#should have them revoked tbh

[transingthoseformers]

Soundwave you bastard, of course this is a plan to overtake the fic and overthrow the autobots.

Offff course it is.

He's like a dog laying your neighbor's dead rabbit at your feet, except the dead rabbit in this scenario very well could be dead autobots, and the you in this scenario is mtmte megs

[papika]

really want a house md 2024 reboot where house is still a callous and insensitive cunt of a man, but like, where his awful treatment of marginalized and vulnerable people isn't largely ignored by the people around him, or even just. where house is still a piece of shit, but said minorities are treated with empathy and nuance by the writers instead of being treated exclusively as their goddamn punching bags.

[bioethicists]

Your post about how the clinical process surrounding mental illness and addiction was really interesting!

I wonder what your thoughts are about Housing First models and Common Grounds models? Because I feel like they speak directly to your points and provide the needs but also a structure that can be relied on if one wishes to change oneself.

my job as a research assistant is actually doing an evaluation of the benefits of a massive housing first project in boston! i am a fan of housing first particularly because i think everyone should be housed + the possibilities for life shrink dramatically the second somebody is unhoused, regardless of their substance use status. unhoused ppl are treated as less than human (sometimes less than animal tbh) in many spaces. i also have a personal investment because my brother overdosed in part because of the fact that he had been kicked out of his living situation for using + was forced to use with a depressed tolerance in a remote location. if he had been in a housing situation which was not contingent on sobriety, where others may have been present to narcan him or he would not have had the immense stress + trigger of dogshit menial labor jobs needed to pay the ridiculous, price gouging rents at sober living- i mean, i can't speculate, but it's something i do think about.

i think my hesitation with how it can be implemented is, again, the assumption that the end goal for everyone is recovery. my position is not "well some people can't recover" or "well some people can't recover until xyz is met" but "nobody is obligated to recover, ever, and recovery is a subjective concept which can be put to extremely reactionary uses. i want to reduce people's suffering and increase their possibilities for life."

i do think, based on my work, that it's really important for people who are using substances to have access to resources which facilitate their safety and happiness + a lot of them would probably choose either sobriety, MAT, or safer drug use habits if that was something which was easy for them to do. they often express genuinely felt desires to "get better" (in whatever way that means to them or whatever way they hope it means to me) but similar, competing desires to continue experiencing the benefits of their drug use, as well as avoiding the negatives of sobriety. while i chafe at the idea that all people's "true selves" want to recover (in the specific way that recovery is constructed by substance use treatment providers), i do think that most people want to suffer less. things like methadone/suboxone (or safe, legal, surveillance free supply!!!), medications provided on site, easily accessible, non judgemental medical treatment, etc can save lives.

it's important for ppl to be very skeptical of who is allocating/managing the resources for these interventions + their motivations. to be frank, i get scared about the future of the (admittedly imperfect) housing projects i work with because they are funded by the state of MA with the primary goal being to get ppl off the street, because housed members of the community were complaining about the encampments. the state very clearly wants to see that these projects 1) reduce the prevalence of visible homelessness and 2) reduce the rate of drug use among participants. my job is very explicitly to collect and produce data that indicates this + the questions i ask when i collect data are quite explicitly centered around figuring out if being housed makes ppl use less drugs. the point here is that the state absolutely can + will revoke the massive amounts of money it has allocated towards these programs if they don't see them as making people Stop Doing Drugs or Stop Wandering the Streets. this is why i think harm reduction responses should be grassroots responses originating within + for communities, as described in some of the chapters of Saving Our Own Lives. unfortunately, these communities rarely have the infrastructure or the resources to implement these projects, so they must rely on the state + all of its messy biopolitical motives

[greensaplinggrace]

Saw the Genya ask and had to ask 🔥 for Tatiana Lantsov. She feels so sinister to me. Even more than the King because he's like. Asshole. But also he's no different to any other entitled manchild who imposes himself on the weak. But Tatiana just gets my goat

there's not much to say about tatiana that I think is very unpopular tbh. most of the fandom hates her, although there are a surprising number of people who excuse her in some way or paint her in a better light - you know, for a fandom so keen on moralizing about abuse and corrupting power.

tatiana is the epitome of the privileged heiress. she's the epitome of the neglectful mother that turns the other way when the father lashes out at his children. she is every woman who chooses inaction over action in order to preserve their social status and uphold a status quo that quietly supports them through their own silence.

tatiana reaps the benefits of being in a position of power where she is catered to in every way. while she is disadvantaged as most women are to the men in her life, she still holds enough privilege to find it safer to never speak out about the harm those men are causing. she buries her head in the sand.

she doesn't bother protecting genya, and knows she is condemning genya to her husband when she revokes her favor. if there is anyone that could have actually protected genya in that situation, it would have been tatiana, not the darkling. the fact that tatiana doesn't is a condemnation of her character, and imo - despite fandom loving the idea of inaction being a pure form of moral activisim - it is a condemnation of the idea that sitting idly by while others are harmed so that you may passively reap the benefits of their misfortune is somehow more morally sound than doing something about it.

while tatiana is mildly condemned by the narrative, it is not nearly enough and for not even close to the right reasons. tatiana herself should be a symbol of everything wrong with the lantsov dynasty, and her and the king's actions/inaction should hold more weight within the story. their very presence should be the narrative symbol of a necessary revolution. that it is not is probably one of the biggest missteps in sab, but that's why I think lb misstepped in general when she put her story in this world-state and then handled it so poorly.

tl;dr - unpopular opinion (but not really): tatiana fucking sucks and should have been enough of a sign that the narrative message about inaction and passivity being morally superior is complete bullshit, and that the focus on corrupting power should have centered on the lantsovs more than the random shadow man if lb wanted anything important to actually be said in her story

basically yes, tatiana is sinister. she's a parasite, and a maliciously ignorant one.

send me a 🔥 for an unpopular opinion (x)

[nothorses]

Yo Mr. Nothorses what’s your theory about how cis white women like having weird amounts of control over others’ bodies. My mom literally made my brothers and I squeeze our front teeth together because we had tooth gaps because she didn’t want us to have them and when I came out as trans constantly mocked and belittled the fact I chose not to shave, so I’m just intrigued bc you mentioned that want for control before

tbh I have a pet theory that the role cis women play in patriarchy is "cop", vs. cis men's "judge/jury/executioner".

I haven't thought enough on it yet, so take this with a grain of salt or two, but:

Cis men's reactions to Bodies They Don't Like usually feels, to me at least, a lot more rooted in this idea that their personal acceptance or rejection of a body is what that body is there for to begin with. Like, "guys don't want girls who wear makeup (like that)" is very much centered around what cis men want, and their approval of that body. Cis men "revoking someone's man card" also feels like they're saying they don't approve; again, they're the ones with the power to revoke the "man card" in the first place.

Cis women's reactions feel, to me, like they're trying to police a social boundary line. It's less about what cis women themselves want, and more about what is expected: mocking men for being fat, or feminine, or mocking women for being ugly or undesirable, feels more like they're trying to punish someone for not meeting expectations. The language used often seems to be more along the lines of, "guy's don't want", or "you should give up your man card", or otherwise not taking the position of ultimate power- but rather one of brutal enforcement.

Which is also maybe why cis women can be so aggressive about their children not meeting those expectations; their children are a reflection of their expectations, therefore if their children aren't meeting expectations, they themselves are failing as well.

It's their job to police their children's bodies.

This is kind of half-baked and based on my own personal feelings about my own personal experiences, and I think there's a lot of overlap and a lot of exceptions, too. But that's my current theory. 🤷‍♂️

[mochinomnoms]

OH PLEASE TALK ABOUT COCO AND THE BOOK OF LIFE my favorite topic tbh

I prefer the book of life i find the whole "these people that look like wooden dolls are meant to be the ones from the history while real people outside of the history don't have the wood look" amazing and a great detail and LA CATRINAAA??? gorgeous woman (also I should say that idia could be the xibalba in the Catarina and Xibalba dynamic there is just this vibe yk yk)

Book of life came before Coco (plus Disney didn't own the century whatever company that book of life originally was from) and when Disney did make their own Dia de los muertos themed movie they tried to TRADEMARK EL DIA DE LOS MUERTOS TO MAKE MERCH? Insane.

(Making Pastel de choclo and other chilean dishes like pebre but it just isn't the same with regular ingredients instead of your country ingredients yk? LIKE HARVESTED ON YOUR MOTHER COUNTRY it doesn't taste the same I would include that as a step in the recipe that I am giving Azul totally knowing my country doesn't exist in twst and Azul is taking that step seriously lmao)

-Vaquita

Oooh so I didn't have time to answer this yesterday since I was busy at work. But my general thoughts are that while I enjoy both movies and their portrayal of Día de Muertos, the book of life feels (and is) a story made for and by Mexicans for other Mexicans. You can tell from the music styling, the humor, and the artistic style itself! There are for sure some liberties taken (Xibalba is not a god in mythos it's the name of the underworld roughly) but it feels very true and faithful as an experience. Coco, while I enjoy it, feels more like a group of well intending white Americans wanting to make a movie about Día de Muertos, though I'll give credit they did have Latino artists and cultural workers involved. The style of the movie just also feels more American and, as part of a study I did in undergrad, most Mexicans and other Latinos in general feel that it was made with a very general audience in mind rather than Mexicans or Latinos at all.

La Muerte in the book of life is a very interesting version of her and her design is beautiful! Los muertos in general in the first movie have a more fun, varied design to them, while the second movie just looks and feels like another Pixar film. I don't think it's a bad movie, I loved it and the music is wonderful, but it doesn't feel as genuine, especially watching as a Mexican.

If you like the book of life, the creator also has Maya and the Three (set in the same universe) but also created the nickelodeon show Le Tigre and the CN show Victor and Valentino. He's a Mexican animator, so all his shows are set with that background in mind, but it's very enjoyable for anyone to watch! If you're a fan of the music the composer is Gustavo Alfredo Santaolalla, who also did the music for the Last of Us games and show, Brokeback Mountain, and also Maya and the Three.

As for the Disney trademark thing, I know their request was either revoked by Disney themselves or denied due to the backlash. For anyone not super familiar with Latin holidays and stuff, Disney trademarking Día de Muertos is the equivalent of Hallmark trying to trademark Christmas. The only thing they can trademark now is their specific characters and imagery associated with their film, but there's a lot of drama surrounding that and using the likeness of real people and their art in the film without permission.

(I feel you about the food tho, I can't make certain dishes without a very specific brands and items sometimes. I would actually refuse to cause it won't turn out right, and I'm not damning myself or my cooking abilities lmao. Azul would probably get so stressed out with both of us aslkjdalkj)

[erstwhilesparrow]

I just saw that post you reblogged about archiving MCYT stuff - is there a particular reason stuff disappears so often? (That's very cool people are putting in so much effort to preserve it, though; big respect to that tbh)

reyni! :D okay i should be clear upfront that some of my information may be incomplete here because (1) i don't have twitter and (2) i'm not directly involved in any mcyt archival efforts. also putting this under a cut because it's long and i do need to reference recent events involving abuse and sexual assault:

despite mcyt = minecraft youtube(r), a lot of stuff relevant to mcyt happens like. exclusively on stream? really, really ~plot-critical or deeply characterizing stuff happens on stream sometimes and never makes it into a youtube video! and on twitch at least, unless you explicitly set it to save your vods, twitch will just delete them after a certain number of days. i don't know exactly how this works if you stream on youtube but also my impression is that a significant majority of people are not streaming on youtube anyway. since fairly early in my time in mcyt fandoms, there's been concern about creators not saving their own vods, and on top of that, sometimes you save a vod and it gets taken down anyway for copyright infringement (playing copyrighted music, the creator themself asked for it to be removed, etc). so like. as baseline, there's a sense of inherent ephemerality to the medium. that post i reblogged is explicitly pushing back against the description of mcyt vods as "a constantly burning library of alexandria," and in light of the evidence that follows i agree (and also am a little weepy about the efforts people make to save these things), but that sense doesn't come from nowhere, you know?

speaking of that post though, i suspect this archival stuff is coming up More now because it's been a rough couple of weeks in mcyt fandom. several really influential creators in the space were recently outed as being abusive or predatory in a way that's caught a lot of attention, and many people in response have been (understandably!) deleting their fanworks or otherwise distancing or removing themselves from mcyt fandom. i want to be clear, i know stuff gets deleted all the time in fanspaces -- the internet is kind of just Like That in terms of how easy it is to lose things -- and it's incredibly fair to go "no, even if there was a strong distinction between character and creator this leaves a sour taste in my mouth and i'm not doing this anymore." i don't want to pretend that no one has ever deleted a fanwork outside of mcyt spaces, and i don't want to insinuate that it's bad to vocally revoke your support of those creators -- those people have done awful things and generally failed to meaningfully apologize or take accountability, and it is worth remembering and saying so. but to give you a sense of numbers: antimony-medusa does monthly stats on mcyt fic on ao3, and dsmp, which even after it's kind of died off has seen monthly increases in the range of hundreds of new fic per month, saw a decrease of roughly 800 fics. other fandoms have similarly seen decreases, and video blogging rpf, which ao3 treats as an umbrella for basically all mcyt stuff, saw an increase of 51, as compared to last month's increase of (approximately) 3500. and that's just fic -- there's also a rich trove of animatics, fanvids, fanart, etc that i don't have any numbers for, but i've seen people talking about deleting those, too, you know? you see how people might be worried about what we are losing.

at this point i think your question is answered, but if you'll forgive some baseless speculation here, i wonder to what extent mcyt is also. complicated by how closely character and creator can sit? i don't know how other people feel, but there is a difference to me between "i've written fic about This Person Specifically (or, arguably, their streamer persona which may be somewhat divorced from the Real Life Human Being Behind The Screen)" and "i've written fic about a character this person plays." i dunno, there's a sense to me of the flimsiness of the line between creator and character and then also of the line between creator and fandom that i think makes it harder to be like "okay, i am doing my own thing, separate from the creator, so i'm going to keep my stuff public even if i don't stand by it 100% anymore." i remember when i first joined mcyt fandom, there was a period of time people were really worried that the creators were actively on ao3, or that fans would try to send their fanfic directly to the creators. i thought to myself, "well, if anyone Tries Shit with my work, i will simply delete all my relevant accounts and disappear." that's... not really a back-up plan that i feel good about these days, but. you know. it's been a thing, if not always for the same reasons, and i do understand the impulse.

[eoinmcgonigal]

if you want some idea of the irl shit rn

my appeal to the funding decision was rejected (the scottish student funding shitfuckers fucked up my disabled student allowance, which forced me to drop down to part time, and now they've withdrawn all the course funding because they won't fund anything part time in england, at all, ever, no matter if it's on them that i'm in this situation or the course isn't avaialbe in scotland - and to say nothing of the fact that a lot of disabled people cannot attend scottish universities due to accessibility issues)

i've been left to somehow pay a ~£4,500 fee. I will not be able to finish my masters because there's no way I'll be able to find £4,500 for next year as well

if i drop out now then i'll also be liable for the DSA stuff which they finally have started sorting out (i applied in august, support should have been in place in september/october)

july/august: applied for funding for full time august: finally got DSA application sorted (had to rely on uni, who kinda messed up a bit but did send it/sort it) end of november, still no DSA support in place because SAAS fucked up: had to drop down to part time just to stay on the course december: SAAS told me they were withdrawing the loan (but said nothing about the tuition fee) end of december: DSA 'approved' but nothing happened (turns out they fucked up again and had some sort of block on my account, so I couldn't receive anything) january: overdue payment with uni so talking to them, the guy looks at his spreadsheet and tells me the tuition cost has been revoked by SAAS so it's actually a miracle i found out at all, i put in an appeal to SAAS late january: finally got the money for the DSA items, but i won't get the stuff for who knows how long late january: the reply to my appeal is basically 'we fucked up but we're hiding that in huge paragraphs of narative shit, and also fuck you we don't fund these things for any reason ever'

I started a full time masters with no fucking stupport in place. The whole time I've been spending every last shred of energy I have trying to chase all that shit up and stay afloat. It has not worked.

I got a fuckin fist class honours degree for my undergrad. I CAN DO THIS. This is the ONLY thing I can do ffs. I'm physically trapped in a shitty house with shitty people who neglect me and abuse me and I have nothing else I can do, or to work towards, or look forward to, or fucking live for tbh. My mind doesn't function 'normally'. I can't even look after myself, but I can do academic stuff and I can write.

But no. Scotland does not believe in supporting and funding students to do well academically.

I've escalated the appeal. I know it will be rejected again, and then I face the ordeal of taking it to the ombundsman. In the meantime, what I owe the university grows, and my will to live just... disappears.

I've rarely been so unhappy, I just want to do well at studying but instead I'm having to fight for every fuckign breath with these cunts. It's inhumane, actually. It's evil. I should not be penalised for their fucking mess. No disabled or disadvantaged person should ever have to endure this, or be excluded from further education because of circumstances outwith their control (i.e. if someone can only manage part time because of a disability, they should have the right to education just the same as a fully abled person, and you bet your ass a lot of people who are also disadvantaged will be minorities who can only afford part time)

The SAAS discriminate. There are no two ways about it.

[jiminguuk]

Hot Takes Ahead:

If you are trying to paint a member as a “bad guy” kindly revoke your army pass to me. You don’t deserve it nor do you belong in your respective ship communities. That behavior is unacceptable.

Jungkook can do what he wants. He’s an adult. I get that many of us have especially grown up with him and feel a sort of connection with him because of it, but I think this is a great example of a parasocial relationship being harmful. He’s literally an grown man, he obviously doesn’t know every single army, yet we judge him because he doesn’t fit the idea we have of him.

“It’s harmful” “I can’t believe he’d do this” “I’m disappointed”

His decisions have absolutely no impact on our lives. He is an idol under extreme pressure. He can’t breathe without someone taking a photo or video. Personally, I believe we should be upset that the video was taken with (most likely) the intention of damaging effects rather than Jungkook have a drag of a cigarette.

——-

Jimin’s every move, every moment, everything he does is supposedly a connection to JK. I find it gross tbh. He’s an artist. He makes meaningful work for himself and others. Making connections to JK seems like a cheap shot to scramble for Jikook content. I wish, we as Jikook fans/shippers/supporters would see them as individuals as well as a pairing.

————-

If you are so tied up, obsessed, and/or banking on one of the ships to be proven…then I think you should consider having other hobbies. Shipping is fun! And it should be! It shouldn’t cause anxiety. No one should be “ship jumping” or upset about JK hanging out with tae or Jimin posting about JK. It’s literally just a ship. A pairing of beautiful people. I wish folks would focus on the wtf moments and sweet, endearing moments rather than claw eyes out to argue over dumb shit.

as a Jikooker and Yoonjin enthusiasts for nearly 8 years I can confidently say I have never wavered because it’s the content I want to see!! If I go searching for taekook, I’ll see it. I’ll see the moments. But it’s not my ship. It’s not what I like to consume because it doesn’t scratch that itch of wholesome and eyebrow raising moments I crave. (Does that make sense, do I sound psychotic?)

TL:DR I’m over all the current discourse. Move on Army.

[dorics]

predictably maybe, katniss sole au!!!

i just think it's a fun and interesting world to play with. what if katniss was just a little bit less attached to peeta? what if katniss was just a little bit more angry, a little bit quicker on the draw? what if peeta didn't let her do the berry stunt? i just think it's interesting! also it was haymitch pov bc imo the hunger games should've been multi-pov and one of those povs should've been haymitch's. i understand why it wasn't but i still think it should have been.

i'm not sure why i stopped writing this one, tbh? because i have a bunch of scene ideas to write written out in the doc. honestly i probably just had inspiration for different stuff and then it left my field of vision and i forgot about it because i do not have object permanence.

haymitch watches as the rule is revoked. he nearly laughs at the shocked filled expressions painted on both of their faces. don’t they know this is how the game is played? that the gamemakers would never let two of them win. not ever. katniss’s hand flies to her bow, notching an arrow and pointing it at peeta. haymitch smiles bitterly. she’s a survivor, that one, harper fairfield had said — wait, it was mellark now, wasn’t it? she'd married farrin, popped out three kids, bannock, cruller, and peeta — none of whom she treated decently. she’d never wanted kids. never wanted to risk losing them. never wanted to get attached. haymitch could relate — and harper was right. katniss has always reminded haymitch far too much of himself for him to be truly comfortable with her. 

he watches as she lowers the bow. “peeta, i.. ” she trails off. haymitch fills in the rest of the sentence for her in his mind. she can’t kill you. not you. anyone but you.

peeta frowns bitterly. “if you don’t, i’ll rip off my tourniquet and bleed to death. your way’s quicker,” he threatens. he’s always been clever, that one, haymitch muses. ‘she came here with me.’ he knows how to work a crowd. he’s the safe choice for victor, haymitch realizes suddenly. it’s peeta, not katniss, who can charm the capitol and lie through his teeth. he’s two-faced, and he knows just what to say and when to say it. he nearly regrets thinking katniss could help spark — hah! — the revolution. she could, sure, but peeta could keep it burning. it doesn’t matter now, he reminds himself. doesn’t matter much now. they’ll make their choices and snow knows they’ll stick to them. 

“no,” katniss says, the sharp, determined edge to her voice that haymitch knows she gets when she’s made up her mind. “i won’t let you do that.”

peeta raises an eyebrow. “they have to have their victor, one way or another.” he hobbles towards katniss, leaning in to whisper in her ear so quietly that the microphones don’t pick it up before lifting her bow and pointing it right at himself. he backs away, a soft, sad smile on his face.

katniss’s arrow leaves her bow before anyone knows what she’s done. she drops the bow once the arrow splinters its way into peeta’s ribcage, directly in his heart. she runs towards peeta, cradling his head in her lap.

when peeta dies, he dies with katniss’s tears forming a crown on his brow. it’s almost ironic, haymitch thinks. almost. almost. he takes a deep breath, reminds himself that he’s still got one victor, and not to wallow in his misery just yet. 

claudius templesmith’s voice booms across haymitch’s headphones. “ladies and gentlemen, the victor of the seventy-fourth annual hunger games, katniss everdeen!”

[mitchellsandco]

the shore kids*

Sofia: I can ask him to go see him?

Sofia: or ask Eli to go check on him? Haven't they been spending time together?

Alex: idk if they're together I guess

Sofia: uncle Tom said something about Seb buying his house so he might be there

Alex: I guess I'll go round and see if he's OK bc we probably have a better guess of knowing where he is and tbh I'd rather go see him than dad

Ingrid: wait what the fuck?

Ingrid: did uncle tom move???

Ingrid: seriously you move five minutes away from home into an apartment with your partner and suddenly your right to prompt updates is immediately revoked

Ingrid: whatever, not the point

Ingrid: we should maybe TELL eli, but i don't think we have any right to ask him to go look

Ingrid: idk, we don't know what's going on behind close doors i don't want to make anything worse for either of them

Ingrid: alex i think you should go, yeah

Ingrid: maybe sof and i can head over to tom's? see if they know anything, check on the kids and make sure they're okay

[anotheronechicagobog]

Idk why they have the docs on Med CONSTANTLY do things that would have them lose their licenses to practice if it was irl.

Example being Will, some of the stuff he’s done would have his medical license revoked in the real world

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(this post does not point out Will Halstead's good qualities, consider this a trigger warning for those who don't want to read an anti Will post)

Will is my best example of illegal shit with zero consequences! He violated TWO do not resuscitate orders! He violated the bodily autonomy of two different women because he didn't handle his mom's death well, and to make things worse when it comes up he's always complaining about it! He acts like he's the victim but he IS NOT and I will never not be mad about it!

I can't remember the exact wording, but when Hannah Baker was dying in the ER only her 15 year old daughter was with her and instead of getting her out of the room, sending someone to find her father, he asked her to give him permission to resuscitate her mom. He should NOT have asked a 15 year old that question, he should not have traumatized her more than she already was. He selfishly put his wants and feelings and issues before LITERALLY EVERYONE ELSE and expected to be treated like a hero for it.

No. Fucking hell no.

That's why I only begrudgingly ship manstead, it's the ship that made her the happiest, but Will was toxic and didn't deserve her.

He didn't deserve most of the women he dated tbh. Every single relationship he was in was an nothing short of an absolute trainwreck and he is the only common denominator. Makes you think, doesn't it?

[eclairbrun]

Generally positive reception to that post that was basically If you want people to keep stocking the books you want, and to make preservable copies of the shows you want to preserve, you should actually buy them so companies have an incentive to keep giving you those things.

Given that the negative responses I got were about streaming, I’m guessing this has gone over better with the book crowd than with the streaming crowd. Although tbh, part of that might be that there’s no specific books people are rallying around so much as the general situation of debut and midlist authors facing lost opportunities, while there are specific shows with fanbases affected by the HBO thing and I tagged that post with the show I saw the largest number of people upset about. Still, the fact that all the replies with specific comments are about shows and not books makes me a little sad, seeing as this is an author’s blog.

Anyway, to clarify my stance on the matter a little more, since the last post was pretty brief on the issue:

Corporations are greed-driven entities with straight up legal obligations to be profitable. If you put your foot down and don’t let them profit from you via exploitative practices, then they can’t exploit you. If you make the practices that give you more control unprofitable, then congrats. You have just given them easy justification to stop wasting money on the thing that protects you from exploitation. Thus, only paying media companies for forms of media that give you less control is begging the company to take advantage of you, and teaching them that they can continue to strip you of more and more power for additional convenience.

If there is media that is truly valuable to you and you want to ensure you can access it, then to the best of your ability, you should push for access to the method that lets you preserve it. If you don’t, then you are either blindly trusting corporations (which is an oddly corporatism-friendly attitude on a site that claims to hate capitalism) or you don’t actually consider the media to be worthwhile.

While I didn’t get any pushback on the book front, I’mma mention that this also applies to many ebooks or other forms of digital media stored in archives owned by the company that sold you the show or comic or whatever. TOS usually mention somewhere in the fine print that you are effectively renting that material. It can often be altered or even revoked after you pay for and download it. There are forms of digital media that are less susceptible to this, but you wanna make sure your device itself doesn’t have some feature built in to detect if you are circumventing some corporation’s control, lest they ban your account or brick your device. Amazon has been sued for removing books off of people’s Kindle apps that they paid for. Sony deleted purchased movies from people’s libraries in Europe last month. You do not own much of the digital content you “buy.” I have personally witnessed books that I paid for getting edited after I downloaded them. The edits were to correct typos, but the fact that this feature exists means one of the books I paid for could be covertly censored after my purchase without outright removal from my device. TV shows and movies are vulnerable to this same post-release editing.

Physical media is the most secure means of ensuring that you will retain access to the story you love, in the form in which you fell in love with it. Continuing to support physical is the BEST way to combat corporate abuse. A physical book might not be as resistant to a house fire as something up in the cloud is, but everyone encounters corporate greed on the regular and can worsen it through continued enabling. Most people will never be in a fire.

Also, like, I just don’t buy the arguments about cost/quantity with streaming. If you’re so poor that you legitimately can’t afford a DVD or two a year, this all applies to you in the same way that reminders to use the stairs instead of an elevator apply to someone in a wheelchair. (Which, y’know, shame on me for assuming that went without saying on tumblr.) Otherwise, the average person spends 1/3 on streaming what it costs for cable, and people were able to buy DVDs and VHS tapes and whatnot back in the days of cable over streaming. This didn’t stop because of cost issues. It stopped because people no longer felt the need to buy physical media once streaming gave them on-demand access that cable lacked. It is entirely possible to have ‘rental’ access to a large library of shows and also secure personally-preservable copies of shows that are of particular value to you. This is a thing that people used to do when they wanted to have access to a particular show or movie back before streaming tricked them into thinking the access would always be one login away. And it should come as a shock to no one that shows can disappear off of streaming services when that’s been a thing for years. 

And please, please, do not tell me, a book person, that DVDs are too space-consuming to be a viable option. You can get cases that hold 25 of those things in the same amount of space that a single hardcover book takes up.

[mlmxreader]

I’m not sure if they do this everywhere, but in parts of Texas they do it here. Some prison systems let inmates bake banana bread and they let some of the inmates go out in town and they walk around the streets and they sell the banana bread they make. And it’s SO fucking good too, like you be on the verge of cumming in your pants with every bite you take my GOD it’s so damn good😫😩

The only thing is I’m not sure what happens to the money, I’m hoping it all goes to the inmates, but I’m not sure knowing how cruel the prison system is so I’m gonna have to do some research on it.

bc we have the MOST privatised prison system in Europe, we DO have a prison labour scheme within those for-profit prisons and imho, it's absolutely abhorrent; those who have been incarcerated only earn, like, £4 AN HOUR - so a 40 hour work week, they ONLY EARN £160, which is not good enough. they also have NO RIGHTS in terms of unionising or organising, no contracts, no right to actually CHOOSE what job they do. they can also be punished for saying no to working by having visits & association (time outside of a cell) revoked. it's abhorrent; prisons need to be abolished.

I'm glad the inmates that you saw were allowed out, I genuinely am, as G-d knows how desperate they probably are for some actual human interaction, and they probably REALLY appreciated that people were enjoying the food, too! it's good that they were given that, although imho, having time "outside" & being able to, yknow, INTERACT with other human beings SHOULD BE a human right.

I'd say contact your local prison AND any prison abolishment campaigners in your area, tbh; ask them where the money goes, how much they're being paid, and what you can do to ensure that they a) have a LIVING wage, and b) have EVERY human need met. but if you do have a local prison abolishment campaign, it might also be handy to ask if they have a website or if they have any links that you can look into! they usually do, as prison abolishment is a BIG movement (as it should be!!), so they can often point you where you need to go!!

[beardedhandstoadshark]

Just beat Fire Emblem Blazing Blade kinda Deathless (after only playing FEH and Fates before)

LOBSTER LORD IS OUT GREAT LORD IS IN HECTOR MY MAN MY GUY MY MVP

Like 40 people worked on this game. Most things were made by 2 people max. The translator list is longer than any of the other categories. Wth

Main Trio, your honor I love them. It is VERY rare for me to care about main characters of a game but these guys man

Which is also very evil because I know this game is a prequel to Blazing Blade and looking at the versions of Hector I have in FEH I‘m like 95% sure this man kicked the bucket. Rip King

Given that the amount of main character dads I’ve seen survive till the end so far is a total of zero, and looking at the versions of Elliwood I have in FEH I‘m like 60% sure he’s also gonna kick the bucket. Rip King

Elliwood Hector Support B is the funniest thing in this entire game. Support A is the most evil thing in this entire game if those 95% are right ;-;

Meanwhile Lyn casually quit her job dumped it on Hector and went back to live in the plains. Good for her tbh, Long Live the Queen

I do love how Lyn and Hector went from not liking each other to being basically gremlins around each other. Character development lol

The support system is kinda whack ngl, it takes 80 points per level and even the closest characters only grow 3 each turn. I did most chapters in around 10-15 rounds, had to grind for 70 turns in a chapter just to get any supports

Eliwood‘s other stats might suck but at least his rizz is maxed out it seems

The romance really ain’t hitting it if you already got that A support bromance and B support to complete the Main Gang Trio

Hey Rebecca doesn’t look like she wants to devour my soul anymore! Nice

Where did the horse come from. Whose horse did the Heaven Seal steal. Is the horse magic. What

Something about noted redhead Eliwood‘s ancestor having Marth-blue hair just feels very very wrong

I don’t even go here but. Old men Yaoi. Perhaps Ancient men yaoi, even

Whenever a character tells you that you should let them talk to someone and maybe they’ll stop to fight, it works. Since the beginning of the game, and even with characters who wanted to see you dead chapters before. And then it doesn’t.

I had to load a save state because Nino died that very same move.

Ouch. Very good scene for character showing. But ouch.

When you defeat the final chapter main enemies they gain color back and smile before closing their eyes and despawning. Stoooop T-T

I didn’t take Nino into that battle because wow she’s underleveled but. I bet there would’ve been extra dialogue if she kills a certain 2 guys. Or there should’ve been if there isn’t.

How those particular enemies were made + the permanent death mechanic = some PRIME source for angst. Bonus points if it’s one of the characters who get special reactions from other folks when they die, like Rath or Markus

Are we sure FEH Rebecca isn’t actually a Morph of the original person out for Summoner‘s quintessence. It would explain her eyes

You can’t just give pirate guy a quiet scene promising his captain to come back save only to then say in the after credits he probably died protecting him and no way to get the body. What the heck Intelligent systems

They’re OLD oh wow that color looks really bad on Eliwood. I can see why they slapped Roy’s palette on him. Though now it kinda reads like Eliwood‘s got his main character rights revoked lmao

BABY ROY. PRECIOUS BEAN GOT EVEN PRECIOUSER

SCREW YOU ZEPHIEL HECTOR KILLED LIKE 15 PEOPLE TO SAVE YOUR SORRY BUTT AND THIS IS (with a 95% likelihood) THE THANKS ;-;

Hector ily but I am NOT replaying 17 chapters that I all already played with you just because chapter 11 is apparently unique

And once again the titular item is barely present for a single chapter or two in this entire game only to justify said title lmao

Why does this thing keep changing locations anyways. And it’s always near the places where apocalypses involving dragons happen. Y’all maybe the Fire Emblem is cursed

Tldr good game very fun

[rcdiostcrs]

let’s talk about jace’s family—the valencias! also known as the does and the kerrigans. (this post will be neglecting the paternal part of the tree, since that’s mercury & tbh i don’t wanna talk about godly relations).

first up—they’re blended & multi-racial! they’ve got irish, latine, italian, black, & korean. their family portraits look like seven random people if one doesn’t look close. school pickups were a nightmare.

second up—they’re from roswell. conspiracy theory central. none of them are truthers, but i feel that it’s important to note that they are from new mexico. the first time any of them experienced a real winter was a sight to behold.

let’s start with the matriarchs, catalina doe & alessandra valencia. catalina is a black woman who, despite what her surname may suggest, was not abandoned. her family just has an unfortunate name. alessandra is latina & italian. the two were married in massachusetts in 2004, a year after the state affirmed gay marriage. they had been together for two years at that point, but were plenty sure the other was the one.

bennett kerrigan is alessandra’s ex-boyfriend. the two were never married, but were together all throughout high school and college. he is the father of her two bio children. the two broke up amicably after realizing that they weren’t the people they were when they fell in love. bennett helped raise the girls, not one to abandon family. however, upon alessandra & catalina’s marrige, he revoked his own parental rights, giving them to catalina. this doesn’t mean he isn’t around! he has father-daughter days and is always available (even to jace & eun, who aren’t even related to him). he only gave up legal parental rights, not moral ones.

the eldest & younger middle children are alessandra’s from her previous relationship with bennett. the elder is mia kerrigan. she is twenty-eight and works as a family attorney. mia feels that she brings an understanding to clients, especially clients with kids, from her background.

the older middle is jace himself! he is the son of catalina & the god mercury from their short relationship. while he did have catalina’s last name for a while, when alessandra offered adoption so custody would be secure should something happen, he asked to take her name as his own. catalina loved that her son adored his second mother enough to do it and alessandra was honored. no hard feelings about the name change exist between mother and son.

the younger middle is alessandra’s second daughter, maeve kerrigan. maeve is twenty-four. she works as a reporter, doing both op-eds and research pieces. her career started before high school even ended, as she worked for her school newspaper. the local paper saw the articles she wrote and offered a job directly after graduation.

the youngest child is eun doe. unlike the other three, eun isn’t biologically related to either wife. he was adopted from the system at twelve, changing his last name. he took catalina’s to contrast against jace having alessandra’s & the girls having their father’s. currently twenty-one, eun is a community college student.

now let’s talk extended family. there’s really only one worth mentioning—rachele valencia. also known as “nonna.” alessandra’s mother, a widow who moved from her native santa fe to roswell to be closer to her daughter, her only living relative. rachele is in her golden years and knows she doesn’t have much longer left, so she spends her days trying to pass her culture to her grandchildren. she enjoys the blending of it with their own, especially when it comes to food.