#we mothers stand still.............

[rb19]

And I'm sorry I left, but it was for the best... though it never felt right.

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[gingermintpepper]

In my Zeus bag today so I'm just gonna put it out there that exactly none of the great Ancient Greek warrior-heroes stayed loyal and faithful and completely monogamous and yet none of them have their greatness questioned nor do we question why they had the cultural prominence that they did and still do.

Jason, the brilliant leader of the Argo, got cold feet when it came to Medea - already put off by some of her magic and then exiled from his birthland because of her political ploys, he took Creusa to bed and fully intended on marrying her despite not properly dissolving things with Medea.

Theseus was a fierce warrior and an incredibly talented king but he had a horrible temper and was almost fatally weak to women. This is the man who got imprisoned in the Underworld for trying to get a friend laid, the man who started the whole Attic War because he couldn't keep his legs closed.

And we cannot at all forget Heracles for whom a not inconsiderable amount of his joy in life was loving people then losing the people around him that he loved. Wives, children, serving boys, mentors, Heracles had a list of lovers - male and female - long enough to rival some gods and even after completing his labours and coming down to the end of his life, he did not have one wife but three.

And y'know what, just because he's a cultural darling, I'll put Achilles up here too because that man was a Theseus type where he was fantastic at the thing he was born to do (that is, fight whereas Theseus' was to rule) but that was not enough to eclipse his horrid temper and his weakness to young pretty things. This is the man that killed two of Apollo's sons because they wouldn't let him hit - Tenes because he refused to let Achilles have his sister and Troilus who refused Achilles so vehemently that he ran into Apollo's temple to avoid him and still couldn't escape.

All four of these men are still celebrated as great heroes and men. All four of these men are given the dignity of nuance, of having their flaws treated as just that, flaws which enrich their character and can be used to discuss the wider cultural point of what truly makes a hero heroic. All four of these men still have their legacies respected.

Why can that same mindset not be applied to Zeus? Zeus, who was a warrior-king raised in seclusion apart from his family. Zeus who must have learned to embrace the violence of thunder for every time he cried as a babe, the Corybantes would bang their shields to hide the sound. Zeus learned to be great because being good would not see the universe's affairs in its order.

The wonderful thing about sympathy is that we never run out of it. There's no rule stopping us from being sympathetic to multiple plights at once, there's no law that necessitate things always exist on the good-evil binary. Yes, Zeus sentenced Prometheus to sufferation in Tartarus for what (to us) seems like a cruel reason. Prometheus only wanted to help humans! But when you think about Prometheus' actions from a king's perspective, the narrative is completely different: Prometheus stole divine knowledge and gifted it to humans after Zeus explicitly told him not to. And this was after Prometheus cheated all the gods out of a huge portion of wealth by having humans keep the best part of a sacrifice's meat while the gods must delight themselves with bones, fat and skin. Yes, Zeus gave Persephone away to Hades without consulting Demeter but what king consults a woman who is not his wife about the arrangement of his daughter's marriage to another king? Yes, Zeus breaks the marriage vows he set with Hera despite his love of her but what is the Master of Fate if not its staunchest slave?

The nuance is there. Even in his most bizarre actions, the nuance and logic and reason is there. The Ancient Greeks weren't a daft people, they worshipped Zeus as their primary god for a reason and they did not associate him with half the vices modern audiences take issue with. Zeus was a father, a visitor, a protector, a fair judge of character, a guide for the lost, the arbiter of revenge for those that had been wronged, a pillar of strength for those who needed it and a shield to protect those who made their home among the biting snakes. His children were reflections of him, extensions of his will who acted both as his mercy and as his retribution, his brothers and sisters deferred to him because he was wise as well as powerful. Zeus didn't become king by accident and it is a damn shame he does not get more respect.

[winepresswrath]

Armand's simpering little "and I never have" has taken on new dimensions for me. Technicality king and also I think very in keeping with his whole malign fairy creature deal. You can tell him not to hurt the bae, but you should really specify what "hurt" entails. Is chopping someone's hands off really hurting them? If they have annoyed you very much I mean.

-questions Armand might pose to Lestat that inspire him to leave the country

[1doesnotsimplyhavejust1fandam]

So what I’m getting from Tim posting a 9-1-1!Vertigo movie poster and including Buck, not Marisol, in what is presumably Midge’s role, is that there didn’t necessarily need to be cheating for this arc to work. Please correct me if I’m wrong.

I love a good dramatic arc and Vertigo is a banger choice for Eddie’s Catholic guilt and Shannon grief arc, but as far as I know (yes, in my hour of Wikipedia and Twitter deep-diving), that movie doesn’t actually contain cheating, so I’m curious if there’s a reason for it other than drama or not making a carbon copy 9-1-1 version of Vertigo. Is it to make the audience start to dislike Eddie like the Vertigo audience is meant to slowly dislike Scottie, as he continues to make bad choices? Is it to encourage the GA to see Buddie with Buck as the pining Midge? Desperately want reassurance that Tim realizes by making Buck a part of this storyline (especially as Midge), there is no feasible way to dismiss that. Even if Buck’s feelings aren’t explicitly addressed, that poster and any potential on-screen pining aren’t going to be swept away. Season 7 paralleling season 4 regarding Buddie and it’s because The Will and the Vertigo Arc won’t be ignored by the fandom. We’re all gonna go a little crazy methinks, and I can’t wait.

[alluralater]

hey everyone, i won’t be as active for a while. got home last night super late after being on the road for 20 some odd hours. dealing with some family things and as an older sister, my priority of taking care of my siblings comes first before anything else. being on here is amazing for me but i don’t think i’ll have much time for it. reminder to please treat those in your life who are battling addiction with patience and care. i lost my older brother (sweetest person i’ve ever known and he remained that way up until his last night) to suicide and alcoholism, trauma and ptsd, depression and his feelings of hopelessness. talk with the people you care about. another of my siblings is dealing with the same and i refuse to let it escalate to such a terrifying end twice in less than a fucking year. remind the people you care about that there are beautiful things to live for. show them kindness and love. there is all kinds of misinformation out there but know this, you can make a difference for someone. don’t let them suffer in silence.

[sherlock-is-ace]

.

[skyburger]

"fnaf is the scariest game ever" "no its silent hill" "well i think its resident evil" everyone shut up!!!!!! youre all wrong. its actually zack & wiki quest for barbaros' treasure (on the nintendo wii) but only the level "keeper of the ice". that level scared me so bad as a kid and you can tell because its the only individual level i remember the name of off the top of my head. like there is nothing scarier than a) being chased and b) being on a time limit. and you know what this level has? BOTH OF THOSE. this level is still scary to me im like AHHHHH!!!! and then i die

[akkivee]

For the next BAT audio drama I kinda hope they put Kuukou through the horrors, I love Kuukou and all but I want to know what the absolute fuck is his problem. I really hope we get to finally find out what happened to Mama Harai. What I think happened to Mama Harai is something involving the ocean, I always found it ironic that Kuukou dislikes the ocean considering where he lives so I thought maybe that has to do with Mama Harai not being around.

all i want is for kuukou to have fun and live life but yeah, we have reached the point where it’ll be straight bizarre if we don’t get his backstory lol. kuukou enjoying nature to the point he takes solace in it but dislikes the ocean is soooo telling

and so i hope it’s mama harai too lol!!!!! whether the drama is she gave kuukou a reason to hate the ocean, or is the reason he hates smoking and alcohol, or is the reason he naturally turns to self sacrifice, or all of the above!!!!! i would like to know lol!!!!!

[running-in-the-dark]

had one very short interaction with my mother-in-law and once again I think I won't get through living here until the end of March :)

[skysister]

my mother died when i was 16 and barbie (2023) made me cry and grieve for her in a way that has become rarer with time. being a woman is so beautiful and aging is so beautiful and there is a yawning ache inside of me that wants to be able to look at my mother as an old woman and tell her how beautiful she is, and for her to be able to look into my mirror of a face and be happy to see herself

[the-little-crab-in-your-pocket]

Idk I just think that treating your child as less-than on the basis of them being your child (whom you are responsible for having) is kind of very shitty

[tibli]

Beloved Husk

Here I stand in her scorched remains.

This is not the first time, nor will it be the last, and her vacant body has acclimated to my presence.

No longer do her damp, wooly tissues squelch beneath my feet-

they have long since dried out, compressed into a single mass of dull, cotton-candy pink.

In some places, her flesh has completely burned away, leaving nothing behind but blackened, splintering bone. There is no ink in the world rich enough to match the soot that clings to her skeleton.

Sun rays filter through her blown, empty eye sockets, and the daylight is no less beautiful for its thoughtless transgression.

How dare you illuminate her suffering so callously! You have made her into a spectacle- a cadaver to be prodded and studied, rather than a soul to be mourned.

My cheeks are wet, but I can't be sure if it's from grief, or the ever-present haze of smoke. The cause doesn't matter- I am weeping all the same.

[vaugarde]

i get the frustration with so many villains now getting treatment like “oh they had a sucky childhood so actually you need to feel bad for them and not hold them accountable for their actions” but the counter of “this person was born evil and cant ever grow and its pathetic to assume that they can, also people cant be redeemed no matter what and this is fantastic writing actually” is so exhausting. 

[unproduciblesmackdown]

blade gunnblade !!!!!!!!

via eliza simpson:

There are no words for this true warrior. They kill me. MMM: went in for a post show hug. Me:"ow!" Asia: "oh sorry, that's my bullet necklace." 😳........ 😍

[valeriefauxnom]

Things that the "It-Which-Must-Not-Be-Named" Manga hinted at that might have been interesting, were it an actually good work:

So, as we all know (or maybe we don't?), there was a terrible two-part Dragalia manga that they made at the beginning, likely just as a sort of advertising. One problem: it was bad.

For starters, whomever was in charge of it seemed to have a very, very poorly understanding of Euden as a character. The best I can describe it is if you put Euden, Emile, and dash of Leonidas' inability to remember his siblings' names into a blender and let 'er rip. And I dunno about you, but Emile and Euden are not exactly alike. But no, somehow the writer got the understanding that the reason Euden hasn't set out to form a pact was out of laziness than just a peacekeeping measure that the actual Euden was doing (well, a bit more to it than that, but I'll come around to it later).

When combined with the author unable to not have Euden be, let's say, weird in regards to Zethia (a thing that Dragalia itself commendably relentlessly fought against even to the end despite a depressingly large party of the community thinking otherwise. Before I get on that whole tangent, I'd just like to remind everyone that in the very last event they both stressed that no matter what they still see themselves as siblings) because, you know, everything's gotta be stereotypical (read, bad) anime and manga, right?

So yeah. Needless to say, we are pretty much wholly in AU territory from the start. WillofWinnie aptly described it (a headcanon I have incorporated) is that it is Euden through Emile's perspective, ie, assuming Euden is more like him and otherwise putting him in an unflattering light.

However, AU itself is not necessarily bad. And when I look at the few little hints of what might have been an interesting alternative telling to Dragalia, I just mourn all the harder that it might have had something compelling.

Here's a collection of things that might have been fun/interesting, were they not in so poorly a manga. That's right, I'm addressing the dragon in the room, the biggest forbidden topic in the Dragalia Fandom, and made myself Suffer(tm) to not only snip out parts that I think might have had potential, but also incidentally make this thing look much better than it was! Strap in, folks, cause this is gonna be long!

-First of all, this isn't even a manga-exclusive thing, but I just like seeing Sol Alberia properly. Turns out it's this massive city enclosed in walls!

-Perhaps the biggest change implied of all is that manga!Alberia seems to have a much more fluid understanding of who the next-in-line is. In canon, it's pretty much lock and key that provided nothing happens, Leonidas will inherit. Nobody really challenges his authority as heir-apparent. And with him regularly reaffirmed to be the eldest, it's clear that he isn't actually a younger sibling that just happens to be the favored for the throne right now.

Euden (well, dream Euden, but this imagining of him is of a much more in-character version of him than Gala!Mym's imaginings) even had this to say in a story:

But the siblings in the manga are stated to be in an outright inheritance war, which, since they're not just murdering each other, means that there would be other ways to gain the throne without eliminating the competition through death:

(Gotta say, the overly-ominous framing of the siblings is something pretty funny to me even if they are indeed bad news early Dragalia)

This could be its own point of interest, because notably, it's the exact thing canon Euden feared pre-game. Canon Euden establishes that his primary reason for not even attempting to make a pact is because he doesn't want to be viewed as usurper with dreams of power, now making a move. He'd rather be viewed as the weak, ineffectual sibling that is no threat to preserve harmony. However, given the more locked-in inheritance order in canon, Euden's fears are perhaps slightly excessive.

For the siblings to be worried about him as a true threat, they'd have to be worried about him killing Leonidas, Phares, Chelle, Valyx, and Emile before he'd be the crown prince. Of course, there's other ways to gain power, but the fear he's trying to take the crown would likely be a more remote fear.

In Not!Euden's world, though, Canon Euden's fears would be fully justified. Here, the throne is not near-guaranteed to rest in Leonidas' hands, and here Euden is immediately a threat if Aurelius starts to view him more favorably than his 'competitors'.

On a tiny note, this might also help align one of the relations diagram they put out as an ad before Dragalia launched, wherein Leonidas and Phares mutually consider each other 'worthy rivals':

In canon, we mostly only see shades of this relationship in Phares' lines wherein he comments that his alchemy work started after Leonidas' and how he's happy to have surpassed him in that, as well as Leonidas' general respect (well, for Leo) of Phares, but that's all. In the manga, though, they could be rivals in a more true sense for the throne.

The implications of this big change are also interesting in regards to Emile. Emile is his same-old abrasive self in the manga, but in the manga world, some of his initial anger would also be more justified surrounding Euden being sent out to pact.

As was ever-so-gently brushed upon in canon rarely, the Dragon Choosing and pacting is not an easy process by any means, physically or mentally. Here, Emile is upset that Euden has essentially been given a fast pass and cut the line, the agony, all that, and is in his view being favored by Aurelius, which I think is fair.

Aurelius might only be doing this just for the emergency of the situation instead of letting the Dragon Choosing/pacting being a voluntary endeavor like it was for the rest, but Emile (and likely the rest of the siblings) would naturally view this as huge favoritism and a sign the throne might go to Euden if they don't do something to regain favor/make him look bad.

And you know what? That might have been an interesting AU direction to take things, had they committed to it. The understandable misconception that Euden is now somehow the golden child (even more inconceivable compared to canon Euden as it is) leading to sibling arguments for the throne could be cool.

-On a lighter note, not!Euden is correct in one thing: Emile certainly will bring harm to him!

-Euden vs Combat, fight!

The relationship between Euden and not!Euden regarding fighting is a very interesting contrast. Both don't exactly love it; Euden might go to lengths to try and resolve things before coming to blows, but is ultimately willing.

Not!Euden, though, while he similarly dislikes fighting, goes a bit further than Euden does.

He skips sword lessons (a thing only attributed to Emile in canon), completely lacks any sort of will to fight. As I mentioned at the start of this, the bulk of it is attributed to laziness, but there's a small caveat.

This is where it gets frustrating, because at times the manga edges close to the canon personality of Euden but shies away from every fully meeting up to where it could take it in a new direction whilst remaining true to the core. Case in point, not!Euden here also dislikes fighting/power because he dislikes spilling blood, and because, as Zethia puts it, dragons=power=conflict to this Euden, tying back in to the whole inheritance war.

This could have been an intersting fork off of Euden, because they additionally share another divergence: talent, or lack thereof.

Canon Euden is actually addressed several times to not really have any talent in swordplay. He's fledgling, mediocre, as remarked by people like Raemond and Leif, and lacks for the natural skill Leonidas or any of his other relatives might have had with a weapon.

It's only through his incredible hard work and perseverance he's shown to have (plus all the do-or-die moments he's forced into over the years) that he gains the skill that he does, which again immediately contrasts with not!Euden skipping outright.

And yet, manga!Euden is noted to have talent. He's just not using a lick of it to actually gain skill.

This might just be Leif trying to puff him up, encourage him, but it doesn't seem to be when he's privately talking to Aurelius later:

(Leif get some sleep to get rid of the bags under your eyes, even if I'm sure dealing with this iteration of the family is even more taxing than normal). Ahem. The point is, is that this Euden has talent but no will or drive to get better but canon Euden has the inverse. While it might be tempting to frame this as an immediate way that the manga is worse ('oh of course, he's secretly got all this talent that he can just bust out at the convenient plot moment, get stronger for doing nothing at all'), I could see it as an interesting fork to Euden as a character if they handled it right, which they admittedly wouldn't in the manga.

What I mean would be mixing some of what we know about canon!Euden into the mix. Namely, Euden has a notably deficient sense of self-worth I've gone over several times. With siblings like Emile and Leonidas, it would be easy to further that into a thing partially caused by their attitudes that tend to push down others. In essence, I think one could have reconstructed his low self-esteem as a result of sibling bullying to the point where he even views trying as a futile endeavor, but as the story goes on and as he is no longer 'under their thumb' quite as much and then can actually use that room to allow any talent and skill to bloom. A sort of healing process and the change from derision to encouragement from those around, you know?

I'll stop there before I go start writing an AU of a bad AU of Dragalia, but hopefully you get where I'm going with that idea. The point is, him having all this apparently ~secret talent~ doesn't necessarily have to be bad!

-On another more lighthearted/less plot-heavy note, I will commend the artist for taking the bold step in finally giving Zethia some darn shoes, even as sandals.

-Honestly, regarding Zethia, she just kinda girlbosses her way through the manga, and good for her! Plenty of legitimate criticism can be levied with the way Zethia is initially handled as just another damsel in distress, but in its brief, generally poorly life, at least this manga's Zethia was kicking butt.

She's unequivocally the stronger between her and Euden, and as a result her overprotective side is on better display from the get-go (as both the twins had it in canon, and a later plot thread was actually getting them more independent of each other. Euden's was just naturally the one with more exposure)

Also ouch on the roasting there Zethia, but not!Euden probably deserves it.

Hard as it is to give credit where credit is due for this, again, good for her! (Even if it is just set up as a means to point out that terrible old 'protagonist is a useless baby' trope in anime/manga, but I digress.)

-Back to plot heavy stuff, Aurelius vs. Morsayati, fight!

As we know from canon, Aurelius was perfectly fine until he entered the Binding Ruins, wherein he was possessed by Morsayati and then started chapters 2-26. Manga!Aurelius, though, apparently seemed to have potentially had a bit of creeping Morsayati in the blood from the get-go.

I think this also would have been an interesting fork, since it also can connect with actual canon knowledge. Alberius explicitly sealed Morsayati in his blood, with the aim of his dragonblood being so diluted over the generations that Morsayati could no longer reform/possess one of his descendants. With this in mind, it's more than feasible to instead change the Other's possession method as more of a slow creep than an instant take-over as with Aurelius and Zethia.

It could have been interesting to see Euden slowly have to weigh if this is his father anymore, if Aurelius initially displayed more of his own personality. Canonically, his change is so abrupt and so jarring that Euden instead is devout in his correct belief that this just can't be his Father, and instead some shapeshifter thing masquerading as his father, whom he seems to view as in need of rescue:

With that in mind, I think it could have been compelling. Maybe the possession is still fully completed at the Binding Ruins, except maybe the Other just slowly pushed Aurelius into going there. Maybe Euden then and the townsfolk get worried over all the siblings the moment they feel as if any in the royal family might be starting the path to possession. Maybe Euden himself has to personally grapple with fears that he's somehow being possessed as he grows more used to having to make hard decisions as a leader in war and all that, that he views as 'evil'.

Also, we later find out in canon that Aurelius went to the Binding Ruins in an attempt to help Nedrick and was consciously gambling with controlling the Other's power for that end, which almost assuredly wasn't in the minds as of the manga's inception, but maybe it could be tied into that.

Aurelius, increasingly fearing, perhaps paranoid for how he's going to protect all his family, -including Nedrick still suffering on the north side of the continent, -starts heeding that little voice that in the Binding Ruins, surely there must be something from the ancient civilizations there he could use to gain power enough to protect his children? Again, not to create an AU of a bad AU, but I could see potential!

-And last but not least, on another lighter note, but given not!Euden's...everything, I do appreciate that his personal guards(?) are always prepared for when they need to use their magic lassos to bodily drag him down from a tree:

Given that we do know that Euden had at least a minor proclivity to go outside the castle/escape when he wasn't supposed to growing up, it might have been funny to see some of Euden's escapades, instead of not!Euden's. That being said, the guards also channel one's feelings quite well in regards to having to deal with this not!Euden:

So yeah, there's a little bit about NotMy!Euden's thankfully brief if disastrous stint in the world of manga! My apologies for either informing you or reminding you about it, but I do hope you gained something of vague interest from this, or rather, what it could have been!

[anotherpapercut]

when I was in 8th grade I had the same teacher for physics and geometry and he was like one of those dudes who always wanted to be one of the cool kids but never was so now he got to be the cool teacher that all the cool kids loved so he would like straight up bully the weird kids (me and my friends lol ✌️) and I thought it was wack as hell that a grown ass man was calling my friend, a 13 year old girl, stupid in front of the whole class for asking a fucking question so I constantly told him to back off and would get in full on screaming matches with the man about why he was not allowed to treat us like that (at one point I basically told him that if he ever made my friend cry again I would not rest until his teaching license was revoked lol) and it got to the point where he was like. actually for real beefing with me during class and in the hallways when he saw me and sometimes after school

anyway I just wanna say first of all fuck you Mr. Glasson, second of all what kind of like 28 y/o man has a fr beef with a fucking 13 year old. I literally wore a cloak to school. he was having beef with a child with pink hair, in a cloak. can you fucking imagine jsbdksbdndmdbnd