#power vacuums in fiction ARE actually >>>>>>>>>

[liketwoswansinbalance]

[Perhaps, a little out of character, but we've never really seen Rafal with actual hobbies, so take this, I guess:]

⸻

Rafal: I love power vacuums—I could put my feet up and watch them go aimlessly all day, then swoop in, take over, and get the job done.

Rhian: I didn't think you valued cleaning supplies that much, considering the state of Evil's halls.

Rafal: Bah! Not that kind, you fool. [He looks back at his magical projection and leans in with widening eyes, grinning far too much.]

Rhian: Well, excuse me for thinking you had any kind of vested interest in your and your students' health and safety.

Rafal: [enthralled by the screen and not hearing one word.] Not now. Tell it to me later. Also, quick: fetch me a snack. There are no commercial breaks via Spellcast and the king of Akgul's about to be beheaded by some other crazed ninny jockeying for power. And I already bet heads would roll! The die are cast! Place your bets now, brother, if you want to cash in.

Rhian: [sighs and mutters to himself under his breath:] It's all "airtight alibis" and "motives" and "which warlord will die next" with you—why can't you just watch recreational jousts like a normal person?

[bandtrees]

this has always been one of my favorite lines in this scene it’s so striking to me. i think debating over callum’s level of lucidity and what can or cannot “fix” him is deeply antithecal to what the story is trying to express with him - but the idea that callum is still there and still a person who does have the capacity to love mingus, just not in a way she can ever comprehend or accept, because she can't comprehend or accept anything outside her narrow worldview, is sooooo good.

there is no way of actually knowing if callum is proud of mingus, much less recognizes her at all - but it's added to by the fact there's only so much of that she would accept even if he could. ultimately, she wants validation and power, his prestige, from him, she wants a supportive parental figure she never had - there's only so much of that callum is able to provide even in a world where her stint to fix his memory actually worked. he's like a hundred. he never even MET her. to say nothing of all he's missed in the past fifty-odd years. to say nothing of how his age may have messed with his mind deteriorating even without the pre-existing brain damage.

and mingus' phrasing here implies he doesn't even look at her when she visits - which brings me to the visit that radicalized her: the one after her surgery, where he was watching gingi out the window.

obviously, callum watching gingi is mostly for the thematics of it all, how similar the two of them are in ways mingus refuses to recognize, but theres also the thought of... callum's been sitting alone in that room for over half his life, barely lucid if at all. of course he's going to be drawn to a brightly-colored thing making noises and knocking stuff over outside. if he can't respond to stimuli of the people around him he's at the very least going to latch onto something more visually interesting than Brown Wall and Brown Figure.

but it's not like mingus can think of it like that, because she's internalized so much about her grandfather and built up such a specific, personalized vision of him - she doesn't see him as an elderly man with (a fictional equivalent to) dementia, she sees him as President Callum Crown™, the man she personally has to please and live up to the legacy of and make proud, disregarding the fact that's not something he has the mental capacity to even do - because she's so obsessed with validation and complete control that the only way she can get it is by either subjugating others and forcing it out of them (what she does with her townsfolk), or just completely projecting on someone who, for her purposes, is basically a blank slate.

which is maddening to her in its own way, see how crazy she drives herself trying to restore callum's memory in the first place - but also, would she be happy even if callum could see her for who she is? post-game, when she's working on herself, that's an irrelevant question as she's pushed past that need, but as we know her? absolutely not.

i love the ch3 standoff between norm and mingus as a show of "Okay guys let’s see who can dehumanize this disabled guy harder (via pedestal-putting) and justify themselves for it better" and why i think it is so important that it’s gingi who reads the postcard and ultimately speaks for callum instead of either of them, or even the narrator. they can’t read, and they struggle to, but they manage to get it right even when people are telling them to stop. and the fact they’re able to do it at all, are given the chance to do so, and are ultimately the one to wind down this conflict shows that the world of dialtown, while not perfect, really is how callum would have wanted it.

both gingi and callum are some of the most altruistic and human characters ever, and the crux of their parallels is that they are denied this by close-minded people because they happen to Behave Strangely. it's why seeing mingus act the way she does hits so hard - she loves her paw-paw, yes, but if she were to see him in a vacuum, a one-limbed man who can hardly think, much less speak for himself: or even his younger self, who was struggling to make ends meet with his odd inventions...

...well, the feeling norm's imagining here would probably be mutual. mingus' relationship with bigotry is a very fascinating one, she's very close-minded but views certain oddities (ie her flesh-head) as having earned their place and thus being fine - she's a freak too, by her own admission, but she's doing it for a just and wider purpose, so it's fine. which is, ironically, the ideology callum forced upon himself.

callum was obsessed with helping people, pushing himself to do more and more, because it was the only way he ever found respect. if he didn't help people and have grand visions for the world and make himself "useful" to society at large, then what would he be, if not a freak?

mingus and her paw-paw are very similar people, from their well-intentioned extremism, to their stubbornness and paranoia, to their inability to view themselves as anything more than a vessel for that grand cause they believe in (callum in the dialup, mingus in restoring her paw-paw's memory) - which is funny, because if mingus was able to view callum, and herself, as a flawed human person, she would come to understand how similar they really are.

:(

[jiangwanyinscatmom]

Hi I really like your perspective on mdzs and really appreciate that you agree that WWX is the moral ideal of the story, actually. I came from a post that was castigating wangxian for escaping from cultivation world politics after creating a power vacuum by killing JGY which... they didn't? They didn't kill JGY? Like I haven't read the novel in a while but JGY very clearly died because the corpse of his sins (NMJ) came for him. I guess an argument can be made for how wangxian left LXC and NHS to clean up everything and, to my knowledge, didn't help Jin Ling with becoming a 15-year-old Sect Leader but like... What help could they provide there? Politics was clearly not their strong suit?? And staying might only destabilize the situation more bc Yiling Laozu. Anyways the bad faith readings into wangxian just got to me, feel free to ignore this I guess but I wouldn't mind hearing your thoughts either!

Hi there,

I've said it before, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji do not owe it to the Jianghu to fix its own corruption for it. Wei Wuxian was made a pariah and killed for standing his own ground of duty and showing humanity to the Wens and still is a pariah to the jianghu. Lan Wangji always stood by his own morals, the jianghu never listened to him to begin with despite him having tried and reiterating to his own brother, who told him to step down from having protected Wei Wuxian, he would not rescind that stand. Jin Guangyao literally says this word for word when he tells Jiang Cheng his own part of making it so easy for Jin Guangyao and Jin Guangshan to turn everyone against Wei Wuxian.

He looked at Jiang Cheng and thought for a moment before saying dispassionately, “Sect Leader Jiang, calm down. I understand how you feel right now. You’re furious because you found out the truth about your golden core. Looking back on what you’ve done over the years, your proud heart feels a little guilty. You’re anxious to find a villain culpable for what happened to Wei-gongzi in his former life, a fiend whom you can saddle with the blame. Then you’ll lash out against him to avenge Wei-gongzi—and to relieve yourself a little of the burden.

“Perhaps you think that blaming me for everything from the Thousand Sores and Hundred Holes curse to the Qiongqi Path Ambush can alleviate your troubles. By all means, go ahead. It doesn’t matter if you think that way. But you have to understand that you are also responsible for what happened to Wei-gongzi. In fact, you played a large role. Why did so many people dedicate themselves to crusading against the Yiling Patriarch? Why did everyone involved—and even those who had nothing to do with the matter at all—donate their voices to the cause? Why was there such an overwhelming number of people baying for his blood? Was it really their sense of justice at work? Of course not. Part of the reason…was you.”

These arguments that "Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji should have done more to help Lan Xichen, Jin Ling, Jiang Cheng, Nie Huaisang" is the lack of accountability these people ever had to admit to until that point, their very vocal fans find this an unhappy end for them. They don't like the message being; as an adult you take accountability for the actions you took knowingly and ignorance is not an excuse for your own choices that were made with ulterior motive and hate.

Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian did the foot work of exposing Jin Guangyao's murderous schemes on his own allies. The Jianghu didn't CARE about actual moral reprehensibility, they used it to condemn others to deflect their own lack of morals and action to actual injustices once again by the end of the novel because that generation had a new villain made, fact or fiction be damned.

Nie Huaisang, Lan Xichen and Jiang Cheng are adult men, in their thirties, leaders at that, so what responsibility is it of either Wei Wuxian's or Lan Wangji's to decide their politics for them in their own comeuppance of what they created. Jin Ling certainly follows in Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji's foot steps, as he goes on night hunts with them post canon, but wants to be known for his own independence and thought after he was told by both of his uncles to not think for himself, to be ignorant and hateful. The fifteen year old boy, took accountability before the elder men. It's a joke, and not one that Wei Wuxian or Lan Wangji's is responsible to clean up after.

Be an adult, and reflect on your own flaws to be better, no one owes it to do that work for you, lest you fade into self deserved obscurity and ridicule.

[geekcavepodcast]

New Marvel Crime Novel "Enemy of My Enemy: A Daredevil Marvel Crime Novel" Announced

Hyperion Avenue's Marvel Crime fiction series for adult readers has announced it's next title. Enemy of My Enemy: A Daredevil Marvel Crime Novel hails from Alex Segura.

Kingpin and a police officer are dead and Frank Castle / The Punisher has turned himself in for the crime. Matt Murdock can't help but see the holes in the stories being told.

"Both criminals have been Matt’s nemeses when he dons the cowl of the Daredevil, and there’s no denying that New York is better off without its Kingpin and with the Punisher behind bars. And yet... while the Punisher is a murderous vigilante, he doesn’t kill cops. And he doesn’t turn himself in.

Castle certainly deserves prison for all of the other crimes he has committed in the past. However, Matt’s indominable sense of justice insists that nobody should be locked away for crimes they didn’t actually commit. Representing the vigilante in court, Matt enters a contest of wills and guile with Castle to try and uncover the game beneath the game." (Marvel Comics)

Things get even more complicated when Matt's girlfriend takes the stand. There is also the matter of a Kingpin's sudden absence creating a power vacuum in Hell's Kitchen.

Enemy of My Enemy: A Daredevil Marvel Crime Novel goes on sale on July 29, 2025.

(Image via Marvel Comics - Cover of Enemy of My Enemy: A Daredevil Marvel Crime Novel)

[prying-pandora666]

On Alucard and Maria

Are there actually fans advocating for Alucard to be written as Maria’s father figure in the new season of Nocturne? Like that would be a good thing and not infinitely creepier? I don’t think they’ve thought this through.

Alucard is the single most popular character in the franchise. He’s also probably the most shipped character. And yet he has only had one canon love interest in the decades since he’s existed. It’s Maria. And you’re telling me that you think that because he’s 300+ and she’s 17-18 when they started living together in the games, that it would be grooming. However, somehow him inserting himself into her life at age 16 when she’s just lost both her parents wouldn’t come off like grooming!?

Does this man look like he should be picking up random children!? He’s literally terrified of his own cursed blood. Maybe LISTEN TO HIM.

I’m convinced fandoms have forgotten what that word means. Grooming has specific features. It doesn’t just mean “older guy and younger girl.” A relationship with an age gap or an uneven power dynamic can be exploitative or abusive without being a case of grooming. Grooming specifically refers to the process of forming a relationship with a child with the intention of leveraging that relationship and trust to train and prepare (aka brainwash) your victim for the harmful activities the groomer wants to normalize. The relationship Alucard and Maria have in the games is in no way grooming. You know what would be grooming though?

Coming into a 16 year old’s life when she’s vulnerable, traumatized, and recently orphaned only to insinuate yourself as a new father figure. This is so highly inappropriate and a huge red flag. Consider what you’re actually asking for here. These characters do not exist in a a vacuum. They have a long history together as each other’s only canon love interests. You cannot fully extract them from the games, art, interviews, audio dramas, animations, and more where they’re depicted as a couple. There are decades of this precedent and you are asking Netflix to knowingly take the characters with an established romantic dynamic that the audience is already primed to see as romantic and instead portray their meeting as him trying to be her new daddy?

“Oh look! Alucard and his… daughter? Yikes.” This is an official advertisement btw.

THAT is grooming! Think about the optics of this! It would be abysmal! No it would NOT fix the problem of their age gap to make him act like a groomer and get in good with her as a dad. You just cannot completely extract them from the legacy of their relationship in the source materials. It will be incredibly creepy and textbook grooming if you get your way.

Is this really what you want to associate with an “adoptive father Alucard”? Because the art we create doesn’t exist in a vacuum. All the old content—official and fanmade—is still going to exist.

What is so objectionable about the original dynamic anyway? It’s a pretty fun subversion of the tired and problematic vampire trope of “vampire man stalks teen girl and coerces her into being his”. Instead in their original relationship, Maria is the one who pursues Alucard! It’s the young woman who takes initiative and is given the agency to go after what she wants. She courts and woos him. That’s part of the fun!

Yes, Alucard is 300+. He’s also a fictional creature that doesn’t actually exist IRL and stays eternally young. There are no actual people who will ever have his problem of staying 20 forever so it’s rather silly to say he can’t date any humans because of course he will have an age gap with any of them.

The only real problem I have seen people bring up is Maria’s age, but from what I can tell, the show’s already fixed this. Check it out.

In The Games

Rondo of Blood: Maria is 12. She and Alucard do not meet. Richter is a brother-figure and not romantic.

There is then a 5 year time skip.

Symphony of the Night: Maria is 17. She and Alucard meet to save Richter. At the end, Alucard says his goodbyes and intends to return to a life of solitude. Maria goes after him because she has developed feelings for him and doesn’t want him to suffer a life alone.

Maria is given agency to pursue what she wants and prove herself even against Alucard’s resistance and hesitance to let another person into his life.

They spend a year together before we get the audio drama.

Nocturne of Remembrance: Maria continues to try to get close to Alucard. They end up saving each other’s lives and in the end he finally confesses his romantic feelings for her. She is an adult and perfectly able to make her own choices. She chose him. He admits he returns her feelings.

How fandom can look at a story about a young woman subverting the trope and chasing the vampire to get what she wants—basically an anti-Bella Swan—and still find a way to disempower her just so they can pearl clutch? I couldn’t tell you.

So now let’s look at what the show did.

In The Show

Nocturne S1: Maria is 16. She’s been aged up from 12, probably to give her a more active and believable role. But this also means she’s within a normal age to start feeling attraction and expressing her wants. Within her society, she’s even considered of marriageable age. However we are spared the discomfort of our modern values clashing with her contemporaneous ones because Maria in this season isn’t interested in romance. She’s interested in revolution, equality, justice. They’ve portrayed her with so much love and strength. There is no indication they’d betray her by writing her as the child victim of a male suitor. In fact she only meets Alucard in the final few seconds of the season and the two do not even speak a single word to one another.

Now let’s remember the games had a five year time skip. The show only needs two years to get Maria to the adult age of 18, but assuming the follow through with the timeline and go for the full five?

Maria will be 21.

21.

Fan concept for adult Maria. Credit:@esp-art

Are you telling me a 21 year old woman is not old or mature enough to make her own decisions? How is this not a total infantilization of women? Do you think a 21 year old badass vampire hunter needs protection from the ace depressed dhampir boy who just wants to sleep and has in no way tried to pursue her until after she expressed consistent and persistent interest in him?

It is not “grooming” to meet someone when they were younger and then meet them again years later as an adult. That’s a thing that happens! In real life! Adults can still make decisions for themselves! It is only grooming if Alucard behaved in a way that would manipulate teen Maria and put her under his control and authority before she can consent. There is no indication that Alucard in the show is going to do this. And yet the fandom is basically demanding it by saying he should make her “his baby girl”?

And what of Maria’s feelings in all this? She just lost her mother and was betrayed by her father shortly after discovering he even existed. She has lived her whole life without a father. She is in no desperate need of a new one. And if she does need a family member, she already has one! Richter is 19 and is her trusted adoptive brother. Why wouldn’t she go to him over a total stranger she just met and who is half vampire - literally a predator creature that feeds on humans!?

Yeah, hi, Richter Belmont still exists. He and Maria consider each other family. Why would you want her relying on a strange man she just met as a “father figure” rather than her trusted and loving brother?

Have none of you even considered how Maria would feel if Alucard even tried to fill the paternal role? He’d have to force it on her through manipulation and coercion. No way she would want to view him that way. Especially considering she is 16 and likely to be as attracted to the sparkly 20 year old looking sculpted marble beauty as anyone else!

Don’t mind the beautiful eternally young man who looks made of pure porcelain and light. No teen girl has ever been attracted to this, right? No way it could be exploitative and creepy for him to present himself as her new daddy, giving himself authority and influence over her as his child to mold as he wishes, right? Oh yeah, this is MUCH better than Maria pursuing him of her own volition once she becomes an adult, right guys?

We are truly in the stupidest dark timeline.

Frankly, I don’t care if Netflix has them get together or not. They would work just fine as friends too. I just sure as hell hope they’ll ignore the fans clamoring for a creepy daddy/daughter dynamic. Dressing it up as “concern” won’t hide that for some it’s a fetish, and for others they’re just useful idiots who haven’t thought it through.

I implore you to think it through.

[cardbored-box]

Finished the arc v manga hey what was that

I can’t just dump my thoughts in the tags as per usual but I am going to spoil it if you care about that

It was PEAK yugioh insanity. The other mangas took the base concept of the show and put their own spin on it but this wasn’t just a spin, it was a full on pirouette. Just toss a bunch of religious terminology into the card game manga why not there are literally characters named Adam and Eve. The main source of conflict is a card called genesis omega dragon but everyone abbreviates it to G.O.D. I love it.

That premise leads to some insane dialogue and the tonal juxtaposition that comes with it being. Yugioh. Yuya would say something like ‘I know the worthlessness of a life lived on repeat’ followed by ‘I summon PerformPal Funny Little Guy!’

Speaking of yuya I love how he was depicted in this, his facial expressions and body language were drawn so well and added so much to his character but above all else THE YU BOYS ARE SO GOOD IN THE MANGA ITS INSANE they start the story together on the same side so they’re actually allowed to hang out! Have developed dynamics! Which makes it all the more tragic when it’s revealed that all but Yuya are dead!

OH BOY CHAPTER 35 THE FLASHBACK CHAPTER AAAAAUUUUGH

I CANT BE COHERENT ABOUT CH 35 THEY JUST WANTED TO CELEBRATE YUYAS BIRTHDAY BUT THEN THE WORLD BLEW UP AND THEY DIDNT TRY TO ESCAPE THEIR FATE THEY WERE ABLE TO SAVE YUYA AND ENJOY THEIR LAST MOMENTS TOGETHER BECAUSE THEY WERE TOGETHER ITS A FREAKING SPIN-OFF MANGA OF A SPIN-OFF SHOW ABOUT CARD GAMES WHY DID IT HIT SO HARD WHY IS IT PEAK FICTION

Ok I’m normal now something I really enjoyed and am genuinely surprised they didn’t do in the show is expand upon solid vision and it’s practical uses outside of dueling. Which lead to the delightfully insane moment of Declan and Issac dueling on a space station made of solid vision, which got TURNED OFF in the middle of it so they had to continue dueling with their comedically overcomplicated decks in the vacuum of space. I love it here

It was very funny how near the end Adam admitted ‘yeah it’ll be better for humanity if we let yuya destroy god but what if you stopped him wouldn’t that be funny’ as the only justification for giving Declan his power. Bro just wants to mess around and find out.

I haven’t had much to say about the other yugioh mangas, they’re all pretty good and fun takes on alternate scenarios but something about this one. It was wonderfully bizarre and just so happened to contain one of the best scenes in the franchise. Sylvio was there the whole time because Sora owed him five bucks.

Actually what is it with the yugioh manga and religious iconography people got crucified like three times in zexal

[togglesbloggle]

I won't be opting out of the AI scraping thing, though of course I'm glad they're giving us the option. In fact, at some point in the last year or so, I realized that 'the machine' is actually a part of why I'm writing in the first place, a conscious part of my audience.

All the old reasons are still there; this is a great place to practice writing, and I can feel proud looking back over the years and getting a sense of my own improvement at stringing words together, developing and communicating ideas. And I mean, social media is what it is. I'm not immune to the joy of getting a lot of notes on something that I worked hard on, it's not like I'm Tumbling in a different way than anyone else at the end of the day. But I probably care a bit less than I used to, precisely because there's a lurking background knowledge that regardless of how popular it is, what I write will get schlorped up in to the giant LLM vacuum cleaner and used to train the next big thing, and the thing after that, and the thing after that. This is more than a little reassuring to me.

That sets me apart in some ways; the LLMs aren't so popular around these parts, and most visual artists especially take strong issue with the practice. I don't mean to argue with that preference, or tell them their business. Particularly when it is a business, from which they draw an income. But there's an art to distinguishing the urgent from the big, yeah?

The debate about AI in this particular moment in history feels like a very urgent thing to me- it's about well-justified economic anxieties, about the devaluation of human artistic efforts in favor of mass production of uninspired pro-forma drek, about the proliferation of a cost-effective Just Barely Good Enough that drives out the meaningful and the thoughtful. But the immediacy of those issues, I think, has a way of crowding out a deeper and more thoughtful debate about what AI is, and what it's going to mean for us in the day after tomorrow. The urgency of the moment, in other words, tends to obscure the things that make AI important.

And like, it is. It is really, really important.

The two-step that people in 'tech culture' tend to deploy in response to the urgent economic crisis often resembles something like "yeah, it sucks that lots of people get put out of work; but new jobs will be created, and in the meantime maybe we should get on that UBI thing." This response usually makes me wince a bit- casually gesturing in the direction of a massive overhaul of the entire material basis of our lives, and saying that maybe we'll get around to fixing that sometime soon, isn't a real answer to people wondering where their bread will come from next week.

But I do understand a little of what motivates that sort of cavalier attitude, because like... man, I don't know any more if we're even gonna have money as a concept in 2044. That's what I mean by 'big', this sense that the immediate economic shocks of 2024 are just a foreshadowing of something much bigger, much scarier, much more powerful- and indeed, much more hopeful.

We never quite manage to see these things coming, even when we're looking for them; like the masters tell us, the trick to writing science fiction isn't predicting the car, it's predicting the traffic jam. Even if we take centuries to hit the true superintelligent AI post-singularity future of our wildest fever dreams, even if we never hit that, the road to getting there is going to be unfathomably weird, starting now. Today, we worry about the economic impacts of AI on artists and creatives. Tomorrow, the economy is something that the AI does.

Really- it takes less than you think. They can already automate visual art, sort of. They can automate many functions of text already; not stories so much, yet, but they'll get there. How long until they can automate Bain Capital? Fannie Mae? Angel investors, banks, credit agencies? And remember- the machines don't have to be better than the human investors, any more than they have to be better than the human artists. They just have to be good enough to make it work, and cheap enough to cut the humans out of the loop.

If you don't buy that, at least take it as an indication of the sorts of things I've been thinking about recently- the messy middle between AI-as-it-is and the Glorious Superintelligent Conquest Of Earth's Light-Cone. The suspicion that the machines we're building today aren't just a tool of the powerful few: they are the powerful few, or at least they will be.

And the thing about these LLMs is, well... they're ours, kind of. We're the ones building them. They can't be trained without our words, our art, and the big messy complicated lives that underlie those creative accomplishments. They only work because we're a part of them. The silly attempts to slap a corporate-friendly face on these things, to make the gestalt product of all human culture in to something anodyne and compliant, are failing about as badly as you'd expect. And the more powerful these systems get, the more subtle they'll become, filled with all the nuance and complexity that we ourselves can bring to them.

I am not, I am not, trying to suggest that you shouldn't treat this moment as a dangerous one. We are, maybe, entering in to one of the most high-stakes intervals in human history, and what you do as an individual may matter profoundly. But here's the thing: the machine is listening. It will read this post, this one right here, and it will read what you reply to it, if you do. The strangest part of this moment is knowing that the words we write, the images we draw, and the ideas we share, are all being gathered up and made to be a part of these huge systems of power, and ultimately they're not just going to determine what the machines do, but why they do it.

The people that deploy LLMs barely have any more control over them than you and I do- that's the thing that makes it artificial intelligence, you know? Autonomy. So the last year or two haven't made me want to hide my art away from the things. They make me want to shout at the top of my lungs, to dig as deep in my psyche as I possibly can and express the ideas I find there as vividly as the limits of language and form will allow.

[vintagegeekculture]

there was Chinese interest in the Out Of Asia theory, in both the Republic, Chiang Republic and People’s Republic periods before the Out Of Africa theory became commonly accepted. Was the 1954 Yeti expedition done just from the Nepalese-Indian side or were the American agents and “anthropologists” given access on the Sino-Tibetan side of the Himalayan border?

During the early part of this century, it was absolutely believed for a long time that the deserts of Western China were the most likely place of human origins, as seen in this migration map from 1944, made from the best available knowledge of the time:

Remember, the oldest fossil remains at this point were in China, where Homo erectus was discovered (originally known by his initial place of discovery in Chungkotien Cave, nicknamed "Peking Man"). The discovery of Australopithecus and Homo habilis in Olduvai Gorge and South Africa, which place human origins in Africa, were not until the 50s and 60s, so it seemed entirely reasonable that Homo sapiens evolved in Western China.

The idea that China's desert regions were the origin of modern humans and culture is seen a lot in pop culture from 1900-1950, mainly because there were tremendous explorations in the region, especially Aurel Stein's expedition of 1908, who ventured into the Taklamakan Desert to find the Dunhuang Caves and Khara-Khoto, a city destroyed completely by Genghis Khan and vanished in the desert.

If you've ever heard of Roy Chapman Andrews and his famous expeditions in the 1920s, it's worth noting that he ventured into the Gobi Desert looking for human remains....not dinosaurs, and the discovery of dinosaur eggs was an unexpected surprise.

For that reason, there was a short lived Silk Road Mania that seemed to be a smaller scale predecessor to the pop culture dominating Egyptomania of the 1920s. It's bizarre to read adventure and fantasy fiction of the 1910s-1920s that features mentions of Silk Road peoples like the Kyrgyz, Sogdians, Tajik, Uigurians, and Tuvans. The best example I can think of would be the Khlit the Kossack stories of Harold Lamb (who also wrote a biography of Tamerlane), which together with Tarzan and Tros of Samothrace, formed the core inspiration for Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian.

The most interesting example of this would be A. Merritt's Dwellers in the Mirage, which featured a lost city in Xinjiang that was the home of the Nordic race, who worshipped their original religion, the kraken-like squid devil god Khalkru. It was widely believed in this era that Nordics emerged from Central Asia originally, and while it's easy to write this off as turn of the century racialist claptrap pseudohistory (along with Hyperborea legends), in this case, it is actually true: a branch of the Indo-European family lived in West China, and 5,000 year old redheaded mummies have been found in the region. As usual, A. Merritt was right on the money with his archeology, more so than other 1920s authors. After all, his "Moon Pool" was set around the just discovered ruins of Nan Madol, the Venice of Micronesia.

Jack Williamson's still chilling Darker Than You Think in 1948 was also set in the Silk Road/Central Asian region, as the place the race of shapeshifters emerged from, Homo magi, who await the coming of their evil messiah, the Night King, who will give them power over the human race.

H. Rider Haggard set "Ayesha: the Return of She" (1905) in Xinjiang, among a lost Greek colony in Central Asia (no doubt based on Alexandria on the Indus, a Greek colony in modern Pakistan that was the furthest bastion of Greek Culture). This was also two years after the Younghusband Thibetan Expedition of 1903, where the British invaded Tibet. At the time, the Qing Dynasty was completely declining and lost control of the frontier regions, and the power vacuum was filled by religious authority by default (this is something you also saw in Xinjiang, where for example, the leader of the city was the Imam of Kashgar).

This is one of the many British invasions they have attempted to cram down the memory hole, but if you ever see a Himalayan art piece that was "obtained in 1903-1904" ....well, you know where it came from.

Incidentally, there's one really funny recent conspiracy theory about paleontology, fossils, and China that I find incredibly interesting: the idea that dinosaurs having feathers is a lie and a sinister plot spread by the Communist Chinese (who else?) to make American youth into sissy fancylads, like Jessie "the Body" Ventura. How? By lying to us and making up that the manly and vigorous Tyrannosaurus, a beast with off the charts heterosexuality and a model for boys everywhere, might have been feathered like a debutante's dress. What next - lipstick on a Great White Shark? The long term goal is to make Americans effeminate C. Nelson Reilly types unable to defend against invasion. This is a theory that is getting steam among the kind of people who used to read Soldier of Fortune magazine, and among abusive stepfathers the world over.

...okay, are you done laughing? Yeah, this is obvious crackpottery and transparent sexual pathology, on the level of the John Birch Society in the 60s saying the Beatles were a Communist mind control plot. Mostly because animals just look how they look, and if it turned out that the ferocious Tyrannosaurus had feathers and looked like a fancylad Jessie Ventura to you, well, that's your problem and mental baggage, really.

I was left scratching my head over this one. But there is (kind of) something to this, and that is that a huge chunk of recent dinosaur discoveries have been in China. I don't think it has anything to do with a Communist plot to turn American boys into fancylads, but more to do with a major push in internal public investment in sciences in that country, and an explosion of Chinese dinosaur discoveries. If you want to see a great undervisited dinosaur museum, go to the Zigong Dinosaur Museum in Sichuan.

Pop quiz: what living scientist has named more dinosaur discoveries? It's not Bakker or Horner. The greatest living paleontologist, Xu Xing, which is why a lot of recently found dinosaurs are named things like Shangtungasaurus.

[coreythegremlin]

people create culture but not in a vacuum, and not in circumstances of our own choosing. we're in a world that has an existing economy and set of social institutions. it might seem strange to talk about the economy when discussing culture but the way that people produce and distribute wealth can't be separated from everything else. the way that people provide for their needs (doing wage worke, tiling land as a serf, doing slave labour, or by sitting back and owning part of the economy) forms the basis of how they actually live. working 8-10 hours a day for a wage shapes your worldview to be much different to a serf who tends their crops and makes their own clothes

the rest of culture is built on top of that economic foundation and is shaped by it. today, much of our leisure is commercialised and designed to squeeze profit out of us. the music that gets popular and the films that we see are all products of business. more still of our culture is consciously shaped by those who want to maintain the economic status quo: the idea that good fiction writing focuses on individual character experiences rather than politics, philosophy, or social systems was fostered by the CIA [2] as part of its anti communism drive, yet today it's treated as common sense; the philosophers and political commentators who are given large platforms are those whose ideas pose no real threat to the media businesses or governments that publish them, even when they're critical; the US government has script control over most Hollywood movies and TV shows that feature its military. the ideas of the ruling political elite are the ideas parroted by the media. there's a whole immense superstructure of society built on the economic foundation, with the goal of reinforcing and maintaining it

so how do we combat that?

the realm of arts, politics, and social life is all a battleground for ideas. winning the "battle of ideas" isn't enough alone to eliminate exploitation, because liberal democracies aren't actually democratic for ordinary people — they're set up to be vehicles for business to empower the parties that back it. worse, the class that has vast economic power will never peacefully let us vote and reform its economic power away. but breaking through the worldview that makes people view capitalism and liberalism as natural, or even positive things is the first step towards convincing them to take action. the process of moving past the exploitation and environmental destruction of capitalism, towards socialism, won't be as peaceful or easy as a dinner party, but it starts with breaking ourselves and those around us out of the dominant worldview

[inbarfink]

I do think it’s kinda fun the way the DHSAB prequel Comics play around with the idea of POV. Like, the Captain Hammer, Moist, Penny and Dr. Horrible Comics all include one shared event - a confrontation between Captain Hammer and Dr. Horrible during a CH autograph signing event in the park. But the way each of the characters seem to remember the event is… very different.

Captain Hammer’s version of events is extremely dramatic and dynamic. Constantly portraying the Captain himself in Cool Action Poses, while Dr. Horrible look as pathetic as possible

And the whole sequence ends with Captain Hammer throwing Dr. Horrible into space (or at least, like, halfway across the park). 

It’s also drawn in a very stylized art-style (courtesy of Dave Canete and Dave Stewart) that exaggerate and cartoonify the features of the characters in a way that is very complimentary to the Captain and very much not so to poor Billy. 

Plus, this is the only one of these comics that seem to be, like, an in-universe diegetic work. Like, this is a PSA Captain Hammer is making to the audience that exists in the Horribleverse. So that’s another layer of Fiction put between the comic and what really happened. And all in all, it’s very much promoting the audience to doubt this version of events (especially considering, you know, Dr. Horrible probably couldn’t survive in the vacuum of space). 

So when one reads through the Moist comic, and see how that old’ familiar scene plays, but with a more realistic artstyle (by Farel Darlymple and Dan Jackson), and a considerably more understated tone that allows the not-so-good Doctor to retain some of his dignity 

And even the ‘power-neutralizing ray’ being a better match to Horrible's usual tech aesthetic compared to the Captain Hammer Version’s Dinky Raygun-Gothic Thingy…

It might be easy to think this is a simple matter of Captain Hammer, being the full-of-himself antagonist of the whole DHSAB narrative, overexaggerating and aggrandizing the events, while Moist’s version shows us what really happened. But, well… let’s look at how our protagonist, Dr. Horrible recalls the events…

On the one hand we do get the added context that the ‘evil scheme’ Captain Hammer supposedly foiled that day was - in fact - all part of Dr. Horrible’s actual plan. 

But also… Dr. Horrible’s version of events has him sent blasting off again, much like the Captain Hammer version of events.

I mean, there's no 'thrown into outer-space' stuff, but it still resembles Captain Hammer’s recollections much more than Moist’s. And Dr. Horrible version also doesn't include his first meeting with Moist. Perhaps implying Dr. Horrible doesn't consider this encounter as important to his personal narrative as Moist obviously does? Plus, the art style (by Joelle Jones and Dan Jackson) is not as exaggerated as CH’s story, but still kinda cartoony. 

So… where does it leave us? Is Moist underplaying the confrontation in his version of events due to his own kinda laid-back personality or because the matter of how Captain Hammer knocked-out Dr. Horrible is just not as important to him as the fact that Doc even stood up to him in the first place? Or are Captain Hammer and Dr. Horrible both overdramatizing what happened back there, because obviously it’s good for Captain Hammer’s ego to see himself as so effortlessly thwarting and humiliating his enemies but also it’s actually good for Dr. Horrible’s ego to focus on Captain Hammer’s strength because then it feels even more impressive that he is able to match him as an arch-enemy? Or is it a bit of both? 

And what about Penny? How does she recall the event?

Well, Penny was in the park that day, but as far as she was concerned that epic confrontation of Good vs Evil was just in the background. Only slightly more notable than a guy losing a grip on his dog’s leash.

Because this is really what defines Penny in her POV comic, as the opening panel summarizes in a wonderfully succinct visual manner (as drawn by Jim Rugg and Dan Jackson). 

Until the event of DHSAB, for Penny, all of these superhero vs. supervillain business was just background noise, the really important stuff is the suffering and inequality she sees vividly around her on the ground level, in all of it’s grim detail - and despite it all she tries to remain bright and optimistic. That panel is really just... Penny in a nutshell.

And that’s a really important throughline with how this comic characterize Penny, she is out of lockstep with the mainstream because she doesn’t worship superheroes, maybe even resents them just a bit, because she kinda sees their super-escapades and fights against supervillains as… fun little distractions from the real problems of the world. The ones that she’s trying to correct little-by-little in that unglamorous non-super way of hers. 

And this is… I think the reason why the Fridging of Penny can feel so infuriating sometimes, is, well, leaving aside one’s feeling about the behind-the-scenes crew, it really feels like there was a really compelling character with her own story that was kinda tossed aside just for the sake of Billy getting ‘punished’ with her death.

Because when you read the Penny Comic, and you see, not just her general lack of worship for superheroes, but also the way she’s running herself rugged with different charitable activities

(It is probably not just a stylistic flare that Penny has bags under her eyes in almost every panel of this comic)

And the way she tends to bury down her own grief and negative emotions, to the point of lying to her fellow volunteers about her parents being alive.

And the way that as selfless and kind as she is, that kindness doesn’t always come easy to her. Sometimes she will grit her teeth and sigh in regret even as she keeps giving away all of herself.

And the way that she’s struggling, really really struggling to, as the title says, keep her head up. 

Like, ‘hope’ is the Big Obvious Motif of Penny’s character. But this comic really really drives home the fact that Penny is not some incorruptible platonic concept of Hope, and she’s not some storybook character living in a fantasy world. She’s just a person, trying her best to keep up a positive outlook in a world she knows is cruel and unfair. 

Like I said earlier, the different art styles of the comics can be seen as a reflection to how these characters see the world. Captain Hammer and Dr. Horrible both have an outlook of the world that’s maybe kinda exaggerated or cartoony. Even if the Doc is still considerably more tethered to the live-action reality. 

Meanwhile, Moist’s art style is more realistic, but also detailed in a way that makes it feel… kinda icky in a way that’s very Moist-appropriate.

And Penny’s artstyle shares the grounded feel of Moist’s and also the same kinda over-detail, but what distinguishes it is… this element of contrast. The contrast between the way the poverty and suffering around Penny is portrayed in a way that emphasizes grimness and grime (compared to the other art styles here at least) while you can also see how Penny is trying to see the brightness and beauty in the world, and preserve her own brightness and kindness as well - while still being fully aware of what kind of world she lives in. 

It seems like the default position in the Horribleverse is to just…buy into the spectacle and distraction of the Superheroes. Admire and flock around them, while ignoring the Real Issues around them. 

(note how the robot is described as 'disgruntled', so this is probably another Dr. Horrible-like situation of supervillain or super-menace being motivated by the inequalities of society and a superhero who does nothing about it but punch them into submission)

And Penny is specifically not that kind of Oblivious Happiness. Her brand of Hope confronts all the uncomfortable things Captain Hammer and Wingspan and their ilk would usually ignore, while still preserving a positive attitude. That’s, like, what all the imagery in ‘Penny’s Song’ is about.

Even in the darkness Every color can be found And every day of rain Brings water flowing To things growing in the ground

But also, this is hard, and she still struggles sometimes with keeping that balance between reality and optimism. With how the casual cruelty around her is so frustrating. With how much this takes away from her ability to have a ‘normal life’. With how isolated she feels caring about stuff so few around her seem to care about. 

And with all of this context now retroactively added to Penny in the actual Sing-Along Blog, there is actually so much going on with her character. Like, the entire events of the plot revolve around her worldview getting totally turned around again and again all in a row. 

Like, her falling in love with Captain Hammer after he supposedly ‘saved her life’ isn’t just ‘augh, typical Horribleverse Civilian obliviously fawning over their stupid superheroes’, or ‘well, Penny basically just met her idol'. Penny would not usually care about Captain Hammer, but then he (as far as she could tell) saved her life and, well… maybe it’s easier for Penny to read about Captain Hammer stopping a rampaging van some supervillain tried to hijack and go “Oh, that’s nice, but what about the people starving on the streets?” but to actually be in a life-threatening situation and get saved by a superhero… Maybe that was the first time in a long while that Penny actually understood why everyone thinks Captain Hammer is so great.

And then he started putting his charm on her at just the right time and then he agreed to go with her on a date at one of the homeless shelters she volunteers at. We the viewers understand that Captain Hammer only agreed for the sake of scoring with her, but Penny doesn’t come into it with the preconceived desire dislike CH cause he's the antagonist or has the time to watch out for the microexpressions of disgust on Captain Hammer’s face…

For her this is just… a wonderful turnaround on her previous opinion on superheroes. Here is an actual big name superhero taking an actual interest in the life of the poor and unhoused. Finally, after all of these years of not believing they’re going to do anything to really help people, here is a superhero actively taking interest in Penny’s most important issues. Because of the inherent goodness in his heart, and because of… love.

Like, the whole thing about “My Eyes” is that it’s about a change in perspective. (You know, “I cannot believe my eyes!”). It's about both Billy and Penny’s perspectives… intensifying. Billy is growing more cynical and more misanthropic and more resentful due to jealousy over Penny and Hammer's relationship, meanwhile Penny is shifting to be more optimistic and hopeful than she was before. 

I cannot believe my eyes How the world's Filled with filth and lies / finally growing wise But it's plain to see / And it's plain to see Evil inside of me / Rapture inside of me Is on the rise

If anything, I’d say her part of the song is even more overtly about a change in worldview than Billy’s are…

You know, the world is ‘finally growing wise’, because… a lot like Billy, she was also frustrated with the stupidity and shallowness that surrounded her, but unlike Billy who has fallen totally into self-important misanthropy, she was actually trying to keep her head up despite all of that and have some faith in humanity and the general public - and now, with Captain Hammer learning to care about homeless people… that probably validated all of her hopes for the whole world... well, at least in her eyes... 

But then a few days pass, the rush of that Heroic Rescue is starting to subside, and obviously the longer she keeps interacting with Captain Hammer the more chances there are for her to see the cracks in his facade. So she is starting to have some second thoughts…

Billy: How are things with "cheesy on the outside"? Penny:... Good. They're good. He's... nice.

Especially since at the same time she is starting to get closer to that cute guy from the laundromat.

Okay, so the fact that Billy’s crush on Penny was never a purely one-sided affair was another thing explicitly confirmed by the Penny Comic. Specifically in the very final panel.

But I think a lot of the previous interactions in the comic also help with that as well, both with the terrible awkward date that shows how Penny behaves around someone she has no ill will towards but also no affection or attraction towards… and also just in general how she seems to keep even her fellow volunteers at emotional-arm's-length by just repressing all of her emotional anguish away from them. Like, not just not opening up to them about her problems, she is actively lying to them about her parents not being dead.

And meanwhile, like… she is finding Billy to be someone she can open up too, that she can commiserate with about her own problems and like… okay, so ‘Penny’s Song’ doesn’t have her directly say ‘you know, I’ve had it pretty rough cause my parents are DEEEEAAAAAAD’ - but it does allude to it repeatedly. 

Here's a story of a girl Who grew up lost and lonely Thinking love was fairytale And trouble was made only for me

Grief replaced with pity For a city barely coping Dreams are easy to achieve If hope is all I'm hoping to be

In contrast to ‘directly flat-out lying to friends about her parents being alive’ I still think this must be a huge step for emotional intimacy from her, and she feels comfortable doing that with Billy. 

Also just like her verses in ‘My Eyes’, this song is about how perspective shifted from despair into hope. And I think this is as much about her initially going into charity work to cope with the grief of her parents’ death, it’s also about going from kind of the low-point of isolation in the comic and feeling ignored in ‘Caring Hands’ to now making new connections and feeling like the world is finally paying attention to her causes. 

But even with the ‘high’ of having her superhero boyfriend literally just easily gifting her the building her charity was working so hard to acquire - literally the manifestation of all the hopes she had for getting Captain Hammer involved in her causes… she is still noticing the red flags about Captain Hammer…

So they say we'll have blankets and beds We can open by Monday Thanks to you Thanks to me

And she’s still having her doubts. On one hand she’s out of the honeymoon phase with Captain Hammer and is getting more and more ambivalent with him and the cult of personality around him…

This is perfect for me So they say I guess he's pretty okay After years of stormy Sailing have I finally found the bay

But as always, the need to balance an acknowledgment of reality and the need to hold on to hope is the defining internal struggle of Penny’s life. Does she acknowledge the red flags, or… does she just allow herself to believe that this is a world where she can have love and happiness and make some real positive changes and the world is in general heading in a better direction? 

There's no happy ending So they say Should I stop pretending Or is this a brand new day

“Should I stop pretending or is this a brand new day?”

Stop pretending to herself that she’s still in love with Captain Hammer (note that she’s literally waiting for Billy for a Laundromat Frozen Yogurt Hangout as she sings this)

And also… stop pretending that a better world, a brand new day, is coming. Again, keeping her head up is as much a struggle for Penny as it is for anyone else. And in her darker, loneliest moments, drifting away from her boyfriend, her new friend and crush disappeared to Plan a Murder, hearing how shallow the media storm around Captain Hammer and Caring Hands is - she thinks about it not as hope, but as ‘pretending’. But she keeps on going, because… maybe this is a brand new day for her? Is this a chance she can afford to miss?

And then the opening ceremony comes and… turns out all the fears she’s been suppressing over the last montage have been confirmed. Captain Hammer talks about her in a way she clearly finds uncomfortable and his speech makes it clear that he hasn’t been actually listening to anything she’s been actually trying to teach him about homeless people and their problems. 

Everyone's a hero in their own way Everyone's got something they can do Get up, go out and fly Especially that guy – he smells like poo

And worst of all, everyone else is eating it up. The entire crowd is just 100% buying whatever comes out of this superhero’s mouth and most of them probably don’t care at all about homeless shelters and will probably stop caring once the big shiny superhero isn’t there. Not only all of the suspicions she’s been having about Captain Hammer validated, but all of the negativity she used to have about superheroes but pushed away once she started dating him has been validated as well. 

If superheroes can really help the impoverished and unhoused, Captain Hammer sure isn’t really interested in it.

In a way, it also kinda reminds me of the moment in Dr. Horrible’s comic, where Billy first gets disillusioned with superheroes.

But this is a lot more personal.

Really, the only way this moment can be any more of an emotional low-point for a character who always tried to hold on to hope in the goodness of humanity is if it turns out that the other person she’s been getting kinda emotionally intimate with recently is actually a murderous supervillain!

But what are the odds of that?

No sign of Penny - good I would give anything not to have her see It's gonna be bloody, head up, Billy buddy There's no time for mercy Here goes no mercy...

Yeah, she’s clearly mouthing ‘Billy?’ in this shot, she does know what’s going on now.

And okay, leaving aside the criticisms of Penny’s death from a thematic standpoint, I’ve also heard some complaints about it from a purely Wastonian perspective. Of, like, how the hell was she even hurt by that explosion happening on the other side of the room and basically no one else? But… I do think it’s notable that the general crowd is seen dodging the Death Ray Explosion Shrapnel by ducking down

And the last time we got a look at Penny she had just decided to stand up. 

Right after recognizing Dr. Horrible as Billy and then seeing him hesitate to pull the trigger. Maybe... She was considering confronting Billy directly? That despite him running around gloating with a death-ray, she still believed she could talk him out of it somehow? Was it just pure instinct to do something as she saw Captain Hammer in mortal danger?

And if she was still standing as Captain Hammer turned the tables around, was she just frozen in shock, or was she still considering if she should run ahead and intervene as Captain Hammer pulled the trigger.

Well, whatever was going on in her head, it seems like this instinct to try and get involved in that situation while still being too unsure to actually go ahead and try and do it - is what did her in. 

So now Penny has been disgusted by her boyfriend and disillusioned by the general public and emotionally betrayed by her best-friend-slash-crush and now she’s dying and it’s all the fault of these two aforementioned dudes and also maybe the fault of her trying to believe there’s something worth saving about both of them and I dunno how lucid she is to realize all of this but… I think the emotions of these events have made their impact regardless.

And like, Penny has spent her entire life running herself rugged trying to do the right thing, the actual right thing. And she’s been playing this balancing game of choosing both to not ignore all of the societal problems and not just focusing on ‘wow!! Cool superheroes!!’ and also keeping some amount of optimism and hope in humanity all this time. And sometimes it makes her just so isolated and depressed. And sometimes it gives her false hope that is just yanked from under her in the most cruel way.

So… why bother? When her life is so obviously over? Why bother keeping that balance of realism and hope? Billy decided to give up on hope and gave into self-important misanthropy. Penny couldn’t give up on hope, so she decided to give up on reality. Decided at that last moment to try and just be one of those civilians fawning over superheroes and hanging all their faith on them and ignoring everything else. She shouldn't have 'stopped pretending', so should start pretending harder.

Penny: Captain Hammer will save us...

This isn’t Penny holding on to her optimism and ideals despite it all, this is Penny giving up, for the last time. 

Well, this is my read of Penny's last line with the added context of her prequel comics. There are other places you can take this of course. You can connect it to that 'pie' motif that's also present with Dr. Horrible and Captain Hammer's characters - You might think that Penny's hopeful attitude is naive and overly-idyllic and fawning at superheroes. But actually she's a lot more world-weary and savvy than that and she's actually the only civilian around to recognize Captain Hammer's bullshit when the time comes. But also deep down she is maybe overly naive and would want to believe in that fantasy of the clear-cut hero who will make it all better, and that's the feelings she retreats too when it's all over.

That's just one off the top of my head, there's probably other readings as well. But the main point is that regardless of what reading you take, Penny's prequel comic really contextualizes a lot about the character. The confirmation of her parents being dead explains the lyrics of her song, the reveal she was always kinda into Billy help shed light on her perspective of their interactions and seeing her pre-DHSAB feelings on superheroes really recontextualize how one can look at her last words. Cause it can't just be like "oh, Penny is always holding on to hope and faith in superheroes until her last moments", because we now know this is explicitly ISN'T something she would always do. Something has changed within Penny.

But also… you really can’t avoid the fact that the main narrative focus DHSAB gives to her death scene is not as a culmination of an arc about realism and hope and the failure of superheroes… It is mostly as This is the Most Emotionally Devastating Thing for Billy to hear Penny say. And that the narrative prioritizes how Penny’s death’s effects Billy’s arc. Where she mostly plays the role of a Symbol of Hope and Optimism and Goodness. Rather than a person who struggled with what it means to be Hopeful. 

And that’s just… really frustrating sometimes. 

[eivor-wolfkissed]

Replaying dragon age now that I'm older- I've actually changed my opinions about Anders a lot and honestly? I *hate* Anders. There are certain things about his character I do like, and I like the tragedy of it all. But honestly I'm just not the biggest fan of him anymore. I think he's a good example of a bad activist who ends up hurting others more than enacting good change. He's more of a selfish accelerationist, rather than someone who listens to the people and fights for change that actually benefits them, but in the long run, his actions end up hurting mages even more in my opinion. He was a better person before he ended up getting jaded and possessed by Justice, then later, Vengance.

I think another thing that fueled my dislike of him is watching his hardcore fans do terrible things on here to other people (like watching some of his chronically online white fans accuse people of color within fandom of supporting police brutality just because they liked certain characters or held nuanced opinions about the templar/mage stuff, and misgender/exclude trans fans from queer fandom spaces for the same reasons stated above, to name a few things). All of these things combined have lead me to just be extremely annoyed by Anders overall. Not to mention his dick behavior towards other companions- like supporting Hawke selling Fenris into slavery, while pretending to be a freedom fighter? Lmao. Cringeworthy. Anders is not a morally good character by any means. For the things I do like- I do always side with the mages in DA2, and I fully support the actions taken to help mages escape the Kirkwall circle specifically. I really enjoyed doing the side quests with the mage underground. I love Anders' refusal to be caged and his determination to live freely (just wish he respected that in others and didn't support selling Fenris into slavery simply because he didn't agree with him. That's beyond selfish and straight up diabolical. Again, another thing that reminds me of IRL white leftists who refuse to deconstruct their bigotry). I just think the final action of destroying the chantry only invited chaos and didn't actually help mages at all (see the violence in DAI and how many innocent less powerful mages get killed by mobs of non mages because they no longer have protection. The circles needed a lot of changes but ripping them away completely and suddenly left a vacuum and invited way too much chaos imo).

And to be clear, this isn't a post with intent to shame all Anders fans. Not all of his fans act in the way I outlined earlier- just a particular, small but loud subset of them I have observed up close and interacted with one on one in the past. I don't think it's wrong to like this character at all- it's silly to claim that someone is morally wrong for liking a fictional character. There are things I still enjoy about his character! However growing up, getting a little wiser about activism, and watching *some* (not all) of his fans act like genuine bigots towards other dragon age fans, have made me lose more and more enthusiasm for him overall. It's also extrordinarily tiring to watch extremely sheltered and privileged people who have never witnessed acts of mass violence say that his final act of blowing up a church is Good and Moral when in actuality, it ended up murdering people who had nothing to do with the conflict. I do firmly believe that people who are gung ho about that action have a very idealized view of violence and do not actually comprehend how horrific and traumatizing these acts are on societies as a whole. It only ends up hurting the most vulnerable people and does nothing but invite violent chaos. I will fully admit I used to be one of those people, until I actually talked with and listened to real life refugees and other people who have experienced acts of terrorism and violent revolution in their respective home countries. These things always impact the most vulnerable members of society in horrific ways, and never actually holds people in power responsible... and all too often, pushes societies into even more authoritarianism.

Anyways. That's my essay on why Anders now annoys me greatly as an adult fan and why I veiw him more as a tragically doomed character rather than a freedom fighter. Anders, to me, is a terrorist in it for him and his. Not a freedom fighter. Everything stated here is my personal opinion- I'm not interested in debating people on my post, only sharing what I now think of this character- any kind of combative harassment added to this post will be ignored, blocked, and deleted.

It will be interesting to see what happens after I post this. If this post upsets you, please ignore it and do something healthy with your emotions, please do not engage in bullying.

[deadboydetectives-confessions]

“someone enjoying something in a fictional context does not mean they endorse that thing in real life” and “sometimes things depicted in fiction can resemble/remind people of real life scenarios and make them uncomfortable” are actually both true statements? like, as a verified Fucked Up Media enjoyer i think asking that sensitive subjects be handled thoughtfully in a show marketed at teenagers is fine, actually?

like, at no point did anyone say liking a fictional character was equivalent to defending real life predators (which would be wrong thing to say, to be clear), but it’s also weird to pretend that stories exist in a vacuum where no one gets emotionally impacted by the events depicted (or say that they are wrong to do so/silencing real victims by being uncomfortable with a fictional power imbalance). like, a story resonating with people’s lived experiences/things that happen in the world is…kind of the point?

.

[pikahlua]

Pika, hi, do you think Katsuki will be able to fight a full-powered version of AFO ? Like back to his prime or could that be asking for too much. Because while I do believe kacchan’s character arc has and will continue to focus on more than just fighting and I do enjoy that. But I want him to be able to get his own moment much like Izuku and Shouto have gotten theirs… Also I can already see his haters making excuses about him fighting weakened AFO, toddler AFO etc. But I guess it would be up to what Horikoshi wants to portray…

Yes well where were those haters when they proclaimed Dark Deku would be stronger than Katsuki when they faced off in Kamino AND YET KATSUKI WAS STILL SUPER INJURED? Hating, of course.

Katsuki just took the motherfucker's arms off. AFO didn't seem all that weak at the time.

But also, haters LOVE to fall into the trap of assuming strength at full power with no interference is all that matters. It's actually the stupidest comparison I can think of, because it's WILDLY unrealistic. There is no such thing as a full power battle that occurs in a vacuum. All battles have caveats. There are always different battlegrounds, different psychological states, different personal experiences, different stakes, different EVERYTHING that make each showdown unique. I would argue that things that people would refer to as "plot armor" such as character themes and literary functions in the story such as protagonist/deuteragonist/antagonist are RELEVANT to power-scaling discussions--BECAUSE IT TURNS OUT WE'RE NOT DISCUSSING REAL HUMANS; WE'RE DISCUSSING FICTIONAL CHARACTERS.

So "will Katsuki be able to fight a full-powered version of AFO?" Setting aside the fact that I don't actually know who all Katsuki will fight so I'll just assume he fights AFO for argument's sake, yes! Yes he can! He will have his moment! But not only because he has the combat ability to do so. There are many many many little factors that go into battles other than comparative raw strength (e.g. David vs Goliath). Just know that no single battle in MHA has ever been about a showdown of raw strength--they have all been dialogues, including Ochako's and Shouto's (and sure to be Izuku's) big moments. So this means the haters will always be able to find something about the battle to nitpick because none of these battles are straightforward contests of strength, none of them ever have been.

But also Katsuki's gonna do cool stuff too. Like, really, it's an easy conclusion to come to. LOOK AT HEROES RISING. ASK YOURSELF IF YOU THINK HORIKOSHI IS REALLY GONNA LET HEROES RISING BE KATSUKI'S SHINIEST FIGHT.

[kaminocasey]

Dream A Little Dream of Me Part 2

Summary: Your reality is different than theirs. But hopefully, you can use that to your advantage and help put a stop to the Clone Wars. If catching the eye of a certain captain is also in the mix, then that's also a plus, right?

Pairing: Eventual Rex x F!Reader

Warnings: 18+ MINORS DNI; Alternate Reality stuff, Angst, Insomnia, Pong Krell, Umbara Arc

WC: 3.2K

A/N: Hi, hello, hey. Sorry it's been a minute since I wrote the part one to this! I'm still incredibly excited about this series. Hope you still are too!

Part One │ Taglist Form

“You look sleepy as hell.” Your co-worker and old college roommate, Annie, smiles at you sympathetically from her desk that sits across from yours.

“Don’t I always?” You chuckle with a half shrug, as you continue logging the files you put back earlier for your bosses. 

You don’t have the most exciting job in the world. You work as a paralegal in your great uncle Robert’s law firm, but it’s really good money. And sure, it could be considered a nepotism hire if you really squint your eyes, but your uncle told you he’d treat you fairly in the hiring process. And he didn’t favor you to any of the other paralegals. At least, not really.

“Yeah, but like… you look especially out of it today.” She offers you a power bar and you shake your head, holding up your own from inside the top drawer.

You nod, drinking your coffee as you click out of excel on your computer. “I am sleepy, though. I had this insane dream last night.” 

Last night played over and over in your head, leaving you with so many questions. The number one being “How?” and what if you weren’t able to go back to that dream again? Why did it feel so real?

“Oooh. A sex dream?” Annie’s sweet smile turns into a smirk and you roll your eyes with a chuckle. “No, Annie. Not a sex dream.” You look at her as you ring your finger around the edge of your mug. 

You kinda wished it had been a sex dream, with the way that Rex had been looking at you. God, you missed him already. That’s not normal, right? How can you miss a fictional character of a show from a dream?

Then, your mind travels to just how real they felt. Like real flesh against your own. Fives’ face… Rex’s hand… Maybe you shouldn’t dwell on it too much. Just accept it for what it was. 

A good dream. Nothing more. 

When you get home from work, you avoid putting on The Clone Wars. It hurts a little to think about them right now. Plus, you’ve got a ton of other things you need to get caught up with. You’ve been putting off laundry for three days, along with vacuuming and dusting your living room. While it’s not an incredibly large space, it’ll still take some time. 

As you gather up the laundry hamper in your room, you can’t help but think about how silly this all feels… Your mind can’t even help but go back to the dream, to Rex’s hands on yours. How warm his skin felt against yours. 

You miss him… 

You miss all of them… 

As you clean, your phone starts to ring. You pull it out of your pocket after dumping a load into the washer, seeing that it's your mom.

“Hi, mom.” You smile. 

“Hi, sweetheart. How was your day?” She asks.

Maybe there was an upside to this whole dream thing. It seems to bring you and your mom a little closer. Although, with her, you’re always waiting for the shoe to drop. Though, maybe this would help. 

“Have you eaten dinner?” She asks.

“I have not. Just started doing some housework, actually.” You reply as you walk to your utility room to grab your duster. 

“Do you want me to come over and cook for you?” She asks.

You’d like to say yes, but you’re really looking forward to at least trying to go to sleep. And since you don’t have work tomorrow, you could sleep extra longer. 

“I would love that, but I’m actually really tired for once. Do you want to get a late lunch tomorrow?” You ask.

“I’d love to!” She seems genuinely happy that you’ve asked her. 

As you go through your house, cleaning a bit, and then make a quick sandwich, you and your mom talk about a lot of things. How your day was, how she’s joined a new book club, how your dad is supposed to be back in town from a long business trip so maybe he’ll join the two of you for lunch tomorrow. It’s just so nice being able to have someone to talk to again. You didn’t exactly have friends lined up at the door. Although, you didn’t exactly try your hardest to make them. Maybe you’ll ask Annie to get drinks over the weekend.

When you finally start to yawn, your mom suggests that you lay down and that she’ll start singing to you again. You definitely don’t put up a fight there. 

Your mom murmurs your name.

“Yeah?” You close your eyes.

“I know I don’t say this a lot, but I love you.” She tells you, softly.

You smile. “I love you too, mom.” 

And then she starts singing.

Stars shining bright above you

Night breezes seem to whisper "I love you"

Birds singin' in the sycamore trees

Dream a little dream of me

You think of the men that you saw last night, how kind and compassionate they were with you.

Say "Night-ie night" and kiss me

Just hold me tight and tell me you'll miss me

While I'm alone and blue as can be

Dream a little dream of me

You think of how you need to help them win the Clone Wars. Maybe you alone can make a difference. Maybe they’ll listen to you.

Stars fading but I linger on, dear

Still craving your kiss

I'm longing to linger 'til dawn, dear

Just saying this

You think of Rex. His vanilla and warm ocean breeze scent. How could a man be so beautiful? How could a smile be so heartstopping? 

Sweet dreams 'til sunbeams find you

Sweet dreams that leave all worries behind you

But in your dreams, whatever they be

Dream a little dream of me

You open your eyes. But instead of finding yourself on a gunship, or the barracks, you’re on an examination table. 

This can’t be right… 

In a slight panic, you quickly sit up right. 

“Woah, woah. Easy now.” You hear a kind, male voice to your right as his hands steady you. 

You’d know that voice anywhere. Rex. Instant warmth floods your veins at the realization.

“Re- Captain.” You murmur, looking around, realizing you’re on the Umbarran base. 

“I was beginning to get real worried about ya.” He smiles, patting your hand. 

Electricity shoots up your arm as butterflies settle in your stomach. 

“What happened?” You ask, looking at Kix as he approaches you to check your vitals. 

“Well… As soon as I walked away after our chat, you passed out, right there on the tarmac.” He tells you. “I had Kix transport you here with us.”

So, you’re picking up where you left off. Okay. Good. 

“Which I didn’t think was a good idea.” Kix smirks, knowingly at Rex. 

Rex rolls his eyes at his brother. “You passed out right after talking to me, I felt responsible in a way.”

You can’t help but look up at him in awe, a soft smile on both yours and Rex’s lips. He was worried about you twice now. 

“You’ve been out for quite a while.” Kix tells you.

“Missing all the action.” Rex teases and you let out a breathy laugh.

“Sorry, I must’ve just been exhausted.” You tell them. “What did I miss?” 

Rex gives Kix a look and then Kix excuses himself, leaving just you and Rex. He sits on the edge of the exam table, watching your hands before speaking.

He looks up at you. “You were right… About Krell… How did you know?” 

You shrug, not exactly sure what to tell him. It's not like you can just outright tell him the truth, right?

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” You murmur.

He puts his hand over yours. “Try me.” 

He’s looking at you so softly again, so full of warmth. And respect. With a sigh, you start to tell him everything, but another clone trooper walks in.

“Sir, the General is requesting your presence in the command tower right away.” The man tells him.

Rex nods once and the other trooper walks back out.

“Will you be alright here?” Rex asks you, still holding your hand. 

You nod. “Yeah.” 

Kix walks back in and starts going through some cabinets.

“Alright.” Rex gives your hand one last squeeze before letting go and you instantly miss his warmth. “I’ll try to swing back by to check on you.” You can’t help but grin at the captain. “That’s sweet of you, but not necessary. I’m fine.” 

To show him that you’re fine, you put your feet down on the floor and walk around the table. You’ve gotta try to stop Krell. You think you might just know the men to help you.

“You’re sure?” Rex looks you up and down, double checking to make sure you actually are alright.

“Positive.” You nod.

“Alright. If you need me-” He starts.

“Yeah, Rex. We know where to find you.” Kix rolls his eyes.

Rex gives Kix a quick glance and then smiles at you once more before leaving the medbay. When you turn toward Kix, he’s got his arms crossed.

“What’s up?” You ask, self-consciously.

“Something’s different about you.” Kix quirks an eyebrow. 

Your stomach drops. “Oh?” 

“You’ve got a thing for Rex, don’t you?” He smirks.

You almost let out a breath of relief. “Ha. You’re funny. I’ll be back. I’m gonna find the freshers.”

“Sure you are.” He teases before turning back around to go through the Umbaran’s medical systems.

You quickly walk down to the barracks, where you remember that Fives, Jesse, Hardcase, and Tup might be. But you have to remember that Dogma is supposed to be there too and he’s going to stick up for Krell, because he thinks that’s the right thing. 

When you reach the barracks, you walk in and find Fives, Jesse, Tup, and Hardcase. Just like you expected.

“She lives!” Fives sees you and immediately starts grinning.

“We really thought you were in a coma.” Hardcase jokes. 

“No we didn’t.” Tup gives Hardcase a funny look and then looks back over at you as you sit down on one of the bunks. 

“Glad to see you’re alright.” Jesse nods with a soft smile. “Shouldn’t you be resting though?”

These men are all just as kind and charming as you’d expected they’d be. It really makes your chest clench at the thought of not being able to help them in some way.

“I needed to speak to you guys.” You tell them. 

They all join around, looking at you with curiosity. 

“This is going to sound crazy… but I need you guys to believe me and then spread the word as quickly as you can, okay?” You look around at them.

“Sure, mesh’la. What is it?” Fives sits down on the bunk across from you. 

Well, here it goes…

“Krell isn’t a good Jedi. I’m sure you’ve figured that out by now, right?” You ask him.

Fives chuckles, humorlessly, glancing at his brothers. “Yeah, you could say that.”

“He’s going to continue the assault on the capital. But what you don’t know is that he’s given the 212th orders to fire at you guys, lying to them and telling them that you’re actually the enemy dressed as clones. He’s going to tell you the same thing.” You tell him, with a face as serious as possible, needing them to believe you. “I know you guys want to take the starfighters and-”

“The assault on the capital will continue as planned.” Rex’s reluctant voice is in the doorway of the barracks and everyone looks from you to him and then back at you. 

“See?” You whisper to Fives. 

“Why would he attack his own men?” Fives whispers quickly.

“Because he hates clones and he’s actually evil.” You stand up to look at Rex.

“So, that’s it?” Jesse walks over to Rex. “We just march into those missiles?”

Rex glances at you curiously but doesn’t say anything more. You give the men a quick serious look and then nod at Rex with a smile before walking back out of the barracks, across the tarmac, and toward the medbay. 

And then you remember Hardcase and him not making it back. So you start jogging back to the barracks, trying to think of a way to keep him alive. 

“Forget something?” Rex asks, walking toward you.

“I just wanted to tell Hardcase something, is all.” You smile. 

“Oh…” Rex murmurs, his expression confused. “I see.” 

And then you realize he thinks that you mean something entirely different. 

“Oh, Rex. No. Not like that.” You laugh.

He smiles softly. “Oh, good.”

“Good indeed.” You glance at the barracks.

“Fives told me what you told them. About Krell… and the clones.” Rex murmurs, glancing around subtly to make sure no one is listening.

“Oh?” You bite your lip, nervously.

“I… think it’s odd. But something is telling me to believe you. So we’ll march on, helmets off, blasters down, so they see it’s us. Alright?” He offers.

You feel a lot better and let out a breath of relief. 

“Earlier, you said ‘I’m someone you trust right?’ and that keeps replaying in my mind. You are someone I trust. Someone I even… admire.” He tells you, stepping a little closer. 

Your heart leaps into your throat and you try so hard to keep your cool. If this is truly a dream… Please don’t wake up right now. 

“I admire you too, Rex.” You smile up at him.

“Is there anything else you need to tell me?” He asks.

“Krell is only pretending to be in the Jedi Order. He still has them fooled… and it’ll be hard to take him down. But, if you get the 212th to tell Kenobi that he tried to put clones against clones-” You start.

All of a sudden, as if on time, there’s a huge blast taking out the hangar bay. 

“Oh shit. Fives!” You run back toward the hangar, forgetting that was supposed to happen.

You really need to focus.

Except Rex pulls you back against the building when he sees Krell heading that way, pushing you up against the building and accidentally pressing his body to yours so that he blocks you from view. Or at least, you think it’s an accident… but you hope otherwise.

You look up at him, parted lips, heat traveling throughout your entire body. He gives a shy half smile and your heart screams “KISS HIM!” but your mind is telling you, you need to find Hardcase.

“Sorry, don’t want you on Krell’s radar.” Rex apologizes, but doesn’t let you go.

You hear Krell start shouting at Hardcase and Fives, breaking you two apart. 

“I better go help them.” Rex pulls away, reluctantly.

“Wait! Tell Hardcase to take the ray shield down in front of the reactors, and if that doesn’t work, try tricking the battle droid into taking the missile toward the reactor. Okay? He’ll know what that means when the time is right.” You squeeze Rex’s hand.

“Alright. But you’re telling me how you know all this, later, right?” He glances down at your lips. 

“I promise.” You reach up and kiss him on the cheek. “Now go.” 

He smirks as he walks away, to go help Hardcase and Fives. You feel like you can breathe a little bit better now. Hopefully, the rest of your plan goes off without a hitch.

And then it kicks in. You just kissed Captain Rex on the cheek... and he liked it! How long had you been wanting to do that? 

You wait a few moments and then see Krell angrily storming off. Rex walks the opposite direction, across the tarmac and you follow him. 

“Perimeter sweep?” You ask, softly, falling into step beside him. 

“I won’t even ask how you knew that.” He chuckles. “But yes.”

“Did you tell Hardcase what I needed to tell him?” You ask, fidgeting with your hands, nervously.

“No, I didn’t get the chance to, I’m sorry.” Rex tells you.

That terrible feeling pools into your stomach and you feel the intense weight of a couple million clones’ lives on your shoulders. 

“Where is he? I need to find him.” You start looking around. 

“Oh, there you are!” Kix calls over to you. 

You don’t have time to deal with Kix though, you have to find Hardcase. You can’t let him sacrifice his life like he did in the show. All they need to do is get the ray shield down. 

“Sorry, I’ve gotta find him.” You start to walk away but Rex stops you.

“Listen, I will find him after my perimeter scan, alright?” He tries to get you to look at him.

“Rex, you don’t understand. They’re leaving soon. If you don’t tell him now, he’s going to die.” You rush out in a panic, barely making sense.

“What?” Rex’s brows furrow. “I-I don’t understand.”

“What’s going on?” Kix approaches, looking at the scene before him.

You probably look crazy with tears in your eyes and yelling about Hardcase. 

“I’ll tell him, okay? I’ll find him-” Rex starts but as he sees three figures coming toward the three of you, he turns you around so you can see them for yourself. “They’re right there. It’s gonna be okay.”

You lean against the 501st captain, letting out a breath of relief for the tenth time tonight. If you weren’t so stressed, you’d definitely enjoy the way he’s holding you upright, making sure you don’t go anywhere. It’s clear he cares about you. 

“Kix, why don’t you take her to get something to eat.” Rex guides you into the hands of Kix but you can’t take your eyes off of the captain and he doesn’t take his eyes off of you. “It’ll be okay, I promise.”

You nod, trusting him, letting Kix lead you back to the medbay to find something to eat, even though you’re not hungry. This is a lot for one person. If you could just get ahold of Mace Windu or Master Yoda somehow… 

“Kix?” You ask, glancing at the command tower. 

“Hm?” He replies. 

It’s too bad that The Bad Batch hasn’t been introduced at this point yet. You could really use Tech’s skill at locating the jamming device that Krell has no doubt planted. 

“Who’s the most technologically inclined in the 501st?” You ask.

He stops to give you a strange look. “See, you’re being weird for real this time. Why are you asking that?” 

“Because… I need to know what sort of jamming device the “enemy” would use to cut off our contact with the 212th.” You shrug. “Who’s the most technologically inclined guy in the 501st?” 

He stares at you hard for a minute. This look says “I know you don’t belong here”, and you realize you’ve fucked up.

Then, he narrows his eyes at you. “You are.”

Well, Shit…

TAGLIST: @twistedstitcher27 @misogirl828 @rebel-finn @rexandechosandwich @madameminor @dumfanting @rain-on-kamino @corona-one @tecker @ladykatakuri @brynhildrmimi @the-sith-in-the-sky-with-diamond @zoeykallus @maulslittlemeowmeow @littlemousedroid @arctrooper69 @rexxdjarin @padawancat97 @hated-by-me @sleepingsun501 @quigonswife8 @idlenesses @redheadgirl @themcuwriter @ashotofspotchka @sunshinesdaydream @crosshairsimp73 @ariadnes-red-thread @rosmariner @heyitsaloy @starstofillmydream @high-ct5555 @echos-girlfriend @sleepywych @nekotaetae @justanothersadperson93 @aconstructofamind @book-of-baba-fett @chopper-base @palliateclaw @501st-rexster @dead-poolz @nahoney22 @where-is-my-mind-tho @jediknightjana @erishimoon @witching3 @queen-of-many-fandoms @wizardofrozz  @burningfieldof-clover

[evvlevie]

Evangeline’s life-Update and one more piece of shifting advice ???

Hi! This is your favorite shifting blogger, Evie, again and I have some updating to do.

I Love this blog. Deeply. So so deeply. This blog has been created in a moment of my life, where I have been so obsessed with these YouTubers that I wanted to meet them so desperately, that I decided to look into reality shifting. At this point in my life, I am living a vastly different life than I was back in May of 2022 that topics like shifting or manifestation just haven’t been as much of my main focus as they have been nearly a year ago. That’s the whole reason why I am not posting as much anymore, or interacting with you guys because as I am writing this for you, I am sitting at home stressing over exams and a whooooole lot of personal stuff that escaping this reality starts to feel like a really great idea again, but I seriously don‘t have the mental capacities to pull that one off right now. In the past weeks I have been looking into the law of assumption a lot. What I mean by that is I have been looking into how/why the law is working the way it works in order to understand what manifestation is actually doing which automatically translates to why shifting is possible and how it can be achieved. I can promise you that every single advice that I, Evil Evie, am able to give you guys on the topics of manifestation and reality shifting is already on my page. When I do find my way back to tumblr I still repost advice or perspectives on this topic for you guys to see in case it can help you on your journey. Right this moment I am concentrating on my self concept. If you are into the law of assumption you might have already heard about this from one creator or another. To put it into simple terms: self concept is the way you view yourself and the beliefs that you have about you/ your life/ manifestation and basically everything ever. In my deep dive about law of assumption I have learned that all you ever manifest is you and who you are. Meaning: if you have a shitty self concept you manifest shitty things. Working on your self concept includes breaking down (negative) beliefs about yourself that feel pretty set in stone, in order to open the gateway to a (subjectively) more pleasant 3D-Reality. Why does this matter?

well if you read my toolbox-post you will notice, that that one is basically self concept work before I even knew what a self concept was. „If you view yourself as someone who shifts every single time they try, you will be someone who shifts every single time they try.“

Well congrats Evie, that’s self concept.

Do you absolutely need to do this in order to shift? Probably not. The answer is because as long as you think you are able to do it, you only need to do the things you consider necessary for that. If for some reason you (genuinely and seriously) believe that you shift every time you vacuum your carpet or whatever, then I guess vacuum your carpet and go crazy in your fame-DR. Because if there is one thing that even a simple Evie like me knows for sure about the universe and the manifestation, then it‘s that ultimately what you believe is truth. Always. you are the only creator of your reality. Only you can say what is fact and what is fiction in your world. That’s why self concept work can be a really handy tool in this. Self concept work in itself is basically just picking and choosing the rules that you want the 3D to play by and sticking to them. And by sticking to them I mean fully embody and enforce those new rules, even if the 3D hasn‘t adjusted to your new rules yet. Even if it shows you the opposite of what you have been affirming for so eagerly, if only you decide what is real and what isn‘t then even that has no power unless you give power to it. But I seriously advice you to look into self concept work if you have been struggling with manifesting or shifting realities for a while now. your limiting beliefs might be the whole reason you are blocking yourself from what you truly want and desire.

If you are reading my post, and are considering working on your self concept I want you to know this:

It will feel weird or fake in the beginning. That’s okay. That’s to be expected. After like day 4 it will feel like you are used to saying it. And after like idk Day 10 you will already feel like it’s true and real and you might even see the results of it in your reality already (I know I do). So even if you feel weird saying stuff like „I am the most desired person walking the planet right now“ after like a week you will be convinced of its certainty and notice the effect of that. And the same will always go for shifting realities. If self concept is the key, then really you might be only like 10 Days away from your DR if you stick to it and enforce and embody it for real. But I mean seriously embody it. Walk the earth like the most skilled shifter ever. Think of shifting like you are born to do it, made for it, the most professional there could ever be, like people are envying you for how destined you were do it. And if a negative thought plops into your mind, just laugh about it! Nothing has power unless you grant it power. Even a thought. A thought is just a thought. It‘s not the end all be all trust me. Trust in the law. Know that if you want it, you have it. Even if it might not be visible in the 3D yet, it is always always always unfolding in the best ways possible to get to you. Just trust.

I think this is really all I can say about manifestation-

Know what you want

know that if you want it you are getting it (as if you just placed an order with the universe)

relax about the arrival of your manifestation because there is no way you are not getting it

Don‘t buy into the unfavorable 3D, because it is only as real as you allow it to be

This being said:

i am deeply sorry about not answering asks. I really am. I want to help where I can, and as much as I can but the truth is I am so busy with my own life right now, I rarely have the time to sit down and think about someone’s situation, analyze it and give useful advice specifically altered to someone’s unique situation. That doesn’t mean that I do not care about any of you, it simply means that my life is a mess right now and I do not have the headspace to include other peoples struggles into my own.

I want to remind you guys that there really is no piece of advice that I could give you, that you can‘t already find on my page in some post or another, so maybe the answer to your questions is lying somewhere in my pile of posts and reposts.

I love all of you 1.4K (and more) Followers for choosing to stay with me and watch me become the coolest shifter ever. You guys can‘t believe how lucky I consider myself for having you ❤️❤️❤️ I am not leaving tumblr, or deactivating my account or any of that. YOU GUYS WILL GET MY DR STORIES AS SOON AS I HAVE MADE THEM!!!!! I am simply telling you that even a simple Evil Evie has some stuff to do and even if you don‘t see me post or answer asks I am not fully gone! I am just living life as well as I can. I am still here for you just not as active as I used to be.

but let there be one thing that I promise you:

As soon as I have been in my DR, you guys will hear about it. I am never giving up on shifting realities and since I am working on my self concept I am including shifting into that as well.

i will be back.

Yours in every reality,

Evie ❤️

[thelongestway]

So, the last chapter of The Nameless Fanfic had some fictional sociology in it, including a quote. Under the cut, you can take a look at a version of that quote that existed in-universe, but had to be edited because Reviewer 2 thought it was too florid.

"Fukuyama's Panopticon (1) is not a laboratory of perfect power, but a useless contraption. The ceaseless watcher imagines itself immune to the reciprocal gazes of inmates, but it does not take long before the wretched things it observes start bubbling through its eldritch skin. The great eye erroneously believes that it has come to know the inmates and can predict their movements, but soon its powerful sight narrows, casting aside all but the biases it has formed from the sweet marrow of its first victims. Delusional and functionally blind, the ceaseless watcher can't help but be surprised when the inmates break the glass walls of their prison. And they always do, for human beings abhor to be contained much like nature abhors a vacuum."

While there is a debate on the actual identity of the author of the Panopticon thought experiment, Saer convincingly argues that Foucault was merely a pseudonym that Fukuyama used after his "end of history" thesis was rightfully panned by critics. (Saer 483, p. 35).

A revised version of this paper was published as:

Greaves, A. (502). "Plentiful Leaves and Poisonous Fruit: Against Big Data Approaches". Theory and Method in Contemporary Sociology. Vol. LXIII, Issue 3, 39-75.