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I hate AI and you should too 💞

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Diver convince octopus to trade his plastic cup for a seashell

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This one

If you have achieved something, please remember to observe a mandatory period of basking in the warm glow of your achievement like a lizard on a stone, lest you teach your brain that effort is futile, actually, because it didn't get to enjoy its happy chemicals, so, naturally, nothing good ever comes of trying. (And no, avoiding punishment is not a reward!)

I recommend, like, 5% of basking time in relation to whatever time you invested into achieving the thing minimum. And if you can't make your own bask, friend-brought is fine (= tell your friends!).

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I think a lot of people didn't like these endings because of other reasons though, also.

I personally found a lot of SU to be pretty toothless, often, in how it grappled with the turnaround of its villains. My memory of it is so-so by now but I often remember feeling plainly unconvinced that the characters in question should have changed their minds in the circumstances presented to them, or that their journey of atonement also felt lackluster.

As for Aang and Ozai, I have definitely seen people argue, "no we should kill Hitler! Don't pretend we shouldn't kill globe conquering egomaniacs!" But I have also seen stronger points that the story places Aang in an INCREDIBLY difficult moral dilemma and rather than letting us see his choice in it, or how he plans to do what his heart tells him regardless of what problems that could still cause... he gets saved from that by deus ex dragon turtle. Now, I for one am fine with the ending of ATLA, it's already a show all about watching these kiddos navigate tough choices and the nuanced situations that war can breed, but I think that's a valid criticism.

3rd run Star Wars movies, same shit. Defected Storm trooper Finn? That's a great character concept, love to see it, they didn't give the dude nearly enough screen time. Would have loved to see more baggage of his but he cool. Kylo however? Sloppy redemption. He's on team Blowing Up Planets but we're just not gonna talk about that. F minus all the way down, movie was too damn soft on him.

I would also point to how Fullmetal Alchemist (original story) handled Scar. He's a very fascinating and complex character, who is confronted with his own actions (which come from a compelling place and are in large part carried out against war criminals, many of whom are also trying to fix their shit) and the writing really gives all of this stuff room to simmer. Scar has to choose his battles and give up his principled stance in pressured, heated moments, it feels believable. His course of action at the end of the story also feels believable, as well as how it is offered to him.

I get how chucking a villain off a cliff can be a lazy way of trying to address what harms have been done without digging into the difficult questions posed by keeping these characters around, but some of the stories that save their baddies feel just as messy and even more unsatisfying. Also I think the chucking off a cliff thing is its own interesting convo because it often feels like the direct result of a choice those characters are making, like reaching the end of a crooked course of action and insisting upon it with full ignorance to the wall they're about to run headlong into.

Sometimes I think about how and why some people had such a *bad* reaction to the end of Steven Universe, specifically in regards to the Diamonds living.

Even though they no longer are causing harm to others and are able to actually undo some of their previous harm by living, some folks reacted as though this ending was somehow morally suspect. Morally bankrupt, even.

And I think it might be because so many of us were raised on a very specific kind of kids media trope:

They all fall to their deaths.

Disney loves chucking their bad guys off cliffs. And it makes sense- in a moral framework where villains *must* be punished (regardless of whether their death will actually prevent further harm or not), but killing of any kind is morally bad for the hero, the narrative must find a way to kill the villain without the protagonists doing a murder.

It's a moral assumption that a person can *deserve* to die, that it is cosmically just for them to die, that them dying is evidence that the story itself is morally good and correct. Scar *deserves* to die, but it would be bad for Simba to kill him. So....cliff. (edit: yes, cliff then hyenas. But cliff first. Lol.)

Steven Universe, whatever else it's faults, took a step back and said "but if killing people is bad, then people dying is bad", and instead of dropping White Diamond off a cliff, asked "what would actual *restorative*, not punitive, justice look like? What would actual reparations mean here? If the goal is to heal, not just to punish, how do we handle those who have done harm?" And then did that.

Which I think is interesting, and that there was pushback against it is interesting.

It also reminds me of the folks who get very weird about Aang not killing Ozai at the end of Avatar. And like, Ozai still gets chucked in prison, so it doesn't even push back on our cultural ideas of punitive justice *that much.* and still, I've seen people get real mad that the child monk who is the last survivor of a genocide that wiped out his entire pacifist culture didn't do a murder.

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Have you ever seen someone get mercilessly targeted with passive aggressive comments from their peers for making someone uncomfortable when the person who was uncomfortable never told them but instead only bitched to their friends in DMs? Have you fallen into that trap yourself?

It can be hard to open avenues to these conversations but it is important to remember that they are a slippery slope and even if you think of yourself as a vocal person, you can still fall into it based on group chemistry or your own insecurities about things you think shouldn't bother you. It's not something anyone is just magically good at, it takes maintenance and practice and situational awareness. Anyone can fuck up with this stuff!

You're not actually a better friend for not articulating and respecting your own needs, limits and boundaries. Your lack of communication and boundaries is not some impressive sacrifice. You're not doing anyone any favors by acting like you're okay with things you aren't okay with. You're just building burnout and resentment that will eventually damage the relationship in question. And when you eventually snap and walk away because you silently overburdened yourself to be a "good friend", it won't be the other persons fault

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Can I have everyone’s attention please? Especially Australians

Sign Petition EN7163 - Asylum for Gender and Sexual Minorities from the United States

There is a petition imploring the Australian government to take in LGBTQIA+ refugees from the USA. Given the rapidly worsening political situation over there, I want to at least give this a go. I don’t have any illusions that it will get through to the people that need to see it but I want to try anyway.

The petition closes in 8 days; if you aren’t Australian, please do me a solid and pass this around. Reblog this if you can. Thank you.

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never forget what they took from us.

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Changing my reblog to add in case u didn't know you can and will drive people Fucking Crazy if you can never tell them what's wrong, you cannot keep it all inside, they WILL notice and in some cases spend hours upon hours wondering if they are the problem or how they are the problem and feel like they are losing their mind when you say nice things to them and then just randomly go quiet all the time or dodge important conversations.

Not that someone who is nonconfrontational needs to be held responsible for the mental health of others but this kind of thing absolutely can exacerbate emotional turmoil and friction within groups and with friends who felt they were close to you

btw being excessively nonconfrontational is NOT a positive trait. it does not mean u are “too nice” or just too kind to hurt people, it means u have a problem communicating and you need to work on it.

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comfort doodle from the other day of my boys Jack and Krizzy based on that one Clint Eastwood and Maggie Johnson photo

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The pills meme but it's things i wish i had

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How many Coen bros movies will I see about kidnapping and or money kerfuffles? Don't care I'd be watching the next one

me as a writer: Oh no I can’t write that, somebody else already has

me as a reader: hell yes give me all the fics about this one scenario. The more the merrier

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THE DANCING BONES Updated! 1.7

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THE DANCING BONES Updated!

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Imagine some little turkey of a man asks to marry your daughter.

You tell him no. Reasons undisclosed.

He asks therefore why you are being so rude and if you have failed to recognize that he is also a human, and he insists that he is going to ignore what you have to say and do what he wants vis a vis your daughter

???????

What kind of a conversation was this? Since when has being human been a good baseline qualifier for any twerp to become part of your family?

Who is this man, and why is it implied that your not wanting him to marry your daughter was a failure to recognize his humanity?

That song has always been stupid.

when i was in middle school Rude by bruno mars came on the radio in the car with my mom and at the chorus it goes “why you gotta be so rude, don’t you know i’m human too, i’m gonna marry ya anyway” and my mom now had her Disapproving Aura on and sighed and said. see this is why [my divorced uncle] married [his mean ex-wife]. what a sad way of loving. and 13yo me was like Oh Damn That Deep. and mentally filed away the lesson Popular Music Promotes Toxic Behavior Therefore Don’t Marry Someone Who’s Mean To You. and ever since then rude by bruno mars has made me just a little bit sad. cut to 5+ years later the song is no longer popular. i happen to hear it over the tinny speakers in a random fast food place. all at once i realize the lyrics are not, in fact, about marrying a girl despite her hating you (gonna marry ya anyway), but marrying a girl despite her parents hating you (gonna marry her anyway). 13yo me and my mom misheard the same lyric and never paid attention to the rest of the song. i am flabbergasted. one of the pillars of my childhood development has just crumbled in a Subway. i am frantically realigning my entire internal ethics system. the cashier still wants to know if i’m getting a cookie. nothing is real