#question-of-violence

[quadruple-a-battery-under-ur-bed]

💭 ⛪️✨️

For ask game!

💭 Some character headcanons

ok so rufus is like 100% gay like ik hes mlm thats canon bc vincent but i dont think his sexuality is ever mentioned lmaoo so like + he would be a fan of like dua lipa n shit but like hide it so much and act like he listens to acdc and like clive is the only one who doesnt realise his music taste tbh

farah is defos like omni/pan romantic and greysexual + she defos checked ao3 n tumblr to see if there was rpf about her. she definitley wasnt going to read it. why do u ask

gary is transfem bc i said so rn (im bsing these hcs on the spot based on vibes ima be real) and defos experimented w dudes in like pallamistus equivelent to collage/uni and still fucks em sometimes so hes like hetroromantic/bisexual w preference for women also he learnt how to make coloured metal and then made pride flag swords (i dont think pallamistus would have many pride flags but i think there would maybe be a rainbow pride one + jason showed ppl pride flags from earth and started making it a bit of a thing by accident

⛪ Favorite deity

knowledge or healer r my faves bc like knowledge as a deity their domain speaks to me like yesssss facts n shit and then healer as a fuckin person is so cool like they use i belive its he/they or he/it since jason refers to them w they/them or it/its at some point idk which but like i just find em v v interesting i love em also death is such a cool goddess bc like theyre not a bad deity like other similar ones like pain and trickery n stuff which i just like symbolically like "death is not unnatural it is a force of good just like life"

i do have a bit of beef w the whole evil gods being purged out bc like mortals doing that like sure ig (but also like yall r piss scared of a god but u wanna kill em and yall have the balls to do that damn) but like the fact that ALL OTHER GODS ACTIVLEY HUNT THEM is a bit like why? yall r litteralyl forces of nature personified why are these ones bad dumbass why is pain exterminated why is trickery frowned upon WHY IS DISGUISE A BAD GOD????? and then FUCKING PURITY WHO IS TRYING TO DESTORY THE WHOLE WORLD TO BE TAKEN OVER JUST IS NEVER FLAGGED AS AN EVIL GOD??? like yes the gods know its decipt and cant say shit but like surley theres a god who that is within their purview to speak about??? like truth or some shit can reveal lies or smthn

damn thats another rant abt some worldbuildy thinks (im working up the post rn idk y)

✨ Coolest power (essence or otherwise)

ok so i think skill books r super super cool and also masivley underused like wdym theres fucking skill books and noone uses them like sure u need a whole new power to use em but like just make a ritual like cmon theres prolly a ritual for every cool ass essence ability and like jasons power that absorbs essences n awakening stones also gives him the skill book one like they r absolutley linked JUST FUCKIN RITUAL THIS SHIT UP

FREE KNOWLEDGE

HOW HAS NOONE MADE A RITUAL FOR THIS YET

oh also on the topic: knowledge prolly has a shit ton of skill books on like everything why dont they make skill books for basic skills like reading and writing and simple maths and do free rituals for kids to bypass the whole years long education system that fucks up kids mental states later on (the mental health but is more high school but still) like yes theres prolly a min age like essences n shit but like. just wait?? cmon its like fifteen years CMON oh also speaking of the min age is that like a last minute puberty thing or is it like a second magic puberty also surley it would be like "ur defos gettin fucked up" -> "prolly gettin fucked up" -> "maybe gettin fucked up" -> "no fuckedupedness now :3" (like normal)

soz that last one was a worldbuilding rant abt skill books goddamn i didnt know i had that in me wow

[utterdrip]

love my smoother-than-average brained lover

[fisheito]

He's a magician

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

i am sick! and grumpy! and full of mucus!!! and if anyone wants to buy me some ramen and/or tell me a story of humorously blundering childhood mishaps, that would be most pleasing indeed!

[brw]

"but hamas is getting funded by extremist islamic hate groups!" do you think the U.S. government and military giving funding for israeli's war efforts against palestinians is a morally neutral and inherently righteous body that had no influence in the politics of southwest asia as a global colonial superpower. do you really think anything you can say about the people resisting oppression can't be said about the oppressors.

[incognitopolls]

We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

[otaku553]

Learning how to draw him,

[tavina-writes]

MDZS Society! aka: there's a lot less killing than you'd expect

This follows from this post and also the recent translations of MXTX’s most recent interview (which I can now no longer bother to find bc this has been sitting in drafts for like, siiiix months? More? Oh god anyway.) which reminded me about my feelings regarding MDZS society and how different it is from the martial societies we see depicted in typical modern wuxia. (Small disclaimer, I am a wuxia genre fiend and I love like, thinking about fictional societies so this is like, “AHA! You’ve unlocked my trap card!”) 

For the purposes of this, I’m going to be looking at MDZS/CQL’s depiction of the jianghu (which I think is fairly similar! I don’t actually think the show writers made CQL’s jianghu/martial society more genre typical than it was in the book) and comparing that with modern classic wuxia (mostly Jin Yong and Gu Long works.) For this comparison, I’ll be looking at a Jin Yong book — Legend of the Condor Heroes (which is widely considered the starting point of modern wuxia as a genre) — and one Gu Long book — Dagger Li/Sentimental Swordsman, Ruthless Sword (widely considered his most popular work) — and seeing how their societies differ from MDZS society. 

This will likely come in two parts because this one was already getting long, and I don’t think we can fit “how often does nobility exist in a typical jianghu and what do bloodline sects look like normally versus what they look like in MDZS” in this post along with the main topic of “is MDZS society a particularly physically violent place?” 

This post discusses how often cultivators are socially expected to kill people. Like, actual living human beings instead of, say, monsters or ghosts which have been categorized differently than like, human beings. 

EDIT: I forgot to talk about Dagger Li but this was already much too long sorry. Feel free to hmu for more thoughts though.

Now, it might be easy to think that cultivators killing actual people is a really common thing in MDZS/CQL universe! After all, they do have martial arts training and one of the prominent things about the first life is just how many people die both in the Sunshot Campaign and the fallout afterwards. However, I would argue that a lot of the traumas and related issues and reactions that happen in MDZS happen because cultivators are, by training and education, not actually prepared for killing actual living breathing human beings! (And also that the morality of this world prevents it for the most part) 

Now, we do actually get a pretty good window into what the typical training is like for young cultivators in MDZS, because we get a fairly well defined schoolhouse scene where LQR is asking them questions about "how do you tell the difference between various different problems we have to solve?" and "how do you go about fixing this problem?" and none of those include the moral quandary of "if I, a young cultivator out in the Jianghu, see a guy who is doing something I morally disagree with, under what circumstances do I beat him up and/or kill him." This does not appear to enter the curriculum at any point, leading me to believe that the morally correct number of people not like, ghosts or ghouls or fierce corpses, a regular average MDZS cultivator is supposed to have killed is approximately 0.

Which. Is a thing you get in a normal martial arts wuxia jianghu. There is generally the threat of "oh yeah this that or the other faction will be doing shitty things and thereby try to murder you." Instead, in MDZS/CQL most of the heirs of sects are...attending school together. Doing teenage things like partying and gossiping and attending classes.

And sure yes, there was a case of WWX and JZX trying to beat each other up. But the sects did sure let their kids stay at Lan summer camp for months on end (sometimes repeatedly, see NHS) without fearing for their lives or that anyone would steal another sect's techniques or otherwise causing real havoc or intersect warfare etc.

Which is infeasible in any other sort of Jianghu situation. For example, contrast this scenario with this scene from LOCH where Guo Jing's shifus are giving him advice since he is newly 17 and about to set out by himself into the great big world:

Guo Jing therefore bid farewell to his teachers. They had witnessed his battle against the Four Demons of the Yellow River, and were not too greatly worried. The young man had proved that he knew how to use the skills that they taught him. Therefore they let him leave alone. On one hand, the meeting of outlaws in Yanjing worried them greatly, so that they could not ignore it; and on the other hand, a youngster always had to travel the jianghu alone, in order to learn lessons that no teacher could pass on. At the moment of parting, each made their last recommendations. As usual when the Six spoke after one another, Nan Xiren was the last one to express himself. "If you cannot defeat the enemy," he said. "Flee!" He knew that given Guo Jing's dogged character, he would prefer to die rather than to surrender, if he met a master, he would certainly fight to the bitter end, even at the risk of death. That was the reason Nan Xiren gave him this common sense warning. " Martial arts have no limits," added Zhu Cong. " As the proverb says, 'For every peak there is one yet higher', so for every man there is one stronger. Whatever your power, you will always one day meet a foe stronger than you. A true man knows to retreat when necessary, when facing grave danger, it is necessary to contain one's impatience and anger. This what is meant by the adage, « If one preserves the earth and its forests, one does not fear to lack firewood ». It is not therefore not cowardly to take good advice! When the enemy is too numerous and that you cannot face them there, it is especially necessary to avoid being too reckless. Keep in mind Fourth Shifu's advice!"

Does this seem like the sort of advice that any Young MDZS Cultivator would get? "You're a good kid, but when you go out into the world, there will be people who straight up want you dead even though they met you 15 minutes ago, you cannot persist in fighting with these people because they will want you dead and you are a baby cultivator who needs to learn to run away when shit gets rough or you will be dead."

And again I come back to how MDZS cultivators are more like occupational ghostbusters because this really does inform how their society functions and runs and how everyone reacts so badly to the Sunshot Campaign beginning and its aftermaths and possibly explains how JGS could get his way after Sunshot.

Because what happens when you get a society that does train heavily in martial arts and have Able To Kill Real People Weapons who spends most of their time solving very black and white situations of "okay is this ghost whose eating people's livers good or bad? y/n?" and a clear hierarchy of "how do we get rid of the ghost eating people's livers in town x" instead of say "is it morally correct to kill this group of bandits who's been threatening the town" or "is it morally correct to kill this shitty businessman who's been holding people hostage and threatening to hack off their limbs" you have a reduced level of philosophical musing on like, "what is the purpose of martial arts, which is designed to kill people and what do I use martial arts for?" and "under what circumstances and situations would I personally find it morally correct to kill a man?" Which are all questions that Wuxia coming of age stories typically have, and I think MDZS does have, but expressed differently.

Again, it appears that the number of Real Live Human Beings that it is morally acceptable to have stabbed in your life is approximately 0 in this universe, and the expectation that you, personally, might have to fend off people trying to stab you over brunch is also approximately 0.

This also leads to a situation where like, questions of vengeance have very difficult escape hatches! If your parents are murdered on the job by an evil rampaging ghost, this is very sad and tragic and now you're an orphan and of course that's not good, but this is a occupational job hazard, not like, "Yeah Joe Bob from the sect down the street murdered my dad because #Reasons~, and now it's my legacy to grow up to murder Job Bob from the sect down the street to avenge my dad."

(I have a whole essay about how this pertains to both of the Nie Brothers, and how it pertains to JGY and also Jin Ling, and how this seems to routinely fuck people up in MDZS in a very specific way we don't typically see in other wuxias, but this is getting SO long as it is).

But yeah "the socially acceptable number of real living people (instead of ghosts or demons or fierce corpses or whatever) to have killed in your lifetime as a cultivator is approximately 0" means that the Sunshot Generation gets really really fucked up by all of this "killing real people" they did.

Which! might be why JFM was so slow to move on "yeah the Wen are threatening to kill your heirs." <- socially inconceivable behavior. Why society in general is so shocked by Xue Yang and the murder of the Chang <- which would be bad normally but not quite like this. And why no one did anything specific about JGS even if they felt he wasn't entirely correct. What are they going to threaten him with? Death???? A trial of his peers? Social Shunning??? Public shame???

"But Tav how does this relate to CQL!Su She's morality?" I hear you ask. Well you see, the question of "he should've been ready to die for his sect!" is utterly baffling in a society where nobody is expected to be ready to die for their sect on a regular basis because the idea that you should be ready for someone trying to stab you before brunch is utterly nonsensical in a world where most people expect that the baseline number of murders a cultivator does in their lifetimes is 0. That's the world he lives in.

On this regard CQL!Su She is utterly blameless. Nobody handed him a rulebook or expectations sheet for "the sect down the street will try to kill you" nor SHOULD they expect he'd be ready to die at a drop of a hat when no part of the education or social expectations include "ready to die for your sect because it's routine for people to try to kill you."

If you don't even expect to be stabbed and possibly die at a discussion conference where there are lots of cultivators from many sects why on EARTH would you expect to be facing down death in your own home when there's. cultivators here to kill you, this situation is so out of left field?

[octavio-world]

via Ben Davis at ArtNet.

https://news.artnet.com/art-world-archives/foreigners-everywhere-unpacked-part-2-venice-biennale-review-2485128

[perfectlovevn]

Helloooo!! I hope you're well!! I have a new question to ask!! :D

It's about Violence Milo, if you scratch his chin like you would a cat or a dog, while saying "good boy", how would he react? A bit of the same question also for Manipulation Milo. (idk why i ask this, this was funnier in my head AHAHHA)

And another but this time about pre Milo, is he as innocent as people think?

These were my little questions for the day, I'm going back to draw Yuka and Milo, have a good day!! <33

hello from Yuka

Hellloo! How are you doing!! I hope Yuka is doing well.

Violence being chin scratched? And being called a good boy? He would probably freeze for a bit since he's surprised and then turn really red. I think if you called him good boy, he'd want to hear it more, but he would never ask. You can kind of tell though considering he has kind of a pleading face whenever he does something he thinks would make you happy (like getting rid of your enemies).

Manipulation being chin scratched? And being called a good boy? He'd probably lean into it immediately and purr. Like actually purr, it's weird because you've never seen a person do it before, but apparently it is possible. He'd probably ask you again and again to scratch his chin. Being called a good boy would probably make him sweat a lot and he'd probably go something like "Right? I am a good boy~ Praise me more~" Interesting calling him a bad boy has a chance of either him freaking out and begging you to call him a good boy, or him getting mischievous and teasing about what you mean by that and what would happen if he continued being bad. Flip a coin.

As for PreMilo...

...Nah, I think he's pretty innocent.

[an-albino-pinetree]

Some random doodles and an old timey singalong ft. @sm-baby ‘s Carnival!Jax!

[captainofthetidesbreath]

I love that some of Phineas Thatch's best traits (to the point they are also flaws) are that he assumes good faith by default, hopes things will improve with time and perseverance, and is eager to trust other people. He's one of very few characters with this level of sincere devotion to these ideals, and his belief in these things, as harried and difficult as it is for him to maintain at times, even slowly convinces others, namely Lark, that they can be worthwhile.

But, the fact that he is like that is extremely funny given that, judging by the season three opener, he's apparently involved in blowing something up.

Phineas out here like: we're going to get through this with faith, hope, trust, and some high-grade explosives.

[comradekatara]

Do you have any pre genocide air nomad thoughts? I've been rlly fixated on them and was wondering if you had anything to fuel it

yeah I actually think that the kyoshi & esp yangchen novels do a pretty good job of expanding on the air nomads’ role in the world, how they were treated, how they were viewed, how they treated one another, what functions they performed, various details about their culture and beliefs, etc etc. so if you haven’t read those I would recommend doing so! (they’re very quick reads btw, I finished each within a day easily.) something that really stood out to me in the novels is the way that air nomads are sort of the envy of the other nations because they have the privilege of keeping their hands clean, and never have to worry about making decisions that might weigh on their conscience. which is super fascinating wrt to air nomads like yangchen, kelsang, jinpa, and aang, who do have to get their hands dirty in world affairs for whatever reason (avatarhood or proximity to the avatar is fundamentally a burden and an injustice as much as it is a privilege!) and the way they are either figuratively or literally excommunicated from their temples for causing harm in any way, even if such violence is necessary for the greater good. yangchen also points out that the sort of enlightened tranquility and peace that the air nomads are revered for cultivating also comes at the cost of labor (especially to maintain the temples), rigorous study, no guaranteed stability, and very few material comforts — which, perhaps condescendingly, she assumes that non-air nomads couldn’t actually handle. the novels provide a really interesting tension, expanding on a lot of problems aang faces but in subtler ways. they also further elucidate why the air nomads were considered unfit to exist in sozin’s ideal fascist imperialist society, as their way of life is fundamentally antithetical to his ideology. not because it’s a perfect utopia beyond reproach, but because their values exist in direct opposition to any sort of hierarchizing force that seeks dominance through power and violence.

[the-best-ads-worker]

*Gunther can hear the sound of a wormhole opening but instead of the sound of the boots of their partner, the captain hitting the ground it’s instead the sound of loud clunk and thud sound behind him in the sound of someone groaning, who is definitely not l his captain*

Oh man that *bleeping* hurt 

(I could not pull up my Bing account to save my life right now -_- just imagine that it’s there lol)

Lol all good)

Gunther walked to the loud noise and held his gun in his hand and was ready to hurt the person if needed. “Who the hell are you?..” he hissed out holding the gun to the robot? Robots head.

[total-drama-brainrot]

When Duncan grabbed Noah's pants, he did not expect what happened next.

Noah's calm and sarcastic expression suddenly twisted into a crazed grin, and with surprising strength, he bit down on Duncan's hand. The pain was intense, like a white-hot knife cutting through his flesh. Blood gushed out, dripping onto the ground between them. The punk didn't even notice Noah ripping off his own pants, which are still in Duncan's bleeding hand.

Noah's escape was quick and agile, like a deer darting through the woods. His big grin turned back into a calm look. He looked pleased with himself.

Duncan lay on the ground, clutching his bleeding hand, terrified at the sight of the bookworm's true colors. He had always known Noah was strange, but he never expected this level of insanity. Blood seeped through his fingers, staining the ground around him.

As Noah approached Izzy and Eva, they could see the satisfaction in his eyes, as he wiped his prey's blood away. 😈

Listen this is really cool, and I love that people are writing whole ass drabbles in my ask box, and this is really really great, but PLEASE think of a better opening than "When Duncan grabbed Noah's pants,"

Especially when it isn't preceded by any context. Near enough gave me a heart attack.

[axolotlclown]

I watched Shubble's vod talking about abuse a few days ago and she said something that stuck with me. She told a story where her abuser bit her really hard in front of their friends. She yelped in pain and they laughed.

Men, when we see our friends make jokes about hurting women, don't laugh. Make it uncomfortable. It's not funny. This isn't a joke. You may not think your brothers and friends are abusers, but it doesn't mean that any of this is funny.

I'm certain their friends didn't think there was anything going on behind the scenes, but they should have. I could never even imagine joking about bringing harm to my partner. I'm sure most of them couldn't either. We need to stay vigilant and critical of the ways we carry ourselves around others. What does our laughter signal to the women around us?

My brothers, hurting women is not a joke. Don't laugh.