#what....a bunch of idiots

[harbingersecho]

READY AIM FIRE

[stardustinthesky]

Captain Sheridan, Dan Randall, ISN News. Thank goodness, someone reasonable to talk to.

[i-will-always-love-the-jedi]

Me when my comfort-blorpos are actually just middle aged sad losers 😔😔😔

…

[mishapen-dear]

uhhhh i think they were kinda fucked

[creekfiend]

23andme did indeed send me an email like "oopsie whoopsie we let your DNA profile get leaked and now you're proooobably on a White Supremacist's Jew List! hehehe butterfingers" but luckily for them everything else in my life is so on fire that I was just like "sure man add it to the pile"

[dayseedrawz2]

♧See? You may be stuck, b-but you have wonderful caretakers!♧

☆We reassure you that your stay won't be as miserable as you might think!☆

[magnusbae]

If ever 1389 energy was put into words 

@hotcocoabuns​

[figsandphiltatos]

look. no one's asking y'all to like the rat grinders. but, even the greatest rat grinders hater has to admit that it sucks that the show that started with 'people are the instrument through which the universe cares' is going this way. maybe the problem is that the rat grinders were too nuanced of a villain for tbk to handle on a comedy show—but they reached out to the nightmare king and rehabilitated cassandra. when fabian was an ass because of his toxic masculinity, it was called out in the narrative and he changed and grew.

it feels thematically disappointing to see tbk be cruel bullies all season and.... not grow? not change? not learn a lesson? the lesson of freshman year was about friendship and caring! the lesson of sophomore year was varied, but everyone grew individually as characters and reformed a corrupted goddess! the lesson of junior year is.... checks notes.... it's okay to bully/torment/kill people if you really are just that good at what you do?

look—at the end of the day this season has been very funny and that's fine, i guess (obligatory disclaimer here that i HAVE enjoyed this season,,,but that doesn't mean it's above a little criticism). but if the intrepid heroes wanted a villain to dunk on, maybe a different villain would have been a better choice (or they could focus on dunking on porter?? the actually evil responsible adult in the room). and i dont think you can blame people who were primed for emotionally satisfying, thematically interesting, character focused storytelling from sophomore for being a bit bummed that this season kinda feels like it's fumbling the thematic bag.

[lord-squiggletits]

unpopular opinions meme: anything on Earthspark?

(Haven't watched Season 1 part two yet so take this with a grain of salt)

I avoid looking at fandom tags generally since I tend to not like a lot of popular takes in general, but people's takes about Optimus being brainwashed/shadowplayed/replaced by a clone in Earthspark really annoy me because it demonstrates a couple troublesome things about self-professed Optimus fans (or anyone really interested in OP in general):

People can't handle the fact that Optimus might make mistakes

Because of this, they then rush to remove agency from him (to make the bad things that happen not his fault)

In doing this, they completely erase, downplay, or even lambast as flaws the very traits that make Optimus who he is.

To take this from the top, Optimus "freedom is the right of all sentient beings" is, and has always been, a person who cares deeply about the rights of other species. This is a trait he's had in EVERY continuity: he values all lives, even small and fleeting ones, as equal to Cybertronian life, and he strives to protect uninvolved aliens from the horrific consequences of the Autobot-Decepticon war. This is one of his primary traits. This is a GOOD TRAIT OF HIS and it's LITERALLY ONE OF THE FUNDAMENTAL PARTS OF HIS PERSONALITY.

In Earthspark, we specifically hear Optimus say "we are guests on this planet" with regards to living peacefully alongside humans. GHOST is a suspicious organization and not only do we see this as the viewers, OPTIMUS HIMSELF acknowledges this by choosing to hide the Terrans from GHOST and openly saying that he doesn't know if GHOST is trustworthy, but it's currently the best option they have and he's trying to find another way.

Earthspark Optimus has no shortage of nuance. He's not a dunce; he acknowledges on multiple occasions that he doesn't completely trust GHOST, that he's willing to hide things from them, and that he would do something else to live peacefully with humans if he knew of a way to do so.

But the fandom seems to get one whiff of anything "problematic" happening due to Optimus (not just Optimus, literally every Autobot and even Megatron collaborates with them too, but for some reason blame for working with GHOST only ever falls on Optimus) and they immediately jump to this bizarre headcanon they have that Optimus is a total idiot and couldn't possibly be aware of any negative consequences of working with GHOST. People seem to think that if anything bad happens because of Optimus working with GHOST, it HAS to be because he was literally brainwashed into working with them.

Optimus believing in the rights of all sentient beings? Optimus being willing to make compromises for the sake of other species besides his own? Optimus knowing that he's making morally gray choices/questionable allies and doing it anyways because he thinks it's his best option? Nope. Nope, clearly he has to be brainwashed or a clone or something.

It's really frustrating because people jump to this black-and-white view of Earthspark's plot where they're like, "GHOST is evil and this clearly means that Optimus is an idiot for even attempting to work with them." But like. What else is he supposed to do? Just let the Decepticons run around stealing from humans, damaging their property, and killing them? Is Optimus supposed to grab a random piece of human land and go "this is mine now, me and all my people are gonna live here now." That would be literal colonialism, and keep in mind that humans had nothing to do with the war to start with-- Earth is just the unfortunate planet that the war happened to land on, dragging humans into a Cybertronian conflict.

It's just.... so fucking frustrating as an Optimus fan lmao. It's gotten to the point that I don't even look at Optimus content made by other Optimus fans because too many of them have this idea that Optimus can't be a normal person who makes bad choices (knowingly or unknowingly), he has to be an eternal paragon of goodness and this means that in order for him to be Good (TM), he can't be responsible for anything Bad And Evil, which means that if anything Bad happens (inevitable in any plot involving conflict, drama, or conspiracy), we have to swoop and take away Optimus' culpability for the situation. Because having Optimus be responsible for bad things happening would make him Not The Perfect Good Guy, and if Optimus isn't The Perfect Good Guy then we don't care about him and we hate/ignore him (which is exactly what people do with IDW OP btw: throwing out a perfectly good/interesting character who's no more bad or good than anyone else in the story because Optimus Has To Be Good).

Another example of people taking away Optimus' agency is the all-too-common TFP/Aligned headcanon in which people like to say that the Matrix literally turned Orion into a different person, Optimus, therefore none of the decisions OP made as Prime were "actually him" and it was just Primus imposing his will on him or something. Really annoying! Ideas like this don't make Optimus any more interesting, they just make him a helpless victim to forces outside of his control who manipulate his every action!

TLDR: Earthspark Optimus is fine actually, people just refuse to take his perspective and instead default to "Optimus is stupid/brainwashed for working with GHOST" instead of coming to the rational conclusion that maybe OP is doing the best he can in a bad situation.

[sapphicgoblinblog]

Companies need to stop relying on AI to do all the work for them. AI is completely insufficient. Robots being forced to serve humans will not end well and society needs to stop pushing this AI nonsense as it will only lead to failure.

[little-candy-store-of-horrors]

Double denim. With aviators!

[thedreadvampy]

Ok so it sounds like rather than dying in a nightmarish waiting game the 5 richos died too suddenly to even be aware it was happening. which being the case can we Please stop acting like this is a bigger tragedy than shit that happens every day to Not Rich people who didn't bring this entirely on themselves?

not even just talking about the thousands of people regularly dying unjustly in the Mediterranean and the Channel because of hostile anti-refugee policies but like. it's 5 people bro. 5 people die preventable deaths every like. minute. and most of them aren't their own fucking fault or nearly as laden with irony.

keep seeing people posting the Against The Logic Of The Guillotine article about this. bro I didn't fucking kill them they killed themselves despite plenty of opportunities to not do that. nobody's doing bloody vengeance here rich people are offing themselves in an incredibly stupid and predictable way. this isn't lining your enemies up for the guillotine it's your enemies deciding they have to pay more money than most of us will ever see a fraction of for the thrill of getting a guillotine haircut and everyone's like 'you know this will kill you right? but they laugh it off, get up and pull the string themselves and their last words are 'haha wow it's so stupid that people tried to stop me getting a revolutionary haircut.' and then when you say 'holy shit what an idiotic thing to do' someone's like CAN'T BELIEVE YOU WANT TO EXECUTE MILLIONS. I don't know how to explain to you that abstract schadenfreude isn't the same thing as revenge.

[cupiidzbow]

my headphones are at my dads house so I can’t enjoy a two headphone experience but I’m listening to funky voice clips ( yknow like a normal person ) and there’s a bunch of them that’s sooo silly he does like a lil humming thing from mkwii that I’ve never heard and there’s a “BABY!” clip i can’t take his ass seriously I love him so bad

[see-arcane]

A Gothic Tale of Two Weird Old Men: Dracula, Van Helsing, Ignorance and Obedience

So, we’ve gotten to the garlic flowers. And the first point in the novel where, on my first read, I felt a tiny prickle of recognition and unease. This section in particular made a little exclamation point pop up over my head:

"Oh, Professor, I believe you are only putting up a joke on me. Why, these flowers are only common garlic."

To my surprise, Van Helsing rose up and said with all his sternness, his iron jaw set and his bushy eyebrows meeting:—

"No trifling with me! I never jest! There is grim purpose in all I do; and I warn you that you do not thwart me. Take care, for the sake of others if not for your own." Then seeing poor Lucy scared, as she might well be, he went on more gently: "Oh, little miss, my dear, do not fear me. I only do for your good; but there is much virtue to you in those so common flowers. See, I place them myself in your room. I make myself the wreath that you are to wear. But hush! no telling to others that make so inquisitive questions. We must obey, and silence is a part of obedience; and obedience is to bring you strong and well into loving arms that wait for you.”

Now, full stop, Abraham Van Helsing means well. He’s a heroic old dude driven by goodwill—and, we can assume later, perhaps a bit of personal history with this particular malady. We’re going to see in later chapters that he is absolutely down to fight for far more than just Lucy and his protégé’s sake. Better still, he provides a great foil against the common themes that so far endanger characters who get in Dracula’s path. Skeptics are endangered because they only acknowledge the truth of the bogeyman in their midst when it’s too late while the frightened believers are too paralyzed by the threat to make a move. Van Helsing combines the Scientific with the Mystic, acknowledges both as equally important, and uses them to his advantage.

Knowledge is power and all that. Dracula really does get away with most of the shit he does half the time because his victims don’t know what they’re dealing with. (The other half of the time, it’s because he’s just bulldozing through victims on a spree, RIP Demeter crew.)

The Count is usually the one holding all the cards and using his advantages to cause harm. Van Helsing brings his own intel and uses it to help to the best of his ability.

That being said?

(Mild spoilers below)

The first time I read through Dracula—and, honestly, every time since—I can’t help picking up on how precariously close Van Helsing treads to the Count’s M.O. of manipulation and Dramatic Withholding of Information with his young charges. Granted, I can let some of it slide via the, ‘But no one would believe me if I said it was a vampire! I had to keep quiet about my reasons!’ excuse.*

*(But, sir, could you not conjure up some convincing medical-sounding bullshit?? It’s the 1890s, they would have bought anything. In fact, why was it only down to you and Jack keeping watch, Dr. Drama? There’s a whole house staff here. Yes, fine, there’s Mom with her weakheartitis, but as long as you spin it as some minor irritation that needs checking in on for updates, it should be fine. And why does Lucy have to keep quiet about the flowers? Why can’t she say it’s for her sleep? Or her health? Or a good luck charm from the doctor, it would be Terribly Rude to Be Rid of Them (read: Against every Victorian bone in hers and Mama Westenra’s body to chuck them). Anyway.)

Without giving too much away, I feel Stoker kind of tips Van Helsing’s charisma points a little too far over the edge in future scenes. Mixed up in a shitton of future The Power of Christ Compels You! overtones, there is a lot of frankly bonkers acting from the rest of the cast when it comes to interactions with/gratitude to Van Helsing for [REDACTED] reasons.

As in, characters are going to start kissing the ground this old man walks on. (metaphoric)

And kissing his hands. (Literal. Yes, Godfather style.)

Dracula was lucky to get flipped off by his Brides. Van Helsing will have these youths rally around him and Every Syllable He Breathes as if it were actual factual gospel (which some is, naturally). With a notable exception in a very livid Jonathan Harker when we get to [REDACTED]. Shout out once more to Bram Flakes for accidentally making this solicitor man Spicy+ after certain events.

Most of me wants to believe Van Helsing’s effect on the others is just Bramarama Stoker pouring all his personal fantasies of being the Lauded and Heroic Professor Doctorman (who happens to share his name, no big deal, ha ha) into this character while the others sing his praises.

But the lit critic in me sees an uncomfortable amount of parallels between Dracula’s casual arcane actions, gaslighting and coercing with Jonathan and Van Helsing’s likewise casual mysterious measures, corralling, directing, and borderline mesmerizing the rest of the cast to follow his lead exclusively, with or without offering the full details of the situation, as we see with Lucy. He’s a good man and an interesting character, but there are Some Scenes that make me wonder if he isn’t using some kind of lowkey hypnotism to make things run a little smoother in the vampire hunter brigade.

[caprasterical]

heres these silly fellas variously hanging out lmao tehe

puppy belongs to @silvixxen !

[chirpsythismorning]

Please do not believe leaks from fans rn y’all like be absolutely serious. I just read something off a notes app that censored milkvan, with this person acting as if they had some secret source.. and fans easily believing it and humoring it… pls do not be this dumb by humoring or spreading literal nonsense. I promise you, no one is getting play by play details and typing it all up in their notes app with fandom lingo 😭

One source online today said they got a spoiler, however they did not share it and have not shared it. They have said stuff in the past and been right about it. That’s it. They are not in the fandom. They have no connection to the fandom. Outside of what that person stated, there has been no other leaks. There’s just been fans in the tag posting shit like they’ve got a source, while laughing and mocking the ppl falling for it.

We don’t know if the original source is even real and that person doesn’t have any intention of sharing the spoiler either.

So please don’t read a notes app screenshot that was clearly written by a fan and give it credence. Otherwise everyday will be WIP Wednesday, except it won’t be, it’ll just be fans trolling each other endlessly 🤣