#rancid edition

[paintalyx]

my mom said we can't be friends if you don't like wyll. yeah even if you don't care about him. no sorry i don't make the rules but she's right you know

[muffinlance]

Wait, what’s going on with Embers???? That fic has been on my read later list since 2021, what’s happened with it???

Brief overview, then I'm likely never touching this topic again, because this is not a Drama Blog:

Context: Embers is a super old AtLA fic that was written during the early fandom days, read widely at the time, and was the origin of the widely-used fanon name of "Wani" for Zuko's ship (kind of by default that it was one of the first popular fics to give his ship a name, I think?), even though most fic writers don't seem to realize it's from there anymore.

"What's Going On": I used to include a link in all my stories to it, because I believe in crediting other writers for borrowed elements, and I was using "Wani" in all my fics. But BOY did I not want to be sending readers that way anymore, so I've adopted a new name for Zuko's ship, and removed all Embers links.

None of the criticisms about Embers itself are new; I'm assuming they date back to when the fic was being written, because this isn't an "it aged badly" thing, this is an "actually yeah this gets worse the longer you think about it and I shouldn't have ignored my bad feelings just because some of the worldbuilding was interesting" thing.

An Incomplete List of Why I Made the Change:

I don't actually like the story that much anymore, and don't want to rec it

I tried to re-read it recently to see if some things were as bad as I remembered and it turns out they were So Much Worse Oh Yikes. More specifically, the treatment of Katara and Aang and their respective cultures has... rather a lot going on. One example: The Fire Nation and Air Nomads are both given multiple backstory elements in an attempt to make the average Fire Nation soldier's participation in the genocide/war in large part the fault of the Avatar and the Air Nomads themselves, and also fully justified from the Fire Nation perspective. And I do mean fully. One of its core tenants is "People from the Fire Nation (and only people from the Fire Nation) who don't follow orders Literally Die, therefore murdering pacifists and babies and continuing the war (and their regularly scheduled war crimes) is the only thing it is physically possible for them to do". I cannot emphasize enough how literal that is.

Also the name "Wani" means "Alligator" and is... objectively a pretty lame name for Zuko's ship? Where's the personality, where's the deeper meaning, where's the resonance with Zuko's themes? @tuktukpodfics initially thought I was calling the ship "Wanyi", and that's what I've switched to, because it is Objectively So Much Better. In their words: “Wànyī (萬一): Literally ‘one in ten thousand,’ ‘perchance.’ Used grammatically in Chinese to mean ‘what if’ or ‘just in case.’ I think a ship called ‘The Perchance’ is perfect for a boy clinging to false hope.”

TL:DR; I don't rec Embers anymore, because I don't actually like the story anymore, and there are things about it that get worse the more I think on them. I've removed links to it and renamed Zuko's ship to "Wanyi" ("The Perchance") because our boy deserves a ship name that reflects his character arc.

[cyphyra]

OK, so I'm only gonna say this once and you can block/unfollow me/whatever after but: I am of the express belief that you can both forgive someone who's done horrible things in the past AND not forget WHAT they'd done or who they hurt.

Like genuinely, if you believe that people who have done bad things in the past are incapable of change, fuck you. Most people who have tried to turn their lives around after receiving punishment or realizing on their own what they did was wrong already probably got enough shit for what they did. And in many cases there's no forgiveness to be had from their victims, but we have GOT to stop with the narrative that you can't interact with ANYONE who's done another human being physical or emotional harm, because if they're really trying to turn their lives around for the better despite their past, you make it REAL fucking tough for them to do that.

And of course there are real huge exceptions to this; this post isn't about people who have done unspeakable, life-changing things to others-- it's about abusers who've taken effective anger management, bigots who realized they were in the wrong, criminals who've done their time for petty crimes, etc.

We need to stop thinking that people can't be forgiven at all for wrongdoing because it sets a standard of "if you do anything even remotely outside the law you are an unforgivable, unchangeable piece of shit that should kill themself" Kill the cop in your head and tolerate more of the people around you, assholes.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

More silly MXTX polls to mull over for the week:

[aadmelioraa]

Ema Horvath as Eärien in The Rings of Power 2.06 "Where Is He?"

[ninjagirlstar5]

*drags Tsurugi by the handcuffs* So I spun a wheel, and it landed on our favorite boy, the Ultimate Police Officer himself, Tsurugi Kinjoooo.

So, the first thing I wanted to mention was Tsurugi's skin tone. Obviously, when you compare his DRA sprite with his SDRA2 sprite, he is FAR paler than his younger self which can be an...odd choice to make. You can probably handwave it as Kinjo simply looking like that cause he's sickly, but with LINUJ's 2022 winter illustration, it's pretty much canon that he was always suppose to be pale. Honestly, the DRA sprites have their saturation turned all the way up to eleven, and in Tsurugi's case it makes his skin tone look darker than what seems to be intended. I used to turn up the saturation up a lot back in middle school while drawing, too, so I won't harp too much about it. Anyway, since this is Tsurugi from DRA before he, uh, got sick, so to say, I decided to try and strike a balance with his skin tone: pale but clearly very healthy (for now). Aside from that, Tsurugi's design was pretty much fine? When you're told that he's the Ultimate Police Officer, you can understand where LINUJ was going with his design, a simple police uniform but it doesn't exactly scream...authority, you know? So I decided to the push the Police Officer theme a bit more by giving him a vest, a radio, and even some gloves! It's also a nice callback to his friend, Kouhei Sasaki, who also wore gloves before he...well, died. Moving on from his Lore(TM), I rolled up his sleeves, rolled up his pants but still have it so long that it covers his ankles, and changed his loafers to sneakers. I don't know, there's something appealing about a serious, no-nonsense Tsurugi taking his job very seriously...while still wearing jeans and sneakers on the job. It kinda shows that he's still a teenager despite being a police officer even though he's so damn young. Kinda fucked up when you stop and think about that. I also gave him a few scars, not many, but mostly cause they're probably hidden underneath his clothes. Tsurugi has mentioned being in some pretty hostile situations (especially the one that involved Kouhei's death) and I doubt he always got out unscathed, so I decided to put one on each arm: a thin scar from a knife, and a star-shaped scar from a bullet. From there, I toned down the saturation of his color palette, and added more black and gold. Fun fact: the color gold can symbolize reputation, which is hilarious considering how much Tsurugi's reputation sinks during DRA, and how controversial he gets in-universe in SDRA2.

Anyways, Tsurugi is going to start a lot of shit, time to run.

[the-sage-libriomancer]

I wonder what Kyoko would've thought of Shigure. She's the only non-Sohma adult in the series who's also in his age group (albeit barely - she's about a decade older than him) and I feel like her optimism combined with her no-nonsense sensibilities would've been an interesting foil to Shigure's morally grayness hidden under a cheerful exterior.

They probably could have bonded over pursuing socially unacceptable relationships and being outcasts in their family (if Shigure was ever able to be even slightly honest with her, that is). I don't think they'd have hung out often, but in a Kyoko Lives AU where Tohru befriends Kyo and Yuki, it's likely they would've had to meet at least once or twice. I can't tell if they'd like each other or if it'd be more of a "polite acquaintances" sort of thing. Probably some awkward mixture of both lol.

[public-trans-it-deactivated20240]

Eh fuck it. I'll just make The Discourse Post and just not have it be a fucking text essay.

One of my biggest issues with TME/TMA discourse is how much its based on assigning who is affected by oppression, in ways that are just FUNDAMENTALLY WRONG ACTUALLY.

If your method of analyzing oppression is built on a premise where you if you met the author of "I Am A Transwoman. I Am In The Closet. I Am Not Coming Out." you would look her directly in the eyes and say "You aren't the target of transmisogyny, actually" then quite frankly... your method of analysis sucks shit.

My OTHER big issue is... every fucking post about it sounds like this fucking tweet tbh.

Yeah, I'm sure that the dickhead looking to curbstomp someone who falls outside of gender norms entering a public restroom, is gonna go "Oh! You are a tranny with LADY PARTS! My mistake!"

[armoralor]

Mara Jade - Imperial Years // Spanish Sahara by Foals / Daniil Lobachev / Christian Holzinger / Ari Spada // reminder that T*RFs can fuck off, only interact if you love trans and nonbinary folks ♡

[mars-da-volcanic-elemental]

I didn’t want to type…all this again but- needless to say I’m not happy.

I just scheduled this (clickable; will take you to corresponding tumblr post) after all that happened tonight. I’m…running low on the energy I have…it’s 3:12 AM.

I’ve done an Adult(ing).

I’ve transferred my prescriptions to my new local pharmacy,

I’ve sent in the form for my current PCP to request my medical records from my previous PCP.

I’ve done dishes, showered and washed my hair.

This week I also scheduled my first plasma donation appointment closest to my new location. However, I’m going to have to save for the Uber rides to the center and then back home.

I did a lot today despite the rocky night. ^^ @a-captions-blog if anyone could share and/or drop a dollar to my kofi goal it would mean a lot.

Update: 13% closer to my goal!!!

[alkalinefrog]

Wahhh thank you for the tags @seafoamdew and @vindikaetion!! You guys are so lovely!

People You’d Like to Know Better Tag Game

Last Song: Hoppípolla by Sigur Rós | Gearing up to see them in concert with @twiafom by listening to the set list!! Oh my god I'm so stoked you have no idea, they've been one of my all-time favourite bands for 10+ years, and they're performing SO MANY of my favourite songs with a full orchestra AND debuting a new album!!! I've looked up English translations of all the Icelandic lyrics so I can know what they're saying the whole time, but their new album is too new so there's no reliable translation for the four songs they're performing off of it out there rn :''''D a friend of a friend might get back to me with help with that but if any of you guys happen to know Icelandic...

(the rest of this will be short after that huge opener lmao)

Currently watching: Bungou Stray Dogs bc of @twiafom (lol) and everything Arthuriana-related with @bignostalgias!

Currently reading: The Once and Future King by T.H. White | I'm on book 4/4 and my review of the others: The Sword in the Stone - 10000/10; The Queen of Air and Darkness - 6.5/10; The Ill-Made Knight---made ME ill, 2/10 because the intro and end were really good

Current obsession: researching for my cringe hijack arthuriana au fic accidentally got me hooked on Arthurian Legend, see above examples

Not sure who's been tagged already but throwin' it over to you guys! (no pressure to of course!) @jjackfrost @sboochi @santathegrey @midoristeashop

[pheedraws]

NALRAEN + name meaning | at night, you dream of a dead world

[pierremcguire]

.

[elegyofthemoon]

i'm sorry but there is nothing fit nor healthy about that man get him out of my sight

[maxellminidisc]

Btw if y'all want the url to block whoever made that brain dead post basically implying EA artists have no morals cause of culture and nobody can say shit to them because "puritanism" and its "exclusionst", the url is solitarelee lol