward mean for her?

As for Weiss, honestly I think it's fine to use Blue as Jacques color. Given, I also don't think its that fair to separate the Schnees and Jacques as much - he is a parasite but does he really not represent SDC? Weiss might have her own thoughts on what SDC "was/could be" and her own idealized vision on what came before her father married into the family, but there's no such thing as "benevolent/good corporation". Corporations are always profit driven and I don't think its fair to write off everything bad as "Jacques was that one bad apple". In reality though - Jacques is the worst because he really does epitomize everything wrong and bad about SDC and corporations and rich people overall. He is a very "efficient" at being a "rich person". Jacques is everything like that taken to the ultimate extreme end. How many years has he run SDC now? SDC is what SDC is and it makes sense that Schnee name is associated with his actions now and thus his color. Also I don't quite think blue was ever truly SDC color before. He introduced that element of aesthetic. Before that Schnee name was associated with white like snow, but now Schnees are blue like ice. Different levels of coldness and different implications and metaphors.

Even if one were to carry over the idea of Weiss looking up to her grandfather as a hero, I don't think its fair to completely whitewash her grandpa either - he merely was "better than Jacques", but Schnees are still Old Money rich family with a legacy and history and whatever her grandfather's views were, he was still basically a nobility at the head of a well-oiled machine that has extreme influence over Atlas (and before that Mantle).

I think its pretty important that Weiss SHOULD re-evaluate her overall views and which parts of her worldview are merely based on wishful thinking or ignorance. What should "being a Schnee" mean for her? Should she define herself by her family history(good or bad) or should she rebuild herself from scratch? She spent quite some time away from Atlas and those experiences in Vale, meeting Ruby, Blake, etc, her viewpoints and thinking being challenged by others, should absolutely make an impact on how she sees Atlas. The way I see it, her return to Atlas at the end of V3, SHOULD make her see everything in a new light. Not just as an abuse victim, but also as someone who is forced to take a look inside and re-evaluate her experiences and memories. It's not JUST about Jacques, its about getting to re-experience her "routine of usual" but with new experiences making her view things differently.

So yeah overall Blake and Weiss both would have to have very different journeys from the ones MilesWBY present. In a way its pretty interesting parallel, because its the case of two characters from very different backgrounds and with very different experiences (beyond both having suffered abuse) having to essentially reinvent themselves (and to find themselves again) after a tragedy.

[quranwithsehar]

Living Under 🇮🇱 Apartheid: Understanding the Reality for 🍉

Life Divided: Military Checkpoints and Jewish-Only Roads

In many parts of Palestine, Palestinians encounter military checkpoints and roads accessible only to Jewish individuals. Imagine having specific roads you can't use just because of who you are. These restrictions affect millions of Palestinians, making their daily lives more challenging.

Color-Coded IDs: A System of Segregation

Palestinians carry color-coded ID cards, determining their rights and freedoms. It's like having a membership card that dictates where you can live, who you can marry, and what services you can access. This system reinforces divisions, reminiscent of apartheid-era South Africa.

Separate Laws for Palestinians: A Legal Divide

Palestinians and Israelis live under different sets of laws, creating a stark contrast in rights and privileges. This legal segregation is a key factor in perpetuating inequality. Imagine living in the same place but being subject to a different set of rules solely based on your identity.

Understanding 🇮🇱 Apartheid: Geographic Division

Control Over Historic Palestine

Since 1948, Israel has divided historic Palestine into various units, consolidating control. Even in areas where Palestinian authorities exist, Israel oversees essential aspects, from borders to resources. This division affects seven million Palestinians and seven million Jews in the region.

Geographic Fragmentation: Five Key Areas

Palestinians find themselves in five main geographic locations: Israel, the occupied Palestinian territory (including East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza), and the diaspora. Each area is subject to laws favoring Jews over Palestinians, creating a tiered system of rights.

ID System: Fragmentation and Control

Israel's control of the population registry and ID system plays a crucial role. The type of ID dictates rights, influencing where Palestinians can live and whom they can marry. This tiered system ensures varying degrees of control, with Jewish Israelis enjoying full rights.

Geographic Tiers: Understanding the Divide

Picture a tiered system where rights diminish as you go lower. At the top are Jewish Israelis with full rights, free to move anywhere. Next, Palestinian citizens of Israel face discrimination. Further down, Palestinians in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza experience even more restrictions.

Palestinian Refugees: Barred from Returning

Palestinian refugees, living in exile without proper IDs, are denied the right to return home by Israel. This systematic exclusion reinforces Israel's apartheid by preventing Palestinians from reclaiming their historic lands.

🇮🇱 Apartheid Mechanisms: Land Policies

Land as a Resource: Benefiting Jewish Communities

Israel's land policies favor Jewish communities, treating land as a resource for their benefit. This discriminatory practice extends beyond the occupied territory into Israel itself, perpetuating the settler colonial logic of displacing Palestinians for Jewish settlers.

Discriminatory Approvals: New Towns for Jewish Communities

While Israel approves hundreds of new towns for Jewish communities, Palestinians in Israel, constituting 20% of the population, see no such approvals. Discriminatory land policies limit Palestinians to less than three percent of the country's total area.

Case Study: Jisres Zarqa - A Stark Example

Jisres Zarqa, a Palestinian village in northern Israel, surrounded by wealthier Israeli towns, highlights the impact of discriminatory zoning policies. Despite being the last Palestinian village on the Mediterranean coast, it remains impoverished, surrounded on all sides.

Zoning Discrimination: Impact on Palestinian Lives

Palestinian citizens of Israel, like those in Jisres Zarqa, face zoning policies that force them to build without permits, leading to home demolitions. While Israel denies new construction approvals for Palestinians, neighboring Jewish towns receive support for growth.

Apartheid Beyond Geography: Citizenship and Immigration Laws

Expropriation After 1948: Denying Palestinian Right of Return

In 1948, Israel expropriated Palestinian land, preventing over 5 million refugees from returning. While international law supports the right of return for Palestinian refugees, Israel denies this right, maintaining a discriminatory system that favors Jewish immigrants.

Discriminatory Immigration Laws: Favors Jewish Settlers

Israel's immigration laws allow Jewish settlers, with or without citizenship, to freely live throughout the territory. This contributes to further displacement and dispossession of Palestinians, showcasing the systematic favoring of Jewish Israelis over Palestinians.

Citizenship and Immigration: Systematic Favoritism

Jewish persons from around the world can immigrate freely to Israel and become citizens, even if they've never set foot in the country. This contrasts with the ongoing denial of Palestinians' right to return or even visit their homeland.

Intimate Control: Family Life and Unification

Ban on Family Unification: Denying Palestinians Rights

Israel's ban on family unification, reinforced by a 2022 law, denies naturalization to Palestinians from the West Bank or Gaza married to Israeli citizens. This policy forces families to either live apart or emigrate, depriving them of the right to be together.

Legal Barriers to Love: Restrictions on Marriage

These laws create barriers to Palestinians falling in love, getting married, and starting a family. For instance, if a Palestinian from East Jerusalem marries someone from the West Bank, legal restrictions prevent them from living together in East Jerusalem, making them stateless.

Case Study: Stateless Individuals like Yasmine

Yasmine, a 25-year-old with a father from Jerusalem and a mother from the West Bank, is among thousands of stateless Palestinians. Israel's denial of family rights leaves many in legal limbo, facing obstacles to residency for themselves and their future children.

Ongoing Oppression: Home Demolitions, Arrests, and Killings

Beyond Borders: Daily Oppression

Israel's control extends beyond borders, checkpoints, and documents. Palestinians face home demolitions, arrests, imprisonment, and extrajudicial killings. Challenges persist even when Palestinians attempt to challenge these policies, often resulting in criminalization and attacks by the Israeli government.

[shsl-cringefail-tournament]

Heres some propaganda that supports the belief that hagakure is in fact both cringe AND fail because i feel he does demonstrate both traits:

one of the main aspects of hagakures character that separates him from the others is that while the general opinion is that the majority of the characters that made it to further chapters or survived did have character development, hagakures case is that his personality actually got worse (based on a comment by aoi, the scene being along the lines of aoi testing his sanity and asking him a simple math question, in which he goes on a rant and FAILS to answer correctly 💀💀)

the only arguably progressive thing hagakure has done (more so said) was his little speech at the end of thh about moving forward, which he actually FAILED to act on. In UDH, the whole plot is him attempting to steal something from towa city (WHICH RESULTS IN A WHOLE ASS HELICOPTER FILLED WITH HIS COLLEAGUES TO EXPLODE SIMPLY BECAUSE HE DECIDED TO FAKE SICK) to resolve his debt which he still hasnt managed to get over and getting into a whole load of trouble, relying on a highschooler to continuously save his ass, and then concluding the novel by chasing after nakajima in an attempt to continue his journey to squeeze money out of her, therefore FAILING to uphold his words in THH about moving forward and FAILING to do his job as a FF worker too (i will however give him credit for saving her, even tho it was only once)

also, i feel its alittle bit weird that people are calling the characters that were murdered failures simply for dying? like everyone dies, and its especially weird that people are saying taka is a failure for dying as a victim, idk it just doesnt make that much sense to me, what does make sense tho is calling hagakure a failure despite the fact hes still alive, he has the privilege of life but the only reason he IS alive is because he relied on some bloody highschoolers to literally do everything, and he spend his life amounting to absolutely nothing as he's NOT good at his job (both of them, being a fortune teller and a ff worker (and i mean hes not good at getting customers hes an ok clairvoyant)), his personality is horrendous and only got worse, and hes basically failed so much that people dont even see it as failure and more as a personality trait because he does it so often

anyways heres some hagakure cringefail facts if you didnt wanna read all of that (all canon btw):

he washes his hair with fabric softener

he wears a haramaki cuz he thinks a god will steal his belly button

he only showers 4 times a year

got scammed into buying his weird underwear

got scammed into buying like a bunch of expensive "crystal" balls at different times, basically falling for the same scam on a daily basis (because he manages to break them on a daily basis)

got sued by what is implied to be one of his ex girlfriends, but could be just any random girl (this is one of the many lawsuits against him)

there's more but i can't remember them all, feel free to reach out to me for proof btw but it might take a few hours for me to find them because i have. alot

Yasuhiro Hagakure for SHSL Cringefail propaganda!

[decolonize-the-everything]

If you want to separate yourself from whiteness then you first need to define yourself outside of it. This means asking yourself what you believe in, who you are, and what you believe is right or wrong without relying on the law or the bible or your friends or your political party or queer infographics to tell you the answer.

It means asking yourself honestly if you would still choose to support genocide or Kamala or Trump or capitalism or Tswift or war or the death penalty or laws or borders or traffic cops or oil based energy or putting most of our planets resources into killing people or asking if you Actually ever would've married your beard and asking if you'd still be transphobic....

If you didn't feel like you had to do any of that to fit in anymore.

If you didn't have to do that to keep your privileged status...would you?

Without whiteness there to use shame to control every aspect of who you are... Who are you? What do you believe? Would you still want to be white?

Or would you claim to be something else? Something new maybe?

Whiteness as a race is tied to whiteness as a concept. You can't destroy one without the other.

Would you choose to belong to the land you live on and build a home and community there or would you still insist the land belongs to you and try to subjugate everyone?

Is the violence that's inseparable from whiteness also inseparable from you?

If we as a society are ever going to move forward and fight fascism it will be by making the supporters of all it's branches (such as white supremacy) come face to face with the reality that they have a choice in what kind of person they want to be and it is Their choice that determines how they are treated.

Someone who's grown up being fed propaganda from the belly of fascism would have no concept of that choice. The ability to choose whether to support the ideology of white supremacy was never a question posed. Instead the state asks it's targets which branch of the state they support most. Or the state asks them how realistic other options are.

Existing outside the systems built by white supremacy isn't something that's Ever presented as possible and in fact it's quite actively and aggressively kept from ever being taken seriously in conscious thought.

So this is me.

Bringing it to your conscious thought.

[rametarin]

More grumblings about Werewolf: the Apocalypse and V5. And missed opportunities. (Settle in, because this is going to be a big screed.)

One of my biggest issues with World of Darkness is it's usually fine when you can separate the ideological hamfistedness and occassional diatribe by the authors that so DESPERATELY have wanted to use fun gothic punk horror as a recruiting ground for anarcho-communists, from the actual fun fanciful macabre and horror.

Except, the problem arises because the socio-political people seek to browbeat and reinterpret what is allowed or acceptable in horror, and by extension, literature and culture. So anything that deviates out of what they want to be acceptable cultural messages gets removed and suppressed. No room for questions, they don't even want the possibility that you may answer anything but what they want you to come away with.

No horror monsters or mythological creatures that they ideologically disagree with, either.

So if your culture has a mythological creature that amounts to the ghost of a stillborn baby haunting it's mother, or any mother, out of revenge? "That's misogyny and punishment against women! Such patriarchal myths perpetuate an anti-woman view in culture and society, and so they shouldn't exist!!! It also perpetuates the idea you have to be female to be a mother, so THAT is a problem too!" So they simply make that problematic mythological creature disappear into omission and edit it out of the folklore canon as if it's not there, and stigmatize the retelling as something only a stinky evil monstrous male chauvinist would do. While they'll hem and haw and hoot about being sooOOoO Inclusive, for the credits, if your culture and community has any elements it finds an issue, it will 1.) avoid mentioning that out loud, because contradicting the Oppressed Minorities while giving them a platform means they may be gunshy about being voices against "the mainstream," or supporting them as they selectively browbeat white people as oppressive or ignorant. 2.) try to get the young people inside those communities themselves to be the ones to argue such mythological or folklore figures should stop being talked about and stop being considered part of the culture, because they, "perpetuate bad thoughts and sentiments."

They love folklore for the fact it's a window into a culture, they just hate that these aspects of culture and folklore exist, and their definition of, "folk" is very specific and one they demand everybody else exclusively adhere to, no questions, no alternatives. They just say it indirectly and often through force, when they can enforce it.

So why did I go on this screed above? Because it's padding to talk about an example of this in gameplay and how our species works. The monkey babble and rules and perceptions of human beings, as we relate to the horrors of our own biology.

Biological exclusivity and inclusion into how we determine culture. Birthright. Maternal and paternal exclusivity and privileges based on whom your biological parents are, somehow mattering on a legal, biological and spiritual level.

The problem is they ideologically disagree that biology should be destiny and that ethnicity should be based on biology. They argue that the ONLY important factor should be culture and nurture, and that elements such as the state can embody and lead said cultures, not individuals from said in-group. That you shouldn't be allowed to have a group based on characteristics that can't intellectually or socially just be appropriated and majoritied, because that's some sort of social evil and oppression.

So how do they characterize people that believe birthright and heredity play a role in culture and society and family are the devil?

Why, they do what they always do. They treat you like a child and antagonize you, loudly bringing up, "OH. OKAY, NAZI. SURE, NAZI. THAT'S SOMETHING NAZIS BELIEVE. YOU BELIEVE THIS IS TRUE, THEREFORE YOU MUST BE A NAZI, NAZI. WANNA EUGENICALLY CLEANSE ME FOR BEING NEURODIVERGENT, NAZI?" as a way to shame you if your culture treats hereditary connection to a community as a qualifying characteristic.

However, they do not levy this weapon equally against all cultures. They will absolutely invalidate any claim to validity from any white ethnic community and argue, VIOLENTLY, that there's no such thing as any cohesive European ethnic group, or any kind of coherent 'whiteness' at all, for that matter, treating Europeans as some sort of cultural anti-culture that are just incoherent static of human beings. Not individuals and cultures unto themselves, not a valid community, not a valid People.

They will not, similarly, say the same things about capital B Black people, or Asians. To them, Black and Asian are demographics.

But it has become out of vogue to refer to black as a race. Races, it's believed, are, "social constructs," and not real. This argument isn't had directly between Black ethnonationalists and Black identitarians or Black separatatists and the social constructionists in the far-left, because that would represent a skewing schism in the allyship. So, one seeks to constantly circumvent and go both over and under the others' heads in just whom tells whom what to do and define the other and the parameters of how they're defined.

So they started capitalizing the B in Black to refer to the social group of Black people. Whom is black? Anyone with sub-Saharan African phenotypes and hereditary characteristics unique to that part of Africa.

Can a person without that ancestry thus be capital b Black? If Blackness is culture and not subject to heredity, can a person be a fair skinned, red freckled ginger and be certifiably black as Wesley Snipes?

No, they argue, because the characteristics of being Black necessitate a level of racial pur- I mean, "passingness", that unless you grow up characteristically resembling a person of that ethnic group, you don't get the valid "experience" of growing up Black. Thus, capital B Black people are left as the only vaid "culture" where you have to be born from a Black mother or father in order to be Black.

Cultures can be joined or left and have no biological necessity, so the thinking goes, and surely no uprigth person would dare entertain something so racist and bioessentialist as a culture or community exclusive to a certain hereditary line.

But surely you aren't suggesting that these rules apply to Capital B Black culture, right? Because if you were, that poses an existential threat to Black peoples' existence! That would mean that defining Black as anything more deep or ingrained or exclusive than a Jazz band or a basketball court or a big Christmas dinner or Muslim family gathering, would be bioessentialism and share characteristics with Nazism. Right?

Hm. Sure are a lot of competing points of view here. Irreconcilable differences and immovable objects as different views vy for dominance in what is right and wrong. I wonder which values will pan out the winners in the argument, or if there'll be some sort of division in the narrative. Or hypocrisy.

So anyway. This is Rachel Dolazel.

Rachel got in trouble relatively recently. See, she's a white woman. She has no immediate Capital B Buhlack racial heritage. She falsified her ethnic identity and took selective ambiguous photos with older black men that she passed off dishonestly as potential dads in order to get a career speaking up about the oppressions black people face in Academia, where due to the way she did her skin and hair, it could be assumed she was mixed. She spoke on behalf of black people and their problems and her proposed solutions. And she, "considers herself Black."

Now, competing schools in progressivism have been arguing internally about this for a long time. Because on the one hand, they really want black allies and narrative in their struggle for narrative and social dominance of values. And those values are, biology should not be a legitimate determining factor in any social culture or community. That you should be able to join any group without the biological necessity to inherit those characteristics or birthright.

And the other side that says, "if you aren't born from our in-group, you are not of our in-group, and thus, not entitled to our love, compassion, resources, or social organization. You are an outsider, you are an enemy, and our culture is closed to your input."

They really want those oppressed ethnic and social groups to be on their side as allied communities to use as collective democratic vehicles of social organization, but they don't want those groups to be autonymous and structurally exist outside of the control of society. So it's a careful dance of saying and not saying things until those groups have no choice by law or by the grass roots values of their children, to change how they can validly define themselves.

They vehemently disagree that any validity exists to any culture or community that uses paternal or maternal heredity to define and distinguish itself as true and valid. And they don't just want that to be opinion, they want to be in a position to tell said people, "you are not valid, your culture is not valid, and you do not exist. You will not be treated as a distinct culture or community if your culture and community use hereditary birthright as sacred things."

So, surprise surprise, modern folklorists and urban fantasy, gothic punk horror writers choose not to have fun with the tropes of "harmful" culture, but to argue against the participation of it at all in society or pop culture.

In Werewolf: the Apocalypse, that game departed from the conventional pop culture folklore where a werewolf was not the result of being infected or baptized into darkness by the bite of a werewolf, but through biological heredity. W:tA Werewolves were this hereditary community of shaman and spirit workers that were fighting an attritional war against an overwhelming for.

The Garou as a culture in the old games existed as a kind of anomaly. Only 5% of the children a werewolf would have (male or female) would be a werewolf. The rest would be either normy human beings, or spiritually aware but unchanging humans called Kinfolk that could relate to the were-wolves and serve as go-betweens for the more supernaturally inclined monster folk and basic humanity. Often taking the roles of a support system. They were the Alfred Pennysworths, the Lois Lanes. Kinfolk drastically raised the potential of a werewolf being able to produce another werewolf.

And this problemed, bizarre biology that fought so hard against large losses against their adversary was one of the horrors of the setting. You had to balance modern sensibilities about how your horrible supernatural biology functioned, how new members of your group are made, vs. just how dehumanizing that could be, all in the face of the grind of the enemy at the front gates and time itself threatening to destroy your community.

W:tA set the werewolves up as having screwed up bigtime in the past, treating humans like chattel and breeding stock. This was their history and something they had to come to terms with. It was part of the body horror that is synonymous with werewolf and the knowledge of horrors of things groups inflicted on others in the past. All because the only way you get more of your in-group is due to biological heredity, and that without that component, the pacts with your spirits, the traditions that make your group's magic function, don't work.

This unchangeable facet of existence, this immutable, static part of you, that you just have to live with and even if you can transform and change some parts, cannot change around by yourself, was part of the horror. That some social structural changes are beyond one person alone to change. That no matter what you do, you cannot change heredity and the choices that people preceding you have made. You can only live in the environment and time created by circumstance and inherit that culture and history. For better or worse.

These were themes in werewolf that were very heavy and their own source of terror.

So how did W5 decide to play off these deep, juicy source of not just body horror, but social horror?

Take the entire thing and put it in a dumpster and start fresh, actively and intentionally refusing to even touch them.

They determined that werewolf tribes would not directly grow out of existing folklore or pay homage to cultures and communities with their own were-wolf myths, incorporating those folklore stories and their origins. Not just because, "that would be cultural appropriation," on behalf of Native American or African stories of people turning back and forth between animals, but because acknowledging the different narrative traditions and cultural tales of say, Greek werewolves Vs. Roman werewolves Vs. Irish werewolves would necessitate acknowledging that there are cultures within white European people that are themselves indivisibe, distinct and didn't just exist, but are currently alive.

And we've already covered, they do not believe to be white or European should be considered a culture in and of itself the way they feel being Asian or Black are cultures with valid racial characteristics that are endangered by whites when mixing.

So naturally they do not want to include an Irish tribe of werewolves.

Then we come to the most reviled tribe of all to these new guys.

The Get of Fenris are a tribe in Werewolf: the Apocalypse that borrows heavily from Norse mythology, as the name implies. The Get of Fenris are a viking werewolf culture that claim to descend from Fenris the Wolf, whom they venerate most.

They use old Norse runes, weapons and iconography, and are a result of Neo-Pagans in the anti-Christian revivals of culture that were popular throughout the 60s-00s. They were fun, cheesy, deathmetal and axe slinging motherfuckers. Fucking viking werewovles! What's not to love?

But as you well know from the tone of this post, there's no room for fun in the hamfisted ideological platform that is modern World of Darkness. The 90s "everything's good, lets just incorporate everything equally" gave way to further editions trying to wag a finger at Werewolf: the Apocalypse fans and reminding them that white supremacists existed that were taking the Get of Fenris and just using them to validate the idea of white genetic supremacy, or, gasp, the idea a 'white' culture exists or existed at all. Not like those noble oppressed ethnically homogenuous demographics, whom are definitely cultures unto themselves.

They exaggerated the number of actual W:tA players supposedly unironically trying to play out their nazi Werewolf fantasies of blonde haired, blue eyed Norsemen, and so by the Revised (third) edition, set up the Get as having an internal racism and sexism problem that the players had to punch. They set up lore about the Get fighting on both sides in World War 2 and the Nazi get losing by, you guessed it, getting punched. And overall just browbeat and negged Get players by attaching this stigma of "suspected Nazi" to them just by virtue of the Get being Odinist themed.

They went out of their way to emphasize the number of Get that themselves were either Asian or blacker than the Ace of Spades, took great pains to acknowledge horrible and disgusting Get existed and had their own political group within the tribe that all the right thinking Get hated and marginalized and wanted to go away, and overal just made the bad guy Get the mincing racist, sexist, patriarchal stereotypes for protagonists to punch. Just, so, y'know, you get the message.

But that STILL wasn't enough contrition and self-flaggelation of the Get for them.

So by Werewolf, 5th edition, the Get of Fenris are no longer the Get of Fenris. Right out of the gate, the CULT of Fenris are no longer playable characters. The Cult of Fenris are radical white supremacist snarling ultra-radical militarists that have charged down the mouth of the Wyrm and become an unplayable lost Tribe. They just simply took them off the table in the most mean spirited "fuck you" to Werewolf fans of the past, just to do that limp wristed solidarity fist and say, "no platform for Nazis," in a room with no Nazis in it.

Now compare and contrast this to what they did to the werewolf clan that took Irish werewolf myths and made them ethnically Irish; they just made them Hearth Keepers and excised the Irish from them, so being descended from Ireland had nothing to do with your attachment to the tribe. No mention of Shileleighs or guiness or bardic stories.

They did not turn the Irish tribe into god damned evil monsters, they just removed the Irishness from them save for some vague, ghostly nods to some fragments of folklore of werewolves originating in Ireland, but kept the rest of the tribe somewhat valid.

They did not decide arbitrarily that the celtic cross wielding tribe decided to just become raging lunatics and throw themselves down a fairy circle to fight Satan, thereby becoming demons themselves.

They structured the entire basis of the Cult of Fenris not just to make them unplayable, but make them cursed corpses and read any of the people that wanted to play them as assholes. Not just reinterpreted out of the game without mention, like the Fianna, but made examples of. That isn't just, "I hate this group and don't even want to mention them in my game," this is, "fuck your group, and fuck you." That's active hostility. The Get could've just been reimagined. Instead, they were pilloried.

No matter how much they tried to expand upon the concept of werewolf tribes to make them racially inclusive, acknowledge sexism and paternalism as tragedies in the past to overcome, try to underline what role the players had in trying to become part of the solution to restructure or reform these tribes and their cultures to be something else, it was never enough. Just being a culture that necessitated coming from Europeans was enough to get something characterized as, "inescapably Nazi," the more it necessitated European origins instead of flavorless homogenuity. Europeans are not allowed to have culture, merely exist, and folklore isn't allowed to come from recognizable and distinct "folk."

They also took issue with the hereditary nature of being a werewolf. Because, as stated above, they do not believe culture and literature should perpetuate the idea that birthright and heredity plays any role in destiny or group affiliation, and don't even want to perpetuate myths and folklore of such things operating that way. You know, because, "then the little people may get ideas about perpetuating it in culture and literature."

So in V5, there's absolutely no hereditary tribal structure that passes down the tribe. It's all arbitrary, postmodernist, "how much do you vibe with these spiritual characteristics that all individuals possess." Nothing unique to a bloodline or hereditary group, nothing that is a unique mutation that only members of a certain group possess or you have to marry into to perpetuate.

Kinfolk are not distant cousins and fellow descendants of these shamanic tribes, they're individuals who resonate with your supernatural values that can come from anywhere, and it's the virtue of their beliefs and feelings that matter, not their blood.

And the fucked part is, the actual lore, if they bothered to even fucking read it, ALREADY SET UP for stuff like this to happen! They could very, VERY easily have worked these changes into the franchise, if they wanted. By the end of 3rd Edition, they talked about mysterious humans appearing that had NO biological, hereditary attachment to tribes like the Get of Fenris, that had the Pure Breed Tribe spiritual characteristic of 5/5, as if they were sired by a famous Get of Fenris themselves. They previously SET UP the modern era to start having people that weren't the byproducts of generations of grooming and in-culture to authenticate their tribal affiliation.

And then these new people took the meta of progress towards these changes to not just the game, but the meta, and said, "No platform for Nazis and TERFs," and just.... threw it all in the trash. Because, "we know better. :^)"

Every single issue they had a problem with could've been addressed and solved and the integrity of the game maintained. And they chose the most flavorless, bland way to just reset the game possible in the interests of homogenuity and modularity and "intersectional inclusion."

And congratulations, you took what was interesting and unique about the game and how it approached body horror, social horror and social issues, went, "I'M RIGHT, YOU'RE WRONG, WE TALKED ABOUT IT AND I'M RIGHT AND YOU'RE WRONG!" and tossed it in the trash.

I won't even get into the overcorrection involved in stripping the Native American tribes from their roots and overcompensating by treating the Wendigo as too sacred of a figure for even non-Natives to mention the name of. These people would use this same argument to scream Christians shouldn't even be allowed to write God because some Jews refuse to reference them by name, and it's sacred to them.

The level of bad faith that went into this edition of the game means I'll still be playing 20th edition and basing things off 20th edition lore. This ain't it. You couild've warded away the fash/naz players in so many better ways, could've done more with "inclusion and cultural sensitivity" with the Native American tribes using the tools of the setting, could've done so much more

And you fuckers chose the laziest, most ideologically masturbatory ways to do everything, right down to sticking obligate MAGA hats on the, "white supremacist tribe," and roasting them in a pot as a middle finger to imagined strawmen.

[uncloseted]

What are your thoughts on separating the art from the artist? Evryone is so quick to cancel a celebrity for doing something bad and legit the truth is that no celebrity in history has ever been perfect. If people want to uphold this standard they need to realise they legit cant like any artist before like 2019 because in some way musicians or actors have acted as a product of their time and done something messed up. I mean think Bowie. He's adored but would face scrutiny today if he was around

So, when considering “problematic media”, I think it’s important to be clear on what we’re concerned about. In my mind, these concerns can be sorted into two main categories: financial and ideological.

The financial side of things is fairly straightforward. Who profits from us interacting with this media? What kind of power and privilege does that afford them, and how will they use that power? Would boycotting them really make a difference in the amount of power that they have? What media isn’t being funded because this media is? For smaller or medium sized creators, not interacting with problematic media can make a big financial difference because it can impact future opportunities that they get and reduce the platform that they have. For someone like JK Rowling, the financial aspect is virtually meaningless, given that her net worth is around £820 million. Even if nobody bought anything from her ever again, she’d still have the power and privilege that comes with being a multi-millionaire.

The ideological side is more complicated, but I think it basically comes down to, "how much of this person's problematic belief system comes through in their art, and do I want to interact with that?" Was Picasso a huge misogynist by his own admission? Yes. Does that come across in his work? I don't think so, personally. His work asks us to engage with the question of what art is, something that's largely lacking in gender politics. Is his work still important in the history of 20th century art? Yes, and we can't just ignore it because he sucked as a person. Would we be better off elevating the work of other people who were equally important to art history but didn't get proper recognition at the time? Sure. But all of these things can co-exist. I think it's different when you have something that's intentionally discriminatory. But even then, it's not a bad thing to watch (for example) Birth of a Nation. It is important to engage with it critically, but it's important to engage with all media critically, even the media that we think of as being "safe" or "unproblematic". Nothing that exists is morally pure. That's just the way the world we live in is. So all we can do is try out best to be thoughtful about what we consume, how we consume it, and what we do with the knowledge we gain from it.

[smallhorizons]

friendly reminder that gender essentialism, transmedicalism, bioessentialism, and intersexism are inherently transphobic (& often transmisogynist, enbyphobic, & racist). they recreate & uphold false colonial gender & sex binaries that can be and often are reinforced with violence and hostility.

the Powers That Be (transphobic governments, cis anti-trans 'activists', wealthy TERFs [cough cough]) use these talking points to shape legislature that is contributing to a genocide against trans people ... but we as trans people also have a responsibility to each other to not engage in lateral violence, especially when that violence can be used to push people out of spaces they rely on for much-needed support (be that support financial, social, or otherwise)

what does this look like?

claims that feminine trans men/mascs, butch/masculine trans women/femmes, and/or any trans & nonbinary people who present similarly to their gender assigned at birth, aren't 'really' trans, are 'appropriating' the trans experience, 'just want to be oppressed', or are somehow responsible for societal transphobia

claiming that medical transition is the central aspect of being transgender and dismissing trans people who can't or don't want to medically transition as not actually being trans

focusing on 'AFAB' as a 'safe' gender assignment or centering AGAB as your axis of (trans) solidarity, while holding trans folks who were AMAB to very high standards to 'prove' that they are safe

making claims that somebody's AGAB results in intrinsic experiences such as being 'socialized as male' that 'all A[F/M]AB people' experience, especially when you talk over trans people who are telling you that their own experience does not line up with your claims

transfeminized debt (expecting trans women & femmes to "make up" for their supposed past ~male privilege~) & its inverse, which I don't believe has an agreed-upon term yet, in which trans men & mascs are expected to make up for their current supposed ~male privilege~

saying that trans men who step out of line/talk over trans women & femmes are "male brained" and, conversely, blaming trans women's so-called 'male socialization' for if they talk over trans men & mascs

talking over or dismissing intersex trans folks' histories because they don't fit into your expectations of what an 'afab/amab' experience looks like, and calling intersex people's "credentials" into question if they talk about their experience in a way you don't understand

claiming that testosterone makes you uncontrollably violent, or otherwise anthropomorphizing testosterone as a uniquely powerful hormone that poisons/ruins pre/no-transition trans women/femmes as well as trans men/mascs/nonbinary folks on T (note: this does NOT include trans folks, esp trans women & femmes, talking about their own negative experiences with testosterone in regards to their own dysphoria)

and lots of other examples i'm sure folks can share

to be absolutely clear, there is no one 'group' of trans people who are ~solely responsible~ for the above. I've seen trans folks of pretty much all backgrounds, agabs, identities, transition status, etc. lash out at other trans people over any one of the above points. tho there are some trends that are more prevalent in some trans communities than others - e.g., belief in afab-ness as central to trans solidarity being almost exclusively in spaces dominated by afab trans people who have terf rhetoric to unlearn - all the above statements are connected in that they uphold rigid, colonial gender roles that are intrinsically separate from one another, and can be used to punish those who do not fall neatly into such binary.

further, no trans person or community is responsible for the oppressive, genocidal actions of the ruling cis patriarchal class. period.

we should be in solidarity with one another. and while we do not have the power by ourselves to dismantle the oppressive structures that harm us, we can at least reflect on our own beliefs and make sure we are not contributing to any lateral harm against each other.