#this is why i hide being jewish irl

[funkopersonal]

Pls block this person.

They literally found my account, told me to kill myself, not once but twice, and then went into a post where i was asking for advice on my bat mitzvah and told me to kill myself once more.

So um... yea thats all i wanted to say today. bye bye

[doberbutts]

Thank you for making the schindler post, it perfectly illustrates why I hate the way people will act like people who hurt others (like active nazis and racists) aren't capable of regular emotion and thought. Second chances are often seen as bad when it comes to violence and crime, but if you never give someone the chance to change, form different opinions, or see the damage they or their associates have caused, they'll just keep taking the path of least resistance, keep following orders. I just want people to take a serious look at a nazi who changed his mind. There is nothing inherently evil about anyone, there are only moral and immoral choices.

It helps, I think, to understand that he did not join the nazi party because he hated Jews. Even what research I did on the real man said that for the most part his reasons for siding with Hitler were purely economical. And, as I've said before, Hitler did not start with "I hate Jews let's kill them all" but with "look how bad the economy sucks! And who is doing well while the economy sucks? The Jews. That means they're the ones behind making the economy suck!" to get people on his side.

I think Schindler did have some internalized antisemitism. How could he not? He thought of the plan to use almost exclusively Jewish slave labor as good business sense. Cheaper than Poles, more desperate for the work and thus less likely to complain about conditions or quit, can't fuss about wanting wages or better hours, what's not to like? Supposedly his workers were treated well. I don't know if that makes it particularly better. I wonder how his workers felt, staring at the emblem proudly pinned to his jacket, knowing it stood for the extermination of their entire people.

I wonder if any of them ever considered it might be a trick. An elaborate long game to get them to trust and slip up. To get them to reveal the hiding places and secret messages and the others striving to find or make a way out.

I think the movie played with that concept a little bit, when the character of Stern (who apparently was 3 different real guys rolled into 1) is portrayed as always being a little standoffish and cold to Schindler until close to the very end. He was afraid of him. Schindler held not only his life but the lives of all of the people working there (plus more, irl) in his hands. He rubbed shoulders with high ranked officials and knew personally more than one known sadistic bastard that actively got off on murdering Jews. All it would take is a single word and it would be more than just those in the factory who died.

But then the ghetto was cleansed. In history, Schindler had advance warning and made his workers lock themselves in the factory overnight to spare them. In the movie, Schindler did not have warning, and saw the chaos from atop a vantage point as he'd meant to pass by.

Either way, both in life and in film, that was the line. He was, at minimum, willfully blind and passive to the evidence of what was happening up to that point. Once he couldn't deny it, he put his foot down and said, no more. I'm not doing this. I can't save everybody but you aren't getting your hands on anyone in my charge. Put me in jail if you have to. This is wrong.

He had everything to gain by continuing to look away. In the movie, Stern says something to the tune of "you'll have to hire Hungarians and Poles. They cost a little more but you'll still be rich" when they're both faced with Hitler's final solution. No more cheap Jewish labor when they're all dead, after all. It is at that point that they come up with the list- to get as many Jews as possible out of Germany before they're all sent to their deaths. He could have just said "yeah, sorry. I tried". Stern even more or less gave him permission to do so, like he was expecting it.

But he didn't. He said no fuck that, it's bullshit. It's not happening. I'm not letting it happen. They can arrest me or kill me if they want but if I'm alive for it I'm not just going to stand back and watch.

But I think it is difficult for people to grapple with that level of complexity. Not everyone he saved thinks he was overall a good person. His motives were not always pure. In fact many times his motives were just about lining his own pockets. But when he saw atrocities happen, he put his foot down and refused to participate. Even at his own cost- he had the equivalent amount of money back then as would be needed to retire early nowadays from his factory labor. He spent it on bribes and rations to keep them safe. He went to jail several times for refusing to back down. He risked his own neck by networking with other factory owners to get them to do the same. He could have been executed for this at any point. Nazis loved public spectacle executions for traitors and for collusion with Jews.

He wasn't a perfect ally. But I think I'd rather an imperfect ally do whatever they can to help, than no allies at all.

[discluded]

i’m pro palestinian independence, but how is hamas, a terrorist organization, causing further deaths of civilians on both sides a move for palestinian independence? it’s also been sickening to see internet leftists ignoring the horrifying videos released by hamas of rapes and murders of civilians. how can that be justified in any way? hamas literally states in its charter that it wants to kill all jews, is this who should be the face of palestinian independence? i’m sorry, i’m not trying to start drama with you or call you out or anything, but it’s something to think about, and i see you as a person capable of nuance. these kinds of extremists do not give a single fuck about palestinians either, considering the leaders are all hiding away in foreign countries currently. How is this horrifying situation any kind of “gotcha” moment?

OK first of all. where in any of the previous post did it talk about Hamas that would imply I'm pro-Hamas or pro violence. the tweets are talking about civilian Palestinians, attempting peaceful protest, and experience violence in retaliation from a violent government violating their human rights.

second of all, I'm not an internet leftist. I'm not interested in sharing my political views, but I heard about the situation today on NPR and haven't looked at anything since, other than the post I reblogged in support of Palestinian civilians, again, who face oppression and violence.

here's how NPR framed it by the way:

Does the Israeli government know that Hamas is not the same as Palestinians? and if they do, as I assume they would, then why are they so comfortable attacking Gaza while providing no means for civilian Palestinians to evacuate or seek refuge?

also when an extremist terrorist group harms the civilians in your country, is the correct appropriate retaliation *checks notes* to murder civilians in the country the terrorist group is occupying? what kind of George W Bush bullshit logic is this?

and once again: where did I or any of the previous post even imply we are pro Hamas or pro violence. I have no problem separating the horrific violence commited by the Israeli government from the fact this government does not represent the beliefs of many Jewish people in the country and around the world. The fact you're the one aligning my post supporting Palestinian civilians who'll disproportionately be affected by this war and have limited means of escape/evacuation... with Hamas being the face of Palestine seems like a you problem in linking the two.

The fact that you linked my post expressing frustration and support for a people whose human rights have been violated for decades with me being OK with antisemitism, terrorism, and violence also seems like a you problem.

I am not open to more conversation about this topic unless if I know you irl. please don't submit a rebuttal.

[kittenwithabass]

source

These are 2 slides from an instagram post by Gen-Z Aotearoa, a New Zealand (Aotearoa) based organisation of "Gen-Z activists". There are more slides not in the post, you can find them at the link above. ID in alt. I'm a member of gen z from Aotearoa and was about to apply to join their communications team just 15 minutes ago, right before I saw this post.

Anybody seeing this probably already knows/agrees with everything I'm about to say. This post claims that the Houthis are rebels and supports them, as well as Hamas and Hezbollah. How do I even begin to describe how much this pains me to see? The Houthis are absolutely not "rebels". They are a terrorist group. Their flag says curse upon the Jews, and since I know these people don't care about us, it also says death to America. How anybody can claim that the Houthis are rebels or freedom fighters when the exact opposite is true, when you can tell this is not true from knowing any single thing about them? I'm clueless.

And I absolutely shouldn't have to explain why Hamas are terrorists. Not after they violently raped and murdered over a thousand Israelis and kidnapped 200 more. Not after they killed my friend. They murdered my friend and filmed it while laughing. And this is just on October 7th; not even including all their atrocities before and after that single day.

It baffles me, really. How can a group that claims to be "activists," go and spout such lies? This helps no one. It doesn't help Palestinians, all it does is give you fake internet points and scare jewish people.

I'm Jewish. I'm proud to be Jewish. But I'm scared. Terrified. I've done everything I can to avoid being clocked: I stopped speaking Yiddish and Hebrew, I changed my phone contacts to English (they were all in Hebrew), I never tell anyone irl that I'm Jewish, I hide my siddurim when people come over. I'm white-passing enough. Surely there's no way for someone to clock me as Jewish, and yet. I'm so scared. I can't leave my house. All my friends don't care at best, cheer on Hamas at worst. I want to take down the mezzuzah on the front door. Even online I can't escape antisemitism, this is the first time I've used tumblr in days. My friend's favourite rapper is a nazi. I log onto instagram and the first thing I see is that post and my friend posting violent antisemitism on its story.

I don't know what the point of all this is. I think what I'm trying to say is, if you're an "activist," why are jews scared of you? Shouldn't you be trying to protect minorities?

And to be perfectly clear, this is an issue of leftist antisemitism. My country recently elected our most conservative government in decades. I am scared of them as a queer person. I am scared for my Maori and poc friends. I am not scared of them as a Jewish person. Who am I afraid of as a Jewish person? My friends. People I've marched with at pride. The leaders of the left leaning parties.

Listen to my goyim, and listen to me clear: SORT YOUR SHIT OUT.

[thatweirdtranny]

Hii! Recently you haven’t posted one thing about Palestines situation and the genocide. I do agree that antizionism is rooted in antisemitism and the idea that Jewish people should be kicked out is inhumane. However it’s hard to donate to orgs that ‘promote’ dialogue between the states when one of the sides is being literally obliterated and killed off. It IS horrible to see that online and offline leftists are spouting antisemitic rhetoric, but quite literally islamophobic rhetoric is also insanely on the rise (tumblr creates this vacuum where it looks like it’s the opposite but irl many people think Muslims don’t deserve mercy in the slightest). I’m not really here to critique you and let’s be honest this anon won’t probably change anything (which is okay), but I just wanted to show the perspective gained when one reads your political posts. Anyways have a nice day and thanks for reading

Not that I have to explain myself to anyone, but there are good reasons I haven’t posted about the situation for Palestinians lately.

For one thing, most posts include some variation of “from the river to the sea” which, if anyone doesn’t know, calls for the ethnic cleansing of jewish Israelis. It’s hard to find posts that 1. provide accurate information not misinformation and 2. don’t include antisemitic dogwhistles/chants. Anything that says “Israhell” or “Isnotreal” I avoid like the plague. I reblog what I can find, but there’s also not much reporting really that isn’t through a biased source (AJ or JVP for instance).

My biggest problems with this conflict is that one side (Hamas) is deliberately hiding in densely populated areas to literally “martyr” as many people as possible, while the other side (Israel) has the power, as you so eloquently put, to obliterate the other. I am anti-war on principle and want a damn ceasefire deal that would bring the living hostages home AND allow for aid to be brought in for Gazans (distributed by a reliable third party that isn’t corrupt af) AND I want this ceasefire to last, not end the next time Hamas decides to poke the bear.

Which is why I support orgs like Standing Together, which does ACTUAL on the ground work to build a culture of peace. It’s hard what with the fact that so many of Israel’s ardent leftists and peace activists were murdered on Oct 7th, but Standing Together and other organizations like it are the most likely to bring about peace between Israelis and Palestinians. If you don’t support them in whatever way you can, even if it’s just to bring awareness to their existence, then it’s like giving up.

I understand your concerns anon, Islamophobia is every bit as insidious and disgusting as antisemitism. But just because I’m obviously passionate about calling out antisemitism (for good reason, I want to convert to Judaism soon) doesn’t mean I don’t also care about Islamophobia. I don’t post everything on this blog, and tend to post about I/P mostly on my sideblog.

[nonegenderleftpain]

this is maybe very hopeful, but i still find it in me to send an ask, hoping for the best... i hope to not waste too much of your time with this

as someone who is possibly thinking of converting to Judaism, what is the first step?

i know, i should look for a rabbi, for a group, for just... something. to connect me to the culture, but i grew up in an incredibly sheltered household, in a small town, christian, and i still dont have solid income to look out for them far and wide... honestly, I'm kind of afraid that if i dont end up going through with the conversion, I'll just feel guilty for wasting people's time for my own personal gain (as opposed to...... their gain? yeah. its impossible to tell wether that one makes sense)

im pretty sure i have met exactly one Jewish person IRL and that's not a stretch.

so, basically, when im asking for the first step here, what i really mean is, how do i know where the stairs are?

and i dont have a super philosophical reason as to why i even think of converting in the first place. i guess i just need a place where my first crime won't be my humanity.

So I've sat on this all day trying to figure out how to be elegant. I'm in a fair bit of pain today, so elegance is kind of beyond me - I'll settle for helpful.

Anon, I grew up in a really similar situation to you. I grew up in one of the few Catholic towns in my very protestant area. It was a tiny farm town, only on the map for gambling, and I lived in an incredibly sheltered home. I couldn't be on the internet unsupervised, and my parents turned it off at 10pm, until the day I left home. I never had time to form a community, was not allowed to ask questions, and struggled with constant feelings of fear and crushing oppression by a church I no longer believed in.

When I was in highschool, I discovered LaVeyan Satanism, got my hands on the satanic bible, and converted, largely hiding it for years. I didn't meet a Jew until I left for college, and was so anti-Gd that we never really spoke (Not due to antisemitism - any engagement with religion triggered religious trauma history, so I couldn't be around ANYONE openly practicing any religion. It was a very stressful time, and I carry a lot of guilt for not engaging with her more.)

I didn't have any big philosophical reasons for seeking Judaism, either, at first. I had had a very spiritual experience in the Cherokee Nation with a family friend who invited us, and I was actually considering moving there and taking part in their religious practices as much as they would allow me to, as a white person. My family friend was a religious leader there and was willing to accept me and bring me in, but it never panned out. I have been seeking that same spiritual connection for years, but I didn't really know it until I found it again.

I first started learning about Judaism when I just. Kept running into Jews in my life. Online, in community spaces, through my advocacy work. And I asked myself "what is so important about this?" and picked up the book To Life! by Rabbi Harold Kushner. Immediately, I was enthralled, and I have not stopped being amazed and overjoyed with what I've found.

For me, the first step to really learning more was reaching out to my local Reform congregation. I'm not sure if you're thinking of converting Reform or not, but I'd suggest starting there, because I've found it's been very easy to find my footing as a queer person with a fraught religious background. The Union for Reform Judaism - the largest North American movement of Reform Jews - offers Intro to Judaism classes once a semester (many congregations require these courses for conversion). The classes lay out the very basics of Jewish values, history, and practices. They're usually taught by local rabbis - my course this semester on Jewish history has two classes with each of the four Reform rabbis in my city. This is a great way to get to know the rabbis, see how they teach, and see who you click with. It will also allow you to interact with other folks that are new to Judaism - Jews that want to learn more about their heritage and practices, prospective converts, friends and family members of practicing Jews, and sometimes just people interested in theology!

Once you find a rabbi that you click with, you'll want to reach out to them and set up a meeting (I meet personally with my rabbi on Zoom, because transportation is difficult for me as a disabled person). During that meeting, you can tell the rabbi your story, your level of interest, and answer some of their questions, as well. My Rabbi asked me why I chose Judaism as opposed to something else, and really dug into my resolve, because I came to him expressing my desire to convert. This is pretty normal - antisemitism is on the rise in the US and around the world, so they want to make sure you understand what you're taking on by seeking Judaism.

Here's the thing about Judaism - it is not something you can do alone. Judaism is a tribe and a people, not just a religion. I do not say this to dissuade you. If anything, I want to encourage you. No one is going to be upset with you if you come, participate with sincerity and earnestness, and then decide that it's not for you. You will not be wasting anyone's time by asking questions and learning things.

I also grew up Christian. We were taught that asking questions is a sign of a lack of faith. That we must follow and believe and never question Gd. I am here to tell you that that is the complete opposite of what Judaism not just expects, but requires. Israel means "to struggle with Gd." It is our job as Jews to struggle with the Torah and what it asks of us. To question it and interpret it and find out how to do good in the world. To disagree. This is not a religion of blind faith, and it is not a people that will silence your questions.

So I suppose the concise answer to your question is more of a checklist:

Research your local synagogues. See if you can attend one of their services online. See if you like the rabbi, like the way they talk and the things they say and the way they interpret the texts. See if you like the cantor, and if the way they chant helps you with your connection to the service or detracts from it. Take notes of any questions or concerns you have, so you can bring it to the rabbi.

Contact your local rabbi. If there is more than one congregation where you live, choose which seems most approachable for you to start with. On their congregation's website, there should be an email form that will take you to them, or to whomever runs their site, who will be able to put you in contact.

Set up a meeting with your rabbi. If you can go in person, that's great, but if you get anxious easily, Zoom can be really helpful. I recently even got my rabbi to join Discord. Bring them your questions. Tell them why you're there. Answer their questions honestly, and don't be afraid to tell them you're nervous. I promise you're not the first prospective convert they've spoken to.

Try to get into an Intro to Judaism class. You can ask questions about all different sects of Judaism, even if you're taking classes with the URJ, and a good rabbi will be able to give you cursory answers and resources to find more information. If Reform doesn't work for you, I'm sure that the other sects of Judaism have their own classes you can take. As a convert, I have not had to pay for my classes, and I think that's a national thing

Attend services. Don't be afraid to not know what's going on. Don't be concerned that you don't know Hebrew. Don't worry about them thinking you don't belong there. I still haven't formalized my conversion (I haven't been able to schedule my beit din), but my congregation considers me a member, and recently formalized my membership in our organization. They consider me a Jew, as much as I consider myself one. I am part of their family, even though I'm very new and know almost nothing.

And most importantly:

6. Keep reading. There are lifetimes of Jewish literature, information, and text out there. Jews keep extensive and detailed records of everything. When a Jew has an opinion, they write a book. And every Jew has opinions. I'm happy to give book recommendations, but this post has gone on far too long.

I know it's not a simple answer - there really isn't one. Conversion looks different for everyone, and takes different amounts of time for everyone. So does practice. I don't keep kosher but I give blessings over what I eat, even if it doesn't follow kashrut, because the blessing and gratitude is what is holy for me (and because I have dietary issues). I haven't hung mezuzot because I can't afford them, but I wear kippot because the visual reminder of the cultural and historical throughline of our people matters to me. I don't know Yiddish or much Hebrew, but I learn and ask questions and am enjoying immersing myself in a culture and ritual that I didn't know I needed.

I hope this is at all helpful. If you need or want personal help with any of these steps, please, please send me a DM and I will help you. I know it can be nervewracking to talk about religion, especially as an ex-Christian. I promise that my inbox is a safe space to discuss it. You're among friends, and I know your struggle.

Stay well, and may Hashem bless your journey, wherever it leads.

[butterfly-winx]

Could you tell us what cultures are inspiration for the people who inhabit the planets of magical universe in your AU?

That's a little bit complex. I usually make up planets and countries with climate specifications, then fit a blend of existing cultures that have adapted to the given climate to my made up world. Because of this, my ideas range from general hunch to extremely specific sub-cultures of countries. (All of these are of course subject to change upon further research on my part.) Let's get cracking

Earth

I want to preface this by saying butterfly!verse uses a sort of AU Earth with shifted borders and history. If I am writing fantasy, I can invent a kinder world where less atrocities have happened (and give them to other planets instead lol). I situate Gardenia around the French-Italian border region on the Mediterranean coast, though have it be part of a unified Europa (spoken language: Esperanto). Tir nan Og is bona-fide Atlantis. Earth here has always had magic and coexisted with it like all other planets in the Magic Universe, though preferred to keep magic and non-magic affairs separate (The whole Fairy Court thing being separate from country legislations and borders). Then, ending the war of the Black Circle against the fey magic users of the planet, 7 heroic fairies sacrificed themselves to hide away all other magic beings of the planet in a time pocket (the breaking down of which is what causes the events of s4 to happen).

Now onto the actual culture influences.

Melody

Melody the country is influenced by "ancient" China (I am willing to go up to ming dynasty fashion-wise, but I am not doing communism) and adaptation to living in a desert by the aboriginal people of Australia. melody is majorly a desert planet with tightly controlled artificial weather, which irl more or less exists in the Emirates, so their attitude towards weather is definitely not what you'd find in actual historical China. The main religion is daoist inspired, with adaptations to a fictional world where magic of course exists.

Tengalu, Riven's home is based on Thailand and Cambodia and houses the very fought over river delta of the planet. Ohm is a blend of Tibet, Nepal and Bhutan - extremely hilly and tranquil.

Zenith

Zenith's cultural influences cover west and central Asia. Transjordan in a very unfunny pun is a reference to Cisjordan, a region in Jordan, because it refers to the opposite (trans) side of it, aka Israel c Palestine. Welcome to my jewish-Tecna agenda.

The irony of basing the cultures of a frosty planet on desert people doesn't escape me, but the berth of my influences does go up to Georgia, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. The flavour of modern extravaganza is supplied by Quatar and the Emirates: to me they represent a detachment from the limitations the natural world enforces on people's lives. For the cold love getting inspo from ice road truckers in Siberia.

Solaria

Straightforwardly a mix of about every sun obsessed ancient civilisation (there were a lot). Selenite culture draws more from ancient Roman, Greek and Egyptian practices and beliefs, while Rai culture is combining the Inca and Maya societal structures with Sumer and Babylonian practices. This is entirely based on vibes btw, I need to do a lot more research. Solaria is dry with lush red vegetation adapted to these conditions, which is why the Mediterranean region influences aren't spot on for my taste, but they are a bomb base.

Andros

The dominant culture of Andros is inspired by West African coastal countries, Ashanti kingdoms and islands of the Atlantic. There are specifically Polynesian inspired peoples as well (both on land and mer side), and even a minor group that takes after Sri Lanka (Nabu is from there). The island cultures and their lifestyle form the basis for how i imagine life to be like on a water moon like Andros, while the societal structures are influenced by West African cultures. Welcome #2 to my pre-colonial African gender diversity agenda.

Lynphea

Lynphea is a blend of South Asia and Amazonian cultures, with each region being slightly different. Where Flora is from is a mix of the Philippines, the Visayas specifically, and Ecuadorean rainforests (Shuar people). Helia's home is a blend of Vietnam and Mongolia, and the capital where Krystal is from is mainly inspired by Indonesia with hints of Mexico and Thailand in the architecture. A lot of forest adapted cultures from the tropical region, moving towards temperate forests in the north with influences from native North American cultures.

Domino

Domino is inspired by cultures converging on one thing: horse. It has a mix of Norvegian, Mongolian and Hungarian influences, recapitulating warring empires with a lot of love for their hooved friends. I imagine the planet being only populated on the northern continent, which is full of tall mountains, flattening out into plains towards the east. While I write Domino pushing for cultural homogenisation throughout its empire, I have a minority present who is still resisting that inspired by Roma people.

Manubra 47

I don't have a lot going for this one, but Eraklyon is very French Rococco to Romantic period, Callisto is medieval Venice/north Italy, and Nishi is feudal Japan of the 18-19th century.

Petrakalia

This is one of my fan-made ones and is again inspired by Jordan, Siria, and North Africa. A lot of dry stony places. I follow a few Amazigh artists and get a lot of inspo from them.

Greynor

Warmer regions are inspired by India and Pakistan with the temperate zones being East European influenced. The strongest visual I have for this place is a marchland-y forest, flooded by tiny rivers and the girls riding tiny boats among ancient ruins.

Dystillus/Dyamond

It's an icy planet illuminated by a red dwarf and takes inspiration from Korea and Siberia/Yakutsk.

I have nothing concrete for Prometia yet, but it's also on the list of locations.

[ladyhindsight]

Hey there! I gave up on Clare's writing halfway through the Tales from the Sh Academy. I thought it would be a short series of stories about Simon's experience in the Academy and how he would change the system a little bit.

Instead we got a Herondale wankfest, Malec fanservice, Isabelle being toxic af and an excuse to introduce characters from TLH because MONEY.

So I have to ask: is it confirmed that Simon had to say goodbye to his family forever?

I hoped that he would make the SH realize how toxic and cultish that is, but apparently not? 😕

I remember that he told his mom and sister that he'd been recruited by a military academy, and how shocked they were that Simon had accepted, because it's so unlike Simon to join the military...

Clare likes to pretend she writes grey characters, but the reality is that she writes military propaganda and promotes submission to the Law no matter how shitty.

("dura lex, sed lex" is criticized a little bit... but only when it creates romantic conflict and forbidden love between characters; any other time no one cares)

Simon and Clary aka "normal", modern teenagers thrown into this strange, alien world could have made a difference (maybe in an Adult book that'd be too unrealistic, but in a YA book it would've been very fitting). Instead they assimilated and promoted the SH as the epitome of perfection, of what humans should be.

It's very disappointing and kinda disgusting.

Especially since irl more and more people criticize the military and police forces as tools of colonization, violence and even genocide (particularly the US military).

The fact that Simon was Jewish makes it all worse IMO.

Hellooo!

In the extra story in Lady Midnight, The Long Conversation, it is told that after the Dark War Simon became a recruiter whose job is to recruit potential candidates for Ascension, especially Sighted mundanes. When they hold the engagement party to celebrate Isabelle and Simon’s engagement, Rebecca attends the party, and she knows something about the Shadowhunters, but Simon hasn’t been able to tell her everything. Simon’s mom on the other hand, like you said, thinks he’s attended a military academy when he was in the Shadowhunter Academy and is oblivious to the Shadowhunter side of Simon’s life. So he’s been able to remain in contact with his family.

If this wasn’t the case, Simon would’ve been obligated to leave his family forever, something I believe other Ascendants have to still do if they become Shadowhunters. With Simon’s circumstances there was a great opportunity to call out these cultish Shadowhunter laws that aren’t well justified at all. Instead his character was given a loophole so that Simon doesn’t have to say goodbye to his family and can remain in contact with them, as if this does anything to fix the underlying problem.

“Lex malla, lex nulla” is there to challenge their hard and senseless laws in The Dark Artifices, but only to the extent it serves the story and some particular characters. Again in The Dark Artifices characters like Diana, Arthur, and Ty presented a good case why Shadowhunters should be able to utilize mundane medicine or at the very least consult it for the Shadowhunters to develop their own medicine. But Diana’s arc was finished quickly with no resolve or justice for her to having hide herself and the help she needed from her own people. Arthur was severely mentally ill, but the narrative constantly reprimands him for being unable to lead the Los Angeles Institute, offering him no help at all, and then Julian has to do his job because he’s afraid the Clave will otherwise separate their family if they find out about Arthur’s state. Another great opportunity to call out laws that separate families by force and deny people the help they need.

“Lex malla, lex nulla” also is used in the romantic conflict between Julian and Emma, the law that parabatai can’t fall in love for unknown reasons, because how could their love that is so amazing and good ever be against laws. There’s not even a hint of self-awareness in any of the characters, none of them criticize this law even though they don’t even know why the law exists in the first place. All they hang onto is some bogus tale of a “curse” and no one questions its legitimacy. Though I do get that turning into True Nephilim and killing everyone in sight (or at least the bad guys like they did in QoAaD) would be an issue.

When Alec becomes the Consul, the Clave-in-exile abolishes the law that Shadowhunters and Downworlders can’t marry in a Nephilim ceremony. As they should, but again it is to serve a story of particular characters having this obstacle. They do it so quickly too, it comes out of the bush at the end of the story in QoAaD that it’s ridiculous how they can’t change any other laws with such efficiency as well.

In The Long Conversation, Clary even makes a note how mundane psychological terms such as “misplacing fears” escape Alec because Shadowhunters don’t know anything about mundane psychology. It’s just said there and no action is ever taken to better the lives of the people living under such unconditional regime that does nothing to help anyone to perform mentally and physically well. Simon and Clary would’ve been great characters to bring reform to the Clave—having outside perspective how destructive and oppressive the Clave is—because the Clave is shit, and though the characters even agree, they do nothing in the grand scheme of things.

[rivetgoth]

I had this friend I met in the Hetalia fandom in like 8th-9th grade who was like, a lot older than me (I was like 12-13 when we met and she was like 17 or so), and we were REALLY close for a really long time, we'd talk and call every day and it got to a point where she was really dependent on me in this awful way where she would like constantly threaten suicide if I didn't answer her texts fast enough and shit like that. She was really rich cuz her dad was a doctor and one time she bought me an entire fucking Xbox One (I did not ask for it like... I'd always been a PlayStation gamer LOL) because she didn't have anyone to play Halo with her. My family still has it and uses it as a DVD player/Netflix machine.

Anyway the really batshit thing about this person (BESIDES the fact that she was like, definitely a pedophile who loved shota and frequently sexted me after she'd turned 18+ and I was like 14 and she also had both a bestiality and incest fetish that she'd talk to me about constantly — I was a kid I had no moral concept of anything and just liked being edgy and feeling mature) was that she was like. A chronic liar who constantly faked identities. And for years after cutting off contact with her I would look back and realize that she had faked even more than I had noticed at the time. The thing is, I knew for sure she wasn't lying about her home life -- Her address, what she looked like, her dad's profession, her age, her house, her pets, etc, were all things I had proof of. But when I knew her she was constantly remaking her Tumblr to escape drama she'd start, and she would constantly make side blogs under pseudonyms and pretend it wasn't her (sometimes it would be random shit like aesthetic blogs under different names or ask blogs for characters or smthn, other times it was like, callout blogs for people she had gotten into drama with where she would pretend to be someone else defending her). I assumed back then that I was always going to be in on it, because she would always tell me whenever she made one of these fake accounts, and sometimes she would encourage me to make a new account too as a sort of roleplay thing where we both pretended to be people we weren't... Until I learned that she wasn't always telling me. Every so often, I would become mutuals with a new account who would start messaging me about my interests and strike a conversation with me. Then something would slip and my "new mutual" would admit that they had actually been my friend all along... Which should have made me immediately cut contact because that's weird as shit, but I was young and she was a close friend, so I would just sorta accept it.

She ended up being like, horrifically transphobic. She got run off her blog twice for being specifically transmisogynistic, first insisting that she was allowed to headcanon canon trans women as feminine men and then on her next blog insisting that lesbians couldn't be attracted to trans women. I was still young and closeted and she was one of my closest friends and was constantly messaging me that the situation was making her suicidal and she was just wording things wrong and totally supported trans people and people just weren’t giving her the benefit of the doubt and she was still learning so I tried to just stay out of it without losing her. Then... I came out as trans lol. She stopped replying to me when I first came out and then made a bunch of vents on her tumblr about how much it upset her and about how “using he/him pronouns for AFAB people is triggering” for whatever fucking reason. She told me her “best IRL friend” who she had introduced me to once on Skype but who never logged in again after and who refused to ever do a group call or anything (definitely another fake account) said that it was irrational for me to expect my friends to respect my pronouns so soon after coming out and that I shouldn’t be upset if I get misgendered. Then she apologized but told me my name and pronouns would never fit me. As you can imagine, as a little baby trans kid who was closeted from my family and terrified of even having come to terms with being trans, I didn’t really have a great defense.

Soon she started being really woke like 2014 style Tumblr SJW to save face, she came out as nonbinary and told me in private it was because she felt bad when people called her cis during discourse (she absolutely wasn't nonbinary) and she coined a "new sexuality" that was "attraction only to people you perceive as feminine, regardless of how they identify" -- what this actually meant was "attraction to cis women and not trans women." She ran an aroace help blog despite not being aroace? And made a bunch of pride flags that I still see around sometimes to this day. She would start fights a lot and try to out-woke people and got into a bunch of drama with other SJW types of the day, got into a bunch of drama with TumblrInAction and Mogai-Watch and shit like that, and she claimed for a short while that she had a headmate (FWIW I totally believe DID is a legitimate thing but like. Trust me on this one.) who was transphobic and that it made her so sad, she told me that it was actually that headmate that had been transphobic before, and every so often her headmate would front out of nowhere and misgender me and use really abusive language like calling me a cunt or a bitch or whatever. She started making these "intersex nonbinary" OCs who she would constantly make porn of under the guise that they were representation for LGBT people who were just like, extremely fetishistic cuntboys and dickgirls (they were “intersex” to explain why they could be “girls with natal penises” or “boys with natal vaginas”).

At that same time, she somehow always managed to have these random, very sporadically active trans women mutuals who were apparently amazing friends of hers, who shared some interests with her but also would defend her when people brought up her past, with these long-winded “Well, I’m a trans woman and I think what she said is perfectly justified and everyone makes mistakes and she’s always been a good ally!!” Then one day some trans woman received an ask from her account where she claimed to be a “black trans woman” (she was, of course, a white cis woman) and she freaked out and claimed she had “been hacked by TiA or 4Chan to make her look bad” — I realize now she had just been sending anon messages pretending to be things she wasn’t and forgot to hit anon LOL. Late in all of this she also got into a bunch of hot water for being really antisemitic and saying she didn’t trust Jewish people because they were just like Christians and like, 5 seconds later she came out as Jewish and wrote this whole long sad vent about how she had had internalized antisemitism and then started going by a random Hebrew name LMAO.

In the end the final breaking point was when I found her secret TERF blog, where she had been making posts for months about how trans men are just insecure women who are trying to escape misogyny by stepping on the backs of “fellow women” and using me as a fucking example, and also saying that me not coming out as a trans man had been “basically rape” since she had been SEXTING me when she was 18+ and I was 13-14+ and that it was traumatic to know someone she had trusted was secretly identifying as a man LMAO. She was also obviously saying all sorts of transmisogynistic things, but also had these really bizarre fetish posts about wanting trans women to fuck her...? I confronted her about it and she literally fucking out of nowhere told me that she was in the emergency room with a mysterious illness that might kill her and she was allowed to have her phone but due to privacy laws couldn’t send a picture as proof. While “in the hospital” she deleted the TERF blog and her personal blog. I had known her for literal YEARS at this point (we had met when I was 12-13 or so and by the time we no longer spoke I was a few months from 17), and I was completely stunned to fucking hear this person trying to pull “I’m in the hospital with a deadly disease” at being confronted for some shit like that LMAO. I made a post about it on my public and another “trans woman friend” of hers logged in to vehemently defend her by saying that there’s nothing wrong with AFAB women being untrusting of trans people because female oppression is uniquely traumatic and that there’s nothing wrong with women expressing their sexuality by sexting minors as long as the minor consents and that I was the real predator for “hiding that I was a man” (remember, I’d been a 13 year old closeted trans boy), before never logging in again... 😭 One of the last times we ever talked was when she demanded I refund her for the fucking Xbox and I refused.

Anyway, the long-term aftermath of that is that a few people online (in some random cringe areas of the internet) who archived some of her antics still think that I also wasn’t a real person, since they caught onto how much she lied about too, so they think I was also a sock puppet and I have no interest in clarifying and making myself known to those people LOL. I have no fucking idea where she is now, she deactivated everything after her being a TERF came out. There’s like, so much more to that I could say because I knew her for YEARS and, like I said, she was one of my “closest friends.” Her parents had wildly expensive pure bred designer dogs that she would make Vines of. She wrote Beatles real person fan fiction. For her birthday one year I made her a shirt on Zazzle with an inside joke about one of her OCs... does she still have that? Either way, she was easily the most batshit person I’ve ever known closely online and I will forever associate the Hetalia fandom with people like that.

[mechecolomar-archive]

genuinely curious: do you think that the depictions of homophobic abuse and violence towards lgbt characters in tlou2 outweighs the portrayal of their other experiences and happy moments of love/self expression? is it bad representation if the lgbt characters go through strife and pain as well as being happy and allowed to express themselves? i feel like there are valid criticisms to be made, but views on lgbt rep tend to be pretty polarized, either "it's great" or "it's bad" with no nuance

I think a big issue I have with the characters and representation specifically in The Last of Us 2 is that in the game the characters feel like they were created solely to serve a point in the plot, the game’s tone is progressively bleak (and the violence is gratuitous), and the inclusion of bigotry also felt unnecessary.

As a disclaimer, I’m not saying tlou2, Naughtydog, or even Neil Druckmann is simply homophobic because the gay character gets in fights and all that, but for me personally I felt that the treatment of lgbt characters in the game made me uncomfortable and wasn't satisfying. I’m glad they weren't outright stereotypes, but I’d like it if there was a bit kinder treatment of these characters. It just really feels like nd heard they didn’t do diversity well in the first game and just threw in a bunch of poc and lgbt characters without really thinking... I don’t think what happens is homophobic, but it feels very thoughtless.

The characters in tlou2 are not well done, I’m not sure what happened between The Last of Us and tlou2, but they do not feel the same at all. Every character in the game feels very weak and the player themselves cant name 10 facts about each one, even characters like Abby or Dina (I’m excluding Ellie and Joel because they already existed). This applies the most to Jessie imo, but I’ll only discuss Ellie, Dina, and Lev since they are the lgbt characters in the game. in tlou2 Ellie is just the vengeful character and as Neil put it, “the villain.” tlou2 could have been a wonderful opportunity to add more to her story, but here she’s basically just the traumatized girl who likes girls and is playing the guitar to remember Joel. Dina is basically the player’s partner who is randomly benched halfway through and from a narrative point she is something that Ellie can lose, you learn she has some ability with tinkering, she is Jewish, bi, has a sister... and not much else. Finally Lev feels like the main justification to sympathize with Abby, without Abby he is introduced literally being hunted because he is trans. Every character in the game is like this, but with these three very prominent characters, it’s disappointing.

Next, for tlou2 the violence seems to be double what happened in tlou, being much more detailed and forcing you to look at what is happening (Ellie getting her face smashed in and Abby threatening to kill Dina and its good because she is pregnant). Tlou was able to thread the needle concerning this successfully; having Ellie being kidnapped, hunted, and almost being sexually assaulted to immediately having the famous scene where Joel and Ellie pet giraffes. Tlou also (to my knowledge) did not have those shock value moments 2 constantly has, and when there is violence its rarely explicitly shown. Now in tlou2 this is almost the opposite, instead of going back and forth between intense and calm scenes, the sequel seems to steadily go downhill in tone. I know that these specific characters arent being hurt BECAUSE they’re lgbt, but its still not good to see.

The happiest moments are the beginning with Dina and Ellie, but while they're having fun and making out together what’s happening? Joel is currently getting his face caved in by Abby. Halfway through the game after Ellie and Dina are beaten, it seems to go back up in tone, but ooc tommy forces Ellie to turn back to revenge and the whole thing comes crashing back down. “I’m afraid of ending up alone” Ellie chooses to leave Dina and Ellie’s life is now hell going all the way back to Abby. After all this Ellie comes back to their house but her family is no longer there. Ellie is alone. I have a huge issue with the ending and it’s that you are explicitly shown that everything there is sad. Nd doesn't make “letting go” of Joel a relief, and they don’t show any implication of Ellie reuniting with Dina. Our lesbian protagonist is now living her worst fear, even though she did the “right” thing and spared Abby. Lev’s ending is clearly better because he’s affiliated with Abby, but it doesn’t change that throughout the story he’s repeatedly hurt and has a similar fall to Ellie after Abby thinks she finds the fireflies, he is never explicitly shown recovering from being made a literal slave and almost crucified.

My last issue is that the bigotry is entirely uncalled for, especially in a world that is as already violent as they’ve made tlou2. One of the most striking moments to me in tlou2 is Dina saying, “What’s this” referring to lgbt flags, indicating she has no concept of pride for being bisexual. Ellie also has no clue and they joke about the erotica and thats the end of that. Later Ellie is called a slur. The man who does it isnt exactly punished and Ellie is forced to make up with him later. That scene and the scene at the end somehow included Ellie, but clearly were about Joel. The last flashback is used as a tragic “Ellie could have forgiven Joel but he was killed :(” scene, there’s very little focus about her sexuality positively. Ellie and Dina are also never openly gay, the one time they are (in a room full of maybe 50 people) Ellie is called a d*ke. Ellie’s previous gf is scrapped except for subtle concept art and notes and she only has one conversation in the beginning mentioning a her.

Then on the opposite side of characters, Lev’s entire story outside of and before Abby is being hunted simply because he is trans. He’s deadnamed multiple times and even Abby cluelessly says it (??). There’s endless reasons why he could have been hunted (hell, just simply wanting to leave the cult because theyre so violent), but nd went with this... for some reason. Him being trans is also never discussed in a positive way other than Abby’s weird attempt to make him feel better by giving him a toy (”Hey, I know your group you grew up with and family literally wants you dead, but uh, would a toy help?”). Lev THEN goes BACK to the people who wants him dead, and we’re shown that his mother has viciously attacked him and he accidentally kills her due to this. Him being trans is never mentioned again... I don’t think we have to exactly hide homophobia in fiction, but I personally do not play a game to get called a slur, I can find that irl. Also if these things were to be included, they could have at least shown comfort after, but they don’t. The scenes are simply more shocking violence and are never mentioned again, simply skipped over. Nd used these characters being lgbt as an excuse for them to be discriminated against for it instead of anything positive.

Their advertising of Ellie kissing a girl in 2018 and in 2020 having her be called a slur instantly after what was shown to us is just SO jarring... Nd and their stans like to say, “Well if you don’t like The Last of Us 2, you’re just homophobic.” but that’s honestly so ridiculous. There simply can’t be more instances of oppression than acceptance and think you're doing something good?? Revealing Lev’s deadname gives people an opportunity to be transphobic, having Ellie be called a slur and lash out at Joel after gives people a reason to be angry at her there. You simply can’t include these things if it can do the opposite thing that you want. The point of including minorities in fiction should be so people can related and identify with these characters, not as some virtual reminder that people will hate you specifically for these reasons. It should not be too much to ask for a character you are like to be treated well and nd not listening to fans critique the game is sad,

I suppose I appreciate the attempt at inclusion, but it feels like a failed one that I preferred would not have happened, or at least had been strongly corrected. It would have been different if maybe Ellie had reunited with Dina apologizing, Abby telling Lev she supports him, Joel saying he loves Ellie, or even Dina and Ellie talking about being gay in some way thats anything other than making out and calling each other “babe”, but idk... that didn’t happen. Dina and Ellie are clearly supposed to be the main rep, but I feel like they really missed things they could have mentioned. This rep really reminds me of Life is Strange, but I can’t decide if dying or ending up alone and depressed at the end is worse. I’m probably missing more things but yeah... It would be cool if my lesbian protagonist did not have to be traumatized for an overdone, useless story.

[hello-robin-goodfellow]

Assorted Self Ships: Yakovlev x Rebeca (Me)

🍬Assorted Selfship Asks 🍭

@amalthea9​

🎨 How would you describe your ship aesthetic? (Include a moodboard if you like!)

🎁 Have you and your FO(s) given each other any meaningful gifts, material or otherwise? What are they and why are they special?

The first present my Yakovlev gave to me was a blue ribbon. When we got married, his aunt Masha told me about the “something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue” charm that gives luck in marriages, and i used it as both my something new and blue. I still wear that ribbon in every special ocasion. Later, i made the only gift i could make for him: a pair of new boots. Also, my always husband gives me sunflowers when he can. And he says that our son, Liev, is the greatest presen i gave to him.

📖 Is there a quote/lyric that fits you and your FO(s)?

An old hebrew love song called Et Dodim Kala, wich means A Time of Lovers:

Et dodim kallah, bo'i el gani; Et dodim kallah, bo'i el gani: Parchah hagefen, heinetzu rimonim. ( A time for lovers, my bride: Come to my garden; A time for lovers, my bride: Come to my garden: The vine has blossomed, The pomegranates have budded).  

Et dodim kallah, bo'i el gani; Et dodim kallah, bo'i el gani. Parchah hagefen. heinetzu rimonim, Parchah hagefen, heinetzu rimonim.

( A time for lovers, my bride: Come to my garden; A time for lovers, my bride: Come to my garden; The vine has blossomed, The pomegranates have budded. The vine has blossomed, The pomegranates have budded). Chalaf hageshem hastav avar; Chalaf hageshem, hastav avar. Kumi ra'ayati hacheshek gavar, Kumi ra'ayati hacheshek gavar.

( The rain is gone, Winter is over; The rain is gone, Winter is over. Arise, my loving companion, For desire grows strong. Arise, my loving companion, For desire grows strong). Yaradnu chevrah lir'ot beganim; Yaradnu chevrah lir'ot beganim. Sham babayit dodi, einayich yonim, Sham babayit dodi, einayich yonim.

( A group of us went down To graze in the gardens; A group of us went down To graze in the gardens; There, in the house, is my love, Your eyes are like doves; There, in the house, is my love, Your eyes are like doves); Yafit vena'amt, kesheleg shinech; Yafit vena'amt, kesheleg shinech. D'vash vechalav tachat leshonech, D'vash vechalav tachat leshonech.

( Beautiful and pleasant, Your teeth are like snow; Beautiful and pleasant, Your teeth are like snow. Honey and milk under your tongue, Honey and milk under your tongue). Et dodim kallah, bo'i el gani; Et dodim kallah, bo'i el gani. Parchah hagefen; heinetzu rimonim; Parchah hagefen, heinetzu rimonim.

(A time for lovers, my bride: Come to my garden; A time for lovers, my bride: Come to my garden; The vine has blossomed, The pomegranates have budded. The vine has blossomed, The pomegranates have budded).

🐚 What do you do to feel close to each other when you have to be apart?

When i was still living in Ekaterinbourg, we wrote letters to each other. Later when got to live together in Moscow and married, Yakovlev presented me to the telephone.

🤗 How do you and your FO(s) express affection for each other? Do you tend to engage in PDA?

When we are alone, Yakovlev caresses my hair and kisses my botton lip. In public, we show our affection running to hug each other, and he starts to cover me in kisses.

🧗‍♂️ Are you and/or your FO(s) the adventurous types? What kind of adventures do you undergo together?

Yakovlev surely is an adventure. Me? I value tranquility and stability inside my house.

😚 What was your first kiss with your FO(s) like?  How did you and your FO(s) react?

We exchanged our first kiss when Yakovlev made a second visit to my family’s house on Ekaterinbourg after months, to personally ask for my hand in marriage. He enjoyed trough and trough, while i was at the same time excited to be kissing him and nervous due to fear be doing it wrong. He insists that our kiss was perfect.

🧸 Do you have any items irl that remind you of your FO(s)?

We still guard the letters that we exchanged. My blue ribbon is still smong the letters i received from him. And soon after we married, Yakovlev asked our friend Benjamin, who is a photojournalist, to take a picture of me that he could put on a locket that was from his father and that he always wears on his neck.

💋 What are the kisses you share typically like? What kind of kisses do you prefer? (eg. ‘good morning’ kiss, ‘i missed you’ kiss, kisses in the rain, etc.)

When Yakovlev comes back home from his work with the Party, we run to hug each other and he gives me passionate kisses on the face, eyes, and mouth.

When he moans kissing my mouth, i can’t avoid blushing.

📚 How do you spend your free time together? Do you usually go out or do you prefer to stay in?

Usually we stay in, talking, reading or playing games like chest. But sometimes Yakovlev’s companions make some dance parties, and he takes me along to dance with them.

🍯 Do you and your FO (s) use pet names for each other?

I call him “Yakov”. And he calls me  “Solnechnyy svet” (Sun Ray).

💕 Would a stranger meeting you and your FO(s) for the first time be able to tell that you’re together? If so, how would they be able to tell?

At first a stranger wouldn’t believe we are married, because i am jewish. But then that stranger would have to shut up after seeing the wedding rings we use.

🌱 How have you and your FO(s) changed each others’ lives?

  I spend most years of my life with fear. My Yakov gives me hope, optimism, confort and courage.

And my Yakov says that i changed his life because i bring him the feeling of peace that he was looking for, after having being forced to fight in the Great War.

🥰 What was the first thing that attracted you to your FO(s)? What was the first thing that attracted them to you? Who fell first?

At first i was afrayed when i saw his soldier uniform and his horse. But Yakovlev surprised me by speaking with kindness and respect to me and my sisters. The more we talked with each other, the more i was impressed by his stories of sailling the ocean, and fighting in distant battles, and deciding to rebel against the Tzar. I tought: “He is so brave. What a man. What a hero”.

 While Yakovlev says he liked what he described as my simple and honest beauty. We fell for each other at the same, but he was the first to admit it.

⚔ Are you and/or your FO(s) protective? How do they react if you get hurt and vice-versa?

Yakovlev is very protective of me, specially after i miscarried our first child and had to rest during all of my second pregnancy. It got to a point of him skeeping meals so i would eat more during the gestation. When i discovered it, I had to beg him to stop before he got anemic. And when le leaves to his work in the party, i always pray for him that he never get caught in a armed conflict. If anyone of us get hurt or ill, we get at each others side, holding hands and calling: “Don’t die. Stay with me”.

👀 Any spicy headcanons about your FO(s)/your relationship?

I’m a discret woman. And for me, spicy is a therm you use to talk about food. Or about discussions between rabis that are disagreeing about the Talmud.

🕯 How would you and your FO(s) pass the time if the power went out?

Talking, telling tales. And them we go to sleep.

💘 How did you and your FO(s) meet? What was your first interaction like? Was it love at first sight or did you take some time to warm up to each other?

 We met when he stranded with his companions in Ekaterinbourg, having to wait for six days to the train that would take him to Moscow finnish maintenance. He brought the boots of his companions for me and my sister Noemi to fix. When i saw him on his hourse, i runned to hide, thinking it was the start of a pogrom. But Noemi calmed me down and called me, sayinng that he had dismounted and tied the horse. He told me about his situtation of being stranded during six days, and when we talked about the boots i promissed him to fix them in four days, because the other two would correspond to the Shabbat. Yakovlev asked the price of the work, and we sayed one scent for all. And he answered: “Oh please, i know that such hard work of fixing boots pair by pair with your hands costs way more them that. Come on, tell me the real price”. It was the first time a gentile wanted to pay us rightfully. After we fixed the boots, i invited Yakovlev for supper with my family during the Shabbat. He accepted it, and was so respectfull and curious about our ritual during the night. We armed with each as friends during those days, and them even more when we started to write letters for each other.

🤩 What do you most admire about your FO(s)? What do they admire most about you?

I admire how my Yakovlev is brave to fight for his beliefs on justice and equality. And he says he admires how i am hard working and resilient in the face of adversity. 

[tordcallout]

callout for @nyadmin

this callout is best read on desktop.

this callout contains: racefaking, blackfacing/brownfacing, pedophilia, incest, grooming, systemfaking, antisemitism, nazism, cult jokes, and more.

his current url is nyadmin. his twitter is adminpowers. his discord is ROMY O NO#6477. click here for a list of past names. click here for a list of his past urls. his other blogs are: amblyopic, racefakery, todayphobe, exadmin, askmychampion, and supercrushhighschool.

tords past callouts: one, two, three.

the rest of the callout is under the cut.

racefaking:

tord claims his mom is white and native and that his father is half black and half white. people who have known tord irl in the past say that his dad is not half black and those who’ve known him online say tord has never mentioned it before or joined in when they discussed issues related to being black. he also refuses to ask his dad for any photos of his grandmother who he says is black.

in the past tord has tried to claim that he doesn’t benefit from white passing privilege despite being extremely pale.

photos of his parents found on facebook show that neither his mom or dad have anything resembling ethnic features. his mom’s hair is dyed blond but regardless they both have basic white features:

below is proof that the woman shown is tords mom:

tords own blood related brother, felix, claims he doesn’t know where tord is getting their black heritage from:

below is a screenshot of an anon on mikas blog asking if tord has ever said the n word in front of him:

on 8/23/18, tord made this post. in the post he says this:

if it isn’t clear, he basically just said that he is white.

there’s also this screenshot from an older blog of his:

and if that wasn’t enough proof that tord’s racefaking he has also done both blackface and brownface. however, before we get to that here’s some more:

tord wondering if he could participate in the black men smiling tag and blackout.

now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for. tords blackface and brownface.

the first image is the brownface, the second is blackface.

on the left tord has obviously edited his skin to appear darker. in his blackface cosplay he claimed he wasn’t actually painted black and that the snapchat filters were making him darker. this is clearly a lie considering nearly all snapchat filters lighten your skin and this filter is no exception:

here is the filter applied to a white person, and as you can see, her skin is smoothed out but it is no where near dark the way tord appears in his selfie.

adding onto this, if you look closely at tords selfie you can tell the outside of his lips have a very pale ring around it. this is obviously because he didnt do very well coloring in his skin. you can also tell there is a grainy texture on tords skin but not anywhere else in this image, more evidence the image was edited.

more info on the blackface cosplay selfie can be read here and here.

you must either be on desktop or reading this post through a chrome browser to view this part, apologies. in these posts tord has a conversation with someone named frost about his callouts and being mixed. please keep in mind that the conversation in that link took place on may 7th of 2018. meaning, that in the past tord agreed to stop claiming to be mixed black and native but then threw that all out the window and began to reclaim it again.

grooming, incest, and pedophilia:

i was very hesitant to include this however, many people have said they feel the same way about this so it felt important enough to have its own part. multiple people believe that the relationship between tord and his brother felix is extremely inappropriate. the way he interacts with his brother is really something he needs to re-evaluate.

this isn’t meant to be about kin drama or anything of the sort, i’m only stating this because of the way tord and felix take kin so seriously. he and felix often match kins which isn’t an issue in itself, however, the only kins they typically match are those of which have a canon romantic relationship; and if not canon tord will still tag felix in ship art of their kins, as seen here. 

when you visit the op of that post, you will see that it is tagged as both “shipsworld” and “tordedd”. the art is very obviously ship art anyways.

tord is obviously one of his main ids, so to tag your own sibling in ship art of your main id with one of theirs seems incredibly off. not to mention the very large age gap between tord and felix in the first place.

this isn’t a recent thing of theirs either, they’ve been doing this for years now. couples they’ve kinmatched have been: greg and rose from steven universe, eliza and alexander from hamilton, and penny and billy from dr. horribles sing a-long blog. along with tord and edd from eddsworld and romeo/admin and jesse from minecraft story mode who are not canonly dating. there are most likely even more than those listed above.

there aren’t screenshots of them both being kin with these characters, but the hamilton one isn’t hard to believe considering tords main id used to be alexander hamilton from the hamilton musical.

to add onto this, felix apparently had a set of ocs and a persona oc at one point. his oc skit, was to represent himself, and his oc aiko, was implied to be skits romantic interest.

here is a photo of skit, as you can see skit represents felix. you can also clearly see that aiko is labeled as skits “enemy and crush”, confirming that these two characters are supposed to have a sort of romantic relationship.

now here is a photo of aiko. as you can see from the relationship box, it is 100% that skit and aiko are supposed to be in a romantic relationship or something similar to that.

now the reason this i’m telling you all of this is because of on tords old deviantart, he has a folder of art of his kins. in that folder you could find images of skit and aiko along with one of aiko on her own, implying that tord kins her.

to make things even weirder, the photos added to this folder of skit and aiko are incredibly romantic in nature, hugs with hearts around them and a photo where the two of them are basically kissing with a heart above the two. the folder also includes more romantic tordedd art as well.

back to their matching kins however, as stated before, tord and felix kinmatch jesse and romeo/admin from minecraft story mode. i know little to nothing about this game, however, i do know that tord ships these two characters together. felix kins jesse and tord kins romeo. 

UPDATE: i have been informed that the ages previously listed here were a mcsm fans headcanon ages for the characters and that they do not have canonical ages. however, it does prove that there are fans that would see the ship as a pedophilic one due to hcs of romeo being 30+ and jesse being >20.

now, here is a disgusting screenshot of tord saying he’s going to show his brother porn. i’m sure this was meant to be taken as a joke but i find it highly disturbing due to the fact that at the time of this screenshot being taken felix would only be 12 years old and tord would’ve been 16 years old.

i am in no way trying to say tord is a full on pedophile, not am i accusing him of having romantic or sexual feelings for his brother, however, i am saying the way he interacts with his brother is not okay and that he needs to learn how to separate friend interaction from sibling interaction.

cult jokes:

tord previously had a cult joke in his about: “mixed but i drank the racefaker koolaid”. when told about this, he refused to remove the joke and tried to hide it under the guise of the phrase being “aave” (his explaination was that black people like to drink koolaid). he was messaged by someone on his blog @/racefakery who asked for him to remove the joke from his about, as it is incredibly insensitive to joke about something like that where everyone can see.

in the conversation, tord doesn’t take the person who messaged him seriously at all and says “i don’t see why i should care?” about cult victims. i don’t think i have to explain how horrible and insensitive that is to say.

the joke continued to stay in his about for nearly a month after this conversation. on top of that, tord never apologized nor admitted that cult jokes are just as serious as jokes as any other traumatizing kind of event.

UPDATE: after doing a little digging, i found an older blog of his. in the links of this blog there is this: “thanks for reading and welcome to the lonely hearts cult” at the end of his links. so there’s another cult joke made by tord.

nazism:

tord has had multiple accounts of him being antisemetic, however, for this we are going to focus on the fact that tord is kin with habit and kinned eridan.

archive of this page.

habit from everymanhybrid is a canonical nazi. this was displayed on tords “alters” blog. now even if were going to pretend tord is a system here, unless tord is comfortable with antisemitism there is no reason for his “alter” to kin a nazi. all alters share similarities with their hosts, this mainly includes moral standpoints, saying tords “alter” is okay with kinning a nazi but not tord is the same as saying you can have one alter be a terf but the host isn’t. it isn’t simply isn’t possible. anyways, here’s evidence of habit being a nazi:

the person he claimed to have possessed was josef mengele. i don’t want to repeat the things he did but you can google it if you’d really like to know of it.

on top of habit being a nazi, here is a list of his “hobbies” & crimes he’s commit:

as for eridan, his main goal from what i’ve been told was to “wipe out the landwellers”, as he is a “seadweller”. his whole character is a metaphot for nazism, eridan being hitler and the “landwellers” being jewish people. if you want more info on this it can be found here. not sure why you would though.

tord was also briefly friends with ethan, a known nazi & rapist, for a while. there’s a lot of screenshots and information on that. you can read it on this google doc.

systemfaking:

this one isn’t going to take very long to explain because of how blatantly obvious it is but tord is systemfaking. from what i and quite a few others can tell, one of the biggest implications is that tords “alters” would reblog one anothers posts and talk to each other via the posts. there a many reasons this makes no sense:

if his alters are conscious enough to have their own blogs and set up themes similar to tords, why do they need to reblog one another’s posts to communicate? at that point, they should be able to speak via headspace.

these posts of his alters interacting with each other are made just seconds apart from each other, it is literally impossible for anyone to shift this fast, the average shifting time is 5-15 minutes. however, these posts aren’t even made a full minute apart from one another.

this is a post where tords “alters” habit and cora are interacting on a post.

if you look into the source code of these two posts you will find that they were made literally not even a full two minutes apart from one another. the original was posted at 8:10:46 and coras was posted at 8:11:10. like i already stated, this isn’t possible in systems.

tord and his “alter” gem do this again. gems first reblog of this post was at 17:51:49. and their second reblog of the post was at  17:53:48. under 5 minutes apart from one another, meaning tords reblog must’ve been around 17:52. but it just isn’t possible either way.

you may think that this is all that tord has done, but it really isn’t. despite all the information in this callout there is still a lot here that isn’t shown. this was thrown together as a sort of “birthday gift” for tord. i hope you appreciate your gift, tord.

[countryshitposts]

Welcome to Countryhumans!

Your comprehensive guide towards this hellhole!

Philippines:

- uwu sunshine bean that doesn't do anything wrong despite recent controversies surrounding them

- either gay or a girl and both are problematic because Philippines is religiously homophobic

- looks and acts cute, always speaks in cutesy Tagalog because it's so CUTE

- has a harem and, out of all countries it seems, has the most number of people in his harem!

- Del Pillar and Martial Law are his siblings for some reason but I know that Del Pillar and Marcos will be having nightmares that they have been fetishized

- so edgy and sad backstory :( it's all about my colonizers (if you have PTSD against your colonizers... why the FUCK ARE YOU DATING THEM)

- yeah sure he has a lot of harem but he likes America the best (despite the fact America was racist to Filipinos from American colonization towards WWII, where they gained respect)

United States of America:

- he's hot, edgy, with a dark past and a narcissist. HOW HOT CAN HE GET?!

- Uses His Sunglasses To Hide His Pain

- either a twink or a vsco girl, take a pick

- he's France's kid, for a weird reason (i'd pick Spain or any native American populace as his mom, tbh)

- every gay joke is directed at him

- he likes Russia despite increasing tensions between the two

Russia:

- everybody's husbando, shows off his muscles despite the fact Russia is very conservative

- is a big protective brother to Ukraine and Belarus

- likes America and has the Big Gay

- loves Soviet Union, his daddy that never punished him before

- he and China hate each other even though they have good relations irl

China:

- STOP TAKING THE SPRATLY ISLANDS FROM PHILIPPINES 🅱ING 🅱ONG

- fucks Vietnam every second

- controlling husbando, owo punish me daddy pls

- probably forgets Taiwan exists

- probably forgets other Southeast Asian countries other than Philippines and Vietnam exist

- probably is in relationship with North Korea even though they're both homophobic

Japan:

- is either a noisy and annoying neko or a business man, take your pick

- "STOP TAKING MY OTP YAOI!1!1!" which is funny because last i heard Japan is homophobic

- is noisy and usually bothers everyone, which is funny because *looks at Asian stereotypes*

- if they're businessman, you're safe except for the fact they're probably drawing hentai

- they LOVE SK even though they hate each other now lmao

- they love Americs so much theyd go yandere for them

North Korea:

- the tsundere

- gay despite the fact he persecutes gays

- either likes Canada or Cuba, take your pick

- probably kisses SK off screen

- a twink

- made a 'misunderstood' villain eugh

Bad German Man:

- very cute

- LETS T-POSE ON THE JEWISH HAHAHAHAHA

- a husbando, keep making 18+ art of him

- loves Soviet Union despite being homophobic and very, VERY racist against non-Aryan races

- sexy pose

I'm fucking tired i lost my mind searching through Instagram

[ask-jumblr]

Thank you so much to everyone who’s been constructive.

Both commenters, and the anons below who were open about what they’re struggling with. Since all of the asks were either hateful, or seemed to be addressed at me, the mod, I’m going to handle them. 

Before you get too upset that I didn’t give all y’all equal chance to answer: I’m encouraging the anons to send in some asks dealing with the issues they’re mentioning, formatted in such a way that it’s easier for jumblr as a whole to constructively help. Based on their current asks, I can only ask questions about what they practically need.

Because I’ll be addressing the asks chronologically and the constructive asks come later, I’m going to put it all below the cut. If you don’t have energy today, don’t click through. Even the constructive stuff is heavy.

Here were the first two anon’s received:

Isn't Orthodox just exclusionary extremism? Aren't those the homophobes and transphobes who think you shouldn't be allowed to marry a non-Jew? Why aren't we staying focused on reform/recon Judaism?

It’s okay not to know things, although the assumption was a little harsh so I didn’t want to post it directly. In response I made a myth-busting post. Yes, it is American-centric, but here’s why: I can be pretty darn sure anon is American, or at least North American.

Given that you’re upset about intermarriage, you’re probably not Israeli. Given that the U.S. has the largest diaspora population, anon is likely American. Given that anon is referencing “Reform” Judaism as an alternative, they’re probably not in Britain (”Liberal Judaism”) or outside U.S./Britain/Canada/Israel (”Progressive Judaism” everywhere else).

Realistically speaking, I can’t call up every community everywhere. As an American coming out of a mediocre, Anglo-centric education system, I can only speak one other language with any competence and blurt a few words of a few more. If you want to know about a community in a specific place then please, please ask. There have been folks on here asking about communities all sorts of places who have gotten answers here. Jewish geography + the internet is amazing! When anon is American, with misconceptions about American Jews I’m going to assume such.

Orthodox Jews should probably stop existing. 

This ask is hateful and non-constructive. Hence the threat to block.

After this, I got some anons who are getting at some problems that we can really work on. They aren’t American, so I’ve assumed they aren’t the first anon.

hey if your responses and views could stop portraying us jewery as being the only way things are done and that we somehow all have access to the stuff you do, that would be grand

(cont) or where there zero chance of finding a group of that community that'll accept me and not treat me in hateful ways. I'm sorry that Jewery outside the US/NA is that unfamiliar to you and that our viewpoints and experiences makes you uncomfortable but I guess that's the way US Jews deal with Jewish "outsiders".

I’m going to start with part 1 to stay in order even though part 2 is what gets me antsy to help ya. You’re right. I don’t have a ton of experience with non-U.S. Jewery. That’s why I tag thoroughly and encourage folks who don’t know the answer to signal boost. If you’re specific, someone else on jumblr can help you. 

When anon asks are vague and, as they often do, reference U.S./North American terms for branches (”reform” rather than “liberal” or “progressive”), I’m going assume the anon us in the U.S. or greater North America. Most other respondents likely will too. Anon askers who want otherwise need to use terms that are more globally (”progressive”) or locally (”liberal”) appropriate, or give a little more locational information (e.g. city, country, region). Re-my new explanation above about American-centrism. I respect that you didn’t have the benefit of seeing the language in that ask, but I’m here to help you as much as I can without superfluously emailing every rabbi in every country for another anon who’s linguistically and statistically likely to be in New Jersey or Ohio or somewhere else in the U.S..

Now for part 2 (after “(cont)”), your concerns. (Getting something out of the way: Since you’re saying “Jewish “outsiders”” I’m going to assume you’re Jewish. However, many people reading this might not be; this audience has a lot of prospective converts. I want to point out that prospective converts aren’t entitled to conversion via any particular community. I might personally be dismayed, but it’s that community’s prerogative. Getting that community to a place where people who are already Jewish who are LGBTQ, have disabilities, etc. are accepted is going to be my priority if I were to harangue a community that’s not my own. In other words, people like anon. On that note...) I received another ask with a concern similar to part 2, by someone in a similar situation as a Jewish person under the LGBTQ umbrella whose only option is a community that won’t accept them. I’d like to answer these together. Here’s that second ask:

Not your first anon but there's no non-homophobic Orthodox community where I live. I live in Europe and maybe it is different in the US but the Orthodox communities here do NOT accept lgbt+ people. Or if they do it is under the "don't ask, don't tell" form of homophobia where you're accepted as long as you don't display it publicly or ask them to treat you as an equal in any way. So sorry for not feeling endeared to a group that have always hated me.

This means we’ve got a heck of a problem. There are Jewish people who don’t have a community and need one. Y’all (You all) don’t know me irl, but making sure Jewish people who want Jewish communities have Jewish communities is something I’m very big on. I’ve gotten some flack for being too welcoming or too focused on making sure synagogues are welcoming. I want you to know that we want you here. Unfortunately you aren’t close enough for me to personally offer you that hug.

You see, I’m a U.S. Jew, but I’m not one from a place like New York City where there’s a wealth of Jewish community options. (hint: #SouthernJews #ShalomY’all) I know those people near me who feel forgotten, ignored, scoffed at, or unvalued don’t always have another option (or that it’s a loooong drive and lots of gas money away). I am someone who has had to put in the work to build the community she wants and needs, and a community that is welcoming for the people she cares about. 

Putting aside the extent to which I’ve had to patch up my own education while trying to make sure others aren’t on their own doing it, I’ve also had an obstacle you’ll find more relatable. I know it’s not obvious, I’m also under that LGBTQ umbrella (sexuality, not really gender from my current self-understanding). I’m largely closeted irl because being Jewish makes me enough of a target and is harder to hide. I don’t discuss it much on the internet because I don’t want #woke #discourse about myself as I figure out my own identity, and don’t want my own processing  (yay for internalized -isms!) to hurt someone else. It’s fine that you didn’t know, but I want you to know now so that you can understand my experience:

Yesterday, I had a conversation with a friend in Israel who’s had to make community choices too. My friend (who is also under that umbrella) convinced me that I should go to a shul with a rabbi who was openly homophobic in the past because it’ll be the best balance between programming that meets my needs (adult learning! services!) and driving distance. The rabbi stopped being openly homophobic, so I know I can be in that community. But it’s not exactly my dream. I don’t plan on relying on that rabbi for psak or life-cycle events--at least not until I know more. Then again, I’m lucky. I’m lucky in that there are rabbis I feel comfortable getting psak from who speak my native language. I’m lucky that I know enough to know that a non-rabbi can officiate a commitment ceremony (and actually a Jewish wedding too...), and that I’m from a well-connected extended-family that is friends with rabbis elsewhere (whoot! Jewish geography!) who would happily come in to officiate for me (though it might be costly and they might only do commitment rather than marriage). And I’m lucky that my extended family would be supportive enough to do so for me (they’d be getting eager enough for me to marry anyone...).  I’m also lucky in that I could drive even farther and hit a Reform community that’s been more accepting for much longer. It doesn’t have the resources or programming I need, but I would have hypothetical access to a place with other Jews that has gender-neutral bathrooms and a rabbi who hasn’t said anything (recorded) that’s unaffirming of my existence.

But what about people who don’t have access to an alternate community? Or for whom that other community is even father from being a good fit?                   With work, it is possible to make change. Do you know why that shul’s rabbi stopped being openly homophobic? Maybe compassion. But there was an outside trend too: the community shifted away from homophobia to embrace its LGBTQ members, and he was forced to follow. It’s quite likely that movement stances and responsum helped, but community organizing, changing minds one-at-a-time, those were definitely pieces of the puzzle.

I want this blog to be here for you in figuring out how to make those changes. I began an initiative on here called Tikkunity. It’s a goofy name for an important mission: help people find strategies to make their communities more vibrant, more welcoming, more supportive, more accessible, more whatever someone needs. The ones I’ve put out so far aren’t as heavy as your topic, but Tikkunity is also here for what you’re looking for. I’ve gotten in touch with some other blogs about topics that are less obvious for communities, and a bit heavier too. If either of y’all feels comfortable messaging me from off anon (just make a side-blog with a random url), I’d love to draft a post with you. Alternately, if you send something constructive and specific enough such as “I only have one choice of community and I don’t feel safe or accepted there as a [insert LGBTQ identity/ies] person. How can I make my community more accepting of [my existence/my partnership/my pronouns/etc.]? FOR: Orthodox and [LGBTQ accepting/affirming/or other word or phrase of your choice that describes people who would be in-line with your goal]” or “ I only have one choice of community (there aren’t many Jewish people near me) and I don’t feel safe or accepted there as a [insert LGBTQ identity/ies] person. Does anyone have recommendations of what to do and tools to help me do Jewish stuff to do without the big community? How can I find people from that community willing to join me so it isn’t as lonely?” then I can post it off the bat

As much as I’m not letting askers generalize Orthodox Jews as individually homophobic/transphobic, the U.S. isn’t a utopia for LGBTQ [Orthodox] Jews looking for communities. “Don’t ask don’t tell” is how many U.S. Orthodox communities function. You’ll notice that the Orthodox LGBTQ-acceptance group I linked (Eshel) is an activist-type group from within the Orthodox community. The most effective change comes from within communities, which is why I’d rather you talk to Orthodox jumblrs than me. There are many LGBTQ Orthodox Jews on tumblr who might be willing and able to help you make that change via advice on a Tikkunity post, connecting you with other activists, or via a longer-term messaging relationship as they make change in their own communities. While I don’t think Eshel formally works outside the U.S. right now, that doesn’t mean you can’t ask them about expansion or see if they can connect you  with other laypeople community builders and shifters to provide mentorship and support.

If you can’t start within the community, you can start building alternate spaces with Jewish people you know who have been willing to engage with you. Even communities that are largely homophobic/transphobic aren’t a monolith. There’s lots of advice out there for people making “start-up” communities or “indepedent minyanim” or “chaburas.” It’s not fair that you have to do the work. But don’t take it out on all Orthodox Jews, individually, especially because some of them are on your side.

And if you’d rather move than make those changes then if/when you are able to move this blog can also be a resource for you. If you send in a message with the cities you’re considering and what you’re looking for in a community, someone in jumblr can likely help give some advice on where you’ll find the best community for you.

[haich-slash-cee]

Being Human (UK)

This is a show that I recommend to people... but I add a lot of caveats.

The recommendation: A werewolf, vampire and ghost are flatmates. This show is hilarious! So much macabre and slice of life humor! And horror and whump!? Also, the show was run by a side-channel of BBC (BBC3) and I guess they had no production money, so the actors mostly look human and they just refer to each other as being a 500-year old vampire or ghost or whatever. Which makes it even better. The werewolf is Jewish, recites a Jewish prayer at least once, and hangs out watching “The Real Hustle” with the vampire. They work in a hospital as janitors. The ghost has a habit of making everyone tea to soothe herself and the flat is cluttered with tea mugs everywhere all the time. Also, people do get fang-y or wolf-y or do weird poltergeist stuff. And gore happens.

Longish post, more below the cut.

PS, this is the 2008-2013 UK version of Being Human, which I hear had a cult following. There’s certainly stuff on Tumblr. I found the BBC version through the US remake of Being Human, but I’m much more charmed by the BBC version. (The US version has the vampire and werewolf as hospital doctors? Why?) Also I watched the show maybe 4, 5 years ago, so impressions are from that.

And the caveats: There’s a lot of sexism which was hard to watch. It’s engrained in the premise and plot and occasional gross sexist jokes. And there’s other problematic stuff in the writing. It’s like having glass shards show up the meal you are enjoying, and it’s why I’m not sure I’ll rewatch the series (or not in it’s entirety, anyway). There’s also a limited spinoff web series called Becoming Human which also had some problems for me, including some gross sexism and fatphobia. (John Boyega from Star Wars does show up as a character in that series, for anyone interested.)

Back to Being Human and overall series recommendations. So the 1st season was good. I kind of forgot what happened in the 2nd and 3rd season (I think they got depressing and slow?). The 4th season picked up again, much to my surprise, and I remember liking the 4th and 5th season a lot. Even though [spoilers] there was a complete cast change by this time. But it worked, somehow. The show did go from at least having one woman of color to having an all-white cast at the end, which was not great. And there’s other racism too.

For people who like their happily-ever-after: uhhh so I vaguely recall that a lot of characters don’t really get a happy ending. Granted, half of them are walking around dead already, so...? Overall, the ending of the 5th season is... Is that a happy ever after? Happy for now? The Bonus on the DVD kind of makes it a happy-for-now with a continued possibility? It’s an acceptable HFN?

.....And now, the notes for all the hurt/comfort people and whumpers:

Holy crap people, there is SO much h/c and whump!?

OK first -- George the werewolf. George’s transformation sequence, SUPER whumpy.

Also, George ends up naked often, come to think. And he screams a lot during the show, for various reasons. The actor himself, in the bonus DVD interviews I think, cheerfully says something like, “People really like the way George screams, I do too.” (This is like when David Tennant cheerfully talked about how he enjoys playing a character who is unconscious and sick and gets fussed over by people.) And George is a very sympathetic, nerdy character who is easy to feel for. Who occasionally turns into a SNARLY SCARY WEREWOLF AGAINST HIS WILL. As mentioned, I think I liked season 1 George more than seasons 2 or 3.

Emotional hurt/comfort -- so Annie the Ghost provides a lot of the emotional centering, as I recall. Throughout all 5 seasons, all the characters lean on each other for support and there’s a lot of lovely warm fuzzies from that. Also, one of the later werewolf characters, Tom, is generally a sweet kid. I’m glad they didn’t do too much of the transformation horror with him, honestly. George/Russel Tovey could carry that, but I thought Tom’s strong point was looking puppy-eyed and folorn-eyebrow’d and trying to navigate the world with a mix of naivety and half-feral-ness.

Above: exhausted naps on the couch.

Below: Classic Being Human humor. A review of house rules and vampire stabbing etiquette, between Annie and Tom --

[Spoilers from here on] Okay, so as mentioned, the cast changed over between season 4-5. And to my surprise, I think I loved the new trio as much as, or more than, the original trio. I liked how loud Alex the ghost was. And I liked both Annie and Alex.

Also, I did not expect this either, but I got so interested in Hal! Yo! First of all, Hal is a centuries-old Vampire and speaks/looks like, idk, a Regency Character. And then 19-yr old Tom puts Hal to work at a fast food shop and bosses him around, and Hal’s indignation is hilarious. So already, this is excellent.

And somehow, Hal is very, very whumpy? So: the character of a “vampire who is trying to be good and suffers” is not new, and I’ve encountered versions where I haven’t been interested. (I was lukewarm about Mitchell, the original vampire in the show.) But for whatever reason, I really dug Hal. Maybe, for me, Hal was just the right mix of very serious and earnest but also ridiculous and tragic all at once. (I read some interviews with the actor Damien Molony, who mentioned how he’d done a lot of history and addiction research in to prep for the role. The new trio actors also had a lot of chemistry and fun on sets, it sounds like. So I might be picking up all that.)

Also, Hal is actually two characters -- the ridiculous indignant serious Good Hal who is desperately trying to keep the horrible, rude, murderous, Bad Hal from taking over. But, as one of the show producers, a woman, cheerfully commented in the DVD extras: “And then Bad Hal shows up, which is great, everyone likes a bit of Bad Hal”. 

Honestly, why do we even pretend to hide our fascination with the macabre and the whump, when showrunners and actors are cheerfully not hiding it all.

Here’s clips of Good Hal in Season 4:

Oh, I forgot about this part until I rewatched the last clip -- but at the end of season 4, Hal asks his flatmates to forcibly bind him to a chair, because he’s trying to fight off Bad Hal. Based on my perusing of the whump community, pretty sure that scenario is of interest to someone.

Also notable is the episode “No Care, All Responsibility” (Series 5 ep 3). In one scene in particular, where Natasha has offered Hal a way to control his bloodlust and there’s this mix of vulnerability and power with Hal asking Natasha to put a stake against his heart, I remember thinking -- “I bet a woman wrote this ep and I bet she knew exactly what she wanted”. And I was right, that woman is Sarah Dollard, a queer woman who has also written a lot of other things (including Doctor Who). She also wrote Being Human goofy web extra eps with Alex, Hal and Tom called “Alex’s Unfinished Business” and they are so good ! (Interview). 

Also... the opening 3-minute backstory in “No Care...” made me cry. You get a glimpse of the show’s baddie showing real care and emotion in rescuing this little kid (an important character). When this kind of scene is done well, it just gets me. every. time.

Anyway here’s an appearance of Bad Hal (much later), being completely awful, murdering people and turning them into vampires and singing Broadway tunes during this.

Side note on Vampire narratives. Although Hal’s narrative arc of season 5 was interesting, and I’m aware this is show is urban fantasy, I still have qualms of the show enforcing IRL stigmas/ideas that addition is incurable and addicts are doomed. They’re not. (General overview on NIH page.) Addiction research is a growing field. From listening to NPR and reading articles, my impression is that addiction treatment will change quickly in the next few years. Related to the vampire blood addiction trope, Terry Pratchett covers vampires finding ways to be “dry” (one vampire, Maladict, swaps out blood addiction for coffee addiction) and you can find fanfics about the topic as well. (General link to Being Human Ao3 fanfics, why not.)

Side note on Hal’s dual characters -- recently, I did consider, “Is there overlap with Hal and portrayals of Dissociative Identity Disorder (MPD) folks?” IRL DID people have complained about movies with gross portrayals of people with DID. To me, Being Human’s Hal feels removed from that and closer to a fantasy.... but, I’m also not multi, so.

* Update: after having learned more about plural history, I’m even less sure now. (Note: my opinions are of someone who isn’t plural, as far as I know, so note that.) There’s a number of early problematic movies and books that hugely affected the popular narratives of plural people in the west, and still affect how therapists and non-plural people treat plural people even today. These include the movie “The Three Faces of Eve”, which has the narrative of “Good Eve, Bad Even, and later smushed together become ‘Fixed Eve’ or whatever”. There’s practically a whole lecture series on how the books/movies were made with sensationalism and formulas in mind and pretty gross things. Chris Costner Sizemore, the IRL Eve, had to fight the movie studios in court because the studios claimed they owned her life story. (There’s practically a whole lecture series on early plural history in the west, I might link more information later). Like, even today, multi people feel pressured to hide their plurality because they are afraid singlets or other people are gonna say “oh so which one of you is the ax murderer”, or that they are going to be fired from work. So.  

This post turned into a “Being Human seasons 4 + 5 Appreciation Post”. I guess Season 1 and 4, 5 were my favorite. I watched the show through library DVDs, but I think there’s eps of the show on YouTube. The DVD extras are probably on this YouTube playlist?

(Also, there is a pilot episode, with different actors except George/Russel Tovey. I don’t think one needs to watch the pilot to watch the main series; I kind of recall that the main series recycled some of the pilot. There is a funny scene in the pilot where George and Mitchell meet Annie.)

Being Human: a macabre, hilarious, horror-filled, flawed, sometimes dragging, emotional, whumpy, oddball show that I still think about sometimes.

[my-life-is-decent]

“I crash motor bikes on a weekly basis and run from the cops, I’ll be fine”

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“Sounds shady,,, I’ll do it.”

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“Don’t be the person to unsmuggle someone’s hawk”

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“Romeo and Juliet... but gen z”

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“Hey are you doing nothing this weekend? I was gonna ask if you were doing anything but nothing seemed more appropriate for you.”

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“Why is there a goldfish in my pocket? Someone must have put it there...”

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“Famous last words: I’m on a jog guys.”

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*in an empty hallway* “hey guys we should start a riot.”

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*yells jokingly* “FBI OPEN UP!” *two cops walk around the corner* “oh sh....”

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“Hey kids, get your horses out of the house!”

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“And it’s like, ‘sorry I don’t speak bro’l

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“AHHHHHHH” “are they working out or giving birth??”

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*dramatically sings “in the jungle” from lion king*

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“I can’t help, I’m eating a cookie!”

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“You so fake! I could buy one of you on eBay!”

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“Go home, eat saltines, take a nap, wake up, eat salt.”

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“My pinkie is a pancake.”

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“How can you have an opinion on this place if you haven’t tasted anything”

*licks table* “this place sucks*

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“You can probably smell the fear in my eye...”

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“We ain’t losing today dudes! I’m a walking purse!”

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“This is where the trailer park kids hang.”

“TRAILER PARK KIDS

TRAILER PARK KIDS

TRAILER PARKS KIDS UNITE!”

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“Wait are we throwing money? Yes!”

“Wait no that’s my money, I stole it!!”

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“Hey quick reminder, please do not sit on the handrails. The handrails are my friends. You wouldn’t like it if I went to your house and sat on your friends, so don’t sit on mine.”

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“BITCH I AM UNDERWEIGHT GIVE ME THE CUSTARD”

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“Why won’t America’s biker gangs be more like Martin Luther king?”

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“Just one, okay? Now, please, tease me some more so I can kick you out and then you can fail algebra and I’ll come laugh at you while you watch your friends graduate without you.”

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“This is different! I’m not driving a car! I’m driving a plane! It’s not like I’m meandering downtown, stopping for old ladies at stop lights! I’m taking off and trying not to yEET MYSELF INTO THE STRATOSPHERE!”

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“Olivia NO!” *olivia proceeds to stick arms elbow deep in dirty water*

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“Iced animal crack”

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“Forget love, fall in coffee”

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“You can’t irl brake check someone bro, get out of the way!”

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“Your smile says hey but your eyes say dead inside.”

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“She said walking not running, what are you doing?!”

“ZOOMIN!”

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“Bro it’s national cuddle your homies day!”

“Really? I’m going to my homies tonight!”

“Bro you gotta go cuddle your homie.”

“I definitely will.”

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“Uncrustables are ravioli”

“Boil your uncrustables and make cooked ravioli”

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*drops a skittle* “oh... no... a gay...”

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*rumbling softly* “the washing machine is angry”

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“It’s none of your beeswax!”

“It is my beeswax!”

“You’re not a bee are you?”

“Buzz buzz bitch.”

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“I was gonna ask if that was a dog but it was just a woman tying her shoe.”

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“Why are you inspecting a frogs genitalia? Frog pervert!”

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“Haha, catch these ankles”

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“The air conditioning just went up my boobs.”

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“This is the uno table, no one eats at the uno table, no one drinks at the uno table, and no one plays anything other than uno at the uno table. Adults have to put away their drinks and kids can’t have any toys. It’s for uno.”

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Student: “GUYS, TEST IS OVER”

Everyone else: ...

Teacher: “guess no one wants to talk to you.”

Student: “yeah I get that a lot”

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“How do you think my cactus felt?”

“Pure hatred cause you murdered it.”

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“No hair, don’t care”

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“Spicy is Just mouth bdsm”

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“Stars are just holes poked in the top so we can breathe.”

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“The opposite of straight A’s is Gay B’s”

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“Just wear mittens to hide your crab hands”

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“I’m Swiss!”

“You piece of cheese”

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“SUCK MY THICCC DICCC”

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“Should I explain? I mean, I think everyone knows what a school shooting is.”

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“I’m his favorite hoe”

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“I wanna be blue”

“Blue?”

“Like a smurf. But not like an ommpaloompa”

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*imitating beetlejuice* “I’m a whore for Jesus”

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“Out of Santa’s three hoes, you are the first one”

“No I’m all three, tri-hoe”

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“It feels like there’s a bunch of teeth in my mouth”

“There is a bunch of teeth in Your mouth”

“I mean extra teeth”

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"Boobs are not boobs if they are just nipples"

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“You have a Swiss army penis”

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“I’m gen z and i wanna hit stuff”

“I’m a millennial and I wanna kill my self”

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“We are talking about a tiger! Not being Jewish, not Hebrew school, and not god without an ‘o’. Please do your work.”

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“I don’t want a lot for Christmas, There is just one thing I need, I don’t care about the presents underneath the Christmas tree, I just want an A+ on my English final”

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“I love the smell of exhaust at 3:30 in the afternoon”

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“DAMN! Someone smells like a whole ass meal!” “Like a whole ass Olive Garden!”