#sadly they're not both in the same video

[vrgssmncht]

Just uploaded two videos on YouTube... it's bugs and a monitor lizard eating a fish!

Compressed tumblr ver of the bugs(flies, the stilt legged variety) for the soul.. they're from the genus Adrama.. Though it's more like two dramas here haha- (EXPLODES)

[txttletale]

NOT asking this as a gotcha, I'm 100% sincere, can you point to pieces of AI art that you feel are interesting uses of the medium? Because I'm not philosophically opposed to it, but at the same time I've never seen anything that wasn't naked bandwagon shilling by the same people who pushed NFTs

sure! i think a classic of the medium is secret horses

(i sadly don't know who made it, but i've seen it around and fallen in love). this is everything AI art should be, imo, taking advantage of the liminal dreamlike quality of the medium and using titling and framing to say something about the piece that wouldn't exist if it was presented on its own. secret horses...

my favourite band, everything everything, released an album last year that made use of AI generation, both for the album's art and for small portions of the lyrics (interestingly, they've refused to say which lyrics are AI written and which are human written, which adds another layer of intrigue to me -- the only lyric that they've confirmed is AI generated is the title of 'software greatman', which forms the haunting, powerful chorus of the song that gets deconstructed into electronic incoherence. other highlights include the album art, part burning skyscape, part incomprehensible machine. what is the machine? is it a camera? a monitor? a train? does it matter?

and finally from this album cycle i adore the hallucinogenic exuberance of their video for i want a love like this:

in terms of dedicated artists working primarily within the AI medium, i'm a huge fan of @reachartwork, a really innovative artist who keeps blowing me away with evocative and interesting pieces and pioneer in ethical and cooperative AI art techniques. i'm an especially big fan of their grotesque and uncomfortable 'tooth machine' series:

as well as their desolate, bleak, alien landscapes:

(hole in the sky / river lethe )

and their project, the @infiniteartmachine, a model that produces art based upon algorithmically generated prompots -- effectively a long-term art piece.

finally, i'm a very very big fan of @roborosewater-masters, a bot that makes AI-created magic the gathering cards. this might not parse as 'art' to some people, or be interesting to analyze as such, but to me, someone obsessed with games and game studies, i think that the mix of synctactically correct magic the gathering rules text and abrupt non sequitur makes for really striking and funny pieces that prompt me to think about what the limits of games and gaming are

these are just the artists and pieces i can name off the top of my head, but i hope that they're representative of what generative art has to offer when it's not being done by grifters chasing the lowest common denominator.

[luza-wayne]

calling them with another name (part 2).

kozume kenma, oikawa tooru, akaashi keiji

i completely forgot to post this, my bad

here's the part 1!

kozume kenma

a lil suggestive if you squint

“ken…” you called for your boyfriend, who's currently busy with his switch.

“hm?” he hummed, not sparing a glance at you. you pouted and just muttered it's nothing.

you rolled on his bed, not sure how to make your boyfriend, kenma, point his attention to you. it was so hard to find free time for both of you while you’re both in college.  while thinking hard, you heard your phone pinged, you lazily reached for it and saw that your friend messaged you.

you immediately opened it and saw that she had sent you a video. it was a tiktok video of a girl calling his boyfriend a different name and seeing his reaction. your friend even said to try it on kenma and see how he will react.

you were reluctant, knowing kenma is too busy playing, you're not sure if he'll even notice that you called him by a different name, but with your friend's persistence, she managed to get you to try it.

well, here goes nothing. 

you went behind him and rested your head on his arm. he peeked at you a bit but went back to playing again.

will this really work? 

“hey,” you started, kenma took off the headphone on one of his ears.

“hm?” he asked.

“pay attention to me already.” you whined making him chuckled softly. he just planted a kiss on your head, before going back to playing.

“boo. forget it, you're always busy playing, mitsuo.” you delivered your plan and crawled back on the bed and scrolled through twitter on your phone.

not even a minute passed, kenma took the phone from your hand and he's already on top of you, his arms locking you within his grasp.

you looked at the switch he was just holding a few moments ago and it was just laying there, you made a terrible decision to look him in his eyes. kenma is staring at you as if he's looking through your soul and he's not saying a word.

“k-ken?” you called, your heart starting to beat incredibly fast and your lips forming an awkward smile.

“that's not what you called me earlier.” he said, every word making your knees feel like they're wobbly.

uhm, hello?! this is not the reaction i thought i would get! what is this?! 

“ke-kenma, what?” you tried to look away from him, but he just made you look at him again.

this is too much for me to handle! i didn't expect kenma to be like this! 

“kenma, it's just a prank!” you confessed shakily. “haha.” you smiled at him nervously, your hands waving in front of you.

instead of a confused expression, you saw a smile creeping up on kenma's face. he laid on top of you and cuddled you.

“i know.” he spoke, his voice resonating through your neck's skin.

“huh?” you asked him confusedly.

“i know you were just playing with me. i saw a lot of videos like that, and i just decided to turn the tables on you.” he explained.

you hit his biceps playfully while telling him how you thought he was mad. he muttered that he was sorry for that and that he's sorry for not giving you enough attention. you guys cuddled up for a bit before it was disturbed by a certain rooster-head.

“kenma, let's go play vol—” kuroo slammed open the door of kenma's room and found him cuddling with you. 

an teasing smile immediately flashed his face, and you heard kenma groaned knowing how kuroo would react.

“oh my~ it seems like i interrupted something. ohoho~” the former captain said, putting a hand on his mouth as if he was a reserved lady.

“shut up, kuroo. leave.” kenma said and buried his face deeper on your neck.

“yes, yes. please don't be too sweet to each other, you might attract ants.” he said before leaving the two of you alone.

oikawa tooru 

“babe,” you heard the same sweet voice call from outside your room just when you finished packing your things.

you looked where the voice came from and oikawa was there standing by the door and waving your way. some girls are glancing at him as they walk past him, but sadly for them, oikawa doesn't notice them, for he's only looking at you. waving and smiling like an idiot. 

you apologized to him in your mind, because today you'll be doing a prank on him and hopefully you can do this according to your plan.

when you went to him, he immediately kissed you on your forehead and even your hands.

“what? you're being extra sweet. did something good happen?” you laughed as you started to walk away with your hands locked with him.

“hm? no, it's just, i suddenly felt happy when i saw my beautiful girlfriend.” he said and suddenly threw himself on you, hugging you in the middle of school grounds, with students walking from all directions to go to their clubs or to go home.

“jeez, people are starin— ahahaha stop that!” you screamed when oikawa suddenly tickled you.

“hehe, sorry, sorry.” he said and stopped, placing a kiss on you again.

you guys continued to walk before some of his aggressive fan girls arrived. when you two are out of school, you finally decided that it's time to commence the work.

“hey…” you called for his attention. he immediately leaned down to you, still holding your hands. “our anniversary's close, i was thinking, how about we go out of town?” you suggested. oikawa's eyes beamed and smiled at you.

“that's nice, babe! where should we go? kyoto? kanagawa? ah! how about akita?” oikawa muttered excitedly, and even did actions with his other hand. you smiled at how high tension he is, but you need to focus on your job.

“haha, i see you're excited about it, shuichi. let's go to my house and discuss it there.” you said and pulled him to your house direction.

oikawa titled his head as you pulled him until he forcefully made his body stop and pulled you too. you looked back at him, with a smile, holding back your loud laugh at seeing his expression.

“what?” you asked him, trying to sound normal. he let go of your hands, in the most dramatic way, even letting out an 'ugh' sound.

“no, no, no, i am your babe.” he said pointing his finger at him. you just nodded at him. 

“you are my babe.” he followed, you furrowed your brows, but still nodded.

“then who is this shuichi loser you just called me?! my name is not shuichi and will never be shuichi. ah—! are you cheating on me?!” he said in one breath, putting both of his hands on your shoulders.

“i—” 

“no! i need an explanation. i demand an explanation!” he emotionally drew his eyes away from you.

yeah, i was about to explain, but you cut me off.

oh shit. why didn't i take account of how much of a drama queen my boyfriend is? 

“(y/n), tell me what did i do wro—”

“tooru, it's just a prank.” you plainly said.

“huh?” he stopped all his movements and let go of your shoulder.

“prank, just a prank.”

“ah! how could you?!” he shouted as he put a hand on his chest and turned around.

“i thought it would be a good one, sorry hehe.” you apologized and hugged him from behind. but, oikawa looks at you with a pout and teary eyes.

“i thought i had a heart attack. hmph!” he broke off from your hug and started to walk.

“what? tooru, are you going home now?” you asked him as he walked further, but he suddenly stopped and went back to you. “yes?” 

“give me your bag.” he demanded that you complied. when you handed him your things, he ran off again.

“eh? babe?” you called.

“don't talk to me! go and do your stupid prank on someone else!” he said and grumpily stomped.

“yeah, you're acting as if you're mad and yet you're still going in my house's direction.” you teased and laughed.

“hmph! i still want to go to akita with you, duh?!” 

“‘duh’? hahaha! tooru, you're so cute!” you said and ran to him.

akaashi keiji 

cuddling with your boyfriend, akaashi keiji, on their couch, while watching anything you two find is a normal routine for the two of you whenever his parents are out or in another town.

but, right now, your beautiful prince is sleeping while you watch the movie you are really looking forward to watching with him. you are sure that he's not asleep because he's tired from practice or that he stayed up late last night, so the only reason he fell asleep is that he got bored watching it.

“keiji, we haven't even reached the middle part and yet you're already sleeping.” you murmured as you turned off the tv. you lay on top of him and as if he's awake he snaked his arms down your waist, but you're sure that just reflexed, so you put on your earphones and went to tiktok.

scrolling down, your eye was hooked on one video of a girl pranking his boyfriend. should you do to your boyfriend? hmm... 

after thirty minutes, akaashi woke up to the smell of cookies that you just baked.

“ah, good afternoon to you, mister. i was just about to wake you up.” you told him when you saw his eyes wide open when you placed the bowl on the table.

“mhm, i woke up to the aroma.” he said and looked up at the tv. “what happened to the movie?” he asked.

“well, you are already sleeping, so i just turned it off.” you explained. “forget about that, why don't you give these cookies a taste?” you told him and gave him a piece. he took a bite and chewed on it.

“so? how's the taste, yukio—” 

eh? (y/n), what the hell?! wait, omg. the prank is still on my mind, and i unconsciously said the name that the girl used in the video! i wasn't even planning to do it! 

“u-uhm…” you nervously scratched your cheeks and took a seat next to him.

“it tastes good…” akaashi answered. you sighed deeply in your mind, thinking that he's not mad, or so you know.

“how about thi—” you didn't finish speaking when akaashi talked.

“so, (y/n), who the fuck is this yukio?” he looked at you, and you saw the most serious face you've seen in his face.

huh? i thought i was safe! i thought he'll just let it slip, just as usual. 

is this what they were talking about in that idiom about don't dare to joke about a person who just woke up-something? 

huh? wait. did i hear that right?

“keiji, did you just curse?” you asked him, in complete awe, to hear your usually calm and collected boyfriend curse.

“that's not what's important right now. cut the crap and tell me who the fuck is that yukio?” he said and furiously ran his fingers through his scalp.

“again. keiji, you cursed again.” you stated, just staring at him with your hand on your mouth.

“(y/n).” he deadpanned.

“somehow... it's so hot to hear you curse, keiji.” you melted as you looked at him lovingly and hearts can be seen in your eyes.

“babe...”

“keiji, one more.” you said with your puppy eyes, wanting to hear more.

after a few more pleas to him, akaashi gave up.

he already realized that that was just a prank and yet, he is now stuck with you who seems to have unlocked a new world for you.

i wrote this back in 2021T^T, anyways i hope you enjoyed that!

if you'd like to support me, you can click here! ❤︎ ྀི˖ ko-fi anything will be deeply appreciated.

[architectureandfilmblog]

"Settlement" housing surveys and dominates the landscape, West Bank, Palestine

THE ARCHITECTURE OF VIOLENCE (2014)

It feels like an important time to revisit this short documentary. Part of the Rebel Architecture series, the film examines, clearly and concisely, the use of design as a weapon of intimidation and subjugation within the Palestine Israel conflict.  One element it focuses on is Palestine's 'architecture of occupation': the way the built environment, even in the form of suburban 'settlement' housing (in which tracts of Israeli homes have been built in occupied territories like the West Bank), has been deliberately shaped to intimidate, surveil, segregate, and even dehumanise.

"Settlements are built on hilltops, overlooking Palestinian valleys, to dominate. They're laid out to create a suburban-scale optical device that can survey the territory. The bright red roofs of the houses are mandated by law... to allow military to understand what's friend and foe: where to bomb and where not to."

"...When you put Israeli colonies on highways, you accelerate Israeli movement through the space. In the same way, with every twist and turn of terrain, Palestinians encounter a checkpoint, a border, a fence, a valley they cannot cross..."

It's important for architects and urban designers everywhere to understand that our craft has the potential to be weaponised. It's important that, no matter whom the client, we think about how a project will impact everyone whose life it touches.  But sadly, as essential as these considerations are, they're of no immediate help to civilians from both sides who are suffering in Gaza and the rest of Palestine and Israel right now. So, it seems worth sharing:

Some ways that we can help:

1. Speak up. Send an email to your elected representative. Sign petitions. Stand up in any forum you can against human rights violations, and against both islamaphobic and antisemitic behaviour.

2. Contribute to a trusted aid organisation working in Gaza, such as Unicef or the British Red Cross. Sites like  charitynavigator and charitychecker can be used to check it's a group who'll use it well.

3. Understand the context. Short videos here and here provide a clear introduction/overview.

4. Boycott companies that are directly profiting from the illegal occupation, and from human rights violations.

(Images: Ronen Zvulun/Reuters via Guardian, Léopold Lambert/Funambulist)

[kingdomoftyto]

I'm crying laughing, the DVDs are even worse than I remember... Season 1's menus are silent with a single static jpg of the same key character art they use for everything else, and the episodes on the Season 2 discs don't even match what's listed on the box! Absolutely stunning lack of shits given. Truly unparalleled. But I really shouldn't be surprised given... well... everything about how this series has been treated since the very beginning.

Time for a quick ~✨PHANDOM HISTORY LESSON✨~ to give newer/less hyperfixated folks more context for why the graphic novel being as great as it is is such a HUGE deal:

Danny Phantom was one of Nickelodeon's MAIN cartoons, in its time. It was a central pillar. One of the top three or four of their lineup, which is saying something when the competition includes the cultural juggernaut that is Spongebob.

Despite this, and despite its superhero theming making it perfectly marketable, it got basically ZERO official merch.

What little we did get was often ugly and very, very cheap. The dedication at the start of the graphic novel that jokes about collecting the Burger King toys? That's because it was some of the most notable merch the franchise EVER had. (I sadly do not have any of it. There was no BK in my hometown. Here's a pic from the internet, though, to give you an idea.)

If you think I'm exaggerating about that being the most significant physical merch to come out of the series, consider that the first video game had an entire menu option specifically for the Burger King promotional tie-in:

That video game, by the way, was one of only two ever based on the show. The first was an adaptation of "The Ultimate Enemy" in the style of a short sidescrolling beat-em-up, and the second was themed around "Urban Jungle" and (as far as I can tell--I've only played the first couple levels) was an arcade-style scrolling shooter. Both were for the Gameboy Advance, and both are...... fine, as far as cash-grabby video game tie-ins to kids' shows go. This was pretty normal for the time, so I suppose we did okay in that department, actually. They're not GOOD, but they're playable and have at least a bit of effort put into them.

But besides those two video games (plus a handful of simple, long-defunct Flash games on nick.com)? In the decade and a half since the show ended?

Nothing.

No books, no games, no comics, no web shorts--unless you count mega-crossovers with every other Nicktoon (a la Nicktoons Unite), or soulless promotional material like "Fairly Odd Phantom" (which, trust me, despite being the first new DP animation in over 10 years was not even worth the effort of watching).

...I think there was a limited edition FunkoPop once?

So yeah.

A Glitch in Time is not just the first cool, well-made thing we've seen from the franchise in a while. It's the first THING we've seen since the show. PERIOD. And arguably the first worthwhile supplementary material to EVER come out of the show, depending on how you feel about those GBA games and the Nicktoons crossovers.

This franchise is widely beloved even now, almost 20 years after it first aired, and it feels like that fact is now, finally, FINALLY getting some official recognition.

PLEASE read A Glitch in Time. Tell other people about it. The series--no, the fans--deserve this (and more of this, if the folks in charge see enough of a response and decide to grace us with any followup). It's LONG overdue, but better late than never.

[no-where-new-hero]

omg I need your thoughts on the terminally o line author culture bc ngl it makes my eye TWITCH, there are authors I deliberately avoid even tho I've heard their stuff is good bc they're like that 🙈

HHHHH oh good lord, okay, from how I see it, there are two angles on this, both aggravating and sad: the official decree one and the spontaneous ecosystem one.

The officious one is that the nature of publishing nowadays demands an author have an online presence. You need Twitter/X. You need to let every potential reader know your book is coming out. You need engagement through reviews and pre-orders incentives (if you buy now you’ll get a special keychain!!) and word of mouth assurances from your peers that yes your book is as cool as you say it is. You need a newsletter with links (more buying! more voting on lists that are simply popularity contests!) and promises you’re still working on the next thing, don’t forget about me in the morass of everyone else doing the same thing. You need an Instagram and TikTok now to post pretty pictures and videos because one or two authors made it big off this kind of promotion and now everyone thinks it’s the ticket to the bestseller list (sadly, it seems to be working). You need an OnlyFans (a joke but I do recall a twt spat that was a joke/not joke about how rupi kaur will always be more beautiful than her critics and people who took issue with the conflation of beauty with talent). At the end of all this, you’re basically an influencer, a content creator creating content for the content you should be focusing on creating, the finished novel. And the novel itself seems to be disappearing behind the masks used to promote it (fanfic-style tropes, moodboards, playlists, memes) until I now no longer trust the book that I’ll pick up to have any resemblance to the enticements that brought me here. I’ve seen an author or two complain about the stress all this self-promotion generates, but it’s become such an entrenched part of the industry, I think people just accept it. And thus spend too much time online hoping that if they tweet just a little more, produce just one more reel, maybe that’ll be the difference between a sale and no sale.

The other side of this, distinct but obviously connected, is the ecosystem created by this panic of being perpetually visible coupled with the fact that so many of the new authors came of age during the rise of internet fandom culture. That opinionated community mindset that blurs the line between anonymity and friendship is the lens they bring to their own work. I mean, it makes sense I suppose—if you love yelling about characters and words, why wouldn’t you do that once you start to produce your own? This really came home to me hearing about that reviewbombgate “scandal” and how people involved were in reylo circles and that was used to provide receipts. You’re interacting with your readers and peers about your intimate work but they are also all strangers. They will not always give you the benefit of the doubt, and now—as opposed to the past when maybe the worst that could happen was a handful of bad reviews in newspapers—you will either be tagged in hate reviews, sub-tweeted, explicitly called out, demanded to atone for your sins. It’s no longer the morality of consumption but the morality of production. Of course, the easy answer is just log-off, touch some grass. But that can work only when you and everyone else are separated by anonymous accounts or when you have no platform to maintain. As an author trying to make your livelihood from this, suddenly it’s do or die. We’re in a strange moment of authorship bringing the Internet’s echo-chamber and claustrophobic into the real world (this is a lie: publishing now is no longer the real world. But it looks like it) and thus you can kind of no longer escape things.

Will the average reader who isn’t aware of all these machinations care about reviewbombgate? Would a reader browsing at Target think about the controversies around Lightlark? Very likely not. But the impression I’m getting more and more is that the average reader isn’t the one buying all the books. Or shall we say—a bestseller’s status relies on bookstore stock. Bookstore stock is only huge when they know a book will be a good investment. They’ll only know a book is a good investment if it and its author has street cred based on booktokkers, bookstagram, bloggers and reviewers (have you noticed how many books out these last maybe 1-3 years have these kinds of accounts thanked in the acknowledgments? Yeah), and THESE are also chronically online people who will Know. And decide the cast of fate.

Honestly, @batrachised, I see why you avoid these kinds of writers, though I wonder how long it’ll be before the disease becomes epidemic.

[sensitiveheartless]

hey i just saw a tiktok video with the horrors comic and i couldn't find any credit (also the comments were turned off ://) and i thought maybe you should know (here's the link to it: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGexd54Qx/ )

Ah, thank you anon! I'm not particularly surprised unfortunately, not the first time it's happened with that comic — sadly I don't think there's much I can do about it, especially since I don't have a tiktok myself. But thank you for letting me know! I do like to know whenever that happens, even if I can't do anything to get the videos taken down. At the very least, it's a reminder that I should really start putting some sort of signature on my comics 😅

...Also, in this particular case the video you linked actually made me laugh when I looked at it, because!! Quick storytime: the last time someone messaged me to let me know that a tiktoker had reposted the horrors comic, I went and looked at it and noticed that the reposter had put two of the comic pages in the wrong order. Somehow NO ONE in the comments had mentioned the fact that the order of events didn't flow right, it was hilarious.

Why is this relevant? Well, because this tiktok you've linked me to has the SAME EXACT MISTAKE, which indicates to me that this new person didn't even steal it from me directly, they stole it from the OTHER REPOSTER and also didn't notice the mistake in page order! The reposters are cannibalizing each other! I am both very entertained and utterly baffled by the lack of effort! They're not even stealing things well!

Anyway, all this to say: I have managed to find the humor in this kind of situation, but I still do not appreciate people reposting my stuff, especially without credit. And general PSA that if you see my comics/artwork anywhere that is not here on my tumblr, or on my AO3 account forest_raccoon, that is not posted by me, and it has been done without my permission.

[valyrfia]

can you maybe elaborate on charles’ and max’ humor being the same? that made my brain explode a little bit at first but now i think it through i must say i couldn‘t agree more and want to compare notes.

also am not a french speaker so any insight in how you think sharls side of it doesn‘t translate well would be appreciated!

thank you <3

Absolutely anon! Let's compare.

So after extensive analysis by the other mother of this discovery @tsarinablogs and I the conclusion was drawn that Charles and Max both have this incredible witty deadpan humour that wanders into dark at times and their delivery is just impeccable. They are slightly different, but the differences are honestly cultural. Charles has an obviously French flavour of humour and Max has an obviously Dutch flavour of humour, but beneath all the cultural layers it makes so much sense why they're able to make each other laugh so easily and why they have inside jokes like "the inchident" or "to my biggest fan" which make both of them cackle like schoolgirls. Also jokes Max has made about Abu Dhabi 2021 or the Charles segment in the squeezie video where he's like "I woke up from a nightmare....I shouted "box box" " like they both have a certain amount of irreverence that match. For me the best example of their shared humour is the iconic Walter Koster question.

Regarding the French not translating well, it's a real shame! Because Charles in French genuinely has me clutching my sides laughing and like I thought he was kind of funny in English but in French he's just incredibly witty and quick with his humour and can deliver it in this deadpan manner that is tear-inducing (same goes for Pierre by the way in that video, his exasperation at Charles and his own quick replies are also so incredibly funny). It's obviously because French is Charles's mother tongue so he thinks quicker and is more comfortable in it but I would highly recommend even watching the squeezie video with English subtitles and French audio to understand Charles's humour. My Italian is sadly not really good enough to check whether he's the same in Italian, but I've been assured that he's more serious, so it's probably because English and Italian are his 'work' languages whereas French is what he speaks in most of his social circles.

[jewishvitya]

I just saw this video about how the West projects its own antisemitism on Palestine. And I think it seems like an important look at how things are entangled here, and somewhat a counter to the post I made and apologized for.

I still think Israel wants to own Judaism and Jewish symbolism and Jewish trauma. And I still think it's evil to do and I don't want that to be successful. Part of the goal was to reiterate that Israel shouldn't be seen as speaking for all Jews, and Jews as a whole shouldn't be seen as its agents, which is the image Israel tries to project. I still feel strongly about the importance of separating Israel and Judaism, and not mistreating Jewish culture in diaspora, including to counter Israel's narrative. But I think my way of talking about it on that post was wrong.

Especially for Palestinians, having negative feelings about Judaism and Jewish symbols isn't the same as antisemitic sentiments we see in the West. It's much more similar in nature to the discomfort a lot of Jewish people have sometimes with Christianity, but newer. Any Palestinian who is uncomfortable, I can only blame Israel and the torment they suffered under it. And beyond Palestinians, Israel had a traumatic impact on several countries that border it.

I was thinking of Jewish diaspora who are an oppressed group and keep getting associated with Israeli atrocities, now seeing people from their countries refer to their cultural symbolism as a hate symbol - when I, especially being an Israeli Jew myself, should have prioritized the Palestinians who are being traumatized in my name under this symbol. It wasn't right of me to defend the image of anything used for harm by my people. And I'm sorry I did that.

This was an attempt to explain both my intentions and why I feel my post was problematic. Now I don't know that I'm the best to say more than this. So, in addition to my initial apology, and to this explanation, I'm posting this video. I'll write out the words she's saying, because videos sometimes don't load on tumblr.

Growing up Arab in the US, and I think probably in a lot of the West Arabs can relate to this, you're made to feel naturally antisemitic because of Israel.

But here's the thing. You know, Israel put the Star of David on their flag. Israel puts the Star of David on its fighter jets. The Israeli leadership claims to be committing atrocities and ethnic cleansing and genocide, in the name of Judaism.

And I disagree, I think it's actually incredibly antisemitic that the Israeli government does that, because I think it's the Israeli government smearing Jews and Judaism by doing that.

But it's incredibly unfair to demand that the people who are being subjected to that— in the name, again, they are seeing that their occupiers have a Star of David on everything. In southern Lebanon there's former Israeli torture sites and prison sites, that have the star of David on them. That's what they do to mark their territory.

It is seen in this region - particularly in the places that Israel has bombed or occupied - as a symbol of colonialism and oppression and control and domination. And nothing more, sadly. And that is because of the actions of the Israeli government.

And it's like, to sit there and say that the way that an occupied people feel about their oppressors - who are saying we are doing this to you in the name of Judaism, they're saying that to them - to sit there and call those people antisemites in the tradition of Nazis and of European Christian antisemitism, who are the ones who are actually responsible for the holocaust, is so incredibly offensive. And actually it's just a way to transfer white European guilt for the holocaust onto brown people who didn't even do it. It's like, there are so many layers to how messed up that is.

And I'm not justifying like, you know, people in the Middle East who might have anti-Jewish sentiments. I just think that the explanation or the lens of the holocaust and of European antisemitism does not fit here. This is happening in a very different structure and it's just disgusting that such a horrible European atrocity is used to them demonize the victims.

[kerubimcrepin]

Liveblog - Dofus, livre 1 : Julith [PART 11]

As I've mentioned, Kerubim and Julith have Beef.

As far as she is concerned, whether he was behind her framing (he wasn't) he is one of the people to blame. He defeated her that fateful day, and then she never saw her son again.

I've already went into detail, on the way "killing" her has affected him, (A mixture of horror and duty. Killing a mother and making a child an orphan for the sake of a city. Being grateful for her dying because it made him a father instead. Feeling awful for that thought.) but it is interesting, how he reacted to her turning out to be alive, when he killed her with his own hands.

Seething. Perhaps even coping.

This is chichala, which we had seen. I suppose he uses it to buff himself up before the boss fight. Drinking alcohol before a fight is very much RPG logic.

Sadly, there are no interesting buffs to it in-game:

I think a lot about the way Kerubim, Joris, and Atcham would be characterized in video game logic, by the way. I still have no working theory of how the hell their fighting styles would synergize. Would Joris be their buffer/debuffer? Their glass canon? Both? And do any of them take ranged weapons on missions...?

They probably do. It'd be kinda dumb not to. Personally, I like to imagine that Atcham would be the one using those, most of the time. He has that "skyrim stealth archer" vibe to him. (Though they're all melee users, through and through.)

Despite how smug he is at a couple of moments, he really was struggling during this fight.

My honest reaction whenever Kerubim does this fucking face is just:

This is very much a "deeply mentally ill adoptive father (who inadvertently ruined his child's life by adopting them to atone for his sins + because he was abused as a child) fighting through an army for his child before dying in their arms and saying they're the only good thing he ever had" look for him.

Another reason that one has to support both women's rights and wrongs when talking about Julith, is that, like.,.. what was she playing at, here? There are two possibilities:

That she would destroy whoever has the dragon's soul and set it free, giving her an advantage.

That Kerubim would shield that person.

Either one is good. :)

Either way she was perfectly willing to risk/attempt blowing up a random, innocent person, who was hiding from her.

My personal headcanon is that while Julith is physically stronger than Kerubim, she lost ten years prior because she couldn't stop thinking about The Baby. Where were they taking Joris? Did Bakara leave with him? Is Joris alright? Didn't Jahash give him to this cat man, who was now trying to kill her? What the fuck is going on, who did this, why, why, why?

I imagine seeing him lose for the exact same reason brings her great pleasure.

the nonbinary slay here was insane

Guys I think this might be bad for Joris's long term mental stability.

On a more serious note, I think there should be more content about Joris fucking hating Julith. During the movie? There's too much going on to work out what he feels.

But after? He has all the time in the world to hate her for everything she did.

I do think that he probably grew up and found whoever framed her to take revenge on/to get justice. But hating her, and wanting to clear her name of the crimes she DIDN'T commit so she could have some peace in death, so that people would stop smearing her name, — are two things that can coexist.

Like to slap his bald scaly head, reblog to slap his bald scaly head.

Kerubim never changed his stupid ass baka "George George the Farmer Farmer" name.

Though we've been knew.

BAD. I DON'T LIKE THIS.

AND she recognizes him by the blue eyes. AND, this implies that, for the entirety of the Dofus show, — and the entirety of Wakfu as well, since he, once again, has yellow eyes there, — he had dragon eyes.

Imagine being Simone, waking up at 3am, realizing because you forgot something in Joris and Kerubim's bedroom, sneaking in, and seeing this.

It also raises some questions about adult Joris, because we know he no longer has Grougalorasalar in him. The easiest explanation is that he spent so much time with the dragon, that after their final separation, his eyes couldn't change anymore.

After all, — the changes the dragon made to his height/skin/hair are permanent. It would make sense that, with time, even his eyes would be permanently altered.

I don't think it's a sad thing, by the way. Imagine going your whole life with beautiful brown eyes that look a bit like your adoptive father's. Then imagine suddenly having blue eyes (scary) and that they're your Dead Father's Who You Never Met but whom everyone misses. Like which pair of eyes would you choose? Because I think there IS a right answer to this riddle.

I think Julith has convinced herself that whoever took her and Jahash out wouldn't want loose ends, and that Joris was taken out as well, or something. Maybe that's why he wasn't really on her mind.

Mind you, this is a tinfoil hat headcanon.

This is so beautiful, to me... She was so emotionally stricken by seeing him again as his mother, that his father, who was both fatally wounded and stricken by seeing her perform deeply painful dark rituals on his son after traumatizing him, could land one last hit on her to save said son.

Julith has been a mother for a grand total of a few days to a month, while Kerubim has been for 10 years. Of course, her first concern is getting surprised it's him, and not that she hurt him. Because she couldn't even dream that she'd ever see him again.

There's a tragedy in that. She never even had a chance to learn how to be his mother, or who he is as a person, — she was the mother of an infant. Her love for him is far more theoretical than Kerubim's.

It's a love for Joris not as a person, but as a lost opportunity.

So she has no regrets about hurting him, — and she will hurt him as many times as it takes, if that's what it takes to get back her family.

[formulatrash]

what was the deep Cereal Lore™️ from the JEV and Daniel Ricciardo flatmate era?

thank you for enquiring, which has led to me realising I have forgotten a lot of the deep Cereal Lore from the JEV and Daniel Ricciardo flatmate era but let me attempt to summarise.

so JEV and Daniel were ostensibly somewhat chalk-and-cheese besties in junior series. they grow up karting against each other on-and-off, they join the Red Bull programme at about the same time, they're besties. Daniel still has braces, JEV is definitely the hot one, whatever. I now cannot find the original Cereal Lore content because the internet is garbage but maybe someone saved it but basically they had an interest in shared cereal, I assume because it was probably the only thing they could cook. there are... a startling number of images of them with cereal like for instance these ones which I don't think were even a sponsor obligation, they were just hanging out eating muesli in the Toro Rosso motorhome or sth?

just normal things. there are many good sponsor videos from this era that are now sadly lost like the time they took them to do (???? surely I haven't made this up) some circus training, presumably an important part of surviving the Red Bull junior programme.

point is: they just really like cereal.

anyway, same time as all this cereal-sharing is going on they are issuing statements to the press about how they really, totally don't care that they're not friends anymore like this fairly harrowing piece.

''I don't know if it's because we are in F1 or he thinks he has definitely beaten me that we cannot have any relationship, but, no, we don't see each other away from the track and we are not friends,'' Vergne said matter-of-factly. ''But to be absolutely honest, I don't mind. He's a good guy. We are both clever people. ''I have absolutely no problem with it because when it comes to the time when we need to work together to improve the car and to move the team forward, we can do this. We have a good working relationship. ''I don't care about going on holiday with my teammate. I have my friends and I have enough of them and I don't need any more.''

he said, sounding absolutely like someone not bothered at all about any of that and who definitely wouldn't struggle for years to get his head straight until he did in fact have a teammate to go on holiday with.

ANYWAY, Daniel moves up to Red Bull, JEV spends a year nearly killing himself back at Toro Rosso, then goes to Formula E and they only ever speak at arms length ever again. but they both still documentedly really like cereal, so.

[merp-blerp]

Kaylor, Arial, and Belle: A Strange Deep Dive... Thing 🌼🐚🥀🌈

So Mr. Christian Siriano had mildly rocked my world by posting the infamous rainbow dress again, plus a new rainbow dress. However, him posting the rainbow dress with yellow/gold dresses, plus the purple top on the most recent rainbow dress, has me and others pondering, so here's my two cents. Come clown with me if you'd like.

This post inspired this.

Naturally, Siriano posted this dress for a mystery person to wear for NYC Pride 2019, that mystery person theorized to be Taylor originally before the master heist potentially ruined that and Billy Porter wore it instead:

Fast forward to 2024, where Siriano posts this infamous dress once again, first on being on 6/3/24, the second time with a new rainbow dress on 6/28/24, once again imploring others to guess who the dress is for:

It's worth noting that there are other rainbow dresses by Siriano (and at least one more time he posted the original rainbow dress pro-2019, but that wasn't significant here), but they don't seem to have as strong of a connection to Taylor outside of being yet more rainbow dresses:

On 6/30, Siriano posted this photo with a male model (Kyle?) wearing (half, technically) of the 6/28 dress. In the same post, he writes "Oh and everyone don't worry it was not for Taylor but we love her!!" It recognizes that every gaylor associates his rainbow dresses with Taylor and the story of "Diva who we made this for can't come to pride anymore", which lines up with the NYC Pride coming out theory. This is not the first or biggest time he's acknowledged the theory, but it is always very affirming for Siriano to be so open on it:

I personally wasn't expecting Taylor to actually wear the 6/28 dress at any point (I mean, I clowned just in case so it could potentially be manifested, but I wasn't getting my hopes up). Still, the allusions of her associations with Siriano's dresses are present in the new dress posts and interesting to think about, especially when Siriano himself plays into them when he really doesn't have to.

So I just wanted to piece together this idea of Taylor + Karlie = Arial + Belle symbolism from my perspective as a fairytale and Disney nerd.

Theorizing time!

Part 1: Belle = Karlie Kloss 🥀

With this makeshift theory, I'd like to start with the most interesting side first, which might not seem as obvious. I think Karlie might represent Belle in Taylor's music and that's at least a part of why the rainbow dress(es) is pictured with yellow/gold dresses, as that's often Belle's main color outside of blue. As to why:

Belle's dress being gold (in the film itself) or yellow (in merchandising) could easily parallel Taylor's lyrics about associating her lover with gold and the sun, like "Gold Rush", "Daylight", etc. It also fits Tay saying Kar was the sunshine emoji in their Vogue Best Friend video.

Belle as a character was allegedly inspired by Katharine Hepburn's portrayal of Jo March in Little Women (1933). Katharine Hepburn was a queer woman and Jo herself has been interpreted as a queer character.

Belle could arguably be a "static character", as in one who doesn't change throughout the story. That doesn't make Belle badly written, it's just the type I personally think she, at least somewhat fits into. Karlie, for as long as she's been reflected in Tay's music, from what I can tell, has not really changed in her role. She's always been Taylor's beloved muse.

While I sadly can't find a source— if you can, please share—I've heard before that Belle's blue village dress was inspired by Dorothy's dress in The Wizard of Oz (1939). This nicely complements the theory that Karlie is Dorothea in Taylor's song by the same name and that Dorothea is a reference to Dorothy Gale, who herself is a queer-coded character and is associated with the queer slang phrase "Friend of Dorothy". Both Belle and Dorothy yearn for a life that's beyond the one they're living because their peers don't seem to understand them. Many of Taylor's songs have this yearning in them, like "Down Bad" and "I Hate It Here". They aren't the ones in their stories learning the lesson; Dorothy helps her friends learn that they had their gifts all along and Belle's presence in Beast's life inspires him to be better. They're also very accepting of those who are different from society's expectations, Belle with the Beast and Dorothy with her various friends.

Lyricist Howard Ashman wrote the songs for both Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid with Alan Menken. He was also gay and unfortunately died of AIDS in 1991, Beauty and the Beast being the last project he worked on (he technically worked on Aladdin in 1988 before it was released in 1992, but a lot of his songs were cut from the film because the story changed over time, so I believe Beauty and the Beast is typically considered his swan song).

Beauty and the Beast did NOT come out the same year Karlie was born, 1992, but almost did, on November 22, 1991. In the "...Ready For It?" MV, 89 and 91 are on the wall in red and yellow, kind of like Arial and Belle, though the 91 is likely just a beard red herring in the song about bearding. This isn't really a point, I just thought I'd mention it.

Belle is a similar enough name to Betty. Belle means beauty (in Spanish) and the old slang term "Betty" refers to an attractive woman and someone who "...has a smile that can light up a room, and a laugh that could change anyone’s mood..." according to Urban Dictionary. Both names in Hebrew mean God's oath/oath of God.

In the Gaylor world, yellow is often seen as representing closeting/escaping closeting, since the closet room in the Lover house is yellow and Taylor wears a yellow dress after ghosting the prince in the "Bejewled" music video (there could be other reasons too). In the 6/3 photo of the rainbow dress, the mannequin the dress is displayed on and the yellow dresses behind it have a yellow sheer wrap around their heads. For the rainbow dress at least, Billy Porter didn't wear a yellow wrap around his head when wearing the dress, as it's not a part of the outfit, so why is it on the mannequin? My best non-gaylor guess is to help pair it with the yellow dresses better, but why is the dress with these yellow dresses at all rather than with the other rainbow dresses Siriano created or something more similar in concept? It might not be for any Taylor-related reason, but who's to say? It seems as if it's a random choice (and I like how in the og rainbow dress post Siriano's profile picture just happened to be of a yellow dress. Fun happenstance).

Yellow daisies are associated with Kaylor due to their presence in the Big Sur trip and Taylor referencing them in "Don't Blame Me". Daisies are also associated with queerness, being a slang term for gay. Wow, Ms. "Now I'm your daisy", that was bold to say now that I think about it.

Roses play a big role in the general story of Beauty and the Beast, including Disney's. Some of the strongest Kaylor songs mention roses, like "Maroon", "The Lakes", somewhat "The Albatross", etc. The rose is often out of place, like in "The Lakes" where it's growing out of snow, as if it was magical that it happened or seen as not something that should happen, yet it did. Carnations are mistaken as roses in "Maroon", to me representing how Kar and Tay's love isn't always like the norm, so not always a rose, the most common love flower, but carnations still mean love (and have a queer history attached to them). It's "A rose by any other name" and "is a scandal" like in "The Albatross".

Certain songs have been theorized to be from Karlie's perspective towards Taylor, like "TTPD", "Renegade", "Cardigan", and even "I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)". All the songs mentioned depict the narrator as trying to help their lover gain strength, knowledge, or simply better habits. In "Cardigan", Betty is steps ahead of James, knowing his moves before he does them because that's how much she loves and knows him, regardless of his actions. Similar to Belle's brainy personality and Karlie's seemingly matching one. Belle never actively tries to "fix" her beast on her own accord in the Disney film despite popular interpretation. She notices that Beast is making an effort to change his ways and supports him through it, as seen in the film's song "Something There". Belle never stomached his bad behavior, running away when Beast pushes it too far and only coming back when he earns it. She never "sees the good in him" before he actually exhibits good. This is similar to Betty (and the narrators of the other songs I mentioned), who lets James come to her when he's ready, rather than stay with him after he did something wrong and is clearly dealing with some baggage in an unhealthy way. I'd say "I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)" was the only exception, but the song ending with "Whoa, maybe I can't" acknowledges that the idea of "fixing" anyone is often a lie; the narrator knows this and stops (sarcastically/in a tongue-in-cheek way IMO) sassing that they can. But the narrator describing her lover with lines like "The dopamine races through his brain" and "Softly traces hearts on my face" communicates to me that the lover, Taylor, wants to improve on her own accord. Taylor and Karlie are always working together to get to a better place, like Belle and Beast, not one trying to fix the other.

Part 2: Arial = Taylor Swift 🐚

This one should take less explaining I guess. I have less to say about this one.

Disney's The Little Mermaid was released in 1989, the same year Taylor was born. Arial is 16 years old, the same age Taylor was when her first album was released.

Taylor dressed as Arial for New Year's Eve in 2019 (or 2018 if you want to be technical about it...).

Arial has a forbidden romance with a human. Taylor has written about forbidden romances plenty before. Gee, I wonder why—

Of course, the title of Taylor's song "But Daddy I Love Him" is a reference to a line Arial says in the film.

The purple top on the 6/28 rainbow dress is reminiscent of Arial's sea-shell bra.

Mermaids and Sirens are often conflated as the same creatures. Sirens, whether they were half-bird or half-fish people, were seen as evil creatures pulling sailors to their deaths, their voices and songs too alluring to resist. Reminds me vaguely of "Put narcotics into all of my songs // And that's why you're still singin' along" from "WAOLOM". Mermaids have also been seen as victims of men (sailors), promiscuous figures, lucky charms, child-appropriate creatures, and temptresses to men, like Taylor has been seen at times in the public eye.

Many of Taylor's lyrics allude to her seeing herself as or even portraying herself as a monster, beast, or otherworldly creature. "Anti-Hero", "WAOLOM", "...Ready For It", "Don't Blame Me", etc. Mermaids have been seen in many ways over the years, villainous or virtuous. Hans Christian Andersen's original version of the story was subversive at the time for not making the mermaid evil or sexualized. But she's still a half-fish creature, not a natural human, so she could still be considered a "creature/beast" whether she acts beastly or not. Therefore Taylor sees herself as the Beast to Karlie's Beauty.

Andersen's original story ends with the mermaid attempting to jump off the prince's ship after he didn't fall for her back. She expects to turn into sea foam since mermaids have no souls to become angels. This would fulfill her deal with the sea witch. However, the mermaid is saved by these fairy-like creatures called "Daughters of the Air", as they recruit her as one of them so she can do good deeds for 300 years with them and gain her soul without the aid of a man's love. It somewhat reminds me of Taylor pausing the beardings and abandoning men to hang out with her squad. "I picked the petals, he loves me not // Something different bloomed // Writing in my room..." (from "YOYOK").

And Andersen was fairly certainly queer.

As for this line in "Clara Bow": "Beauty is a beast that roars down on all fours // Demanding more..." I think it's mostly a commentary on how painful the demand for women to be beautiful is. But under this lens, it could be slight self-reflection; I wouldn't be surprised if Taylor has personally felt the pressure of trying to stay as beautiful as possible, both in looks and spirits. Inside her is both physical and spiritual beauty, but beauty can be a beast, demanding to stay against all odds despite natural aging or moments of being human and exhibiting more negative "non-beautiful" emotinal traits.

Not really a point, but here is a fun fact: there are ✨13✨ official Disney Princesses currently, starting with Snow White and currently ending at Raya (I don't know if Asha from Wish counts yet or will count). Belle was the next princess directly after Arial in terms of their film's release dates, similar to Karlie and Taylor's birthdates.

[isoobie]

MOOT GAME: " make up a trope for your moots and their biases. doesn’t need to be romantic. can be crackfic/funny/anything you want

THIS WAS SO FUN thank you anon !!!! i suck at crackfic so im doing the most basic tropes i can think of sadly :/

@boyfhee & jay as friends to lovers

cael and jay who have been besties since diapers !!! they both like each other secretly but don’t confess because it might ruin their relationship but jay being the man is takes her on a (friendly) date to tell her his feelings as he plays the guitar for her and sings the song he wrote by himself. im the no1 caeljay shipper 🙏🏼

@weoris & jungwon at the amusement park

xin and jungwon being silly little goofballs as the amusement park with the matching headbands, the photo booth pictures and making fun of each other because they are too scared to go on certain rides. but for the cute part they would hold hands wherever they go and jungwon would always steal a couple pecks on the cheeks w/o xin knowing !!!!

@soov & jungwon as part of student council

rei and jungwon as student council buddies who help each other all the time, greet e/o in the hallways and text all the time after school. your friends would ship the two of you together and set you both up so that one of u confesses either way because they know that secretly you guys like e/o. its giving school it couple and i love it !!!!

@urszn & niki as grumpy x sunshine

es as the upbeat, bright girl whose friends with everyone whereas niki is that mysterious, cool guy who only talks to his 6 friends. but they slowly become close and niki starts to have a soft spot for her and when they're dating he becomes a little version of her. eski all the way 🧘🏻‍♀️

@jjunae & jake as brothers best friend

honestly idek ur bias but its okay 😆 ( u just give me jake vibes ) kae being annoyed whenever her brother invites his loud friends over but little does she know that one of them was her soon to be crush. jake would accidentally come into her room thinking its the bathroom, resulting in an awkward first encounter. but both of you would think that the other was reallly cute. shy introverts who are too scared to speak ㅠㅠ

@hoonvrs & sunghoon and the wrong number

sunghoon being the silly little goofball he is would be drunk and accidentally call saint because he pressed the wrong number but they’d both have a light heart conversation while one is sober and the other isn’t. and after that day, those little texts would grow into voice messages and into video calls and then a meet up where they both fall for each other even more!

@okwonyo & jake as strangers to lovers

jiji and jake suddenly bump into each other one day and thats when the attraction begins … they realise they both go to the same university and jiji is very shy at first but its okay because jake is initiating all the conversations first because she’s giving him oblivious hints that she likes him & the rest is history ㄱㄱ

@tyunni & niki on a skateboard date

my favourite couple !!!! i refuse to believe that niki and may AREN’T that skater couple. but seriously niki would be such a goat at it while may would trip every 2 seconds cause she has a bad sense of balance but niki being the amazing boyfriend he is, he’d help her and teach her 😁 ( even put his hand on your waist )

[getsuuna]

another day, another dumb ass take from KNY TikTok Fandom !!!! /extremely derogatory

the topic of the day is Uzui's family, and it all started off from a girl on TikTok affirming Tengen's marriage is strictly polygamous, which could be a valid opinion from a certain point of view, but let's dig further.

she was specifically referring to people portraying them as a polyamorous relationship, and strongly opposed to it, going so far as:

•blocking people who tried to discuss (including me)

•making a mockery video on it (which she then deleted due to threats in DMs, which I don't justify, no matter how rude she was)

•unblocking me trying to discuss further, except all she did was talking to me as if I was an uneducated and misinformed fool, and eventually blocked me again after speaking utter nonsense

so, what was the nonsense about?

it started with Suma, but I'm sadly going to have to digress on Tengen himself. she denied Tengen being a polyamorous character, because "he's polygamous and no you cannot be both"

now, I indeed spent lots of time educating myself on labels as a queer person, but I am not polyamorous, so correct me if I'm mistaken: Tengen is polyamorous by definition.

I never denied that Tengen is in a polygamous marriage, but he's polyamorous.

Uzui's family was in a clan that canonically practiced polygamy solely for reproduction purposes, which, by the way, is usually the reason why polygamy was practiced in different cultures, and it's obviously rooted in misogyny. even the manga itself portrays this tradition as dehumanizing for women, it portrayed the historical reality of women being seen as possession and inferior worth overall.

Tengen, too, was forced into polygamy, but literally most of his character revolves around the fact that he detached himself from that toxic environment, and he was the only one that actively valued his wives' lives more than his own.

briefly, he was the only one that actually LOVED his wives, unlike every other male member of his clan in such polygamous marriages.

yes, he's in a polygamous marriage, but he loves all of his wives equally and they're all obviously consenting to that relationship as an actual marriage, and not as an excuse to make babies. polygamy was never about feelings and love, unlike polyamory. Tengen is undeniably polyamorous, and he's widely seen and known as polyamorous representation.

yet this kid apparently had the nerve to deny that, and also denied that polygamy as a concept and as a practice is misogynistic and messed up. "there's people who are ok with it" maybe because it's tradition forced upon them??? "polyamory didn't exist back then" 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 neither did every queer label that we now know and use. sexualities weren't labeled nor legal, and it absolutely didn't mean they weren't there, and the sole fact that she assumed that made me want to just give up on that so-called argument we were having.

I wasn't even irritated anymore, just disappointed but not surprised. she just kept bragging about the same 2 phrases over and over and assuming I didn't know nor understand what she was trying to say.

what maturity level do you actually expect to give off if you start the discussion by assuming I don't know what you're talking about, using annoying and ironic pet names and just going "uhrm I don't think you understood...! hope that helps...!" ??? I unfortunately lack the patience to deal with such buffoonery but overall it's basic common sense that someone who wants to have an actual discussion should NEVER behave like that. it's not really the fact that she's wrong that pissed me off, it's the attitude, the fake superiority complex kinda vibe.

moving on to what was supposed to be the initial topic: their whole polygamous marriage being or not being polyamorous.

they're not all legally married to each other, the 3 women are only legally married to Tengen (which is the point that homegirl repeated to me over and over again as if I didn't have enough comprehension skills while reading the manga)

HOWEVER, just because they're legally recognized as polygamous doesn't mean the 3 women can't be interested in each other as much as Tengen is interested in all 3 of them.

polyamorous Tengen ≠ polyamorous relationship, we get it, but what if? Gotōge revealed that during the marriage interview, Suma proposed herself as a wife instead of her sister,, and immediately after, they also revealed that Suma is bisexual.

oh, wait, the bisexual label didn't exist back then, yet bisexuality existed indeed! 💋

but that's besides the point, because bisexuality obviously doesn't imply polyamory...however², Gotōge has coincidentally revealed this cute little fun fact right after speaking about the fact that she begged to be Tengen's wife.

Tengen's father apparently chose the wives for his sons basing himself on the "chemistry" they seemed to have with them (still NOT love btw, if we take in consideration how poorly Tengen's brothers treated their wives) and he chose Suma's sister alongside the others, yet Suma still crashed in. then Gotōge put a comma and added "it seemed she preferred both men and women".

technically, specifying that wasn't necessary, especially since Suma is married to a man. but can you see where this is going??? it was stated for a reason, and, even better, it was stated right after that sentence for a reason.

call me delusional or call it a headcanon, but the point stands, plus this silly bisexual woman lives every day of her life with 2 other pretty women and they're all a big family. I think it's valid to assume they kiss each other.

and homegirl took it personally🙏🏻 she defends polygamy but draws the line at polyamory and queerness, the irony🩷 also, she's christian. I absolutely don't want to generalize but I see a pattern.

anyways, I don't want people to harass her or send her threats, I was just pissed off by her immature behavior but hey, she was the fuel for me to make this brief analysis which I thought was basic analytical skill😭 this Fandom never fails to cross a line I never even knew was there🤞🏻

[in-restless-walks]

okay i don't know sorry if this is a weird ask but right now im high and watching a youtube video of simon and garfunkel singin the boxer in the concert in central park and idk i got like a vibe from them so my question is are you a simon and garfunkel historian? do you know the context of their relationship during that moment? i don't know you i just searched simon and garfunkel and ended up in your blog so forgive me if you are not that kind of fan or something idk. i know that simon and garfunkel is big on tumblr but idk sometimes is like in a yaoi kind of way sometimes is like an ironic meme i dont know what im saying tbh im sorry for this. anyway if you don't know could you give me some blogs recomendations so i can ask them? is this a weird thing to ask? do i sound crazy? again im really high and this is taking too much to write because i don't know if i make sense sometimes i forget what word i put before the word i'm writing. anyway. can you help me with my issue? thanks a lot! oh for context i don't really know simon and garfunkel lore so just in case i need context i just know their relationship was like weird like sometimes they got along and then they missed each other or something? okay thanks! <3

Wow, okay, thanks for sending this, and first of all, I hope you enjoyed getting high, LOL. I guess there's nothing like getting high and starting to wonder about the yaoi side of Simon & Garfunkel.

I am not a Simon & Garfunkel historian, so to speak, but I have been a fan for quite some time and I have read all the biographies there are to read, I have done my fair share of research into them, so I do think I know a bit about the S&G "lore". Ever since the first time I saw the Concert in Central Park and seeing the same "vibe" you did during The Boxer, I've also 'shipped' them. That is to say, while I do not think that they were ever in a romantic relationship and everything that that entails, I don't rule out at all that anything of a sexual nature happened between them. Other people seem to think that too, hence the 'yaoi' posts you see on tumblr.

Their relationship was/is a really complicated one and I'm not sure any of us know exactly what happened to make them where they are now - supposedly on no speaking terms. I mean, Paul said in his recent documentary that Art turned from someone who 'got it for him" into someone he hopes never to see again, which...ouch x 1000.

For you and for everyone else getting into Simon & Garfunkel, here's a little crash course.

TL;DR they're both idiots who got along reasonably well if it wasn't about their professional business. Their creative differences re: music (and personal grievances) were always so large (as were their egos) that they followed a pattern of getting together to try (again), fought, were on no speaking terms for a decade, thought to give it another try, and repeat, ad infinitum. In fanfic terms, they are the epitome of strangers to friends to lovers to enemies to friends to lovers to enemies to...

1950s

Paul and Art are childhood friends. They lived a few streets away from each other in Queens, NY, and they went to the same school. They're the same age, born three weeks apart. They formally met when they were eleven, at the school play for Alice in Wonderland (Paul was the White Rabbit, Art the Cheshire Cat). Soon after, they started recording songs in their basements, trying to copy their heroes, the Everly Brothers. They got signed by Big Records by someone called Sid Prosen, called themselves Tom (Art) and Jerry (Paul) and released a fairly successful single called 'Hey Schoolgirl' when they were 16, which even made them go on Dick Clark's American Bandstand show (footage sadly does not survive). Paul recorded a song by himself, without telling Art, while he called himself True Taylor, and Art found out, 'shattering' the friendship with Paul for the first time. (It seems to have never recovered to how it was before). I coin this the True Taylor Incident™️. Alledgedly they didn't speak to each other for a couple of years after graduating high school (1958-1962-ish). During that time, Art recorded a few songs as Artie Garr, and Paul did as well, as Jerry Landis.

1960s

Paul went to study in Queens College, NY, and Art went to Columbia University (there he met his blind roommate Sanford, which is a whole other interesting side story). Paul and Art got reacquainted with each other, performed as a duo again and managed to get signed to Columbia records to record an album in March 1964, which was to be released in October 1964.

Meanwhile, Paul often went to England and mainland Europe (France, Denmark, the Netherlands...) and there he met Kathy who became his girlfriend (Hence, Kathy's Song, and "Kathy I'm lost, I said" from America). He also recorded a solo album while in the UK, called The Paul Simon Songbook. Art went to visit him a few times.

Their first album, Wednesday Morning 3AM, flopped; Art stayed in school and Paul went back to the UK. The album did contain the song The Sound of Silence (acoustic version) and a really interesting thing happened in late 1965 when someone decided to put electric guitars to the track and suddenly it got airplay. Paul was in Denmark when the song was really starting to do well on the charts, and he had to rush home to NYC when the song became number one.

Then, Paul and Artie were suddenly famous! They quickly recorded another album with several songs that were on The Paul Simon Songbook, but now Art's harmonies were on there. They did a lot of tv performances in 1966 and 1967 and toured mainly in the college and university circuits. (I will link some tv peformances and so on later, in another post).

I'm skipping over some things now, but in my opinion, trouble for their relationship really began again when they started recording their album Bookends and Paul had been writing music for The Graduate (Mrs. Robinson) (1968). The director of The Graduate, Mike Nichols, had asked Art and Paul to act in his next movie, Catch-22, but Paul's scenes got cut, and Art went to Mexico on his own for the better part of the first half of 1969, just when they were supposed to record their next album, Bridge Over Troubled Water. Tensions ran super high at that time. Plus, Paul had written the song Bridge Over Troubled Water for Art to sing, but he later said that Art first refused to sing it (Art said that he wanted Paul to sing it in a lovely falsetto voice) and later, during concerts, Art took standing ovations while finishing the song, while Paul was jealous that he didn't get songwriting credits on stage. Paul also said that Art was leaving him to do movies...not long after Catch-22, Art got invited to play a role in Mike Nichols' next movie, Carnal Knowledge. (see also: Why Don't You Write Me...."if it's only to say that you're leaving me"). The whole Bridge Over Troubled Water album is one big breakup album.

Meanwhile, Paul had gotten married to Simon & Garfunkel's manager's ex-wife (I still can't fathom this) and Peggy also kind of encouraged him to go solo. Paul also claimed that his musical interests and Art's were drifting apart, so eventually, they split in 1970. Artie thought they were only taking a break, and allegedly he didn't realize they were really done.

1970s

Both starting solo careers, they reunited a few times as well, such as for the McGovern benefit concert in 1972, and most notably in the second Saturday Night Live episode in 1975 (tell me they're not flirting the whole time). Paul had even written a song, My Little Town, that the both of them performed for the reunion and was featured on both of their (solo) albums There was also a reunion for Paul's The Paul Simon Special (1977), the Brittania Awards (1977) and some other benefit concerts.

1980s

Paul was approached by a concert producer about playing in Central Park and maybe doing a few songs with Art, and Paul was like, I can't very well play support to Simon & Garfunkel, so it was decided that the whole concert was supposed to be the both of them. And time it was, what a time it was! Safe to say the concert was a success, even though they were fighting again (Art wanted to stay as close to the accoustic sets they used to do in the college performances, and Paul wanted a big band on stage). The interviews before the performance are awkward as usual, but it seems that for the performance itself they kind of set their differences aside, and they seem to be having a good time on stage, as good as it gets with these two. The back rub during The Boxer is...I can't explain it, but that was a lovely gesture by Art.

Because the concert in Central Park had been so successful, they were going to bank on that success and do a whole reunion tour AND a reunion album in 1982-1983, but that seems to have been a very miserable experience for them both. Their body language in interviews says it all. It culminated in Paul wiping Art's vocals from what was supposed to be their reunion album and releasing it as a solo album. Safe to say they were on no speaking terms again for a while, lmao, especially when their professional endeavours were concerned. They did hang out sometimes in private, because Paul had married Carrie Fisher and Art was seeing Carrie's friend Penny. Then Paul got famous with Graceland and Artie was once again, forgotten.

1990s

They got inducted in the Hall of Fame (another miserable experience), Paul did another concert in Central Park (without any sign of Art this time) and they did a few reunion concerts in NYC and so, but neither of them looked very happy about that, if you ask me. In fact, the less they had to look at each other, the better. There was apparently one instance where they were fighting and someone had to stand in between them, or they would have physically started attacking each other? Sounds like a lot of fun, huh? Start of another decade of not speaking to each other.

2000s

After getting a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, they thought it was a good idea to get together again and do a reunion your, and that seemed to work, for a while. They toured the United States (2003-2004), Europe (2004), Australia/NZ and Japan (2009) and were about to embark on yet some more shows in the fall of 2010, but then Art Lost His Voice (you can see this happening right in front of your salad at the April 2010 Jazz Fest, but they were still very chummy then).

What happened in 2010...no idea, but it wasn't good. And then Art made things much, much worse when he did an interview in 2015, called Paul a Monster, and idiot and a jerk, and how could he leave a successful formula like Simon & Garfunkel behind and no amount of groveling that Art has done since (like begging Paul to call him in an interview) has helped. They are still on no speaking terms.

Now all we can do is wait and hope they come to their senses and kind of make up before they die. Under no circumstances do I still want them to sing together, but damn, if all of us don't want them to just both sit on the edge of a park bench, like bookends, I don't know anymore.

My take on the whole thing: they were good friends as kids, Art never got over the True Tailor Incident and that stayed with him forever; he always saw Paul as someone who could betray him in the blink of an eye. Paul was envious of Art's looks (and height); meanwhile Art wasn't a songwriter, so Paul had that advantage over him. It's not a good balance to be in such a close partnership. Perhaps at one point something did happen between them, complicating things even more, because can you really hate someone that much if you don't have strong feelings for them either? In later years, it seems to be mainly the "creative differences" about the music that was causing a rift, but maybe after all is said and done, perhaps Carrie Fisher said it best "not only do I not like you, but I don't like you personally." Paul 'cheated' on Art with True Taylor and, like any other one half of a (married) couple, he tried to get over it, but never could. (and maybe Paul is a jerk lmao. But Art was no angel either).

I've skipped over a lot of things, so if you have more questions, shoot. There are quite a few of us who are posting regularly about them, and who know about everything I've written above. In fact, there's a Tumblr community on S&G now (see my pinned post) but so far there haven't been many people interested in joining, lol, so if you want in, let me know. People could do a lot more theorizing there, haha.

[kangshxrtie]

ch. 10 ⤍ it’s happening!

you and yunjin greeted each other like you've known each other for years making the others confused, leading you to explain. "we were supposed to meet a really long time ago but it never worked out. it finally happened"

"so you know yunjin but you didn't know me.." kazuha said to you sadly.

yunjin smugly smirked at kazuha, "your girl likes me"

kazuha playfully glared at yunjin as you turned to the youngest person on the team who had been waiting to speak to you.

"y/n y/n! i'm a big fan" eunchae excitedly greeted you, "i watch all of your content!"

you smiled at the younger girl, "i'm glad to hear that"

"i always told chaewon and sakura to introduce us but they never did" eunchae told you.

"there was a reason for that" chaewon mumbled under her breath.

you turned to look at chaewon confused, "why? what's wrong with us meeting"

"you're both absolute menaces" chaewon replied like it was obvious.

"it would have been too much to handle if we introduced you two" sakura added shaking her head at the thought.

"they're just overdramatic" you said to eunchae who agreed.

afterward, you turned back to kazuha to ask what the plan for the beginning of filming was before getting cut off by chaewon.

"i mean we're here too but give everyone but your long-term friends a greeting" chaewon said.

"y/n meets new people and just changes up on us" sakura added.

"i saw you two last week no big deal" you waved off sakura and chaewon who both gasped in response.

"you saw kazuha last week too"

"there's a difference, i've known kazuha for a week. i've known you two for years"

"you changed up so fast" chaewon shook her head in disappointment.

"i'm just kidding i missed y'all too" you went to hug chaewon and sakura. chaewon avoided it at first but eventually let up, hugging you back.

after the greetings were over you now had to choose who would team up with who.

"we should let zuha and y/n be on the same team. this is for them anyways" sakura said.

"who do we want?" kazuha asked you, but you just shrugged since you didn't really know anything about the rest of the members besides chaewon and sakura.

"i can't choose between them" she said.

"manchae?" you asked.

"how do you know that?" she asked shocked, "i thought you didn't know us"

"i saw a clip with her and sakura one time"

"y/n you're really breaking my heart right now" kazuha held her hand over her heart.

you quickly hugged her, "but you're the only one i called pretty, i confessed my love to you for a reason, future lover"

kazuha blushed and the cameras zoomed in on you two. 

"what is this?" chaewon and yunjin made disgusted faces at the camera, while sakura covered eunchae's eyes.

"hey couple! we're filming a video right now, save this for later!" yunjin yelled at the both of you.

you and kazuha pushed apart finally remembering the others.

"so manchae?" kazuha confirmed with you.

you nodded your head.

"we'll do a back hug to choose your teammate"

you winked at yunjin on your way over making her think you chose her.

"i think i know" yunjin smirked once you all got into position with you and kazuha standing behind them in a row.

"do we just do it?" you asked the camera crew who nodded at you.

"hmm? who should we choose" you said wanting to be dramatic.

"you already know who you're choosing" chaewon exclaimed. you both went to backhug eunchae who cheered in response.

the camera zoomed in on yunjin who had the most betrayed look on her face.

"y/n...!" yunjin yelled at you.

"sorry, i did think about choosing you though" you told the girl.

"it's fine we just win against them" yunjin huffed as she went to chaewon and sakura.

now it was time for the game to get started. you and eunchae were the first two to go in while kazuha stood watch at your base.

"i'll bait them. just stay hidden while i get them and only show yourself if i get hit" you told eunchae who nodded in response.

while you were sitting on guard you heard someone heading towards you. you peeked around the corner to see who it was, noticing it was chaewon you set your gun up ready to shoot. once chaewon turned the corner you pulled your trigger, getting her out immediately.

"you're still a fucking sweat" chaewon cursed at you.

"i'm just tryna win" you shrugged as you backed away. once chaewon went to revive you proceeded forward hoping to get another one.

"kkura is approaching you" you heard through the walkie-talkie. you tried to back away for cover but was hit.

eunchae took that as a signal to catch sakura off guard popping out from her hiding spot to hit sakura.

"where did you even come from?" sakura asked.

eunchae shrugged in response not revealing anything.

the game went on with the kills going back and forth.

you were slowly making your way through the area looking out for sakura who apparently could not stop killing you.

you saw a different colored vest and they had their gun pointing directly at you. you let out a sigh of relief when you realized it was yunjin.

"wait yunjin, i'll help you out if you help me" you stopped her from shooting you.

"i'm listening" she put her gun down slowly.

"kazuha and eunchae are planning to rush in and catch y'all off guard" you told her.

"kkura and chaewon are just trying to pick y'all off one by one" yunjin told you.

"so we shouldn't be moving alone" you said to yourself.

"when are zuha and eunchae attacking us?" yujin asked you.

"now that might be asking too much, you're basically asking me to turn on my team" you chuckled.

"i literally told you our game plan. you can tell me one strategy so i can at least get more than 1 kill" yunjin said.

"fair. just catch them off guard first so they won't expect it" you told her as she nodded.

"you better not tell them about this" yunjin held her gun up to you in a threatening way but didn't pull the trigger.

"you better not either" you said in response holding your hands up.

"i won't if you don't" yunjin put her gun back down.

"you can trust me" you reassured yunjin before parting ways.

"i hope she doesn't betray me" yunjin whispered into her mic and then the camera cut to you.

"yunjin's heading towards our base" you quietly told your team through the walkie-talkie once yunjin was out of sight.

"i'm not technically betraying yunjin since i didn't tell my team about the actual plan. i'm just making sure they're not too caught off guard" you defended yourself to the camera that was following you around.

while you were walking around you had run into both sakura and chaewon killing them both separately before hearing news from your team.

"yunjin got me and eunchae" you heard kazuha tell you through the walkie-talkie.

"both? really" you asked shocked.

"i know you said she was coming but she really came out of nowhere" eunchae said.

"ahh damn. well, i got kkura and chaewon so it should we're tied" you put your walkie-talkie back away to talk to the camera.

"most successful betrayal i've ever done" you told the camera smiling.

"has anyone seen sakura yet?" you met back up with your team at the base.

"last time i saw her she was base area. she's the type to push forward though" kazuha said.

"i think we should target sakura" eunchae suggested.

"agree she's their carry. once she's out we sweep them" you agreed.

that was how you decided to walk around as a group with sakura as the main target, whoever saw her first would tell the rest of the team and we would all shoot at her. it was pretty successful since she was always alone but once she caught on to what you were all doing she now only always had backup.

later on, you were alone walking in the other team's base area when all of a sudden you heard a bunch of footsteps coming towards you causing you to duck for cover.

"y'all i think i'm cornered" you spoke quietly into your walkie-talkie.

"do you need backup?" eunchae asked.

"no you should stay. they only know the general area i'm in" you said.

"just try and back out. we'll help if all of them show up" eunchae told you.

you put your walkie-talkie back on the belt and wall-hugged the walls that lead you back to your base. not hearing any more sounds you tried to take off but were caught off guard by yunjin showing up and killing you. you fell onto the ground dramatically.

"can't believe you did this. i thought we were friends" you joked putting your hand over your heart.

"you should've picked me to be on your team then" yunjin said before going away.

you were about to stand up and revive but kazuha came from behind a wall, running up to you. "no y/n you can't die on me. we haven't even gone on our first date yet" kazuha started a skit.

"you're gonna have to go on without me" you played along.

"no! we can't do this without you" kazuha moved her hands to cover where you were 'shot' at.

"just leave me behind; i'll only slow us down"

"we really could all make it together" eunchae cut into the conversation.

"take care of my children, but don't let rei touch my will" you let out your final words.

"nooo y/n" kazuha fake cries dramatically.

"bruh just go revive" eunchae told you seeming uninterested as possible. you laid there for a couple of seconds still playing the part.

"okay! let's beat them" you quickly stood up heading to the revive station.

once you revived you started a group huddle for the last play, "get as many kills in the next two minutes as possible"

it was supposed to be strategic, but as you approached their base you decided to just make it fun.

"fuck it we ball" you told kazuha who nodded in agreement.

you and kazuha went in rapidly firing as a distraction for eunchae who was quietly making her way behind the other team.

chaewon was in cover aiming at you ready to shoot when her lights started flashing signaling she was hit. she turned around in shock seeing eunchae behind her.

"what is this? y'all are too elaborate!" chaewon exclaimed.

chaewon walked away telling her team about your positions but she was too late as kazuha got yunjin who just happened to walk into the crossfire.

since the rest of the other team was reviving you three took the opportunity to ambush sakura who was alone. it took the three a while to find her, but kazuha successfully killed sakura at the last second right before the timer went off signaling the game was over. you and eunchae ran off quickly ran off to see the score.

SSAMKKURAJIN - 17

YNEUNHAZ - 28

"WE WON!" eunchae shouted when she made it there first.

you, kazuha, and eunchae jumped up and down as the other team watched in both amusement and disbelief.

"i thought we were in the lead. i was killing all of them" sakura said in shock.

"and you make up 10 of those kills" eunchae said as she pointed to the screen that showed the number of kills each person had.

"what were y'all doing?" sakura asked her team making both chaewon and yunjin look away finding everything else in the building interesting.

"you beat me by 1 y/n" eunchae said in disbelief as she pointed at the screen. you had 11 kills while eunchae had 10.

"i'm just better" you bragged.

"i knew it was over once eunchae and y/n were on the same team" chaewon said.

"if i'm being honest sakura was my only competition" eunchae said.

"same she's like the only person that killed me" you agreed.

"okay i remember getting you once" yunjin cut in.

"once to my 7 kills on you" you retorted.

"shut up y/n"

all of you were standing to do the outro when yunjin mumbled, "i feel like this was a very unbalanced game"

"balanced rematch part two?" you asked looking around at the team.

"how many likes for it?" kazuha asked as she wrapped one of her arms around your shoulder pulling you towards her.

"100K?" you turned to look at the rest of the group to see if they agreed.

"this was fun i'm down to do it again" sakura agreed with you.

"i wanna be on y/n's team next time" yunjin said going closer to the camera, "so y'all better get this to 100K"

the rest of the group agreed and started doing the outro for real this time.

you wrapped an arm around kazuha's waist leaning even more into her. you two ended the video practically all over each other knowing it would make people freak out over the interaction.

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