#might add propaganda for them later

[random-autie-fangirl]

Which is Flowey Dreemurr more like...

[techmomma]

Facts about your body after you turn 25, AKA things I wish someone had told me:

you will get hair in fun new places. this is normal and fine.

these places include (but are not limited to) if you don't already have them: your asscrack, your back, your ears, and moles. it's fine.

some of you, dick or not, will also lose hair. this is normal, but also if you have ovaries maybe get this checked out for PCOS.

your acne will probably change. some people get better. some people get worse. it's fine.

your nails will probably get an infection or a fungus at least once in your life. this is fine. (but also let your doc know).

how you gain and lose fat and where you do so will change. this is fine.

how you smell will change. this is fine. (fishy or rotten smells mean doctor time though)

if you have a prostate: it gets harder to pee. prostates enlarge as you age (get this checked regularly). this is fine.

if you do not have a prostate: it gets easier to pee but not in a good way. as in as you get older, your pelvic floor muscles tend to lose some of their strength. this makes it harder to keep pee in. this is fine.

all breasts and pectorals eventually sag, with the rest of your body. this is fine.

a decent percent of the population will experience a cyst at least once. some of you will make up for the rest with multiple. this is fine, but keep them checked out by a doctor. (sometimes this is a condition! get checked for that too!)

almost half of everyone gets hemorrhoids. it's a good idea to just expect them since your chances of getting them get higher the older you are. your toilet will look like a murder scene. definitely get your booty checked out BUT this is almost always perfectly normal. just eat more fiber. "but I already-" eat more fiber. and maybe suck it up and buy some hemorrhoid cream, you'll thank me later.

yes, this means you will probably need to make an appointment for a doctor to see your butthole. it's okay. not only do they really not care but 1. they've seen weirder that day and 2. they'd far rather you see them now than later when it's been going on for forty years and now it might be colon cancer. it's okay. consider it a rite of passage.

adults need more sleep than children. don't believe the myth that you need less than they do. that is capitalist propaganda to make you give up more of your life to the work grind, comrade.

vitamins and medicine, something you are more likely to take as you get older, sometimes make the toilet turn weird colors. it's okay.

if you still have your tonsils and get those little stones and get sore throats more than once a year you should plan on getting those suckers out before the tonsils cause an infection and go septic. if you're getting stones at all you should get those reevaluated every year, especially if the stones are bigger than a needlehead (or get bigger over time). it's gross and yucky. I don't care. get them looked at before you end up in the hospital.

you'll probably need to add foot support to your shoes if you don't already do. this is fine.

your body changes. sometimes it can feel sorta weird and upsetting that it isn't what it used to be. that is okay, and it is okay to be upset. just know that this is normal, it's normal to be upset or not upset, but don't let it hinder your quality of life. trans or cis, there is a certain level of acceptance you just gotta give your body and forgive your body for as you get older. it's okay.

it's okay. I promise.

[heritageposts]

i saw the trailer for the new feel-good “anti-racist” US war movie about the carpet bombing of North Korea and started writing up something for this blog, partially inspired by the absolute shit storm i got for sharing that post i made with pictures of everyday life outside pyongyang

and then i gave up, because what’s the point? westerners can’t even handle a single picture of a north korean not looking miserable without screaming propaganda

meanwhile, there are no stories about the horrors of life in the ‘hermit kingdom’ that are deemed too outlandish to be believable. i can’t remember who said it, but it’s like the entire country has taken up permanent residence in the western imaginary as some silly little cartoon villain, where the leaders of the country does evil things for no discernible reason. they’re just silly and evil like that, and the citizens, of course, are silly, too. silly and brainwashed.

i watched a video recently of a tourists visiting an auto dealership in pyongyang, and the entire time he was just gawking at the employees and costumers, shoving his phone in their face, and confidently explaining to his youtube audience that everyone he’s interacting with are actually actors.

what level of dehumanization do you have to reach for that thought to even cross your mind? to think that the people you see before you are actors? that entire cities and shops are erected with to sole purpose that you, a western, will see them and be impressed?

what frustrates me the most is the casual cruelty that seeps into any mention of north korea, no matter how small. if north koreans are not being evil, they’re being silly.

a north korean newspaper reports that a group of archeologists in pyongyang have discovered an old rock carving with the words ‘unicorn lair’ (mistranslated), and the western press reports that north koreans now believe in unicorns.

a tourist at a hotel in hamhung is told by the receptionist to be careful at the beach: the waves can get high. that day the tourists goes to the beach, and there are no waves. she retells the story to her instagram followers, explaining that the poor woman at the hotel could never have seen real waves before because north koreans are probably never allowed to travel.

she adds a little teary-eyed emoji.

one of the cities i included in the post was sariwon, a densely populated city to the south of pyongyang. below are some pictures from its “folk customs street”, which was built to showcase old korean traditions and customs

here’s all wikipedia has to say about it

Built to display an ideal picture of ancient Korea, it includes buildings in the "historical style" and a collection of ancient Korean cannons. Although it is considered an inaccurate romanticized recreation of an ancient Korean street, it is frequently used as a destination for foreigners on official government tours. Many older style Korean buildings exist in the city.

it’s just north koreans being silly again. there’s no mention of what might motivate them to build a street like that — why the preservation of old customs, culture and architecture might somehow be important for the city

could it perhaps have something to do with how the U.S. air force dropped 635,000 tons of bombs, including 32,557 tons of napalm, over the korean peninsula during the war? the carpet bombings, which are now the topic of an upcoming hollywood movie about overcoming racism through warcrimes, destroyed an estimate of 85% of all buildings in north korea. some cities were entirely wiped off the map.

in sariwon they missed a few buildings, but not many — after an intense firebombing campaign the U.S. military estimated the destruction of sariwon to be at 95%.

none of this is mentioned on the wikipedia page for sariwon.

we destroyed entire cities. memory-holed the entire thing, called it the forgotten war. and now, 70 years later, we’re convincing ourselves that the people living in the ruins are actors.

and somehow the north koreans are the brainwashed ones

[fairuzfan]

hi! i just want to clarify first of all that im pro palestine, but a lot of people in my life aren't. ive been looking for ways to convince them but tbh im kind of lost. ive tried showing reports from websites like al jazeera but that's been dismissed out of hand because they're a middle east jounral and thus must be biased (pointing out that stuff like cnn then must be biased too because they're american hasn't worked lol). so, do you know of more "unbiased" resources/journals/etc, or anything that can argue for palestine? sorry if this is badly worded its pretty late. appreciate everything you've done btw 🇵🇸

No worries, I totally understand where you're coming from.

I guess I wanna ask for clarification—do you know what resources they personally are willing to accept? I can provide from Jewish scholars/voices if that'll help.

The issue is, not many USAmerican/European sources are unbiased, and they often spout imperialist propaganda. So if they're looking primarily for those types resources, I'm afraid I cannot really give you too many.

Here's a segment from an Angela Davis interview from Democracy Now that I like: https://www.democracynow.org/2021/12/28/angela_davis_25th_anniversary_taped_segment

Also her book Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement: https://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Constant-Struggle-Palestine-Foundations/dp/1608465640

Angela Davis is often pretty vocal about the harms of imperialism throughout the world and specifically mentions Palestine in her activism. I suggest looking to her writings also.

Can't say I know too much about DemocracyNow! though.

Some other scholars/orgs are:

Jewish Voice For Peace: https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/

If Not Now: https://www.ifnotnowmovement.org/

Ilan Pappe (he's specifically "Israeli", if that will help at all)

Frank Barat

Noam Chomsky: https://chomsky.info/

Modoweiss: https://mondoweiss.net/ Now I don't totally love Mondoweiss all of the time but if the people in your life are really against learning from non-Palestinian sources they might be ok to introduce them. They do have Palestinian writers and editors tho.

I guess if its more that they're unwilling to trust SWANA news sources, you could show them The Institute for Palestine Studies, which is associated with Columbia University.

This list was a little difficult because I can't say I'd always recommend these sources (except, well, Angela Davis—I really look up to her—and Institute for Palestine Studies), but it could be a good introduction if they're rejecting other places that have more reliable reporting. If they're willing to accept these places/people, then you could move on to more Palestinian led sources.

I don't know if this helps, but you could say that they should listen to the Palestinian's POV because you'd always asked the people directly involved in a situation what their viewpoint is? Might help shift their understanding.

There are more sources that I thought about adding, but I need to look into them a little more. I might add on to this list later.

Let me know if any of this helps at all or even if it didn't, I'm genuinely really interested to see what they have to say.

[dandylovesturtles]

This is 2AL Propaganda

I bring you propaganda for the @rottmntpeepawpolls advocating for 2 Arms Left Leo by @intotheelliwoods in the form of another fanfic drabble! Please go check out their comic series, it is extremely good. And vote for 2AL Leo in the poll tomorrow!!

(Also Ell I'm sorry if I get f!Leo and p!Donnie's relationship wrong I TRIED

ALSO I PROMISE THIS ISN'T ANGST

also also this is set still somewhat early in his recovery time OK NOTES OVER)

...

"I can feel you lurking."

Leonardo looks up from his phone and locks eyes with Donnie, currently peeking through the crack in the curtain to his train car. He disappears from view and a moment later waltzes his way inside like he hadn't just been hiding.

"I have a question for you," he announces.

Leo sits up and drops his legs over the edge of the bed. "Shoot."

Donnie hesitates. He looks anxious, and Leo tenses in anticipation.

"It's about your timeline."

Leo's heart drops.

He'd known this would come eventually, but he'd been hoping it would be later rather than sooner. Of course they would want to know eventually, though. What happened to them. How things in his time had... ended.

He just isn't prepared for it. He isn't sure if Donnie is prepared for it, either. He's still so young. Should he really be hearing this now? What kind of damage does that cause on a young mind?

His mouth is draw when he says, "What's your question?" He scrambles to prepare answer, some way to put it off, or maybe to soften the blow, or-

"Did you still have the Lair Games in the future?"

-gape at Donnie like a fish because what?

"What?"

"Did you still have the Lair Games in the future?" Donnie repeats, a little louder as though that were the issue here.

"...We were a little busy with the whole alien apocalypse situation."

"Scoff." Donnie waves a hand. "As if a little apocalypse could stop this family from being competitive."

He has him there. Leo can't help but snort in amusement. "You're right. But it was less formal and more like... bragging about how many Krang hounds we could kill."

"Ah, I see... Well, we're lacking in those, so... goodbye."

He turns on his heel to leave.

"Hey, wait wait wait! Why the sudden interest?"

Donnie turns back around. He still looks anxious, but now Leo realizes it's more embarrassed than upset like he initially thought.

"Well, as you know, I am the current champion of the Lair Games."

"Heh, as if you'd let me forget."

"And I'm very eager to defend my title! And especially after his-slash-your nefarious tricks last time, I'm ready to grind Nardo to dust." He rubs his palms together with an unhinged glee, and Leo winces internally. Yikes. "But..." and there he stops, "Leo seems... reluctant to participate. We did not design the events with... one of us missing a limb in mind."

Ah, right. Hard to do a Handstand Hillbomb with only one arm. Even if they put things off until Leo's port and prosthetic were ready, he probably still wouldn't be experienced enough with it to do anything too taxing.

Leo could already imagine his younger counterpart had waved it off with a smile and a, "You guys have fun," and, "I'll be cheering for you." He would swing by his room later to check on him; for now he had another kid to deal with.

"So that's why you came to me?"

"I was hoping you might have some ideas for alternative events."

"Hmmm... I might be able to think of some." He grins. "On one condition."

Donnie looks wary. "What?"

"I get to play, too."

"What, so you can twist both my ankles this time!?" Donnie shakes his head. "Oh no. One of you is enough."

"Come on! It'll be fun."

"Doubt! And besides, the bylaws state that we can't add anyone to the competition."

"Ah-ah." He waves a finger. "The bylaws state that the competition is between Raphael, Michelangelo, Donatello, and..." He trails off, putting a hand on his plastron with a smirk.

Donnie's eyebrows are furrowed so hard they're at risk of smudging. "...You have out loopholed me, sir."

"Don't worry, I'll give you guys-"

"Do not."

"-a handicap."

"Groan! Why didn't I send Mikey to do this instead?"

"'Cause you love me." Leo gets up from the bed, walks over and catches Donnie in an affectionate headlock before he can flee. "Alright. Let's get brainstorming!"

[kindalikerackham]

The Black Sails Drama Highlights™️

Like, what the fuck happened over there?

Lucky for you, I was there on the ground floor (even sent in some propaganda that elicited a truly baffling response from the poll runner) because I'm a nut for goofy little tumblr polls and a nut for best little lesser-known-tv-show Black Sails.

Alright, so. @/pirate-battle (from here on out referred to as OP -- the Original Pollster) was running, as one might expect, a pirate bracket. At first glance, it wasn't explicitly presented what the criteria were, so people voted on their preference, often moving along pirate icons (Hook from Muppet Treasure Island)/characters from active fandoms (TAZ), etc etc you know the drill. (Although they later clarified they were looking for favorites, not the "best pirate.")

OP's first mistake, I think, was the assumption that a silly goofy little tumblr competition about characters archetypically ungovernable would remain silly goofy and with minimal strong language.

But this wouldn't become visible until they made their second mistake, creating a first-round poll between James 'brutually murdered a crewmate in the first episode solely to maintain power for his revenge-quest against England' Flint of Black Sails vs Stede 'notable used tissue' Bonnet of OFMD. They did recognize some of the coming danger even with that post, tagging "#I predict slaughter in the tags"

O Apollo, strike down these children with prophecies that bite them in the a--

Anyway. Predictably, there was slaughter in the tags. Violent language rather typical of the tumblr that I came from (the tumblr of the early 2010s), but seemed to be utterly shocking to some OFMD fans.

Exposition time: It should be noted here that there exists at least two-ish different kinds of users of tags. Those that use them to scream personal thoughts into the void and/or whispers into their mutuals' ears, and those sneaky little fools who will peruse everyone's personal little screams/thoughts to their internet buddies. And original posters are relegated to suffer the yelling/whispers without choice.

So that slaughter, in the tags, those rivers of blood through the whispers of a fervent fanbase of a violent and freeing queer show, did reverberate around other users, regardless of etiquette.

And for some of those very sweet very uwu our flag means gay fans, that was.. very scary. (Must be all those spooky theatrics with the smoke and mirrors).

(....Idk??? Maybe I'm just battle-hardened from superwholock, but saying a tag a la "AHHHHHH I'm going to rip something's head off my BOY BETTER WIN" just doesn't really phase me?? Nor does "#I'm literally going to k/m/s if x wins." Overkill? Yeahhh... But this is tumblr. We invented overkill for the media we like. And again, this was in someone's tags.)

Moving on, as tags of that violent nature starting pulling through, and people started vigorously defending black sails as a franchise over ofmd, myself and others sent in some propaganda of my own, urging OFMD fans to really understand that Black Sails is mostly incomparable to OFMD and... Black Sails is just kinda better. Cuts deeper. Genre difference at work here.

Soapbox Side Note: Black Sails can actually be kind of game changing, especially for a show that came out in 2014. There's so much to say about it but it's hard to talk about without spoiling. I might add a link to a good 'things to know' post if you're looking to get into it.

Anyway. OP was starting to lose it.

Like, I really just don't think they had mentally prepared for how truly feral Black Sails folks were/are about that show, and how they were willing to get all HRRRRRRR CHOMP CHOMP CHOMP about it.

Additionally... OP was white, and they were super duper unprepared to engage with any of the discourse about racism that these shows dig up (They're about pirates, and a lot of pirates engaged in the slave trade. Or had freed slaves on their crew. Some even owned slaves themselves. It was complicated and pirates are typically a white fantasy vehicle and anyway I'm getting off-track--)

OP started to really fan the flames with more and more visibly emotional responses

They said "it's not a competition" between the two shows, despite it... being a literal competition...

They called people out for "gatekeeping," but didn't really define what it meant in the context of saying one gay pirate show was way better than the other.

They told Black Sails fans not to express negative feelings towards OFMD on the internet (because good representation is the god us internet queers pray to, and we wouldn't want some network exec to say "oh those mean people on the internet, better not renew the popular pirate romcom" obvi)

After some more of this, they then threatened to overturn the results of the poll entirely and remove Flint from the poll wholesale, despite the fact that he had won. (Which is hilarious if you know anything about Flint in Black Sails. He's literally That Guy That Makes People Break Democracy Attempting To Unseat Him).

Finally, after a day of trying to ignore the fact that they'd become a meme within black sails circles (one post even screenshotted then with "new copypasta just dropped" yikes), they threw in the towel. And bless them, I do think they needed the break. They were kind of going through it.

In conclusion,

The Black Sails fans pulled what I might even daresay to be,, , a fuckery "of censorship and fear",, over OFMD fans and some poor unprepared poll runner who had no skin in the game, while using only strong language and some mild mean-spirited memes (95% of which in their own tags and posts).

[makethosenarratorsfight]

UNRELIABLE NARRATORS; SIDE C

Dr. John Watson Propaganda:

He literally admits that he changes his stories. "One day the true stories may be told"? Do I need to say more?

Gideon Nav Propaganda:

(Spoilers for Ht9) She just. Fully ignores most of the magic plot happening around her in the first boom to be a dyke. In the second book it’s even less reliable and it’s fully fucking insane. It’s first person but she’s telling YOU (harrow) what is happening and it’s impossible to decipher. The appearance and personality of every character is fully morphed by Gideon’s mean dykishness.

MASSIVE spoilers. Like even mentioning that this is a thing is a huge fucking spoiler. I normally don’t care about spoilers that much but I legitimately feel awful for anyone with even a passing interest in reading these books who has this spoiled for them. Anyway. Yeah turns out the second-person narration is actually a first-person narration by the dead girl living in Harrow’s head whose death traumatized Harrow (and the entire fandom) so badly that she literally lobotomized herself to forget it and give Gideon a chance at not having her soul digested.

constantly adds her own commentary, does not pay attention to the interesting moving parts of the plot bc she's too busy looking at pretty girls, cannot be trusted to read her own intentions correctly never mind anyone else's. I love her dearly

she just doesn’t notice or doesn’t give a shit about a ton of plot-essential information. Harrow and Palamedes are talking about a necromantic theorem that would blow open the entire story if we could hear them? You can instantly feel Gideon’s eyes glaze over and her mind wander to the nearest available hot girl, and our attention goes with her. It’s handled so smoothly that you might not even notice it happening until a second or third read.

More Propaganda under cut!

Gideon Nav is all but useless as a narrator, and we love her for it. So first of all, she knows absolutely nothing. She grew up under a rock. Almost literally. When the plot is happening near her, she almost never tells us about it. Politics, history, and the magic system are boring. Let her know when there's something she can FIGHT. She also has very selective emphasis and focus that can change a scene completely without ever actually lying. She can tell the same story—to us, in her third-person narration as a factual recounting—and in one version the incident will be a schoolyard scuffle, while a later telling will reveal it to have been a near-homicide. She'll confidently interpret other character's motivations and emotions, only to later be proven wrong. But the thing that makes her REALLY unreliable? She lies to HERSELF constantly. She will tell us in her narration that she doesn't give a shit where someone disappeared to, and then spend the whole day searching for them. She'll say she hates someone, when. Well....

okay so i am actually going to do one segment about her own book and one about harrow’s so many apologies and also many spoilers ahead okay? okay so in gideon the ninth it’s a well known thing that she’s an unreliable narrator on two fronts: she lies to herself and therefore us about how she’s feeling and what she’s thinking, and also she isn’t paying attention to the plot at all. the only things she pays any attention to are hot girls, swords, and hot girls with swords. at one point she watches their only way out be sealed off and is so bored about it that she goes to sleep watching it happen, taking absolutely no note of “oh hey they’re trapping us here”. later someone asks IN FRONT OF HER “hey where did all our shuttles go” and shes like “😌😌😌😌😌😌😌😌😌” and still does not make the connection. babygirl. but THEN!!!!! in HARROW the ninth (MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD) gideon is the narrator the ENTIRE TIME (except for the revised canaan house parts) and not only does she editorialize, she also straight up lies about events and motivations! partially justified by her being inside harrow’s head, but like. babygirl. beloved. the interjections of “holy fuck” and “pommel” and othersuch things is so important to my mental health and wellbeing. thank you. thank you for lying to us so so much.

[monsterfuckabilitytournament]

alright! we're still in the very early phases of this tournament while submissions are still coming in. in the meantime, i am running some practice polls with the most commonly thirsted after monsters. these polls will have no sway over the actual tourney. feel free to submit any monsters that come up over the next few days yourself as it's always fun to see more propaganda for our favorite horny beasts!

and just to be clear about what i count as submit worthy:

movie/TV/comic monsters (creature of the black lagoon, king kong, symbiote)

creatures of classic folklore (vampires, demons, naga)

urban legends and cryptids (bigfoot, mothman)

mythological beings (kraken, minotaur)

fantasy creatures (orcs, dragons, treants)

pretty much anything else you can think of as long as it isn't included in the list below

here are the few things i won't count as submissions

any gods so as to be respectful

specific characters (edward cullen, jack russel, venom) though i'll allow iconic movie monsters like godzilla that are more cultural icons that singular characters

i think that's it but might add stuff later on if anything comes up

also, just cause i mentioned a monster above does not mean it has been submitted yet. so go wild!

[inbarfink]

Okay, this is probably just me being Very Silly but… I think Roleswap AUs are a lot of fun, not just like… as a character design exercise thingy, but as a character exploration and analysis exercise… thingy.

Like, you know, it’s a game of ‘what would this character do if they were in that situation that this other character was in?’, ‘how much would change if those were the circumstances of this character’s life?’, ‘how much do you have to change about a character to make them work in this specific narrative role - and how much you just cannot change without making the character unrecognizable?’

So I’ve had a lot of fun playing around with my Adventure Time Roleswap AUs (you can get a better look at them with the AT Roleswap Tag on my blog). 

And I’ve been thinking if I could do a similar thing for Invader Zim - both because IZ has these clear Four Leads that you can swap around very neatly (actually much more than AT does lol) and… mostly because I’ve been going through yet another of my Literally Can’t Think of Anything but Invader Zim Phases and Roleswap AUs offer an exciting new opportunity to Rotate These Characters in My Head.

(For the sake of clarity, I’ll be using ‘the Alien’, ‘the Kid’, ‘the Robot’ and ‘the Sibling’ when referring to the Narrative Roles of Zim, Dib, GIR and Gaz respectively. So if I’m talking about a Dib-Zim Roleswap I’ll be talking about Zim-as-the-Kid and Dib-as-the-Alien. It might lead to weird turns-of-phrase later down the line, like Sibling!Dib when Dib is obviously always a sibling - but at least I hope it’ll be less clunky and more clear that way lol)

So, yeah, I had some Thoughts and Considerations about the idea of a Zim-Dib GIR-Gaz Roleswap, but all-in-all things fall into place pretty easily. Playing on Dib’s relatively-more-heroic role and his only-sane-man shtick by having him as a kinda Irken Rebel - he might still have the interest in magic and supernatural things that Mainstream Irken Science does not acknowledge, but mostly he’s seeing as ‘crazy’ for such ridiculous concepts as ‘conquering the galaxy just for the sake of it is Bad Actually’ and ‘maybe it’s kinda stupid to pick our leaders based entirely on how tall they are’ and ‘the Tallest are obviously blatantly figureheads and the Control Brains are running the show’. 

And to add insult to injury, it’s not just that his fellow Irkens don’t listen to his ideas - it’s that they don’t even have enough respect to treat him as an actual dangerous enemy of the state. Instead he’s seen as a crackpot and a joke. He’s basically constantly avoiding the obvious Existence Evaluation he deserves because the Tallests keep procrastinating it and pushing it back in favor of more ‘important things’. And, like, it’s not like Dib wants to be executed by the state for the crime of free thought… but it’ll be nice to know that he’s seen as a real threat. 

And of course while he’s better than most Irkens at the whole ‘Space Imperialism is Bad Actually’ thing, he still hasn’t unlearned all of the Irken propaganda about their own superiority (he’s got a Green Savior Complex basically) … and also he's got his own complex about his own superiority. Like, yeah, he’s infuriated by his people’s obsession with height because it’s a stupid illogical prejudice… but also specifically because it makes people disrespect him. When his two lazy and stupid smeethood bullies were made supreme leaders of the empire that was kinda the last straw for him.

Oh, in this AU the Tallests are basically the Same except their colors are switched. So now Red is the sillier and dumber one and Purple is the relatively more competent one. And on one hand Dib is the only Irken who seems to understand how thoroughly unfit to rule these two clowns are but he is also kinda obsessed with making them acknowledge his superiority even though he knows their opinion shouldn’t matter and thus making him the biggest clown of them all, in a way.

I’m still ironing out the details of how he gets to Earth. Something about using his hacking skills to infiltrate Operation Impending Doom 2 to try and sabotage it from within. Then, like, maybe the Earth ‘assignment’ was a trap laid by the Control Brains to get him out of the way. Or maybe he picked Earth because although the Empire sees it as unimportant - Dib thinks it has powerful arcane significance that makes it the perfect foundation for his resistance against the Empire or something like that.

I’m mostly thinking which of these is the snappiest and easiest to explain, but I do enjoy the idea of it being a trap cause it creates the possibility of a “the Alien discovers their plan is a big fat lie” scenario like in ETF, but rather than being utterly despondent and depressed like Canon Zim - Alien!Dib will be joyous and jubilantly validated at the idea that he was considered a notable enough threat to get out of the way with such an elaborate trick.

And Zim as the son of Professor Membrane is also a fun concept to consider. It’s very funny to think of him as still a megalomaniac trying to take over the world while also being just a human kid. He wants to defeat Dib because he sees him as a threat for his world domination plans (maybe not even understanding that Dib is not actually a world-conquering rival) and cause he believes that if he exposes or kills Dib he can get his hands on the advanced alien tech, which is the edge he needs in order to take over the world.

You can justify his world-conquering-obsession as, like, him growing up under the pressure of living up to his father’s legacy and he figured the only way to escape Membrane’s shadow is to go totally against everything he stands for, or that he’s subconsciously seeking revenge against the world and humanity for taking away his father's love and attention, or that he’s hoping that if he becomes an Actual Threat to the world, his dad will have to pay attention to him for a change ,or maybe it’s just ‘Zim is Just Weird Like That’. Or probably some combination of all of the above.

GIR and Gaz slot pretty effortlessly into their new roles. Sibling!GIR could be literally Zim’s little brother, or like, some genetically engineered dog monster Professor Membrane made in an afternoon. But personality-wise there’s no need to change much outside of maybe needing to tone a human version of GIR down just a tad because a human child has some biological, legal and physical limitations that GIR would otherwise lack.

Robot Gaz is basically like ‘Dib stole and reprogrammed a SIR Unit to have Free Will, still somehow struggles with the idea that Free Will means she can disobey him as well’. Pretty much as soon as they landed on Earth she acclimated better than Dib did and developed a fondness for Earth’s junk food and video games. She generally does her own thing and doesn’t really listen to Dib’s schemes to develop Earth’s defenses or harness some sort of supernatural forces against the Irken Empire or foil Zim’s plans or whatever - but mostly because disagrees with Dib’s methods and attitude rather than his goals. 

She does prefer the Earth over the Irken Empire and she does have some affection for Dib despite also finding him so annoying. She just refuses to cooperate with plans she thinks are frivolous or stupid or plainly just for Dib’s ego. When push really comes to shove, when she actually believes Dib and/or the Earth is in danger, she would come to help… usually.

So yeah, that Roleswap works pretty smoothly, but the problem starts if I try to do the two other sides of this Roleswap cube. the 'Invader GIR' and 'Invader Gaz' scenarios. This is where I get stuck... And the thing isn’t that the characters aren’t complex and versatile enough - I actually think the IZ characters are pretty multidimensional in their ridiculousness. 

It’s just that Dib and Zim’s psychology are really designed for them to play the roles of Protagonist and Antagonist - they’re very much defined to their very core by how driven and motivated they are and how much they want to take center stage. Zim's so self-obsessed he pretty much has to take over any narrative you place him in. And like 50% of Dib’s psyche can be summarized as a terminal case of Main Character Syndrome. Meanwhile, while GIR and Gaz have their own motivations - but GIR’s are generally too wild, capricious and frivolous to actually motivate a Plot, while Gaz’s very much defined by how mundane all of her motivations are. So you really have to work extra hard to make sure Zim and Dib, even when relegated to the sidekick role, don’t still find a way to steal the show.

Honestly, doing Zim as the Robot is actually something I think I can make work. If you just play up a few of Zim’s wackier elements - and especially his blind obedience and dedication to his superiors (which in this case would be Alien GIR), I think you can get a version of Zim that is recognizably Zim while still sticking mainly to the Wacky Comic Relief role.

(And for the record, Robot Zim is a modified SIM Unit, which is a Standard Issue Minion. What does the Z stand for? The Z stands for ZIIIIIIIIIIIIIIM, obviously!)

Sibling Dib was kind of a weird journey for me because at first I thought I had an easy solution for it - just Bill-fy Dib! Keep all of Dib’s bolster and UFO obsession stuff, but minus the fact that he can actually recognize an alien standing in front of his face. Probably because he just doesn’t want to admit his sister found an alien before he did - he just refuses to believe GIR is an alien and going off his wild-goose chases against his own phony conspiracy theories.

But… I think that idea is, like, too effective at keeping Dib away from the limelight? I mean, that would basically relegate him exclusively to Comic Relief and someone Gaz could have conversations with and very little plot relevancy. And I think we should be able to do better by Sibling Dib. Some way to keep him away from the Main Character Role, but still have him as a relevant and useful character from time-to-time?

Putting GIR in any sort of lead role is the much bigger problem. Like I said - GIR just too deranged and too uncontrollable to hold most plotlines, even on Invader Zim. And I can imagine grounding him just a tad, you can do, like ‘alien Invader comes to earth in order to conquer it - realizes he likes junk food and stupid TV so much that he doesn’t want to do it anymore, but still lacks any real concerns for human life or morality’. You know, I’m imagining wacky misadventures that are basically in the spirit of ‘what if SpongeBob SquarePants lacked any sense of right and wrong’ - and that will be a viable narrative, but I’m worried it’s getting too far away from the sheer id-like essence of GIR.

On the Kid corner, obviously you can make narratives in which Gaz and her motivations move the story along - Invader Zim Canon did it multiple times. It’s more of a question of how much we can keep this up. Like, okay, this is purely me and my stupid personal hang-ups. But what I’m looking for is an AU that really feels like it could be its own standalone show, and obviously it’s not going to be the same as Canon IZ - like the Invader Dib roleswap is going to have a slightly more standard heroic narrative compared to the total Villain Protagonist setup of the canon - but I want to make sure everyone fulfill their new Narrative Roles to the level you can imagine a Variety of Episode Plots that fit the 11-minutes-and-occasional-double-length format of IZ. 

And with Gaz being really defined by the fact that she cares more for being left alone or the mundane things in life or enacting terrible revenge in the name of the mundane things in life than for any of the sci-fi shit or saving the world- it kinda limits the amount of plots she should be willing to participate in and/or requires a lot of extra Set-Up to explain why she’s emotionally involved in the plot. 

I mean, I can certainly imagine a story about a hedonistic would-be Invader making a bizarre harebrained scheme to get his hands on a ridiculous amount of tacos which somehow spirals into attracting the ire of some scarily competent and spiteful little girl by, like, interrupting her Super Mario Odyssey speedrun or something and so she causally takes down his whole operation. But that sort of setup works better for a sort of hyperformulastic show like ‘Phineas and Ferb’- and ‘Phineas and Ferb’ is lovely, but Invader Zim really benefits from a wide variation of plots and episode structure. 

(That’s also the problem with a Tallests-Zim Membrane-Dib roleswap. Although the idea of an P&F style sketch starring the two lazy goofball Invaders who are just trying to get their incredibly obnoxious and megalomaniac boss off their back and are repeatedly accidently foiled by a brilliant hypercompetent child genius who also somehow remains consistently oblivious to the fact that they are aliens trying to take over the world is very Fun and I should probably do something Separate with it later)

And then there’s the idea of a Zim-Gaz GIR-Dib roleswap which is… I don’t even know where to start. That’s pretty much what that one body-switch-themed guest issue of the IZ Comics used basically because it’s the one that breaks the show’s premise the most thoroughly. The show’s most ambitious and least competent character swapped with its least ambitious and most competent and the most grounded character is swapped with the most unhinged. I am still really stuck on how to make it work?

The only real idea I have for now is maybe taking inspiration from Alien Gaz from that aforementioned comic issue’s characterization - not of Gaz-as-Zim, but of Zim-as-Gaz. Something about an Alien Invader who is genuinely invested in conquering the planet but also she keeps getting distracted? It’s hard to really say when, like I said, that’s really the only thing I have right now. 

Perhaps I need to think about all of this a bit more, or perhaps the real lesson of this Character Exploration Thingy is just that those kinda roleswaps just don’t work with the Invader Zim cast?

[saintmeghanmarkle]

The Telegraph's review which includes thoroughly disrespectful paragraph about Queen Camilla by u/Von_und_zu_

The Telegraph's review, which includes thoroughly disrespectful paragraph about Queen Camilla Omid Scobie’s Endgame is ludicrous propaganda for Team Sussex... The reporter’s much-trailed study of the Royal family is laughably partial, devoid of insight and bizarrely misogynistichttps://archive.ph/mJGXXIt begins with a spot on observation:"Hell hath no fury like a royal reporter scorned. Omid Scobie’s Endgame is billed as the real story of what has been going on inside the Palace walls. But what runs through its 400-odd pages is Scobie’s sense of burning indignation that he was shut out." This indeed seems to me like Scoobie in a nutshell. Edit: This also reminds me of the effect of grey rocking the UnSussexfuls -- burning indignation that they have been ignored.Then it goes through some of the mean spirited nasty things he has to say about the main characters in this drama. But then it provides this excerpt about the Queen, and I must say, this is so off-putting, I really cannot believe anyone even pretending to be a serious journalist or author would publish it:" As for the Queen, is that a tone of misogyny I detect in Scobie’s prose? “Camilla,” he writes, “might not have stood on the barricades in the ’60s, but she did enjoy the sexual freedoms ushered in by that radical generation.” “Some who knew Camilla” have described her as “the sort to throw her knickers on the table”; he quotes, from one of the tabloids he despises, a housekeeper saying that she knew when Camilla had been to stay with Charles because there would be knickers all over the place. “Camilla’s undergarments making yet another appearance,” Scobie adds."Later, the review includes this: There is little gossip to be had here, unless you count Scobie regurgitating a rumour that one of Charles’s bodyguards found him with Camilla “doing what Lady Chatterley enjoyed best” in the garden at Camilla’s grandmother’s house. He caveats the story by saying it is “an old (but probably false) fable in royal circles”...It futher includes this paragraph that says to me that the UnSussexfuls really have no respect or regard for the Monarchy which was the life's work of the late Queen and his father and provided them with the titles to which they so desparately cling:There is a lot of petty detail, but Scobie’s target is bigger than any one individual. It is the monarchy itself, described here as “a desiccated system”, “a cratered Firm”, “an unstable family business” and “an institution in decline”. The family is “debilitatingly out-of-touch, even expendable” because it hails from “an incredibly shrinking, old-fashioned world of land barons, polo fields and posh formality”. “The rot has set in,” Scobie warns, “and it’s eating away at the monarchy’s undergirding.”Surely, this really must be the end of the Monarchy insofar as it heretofore included Harold and Madame. I hope as it goes forward, it does so without reference to them.​​ post link: https://ift.tt/2XpNaPi author: Von_und_zu_ submitted: November 28, 2023 at 05:06AM via SaintMeghanMarkle on Reddit

[jackredfieldwasmyjacob]

my mum showed us this book they made showing some of my grandpa's work as a photographer for spanish singers and I wanted to share with you some of them <3 below I'll add a little description of the artist in case you don't know who they are

in order of appearance, they are:

massiel: she was the first spanish winner in eurovision in 1968 with 'la la la'. later in life she denounced the usage of the francoist regime of eurovision as a propaganda machine, and has remained vinculated to eurovision.

marisol: she was a child actress who suffered great abuse (as is usually the case) during her childhood and teenage years, working both as an actress and as a singer (she mostly starred - especially as a kid - in musical movies). she was also a member of the spanish communist party and has marxist ideas <3.

ana belén: she is one of the most iconic singers from the transition period (1975-1978) alongside her husband, víctor manuel (he was also photographied by my grandpa but i couldn't find a way his picture could fit). her songs have a strong social and political content, and she has also taken part in movies both as an actress and as a director. one of her most iconic songs is 'el hombre del piano', a spanish version of billy joel's piano man.

julio iglesias: he is perhaps one of the most successful spanish-speaking singers ever, having sold more than 150 million records. he is also part of the latin songwriters hall of fame. in 1983 he was celebrated for being the artist with songs in the most languages in the world, and in 2013 for being the best-selling male latin artist of all-time. oh and he has had a star in hollywood walk of fame since 1985, as well as having various grammys, latin grammys, billboard music awards, american music awards, etc. so yeah. he's a big deal (he's also the father of enrique iglesias who you might have already know). he represented spain in eurovision in 1970, with 'gwendolyne', which was his breakout hit.

nino bravo: he was one of the biggest spanish singers in the first half of the 70s, with massive hits and an incredible rise to fame that was tragically short, as he died in a car crash in 1973, when he was 28 (he only had 3 years of fame). my grandpa was a close friend of his, he even went to his wedding and appears in his memories. anyways, despite his short-lived fame, many of his songs are iconic and classics, possibly its best and most popular one is 'un beso y una flor', a karaoke classic.

joan manuel serrat: he is the singlemost imporant catalan singer-songwriter in history, with songs both in his native tongue and spanish (he's also my mother's favourite singer <3). he has a very poetic lyrical style, being influenced by poets like lorca, neruda, benedetti, machado, or alberti, and he even has some albums singing poetry of different spanish poets (the miguel hernández one is insane). he was also the pioneer of the nova cançó catalan movement, and he has been galardonated with highest honors in spain, as well as receiving the honorary latin grammy in 2014. his song 'mediterráneo' is for many - including myself - quite possibly the best spanish song ever (at least lyrically).

joaquín sabina: he is like a friend to me. my parents love him so they would always play his songs in long car rides and now i also love him his songs are incredible. he's actually a good friend of serrat and have toured together, their styles are similar only sabina isn't catalan (he's andalusian but lives in madrid) and his songs are more like stories than poems, he is inspired in baroque literature more than 20th century poets like serrat. just like serrat, he also has honorary awards by the ondas awards, the latin grammys, and various cities and regions in spain. it is literally impossible to choose only one of his songs to showcase here, but i'm afraid i have to go with 'y nos dieron las diez', one of his most popular songs, a karaoke classic, and the song we scream the loudest on the car with my family.

alejandro sanz: he is the most recent of all these singers, and currently the most famous spanish male singer i would say, only second to rosalía. he has won 22 latin grammys and 4 grammys, and he's collabed with artists such as alicia keys, shakira, or marc anthony. he's huge is what i'm trying to say lol. his breakout hit was 'corazón partío', in 1997, that still remains one of his most popular songs.

lola flores: she is everything to me istg. anyways. lola flores was a flamenco singer, dancer, and actress, that remains as one of the best folclóricas in history. just so you know, folclóricas were basically flamenco divas, think of them like that. she was iconic as fuck, antifa, feminist, and funny as hell. she is, as the english wikipedia says, 'a spanish pop culture icon'. you might also know her grand-daughter, actress alba flores. her most well-known song is probably 'ay pena, penita, pena'.

rocío jurado: just like lola flores, she is one of the most iconic and best folclóricas in history. just as her, she was both a singer and an actress, and she is remembered for having one of the best voices ever; in fact, in the year 2000 she won the new york times' prize 'the voice of the millenium' for best female voice of the 20th century. she is also iconic and regarded almost like a minor goddess in flamenco circles (just like lola flores). her most well known song is the iconic 'como una ola'.

[abeinginsand]

For Taylor's first birthday, Glenn shows up late--clearly having been in a rush but still wearing his usual lopsided grin. He gifts the kid this snoopy plushie that's dressed in a santa outfit. The item is nearly as big as his little grandson. And the sight reminds him of seeing Nick for the first time outside of those fuzzy ultrasound images. His eye might have shined a bit at the thought and the fact that his grandson immediately latched onto the toy and his arm when he presented the gift to him. Taylor still has that snoopy in present day, in fact out of the few gifts that have survived his various childhood adventures...this is the only one still in his bedroom, resting on his bed along with those pillows.

The snoopy used to have a hat but its long gone now. He wore it so much as a toddler that the little clear straps that hooked it to the toy fell apart. Now the worn and stitched hat is resting in plastic with a little cop toy in the family awards room. On the off-chance that anyone questions him about his ownership of police propaganda, he is prepared to explain (as a master preparer always is). Taylor's got a ten page booklet that tells this little ex-cop character's heroic and fantastical story. But back to the snoopy santa, Taylor didn't know who Snoopy was until many years later, so he named the toy something else entirely: Detective Snow-feet. The toy has white fur and Santa lives in the north pole (or so his mom tells him), so snow seemed fitting. Now for the detective part though... This super cool dog is undercover as a santa trying to infiltrate someplace. Perhaps a fancy...mall or epic film studio? Sadly some of the extended lore for this beloved sidekick is a bit fuzzy but it adds a nice mystery to things, so Taylor doesn't mind too much. Its fun to make up more info each year too. Usually on his birthday but sometimes during holidays. ---- The detective undercover at a mall--is a vague reference to Glenn not liking mall santas. The ex cop toy is reference to Jodie, but the backstory part is because Taylor likes making up intricate stories for his things, especially if he treasures them deeply. The items and their stories keep him company! Additional note (thank you Isadora for reminding me :D): The film studio part is a reference to both Meryl (at the mountains of dadness character) and Cass. Meryl was a silent film actor and Cass was a former daytime tv actress. Also Nicky was the first one to put the little santa hat on Taylor. He could not resist the cuteness and Cass may have teased him and then cheered him on affectionately--quickly getting her phone camera out for many a photo. Little Taylor was very amused, giggling and wiggling around in his crib. There's this one picture Nicky keeps with him that has the whole Freeman Close Foster Swift family with a bunch of tiny santa hats on and their kiddo (2-3) is in the center with Nicky and Cass holding him up. All have a variety of colorful sweaters on too. It was an in hell photo so there was some snow and hell fire in the bg too. The flames seemed to float and form holiday themed shapes too.

[powerpolyculeshowdown]

CANON POLYCULE SHOWDOWN

this is a contest for canonically confirmed polycules or polycules that have a lot of hints to a possibility of them being canon, even if the authors might not have intended that way!

Beware of spoilers!! Some of these only become polycules later in the media they're from, and some of the descriptions describe a tragic fate for the polycule, so keep in mind there will be spoilers

rules can be found here

bracket can be found here

honorable mentions can be found here

links for all the match ups as they go live can be found in the MASTERPOST. it will be updated each round, but i will also tag every round to make them easier to find

help me w descriptions for the honorable mentions!

Round 2 part 2 finished.

Round 3 will go live on May 19th!

(#canonround2 or #pollycule if you want to search for the polls)

tags:

#canonpolyculeshowdown - for relevant updates and the polls

#pollycule - (yes double L) specifically for the showdown polls, to make it easier to find. doesn't include the prelims cause I only thought to add this after, sorry

#canonpropaganda - for, well, propaganda. ill post asks, reblog posts and maybe reblog reblogs

#honorablemention - for the ships that did not make it in (i will still make a post introducing all of them)

#tournamnt poll - the generally agreed on tag for blacklisting purposes. let me know if i forget to use it! i cant edit polls but it will remind me for the following round

#canonroundN - N being the number of the round we're in. so, for example: canonround0, canonround1, canonround2, etc. from the quarterfinals onwards, they'll also include the specific tag (#quarterfinals, etc). Check the post's tags for that ome if you want to look at all polls from that round!

list may be updated as needed.

if you submitted something that did not get in, nor was it posted as an honorable mention, and you wish to know why, feel free to send an ask.

LIST OF CONTESTANTS:

Nathan/Vlad/Ursula (Hunger Pangs)

Rilla/Arum/Damien (Penumbra Podcast)

Nathan/Gabriel/Annalise (The Bastard Son and the Devil Himself)

Ben/Ryn/Maddie (Siren Freeform)

Arthur/Guinevere/Lancelot (High Noon Over Camelot)

Quanxi/Pingsti/Cosmo/Long/Tsugihagi (Chainsaw Man)

Wu Zetian/Li Shimin/Gao Yizhi (Iron Widow)

Caleb/Astrid/Eadwulf (Critical Role)

Sadie/Walt/Anubis (The Kane Chronicles)

Rajan/Wolfgang/Kala (Sense8)

Princess Glisselda/Seraphina/Lucien (Seraphina)

Tess/Jacomo/Margarethe (Tess of the Road)

Logan/Jean Grey/Scott/Emma (X-Men)

Uzui/Hinatsuru/Makio/Suma (Demon Slayer)

Megaera/Thanatos/Zagreus (Hades)

Dianda/Simon/Patrick (October Daye)

Haruka/Michiru/Setsuna (Sailor Moon)

Asmodeus Alice/Clara Valac/Iruma Suzuki (Mairimashita, Iruma-kun!)

Aizo/Yujiro/Hiyori (HoneyWorks)

Kyle/Rogelio/Lonnie (She Ra)

Dashawn/Steve/Jose/Cupe R III/Otto/Arturo/Gregory/Quackers McQuack (Bojack Horseman)

Fluorite (Steven Universe)

Miss Piggy/Kermit/Gonzo (Muppets)

Sherlock/Watson/Mary (Sherlock Holmes movies)

Ichika Hoshino/Saki Tenma/Shiho Hinomori/Honami Mochizuki (Project SEKAI)

Tree Trunks/Mr. Pig/Alien Husband (Adventure Time)

Daniel/Sam/Jack/Teal’c (Stargate SG-1)

Mukai Naoya/Saki Saki/Nagisa Minase (Kanojo mo Kanojo/Girlfriend Girlfriend)

Eddie/Venom/Anne/Dan (Venom)

Peter Quill/Aradia/Mors (Guardians of the Galaxy)

George/Gilda/Thomas (Design for Living)

Leif/Thorn/Kale (Leif and Thorn)

Kieran/Ray/Gemma (Trigonometry)

Eugene/Rapunzel/Cassandra (Tangled the Series)

Jack/August/Rina (The Wicker King)

La’gann/Coral/Rodunn (Young Justice)

Syenite/Innon/Alabaster (Broken Earth)

Enrique/Hypnos/Sofia (The Gilded Wolves)

Max/Jack/Anne (Black Sails)

Pyrrha/Commander Wake/Gideon the First (The Locked Tomb)

Neptune/Venus/Jupiter (We Know the Devil)

Quincey/Jack/Arthur/Lucy (Dracula)

Amber/Reese/David (Adaptation)

Will/Tessa/Jem (The Infernal Devices)

Kieran/Cristina/Mark (The Dark Artifices)

Winter/Moon/Qibli (Wings of Fire)

Camille/Nyra/Dendro (Muted)

Sasha/Anne/Marcy (Amphibia)

Neal/Peter/Elizabeth (White Collar)

Turtle Heart/Melena/Frex (Wicked)

Emiya/Saber/Rin (Fate Stay/Night)

Sofiane/Victor/Luisa (Mortel)

Taylor/Theo/Josey (3)

Jack/Emma/Izzy (You Me Her)

Keiko/Miles/Kira (Star Trek)

Jade/Dave/Karkat (Homestuck Epilogues)

Anzu/Kazuki/Junta (Romantic Killers)

Shikimori/Izumi/Ai (Shikimori is Not Just Cute)

Camina/Michio Pa/Josep/Serge/Berthold/Oksana (The Expanse)

Breq/Mercy of Kalr/Seivarden/Ekalu (Imperial Radch)

Roguish Semiotician/Infamous Mathematician/Player Character (Fallen London)

Alphonse/Seth/Listener (Bittersweet)

Storm/Helen/Mira (Love and Luck Podcast)

Nicky/Joe/Andy/Booker/Niles (The Old Guard)

[doomed-era]

some botw zelda headcanons

ok I said I would do this so it's time to go into the hyperfixation zone

-zelda has a fairly good handle on her emotions/zelda is extroverted

generally speaking I think rhoam's diary is a treasure trove of insight into zelda's behavior throughout the memories even though I'd argue that there's a very major disconnect between rhoam and her very early on. I'm more or less reading into this from a single line, namely the one about zelda not crying at her mother's funeral and rhoam seeing this as some sort of "strength" when that's hardly a reasonable explanation for a seven year old rhoam I stg I love you but please. I think the most reasonable explanation for this is that she's in shock, but I think zelda does want rhoam's approval, and generally thinks positively of him, and if he rewarded that kind of behavior she'd try to emulate it even if it was unnatural to her. with that in mind, I don't think we see her regular emotional state in a LOT of the memories. yes, in some memories she appears somewhat reserved, but I think this because she's been taught to restrain herself in front of certain people.

around link, I think she does start showing more of her actual personality--actually I think she does this the moment she gets to be alone with him, just because she knows there's not going to be any social consequences for it. so she just...talks. imo this could have just been a slapdash writing decision because the people who wrote botw are honestly kinda terrible at their job and don't know how to be subtle but we can roll with it and say she just likes talking at people. and she's. really talkative...like dang girl.

ALSO more extrovert zelda propaganda: pretty sure she often initiates the conversation in the champion's ballad cutscenes

-sheikah tech is something she likes but she initially took interest in it because she considers it an alternative to getting powers

zelda wants to help, and she wants to do it badly. so badly. I'm pretty sure she says this multiple times. sheikah tech was originally unearthed to help with the calamity and it's incredibly powerful, and zelda's powers do not seem to be manifesting, so I think it's understandable that she'd want to look for an alternative! however I also do think she has a genuine interest in that kind of thing, as the game definitely notes that she's more interested in being a scholar than getting goddess powers. you can choose to interpret this as a coping mechanism I think I just...don't because we love nerds here

-OKAY so why she doesn't like frogs--

this is obvious. if she liked frogs why is she telling link to eat a live frog, especially as she typically seems very compassionate and touchy-feely. I don't think she likes most animals except maybe dogs, and tends to get frustrated with horses before link helps her empathize with them a little more.

-this is sort of connected to my hc that she is low-empathy high-compassion. this is kind of just a me thing...but I really like the idea that zelda learns empathy in the memories to an extent.

I honestly lost my train of thought for a lot of this...if you have any questions feel free to shoot em at me! I might add images to this post later when I finally get botw back I lost my cartridge </3

[sonicshipbattles]

Eggman Ship Tournament Nominations

He is the Eggman and he's looking for love! Not that our genius doctor needs anyone in his life, as certainly his glory is beyond compare! But now that he's embraced parenthood, it wouldn't hurt to have someone around the egg-bases to help out with a few lesser tasks. That's why, our esteemed doctor is leaving it to the minions of the eggnet to debate who'll be worthy of his love! ...Or that's the flavour text, anyway. Now, onward to the actual tournament:

Our second tournament will be to figure out which is the most popular ship on tumblr dot com that features Dr. Eggman himself. This tournament is open to any version of the character from any media, not just game Eggman, so if you have a burning AoStH Robotnik ship in your heart, submit that, too!

This tournament will be done based on your submissions (plus a few ships that I like and want to include, but I'm holding off mentioning them because I'm curious to see how many nominations they'll get on their own)

Some house rules for submissions and the tournament in general:

Most importantly: BE NICE. No bashing of any ship will be welcomed. Use your propaganda to uplift your own ship, not put down others

Any Eggman (or Robotnik) ships from any media is welcome - be it the games, comics, cartoons or anything else

Only ships including the character Dr. Eggman will be accepted (e.g. Eggman/Starline, Robotnik/Agent Stone, etc.). Ships for other characters in the series that do not involve Eggman (e.g. Tails/Kit, Knuckles/Rouge, Amy/Tekno, etc.) will get their own tournaments later on. Submissions that do not follow this rule will be ignored

Submit as many ships as you want, but don't spam submit a single ship

No Eggman x OC ships. All of your OCs are great and we wouldn't want anyone's feelings hurt by seeing them knocked out :( For the sake of this tournament, an OC is a fan-made character that has never been used nor was created to be used in licensed Sonic media (So yes, you can submit cancelled character ships if any of those apply to Eggman)

We do accept crossover ships, but only with media that Sonic has officially crossed over with. Meaning stuff like Eggman/Dr. Wily and Eggman/Bowser would count, but Eggman/Dionysus would not count (as much as that breaks my heart). And yes, since people asked last time: characters included in Smash Bros. are fair game for crossovers. I may make posts asking for feedback on crossovers with franchises I'm less familiar with

Polycules are welcome

If you have a specific version of the ship that you like, specify what it is and this will be counted as separate to the general ship, e.g. Eggman/world domination (general) and Robotnik/world domination (SatAM) would be included as separate ships

Also, we didn't have a rule about this last time and honestly no one submitted ships that fell into this category, so it wasn't a problem, but I'm aware that the blog has more followers this time around, so I want to add that I won't be adding ships involving Eggman being paired with characters he sees as his kids (Sage, Metal Sonic). For other things I'm concerned might make folks uncomfortable, I'll run polls to gauge feedback to see if they'll be included or not. Like I said, I don't think this'll be an issue, but mentioning it just in case ANYWAY, that's the long list of rules done, so here's the submission form:

Submissions will be open until Saturday 27th May or until I feel we have enough to run a tournament. I don't expect this one will be as big as the Sonic one, so I might cap it at 16 or 32 ships, if we reach that many

[disneyparksattractionstournament]

Favorite Disney Parks Attraction Showdown: Round 2 - Group C

Videos and propaganda under the cut!

Silly Symphony Swings: California Adventure

Propaganda:

"This one might seem a bit out of left field because it's not a particularly popular ride, but I personally love it. It's really short and sweet and never has a line longer than 10 minutes (usually closer to 5 honestly). Also it's like it was made especially for me because swinging has always been one of my top 2 stims, my other top being spinning. So like take swings, spin them around, and add fun music? That's a perfect combination! It's perfect for if I'm ever starting to feel overwhelmed or overstimulated (which, let's be honest, is really easy to happen at Disney), I can just hop on over to Silly Symphony Swings to instantly relax and get back to having fun! I would honestly just stay there in a swing for hours if they would let me, I love it that much. One of my favorite memories is of me literally just staying on the ride for about 30 minutes until the park closed and they had to kick me off. It was great! The happiest I've ever felt!"

Great Movie Ride: WDW Hollywood Studios

Propaganda:

"The best 22 minutes in AC on a hot Floridian day that will forever be missed."

"IT WAS SO IMMERSIVE!!! And the guides were apart of the ride and there were 2 different path at one point, the Western or Gangster, and hiding in the animatronics would be a real person and they would take over the ride from the host, then in a later scene in Indiana Jones part, the host would trick them into a "curse" and take the ride back! (just watch the video xD)THEN you went through freaking Oz! There was no ride like it before or after and I will never get over them getting rid of it!"