#this is the death of free expression

[earlgodwin]

RODRIGO BORGIA + his beloved sons

"I remember the joy of holding [Juan] in my arms. A brother for little Cesare at last."

[destielmemenews]

"With many buildings reduced to rubble and shelter hard to find, Gazans are short of food, water, fuel and medicines. Their plight got worse from Friday night when phone and internet services were cut - followed by heavy bombing through the night.

"God help anyone under the rubble," said one Gaza journalist, who spent a terrifying night in a stairway building watching "belts of fire" as bombs fell and Israeli forces appeared to exchange fire with Palestinian fighters."

source 1

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[no-light-left-on]

there needs to be further and deeper discussion in this fandom of the Outsider's mannerisms and way of speech in DotO, hell, even in DH2 - his agitation and anger, the resignation and hope and lingering sorrow, his awe, "you've done something impossible"

[hangryyeena]

SquidgeWorld refusing to even talk about Palestine and other genocides happening because "this a fandom space" is wild and severely disappointing

[reitheist]

I would pay exorbitant amounts to see a live action, adult-oriented show with all the agony, heart, and hilarity of ourgoodshadows surrounding queer women pretty pleaseeeee

[iamadequate1]

OFMD S2, My Beloved

We need to stop tiptoeing around it! Stop with the "I liked it, but..." with every statement about S2. You can say the same thing about everything. It doesn't make you cool or better at enjoying media! You love people, animals, places, tasty food, twinkly holiday decorations, whatever!, but you don't preface all your statements "I like (thing), but (flaw)..." It's an exhausting human experience. It doesn't make you more intellectual to be cynical, and harassing those involved in show production to give some OOC "Emotions Are Not For Sharing" type soundbite to justify your terrible takes doesn't make you a quality warrior. There are things I didn't like in OFMD S2, but on the whole, what an experience! 2023 has been just a soul crushing experience, but here we have a sincere and joyful bright spot.

S2, just the payoffs, guys (gn)!! (I know I put S2 in the title, but this just turned into Ed/Stede, and I apologize for nothing.)

Remember this in 1x4??

Ed: Well, Blackbeard? What do you think? Do you concur? Stede: Me? Ed: I mean, you wanted to be Blackbeard. This is what it's like. (...) Uh oh, time's almost up. What're you gonna do? Stede: What? Ed: They're on us now. Time for a new idea, Stede. Stede: W-w-we talk. Ed: The crew's gonna die. Stede: I don't - have an idea. Ed: Hurry, you're going to lose all your men. It's all gonna be your fault. All of the men who trusted you. Stede: I don't know! Ed: All their blood's gonna be on your hands. It's going to be your fault! Stede: I don't know! Lucius: Time's up! Stede: I don't know what to do! Ed: Death it is.

It serves to show why Ed would want to give up Blackbeard, but also, payoff for S2 Stede! Half his crew is set to be executed, and he flawlessly whips out and carries out a rescue plan to save them, all while mourning the love of his life.

And Ed! Also in 1x4, we get the Treading Water speech.

We don't get the full effect of the life Ed wants to leave until 2x1-3. That life in 2x1-2 is the pirate life, only with fewer breaks. It harshly contrasts against Stede's life, and it was only theoretical in S1. We can see why Stede's Original Pirate Captain Style was so fascinating to Ed, and we can see why he fell so hard. In 2x3, we get the literal visual representation of a bright little goldfish Stede in Ed's dark life where he was waiting to drown.

It's soooo cute!

Ed knew first what was going on. In S1, Stede just did not know why he was so upset about Ed leaving on the "next adventure" or why he spent all night spying on Ed and Jack!

But in S2, he knows exactly why he's so upset for Ed dumping him to be a fisherman....

Oh wait, that's not a fun thing to revisit... backpedal.... end of S1, Stede finally realizes he's in love thanks to Mary the GOAT.

End of S2, he's confident in this love and knowing he's loved in return!

March 24, 2022 to October 5, 2023.... 560 days of speculation, and S2 gave us the softest reunion between these two!

And the callbacks! Ed always comes back to Stede.

In 1x7, Lucius dropped the revelation on Ed that his crush on that bizarre little man might be reciprocated, opening up all kinds of hope!

The payoff in S2, he gets the gentlest love confession from Stede.

Just the S1 gazes become sweeter when you know you get to follow the journey with them being comfortable with their affection to one another!

(The comparison between this gaze and a kiss is the whole reason I made this post...)

End of S1, Stede imagined just the domesticity of asking Ed about his day...

And he got to hear about Ed's day in S2 (featuring that homewrecking fish*), even getting a kiss out of it!

(* warning: post written between 2x7 and 2x8, and I was a bit too harsh on Ed in the end)

In 1x6, Ed had some manifesting skills with his "Stab me!" homoeroticism.

S2 Stede picked up some of his manifesting skills with his "Ed, oh, Ed!" dreams, and in 2x6....

Just after in 2x7, we get cute making-breakfast-for-your-SO like Mary and Doug in S1.

S1 showed how much they could hurt each other. Ed was so happy after Stede agreed (reluctantly) to run away with him to China.

And, well...

Ed hurt Stede, too... dumping him for Jack in front of everyone!

But end of S2, they're together! They're going to be working together on their relationship! They're in love!

Beautiful journey, and it isn't over yet! (S3 renewal announcement soon, HBO, please!)

And, I'm a simple creature. S2 also gave us the Cursed Red Suit and MerStede.

Bless you, OFMD S2. Both of these things made my life much brighter.

And how cute Ed and Stede were smiling at each other in the MerStede scene?

Just heartmeltingly cute. OFMD S2, I love everything about you.

🥰

This was Ed/Stede heavy, so I put up two bonus GIF posts just before this!

Roach:

LuPete:

Someone also posted a great Ed/Stede marriage visuals between S1 and S2 yesterday, too!

[charlotterenaissance]

it took about ten rewatches of death comes to town, but it finally hit me why the cat nurse character dave plays looks slightly off to me: he's wearing brown eye contacts. that's it. apparently dave's blue eyes are my zooey deschanel bangs

[dracolizardlars]

btw saw The Mousetrap last night and it was fantastic. I love Agatha Christie's murder mystery stories so much and honestly I think she should've always been a playwright rather than primarily a novelist because theatre is such a good format for that kind of narrative!

[galerymod]

Yang Hengjun turned his back on the Communist Party and became an Australian - now China has sentenced him to death

There is great excitement in Australia. What did the naturalised author do to deserve the capital punishment in the eyes of China's rulers?

Patrick Zoll, Taipei 05.02.2024, NZZ

Australian Yang Hengjun, who was sentenced to death in China, in an undated photo with his wife Yuan Xiaoliang.

Australian Yang Hengjun, who was sentenced to death in China, in an undated photo with his wife Yuan Xiaoliang.

After five years in isolation in pre-trial detention, Australian author Yang Hengjun has been sentenced to death in China. The sentence will be commuted to "life imprisonment" if Yang does not commit any offences for a further two years. As Yang's health has recently deteriorated massively in prison, according to Australian reports, he will probably die in prison.

The Chinese judiciary has never announced in detail what it is accusing Yang of, nor has it provided any evidence. On Monday, a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry in Beijing said, according to the Reuters news agency, that Yang had been convicted of espionage. All necessary procedures had been followed and "the Australian side" had attended the sentencing. What exactly this means remains unclear - Australian diplomats have repeatedly complained that they have hardly any access to Yang.

From Chinese functionary to democracy blogger

Yang emigrated to Australia in 1999. He had previously worked for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and State Security. He studied in Sydney, wrote a doctoral thesis on the influence of bloggers on a possible democratisation of China and became a blogger himself. "Yang gave up his career as a communist cadre member to work for freedom and democracy," the Australian newspaper "Sydney Morning Herald" quoted Feng Chongyi, Yang's doctoral supervisor, as saying. Yang obtained Australian citizenship in 2002.

In 2019, Yang was arrested at Guangzhou airport when he travelled from the USA with his wife. At the time, he also held an academic position at Columbia University and was involved in the import-export business between China and the USA.

In captivity, Yang is said to have been repeatedly tortured and held incommunicado. He was tried behind closed doors in 2021.

There is a lot of excitement in Australia following the harsh judgement for Yang. Foreign Minister Penny Wong wrote that her government was outraged. All Australians wanted Yang to be reunited with his family. They will continue to stand up for him. However, Wong is probably aware that she has little room for manoeuvre.

The judgement comes at a delicate time in Australian-Chinese relations. These have only slowly begun to ease in recent months after years of ice age. The close trading partners found themselves in a serious diplomatic crisis. Australia accused China of interfering in and influencing Australian politics. During the coronavirus pandemic, Australia then demanded an investigation into the cause of the outbreak, which angered China's rulers so much that they imposed several punitive measures against Australian products.

The communist regime severely punishes "treason"

In November, Anthony Albanese became the first Australian Prime Minister in seven years to visit Beijing. Shortly before this, the Chinese government released the Australian journalist Cheng Lei. Like Yang, she was born Chinese and later obtained Australian citizenship. Cheng worked for the Chinese state broadcaster CGTN and was arrested, allegedly because she had ignored an embargo period. She was held for more than two years, but was never convicted.

Hopes at the time that Yang would soon be released did not materialise. On the contrary: the conditional death sentence exceeded the fears of most of his supporters. The 57-year-old's real "crime" was probably that he had turned his back on China and the Communist Party as a former member of the party cadre. In the eyes of those in power, this is treason and should be severely punished.

In Australia, Yang's harsh punishment is also seen in a political light. The director of the think tank Australia Strategic Policy Institute, Justin Bassi, described the judgement to the Sydney Morning Herald as hostage diplomacy. Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham told the public broadcaster ABC that the death sentence was a warning of the differences between Australia's and China's legal systems and the risks involved in doing business and maintaining contacts with China.

The West should finally understand that XI will not tolerate any resistance or criticism from the Chinese Communist Party, and if they do not retaliate today, they will retaliate at some point, without mercy or humanity.

The West must take advantage of China's weaknesses and exploit its dependence on China and the ultimate prosperity of the Chinese people.

In order to live in peace with China, the following must be realised.

China's business enterprises (mostly dependent on the CKP) cannot acquire shares in systemically relevant companies and infrastructure in Europe, nor in agricultural enterprises. Without exception, not even in the form of straw companies.

China's weakness is its size and the fact that ultimately China's land cannot feed the Chinese people sufficiently, which in turn means that the CP, which always emphasises that it and the people are one, must provide the people with food and quality of life. For better or worse! China has a large area, but this area is not exactly fertile.

Europe has the ability to supply China with the food China needs, but it should always understand that this is exactly the trump card to stop China.

Europe must also secure its supply routes and not be intimidated by China's behaviour in terms of exerting influence. Europe is China's sales market and if we get the sniffles, China is sick!

Mark Aurel more or less

According to the motto divide and conquer, keep a watchful eye on China because everything China does is part of a plan. They punish to negotiate, they smile to negotiate but always in the interest of the CKP and thus XI's plans.

No blogger is safe from dictatorships! Only democracy and freedom guarantee freedom of expression and thus participation in an open society. Someone should be persecuted because of their thoughts, opinions, ethnicity or sexual orientation.

A nation in which everyone is equal agrees on common rules of coexistence for the benefit of all.

Freedom is non-negotiable, human rights are non-negotiable.

Justice is when everyone is treated equally, publicly and transparently.

Everything else is injustice, there is no right in wrong!

[impossible-rat-babies]

once again. plagued bu 1.0 WoL thoughts !

[wedding-shemp]

[vvanessaives]

that post about the bioware mandated bestie but i can't rb it bc my hated bioware mandated bestie is a character most if not all of my mutuals love

[leadtohell]

OPEN STARTER. ( Mrs. Lovett, mutuals-only )

“ Mrs. Mooney has a pie shop... Does her business, but I noticed something weird — Lately all her neighbors' cats have disappeared! Have to hand it to her... What I calls, enterprise — Poppin' pussies into pies —

Wouldn't do in my shop! Just the thought of it's enough to make you sick... An' I'm tellin' you them pussycats is quick! ”

[darksideoflifes-blog]

Legacy

Call my name in the abyss of timeI’ll respond with the light in the stars ,I’ll show you the way to my friend’s house ,And she will tell you stories about my adventures .She will tell you how I climbed mountains to find the meaning of life ,She will tell you how I fell to my death but left my will of fire behind . From the stars I’ll wave at you candescently ,I’ll set up the aesthetic and drown…

[casmick-consequences]

no you don’t understand. i am OBSESSED with him.

[kikizoshi]

It's amazing how much of my progress with understanding and working with Nikolai as a character is predicated on his backstory. His backstory, which is exclusive to me, because I'm the one who made it. But every time I'm working on any questions to do with his philosophies or motivations, I have to delve into his past. It's so essential. No wonder I couldn't get anywhere with canon Nikolai--there literally just isn't enough there. Not enough for someone like me, anyway. I'm sure it's possible.