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I genuinely believe that the new SW trilogy wouldn’t have flopped out into irrelevance like it did if they hadn’t dumped Finn on the side of the freeway like a new pet rabbit the week after easter

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A sitting Congresswoman got a gay man arrested for shaking her hand. If you’re wondering what the state of the Republican Party is right now.

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consider lezzing out when the moment arrives

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where is all the art that perfectly appeals specifically to my exact tastes and desires and nobody elses

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NJ Democrat senator Cory Booker takes the floor in protest of Trump/Musk, "saying that he will keep going “'as long as I am physically able'.”

“I rise with the intention of disrupting the normal business of the United States Senate for as long as I am physically able,” Booker said at the outset of his remarks. “I rise tonight because I believe sincerely that our country is in crisis.”

“In just 71 days, the president of the United States has inflicted so much harm on Americans’ safety; financial stability; the core foundations of our democracy. “These are not normal times in America. And they should not be treated as such in the United States Senate.” -source

I am posting this at 2:30am EST. He has been speaking since 7PM EST. This link (at this moment) is to a live stream.

FUCK YEAH, JERSEY!

So very proud of my state at the moment.

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See also, "We're in a drought; conserve water!" Meanwhile, bottled water companies and golf courses for rich folk empty the aquifers.

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Part of the frustration we have with the whole “Caitlyn is a dictator!” argument is because it ignores Ambessa.

Martial Law was already declared by Ambessa and the Piltover Elite BEFORE Caitlyn was nominated to be general. Do you guys remember how Mel was tracking what Ambessa was doing behind the scene with rallying together Piltover elite to unify before Jinx’s terrorist attack? Caitlyn didn’t declare martial law, Caitlyn was put in charge of martial law.

Caitlyn was shoved into that role when she was the most vulnerable and most easily manipulated. And she spends the greater half of the rest of the season PUSHING BACK against Ambessa’s rhetoric. Every fucking scene we get with her is her challenging and standing up to Ambessa. The ONLY time we see her falter is when Jinx is involved in the prison break because Jinx is the only thing she’s actually after.

Caitlyn has no use for Stillwater’s deepest dungeons. Caitlyn despises Singe for unleashing Shimmer on Zaun’s people. Caitlyn refuses to arrest people without probable cause. Caitlyn suspects Ambessa is up to something and actively investigated and betrays her when she figures out what it is.

What Caitlyn did is bad. But she’s not HITLER. She’s not even an Elon Musk. And your willful blaming of her when Ambessa is RIGHT THERE PULLING THE STRINGS shows me that 1) you don’t understand the story being told, 2) care more about performative moralizing than genuine critique, and 3) are very likely homophobic.

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shadow the hedgehog is cool. gunblades are cool. vampires are cool. scythes are cool. white hair is cool. we need to stop lying about what is not cool

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They’re scared because they know that the public is with Luigi.

They’re violating his rights because they need to maintain capitalism.

Keep talking about Luigi.

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well look who it is. my old friend. the conses of my quences.

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Alien pulling your sleeve to get your attention: and who is this Cunt you all serve

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One of the most frustrating things about Arcane S1 and S2 for me is that Ekko is barely anti-establishment in practice, even though his position and background suggest he should be. There is a significant disconnect between character concept and character execution throughout both seasons.

The moment Caitlyn shows up in his sanctuary in S1, what does he do? He trusts her to negotiate with the Council—the very institution that upholds the oppression of Zaun—and even jumps to sacrifice himself so she and Vi can deliver the Hexgem. Narratively, this removes him from the scene entirely, sidelining him during a pivotal moment of conflict.

His cooperation with Caitlyn, a literal Enforcer, and his faith in the Council signals a reformist stance. It implies that working within the system is the path forward, rather than challenging or dismantling it—something an actual revolutionary would do. Later, when he meets Heimerdinger—the very personification of the Piltover establishment—he instantly extends friendship and trust. There’s no confrontation, no critique, no reckoning with what Heimerdinger represents. Ekko is written to lean toward reconciliation with the oppressor, which again, aligns him more with reformism than revolution.

His revolutionary potential is never explored; it’s aestheticized and then neutralized. That isn't a failure of S2 alone; it is established and foreshadowed in S1. Unfortunately. His fire and the raw material are there (alternative tech, regenerative infrastructure, no reliance on either Pilotver nor Silco in their operations), but it's all bottled and labeled, put on a shelf next to “narrative usefulness” and “emotional maturity.” Ekko's arc is written as visibly revolutionary but functionally reformist. He becomes safe rebellion. Marketable resistance. A radical pose, not a radical presence.

The alternate timeline in S2 only reinforces this. Not only does it pull Ekko away from the main plot and its most urgent tensions (martial law, violent uprisings, systemic decay), it sells him a dream of Piltover and Zaun "getting along"—a neat, depoliticized fantasy of harmony without addressing the exploitation that made Zaun what it is. The experience deradicalizes, dare I say, tranquilizes him.

Even the Timebomb ship, however popular or trope-friendly or 'tragic', plays into this. In that dynamic, Ekko exists to comfort and absorb Jinx’s pain—not to challenge or oppose her, even though she embodies Zaun’s internal regime as Silco’s heir. Rather than confront her violence, her complicity, or her symbolic weight in the system Ekko actively fought for years when Silco ruled, he’s made into an emotional salve. The ship ultimately affirms the internal establishment rather than interrogating it. Ekko doesn’t only become a moral buffer for Jinx—he becomes her containment narrative.

What could have been done differently? A lot—and I’m actually working on a fic that reimagines the entire S2. First and foremost, I won’t send Ekko to an alternate universe. He stays. He is present during martial law. He’s in the thick of it. He gets tested—not just as a leader or a symbol, but as a person. The system bears down on him, and he either grows or breaks. That’s at least the Ekko I wanted to see, so it's going to be the Ekko I write. Not the narrative’s moral cushion, but a character with revolutionary potential who finally gets the space to act like it.

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Do I want to talk about how it's Mel who recruits Vi after the Council bombing in my S2 reimagining, taking the girl under her wing like Ambessa does with Caitlyn because unlike the official writers of the show I actually know what to do with Vi's character...? Vi, the hardened bruiser, in close alliance with the graceful diplomat and Caitlyn, the gentle girl, in alliance with the proud conqueror? How Mel's and Ambessa's mentorships for Vi and Caitlyn sharpens the conflict between mother and daughter, but also between their mentees?

Because, to me, that’s the kind of layered, mirrored, character-driven storytelling that Arcane flirted with in S1—and never followed through....

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via THE WARNING