#we're back everybody!

[deepdwellingsteamboat]

Why do we celebrate the anniversary of an assassination? Fifteen years ago, in the middle of a plague that nearly destroyed Dunwall, a paid killer assaulted the palace where I was born and stabbed my mother in the heart. In the aftermath, the men who sent the assassin tried to use me as a pawn in a game of power. They would've succeeded, but my father, Corvo Attano, hunted them down and cut their conspiracy to pieces. All these years later, am I the ruler my mother wanted me to be? Now we face a new crisis. A monster the papers are calling the Crown Killer has been picking off my enemies, and dressing it up like my father and I are responsible. I don't know whether to get on a ship and sail to the opposite side of the world, or to have everyone around me executed.

DISHONORED 2 (2016) ◈ 1 / ∞

[motleyfam]

“The analysis is complete. The bottle residue and samples we collected all tested positive for norovirus RNA—or, as it’s more commonly known, stomach flu.”

“Jesus take the wheel…” Timothy murmurs under his breath, ducking his head and tapping his fingers to his forehead, chest, and each shoulder in the sign of the cross.

Damian rolls his eyes. “Aren’t you Jewish, Drake.”

“I am an immunocompromised agnostic who just sat through a four-hour stakeout with three people who are now puking their guts up,” he bites back. “I will take anyone who’s listening.”

Richard gives a weak snort. “So this is a literal Hail Mary?”

Timothy glares back. “Yes.”

—

(In the case of Bats vs. Stomach Bug, there can only be one victor.)

[words-writ-in-starlight]

You could say that I have strong feelings about this ongoing debate

[funnyscienceman]

ok listen i know i said 'theyre the exact same picture' one time but they're actually not, they're really fucking not. for one thing, graves wouldn't leave TF to get screwed over by rich people—

[lagosbratzdoll]

On Daenerys, Colonisation and Race Discourse within the ASOIAF Fandom

This has been on my mind for a good long while and honestly, as much as I would like to leave discourse in the pits, it has been bugging me intermittently over the past few weeks.

Far too many of you get on here and call people who like the fictional dragon-riding family, neo-Nazis and that sentiment is so prevalent, that white people feel comfortable telling me a black woman that I am a neo-Nazi for rooting for Daenerys Targaryen. I am upholding neo-Nazi power fantasies for wanting to see a little girl live at the end of a story. I am a neo-Nazi for wanting to see the rape survivor have the family she aches for and children with the man (or men) she loves.

Then, those same people go on spiels about how the systemic erasure of those who sing the song of the earth and other old races is not colonialism. That their removal from their home is not displacement but an agreement between two equal parties. The fact that the only place where those who sing the song of the earth exist in the present timeline is north of the wall, surrounded by the bones of their dead, is not a travesty. That the expulsion of the old races from their home isn't that bad and should not be condemned. 

Instead, people argue, completely seriously, that the harm that the First Men and Andals have caused is centuries in the past, so essentially the slate has been wiped clean. The logical leaps that are required to arrive at such a boneheaded conclusion are truly mind-boggling, and those who make such arguments are not good people. 

I am unsure how one could read those books and come away with the impression that the old races do not mourn the loss of their home. I am unsure how one could read The Last of the Giants[1] and Ygritte’s reaction to both the song and Jon’s dismissal of the ethnic cleansing of the giants then believe that the old races and the free folk have moved past their displacement. 

In Westeros, from the Wall to the broken arm of Dorne, they all speak one language despite the fact they are all different ethnicities and they all landed on the shores at different times. That is not the case in Essos, we have been introduced to at least six languages and in A Dance with Dragons, Tyrion notes that the Valyrian spoken in the Free Cities has evolved into nine distinct dialects, and they are well on their way to becoming different languages.

How would a continent as large and diverse as Westeros maintain its hegemony over the people if not for forced assimilation, discriminatory practices and violence? The brutal repression required to keep one house in power for thousands of years is nothing to sniff at. The suppression required to keep the vast majority of Westeros worshipping one (or seven) gods. The systems in place ensure that language does not grow or evolve amongst the highborns at least.

Centuries before Aegon's Landing the maesters were the definitive educational authority and even now centuries after, nothing has changed. The grey rats still decide who learns what and when they learn it. There's one in every highborn home, all correspondence passes through them, they are the healers and the councillors.

The circular logic gets even more blockheaded when you factor in the fact that Daenerys is far from the only white character in the books. She is not the only character who wishes for home. She is not the only character who draws strength from her ancestors, her bloodline and her magical creatures. 

Cersei draws strength from her family’s iconography, and the Stark children (Jon included) all draw strength from their direwolves, their home and their blood. Sansa, Arya and Bran wish to return home and their home was built on the indiscriminate murder and displacement of the indigenous peoples. Their home is built on centuries of rape, murder, exclusionary practices and sexual slavery. 

However, if we give the nonsensical argument that time erases crimes air; the Starks, Lannisters and Tullys are warring to settle personal grievances in the present timeline. As a consequence of that war, thousands (a modest guesstimate) of small folk, minor nobles and even some major ones have been raped, tortured, maimed and killed.

Despite all this, no one writes meta after meta about how Sansa and her siblings must surely die for justice to be had for those who sing the song of the earth, the free folk, the giants and all the old races that fled beyond the wall.  

People write meta about Cersei and how she must die, but those are typically more misogynistic nature. They typically argue that she must die not for the “crime” of being Lannister, but for the “crime” of being Cersei and “ruining” Jamie. 

I would not mind criticisms of Dany and her peace-focused approach to ending slavery because the approach is naïve and she gives the slavers far too much ground. However, she is learning, growing and self-critiquing. At the end of A Dance with Dragons, she has decided to embrace fire and blood, her knight is breaking the false peace which is a necessary step forward.

What I find offensive is people saying that she should have planned better before she abolished slavery. And that the death, violence, and sickness that arises from her quest to eradicate slavery is somehow worse than the death, violence, and sickness that already existed in Slaver’s Bay. 

This argument often downplays the horrific conditions and suffering that exist(ed) under the slave system in Slaver's Bay. Such arguments are often in poor taste and prioritise the lives and comforts of the slavers more than the people they have enslaved.

I would not mind criticisms of Dany if people applied that same critique even-handedly. The same people who believe that Jon and Bran have done much to rectify the evil that their ancestors perpetuated believe that Dany has not done anything to right the wrongs of her ethnic kin. They praise them for the non-existent steps that they have taken, but in the same breath, they condemn Dany for not being able to immediately end the plague that is slavery. 

It is perfectly alright to not like fictional characters, no law requires you to like certain fictional characters over others. However, what is not right is making broad accusations about those who do, it is beyond the pale. It is disgusting, and annoying, and trivialises real-world issues to score cheap points against fictional characters.

Equating the survival of a teenage survivor to the restoration of a fascist house or neo-Nazi power fantasy when such designations do not exist in the world of ice and fire is strange behaviour. Saying that the teenage survivor will eventually be manipulated and raped (again) before ending up dead on her manipulator's blade is also strange behaviour. 

Dismissing the horrors of colonialism, especially when the text shows you that the involved parties are still affected by it, is not normal and often veers into real-world imperialism apologia. While criticism and analysis of characters and their actions are valid and even encouraged, it is essential that we do not resort to sweeping generalisations about other people and that we keep criticisms of characters grounded in the text. 

[1]  

Ooooooh, I am the last of the giants, my people are gone from the earth.

The last of the great mountain giants, who ruled all the world at my birth

Oh, the smallfolk have stolen my forests, they’ve stolen my rivers and hills.

And they’ve built a great wall through my valleys, and fished all the fish from my rills

In stone halls they burn their great fires, in stone halls they forge their sharp spears.

Whilst I walk alone in the mountains, with no true companion but tears.

They hunt me with dogs in the daylight, they hunt me with torches by night.

For these men who are small can never stand tall, whilst giants still walk in the light.

Oooooooh, I am the LAST of the giants, so learn well the words of my song.

For when I am gone the singing will fade, and the silence shall last long and long.

[nastasya--filippovna]

WHAT A DAY to be alive and a Good Omens fan.

this is ethereal and ineffable.

WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Spread chocolates and Eccles cakes amongst all and let there be joy unbounded.

[byfulcrums]

Something I love about ATLA is that it doesn't force the "forgive the villain" on all the characters. It's been left clear that Ozai is a bad person, and there's no chance of redemption; the only reason he's not dead yet is because Aang is a pacifist

The one episode where a character is supposed to forgive someone who has hurt them in the past is the one where Katara is off to kill a man (which, fair) and Zuko helps. In that episode, even if Aang is telling her to let go, she doesn't forgive him. She never will. But she spares him. Not because she thinks he doesn't deserve death (he does), but because she's not willing to continue the cycle of violence

Killing someone can have a very important impact in your entire being, mostly depending on who you are as a person. Aang would've never recovered from killing Ozai. Katara wouldn't be who she is now, had she taken her revenge on the man that killed her mother

And the best part of it is that Ozai doesn't deserve to die. Not in a "I'm defending him" way (ew), but in a "he deserves worse that than" way

Taking away his bending was the perfect punishment for him. He believed bending made you superior and he never cared enough to train something besides his bending. What a loser. Zuko and Azula wouldn't be restrained by something like that

He's alive. Nobody has forgiven him. Nobody ever will

[mollysunder]

I know Vi's depression and angst next season is serious, but I can't help thinking about how goth make-up would have her looking like a clown. Unfortunately, I might not be able to take Vi seriously in those scenes (or at least not serious enough) , because she's literally Boo Boo the Fool.

It's one thing to feel disconnected from your community when you've been gone for so long, and it's a whole other thing for the community see you openly run around with an enforcer. And even more for the community to see you run around with a Councilor and a SQUAD of enforcers to basically arrest factory workers, including children, and leave a bunch of bodies behind, including a kid. I'm sure their families would be pissed to see you in the street.

Obviously Vi's depression is real and she's in for a real battle with her demons. But if I see her drinking in the club with her clown (KISS) makeup my brain's going to make a sad trombone noise, whomp whomp whomp.

[youngpettyqueen]

I wish Julian and Martok would interact more cause I think they could have the funniest possible dynamic. they spent 5 weeks together in a Jem'Hadar prison I just know they have a friendship that looks fucking INSANE from the outside looking in

[metiredlr]

Save me tiny gensaku 🤏🏽 save me,,, save me tiny gensaku 😭🙏🏽

[reactionimagesdaily]

[tenitchyfingers]

ok i found this on the beatles subreddit and i really hate men atm (because you know this is straight white men saying this shit)

BITCH MCLENNON HAS A LONG AND ANCIENT HISTORY AND MCLENNON SHIPPERS ARE THE WHOLE BACKBONE OF THE BEATLES' WORLDWIDE SUCCESS FUCK YOUUUU

[blaseball]

😴

[machinegrl]

made a sim to test cc that i just downloaded and accidentally made the love of my life???

[smimon]

:( how long does it take to heal a broken heart?

[bruciemilf]

" he would not fucking say that" actually, he would. wanna know why?? cause fictional characters are objects of enjoyment, not attachment, sugar lips