#or be a bit more polite about asking?

[rinhaler]

If you’re a blank blog you’re getting blocked

If you don’t have an age indicator you’re getting blocked

If you say ‘part two?’ You’re getting BLOCKT

[fumifooms]

do you happen to have that page that talks about the beauty standards of each race?

Yeah sure. While scavenging pics for this I found this neat reddit compilation & chart & theory talk too. I had um, way more to say than I anticipated (I know you only wanted the one page. I have nothing to say for myself. Like most topics in Dunmeshi things snowball because they’re so interconnected. Mercy…) so, many races and observations are only mentioned near the bottom.

Beauty standards and race in Dungeon Meshi

Not pictured there’s also how elven society is harsh on visibly disabled people, and how the demon took away Mithrun’s silver eyes and ears to take away his pride. There’s also how Senshi might have fit in with the orcs more easily because of the dwarven wide body shape, and how they tend to have more body hair too I suppose. In the extra on orcs we see Senshi living with the orcs and he gets judged because of the hierarchy rather than his looks.

What is fashionable also differs from culture to culture, and there’s how tattoos only seem common with elves, though dwarves and others do also sometimes have some. They seem to not raise much brows, which makes sense since for many essentially they’re for professional (magical) purposes especially with elves. Gender roles also differ in type and importance, but generally they are similar to irl ones for the races we see. Elven society seems to be the least gendered, which would be an unsurprising logical outcome of having lesser sexual dimorphism aka they look more androgynous. Comparing fashions and gender roles and how they affect beauty standards would be a whole other compilation and conversation. Kui has great worldbuilding partially because she’s got such a good grasp on sociopolitics and geopolitics. History affects cultures and beauty standards greatly. Kui’s oneshot Distant Utopia was very eye opening on her way to worldbuild and the consideration she gives these things, I do really recommend reading it.

Out of the big 5, we know the least about gnomes, but their sheet does say both culture and region are similar to dwarves’ and they end up being confused together often, so we can imagine the beauty standards are similar to dwarves’ as well.

I wanted to touch on this in a post eventually, but how one daydream hour page said half-foots tended to be curvaceous like in the artwork below puzzled me for a long time, all the half-foot characters we see during canon are rather slender and lanky after all, Chil’s succubi also being more curvy than plump. Economics are for sure a factor in that I imagine, the half-foots characters we see are all implied to be some flavor of poor or malnourished, as are half-foots depicted as empoverished oppressed minorities in general. Even comparing the artwork with the half-foot sheet’s depicted average half-foot, the ones on the left seem bigger. Wouldn’t it make sense though, if unlike dwarves half-foots don’t have similar naturally wide bodies, yet due to idolizing dwarves they work towards having a similar body shape/type to emulate them?

It’s said half-foots tend to stick to pretty ethnically homogeneous regions (aka half-foots-only communities) unless they move to the big city with ambition to try and make it big (like Chilchuck and his wife & kids did), and that’s interesting imo because then that would mean that in a ton of half-foot communities, they rarely see or interact with dwarves whom they try to emulate. Of course, one thing about beauty standards is that when they get adopted, at one point it stops being "this is how dwarves look and so this is how half-foots should look" and just becomes "this is how half-foots should look", most people feel as though beauty standards aren’t learned but innate, so I figure the half-foots wouldn’t have any problem still seeking dwarvish traits when there are no dwarves around.

There’s also stuff you can glean here and there if you want to extrapolate more. Like how in the race swap artworks, Mickbell is only smiling in the dwarf portrait, and Rin’s elven portrait looks very close to her elven one- Rin who is stated to be beautiful in her profile blurb. Benichidori’s extra does teach us tallmen can definitely have harsh beauty standards, but also since the text portrays her as very dysmorphic that’s likely reflected in her thoughts to a much more intense degree than is common, not an accurate strict baseline to go off. Ah, Kabru’s blue eyes are also why he and his mother lived a rough life in Kabru’s hometown, but that seems to be regional. Good post here on the topic of Kabru’s blue eyes and ties to irl history. There’s a lot to be said about Kabru being a man that in many ways is close to elven beauty standards, and how that might have affected or been affected by his upbringing with elves + his persona as someone that can effortlessly charm most people. Marcille’s section here in this essay also goes into Marcille’s struggles to fit in with the ideal image of an elf.

Looking human

Also notable are beastkins and demihumans: Demihumans are all dehumanized which makes people treat them worse. So if you differ from the visual idea of "human" (an in-world subjective categorizatiom just as much as demihuman is) most people do judge you negatively. Elves and dwarves get to fight about which type of human is considered the prettiest, but demihumans are below tallmen and half-foots, they are considered as simply below the beauty contest, incompatible with it.

Onis are perhaps the demihuman people we know of with the least cultural influence on the dunmeshi world, and with less intensely different appearances than other demihumans, but even them are treated as lesser than human, treated as beasts to slain for reputation points or useful strength to have around and command. It’s said their "magnificient horns" and fangs are often shaven off when the oni lives in tallman towns, so you could easily make the argument that onis are denied the right to have their own beauty standards, having to conform to other people’s and going through mutilation to take away features they might otherwise have taken pride in. Inutade was bought by the Nakamotos from a dangerous sumo fighting ring that got one of Inutade’s tooth broken on her first and only fight. Remember when I said different fashions existed in dunmeshi and how those could also affect beauty standatds? Like the elves, if you look at the portraits pages that include a lot of characters that aren’t in the story you can see distinct cultures within the same races, for example one young elf is bald which is in sharp contrast with usual elven long luscious hairstyles, and that’s especially true for onis I think. Maybe not only from different regions but different eras as well… They have a bit of population in the very north of the western continent, so I like to think some of the ogres live in very cold, maybe even subarctic conditions. The point I’m getting at here is that within a race, culture/ethnicity like with Kabru as well will also influence them, different communities will have differing beauty standards. The oni history blurb and third row first collumn portrait remind me of Mongolia (which historically was a lot of different nomadic communities with different cultural identities as well. Something something, the oni empire experienced a decline and then tallmen overpowered them, and now they’re governed and split apart by stronger social classes & slavers and the richness of culture was hurt for it), but obviously many of them are dressed and look rather japanese, makes sense considering living in/close to Wa, and first row second collumn portrait reminds me of ainus which again would be logical considering geographical placement, though I’m far from an expert. Interestingly, ainus are indigenous people both in Japan and Russia- Perhaps the northern western continent ogres are meant to be closer to Russia than Canada like I imagined? Ok tangent over.

The kobold sheet says they’re especially sought after as slaves because they’re "adorable", but locally in the western continent they’re repeatedly said to be seen more as ferocious and dangerous. The dehumanization is most apparent in the first comic below. The language barrier and conflicts no doubt worsen this by a lot, but I think it’d be hard to deny that their canine appearance makes the dehumanization worse. "They’re ferocious beasts, they’re demihumans, they can’t be communicated with". Most characters in Dungeon Meshi’s world are desensitized to slavery and most characters are prejudiced one way or another. Point being, kobolds are fully removed from human beauty standards, but no doubt for kobolds, other kobolds are more beautiful than humans are. They’re assumed to be an uncivilized bunch, but just like any other people they like to aforn themselves with nice clothes and jewelry and keep themselves clean and groomed; they too take care of their appearance and take pride in it.

And the orcs! This one we have the most contact with in canon, with not only there being foreigner characters from the ethnicity or hearsay of their homelands and culture but full on contact with a community. We get to see up close what they’re like and what they think, and of course in turn they’re our introduction to how demihumans are harshly looked down upon and seen as inferior, less human and thus less worth valuing and less dignified. It’s text that orcs are ugly to most humans and humans are ugly to most orcs. Since I judged they didn’t need accompanying explanation the pictures showing this are in the pictures dump at the top.

God forbid you sell vegetables to orcs my god- but then again they do basically mandate adventurers to kill any orcs they come across so yeah the world isn’t above that even a bit.

So yes, my main point here is simply that orcs are yet another evidence of the physical ideal of "human" being an important beauty standard for human societies globally.

Izutsumi is our glimpse at how beastkins are treated in the world, and in Wa at least that’s ending up being caged and mistreated as part of a freak show. Izutsumi hates her appearance and wishes she could leave the feline part of herself behind to only be human. Interestingly, not that we have a lot of info on them so this is very much a take with a grain of salt situation, but there seems to be less stigma around artificial beastmen, those who can shapeshift at will. The main difference is of course appearance, that most of the time they simply look like average tattooed humans. Artificially creating humans is an illegal practice, and no doubt it’s not well regarded, but being able to hide that makes them less likely to be discriminated at any moment, or even just discriminated less intensely. Again, looking human is important, not only for belonging but for safety’s sake. Beauty standards rule the world with harsh hands.

Mermaids and fishmen

Ok we’re done now right? Right-! But wait… Wait…! Mermaids and fishmen are said to be demihumans too, special separate cases to the main three demihuman species however, which is also represented by how mermaids and fishmen both are in the Adventurer’s Bible chapter Monsters meanwhile ogres, kobolds and orcs are in the chapter World. They’re an interesting topic because they directly tackle this topic, not only in a meta way for the readers but also making characters themselves struggle to quantify their humanity with the goal of knowing wether they should be eaten or not, especially Chilchuck. Chilchuck’s "is it really just a matter of feelings?" mini arc.

The party asking themselves "Should we eat this?" is very common, and often they end up playing a little loose on morality, like eating the red dragon’s meat despite it having digested Falin. Not unsimilarly Marcille freaks out a little over the vegetables they harvested having been grown with fertilizer, aka largely human poo. Half of the motivation of "should we eat this perhaps sentient creature" is out of consideration and compassion, but more strongly and more often, the characters struggle with a sense of taboo at eating something too closely related to humans. Even, feel uncomfortable because of the deepseated impression that eating it would dirty them in some way. Cannibalism is an interesting and relevant topic in many ways, but what I want to mention is how there’s the more or less universal belief that committing cannibalism inherently taints you as a person and turns you more monstrous, morally but also literally depending on some myths such as w*ndigos and onis in some cases, like in Touge Oni. Marcille and Izutsumi both express a fear of eating monsters turning them monstrous. Maybe this is part of what Laios was hoping for, honestly. There are two fears here, if eating a demihuman monster constitutes as cannibalism or not, and so, will eating it taint you because it’s a human, or will eating it taint you because it’s a monster? You are what you eat, until it’s a little too literal. You morally are the means by which you get your food, and you physically are the result of your nutrition. Dungeon meshi manages to mix an exploration of humanity with the theme of food because our relationship to food is very deep and complex, psychological as much as physiological.

In the end, the characters sort of shrug and accept that they’ll never quite understand the world of mermaids and fishmen and how they operate, and what that means about them. Laios is the one always challenging these notions other characters take for granted, it’s not obvious to Laios why people are softer on mammals than other animals and plants, it’s not obvious to Laios why people would be afraid of eating a monster just because it’s a monster, it’s not obvious to Laios why some food is gross to Marcille but not fish testicles, it’s not obvious to Laios why you should immediately regard orcs and kobolds badly.

"Cows are probably closer to humans [aka closer to being human] than fishmen, though they’re clearly intelligent", dehumanization to lessen empathy towards them to be able to eat them. Meanwhile, mermaids seemingly have a less noticeable "civilization" or intelligence, they hunt in groups like fishmen, but they don’t use tools and such, they feel more primal and similarly instinct driven, and yet… Do they attract sympathy more? Mammals, humans, is it because of their nature or because of their appearance?

Both the nature and appearance of fish are ones people don’t typically sympathize with. "Fish don’t feel pain", "goldfish only have 5 seconds of memory", "it’s okay to keep in bowls too small and empty for them until they die", so many lies and misconceptions exist that make people less considerate of them. The average lifespan of a goldfish is 10-15 years, the record is 43, but they’re not seen as lives that really matter, so a lot of goldfish die in a few weeks of bad aquarium conditions. There’s a lot of research on animals evolving to look cute and appealing to make some predators want to kill them less and parents want to care for them more, including humans. First good google research result gave me this credible short article on the topic. In Chilchuck’s weighing wether a fishman is far enough from being human or not, "face is 100% fish" is his biggest argument for it being more acceptable. The face, the most important thing for empathy and recognition. The face, the decapitated fishman one that falls into his hands next chapter.

To quote @room-surprise: "Chilchuck can't explain why it's wrong to eat the merpeople, even though it's NOT complicated. But the problem is Chilchuck would have to accept and acknowledge that the merpeople might be people? And that's outside of the worldview he passively believes, so he can't just say that, because he doesn't think that's true. But that IS why he "feels" it's wrong. And it's all you'd need to say for Laios to understand! But it would require acknowledging that maybe the way they're treating and talking about the merpeople is wrong."

The idea of Chil not being able to grapple with how maybe some monsters are more humans than they seem, him who had been an advocate of half-foots rights, half-foots who get undermined and treated as inconsequential sacrifices… Grappling with how he could relate to the merpeople’s situation almost, and pulling away because it’s so existentially horrifying. I do not want to see myself into an hostile fish-faced warrior I can’t communicate with. In a way this also relates to Chilchuck being the only party member who doesn’t see Izutsumi as a cat in the relationshio chart, the only one to treat her with full human dignity. He knows the struggle to be taken seriously, he knows being infantilized and he knows what it’s like to be treated as less than human.

Below, you will see Chilchuck draws the line of where they become not okay to eat as when "they already look like mermaids". Above, there’s speculation that the algae hair is partly to mimic "the mermaids’ beautiful female form". Is it because mermaids are their enemies and the ambiguity might give them extra seconds to attack or flee? Is it to trick adventurers instead? It’s striking to me that this is what works, with the adventurers. Sure the fishmen are intelligent, but explicitly here, what makes them no longer acceptable prey to Chilchuck is that they look close enough to a mermaid, close enough to human. Mermaids who of course themselves have this form to entice and seduce and charm the adventurers they prey on. Chilchuck considers the intelligence due to the tridents, but most of his internal debate centers around their appearance, and the image of a fishman skewered sickens him. The power of mimicry… Mimic being a beautiful human woman. Mimic being cute, babies being wired to make us feel protective and softened. Half-foots, sometimes pretending to be children for scams or help or avoiding trouble.

The mermaids are only concerned by their differences and not their similarities, and have no trouble treating the fishmen as food rather than peers. To an outside perspective like us, the audience, all these categorization of "more human" and "less human" between onis and orcs and elves and tallmen etc seem stupid and unfounded, but to the people living in Dungeon Meshi’s world, elves may as well be mermaids while onis are fishmen, not alike at all, unworthy of empathy and thus fine to eat.

Ultimately, Dungeon Meshi promotes unity. It’s about seeking to understand the unknown and the misunderstood, the dehumanized and the inhuman. It shows the good that comes from seeking to understand what you do not, even when that’s one another.

[raycatz]

I'm not including a situation where someone might be injured because in that case I'm thinking the bed goes to them by default or they are nominated for it. anyone who wants to be chatty goes to join the living room floor gang.

What are your thoughts and headcanons? Do you have thoughts on how the boys tend to approach assigning beds in inns? Who do the chain choose to sleep near when camping and why? What are their dynamics like when settling down for the night and getting ready for the day?

In "Mirror Vs Open Closet Door: Fight!" by Gintrinsic (here) Four refers to the chain's decision on how to split up between inn rooms as the "Link-per-room ratio" which I find very funny. He, Sky, and Time also talk about their thought process behind why they do or don't want to sleep in a room with some of the others which I find fun and interesting.

So! If you have thoughts and want to share them! *gestures to the post!*

[dootznbootz]

i think you are the first and only penelope fanblog on tumblr. i don't think i've ever seen someone go this nuts about her this often. it's refreshing.

Thank you 🥹 I love her a lot

I don't know if I'm the "only" fanblog (and really hope I'm not ;~; please give love to one of the coolest women ever) but yeah, I do hope people come to love her and appreciate her as she is more too.

[ifindus]

I loved your mexico design!✨ now how do you imagine Colombia to be like?🇨🇴

Thank you! ✨ I have a lot of love for Latin American countries, but I'm obviously no expert on all the nuances and cultural stereotypes😅 here's my first go of Colombia tho:

[dxxtruction]

Part of me feels like if you enjoy and/or are involved in the fandom of IWTV, knowing how a rather significant part of the show is set in Dubai (a part of the UAE), you should be aware of, and taking action about what's going on in Sudan.

To explain: the UAE has been exploiting Sudan for its resources in gold (mostly), and in many ways actively fueling the war there to get it. Making the UAE a responsible party for the multiple humanitarian crisis happening there; over 6 million displaced peoples, genocidal massacres, extreme sexual violence, etc. - just look into it.

There's been a demand not to travel to the UAE/Dubai for this reason. Luckily, from what I gather they don't film those scenes on location, except for the aerial driving sequence in Season 1 episode 1. This would've also been before the war started in Sudan where this such demand wasn't in place (as far as I'm aware). Which is good for fans as it means enjoyment can just be critical and not reason to turn it off.

Anyway, just something to very much consider.

[tubbytarchia]

Points at my pinned message. There's a message there in bold. I'm sorry I don't clarify that I'm talking about CHARACTERS ONLY in posts that I don't maintag. I presume if you're on my blog to see these posts at all, you would already know as much. CHARACTERS please... just characters.... I've acknowledged that CC Jimmy is not bothered by the bullying many times. I'm very aware... I'm talking about characters......................

[arcadekitten]

might sound a wee bit cringe for asking but what are your boundaries on writing fanfiction abt your characters? Can we even write fanfics about them? Also, what about selfshipping or making x reader fics? Ik some creators aren't too comfy with people shipping their characters with themselves or writing x reader stuff. Thank you have a nice day!!!!

You are not being cringe at all!

I would say my boundaries on fanfic etc are the same as my normal boundaries (which can be found in more detail here: https://arcadekitten.tumblr.com/faq ) No NSFW, don't change characters orientations if they've been established, etc

I don't mind people making x readers or self insert characters/fanfics etc etc! I find it really flattering!

[wutheringmights]

I’m so curious, obviously for years Lincoln has had complicated feelings about Warriors as his son but what were Ganondorf’s thoughts on what he heard about Warriors?

May I introduce you to the biggest thorn in Lincoln and Ganondorf's marriage?

So the story starts long before they ever got married. In fact, Ganondorf was happily married to his first wife when Lincoln barged into his palace, pale-faced because he just found out that the woman he almost married was pregnant with what is probably his child. Delightful.

They both agreed that Lincoln had to do the right thing and step up, even if Ganondorf was a little sad about the idea of his best friend getting married.

Luckily, Lincoln still didn't marry Marigold. However, the conversation where he had to tell Ganondorf that he wasn't going to be in Link's life was... interesting. Ganondorf could not understand how Lincoln could walk away from his own child. Lincoln insisted that he was only walking away because Marigold insisted, but Ganondorf fully believed that Lincoln should ignore Marigold's wishes and do whatever it would take to be in Link's life.

This argument got bad. Really bad. They ended up agreeing to drop the subject and not bring it up again, but it was a real sore spot for many years.

Even when they married, Ganondorf never dared to broach the topic. Lincoln was still sensitive about the whole ordeal and Ganondorf... I wouldn't call Ganondorf insecure. He's a very confident man. But he is very aware that since he can't leave the palace, there are parts of Lincoln's life he can never reach. Sometimes, it's easier to pretend that those untouchable parts of Lincoln's life just simply don't exist.

It was easier to bury any concerns Ganondorf had about Lincoln's bastard child than to risk disrupting the seemingly delicate balance of their relationship. (He didn't realize that the balance wasn't delicate and that their marriage was rock-solid, but he would figure that out eventually).

Then the war started.

This hasn't come up in story yet, but canonically, Lincoln and Ganondorf had no contact during the two years Hyrule was in the War of Eras. Why? Because Lincoln knew he was being watched and monitored by the Sheikah. He didn't dare to even send a coded letter to Ganondorf in fear that it would reveal Ganondorf's existence to Impa.

Lincoln and Ganondorf mutually agreed to this (and had some great goodbye sex about it), but it was still hard going no-contact for two whole years.

Unable to leave his palace, Ganondorf had to content himself with whatever rumors he heard about Lincoln from his own messengers.

Lincoln and the Hero of Hyrule hate each other? That was going to be one hell of a conversation to have, but nothing that pegged Ganondorf as worrisome.

That Lincoln legitimized a second, previously unknown bastard out of nowhere? What the fuck?

Ganondorf trusts Lincoln to the ends of the earth. He always believed Lincoln to be a good, honor man who would never lie to him. But by the ancestors, this one tested him.

And he had to stew in that for two years. Two. Whole. Years.

When the war ended and Lincoln was certain that Impa was no longer interested in spying on him, he finally went to the Gerudo Fortress for a long awaited reunion.

And listen, Lincoln's not an idiot. He figured Ganondorf got wind of what happened. He just didn't expect this to trigger the biggest fight of their marriage.

Ganondorf finally unloaded years worth of disappointment he had for Lincoln not being a father to his own kid. And when Lincoln finally explained the story behind Linkle, Ganondorf then was furious that Lincoln would try to keep him a secret from her.

Lincoln still insisted that respecting Marigold's wishes was the right thing to do, though Link turning out to be a terrible person didn't hurt his case. As for Linkle, he kept reminding Ganondorf that his existence had to be kept a secret and it wouldn't be right to unload the weight of that secret onto a child.

Ganondorf ended up kicking Lincoln out of the palace. He wasn't allowed back in for two weeks.

Here's the thing: Ganondorf is a king. Not only that, but he's good at being the king. Logically speaking, he knew that Lincoln was right about not telling Linkle the truth. But it's the principle of the matter, and he didn't want Lincoln to think he could ever get away with this again.

When they finally talked again, they were both calmer and willing to talk it out. Basically, they came to a bit of a truce:

Lincoln admitted that he was wrong for not stepping up to be Link's dad, though his blame for what Link did since stops there

Ganondorf and Lincoln would agree to disagree about how much Link's long list of atrocities are Lincoln's fault

While Ganondorf can insist that Lincoln deserves some of the blame, he also agrees that it may be too late for Lincoln to repair his relationship with Link

Lincoln will tell Linkle about Ganondorf the moment she is ready to hold that secret, whether she's an adult or a still a kid

When it's time, Lincoln has to introduce Linkle to Ganondorf himself (Linkle spends so much time in Gerudo Town that Ganondorf could feasibly force their meeting, but he knows that this is something Lincoln has to do himself)

Lincoln has to at least consider trying to reach out to Link in a neutral manner (or, at the very least not try to ruin his life out of spite)

If Ganondorf ever learns that Lincoln has another bastard child running around from anyone who isn't Lincoln himself, then he's going to divorce his ass and throw him into the dungeon

[phoenixyfriend]

Hey, just wanted to let you know that that Cal and Obi art you just reblogged is AI generated.

Ehhh, @fonmythenmetz (OP) has been pretty clear that it was also hours of drawing; they did the sketch, used the program to generate texture and color, and then went in and manually fixed/detailed/adjusted things to their satisfaction. Is that enough to not qualify as an abuse of the program in the way we understand it to be? Maybe, maybe not, but it's definitely not completely ai-generated.

I'm not sure at which point we distinguish between ai-generated and ai-aided, but I believe it's more of a 'used a program to do roughs for the colors and generate texture on the trees so I could focus on the faces and figures' than 'I fed it a prompt and posted the result.' It's significantly more effort than most AI art since they did the initial sketch and all the detail work, but less than something like the program that the itsv/atsv team used to overlay lines on the characters for that comic-book look (they manually drew a bunch to train the program, and then used that to simplify the process for the rest of the movie).

In this particular case, I think I'll leave it up, but I'm open to hearing the discussion on where this falls on the spectrum of AI use, morally.

[demonic-shadowlucifer]

okay im probably gonna lose followers for this but i dont care anymore. do i hate trump? yes. abso-fucking-lutely. but idk. i dont think we should be celebrating violence. especially during a time where things are looking bleak for the us in terms of safety. if anything, this assassination attempt is just another reminder that the state of the US is... not great right now. this really isn't something to celebrate. ).

also, and this is a shocking take i know, but in my opinion nobody deserves to be murdered. yes even *those* fuckers. you cannot "condemn violence" in the us and then cheer for it after a shitty human being is almost killed (especially considering an audience member was killed, and another is in critical condition). you don't have to feel bad, but you cannot fix the current political landscape by going the extremist route either. (something something thoughts and prayers)

[the-busy-ghost]

Alright uninformed rant time. It kind of bugs me that, when studying the Middle Ages, specifically in western Europe, it doesn’t seem to be a pre-requisite that you have to take some kind of “Basics of Mediaeval Catholic Doctrine in Everyday Practise” class. 

Obviously you can’t cover everything- we don’t necessarily need to understand the ins and outs of obscure theological arguments (just as your average mediaeval churchgoer probably didn’t need to), or the inner workings of the Great Schism(s), nor how apparently simple theological disputes could be influenced by political and social factors, and of course the Official Line From The Vatican has changed over the centuries (which is why I’ve seen even modern Catholics getting mixed up about something that happened eight centuries ago). And naturally there are going to be misconceptions no matter how much you try to clarify things for people, and regional/class/temporal variations on how people’s actual everyday beliefs were influenced by the church’s rules. 

But it would help if historians studying the Middle Ages, especially western Christendom, were all given a broadly similar training in a) what the official doctrine was at various points on certain important issues and b) how this might translate to what the average layman believed. Because it feels like you’re supposed to pick that up as you go along and even where there are books on the subject they’re not always entirely reliable either (for example, people citing books about how things worked specifically in England to apply to the whole of Europe) and you can’t ask a book a question if you’re confused about any particular point. 

I mean I don’t expect to be spoonfed but somehow I don’t think that I’m supposed to accumulate a half-assed religious education from, say, a 15th century nobleman who was probably more interested in translating chivalric romances and rebelling against the Crown than religion; an angry 16th century Protestant; a 12th century nun from some forgotten valley in the Alps; some footnotes spread out over half a dozen modern political histories of Scotland; and an episode of ‘In Our Time’ from 2009. 

But equally if you’re not a specialist in church history or theology, I’m not sure that it’s necessary to probe the murky depths of every minor theological point ever, and once you’ve started where does it end? 

Anyway this entirely uninformed rant brought to you by my encounter with a sixteenth century bishop who was supposedly writing a completely orthodox book to re-evangelise his flock and tempt them away from Protestantism, but who described the baptismal rite in a way that sounds decidedly sketchy, if not heretical. And rather than being able to engage with the text properly and get what I needed from it, I was instead left sitting there like:

And frankly I didn’t have the time to go down the rabbit hole that would inevitably open up if I tried to find out

[twpsyn-who]

Talking a little bit about 'boycotting Eurovision' under Keep Reading, feel free to scroll down if is not what you want to see.

The most used argument on the matter of banning Israel from Eurovision is the fact that Russia got banned from Eurovision, which is the worst argument anyone could bring.

Kindly reminder that Russia didn't get banned because of the war with Ukraine. Russia got banned because many countries has threatened to withdraw from the competition. Sadly, that's a big difference.

Yes, the countries has threatened to withdraw because they support Ukraine and see Russia as the party in the wrong. That was their reason. EBU's reason for banning Russian was because those countries threatened to withdraw, not because the war was bad and Russia must be stopped.

This situation isn't the same. Why? Because many countries support Israel in their genocide. Because this time around Palestine is the party in the wrong. Because we're taught to believe that Israel isn't in the wrong here.**

Boycotting Eurovision won't work. There are people out there who don't know the truth and want to watch Eurovision. There are people out there who don't care and will watch Eurovision regardless of the situation. There are people out there who, despite having the facts, still don't see Israel as the bad guy in this situation and will watch Eurovision. Sadly, boycotting won't work unless everyone does it.

The only way Israel will get banned, in my opinion, is by going through the same thing as Russia. If other countries threatened to withdraw- and not any countries, but the ones investing the most in Eurovision, then yes. That will get Israel banned.

Otherwise? The only thing we do is hurt artists that don't deserve it. Artists who use Eurovision as a way to get more exposure and experience. Artists who deserve to be heard.

Don't vote for Israel's entry. Don't stream their song either. Heck, turn off the TV when is their turn to perform.

**This whole situation (the war, not Eurovision) isn't only black and white. Civilians die daily because of this, all of them from both sides. Innocent people who has no fault. Let's not forget that

[drones-of-innocence]

Hi! Great job on your collab with Elitadreams! You’re both so talented!

I have a question. How do you think the following morning after the last chapter would go down?

Hey there, thank you so much!! 🥺

If I were to continue where the last chapter left off, Mario and Peach would sleep through the rest of the night and possibly a bit late into the morning because of the eventful night.

It would be a deep and restful sleep that neither of them have experienced in a very long time. Mario is ordinarily a very light sleeper due to his being very aware of his surroundings for his adventures, and Peach tends to stay up late working and then wake up early to prepare for her duties. Yet, after that night with Peach safe beside him, Mario feels so at ease to the point where his body entirely relaxes and allows him to get a full night's sleep. Peach's subconscious senses only security and comfort without even a hint of stress on her mind, and she also gets to rest fully.

Mario would be so unused to this deep sleep that he would wake up quite disoriented and be confused at first as to where he was and what he was doing. But then, seeing Peach snuggled so close, in her soft blankets with her cute little Yoshi plush tucked in with her, everything would come back to him.

The sun would already be rising high, with the sounds of the castles daily functions as well as the birds and breeze outside setting a peaceful ambience. Mario would fret at first, but give in to simply watching Peach sleep for a few precious moments. Her hair all tousled, her face soft and peaceful. During the night, she had curled up beside him and tucked into his side.

It's intimate, and Mario can't help but smile despite the butterflies in his stomach.

However, he is aware that he shouldn't stay with her in her bedroom of all places, no matter how at ease he feels being with her as she rests. He wishes he could protect her just like this every day. But the threat is still present on the castle grounds, and he must see to it that Kamek is deported and will think better of coming back. He planned on convening with the Lieutenant and reorganizing the security arrangement and introducing night shifts. Plus, he has to check in with Luigi.

So he carefully eases away, taking great care to move very slowly as to not disturb the sleeping princess. His hand had rested over hers all night. He gingerly strokes his thumb across her knuckles, and gazes at her face for a long moment before finally shifts out of the bed.

Her room is still an absolute wreck. It's kind of hilarious to sleep so sweetly among such a mess, but as long as she is safe, Mario doesn't mind. He decides to speak to some of the staff about getting her space fixed up for her as he's stepping around some of the broken furniture.

As soon as the door shuts with the softest click, Princess Peach smiles to herself and snuggles deeper into her bed.

[oifaaa]

Girl you’re dumb as shit and that person was too. In case you didn’t know Apollo is an Anatolian god who is already poc. Your little white American author removing everything but Greek from him (which still doesn’t make him white 💀💀💀) only means you need to take more history classes and riordan needs his degree taken away. Please go fucking lords sake learn the difference between representation and black washing.

Friend you need to calm down a bit before you break a blood vessel over something that doesn't matter - I'm no expert your right they didn't teach old religions or mythology in my history class - that being said I do know that a lot of different religions (and even people in those religions) can have different versions of the same god it's how apollo is both a Greek and roman god but that being said the apollo that shows up in rick Riordans book is his version of the god its his character not the god himself it allows Rick to take some libraries with the character and that includes their designs - he's not the only one to do this either a lot of people who use the Greek gods in their books, games, shows will usually give them their own unique design on the characters- rick picturing apollo as white or me picturing him as black isn't a big deal

[some-messed-up-writing-for-you]

can you write a longer piece??

Can you?