#were all doomed usa

[zany-clam-palace]

sunshine boy

[headspace-hotel]

My mamaw has the book right now so I won't be able to read it for a little bit but my mom read The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan which is about the Dust Bowl and it puts in perspective all the environmental books I was reading from the 1940's and 1950's and the sense of agitation and intensity in them.

Everyone is like yeah yeah the dust bowl we've all heard of it, but the Dust Bowl was apocalyptic. The USA practically eliminated the bison—we are talking thousands of square miles of land littered with bones, enormous pyramids of skulls—and committed genocide against their caretakers, and then settlers ripped up the prairie grasses (which protected meters of top soil) with plows

And what happened was, half the country became in engulfed in horrific dirt storms that turned the sky black and reduced visibility to a few feet. Even indoor environments were full of deep drifts of dirt. When it rained, it rained mud instead of water. In ENGLAND the snow was RED because of DIRT. People died from pneumonia because they were breathing the dirt into their lungs.

Even before mom started reading this book, I was reading American books about the environment from the mid 20th century, and they are animated with the zeal and terror of people who have realized that human mismanagement could make the USA literally uninhabitable. I realized, "Oh. This is right after the Dust Bowl." cause of how they talk about erosion, and I realized just how formative the Dust Bowl was in terms of environmental policy.

Reading about various wildlife species, I realized also how utterly apocalyptic the conditions of the past were for animals. Deer were almost eliminated from my state. Deer.

Why do we have the Migratory Bird Treaty Act? Because just about every large bird species almost went extinct from uncontrolled commercial hunting. We almost had no swans, no cranes, no egrets, no storks. We lost the passenger pigeons and Carolina parakeets, but we could have lost Basically Everything.

So many of the ill-conceived decisions to introduce species to this continent are easily explained by how apocalyptic this period of time was. Why did we think it was a good idea to introduce Kudzu? Because in the 1950's, erosion sparked a visceral apprehension of CERTAIN DOOM, and logging had made the whole southeast start washing away! Why were so many exotic antelopes introduced to Texas? Because every native large animal was almost wiped out!

From my other readings on the subject (Changes in the Land by William Cronon is a good one) devastating environmental destruction started just about as soon as Europeans started controlling the land, and I am guessing that if you examined the timeline of environmental disaster alongside the migrations west, it would support the argument that settlers started pushing west more and more rapidly because of land degradation and environmental disaster.

I wish this was commoner knowledge, getting to where we are now has been a journey. Environmental history doesn't start in 1970's.

It is not the case that things have steadily gotten worse over time and recently are becoming extremely bad, rather, different parts of the environment have become both better and worse in steps forward and backward, and many seemingly unremarkable things around us were earned by a vicious fight, which we can learn from and continue...

[st-dionysus]

Note from an angry trans man.

Of course, I’m angry. Who wouldn’t be. Dead children, dead teachers, a trans man to blame and the world ready to blame every single one of us instead of a single person -- instead of mental illness -- instead of guns -- instead of all the horrors that surround us. Eager to blame our HRT, our transitioning, our existence. Trans sisters who should be standing up against the abuse and shame put on their brothers – who instead decide to reject us, to blame us for anti-trans legislation, to group us all with Aiden Hale. To further stigmatize testosterone and trans-manhood. To act as though we are the harbinger of doom.

Of course, I’m angry. Dead trans people fill the news and wiki articles. Trans men among the corpses, but we don’t say their names. The bodies of FTM children left on the road, genitals mutilated, and newspapers printed with the wrong name and pronouns. Misgendered in death. Misgendered in rape, assault, and murder statistics. Misgendered in the publication of his horrific crime.

Of course, I’m angry. One of my brothers killed six people – three children and three adults. “Police then killed 28-year-old shooter Audrey Aiden Hale, who investigators said left behind a manifesto and detailed maps about how to carry out the attack. Law enforcement officials have not shared details about a suspected motive.”

Of course, I’m angry. The Nashville shooting was the 128th US mass shooting this year. There were 127 other mass shootings this year (and it’s only the end of March), most of which we did not talk about, most of which we did not address. More than 348,000 students have experienced gun violence at school since Columbine. There has been 89 school shooting incidents in the USA so far in 2023.

I want to rip something apart with my hands. I want to scream. I want to bleed. There is rage in my body, and it’s locked away behind tears and prayers. I consider cutting for the first time in over a year. I think about drinking myself to death or blowing my brains out in protest, but I don’t want to leave my cat alone, I don’t want my friends to cry about me, or to leave my lover heart-broken. I don’t want to be another dead trans man. I don’t want to be another name on the list of FTMs that have killed themselves. I’m already a part of the 50% of the FTM population who has tried at least once, I don’t want to try again. More than that, I don’t want my deadname to be the name I die with. I don't want to be seen as a dead woman.

I watch people die every day. I fear the deaths of my grade-school siblings. I fear the death of my loved ones. I fear walking into a gay bar and being carried out in a body bag.

Of course, I’m angry. It must be the testosterone.

[heyftinally]

April 30th is the Day of the Homeschooled Child

I was one of the 1.7 million children homeschooled in the USA.

I am also one of Homeschool's Invisible Children.

I was heavily restricted at home - I was barred from nearly everything that my peers were connecting with. I had incredibly limited access to movies and TV, even more restricted internet access, and was even barred from many of the same toys my peers played with. This on top of my academic isolation made socializing very hard.

I didn't relate to my peers socially.

Children younger than me were more academically advanced than me.

I was socially unaware, and frequently missed jokes or made faux pas comments because I didn't understand how to interact with peers.

My ADHD went untreated my entire childhood.

And the issues were not only social. Despite living in a state that boasted some of the most rigorous checks for homeschooled students, I was missed. My portfolios every year were falsified - much of what they claimed I had learned I had little to no understanding of.

By the time I graduated high school "with honors" (that I did not earn and were entirely false), this is a brief list of some of my academic failings:

I had never written an essay, and did not know how

I did not know how to do a critical analysis of a piece of text or media

I was incapable of math above a 4th/5th grade level

I could not tell time on an analog clock

I could not identify more than ~5 states on a map of the United States

I could not identify more than ~5 countries on a map of the world/globe

I could not spell above a ~6th grade level

I did not know that there was proof of life on earth prior to dinosaurs

I did not know that the lymphatic system was real

And so much more.

I entered college woefully unequipped for both the academic and socal demands that were placed on me. At 18, I was closer to as 14 year old, social/emotionally. Academically I was much worse.

I had to work three times as hard as my peers to achieve the same results, battled my still-undiagnosed ADHD as well as my academic and social neglect.

I didn't fully know who I even was as a person, due to spending so many years being expected to fit a specific ideal that was enforced upon me 24/7 through the isolation of homeschooling.

This April 30th, I'm wearing green for Homeschool's Invisible Children - for children like me.

If you are a child experiencing homeschool neglect, please know that you are not alone. There are resources available to you, and your future is not doomed just because your guardians failed to educate you. I'm listing some resources below that may be of help to you.

Homeschool alumni/survivors who resonate with this story: we deserved better. We deserved education. We deserved freedom. It's okay if you're angry at your past. It's okay if you're grieving the life you might have had without homeschooling. It's okay if you're conflicted. I hope you're able to find closure and healing in whatever form that means for you.

And, because I know it unfortunately needs to be said, if you're an ex-homeschooler or a homeschool parent who feels the need to jump on this post and defend yourself, I need you to step back, sit down, delete your comment, and sit with why you feel so attacked by our truth.

This is not a personal attack on you - this is abuse survivors speaking up to prevent further abuse. It is not your place to tell us we should be silent.

"But homeschoolers test better and are more successful!" I'm sure you're dying to say. To wave your statistics at me.

And you would be wrong. Because here's the problem with those statistics.

Let's pretend we have ten homeschooled children and ten public schooled children.

All ten of the public schooled children take a school assessment. Because some excel at different things than others, the public school students average out to an 85.

Only four of the homeschooled children take the assessment. Of the other six, one is traveling with their family during the assessment, two are not permitted because their parents know they aren't up to grade level and fear backlash or judgement, two are mentally or physically disabled and so their parents don't feel the test will adequately display their knowledge, and the last hasn't received any kind of education in years because their parents keep them at home either doing chores, working a job, caring for siblings, or they are simply neglected and spend all day hungry and scared.

Of the four homeschooled children that do take the assessment, they do quite well, as their parents knew/suspected they would. Their average score is a 98.

A 98 is better than an 85, yes. But just because 4 out of 6 homeschooled children were above the public school average does not mean homeschooling is automatically better. If you tested the top four public school students, they might very well score a 98 as well.

However, if you included those other six homeschooled students, the average homeschool score would very likely be something closer to a 45.

So when we talk about Homeschool's Invisible Children, we're talking about those six that never got the chance to take an assessment. Those six who never had a chance to tell a teacher "I'm ten and I don't know how to read". Those six who may not even realize how far behind their peers they are. Those six who deserved to have access to supports so that they could learn in ways that actually met their needs.

So while your statistics look good on paper, they are not honest. They do not present the full picture of homeschooling. Listen to the homeschool survivors who were one of those six kids who never got to make their voices heard. We have a voice now - don't try and take it from us.

Resources for current homeschool students and alumni:

Khan Academy - basically free online self paced K-12 classes. They have fantastic explanation videos for the lessons, you can review them whenever you want, and you don't have to stay in the same grade level for every subject - great if you're trying to catch up and you're in 6th grad for English but 2nd for math. They have courses besides just core classes (math/english/science/etc), too! They run on donations, but it's completely free to use. Also, this site is used in my local public school system to supplement the existing curriculum, so it's not just for homeschoolers!

Coalition for Responsible Home Education - actively fighting for more oversight and restrictions on homeschooling in the USA. They mostly do awareness and advocacy, but they also have resources on their site for things like what to do if you don't have a high school transcript. They run on donations, but the information is freely available.

Probably the most famous resource on this list. Videos that give you a "crash course" (aka a condensed overview) of a wide variety of topics. These are best used as supplement to more structured lessons like Khan Academy, but they have a lot of merit on their own if they're all you can manage. Knowing a bit about something is better than knowing nothing about it!

[sailormoonandme]

Mamoru is NOT useless in the Anime

Yes, yes, the memes are funny and all, but this is simply objectively not true and I'm rather exhausted of folks critiquing the character/the anime as though it were.

I will hopefully kill his BS once and for all.

"He just throws a rose and leaves!"

For those who have actually watched the anime (or even just the very first episode) to describe Tuxedo Mask as 'useless' is reductionist to the point of being outright disingenuous. In particular when this argument is made in such a way as to negatively compare him to his manga counterpart, who is put over as allegedly superior on this point.

The original 1992 Sailor Moon anime had 200 episodes, 3 TV specials*, 2 theatrical shorts and 3 films, with these latter theatrical releases being dubiously canonical to the anime. Mamoru appears in the overwhelming majority of those 208 entires, even accounting for the final 34 episodes where he was dead/functionally absent almost all of the time. Even if we seriously low balled things, the majority of those appearances feature him partaking in the following scenario.

Sailor Moon, often with her fellow Senshi, are fighting the monster of the day (maybe it's a higher ranking villain, or a general threat they are dealing with).

They get into a tight spot where either they or whoever/whatever they are trying to protect is in danger from whatever threat they are combatting.

Then, out of the blue, a rose slices through the air and imbeds itself into the scenery like a dart. Typically, this action saves the lives of Sailor Moon, her friends or whomever they might be protecting.

Tuxedo mask gives a speech and either leaves or else sticks around to see Sailor Moon perform her finishing move that effectively ends whatever threat she was dealing with, often with Tuxedo Mask being the one to prompt her into performing this finshing move.

For the sake of argument lets pretend that the above is literally the sum totality of what Mamoru does in regards to the superheroics of Sailor Moon. How could anyone describe the above as 'useless'?

If his interventions regularly save Sailor Moon's life then that is a zillion miles away from useless. For him to be useless, his actions need to be superfluous, pointless, contribute nothing. Even if he contributed a little bit he would by definition not be useless. And saving the protagonist's life is much more than 'a little bit'. If the protagonist dies then the story is over. Evil has won, the world is doomed.

And this isn't even considering all the ways Mamoru contributes OUTSIDE of the above scenario.

He has, whilst untransformed, stabbed a Lemures with a knife to save Sailor Moon.

He has willingly acted as a magical life support system for Chibi-Usa when her Pure Heart was stolen, an act that maybe anyone else could have performed but it is still a noble thing to do, in particular when it freed up the more powerful characters to go get her heart back.

He personally met up with the Outer Senshi to learn about them on behalf of the other girls, going alone which might have been dangerous, but the episode also gives the impression that he, as the oldest member of the team, was better positioned to get info from the older Outer Senshi who has a demeaning view of the younger Inner Senshi. In this same episode, he tried to convince the Outers to join forces with the Inners, acting as a diplomat.

He went 1-on-1 with Rubeus to defend an injured Sailor Moon who was herself acting as a human shield for Chibi-Usa

He has personally gone on a one man mission to infiltrate the Black Moon Clan's HQ to rescue Sailor Moon from being sexually assaulted by Prince Demande.

Mere episodes later he and Artemis went on a scouting mission to learn more about the Malefic Black Crystal

He formed a double team with Sailor Moon to tackle a tennis themed Youma, an encounter that involved more than a singular rose throw and a speech. One of the multiple times he got more directly involved in fighting the monster of the day

He literally carried Sailor Moon on his back to save her when they were both trapped in an elevator courtesy of Nephrite

He was prepared to willingly reveal his identity and hand both himself and his Rainbow Crystals over to Zoisite in order to save Sailor Moon and her friends

The love he shared with Usagi directly led to the manifestation of the Silver Crystal, to the salvation of Chibi-Usa when she'd been brainwashed into Black Lady & the creation of a new weapon and transformation brooch for Usagi in season 3

As Prince Endymion, he went against his own subjects and risked his life to infiltrate the Moon Palace and warn his beloved Serenity that his home planet was going to invade her home

He took not one, not two, but three impalements to protect Sailor Moon's life

More often than not he has acted as reliable emotional support for Usagi and Chibi-Usa, encouraging them, helping them with homework or just being there for them. i.e. he is an imperfect, but ultimately good husband and father. Which is particularly impressive considering he hadn't yet married his wife nor conceived his child.

There are those who might scoff at the latter. Is emotional support really useful? Well, putting aside how the Sailor Moon universe clearly demonstrates how magical power/energy is directly linked to emotions, this is categorically true in the real world as well. There are no end of testimonies from fire fighters, doctors, people who have serious illnesses, or soldiers that the emotional support of thier loved ones have kept them going and kept them alive. So, this is rather useful for our heroine Usagi who's job is that of a Sailor Soldier.

The Outer Senshi

Furthermore, there is an inherent hypocrisy in the 'Mamoru is useless' narrative because such criticisms are never levelled against other characters whose typical role in the narrative are similar to Mamoru's.

The most popular season of the original anime was season 3 (Sailor Moon S) and one of the biggest reasons for that show's popularity were the fan favourite Outer Senshi: Sailors Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and Saturn. Let's exclude Saturn as she wasn't active as a Senshi for most of season 3. Uranus and Neptune's role in the first half of season 3 typically amounted to

Attacking the monster of the day, usually to the same end that Mamoru's rose throws did, i.e. a distraction or last minute save

Swiping the Pure Heart of that episode's victim

Checking it over before concluding it wasn't a Talisman

Leaving, or else at least standing by as Sailor Moon administered her finishing move on the monster of the day

Golly...that seems just as 'useless' as Mamoru now doesn't it? In fact, maybe more so considering they weren't even trying to help Sailor Moon in the first place. In fact, during their second appearance, they unintentionally saved the lives of a powerless Usagi, her friends and an innocent civilian to check a Pure Heart, then uncaringly left them all in danger.

You know who then saved them immediately after that? Mamoru!

Later when he too was overwhelmed by the monster he directly contributed to saving the day as his emotional bond with Usagi generated the Spiral Moon Heart Rod, upgrading Sailor Moon and giving her the power to save everyone.

During the third sub-arc of season 3 (where the recurring villain was Mimet of the Witches 5) Sailor Pluto joined the Outer Senshi's ranks and their role in the typical monster of the day plots became yet more minimal. More than once, the trio literally appeared but did nothing, something that had also happened at least once before Pluto joined the team. Examples include (but are not necessarily limited to) episodes 97 (The Labyrinth of Water – Ami Targeted), 116 (Sunny Skies After a Storm – A Friendship Dedicated to Hotaru) and 118 (Battle Inside the Demonic Space – The Sailor Guardians’ Gamble). In some of these instances the Outers deliberately choose to do nothing.

Barring 2 of the specials mentioned above (one of which was a clip show), the Outer Senshi were wholly absent in season 4/Sailor Moon SuperS. In one of those specials, upon learning that a new threat had arisen Uranus and Neptune...choose to continue their road trip and leave the fighting to Usagi and the others...How...useful???????

They, along with Pluto and Saturn get much more involved during the course of the final season/Sailor Stars. Even then, Saturn only appears in the first few episodes and the last few. Pluto only gets involved in the monster of the day schemes once or twice and Uranus and Neptune three or four times, if that. Whilst Mamoru is barely involved at all in this season, he at least has the excuse of being dead for most of it.

So, the fan favourite Outer Senshi got far LESS involved and were LESS useful than Mamoru typically was in the course of the whole show. In fact, even if we exclude the first two seasons where (exempting Pluto) the Outer Senshi hadn't appeared yet, Mamoru overwhelmingly contributed MORE than the Outer Senshi did.**

The Other Senshi

Much the same can be applied to the Sailor Starlights. The Starlights more often than not actually got MORE involved in fighting the monsters of the day during season 5 than the Outer Senshi did in season 3; or at least they were interested in defusing a direct and active threat to innocent lives. But even they literally showed up and did nothing on at least one occasion.

Whilst the Starlights are nowhere close to the Outer Senshi's popularity, they are also never subjected to the 'they are useless' narrative Mamoru frequently is.

Nor in fact are the Inner Senshi of Sailors venus, Mars, Jupiter and Mercury. Now, whilst it's easy to argue due to their superior screentime, the fact that they often initiate combat with the monster of the day and are generally heavily involved in whatever crisis is happening, that they are obviously more useful than Mamoru is.

And you know what, even including the rare occasions they too show up and do nothing else (or do a last minute save like Mamoru is prone to do) this is perfectly true. It is also perfectly true however that the quartet have rarely ever defeated any monster of the day on their own. The overwhelming majority of the time the Inner Senshi act as a distraction to the Monster of the day or else sufficiently lower its HP so that Sailor Moon can actually beat the monster. That might be more useful than Mamoru's typical contributions, but, call me crazy, it seems like Sailor Moon is doing the lion's share of the work there. So, how 'useful' are the Inner Senshi really if we run by the 'Mamoru is useless' narrative?

If Mamoru is useless so are many if not all of the more popular heroic characters in the series.

But...how useless is Mamoru in the anime compared to the Manga?????????

*Well, one special with three segments, but go with me on this.

**They were mostly absent from season 4 whilst he appeared routinely in that season. Meanwhile, in the season he was mostly absent, they rarely helped out.

Obviously, there are real life writing reasons behind that difference, but my point is why is the fandom not treating the Outer Senshi as 'useless' too?

[thevindicativevordan]

Hi, hope you are doing well. I am the anon who asked this question about the Maker (post/730144525324009472/im-conflicted-about-the-maker-as-a-character-on) and I wanted to know what are your thoughts on the Marvel Universe as remade by the Maker? I understand that most of it is a comentary/analogy to real life events, with technocompanies rulling the USA, the USA doing experiments in the Pacific with radiation, basically everything Midas stand for, etc. But, looking from the Maker point of view, how do you think it fits with what he wants? And what do you think he wants, in the end?

Perfect time to ask me this because after I got temp banned from the CBR Forums recently, I decided to read all of Ultimate Fantastic Four. I need to amend my earlier post regarding the Maker - he does actually feel like a believable evolution on the flaws that were always present in 1610 Reed:

Even before he became a homicidal maniac, 1610 Reed Richards was a dick. There was a mean streak and petulancy that I had forgotten about. A willingness to walk riiiiiiiight up to the moral divide that was present from the very beginning. Millar, Bendis, and Ellis all established Maker as having a darker side. Using torture against Doom was on the table, he flat out rejected the possibility that he had made a mistake, he did messed up science experiments for fun. The pieces were all there! Alas the execution sucked. I still stand by what I posted here regarding the Ultimate Doom trilogy:

Bendis' depiction of his "fall" was awful and incoherent. Under Bendis, Reed instantly becomes the type of guy willing to commit cold blooded murder against both his family and other heroes for no real reason. If Reed is pissed about the military controlling everything, why is he trying to kill Peter Parker? Shouldn't he be trying to kill Nick Fury and destroy SHIELD? That at least would make sense, Ultimate Nick Fury is a fucking awful person. Instead he murders his entire family instead of just his asshole dad because... I don't know, he's just evil now. A writer can't write someone smarter than them, and Bendis is just not the guy for tackling the world's smartest heroic mind descending into villainy. Reed's plan is dumb and paper thin.

Coldly murdering his mother and sister Enid - his sister whom he went through all the effort to save from Psycho-Man in one of the final UFF arcs! - reads even more egregiously out of character. Why did he kill those two and not just his asshole dad? No clue, Bendis never bothered to give us an explanation. Trying to kill all of SHIELD after the UFF fall apart makes perfect sense to me after reading Ultimate Power for the first time. 1610 Nick Fury is evil. Fury is a monster whom even Dick Cheney would have to kneel in awe before. Asshole deserves to die and SHIELD should be destroyed. Sending suicide bombers to murder Spider-Man and his other heroic peers on the other hand?

No Bendis, you need to actually explain WTF Maker was thinking there because that makes no sense AND it doesn't line up with his previous characterization! Maker didn't want to kill the zombie F4 despite them 1. Being undead and 2. Planning to infect and eat everyone on his Earth. He wasn't willing to kill Doom even after Ultimatum. Then suddenly off-screen he becomes the kind of guy who murders his sister who only ever looked up to and worshiped him, and his mother who tried to support him and showed him nothing but love? Terrible writing, and it makes me so mad because everything else is brilliant setup unintentional though it was.

Pages like this one floored me. You read this knowing they were not setting up Maker yet somehow it perfectly does just that. The other Baxter Building kids breaking off to form their own perfect society in a secret city tucked away from private eyes? Being sick of how they were forced to serve the military? Commitment to the idea to the point they're willing to kill the F4 and any military personnel sent after them? In-universe this, and other events like Psycho-Man's utopia, likely served as the foundation for where Maker came up with the idea of the City. Everything fits! It's a natural result of Maker having an enormous ego, having seen others make their own attempts at building utopias, tossing morality aside, and going "they failed but I'll succeed. I don't make mistakes like they do."

Begs the question OP asked: why did he make Earth 6160 into the way it is? Fantastic question especially considering that both as a hero, and during his initial fall to villainy, Maker hated the "corruption" of science into a force that only served the elite.

Yet the world of 6160 is exactly what he claimed to hate! America collapsed into a realm ruled by technocrats who abused science to enrich themselves. Freaking Midas is in the White House using cosmic energy as a power source for his war suit and the electric grid. What gives? Is it just Maker being a hypocrite? Maker offers two justifications in Ultimate Invasion. First, that he ran civilization models in the City and humanity cannot accept perfect peace. If you've ever watched the Matrix you know how that argument goes. We aren't built to live in paradise. Our human natures are too fallible, when offered the option we reject it. Given Maker's god complex it does suit him that he invokes the Biblical explanation for why evil exists - human nature demands it.

However, there's a second justification. Maker treats Earth 6160 as his playground, his laboratory. He's the Emperor of the World, and with that comes those who would covet his throne. Keeping the world full of conflicts and evils keeps people divided. They're so busy fighting each other that they can't unite against him. Hitler, Genghis Khan, Bismarck, Stalin, Mao, history is full of dictators who employed similar logic to maintain power. Yes it makes him a hypocrite but Maker is beyond caring about the "small minded" dreams he had back before he jumped off the slippery slope.

Regarding what he wants power for, there are two likely motives to parallel his two justifications. I believe he is trying to create the "Ultimate Earth", an Earth that lives up to what he wanted 1610 to be. Time travelling to the future indicates that he is at the very least invested in this Earth's well-being. He saved it from Galactus, he kept the Council from spiraling out of control as they now threaten to do in his absence. He supported scientific and technological advancements that did improve life for everyone. Howard mentions curing cancer. Maker's Ultimate Earth appears to be a technologically advanced society where the peoples lives are improved at the cost of their freedom. In a single word: Latveria. Fitting for a Reed who has gone the way of Doom.

Unsurprisingly Maker's other motive is much more selfish and narcissistic: he wants to screw with Earth 6160 Reed.

Mentioned this before somewhat in my previous post:

My theory is that it's because Maker is trying to take a Reed who is similar to 616 Reed and transform the guy into a monster like him. It's his middle finger to 616 Reed. Maker wants to prove that 616 Reed isn't better than him, if Mr. Fantastic had lost his family and been put through hell like Maker had, he would break too. That 6160 Reed is, so far, not a monster like Maker pisses Maker off. It's not logical to keep 6160 Reed around, and doing so leads to Maker's fall.

Additionally there's some clear self-hatred going on.

Note the callback to UFF with the "I don't make mistakes" line. People talk about Sue rejecting the marriage offer as being the big divergence point between the 616 and 1610 Reeds. I think it goes back even further. 616 Reed was the one who messed up his friends lives. 1610 Reed however was blameless. 1610 Doom, not Reed, was the one who caused the accident that gave the Four their powers. In Ultimate Power it was Doom's meddling which was revealed to have killed millions of people despite Maker initially being blamed. Maker never had to feel the guilt that Mr. Fantastic has to live with. Always when it seemed like he had screwed up, a reveal came to absolve him of any responsibility. Arguably his two greatest pre-Maker screw-ups were teleporting to the zombie Earth and creating the Cosmic Cube and guess what? Both of those were because of external agents in the forms of zombie Reed and Thanos meddling with his head.

So having done nothing wrong his whole life, never having screwed up with nobody to blame but himself, when Sue dumped him and his whole life fell apart because he put saving the world over his personal desires in Ultimatum? Knowing, thanks to zombie Reed, that there were Reeds out there who got married and had families and kept the Four together despite making mistakes? My headcanon is that's what broke him. Also that's why he made Doom's life hell. 6160 Reed was supposed to live the life 616 Reed got, the kind of life Maker wanted. Instead he lost everything. Why? Because from Maker's point of view, Doom doesn't deserve that kind of happiness. Why should Maker, a Reed who never made mistakes, be the one Reed denied that joy while all the Reeds who are responsible for transforming their friends get to have that?

So Maker took 6160 Reed and gave him the life he thinks Mr. Fantastic should've gotten. 6160 Reed made the mistake of not double checking his notes and lost everything. He ended up with the burnt face and Doom moniker because from Maker's point of view, that is what should have happened to 616 Reed. Maker should be the beloved hero with the fantastic family as befitting a Reed who never made mistakes, not the unworthy Reeds who are fallible. In Maker's mind, 616 Reed should be the one whose Sue rejected him and became a villain. His words in Ultimate Invasion about having thought about what he and 616 Reed would be like if they swapped lives support this.

There's a beautiful symmetry going on here between Maker and Doom. Dooms usually blame Reeds for ruining their lives by sabotaging Doom's experiments. Here is a Doom for whom that belief is valid, and his obsession with Maker completely justified. Except it's himself that he's obsessed with, just as Maker is clearly obsessed with Mr. Fantastic. A grand ouroboros of Reeds chasing after one another. Fitting, for Reeds have always been their own worse enemies.

[shapeshiftersvt]

M'Mothm'n.

Here's the thing about the Mothman. Even though he scared the ever-living shit out of the people who saw him, the speculation around him has become, over the years, actually very kind. What if he's only here to help? What if he's trying to warn us about impending disaster? What if that horrible feeling you got that something wasn't right, what if that was the Mothman telling you to look out, be careful, danger is coming, doom is nigh?

It's one thing to be a harbinger of doom; there are apparitions of ghostly black dogs all over the world that will give you that, red eyes and all. It's another to have one who actually means well.

I'm going to be an Old Queer for a minute, now, and talk about gay politics in the USA as I watched it over the past thirty years. My experience is my own; my history is shared, but not universal. Sound off in a reblog if you saw it happen differently. I want your story, too.

There’s a certain line the right wing in this country likes to use against The Gays, one I’ve heard since I was a small child. It goes: queer people are threatening our way of life. Queer people are the pebbles that start the avalanche of apocalypse, the collapse of civilization as we know it. If marriage becomes something other than Man + Woman, or if Man and Woman become something other than we think they are, then we will lose everything we know and love.

The rise of the Respectable Gay in the 1990s was a pushback against this. “See,” cried Degeneres and Savage and all the rest, “see how we’re so very normal? We want to get married and buy a house and have 2.1 kids and a white picket fence. Our marriage doesn’t threaten yours. How could it? We’re just normal, ordinary, white, moderately wealthy, people. We're like you."

This move shifted the narrative across the 90s and 00s. Homosexuality was officially decriminalized in '03, and we got gay marriage in 2015, and every year in between there was another Influential Gay Person saying "I just want to get married, that's all." There were even commercials about it, remember? “Gay marriage is just like yours. Only gayer.”

But... in the mid-2010s this was already wearing thin. Transgender people, gender non-conforming people, gays who didn’t go in for two-person marriage, everyone in the greater LGBTQ+ umbrella who had thrown their support behind gay marriage and waited our turn to get our rights; we'd all been mobilizing, too. We'd been putting together our own coalitions, under the aegis of the greater umbrella or not. And, here's the crux: we were, in fact, threatening the right-wing Christian ways of life. Just by existing in public, by talking and writing and performing and living our lives during the Transgender Tipping Point, trans and non-binary people like me were challenging the foundational definitions of Man and Woman as exclusive, all-encompassing categories of humanity.

It wasn't just the right, either. Straight liberals who were totally on board with gay marriage would look at us and say, "um, wait, really? Really, like that? Do you have to?" The discomfort was palpable. This was my experience with my own family; they were fine with me dating and getting married, but a new set of pronouns was forcing something on them. It was hurting something intrinsic to their identities. It was, in a very real way, threatening them.

I'm happy and grateful to say that most of them learned to discard the parts of their own foundations that excluded me from existence. This is rarely easy for anyone. I'm honestly proud of those members of my family who have learned to look the Mothman in the eyes, so to speak, and think, "He's just here to help."

("Pop your hood up," I told this model, "and look at them. They should see their impending death in your eyes."

Layton is an incredible model, a great human, and they know and love the Mothman. They knew exactly what I meant.)

It can be awful, sometimes. When I'm unapologetically myself in public, I can walk past a line of protesters at Planned Parenthood and see the hostility rise up, the anger and revulsion and fear. And I do think it is fear, at the core of it. I think something in them knows that I'm just one of 2.6 million transgender people out here, living my life, casually being a harbinger of their doom.

Next time they come to Brattleboro, I ought to greet them with red glasses and a twelve-foot wingspan.

[saintmalosunsets]

Doc Roe fanfics from FFN

I figured I’d make a post recommending some Gene fics I found on fanfiction.net in case there’s anybody else out there who read all the AO3 ones and wanna read more. I hate using the site to read, so I always use this site to convert fics to epub before I read them.

1. The Whole Nine Yards by ChocAndSnow19 (224,656)

Jessica Prichard starts off as a nurse helping around the aid station in Aldbourne before becoming Easy’s air support. This one is my favorite from FFN. It hasn’t been updated in a few years (EDIT: It has now been updated!), but I recently commented on it and the author responded to me saying she’s going to continue it! If you like it, leave a comment and give this story some love!

“She was the one who did not exist, doing the things that had not happened, following the orders that nobody had given. She was the air support of Easy Company - and this is her story. Doc Roe/OC”

2. Dangerous Disguise by A Soldier of My Own (145,088)

Sam Branigan is Easy Company’s nurse. She works alongside Gene throughout the story. Their relationship goes from childhood acquaintances/enemies to strangers to friends to lovers. Something I thought was unique in this story that I’d never seen before was that her and Gene got a weekend pass to visit Paris. The way it ended was so cute because it referenced something that happened at the very beginning of the story when they were kids. This is my second fav from FFN!

“Dresses were for sissies. She much preferred the comfort of her trousers. Plus, who could run in heels anyway? (Eugene x OC)”

3. The Curiosity of Chocolate by violeinne (14,742)

This one is an AU of if Renee survived the church bombing, and her and Gene write letters to each other throughout the rest of the war. It’s a short one but it’s cute!

“An AU in which Renée survived the bombing of Bastogne. She and Doc Roe begin a correspondence after Easy Company leaves Bastogne.”

4. We Lucky Few by HockeyKid6622 (110,990)

This one is about the army experimenting with having female soldiers and Henrietta (Chucky) Griest is the first one. It’s very slow burn and the relationship between her and Gene didn’t feel like the main focus of it. There’s tidbits sprinkled throughout but it’s mainly focused on her experiences as a soldier rather than their relationship. There’s a sequel (40k) that focuses on her and Gene’s life after the war with their kids and it definitely has the most post-war content of any other fic I’ve read, but be warned it has a sad ending. I personally like when fics have a happy ending/end during the midst of a happy moment so you can think about them being happy after you finish rather than it ending with death/epiloguey, so if you’re the same way you might not wanna read the last few chapters of the sequel.

“In 1942, the USA military allowed a single female into a combat role to test a female's effectiveness on the field. The lucky company? Easy Company from the 101st Airborne. Private Griest must adapt to her surroundings and the horrors of war beside her men. But can a female be a soldier? Can Easy accept her or are they doomed to be lost in the war that forever changed the world?”

FFN has a lot of Band of Brothers fanfic for every character so if you’ve already read everything AO3 has, I’d recommend searching on there for more. Here’s a link with filters to help you find the best. If the link doesn’t work, just go to the bottom and sort by “follows”, “rating: all”, and choose your favorite character in the characters list. You can even sort by length if you want. Find your fics, bookmark em or download em, and repeat for each of your favorite characters. I don’t recommend using the pairing button because a lot of authors don’t even use it. Sometimes authors don’t even write the relationship in the description so I’ll just click on the fic and skim through one of the last chapters to find out what the relationship is.

[kymerawrites]

Maffia boss! x Simon Riley

I’m way to creative, needed a small break from sir Simon Riley as I have ALOTT of ideas

I was the daughter of one of the most rich and powerful people in underworld. Too bad I was a daughter and not the son yet my mother couldn’t conceive any children after me my dad was doomed with a woman taking over his business, and I was fucking great at it.

Because of me, his empire expended way beyond Cartagena, Colombia. I got our secret formula in the USA, England, Seychelles South France, Brazil, China, Australia, and many more countries. We also had a lot of allies in politics because of me and the CIA I was booming in this business, and the people I partnered with were all crushing on me, I was the baddest bitch alive right now and everyone knew that. I was on top of the game and I liked to stay that way until I started playing a dangerous game with SAS, agent and member of the task force 141 Simon Riley.

My head was all over money. I only talked in money. I only loved money, and I only wanted money. I was a material girl I love anything that was expensive you could see it on me. I was really expensive looking woman and it made me felt super powerful. But now that I am on top of the game there are always the jealous motherfuckers that want to take you down.

“Do we have any information about this woman price?” All the task force and even general Shepard was in the meeting.

“ this is one of the most dangerous woman on our list right now Shym Medusa. She has one of the biggest maffia leaders in Colombia and has a very secretive formula of drugs that no one can find out and it makes people go to war. We need to take her down as soon as possible because she’s also overruling us.”

 Simon looked at the information “there’s no picture of her..”

Soap also agreed “how do we find a woman if we cannot even see the woman?”

Price sighed “ we also found el sin Nombre who was faceless in their business. This will be easy.”

 Simon looked again at the information on the screen. He was kind of impressed a woman doing after that on her own, and have been one of the strongest leaders in the world right now he wanted to find out who she was, and of course take her down.

He didn’t realize that it might be so easy to take her down, but it was way harder to actually take her down. They infiltrated her in Columbia in a club where they went out as regular guests one of the bars she saw her sitting with a whole team of people that were seen as her ‘family’ were a few of the most skillful, murderers, snipers fighters, and even some agents. She had a strong army with the task force one for one even be powerful enough to take them down?

 I was sitting on my regular table. We had a bunch of cash on the table almost too much to even count. This was my club when I implement my money and my hour into something I own it just like one of the many clubs, banks, and other things that I have taken over until I saw someone with a school mask and a bacalava sitting on across in the club. he was muscular and mysterious something pulled me towards him. He looked deep in the eye. Those eyes spoke something that I couldn’t catch.

I excuse myself from the table and walk towards the bar where I ordered a martini. I lit up a sigaret and looked at the man again, he stared me in the eye

“i’ve never seen you in my club before who are you? are you here to make a deal maybe because I’m talking cash right now.”

 Simon was in shock. This woman was magnificent, beautiful, and she had an aura that said I am that woman. She look confident like she’s bragging about it.

“I’m here for you miss medusa, but I don’t know what my goals are yet, I just wanted to see such a stunning woman like you.” 

“You’re playing a dangerous game doing business with me sir, it’s for the players who really want to play.”

Ghost nodded “I’m aware sugar.”

She looked him in the eye, tilting her head to side something about the way… the way he said Sugar made her impressed something not everyone could do, everyone who approached her, wasn’t that good for her, but somehow she was from this mysterious skeleton mask man.

I sipped my martini “what is your proposal? Do you have any allies or affiliates I need to know about to consider doing business with you?” 

Simon instantly fell questions. How would he play this off? She was maybe one of the most stunning person he’s ever seen, he gave her the thrills no one else could in a woman, he dated a few but they were all so mediocre, he saw something in her that stood out.

“ if you join me tonight there’s no going back, from now you’re my partner and you cannot leave so I suggest you think really good about the choice you’re going to make next.”

this was a big sacrifice, but it was needed for his team. The only word he said “I’m down to do business.”

“Very well..what is your name?”

“Call me ghost.”

LMK IF YOU WANT A PART 2 bc I know I can write this GREAT

[absolutebl]

BL Streaming - Which Service is Worth Your Money?

I’m bored and I have a little extra time this morning so it’s time for ABL to play with the spreadsheet of doom. 

Occasionally I get the question: 

If I were to subscribe to only one platform for BL which should I pick? 

This post is dated May 2023. 

First things first. I am going to be (somewhat) objective about this and not judge on quality of content. Because if KinnPorsche is all you love in life, obvs you need iQIYI, but if you are a HIStory franchise stan, than it’s all about Viki. Those are your life choices, I’m just here to play numbers games, okay? 

Secondly, some shows air on multiple platforms, particularly Viki & Gaga, but sometimes it’s Gaga & YouTube, occasionally it’s even iQIYI + others. This has only started happening in the last few years. Bed Friend was on 3 different platforms (GaGa, iQIYI, YT) - even though it was originally announced for Viki! I honestly don’t know how to track this, so I tend to log the spreadsheet with my preferred watching platform for that language, this will throw the numbers off for those platforms. 

Since I join everything my platform preference choice is based on:  

the quality of the subs/captions   

the quality of the user experience  

My subs experience tends to be: 

YT = best for Thai

Viki = best for Korean and sometimes Japanese, okay for Thai

Gaga = best for Chinese and sometimes Japanese but very weak Thai subs

My user interface preference is: 

YT, Viki, Gaga in that order then everyone else with iQIYI at the bottom. This is because I watch on mobile devices. 

ASplay, WeTV, former Line, Amarin TV, Netflix and the other smaller suppliers (and apps) will all be grouped together for this assessment. Since they have so few offerings, by default I would not recommend subbing those platforms unless you are a hard stan of all BL with disposable income. 

Super bad BLs that I watched back in the day on grey sites or YT (pre 2020 crack down) because there were no other options and I am a completest are still listed as grey. I would never suggest anyone watch these shows anyway, so I don’t care if they have now shown up on legitimate sites. If they are somewhere, it’s likely Gaga. Which means Gaga’s percentage of the market share is probably UNDER reported by my numbers. 

Movies and cinema-only releases that never got international distribution fall into the “grey” category. If I got it off an indie subber, since that too is technically illegal, it falls into the grey category as well. 

Final note: This is from a USA based IP, I don’t use a VPN, so platforms assessments are from that perspective. 

Spring 2023, current state of the spreadsheet. AKA 

Our BL Data Set 

Total # of BLs = 564

# of BLs ongoing (so finished runtime is best guess) = 18 

Just Answer the Damn Question 

Round Number of Actual BLs - % of market share

YouTube = 218 - 38.6%

Gaga = 148 - 26.2% 

Viki = 77 - 13.7% 

Grey = 53 - 9.4% 

BLs I’ve never been able to find on any platform (including grey): 36 - 6.4% 

iQIYI = 14 - 2.5% 

Other platforms = 12 - 2.2% 

Margin of error: +- 1% (look I’m just not driven to be that accurate here)

Subscription Platforms Breakdown  - % of market share

Eliminating YouTube, Grey, and missing BLs. Viki is included because I do not know which of theirs are behind the paywall and which are not. 

Total subscribe-only BLs: 257 

Gaga = 59%

Viki = 30%

iQIYI = 6%

Sml sites/apps = 5%

(rounded) 

Okay but how about actual runtime? 

Gaga = 360 hrs - 44% 

Viki = 311 hrs - 38% 

iQIYI = 98 hrs - 12% 

Sml sites = 50 hrs - 6%

Anyway you cut it... on pure BL standards...

GAGAOOLALA WINS 

Other consideration? In most places Gaga is ALSO the cheapest per month option. 

Final Thoughts

YouTube (America’s Alphabet) 

YT has the most pieces of content and longest overall runtime because of all the Thai stuff. ALSO bootlegs show up there, especially the early Chinese and Japanese stuff. They will often get taken down and you have to hunt for it again. YT takedowns come in waves, every 6 months or so.

However, GMMTV, some Star Hunter, some Studio Wabi Sabi, all the Vietnamese & Pinoy stuff (until now), and a few choice bits of Strongberry are YT content.

YT’s app is the best UX of a poor set (for me), but the web based YT at Premium level doesn’t work with Firefox. I use YT for work A LOT, so the fee for Premium ($13.99) and lack of ads + downloads (travel) is worth it for me, but I think it probubly isn’t if you’re on a budget. 

GaGaOOLaLa (Taiwan’s Portico Media) 

Of the pay to play platforms, GaGa dominates with the most BLs by all metrics. If you’re intersted in darker BL, GL and other queer content, very high heat, the history of the genre, or Japanese stuff - most of that is on GaGa. Also all of Strongberry and some of the newer queerer series (like My Ride).  

At $6.99 a month it’s ALSO one of the cheapest options. 

Gaga is based out of Taiwan, the only Asian country with marriage equality (as of 2022) AND it specializes in exclusively queer content so they need our support. If you can afford them, you should support them. GaGa is the only platform that will always have more BL, guaranteed (so long as Taiwan is autonomous). Ironically, you can follow their YT channel for previews and teasers to their latest series, short content, and acquisitions. 

Their app isn’t great, but their web-based interface is fine. That said: there’s no categories (way to organize), and the way they roll out new episodes is unintuitive. Their mobile app ALWAYS pauses not mater what you actually want it to do and the lack of the quick skip ahead is frustrating. 

Viki (Japan’s Rakutan)

Viki specializes in longer series, mostly Thai, Taiwanese, and a few of the Chinese bromances. It also now has a lot of KBLs. But in general only more recent stuff (2018 is as far back as they go).

At $4.99-$11.99 depending, it’s low to average cost. I’m not sure which one (if any) you actually need for BL. Most of my favorite new shows tend to air on Viki, and I like Rakutan as a parent company, so I don’t mind supporting them. 

They happen to have 5 of my top ten BLs, which is A LOT (since I hand out 10/10 so rarely). So for me they host the objective best BL content. 

They have the second best app (after YT, it’s kinda a combo of YT + Netflix) but the lack of a speed-up option is frustrating for many. Also the desktop version is super buggy. But they DO have categories you can name and control, which I love.

Other Platforms 

iQIYI - is Mainland China based (hello Baidu, you ugly fucker), so the platform getting/pimping BL for an international audience only is… how do I put this?… oh yeah: shitty. I will often rename it Icky, for this reason. It clearly wants to break the market, but… do we want it in the market at all? How long will they host BLs? When will they be shut down and censored? I would say it’s only worth it if you really also like Chinese dramas. And even so, Viki also has A LOT of those. Unfortunately for us, Wabi Sabi seems to have cut a distribution deal with Icky. And, of course, there is the KinnPorsche situation (so ironic that Icky hosts the highest heat). The interface is a nightmare. They have the WORST app, even when you pay, it serves ads, some of which alpha crash the platform. 

Netflix - here in the states it almost never has new BL content. Sometimes some old stuff. They tested the waters with SOTUS and Love Sick. I have a feeling they aren’t particularly intersted in this market. So if BL is what you watch, don’t bother. At last check they still had Gameboys and Your Name Engraved Herein and Wish You. 

WeTV - acts like LineTV used to, has Manner of Death and We Best Love and a few of the more obscure Thai pulps. But probably not worth it for anyone but a completest. 

Grey - Unknown or No Distributor 

Indie subbers: there’s some BLs that you can watch by supporting indie subbers who supply private links to their personal versions. This is not legal, but it is a slightly nicer way to get stuff you can’t find anywhere else. I’ve done this for some Thai and Japanese stuff.

I find the leads for these sources here on Tumblr. If someone is giffing and talking about a show and I don’t know how they are getting hold of it, I simply ask.

DramaCool (USA) & Dailymotion (France) & Bilibili (China) and others - AKA the grey space. You SHOULD feel guilty using these sites, you’re stealing, but it’s where many of us go for BL we can’t find anywhere else (in defiance of what few morals we have left). These are BLs that originally sold to very odd platforms or never got international distribution. Unfortunately, some of my favorites are in this category like Great Men Academy or Seven Days. It’s a nightmare. The ads are terrible and the virus/bug risk is high. They get taken down all the time. Or the leads are faked. I use an old computer to access and suggest you take all necessary precautions yourself.

P’ABL SOAP BOX TIME

Look I work tangential to the entertainment industry, so if you thought I wasn’t going to learn you a little on this subject, you got another think coming. 

HERE’S THE THING: 

You watch a show on one of the grey platforms, ESPECIALLY if it actually has distribution on Gaga or Viki - you better review that shit. You spread the word and advocate for that content here, on MDL, on social media, with fan art, I don’t care. You steal it, you find a way to pay back in your time and/or creativity. 

I get it if you’re poor, but don’t be a goddamn scab. Find a way to reward content creators with non-monetary support. If you had the time to watch the thing you stole, you have time to pay it forward in some substantial way. Do this even if you didn’t steal it but got it for free. Do this if you read fanfic. Do this with articles, blogs, books. Do this with podcasts. 

It isn’t hard to be a decent human and support creators. Don’t you dare just TAKE. If you’re that kind of person stop reading this blog immediately. I don’t want anything to do with you and you don’t deserve my words or my spreadsheet of Doom. 

/rant 

MORE ON THIS TOPIC WITH FOLLOW UP QUESTIONS

Original post on this subject that I adapted for this post. 

(source)

[alatismeni-theitsa]

This is the story of how a small nation played a decisive role in the Axis Powers' defeat.

The Greek victory against the Italians was the first official victory against the Axis,. It shattered the myth of the invincibility of the Axis, as mentioned in the video.

When Greece said No, the entire European continent was under the Axis control and London was getting bombed by the Luftwaffe. The USA were not yet in the war, and the USSR had agreed with the Nazis to invade Poland. Greece was fighting alone.

Greece was exhausted from continuous wars since 1897, and yet it was the only country in WW2 that fought at the same time with four enemies (Germany, Italy, Bulgaria, and Albania).

This small nation had only two tanks and practically no airforce.

Mussolini thought conquering Greece was a matter of days.

However, the Greek army delayed the German invasion of the USSR for about 2 months. By then, winter in the USSR had settled for good, which played a major role in the defeat of the Germans.

Everyone fought because they knew the country was doomed if the Axis forces won. Women climbed the mountains (Pindos) on foot into the snow to bring food, blankets and ammunition, and, afterwards, brought the wounded soldiers back down. The resilience of Greek women was commemorated in songs, as well as the bravery of fighters on the Pindos mountains.

Let us also salute the brave British, New Zealander, and Australian people who fought with the Greek troops and died for Greece in both the mainland and Crete. It's scary to thing what Europe would be today had the Axis Powers won. You're all heroes.

[porschesbabydaddy]

Y'all got me into Dead Friend Forever, I cannot believe it. I barely watch TV!

I completely approve of the ending, also I believe everyone is dead.

PheeJin as a pairing is so fascinating to me because why on Earth did these two get involved with each other? Surely they both knew that Non, their common point and someone they wronged fatally bad, would be the ghost that keeps hanging above them.

Unless... that's entirely the point. That they are together because of that Non connection. Because of their still existing feelings and memories and guilt. That they are together because that's the closest they can be to Non now that he is gone, because this is the perfect punishment to themselves to be kept reminded of how they got involved in the first place. Because it's so interesting that Jin is determined to run away from his past to the USA, but he is still hung up on his and Phee's situationship, constantly jealous and wanting answers. You would think he would be eager to leave it all behind.

Phee and Non starting as FWB then turning into a genuine romance, which ended up being their undoing ➡️ Phee and Jin being FWB then Phee keeping Jin distant because he doesn't want a repeat (because he is stuck. because he cannot move on because he knows he will fall into the same patterns. I think the fact his sexual scenes with Jin being very brutal, saying he will be gentle on the account of Jin's injury then being clearly NOT shows he is nowhere near moving on from Non— even when they start gentle, Phee immediately escalates the situation by being gropey and harsh in a way he never was with Non, who he was very tender with (until the end))

In PheeNon confession scene by the lake, Phee is wearing blue, and Non pink. Next we see PheeJin at the (same?) lake, Phee is the one wearing pink, and Jin is wearing yellow and white stripes. Phee 🔁 Non connection through colors, role switch? Blue ↔️ Yellow being the opposite colors of each other in the Display RGB color wheel (as opposed to Painter RYB because of the constant presence of digital technology in the story, cameras in specific), thus creating some sort of contrast between Phee and Jin?

Bonus: Non in his death wears a pale peachy pinkish orange t-shirt. Pink (Non) + Yellow + White = Pale Orange. Orange is the opposite of Blue (Phee), Orange is a combination of Red (blood? Keng? Non's bracelet?) and Yellow (Jin), add white (Jin again), and voila, you get Pale Orange. People whose betrayals hurt Non the worst. I have connected the dots, OP! (I didn't connect shit, this is a massive reach.)

Extra bonus: at the first episode, Jin is wearing a pink jacket, and Phee an orange shirt. More Non connection? Jin a replacement to Non? Phee still clearly not being over Non?

Phee's naivety and claim that he just wanted the truth and not death sometimes feels like a bit of a retcon. Or at least not as done well as it should have: I firmly believe he and New were on the same page from the start: that this was a revenge quest and everyone needed to die. His weird ass relationship with Jin plus getting to know the group beyond "assholes who are responsible (like me) in Non's death" kinda muddled the original plans. Although I still don't think Phee liked them THAT much, to the point I went '????' when he said they were his friends. Bro, HUH?? Plus I don't think New hid his true plans of everyone dying from Phee, so uh, I don't buy it, sir.

I liked that Non in a way symbolises the most common mistakes horror protagonists make: not asking for help, going to locations alone, splitting up from the group (Phee and Jin), trusting strangers, to count the most prominent ones. (Being the most famous of the bunch then dying immediately)

The forbidden apple and the Garden of Eden symbolisms!! The start of the end, if you will. Does this make Non "Eve", as the one who dooms the narrative? What is the forbidden apple here? Their relationship to begin with? A temptation Eve!Non takes that he thinks he is forbidden from because all his life, everyone took took and took from him but now he gets to choose and take?

Jin is very self-oriented that it made perfect sense for his nightmare to involve no Non and all Jin, even though it's his filming of Non's assault that was one of the final coffins in the nail. Plus the fact he runs away for his benefit (which is valid!) while simultaneously trying to cling onto things he wants to leave in the past like Phee (It doesn't work like that, Jin!)

On the other hand, I wonder if he puts himself in Non's position because he feels so guilty in his role that he wishes it happened to him and torments himself with the idea. It disgusts him, humiliates him, he cannot take it yet he also cannot stop himself from feeling like that. (I've connected the dots— *I am forcibly pulled off the stage*)

(The above is a reach but it's also something I do to myself when I think about stuff I feel guilty about, wondering "what if I did this or said that", then becoming scared of the imagined consequences, but also being unable to think anything else.)

With the shot of Phee seeing Non in the background while talking to Jin, I noticed that Jin is smiling but when the camera focuses on Non, his smile is very clearly gone, looking more like a scowl. I know shit about camera technicalities, but Jin's smile was pretty big and prominent, so I don't think being blurred due to off-focus would have erased it completely. To me, it shows 1) Jin will always be after Non in Phee's heart, the rebound, the replacement 2) Phee is aware of that, and so is Jin 3) Oh, they both fuckin' dead.

More color symbolism: Phee wearing orange to Non's pale peach pink, while Jin is in blue (and white), which is Phee's color. Further showing the strength of emotional connection between PheeNon and PheeJin?

(I thought too much about the coloring, if the colors turn out to be wrong due to my screen, I am gonna throw myself into a lake.)

Haven't had brainrot like this in a very long time, thank you for that.

Related: may I suggest Stella Jang's "Villain" song as a potential theme song for DFF? Please listen to it and tell me I am not being delulu.

Ooh these are all such interesting takes! Sorry it took so long to publish this unfortunately I cannot read 💕

[cordelia---rose]

15 questions for 15 friends

i was tagged by the wonderful @johaerys-writes, thank you so much!

ARE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?: nope! my mother found a book of rare names, wrote down a whole bunch, and my father only liked one of them. fun fact, only three people in the entire world have the same first name as me ⭐

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?: oh man in terms of like any tears at all…like this morning because my PMDD is hitting me hard at the moment and i saw my dog being cute and it was all too much for me but in terms of a big, proper cry…probably a couple of weeks?

DO YOU HAVE KIDS?: i am actively filled with repulsion and dread at the thought of having children so it’s a good thing i don’t

WHAT SPORTS DO YOU PLAY/HAVE YOU PLAYED?: i used to play hockey, netball, tennis and rounders at school and then whatever they made us do in PE but i’m not a huge sports person, especially not teams ones!

DO YOU USE SARCASM?: too much. i realised in my teens that if i’m deliberately deadpan and sarcastic all the time, people just think it’s funny and don’t look at me weirdly when i’m having an especially autistic day and can’t mask well because it just blends into my usual demeanour. everyone at work thinks i’m very dry and sarcastic when actually it’s mostly just me failing to understand social cues.

WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE?: gosh honestly i really don’t know. although i do pay a lot of attention to people’s smiles, i think you can learn a lot about a person by how they smile. whether it’s forced or natural, if their eyes smile too, if they hold their happiness back or let it come out unrestrained, etc., so i’ll go for smiles!

WHAT'S YOUR EYE COLOUR?: boring boring blue

SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS?: can we not have both? i’ll always have to pick scary movies though because horror is my favourite genre, but i love a final girl ending!

ANY TALENTS?: ooh this is tough because for me a talent is something you’re just naturally good at, but the things that other people would probably say i have a natural talent for are my hobbies which i’ve worked at for a long time so i wouldn’t be able to say if it’s an innate talent or just a skill i’ve honed. i think i’ll probably say playing the double bass (or upright bass in the USA) - i tried it out at a musical open day thing at my school and decided i liked it, and then twelve weeks later i sat a music exam for it and passed with top marks despite it usually taking several years to get to that point!

WHERE WERE YOU BORN?: england. i was doomed from the start.

WHAT ARE YOUR HOBBIES?: my main ones would be writing, reading, gaming, obsessively researching and then yapping about my special interests, and baking! i also do some crafty stuff when the mood strikes (i’m not really very good at it, but that’s chill, because it’s just for fun) and i’m not sure if it counts as a hobby but i love going on the trampoline!

DO YOU HAVE ANY PETS?: i have my dog who is simultaneously the reason i get up in the mornings and the reason i don’t want to get up in the mornings, and also a crested gecko who mostly just vibes doing her own thing.

HOW TALL ARE YOU?: 5’7”/1.70m

FAVOURITE SUBJECT IN SCHOOL?: this changed so drastically over the years! when i was younger it tended towards history, then when i started secondary school i still loved history but classics became my main area of interest, but after i decided i didn’t want to pursue a career in that field i cast about a little bit and realised that while i hated, like, plant biology and chemical reactions, i was really into specific aspects of science and that’s what i’m studying at uni now!

DREAM JOB?: forensic anthropologist, i’m undertaking my master’s in this and i really hope i get to have a career in this one day, it’s my life’s ambition.

Tagging (i barely talk to anyone on here lmao so it's definitely going to be fewer than 15! also there's with no pressure): @stressedanime @royalthorned @a-good-sandwich @toy-soldiering @claudiadiary

[bluetimemachinesong]

from the other side, the side nobody wants you to know

No matter who wins the election in the USA this coming November, this country is doomed to be in a war, and it is so obvious, but nobody wants to talk about it. Why? Because we are all programmed to only talk about the moment of the day, or week, or month, and nobody talks about the future of the consequences of any action or non action by either political party. And nobody talks about yesterday as long as the media stops talking about it. And with that, they win. Nobody ever hears the other side of the story and the heartache and disasters we had to endure. How our jobs were taken away and we weren't allowed to work to support our families, and how eventually our families suffered. Or how many millions have died because of the consequences of all of these events. And how it hasn't stopped, not at all, but nobody ever talks about it because we are too busy in our program of talking only about the event of the moment and day and week and month, until they forward the program to the next event.

In this blog I am going to give you the opportunity to hear from the other side, the side nobody wants you to know, the side of an American Citizen No Other Nation To Call Our Own. I do not discriminate, although I do get discriminated against, sometimes often.

Comments to my posts will not be allowed but you can message me anytime, unless I block you. It's mind boggling how much stuff has happened in the USA and the world, yet so much information has been withheld from the public that isn't even classified or secret. We have all just fallen prey to the programming and we need to see that for ourselves, or else we go on fighting with each other and never even realize why. We need to understand that WE are not the enemy, THEY are. THEY that control the programming of WE for the purpose of controlling us and our behavior.

[beardedmrbean]

Hey I been thinking like how the Native Americans had slaves (okay not all), how black peoples are shocked to have slave owner ancestry, or how in Canada, they were surprised that a tribe who got their land back decided to make condos on it

Wait did they check the economic backgrounds? I sure hope the leftists don’t think that the natives never had any form of economy/ holy shit

Dear god ac3 and prey 2020 represented native Americans better leftists mindset?

But do leftists think that history is like a Disney cartoon?

Like we must abolish the electoral college because it was created during the time of slavery

Because leftists never show how out of they are

You probably seen it, but people say we should treat shit like DoorDash like vaccines….

Would like a slice of Antonine cake?(yes I know that propaganda) no wait the nobles would treat me better that these Americans aristocrats

Also this https://x.com/fuckkoroks/status/1773690311341986038?s=46

So as you know Shogun take place in the Tokugawa era. And funny enough, I suspect the reason why Yasuke will help unify Japan so the Japanese won’t be at the mercy of the growing European colonial empires in ac red

I’m just wondering how many college educated people have the mentality that they learned the bad stuff white people did in middle school?

But dear white people I don’t hate you…probably because of my dysfunctional white stepfamily and the trainwreck of my stepmom

But this tweet https://x.com/thestrxggler/status/1773497095774974416?s=46

Okay I grew up in the 00’s and 10’s and fortunate to have a black family that value academics

But when you say liking sci-fi, fantasy, speaking proper English, like animation, or preferring to have good grades is talking/acting “white”

You doomed yourselves trying to put me into tribalism bullshit.

Hey I been thinking like how the Native Americans had slaves (okay not all), how black peoples are shocked to have slave owner ancestry, or how in Canada, they were surprised that a tribe who got their land back decided to make condos on it

One of if not the first person to gain lifetime bondage of another human being in the land that would become the United States was a black man.

Not many cultures in the world that did not practice some form of slavery. You win a war you have your choice of, POW's which need to be fed and housed so now they need to earn their keep, crippling the opposing army like they did with the Bulgarian army when they blinded 99 out of every 100 men and the 1 only got to keep one eye, hostages which whatever counts as nobles or their family members, there's the mass slaughter method which was Vlad Tepes fav he was a hostage so he got 2 of those.

Because you ain't just going to let your defeated foes walk home, unless it's the US civil war, and they even got to keep their guns because 2A is for everyone USA USA USA.

But do leftists think that history is like a Disney cartoon?

Lord no, you should see what they say about Pocahontas, lol.

Like we must abolish the electoral college because it was created during the time of slavery

3/5 compromise, ya south wanted to inflate it's population with people it didn't consider human so, to put it crassly and bluntly, they fought for the right for their farm equipment to be counted as people, but just for the numbers to increase their representation.

Illegals being counted on the census accomplish the same end.

This'll go right up there next to Russia wasn't an empire because it shared land borders with the territories it conquered.

Maybe Jacobin would also like to discuss the Ainu and see how that works out in terms of colonization. Granted both groups have been there for so long there's not really much to say about colonization likely more just human migration to the same place.

So as you know Shogun take place in the Tokugawa era. And funny enough, I suspect the reason why Yasuke will help unify Japan so the Japanese won’t be at the mercy of the growing European colonial empires in ac red

Haven't seen the new one, love the one from the 80's one of the best ways to start to learn Japanese imho, since a fair chunk of the dialogue is in Japanese. 10 of 10 highly recommend watching the whole 8+ hours of it, fairly historically accurate even down to the pederasty being a thing.

I’m just wondering how many college educated people have the mentality that they learned the bad stuff white people did in middle school? But dear white people I don’t hate you…probably because of my dysfunctional white stepfamily and the trainwreck of my stepmom

Likely a fair number, as for the dear white people you have self awareness and can differentiate between a individual and a group

Oh that's gonna hurt some feelings, lol.

Be interesting to get the response to, stop acting white, to be a accusation of racism, especially when it's things like doing well in school and speaking in standard english.

Okay I grew up in the 00’s and 10’s and fortunate to have a black family that value academics But when you say liking sci-fi, fantasy, speaking proper English, like animation, or preferring to have good grades is talking/acting “white” You doomed yourselves trying to put me into tribalism bullshit.

See comment above this section for my response,

and good timing finished just as I need to leave for Good Friday service.

[pastriibunz]

SOTBAW GIFT FOR @raspberrysmoon: Five Lords And A Baby

Wiggog Y’Wrath makes a decision he can’t come back from.

Humans sucked. 

He knew that for certain.

Wiggog Y’Wrath had been watching the creatures for millenia, and he had seen it all.

Sure, they had their good moments!

But there was so much depravity,

violence,

degeneracy,

and the like.

He knew that the human race was doomed from the start.

And what else could he do but watch this shitshow as it went up in flames?

Well, put some gasoline on the fire, of course!

But, this tale isn’t about how Wiggly (and his brothers, on many occasions) liked to screw with humanity, no.

This has to deal with the girl he hailed as “the one good thing that those vermin had ever (and will ever) produce.”

Kai Dean- Well, Kai Drew. That’s the name she had wanted.

AUGUST 22, 2001 [9:30 PM] - UNINGTON, USA.

The Lords in Black weren’t the only all powerful beings in the multiverse.

There was other eldritch beings, other gods. They lived in their own separate domain from the Black and White, one that they titled ‘The Heavens’.

WIggly and his brothers never really cared for them.

For one, they were far too stuck up and formal. What good is power if you aren’t gonna have any fun with it?

Two, they were so insistent on not interfering in human affairs. Bo-ring! They were such interesting creatures, why simply watch when you could become the bestest of paly-wals with them?

But, they did agree:

Humans sucked.

But they had a different reason than him.

To them, humans were far too much like them.

Their forms, too similar, the tongues they spoke in rang far too familiar for their liking.

To them, humans were just a bit off.

Almost gods, but not quite.

Like Jupiter, almost a star, but never could succeed.

Failed stars.

Failed gods.

So, to them, they made good vessels.

Wiggly had heard rumors flitting about. One of the more powerful goddesses had left their domain. Became human.

He never expected them to be both right and wrong.

Kai Dean was born August 22, 2001, at 3:27 in the morning, to a mother and father who’s names now elude him. She came out quiet, to the point the doctors were worried. Then, a chuckle, then sobs. She was imaginative from day one, her little brain working overtime.

But she wasn’t a god. 

At least, not the one that left.

He knew that as he stared down at the sleeping bundle in his arms.

This was supposed to be simple.

Kill the baby so she wouldn’t become a problem for him and his brothers later.

But, thanks to his form, the child started to cry. And he didn’t need her parents coming in. So he had to think quickly. He quickly fixed himself up, to look more “human” for this child. The cries, however, didn’t stop.

“Wh- I did what you wanted! Why won’t you shut up?!” Wiggly hissed at the child. 

She kept crying.

He sighed. “Oh, bother…”

“It’s fine,” he whispered to himself, “you’ve been around for millennia, you’ve seen humans do this countless times, it’s simple…”

He grabbed the swaddled child out from her crib, cradling her in his arms. He bounces her, and her cries slowly quiet, morphing into sleepy babbles. He blinks.

“Well! You’re an easy little one, aren’t you?” He says, gently booping her nose. 

The baby grabs his finger with a vice grip. She brings it up to her mouth, gnawing on it.

“Oh-!! Oh, no, no…that’s not for chewing, silly-billy!” He chuckles, pulling his finger away.

She whines, her big brown eyes filling with tears.

And then, he felt something he thought was impossible for him to feel:

Remorse.

He, Wiggog “Wiggly” Y’rath, THE Lord in Black, felt bad for this child. 

That was confusing.

But what was even more confusing was what he did next.

“Oh! Oh, I’m sorry, little one. Here, here, you can have my finger back. I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” He cooed softly, bringing the back of his finger to her chubby little cheek and stroking it gently.

The girl giggled. His heart melted.

He didn’t want to kill her.

She was adorable.

She was his.

“So this is why humans reproduce….” He mumbled. 

He looks around the nursery, seeing the carved woodblock letters on the walls. He smiles down at her, playing with a curly lock of chocolate brown hair. 

“Kai, huh..? What a cute name for a cute girl.” He bounces her.

She didn’t need to die, right?

No, no. She…she could be useful.

He could…he could raise her as his own. With his brothers’ help. They’ll help her use this power to wreak havoc upon the mortals.

She doesn’t have to die, and he gets to keep her! It’s a win win! He smiles down at the bundle of joy in his arms, using a tentacle to pet her cheek.

“Well, darling, how would you like to go home with your new daddy?” He smiles at her and she giggles.

He coos. “Tickle, tickle, tickle…” She laughs.

He begins to walk back to where he came, Kai in his arms. “Hm…you need a last name. What about…Drew?” He asks, tickling her. She squeals. “Oh, yeah, you like Drew. You’re definitely a Drew.”

He turns, surveying the nursery for the last time. He looks down at her, smiling with a certain kind of love in his eyes. “Kai Drew. That’s got a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?”

AUGUST 22, 2001 [???] - BLACK AND WHITE

Pokotho and his brothers had been waiting impatiently for Wiggog’s return. He had left, declaring some wild plan, one that he hadn’t really listened to.

“I see him.” Bliklotep declared.

“Where??? And does he have food???” Nibblenephilim asked, salivating. Per usual.

“Uh…here, and maybe..?” Bliklotep motioned towards their returning brother, now semi human, a bundle cradled to his chest tightly. He smiles at his siblings.

“Hello, friendy-wends!” He grinned, holding the bundle closer. They looked at him with confusion. He waves a tentacle towards them, rubbing circles on the top of the bundle with one of his hands. Eugh.

“Do you boys mind turning a bit more…well…presentable? I have something you’ll all be interested in.” Wiggog said slyly. The others groan, knowing what this meant. Wiggog, in turn, huffs. “Don’t pout. It’s necessary. Now. Do it.”

With practically a thousand eye rolls and loud protests, his brothers end up looking similar to the vermin that was mankind. Wiggog smiles, clearing his throat.

“So, as we all know, one of those other goddesses died-”

“Nobody knew that.” “I didn’t!” “Me neither.” “What are we talking about???”

Wiggog huffs. “Well, she did. And she ‘became human’. So, in order to cause less problems in the future, I decided to…take care of our little problem. Boys,”

Wiggog brings his arms in front of him, cradling the baby in his arms. “Meet Kai.”

His brothers crowd around him, staring at the child in his arms. Pokotho is the first to speak, smiling confusedly. “I mean…it’s kinda cute-”

“I WANNA EAT IT!” Nibblenephilim interrupted with a fervor only seen in a salivating, rabid animal. 

“NO!” Wiggog shouted almost instantly, pressing Kai close to his chest, startling the other lords. “We aren’t going to eat her! I said it earlier, we’re going to take care of her! Nurture her! Love her! Raise her as one of us!”

The other four blink. Pokotho is once again the first to speak. “WHAT.”

Wiggog has a stern, unamused look on his face. “You heard me.” He smiles down at the infant, petting her cheek. “We’re gonna raise her as one of us, so when the time comes, we can use her to cause chaos!” He nuzzles his cheek to hers, cooing to the sleepy bundle. “Who’s daddy’s little destroyer of universes? You are! Yes, you are!”

“Ahem.” Pokotho says, clearing his throat, unamused. T’noy Karaxis, Bliklotep, and Nibblenephilim are a different story, however, the three snorting as they try to hold into their laughter. Wiggog awkwardly clears his own throat.

“This isn’t up for debate. It’s happening.” Wiggog says with a certain finality.

Bliklotep turns to T’noy. “Woah, we’re parents now.” 

T’noy blinks. “Woag.”

Nibblenephilim pops between the two, raising his hand and waving it in the air. “I WANNA BE THE MAMA!”

Pokotho sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. He heads towards his eldest brother. “Wiggog, are you sure this is a good idea?”

Wiggog blinks. “Whatever do you mean?”

Pokotho motions to the way Wiggog is holding the girl. “You seem…attached. I don’t know if-”

“It’s happening. You can’t convince me otherwise.” Wiggog says flatly.

Pokotho huffs. “Fine. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” 

He storms off, leaving Wiggly alone with Kai. He looks down at his child, who’s been awoken by the commotion. She yawns. He sighs and smiles, petting her cheek and cooing at her. “You won’t be any trouble, huh? Nooo, you’re just Papa’s perfect girl.”

The baby laughs. He smiles and nuzzles her cheek. “Yeah, you won’t. You’re Papa’s now. For now until forever.

Fin.