parceltapepanda

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Another thing about the Iliad and the odyssey that always gets me excited because I’m a nerd is that if you pay close attention you can find stuff that’s a remnant from Mycenaean Greece before what we typically think of as Ancient Greece.

For example the Greeks are frequently referred to as “long haired” when everybody knows that by the time that we usually think of as Ancient Greece men usually had short hair.

Something that’s a bit harder to catch unless you know what to listen out for is all the cows. There’s so much cattle in this book but by the time of Homer people were already more into using goats.

And so much bronze everywhere.

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Bothering the beast

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The idea of spontaneously getting on a train and going somewhere far might be romantic in another country but England is too small for that. Pull an Eternal Sunshine and go where? Fucking Slough? Go to fucking Slough and get a fucking boots meal deal?

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this series of images will never not be funny

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"Fantasy authors don't know how long a thousand years is!!!!!! Knock a zewo off the end!!!!!!!111!!!1" Did you know that it's never too late to learn whimsy and joy

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Dame Archer kicks McDougal’s Scots ass there in the rain at the Washington Midsummer Renaissance Faire - August 11, 2018 - Photo by Douglas Herring

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i love words like “acquire�� and “acquit” etc… it’s such a treat to see c and q together like that. they’re such an odd couple. it’s like if you were in high school¹ and one day you saw the blonde overachiever valedictorian² hanging out with the weird friendless goth girl with the siouxsie sioux³ hair and you realized they’d been childhood friends all along

¹ stage of education in the united states, commonly portrayed in a romanticized manner in films and tv shows. ² untranslatable; a type of warrior-priest. ³ english singer who was an important figure in the emergence of the gothic rock genre in the late 1970s.

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The Feral Worldbreaker and the two most insane/unstable and irresponsible people imaginable that raised her

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Resurrection

Side by Side-ish

Completed: January 31st 2025

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Figured I'd play around with style and color for this one

Presenting a cartoonish Skulduggery and a not-really monochrome pallet! Also I've decided on a design for the Merryn sigil :]

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I know that getting murdered at 13 was the main catalyst in making Valkyrie's reflection become Stephanie but I also think that given how reflections are usually characterised as sort of dull and emotionless, there's no way Val's parents didn't get their kid on antidepressants at some point. They're good parents they may not have noticed their daughter sneaking out every night from the age of 12 to have adventures with a skeleton but they'd notice this! Obviously Valkyrie wouldn't take them but she'd make Stephanie take them just to keep her parents satisfied

Imagine Valkyrie believing for years that letting her reflection die in her place broke it and made it fight for autonomy but it was actually the power of SSRIs that turned her reflection into a real girl. The murder thing was still a dick move though, she can kind of admit that now even though there were no other options.

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I need Valkyrie Cain so bad, I wish the covers showed her as the books describe her, she's what? Over 6ft? Built like a tank, men in her life have expressed jealousy over her muscles since she was 16 and she's only doubled down on extreme training to cope with her depression, why does she look like that on the covers?

Please give us more Valkyrie as shes supposed to look, fandom artists are the only people keeping me fed at this point.

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for as much as people are always all "gerard way always writes quirky comics women that they self-project onto!!" there is just as sharp, clear, and consistent a trend in gerard way's work to portray the heart of violence, militarism, authoritarianism, and fascism as a woman.

the so-often fetishized "secretary" (fandom-named) of draag. bl/ind's director. the mother figure in the umbrella academy. the arc of the milk wars crossover. here, women are not just capable of deep fascistic and violence, but are key stakeholders in it (leaders in it, even!!)

for a certain kind of feminist thinker, this could be critiqued for a kind of representational misogyny, and for a certain kind of prescriptivist thinker, this could be gleaned as evidence of gerard way's inner psyche and identity-formation. to me, at least, neither of those readings are as compelling as what this thread does in our current moment (as we watch the tides of authoritarianism rising above our heads as the long-unfolding foregone conclusion of capitalism) and what it forces us to confront -- particularly and especially as we yearn for certain forms and images of easy "representation"

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This whole thing about scanning your face to prove tour age is making me remember, in 2018 while out in paris we got our wallet stolen during a particularly busy night at a lesbian bar. It was very late and with no money to buy metro tickets we were effectively stranded, but some people helped us and we ended up staying the night at a really sweet older man's place. His face was deeply scarred and he was missing an eye. We chatted on our way and he told me about his life, probably to help calm me down. He explained he had been stuck in a house fire 20 years ago and had had multiple rounds of facial reconstruction and a skin graft, but there's only so much surgery can do so he just learned to live with it. I remember he said he liked the queer bars because they're the only place people don't really stare at him.

At some point I took out my phone, and at the time I was using face unlock. This prompted him to tell me all the ways this technology doesn't work on him. How his phone selfie camera doesn't focus right because it's not detecting a face. How he had to update his ID the old fashioned way, because the website kept rejecting his photos. And how it was becoming more and more common, and how it was making his life way harder.

This was 7 years ago, and now whenever I see this sort of technology I think of how that guy can't use it. And how house fires are pretty common, and how anything from being born this way to a skin condition to heavy tattooing can probably cause the same issue. Can these people get age verified ? Will they just lose access to all social media, which are increasingly necessary in society, if this becomes the norm ? These are people who are already driven out of public spaces due to how they look, and they're getting pushed out online too all in the interest of companies wanting more money.

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i’m obsessed with the mum from ponyo. driving single lane on a cliff edge? drift those turns in your nissan cube. husband has to work an extra shift? tell him to fuck off in morse code. pet fish turned into a child on your driveway? adopt her. town drowned in a tsunami? leave your 5 year old in charge, he’s the man of the house now

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Because I absolutely love joan_de_art’s sustainable city series I’mma share it in one post since I see the art scattered about.

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when i drive a motorcar i immediately become a thoroughbred horse. the smallest movement in the corner of my eye and i must twitch my head around to see if car braking, indicator, bike, sunlight in mirror, person too close to road, tree shadow moving, why is that part of the road a different colour is it The Pit About To Claim Me, paper bag PAPER BAG?? THREAT?? GHOST??? i am going seventy miles an hour.