#(as if i'm not a reddit user myself)

[duckiemimi]

so me and @ahresprite were talking and i brought up something like, "oh, i think there was one stsg cheating fic i read once," and she was like, "whaaat," and i was like, "wait nevermind, it was a cheating kink fic, i can't find it anymore," and she was like, "but imagine THE ANGST in a cheating fic," and i was like, "what about a football cheating fic," and sprite was like, "and make it EMOTIONAL cheating," and yeah, that's pretty much it. anyway, prayer circle to banish my writer's block, please and thank yew.

[humusboii2thereturnoftheking]

Palestine is Ruining the Left

I've taken this from Reddit because I've found it an interesting read, I did not write this myself, a user named u/ u/TooLittleNuance did. Feel free to reply and engage in converation.

I'm an Israeli-American leftist who has been active in American and Israeli politics for a number of years now. I have always advocated for human rights, equity, and self-determination for Palestinians who are oppressed(to different extents) under Israel, a nation that commits itself to Jewish domination of institutions. I always voted and campaigned for progressive Democrats and I assisted with the Israeli Meretz party from abroad. This is why I think the current Palestinian-sympathetic movement is ruining the left:

Abandonment of Pragmatism - Just like the 2020 George Floyd protests("Defund the Police"), the Western left has completely embraced a suicidal strategy of idealistic radicalism. Many of those on the left insist the solution to the conflict is a one-state solution consisting of Palestine "from the River to the Sea". Unfortunately, they've appropriated the Palestinian mythology in their ambitions to magically destroy Israel and the ideology of Zionism by BDS somehow or supporting Palestinian "armed struggle". It doesn't take a lot of thought to see how both of those methods are incredibly ineffective and immoral to advocate for and implement. So, instead of a pragmatic approach, like empowering the Israeli left through donations and advocacy, supporting a reasonable solution(two-state or one-state under Israel), or calling for the ultimate humanitarian end to the war of a unilateral Hamas surrender, the Western left insists on a dream scenario that will never happen. This is the most egregious behavior of the left and it's their most common mistake(i.e. Vietnam). This is due to the fact that Palestinians, especially in Gaza, are suffering under disproportionate Israeli force with no Western movement to realistically end it. In fact, these Western leftists, due to these tactics, are assisting in empowering and legitimizing the far-right of Israel. They are the perfect strawman to turn people off to the left in Israel, which, in turn, results in a lengthened Palestinian suffering.

Maximalism - There's a tendency on the left to outcompete each other in radicalism. It's not catchy or sexy to say "The war tactics that Israel uses are disproportionate and don't consider enough of the humanitarian cost", it has to be "genocide" or "ethnic cleansing" in order to provoke an emotional reaction from uneducated Westerners. It's not "the security policy of Hafradah has resulted in reduced human rights of Palestinians compared to Israelis", it has to be "Apartheid"(with the only legal precedent being South Africa). These maximalist statements immeasurably hurt the movement for true progress on Palestinian human rights. It results in a boy-who-cried-wolf situation: If Israel decides to transfer the entire Gazan population to the Sinai, what is that called? A "genocide"? Due to the present labeling of the war, nobody will believe it. What if Israel permanently transfers or kills 100,000 Palestinian civilians? 200,000? 1 million? What will that be called? How can it get worse than "genocide"? This Maximalist rhetoric is not only inaccurate, but it's incredibly damaging to describe the proportionate extent of Palestinian suffering, which is vital to any movement that faithfully advocates for an upliftment of Palestinian life and identity.

Normalization of Bigotry - Explicit or latent Jew-Hatred is being increasingly embraced by radical sections of the Western left. Tropes such as "Zionist"(a euphemism for "Jew" for many) control of governments or blood libel. Wishing "Death to Zionists" or equating them with Nazis is, in most cases, latent Jew-Hatred. Regardless of your thoughts on the definition of Zionism(there is no definition, it is a meaningless term), it's clear that many believe that "Zionists" are just uppity Jews. Of course, this is genuinely believed by a small portion of the left. However, a substantial part of Western leftists has repeatedly failed to condemn this Jew-Hatred and to stop mirroring the language of these latent or explicit Jew-Haters. This is 1000x worse in the case of Israelis. For Western leftists, it's normal to call Israelis "colonizers", "demons", "rapists", and "child-murderers" on their social media without repercussion or introspective irony. As somebody belonging to the Israeli nationality, I have been desensitized to the insane amount of bigotry from those that I formerly respected. However, many Israelis or Jews aren't as depersonalized as I am, and they definitely take the bigotry to heart. What do you think results from that? Usually, a vote for Likud(Netanyahu's Party) or a donation to AIPAC. Thus, propagating a cycle of bigotry and continuing the suffering of Palestinians.

Propaganda - This war has sparked the largest disinformation campaigns in human history. Multiple state entities (Israel, U.S., Russia, Iran, Qatar) and numerous private entities are pumping out loads of propaganda in order to manipulate uneducated Westerners into supporting their interests. Since October 7th, known Russian disinformation propagator, Jackson Hinkle, has skyrocketed in followers due to his ability to mislead Western leftists on the war. I have seen an unfathomable amount of reposts from Al Jazeera and MiddleEastEye, known Qatari state propaganda and major propagates of misinformation. I have always appreciated the value of institutional skepticism that embodied many of the historical and academic leftist leaders. However, right now, those values are completely thrown out in favor of Russia or Iran's geopolitical advocacy of "everything the West does is bad". The previous three points of behavior are certainly emboldened by the paid disinformation and bots that propagate anti-Western sentiment to destabilize Western democracy. Meanwhile, the basic interests of Palestinian civilians are left unregarded while these state operatives kill their only lifeline.

Reactionary Resurgence - One of the main factors that attracted me to the left was its rejection of reactionary ideology(the establishment of traditional institutions from the past). For Israelis and Palestinians, reactionary rhetoric is normalized and encouraged in many cases. However, this reactionary ideology that has plagued those who share my nationality has spread to Western leftists in their advocacy for Palestine. Western leftists constantly appropriate the far-right and reactionary talking points that many radicalized Palestinians spout. An example would be the insistence on the exclusive indigeneity of Palestine from the River to the Sea, which abandons the progressive values of anti-nationalism and intersectionality. Another example would be the appropriation of Palestinian Martyrdom, in which many of them embraced the idea that human life can be inherently reduced to a political or national cause by their manner of death. This is a clear rejection of the values of individualism, secularism, and anti-nationalism.

Historical Negligence - Those who are even a little bit informed on the Israel-Palestinian Conflict understand that the conflict is too complex to be treated as a soccer match of Israelis vs. Palestinians. Many Israeli and Palestinian leaders set roadblocks to an equitable peace, while many others progressed the conflict to a more positive state. Even more than the historical complexity of this conflict, evaluating the moral complexity requires a graduate degree in a relevant field with hundreds of hours of research. I typically advise not to trust anybody's commentary of the conflict with any less credibility than the previous sentence. However, the Western left has instead decided to follow the historical and moral analysis of demagogues. There's constantly factually wrong or misleading historical information on many of these Palestinian-sympathetic accounts. An example is the map of a "disappearing Palestine" that millions have reposted, a blatantly misleading map meant to depict "Zionist colonization", meanwhile, neglecting the historical borders of the conflict. There are many other forms of historical negligence that they commonly employ that are extremely damaging for understanding the conflict.

In conclusion, Western leftists are keeping up with the Western traditions of white saviorism and interfering with this particular trendy foreign conflict. I could have written a few more grievances that I have of the Western left(including the embracement of far-right Islamist groups) but I wanted to keep the post relatively short. In several months, Western leftists will forget about the Gazans suffering under the disproportional force of the IDF. Nobody will self-criticize the ideas or tactics that they engaged in, meanwhile, the Israeli left-wing and reliable non-Hamas Palestinian advocacy organizations are left in the dust by an ineffective white-savior-esqe Western movement. Not only that but due to all of these factors making the left look like lunatics, Biden and the Democrats are being affected in the polling, which may result in Trump being elected, a terrible outcome for Palestinians.

[deadeyedfae]

I wasn't going to post a transition timeline just yet but I found this old photo of me and just had to share it 😂 also I'm fairly new to this site and everything that's been happening over the last few days is worrying to say the least, this site has been the most welcoming place I've been online since I came out (after reddit imploded and Twitter got worse and worse by the day) I hope the continued outcry from users of this site can at least undo some of the damage that's been done in just a few days in regards to trans users 💜🏳️‍⚧️ Im not going anywhere, I'm proud to be who I am and I'll continue to make a very public home for myself here despite the staff. Stay proud of yourselves, be loud, be proud, be yourself!

[sofiadragon]

Hey fanfiction loving friend!

AO3 has the ability to turn off comments, moderate comments, restrict comments to logged in users only, or let anyone comment on your story. Most other fanfiction hosting websites do not allow comments to be turned off and in the case of some (wattpad) highly encourage comments even on individual paragraphs.

Over on reddit, someone said it is an unwritten rule of fanfiction that you should never leave a negative or critical comment on a story. This was countered most strongly by many arguments. Despite many people asserting that their stance was the one truth and that there was no debate on the topic - there was a lot of debate about what criticism even is and where the line should be for if giving concrit is alright.

So give this some thought:

If you have tea to spill, examples or an argument you want to make, please do. I have some that go both ways, but I'm going to wait for a few responses so I don't pre-empt the results. I'm not going to vote myself for a while, either, so I won't know which way the poll is leaning when I do pour my tea. I tried to cover all the flavors of debate I've seen in the many "definitive" posts I have read here and on reddit. Please reblog for a wider sample!

[loycspotting]

Leaving Tumblr

Last night, my account was terminated. I don't know why. I was in the middle of using the site when suddenly I was locked out. No warnings. No announcements. Nothing. I was an absolute wreck. I couldn't eat or sleep. There was no word from Tumblr's management team. I could only explain what happened and sit on my hands. I felt utterly helpless waiting and hoping for a miracle. I had a home here. I had friends who became family. People that I love. Fandom that was my absolute joy and honor to participate in. It was all ripped away for no reason at the drop of a hat. My work. My mutuals. My home. Gone. Just like that. I couldn't say goodbye. I didn't know if or how I'd be able to find my moots again. I was able to create a second account called @loycspotting-thee2 and wracked my brain trying to remember my friends' usernames while terrified that that account would disappear too. I couldn't focus on anything. I was completely distraught. Thankfully, a miracle did happen and my account was magically reactivated. Again, no warning. No one reached out and explained what happened. One moment it was here, gone the next, then here again. In all my years of being on social media, I've never feared that a platform would kick me off like that until last night. I stayed up reading story after story of people who have used Tumblr, some of them holding accounts for YEARS with thousands of followers, logging on just to find it wiped from existence on any random day. This is a serious and repetitive issue, but not apparently to Tumblr. I may not have been a Tumblr user for long, but this incident has irrevocably broken my trust. No amount of saving and cataloging and backing up my account will protect me from being a victim of this website's carelessness. I would always have to worry if I'd be the unlucky user of the day that got their account deleted with no guarantee that it would be reactivated. I cannot and will not live in fear that everything I've created and the home I've found will be taken from me again against my will. Therefore, I have decided that the best option for me is to deactivate my account and say goodbye on my own terms. I am absolutely heartbroken to come to this decision. This has been the most unreal online space. I loved it here! It was everything I've been looking for and I only regret not signing up the first time I heard about it all those years ago. I love being in the Ewan McGregor fandom! Where it's not just a fandom. It's a fanhome 😁. I found my voice here, as well as people who heard me. People who understood me. This was my absolute favorite place to be, bar NONE. I felt fulfilled writing and reviewing. There were so many more things I wanted to do and experience with you guys. It was you who encouraged me. You listened, reblogged, commented, and messaged. You accepted me. From the bottom of my heart I love my mutuals. Even if we don't follow each other, if we've talked or interacted with each other's posts I love you too. I love the passion and creativity flowing through this site. I don't know what will happen with the Ewan McGregor Screentime Percentage project. I'm not ready to quit just yet. Maybe I'll start a Reddit or letterboxd account. Of course, for the writing, I can consider joining Ao3. If you want to keep in touch, then I implore you to message me so we can work something out. The friendships I made here are paramount to everything else. I'm going to leave this up for 9 days (or until I'm terminated again 🙄) to give myself time to get things in order. On September 1st, I will say goodbye.

[felassan]

Photos of the Dragon Age OST vinyl booklet artwork have appeared online [source]. they were posted over on Reddit in the same thread/by the same user as the post with D'Read Koda in it (Reddit user LegendeRRisCZ17), in an update to said post.

for context, this is what we had seen previously of these art pieces, with the images being skewed and only some being in view. Twitter user Kiranox (@/veranox) was able to do some cool photo manipulation and unskew the skewed ones, but there were still images we hadn't been able to even see to try to unskew in the first place. [previous posts on these art pieces and the vinyl art in general including the cover dragon pieces, so that I'm not repeating myself supermuch in this post more than I am already: one, two, three, four]

in a previous post I wondered,

perhaps there are two pages for each PC/main game - HoF & DA:O (hence the Warden image on page 1), Hawke & DAII, and the Inquisitor & DA:I (hence the Solas Hermit symbols on page 6)? since this 'booklet’ comes with the vinyl, and the vinyl contains music from all 3 past main games

and it seems this may be the case, as here we can see:

left: Grey Warden imagery - griffon, Joining Chalice with darkspawn blood drop, sword. calls to mind sigils/heraldry of the Grey Wardens. right: this pattern resembles the map of the Fade in DA:O. - the Hero of Ferelden & Dragon Age: Origins.

left: A diving bird, bearing a resemblance to Hawke’s tarot card in DA:I. In the background the sigil looks like Kirkwall heraldry. right: this pattern brings to mind the ‘companion grid’ from Varric's book in the interrogation scenes in Dragon Age II. - the Champion of Kirkwall & Dragon Age II.

left: the iconic Inquisitor helmet, the Inquisition hairy eyeball symbol, sword. right: the 'four circles' pattern looks similar to the pattern on Solas’ Hermit Tarot card. (and in the middle is the sense once again of an eclipse - in the very center, a sun-like shape/representation of the sun. and behind that, two overlapping spheres/two shadowed spheres. like we've seen in the in-game cinematic and elsewhere) - the Inquisitor and Dragon Age: Inquisition.

as for the shattering eluvian image (and the two images of dragons from the covers), I talked about them here and here so I won't repeat myself. but I guess this one represents some of the story of Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. makes sense, there's a disc of DA:O music, a disc of DAII music, a disc of DA:I music, and then on the last disc it's bonus dlc tracks and bard songs from DA:I, but the last one is the one with D'Read Koda, so functionally it could be seen as a 'DA:D disc'.

the images also confirm what was written in the Reddit post before about Hans Zimmer, Lorne Balfe and the track called D'Read Koda.

[credit and source link: Reddit user LegendeRRisCZ17, link, via]

[thebestsetter]

Okay, this is something serious now.

As some of you already know, some people are accusing me of plagiarism. And I just want to explain my side of the story first

A while ago, I was scrolling through tiktok and found one of those videos with a minecraft parkour happening in the background and a reddit story being read. I'm a portuguese speaker, so the story I listened to was in portuguese (i don't even have reddit lol). So, I thought "Oh, what a cute story!! I wonder how would it happen if it was with some anime boys!!". So, I started to write it while also trying to translate it AND change the phrases.

Since it was from tik tok, I couldn't really see the user that wrote the og post. I now realize I should've tried harder to find it, and for that I apologize. I'm sorry I didn't put the IB on the post, but someone on the comments told me fhe user of who wrote it first, and after posting this "apologie" I'll put it in the post immediatly.

I also want to clarify what verbatim is, since some people are saying that's the plagiarism I comitted. According to the Oxford dictionary, verbatim is:

1. (Adverb)

in exactly the same words; literally, ipsis litteris.

2. (Adjective)

that corresponds word for word to the source or original text.

"minutes v. of a meeting of condominium owners"

And even though I copied the first phrase, the rest of the text is totally different!! I also had no way of knowing I was writing the same first phrase, since as I said before, it was actually from a portuguese post, so I translated it the best I could.

The idea is the same, though, so I should've tried harder to find the IB. Once again, I apologize for this. I'm sorry about what I did and I hope you guys can forgive me and not view me in a different way from how you saw me before!! I just thought it would be fun to write something, and it was the first fic I wrote after going back to writing (I used to write things during March-April, but I stopped). I swear I have no intetions to steal anybody's work to make myself famous or anything like that.

Once again, I'll try to make things right! Dw, a situation like this won't happen again. Thank you for reading this, and once again, I'm deeply sorry.

I'm putting the xreader tags so this can reach as many people as possible

[voxofthevoid]

Do people not understand that the shit writers/artists get in fandoms is cumulative?

Not that it's a fandom-specific issue, but that's the context I'm currently concerned with.

This has been on my mind for the last few weeks, thanks to some discussions I've seen on Reddit and a recent slew of negative experiences I've had myself, but the kicker was a comment I got yesterday that boiled down to how it's "irresponsible" of me to publicly put entitled commenters/bookmarkers on blast because others might see it fit to go harass them. A fair enough point, albeit one I have no sympathy for. It certainly doesn't help that the comment itself was holier-than-thou bullshit that started with how the commenter "empathized" with my frustration.

I crossed frustration months ago; I'm at nuclear fucking fury.

I have been writing for JJK since November 2022. I have been warding off entitlement and actual harassment since December 2022, which was when I started posting, and the frequency and variety of this garbage have notably increased since January of this year. It's been one and a half years of shit after shit after shit in this fandom alone.

Do you think this doesn't add up? Do you think my tolerance is infinite?

The vast majority of my readers are kind, warm, lovely, and supportive. I have a solid network of friends, within and outside fandom, who can talk me down from the worst of it. On top of this, I'm a spiteful dick whose reaction to negativity, whether weaponized or ignorant, is to write more of whatever pissed those whiny fuckers off. This is why I haven't packed up my toys and gone home.

And the spite and love are both still going strong, but there's also 18 months of steadily growing anger. The stuff I share on Tumblr is only the most egregious of the lot; you have no idea how much bullshit I silently delete or address quietly and civilly. Guest users, registered users, anon asks, direct messages—I have received some manner of shit from every one of these avenues on Ao3 and Tumblr.

I handle most of it quietly. Like hell am I willing to be told I should shut up and eat the rest of it too. Whether that's irresponsible or outright hostile, I do not care. Actions have consequences, online or offline.

I do not owe pity or grace to people who'd try to tear me down. I will not be taking the high road.

And if that stance is unpalatable to any of you, the block button is free.

[captainswagdoctor]

I've been on tumblr regularly for a couple weeks now I think. So far so good. I changed some of my dash stuff. Prof pics and header is done. I wrote a line on the thing under my name. I reblog every now and then. I'm still not entirely sure how tags work. Or comments? Is that what you call them? So far so good I guess?

I miss reddit. I miss a lot of the niche subs I was on. I miss the discussion style of interacting with the other users. The organization of subreddits and comments threads just made so much sense to me. Who the hell am I supposed to talk to now for some advice about that super specific old ass machinery?

Tumblr is weird, but I can see myself staying here. Hell, I'm weird as fuck too.

by the way

What the fuck is this font used for and why is it so fancy? Can I just keep writing like this for all my posts?

[mikuchan]

@bardoveryonder

My response on the infographic post itself got long, so I'm answering in a new post.

First, yes! I'm specifically talking about fandom attention, versus others like casual players and non-fandom players. AO3 is an accessible source of fandom-heavy stats + a platform I myself use and am familiar with, which is why I'm focusing on it (versus other fandom-heavy platforms like Tumblr, Reddit, etc).

The rhetoric of male characters being focused on because there are just more straight women on AO3 (/in fandom) is a myth. AO3 user centreoftheselights has some good data on this - here's their 2024 demographics post, where 81% of users identified as LGBTQ+, while only 12% of users identified as straight.

Obviously there's more conversation worth having here - being queer =/= attraction to women, and it doesn't mean unattraction to men. These demographics are also from polled AO3 users, not every AO3 user and not everyone in the BG3 fandom. But it offers a great basepoint.

Secondly, the tags I used for my graphic are all tags - not only main character or main ship tags, but also including every background, mistag, and side character appearance tagged across every work in the Baldur's Gate tag. Obviously, romance is a huge facet of fandom behavior, but that's why I chose to look at flat tags versus main character tags/etc (which I did in my character-specific deep dives). It isn't that there are less people shipping their Tavs with Mizora than Raphael -- it's that Mizora is showing up in all Baldur's Gate fanworks with less frequency than a male character with a similar role, even in side roles and other nonromantic/nonsexual roles -- and we can point to similar situations often enough to see a concerning pattern.

I want to clarify that this post isn't me saying the men characters are worse than the women, or that every m/m fan needs to write an equal amount of f/f fic or else. I also hope this isn't coming off as combative. I've been semi hands-off with long responses because I don't want to come off as just arguing with everyone who dares disagree with me. But since this is a question that keeps coming up, I wanted to post my response in full.

[canon-in-too-deep]

Get Ready for a Game Changer!

This post is something different than my usual works, but I just had to share it! I love Dropout, and I love their series Game Changer. I also love books. So. When I got into typesetting, I always wanted to make my own typeset for one of the episodes, specifically A Game Most Changed, because it lent itself well as a self contained story---and was just absolutely one of my faves (crunch?! CRUNCH!). But, unfortunately, I couldn't figure out a way to do it without having to rewatch the episode (fun!) and type everything out as it happens (less fun). That is, until, recently, whereupon I found that someone had made a full transcript for A Game Most Changed and linked it on reddit! So thanks to reddit user u/Siurdin, I got to indulge in a passion project of mine: designing a full color typeset for one of my favorite Game Changer episodes. Behold! I'm so excited to share pics of my file! I even made loopty loop borders!

Note: This is entirely a personal, unaffiliated, non commercial fan project I made for myself, done with 40% inspiration, 50% enthusiasm, 60% passion, and 110% lack of understanding of math.

[evilbihan]

Bi-Han's grim future

MAJOR SPOILERS UP AHEAD:

I'm not sure why some people are convinced that Bi-Han will have a redemption arc when the writers have already shown how little they care for his character by turning him into their punching bag. In fact, looking at what we know so far, it seems much more like things will take a turn for the worse, not the better.

If the leaks turn out to be true, Bi-Han will lose everything. His clan and his position as grandmaster, his cryomancy, the loyalty of Cyrax on top of losing his brothers, his youth, years of his life... He will have nothing left to come back to and therefore he will also have no reason to seek redemption. Most people won't forgive him, his own brother left him to die and the only thing keeping Kuai Liang from just murdering Bi-Han on the spot when he's the most vulnerable is Liu Kang.

Bi-Han will depend on Liu Kang more than ever which is the exact opposite of what he always wanted. He will help save the timeline, only to be locked up inside the Temple of the Elements for who knows how long with the possibility that he might be restored in several years. Even if that happens, he will have to relearn his cryomancy, if he gains it back at all, the Lin Kuei will have gotten used to serving a new grandmaster and Bi-Han would have to earn their respect and loyalty all over again. That is, if he's not already an old man by the time Liu Kang manages to restore him. His life's work will be undone completely.

According to a leaked dialogue between Takeda and a currently unknown character (possibly Noob), Kuai Liang is looking for the Arctikan Hailstone. I assume it's either to keep Bi-Han from ever getting his cryomancy back or to find a way to transfer it to either Hanzo, making him the next Sub-Zero or himself, leaving Hanzo to be the next Scorpion. Bi-Han's mantle will be passed on to someone else in his absence. He will lose more than just a fight, he will lose his entire identity. Bi-Han as Sub-Zero will no longer exist at the end of this dlc and will possibly never exist again.

Liu Kang: You will not enter the Temple of the Elements. Bi-Han: I will have the power you've locked away inside.

What I believe will happen is that Bi-Han, having nothing left to return to, will simply embrace what he became as he did in previous timelines. Instead of Sareena helping to redeem Bi-Han, I think they will work together to steal whatever powerful magic they can find within the Temple of the Elements and take it back to Quan Chi.

Reptile: I worry Sareena is falling back into evil. Ashrah: We can't let her, Syzoth.

Syzoth is worried about Sareena returning to her old ways and that could mean she's up to no good. Instead of trying to help redeem Bi-Han, Sareena might try and convince him to aid Quan Chi's cause instead. If that does happen, Noob could try and take vengeance on Kuai Liang for leaving him to die by handing him over to Quan Chi which could lead to Scorpion becoming a spectre yet again. Both brothers could then serve under Quan Chi like Bi-Han and Hanzo did in the past. There's also the possibility of Smoke joining them if he becomes corrupted by the Enenra.

Judging by leaked dialogues, it's heavily suggested that everything is set up towards Bi-Han's doom/demise, with one of the dlc characters (possibly Homelander) calling him a "deadman" in one of their intros. I can't speak much on this myself, but I've also seen a reddit user claim that Scorpion's VA himself, upon being asked why Scorpion doesn't forgive Bi-Han, responded that Kuai Liang will never forgive his brother, so that rules out the possibility of the brothers ending their rivalry as well.

The only person who has ever been able to save Bi-Han from corruption was Kuai Liang in his MK11 tower ending, but Kuai Liang in this new timeline hates his brother and wants him dead, which means the only person who successfully saved Bi-Han in any timeline is now no longer willing to save him. Bi-Han is doomed and I believe Kuai Liang's cruelty and hatred will backfire, causing the downfall of both, if not all three Lin Kuei brothers, Smoke included. A lot of things imply that there might be a new Scorpion and a new Sub-Zero (the existence of a young Hanzo who could become Scorpion and Frost who could take Bi-Han's mantle).

At the end of the day, MK1 is just a slightly different but fundamentally similar retelling of the story we already know. I'm not sure why they even bothered calling it the New Era when history seems like it's going to repeat itself.

Of course, all of these are just theories and speculations, but I doubt Bi-Han's story will end well. I'm sickened by this dlc and the thought of all the suffering Bi-Han will go through. The most disgusting part is that I know the fandom will enjoy seeing Bi-Han get tortured and paying for things he didn't do while the real culprits who caused Sindel's death and the near destruction of Earthrealm (Shang Tsung, Quan Chi, etc.) will get away unscathed.

Geras: Your future has been damaged beyond repair. Sub-Zero: Are you here to end it?

To me, this dialogue already potentially rules out the possibility for a "redemption arc" or even the chance of being saved for Bi-Han. I suggest reading this very interesting analysis by @inflamedrosenkranz in addition to my post as it's, as always, beautifully worded and very insightful.

Bi-Han's tragedy in MK1 is heartbreaking and upsetting and no matter from which angle you look at it, the dlc is depressing and just another slap in the face to Bi-Han fans.

[o-craven-canto]

Somewhat bothered by the responses in this reddit page. (For context: link is to a page in /r/biology, where OP posted a diagram of human evolution going from a prokaryote to Homo sapiens in many discrete steps.) To be sure, there are significant inaccuracies in that diagram. The flatworm definitely does not belong there (though I suppose you could use it as a rough approximation for the primordial Bilaterian), nor does Dickinsonia, and worst of all is the Cyanobacterium (which you can't even defend as a representative of our prokaryote ancestor, since there is another one helpfully labeled "prokaryote").

Most of the responses are not about that, though. Most of them are mentioning the inaccuracy of depicting evolution as a linear process ending with Homo sapiens, instead of one constantly branching and spawning new variations over time. Which would be a fair criticism if the image claimed to be a representation of evolution as a whole, but... it's literally titled "Human Evolution". Of course it follows a single line from the origin of life to Homo sapiens! It makes no sense to complain that it does not show parallel branches leading to other modern species; you might as well complain that a map of France is inaccurate because it neglects to include Japan. Drawing my own family tree is not a claim that the whole of human history culminates in my own birth.

(Maybe I'm oversensitive here because I've made a diagram of the same type myself, and I'm quite satisfied of it.)

Particularly curious is that comment that calls OP's image "dangerous", because it could lead to the misunderstandings above described is one were to completely fail to understand its point. I wonder if the same person would claim that 2d world maps are dangerous misinformation because someone might conclude from them that Earth is flat and rectangular.

I can't help but have a very uncharitable thought. Few people mention the actual factual inaccuracies in the chart because that requires specific knowledge that most people, even most users of /r/biology, do not have. But plenty of people jump at the opportunity of saying "evolution is not linear", "humankind is not the endpoint of evolution", "we don't descend from monkeys we share a common ancestor with them" not because they have understood these statements and know their relevance to the case, but because they have memorized these tidbits as the sort of things you are supposed to say about evolution to show that you are not one of those contemptible Science Deniers, while not requiring you to learn any more actual biology than the average creationist.

I dearly hope that I'm wrong.

[rainofaugustsith]

I have a bit of concern that in @staff's posts and statements they keep talking about "smaller content creators" and so forth. Small? Hm? 

I can't speak for anyone on Tumblr except myself, but I am definitely not here to be a "content creator" or "Influencer" of any stripe the way those words are defined on other socials. I have no desire to or garner thousands of followers and likes on every post. I'm not here to create a brand or a name. I'm not about numbers. I pretty deliberately keep my 'following' count relatively small so I can actually try to read what people post. 

I'm just a geek who wants to talk about geek interests with others who share them, perhaps talk about life, and look at cute and funny comics sometimes, much the same way I did in the aughts when blogging was honestly more of a personal interest endeavor than a slickly orchestrated attempt to become known and get endorsements. Much the same way people did in the late 90s where they put up Geocities pages with ten photos low-res scanned from magazines of whatever actor or fictional character they were into, amid a tinny MIDI sound clip and eye-straining pink backgrounds. 

If I wanted to be on Reddit, Twitter or Insta I would be there. I am on Tumblr in part because it is not like those sites. 

You want to make the site more user friendly so people can find their fandom brethren or other users they'd like to follow? Fix the search. Fix. The. Search. Make the settings console more user friendly so I don't have to Google how to find every single thing.

The push to collapse reblogs, though, not only impedes conversation but it sounds as though it is going to make it a hell of a lot harder to curate one's space here, as well as making it harder for self-care/curation tools like TumblrSavior to work. That's not user friendly. 

Turning the site into a poor clone of other socials is not going to help it. Really. 

[stray-the-therian]

First post

First post of this blog! I have been posting over on tiktok for about a year. My user is @robin_strayflame and I post mainly quads and pointless ramblings noone ever reads yeeey :3

So I'm moving my rambles on here, where (as I've heard) people have more braincells than over on tiktok... and longer attention spans.

I'll use this post as a quick introduction. I first discovered the term "therian" in 2017. Funnily enough, it was in a video about furries - "furries don't think they're animals, those are called therians". Little me nodded, "yeah that's me" and carried on, unaffected, as if nothing happened.

I never tried to sneak myself into the community back then, even later when I was passively reading through blogs, reddit posts or watching youtube videos. All while I walked on all fours shamelessly in school, openly expressed dislike of being called a human and made animal sounds regardless on where I was. Little attention did I pay to other people's reactions and bullying. Sweet autism, social rules who. Suppressing stims or suppressing my animalistic urges, I saw both the same - pointless. People would find something else about me to hate me for.

Autism mentioned, needless to say I qualify as ND-inhuman, although I don't really use this label. When it comes to the theories I have about my theriantropy I do believe it's tied to, or even directly caused by my ASD. I used to have several other hypotheses about "why the hell am I what I am and act how I act", but those are better saved for their own post.

This is already quite long...

I hope to find a community of people with similar experiences to myself I can talk to and connect with. Will you have me?

[victoriadallonfan]

Parahumans Fandom based on the best and worst comments/messages I've received or seen:

Fanfiction.net - (Best) - Someone told me they had no idea that Worm had a sequel and they quickly binged the entire thing after reading my fanfic. Told me they loved how optimistic the story was and thought my fic did a good job of emulating that.

(Worst) - Being sent a message about how they wanted to rape the main character (Victoria) and tried to bully me write a different story for them.

Reddit - (Best) - Numerous posts about how the setting and story of Parahumans has given people positive vibes, made them felt seen, helped them process traumatic events in their lives, or exposed them to different cultures/ideas. Even while acknowledging the very real faults of the stories, and how things could or should be improved, there are a lot of great analysis's out there on the subreddit.

(Worst) - Pick your poison: "Nazi's aren't evil", "Mind rape isn't real rape", "Even if it was rape, it was deserved", "Why doesn't Taylor join the Empire?", "Sophia deserved what happened to her", "You don't agree with Taylor's decisions? You're just like Uvalde Police!" Death threats in general.

Tumblr - (Best) Actually too many to mention. I am disappointed that I am a relatively recent member, because there are a lot of people who post funny, insightful, and even valuable point of views. Even when I disagree with them on 99% of things, mostly Ward related obviously, there's always at least a handful of posts from even those users that I can look at and go, "Wow, that take really made me re-evaluate things".

(Worst) Awful lot of people telling me to kill myself and worse from Anons, more than any other site. Like, damn tumblr, way to take the prize from Reddit. Still, same sort of behavior as on Reddit, just styled differently by users to pretend it's better.

Spacebattles - (Best) Had someone tell me that they love how my Victoria fanfic was great and inspired them to read Ward, where they felt really seen as a survivor of sexual abuse, and that they are processing what they've going through in a new lens. Helps that I'm like, one of 4 active Ward fic writers, so the fandom is far smaller haha

(Worst) Had a white supremacist recruiter try to convince me and others that their Empire 88 Self-Insert was just a joke, while also trying to recruit people. Got them banned lmao

Sufficient Velocity - Don't use that site for anything other than Pale updates

AO3 - Nothing but positivity from them, if they decide to leave a comment at all