#2009 greed

[mrshobbit]

This girl must be severely traumatised after all the shit she saw scar do

(im calling bullshit if she aint)

[crazydiscostu]

Avatar (2009)

The Last Airbender????

Avatar has been hailed as a visually stunning and emotionally powerful film. Directed by James Cameron, the film is set in a distant future where humans have depleted Earth’s resources and are now seeking new resources on other planets. The film’s portrayal of the conflict between the humans and the Na’vi is also thought-provoking. The humans, driven by greed and a desire for resources, are…

[simply-ivanka]

How the Biden-Harris Economy Left Most Americans Behind

A government spending boom fueled inflation that has crushed real average incomes.

By The Editorial Board -- Wall Street Journal

Kamala Harris plans to roll out her economic priorities in a speech on Friday, though leaks to the press say not to expect much different than the last four years. That’s bad news because the Biden-Harris economic record has left most Americans worse off than they were four years ago. The evidence is indisputable.

President Biden claims that he inherited the worst economy since the Great Depression, but this isn’t close to true. The economy in January 2021 was fast recovering from the pandemic as vaccines rolled out and state lockdowns eased. GDP grew 34.8% in the third quarter of 2020, 4.2% in the fourth, and 5.2% in the first quarter of 2021. By the end of that first quarter, real GDP had returned to its pre-pandemic high. All Mr. Biden had to do was let the recovery unfold.

Instead, Democrats in March 2021 used Covid relief as a pretext to pass $1.9 trillion in new spending. This was more than double Barack Obama’s 2009 spending bonanza. State and local governments were the biggest beneficiaries, receiving $350 billion in direct aid, $122 billion for K-12 schools and $30 billion for mass transit. Insolvent union pension funds received a $86 billion rescue.

The rest was mostly transfer payments to individuals, including a five-month extension of enhanced unemployment benefits, a $3,600 fully refundable child tax credit, $1,400 stimulus payments per person, sweetened Affordable Care Act subsidies, an increased earned income tax credit including for folks who didn’t work, housing subsidies and so much more.

The handouts discouraged the unemployed from returning to work and fueled consumer spending, which was already primed to surge owing to pent-up savings from the Covid lockdowns and spending under Donald Trump. By mid-2021, Americans had $2.3 trillion in “excess savings” relative to pre-pandemic levels—equivalent to roughly 12.5% of disposable income.

So much money chasing too few goods fueled inflation, which was supercharged by the Federal Reserve’s accommodative policy. Historically low mortgage rates drove up housing prices. The White House blamed “corporate greed” for inflation that peaked at 9.1% in June 2022, even as the spending party in Washington continued.

In November 2021, Congress passed a $1 trillion bill full of green pork and more money for states. Then came the $280 billion Chips Act and Mr. Biden’s Green New Deal—aka the Inflation Reduction Act—which Goldman Sachs estimates will cost $1.2 trillion over a decade. Such heaps of government spending have distorted private investment.

While investment in new factories has grown, spending on research and development and new equipment has slowed. Overall private fixed investment has grown at roughly half the rate under Mr. Biden as it did under Mr. Trump. Manufacturing output remains lower than before the pandemic.

Magnifying market misallocations, the Administration conditioned subsidies on businesses advancing its priorities such as paying union-level wages and providing child care to workers. It also boosted food stamps, expanded eligibility for ObamaCare subsidies and waved away hundreds of billions of dollars in student debt. The result: $5.8 trillion in deficits during Mr. Biden’s first three years—about twice as much as during Donald Trump’s—and the highest inflation in four decades.

Prices have increased by nearly 20% since January 2021, compared to 7.8% during the Trump Presidency. Inflation-adjusted average weekly earnings are down 3.9% since Mr. Biden entered office, compared to an increase of 2.6% during Mr. Trump’s first three years. (Real wages increased much more in 2020, but partly owing to statistical artifacts.)

Higher interest rates are finally bringing inflation under control, which is allowing real wages to rise again. But the Federal Reserve had to raise rates higher than it otherwise would have to offset the monetary and fiscal gusher. The higher rates have pushed up mortgage costs for new home buyers.

Three years of inflation and higher interest rates are stretching American pocketbooks, especially for lower income workers. Seriously delinquent auto loans and credit cards are higher than any time since the immediate aftermath of the 2008-09 recession.

Ms. Harris boasts that the economy has added nearly 16 million jobs during the Biden Presidency—compared to about 6.4 million during Mr. Trump’s first three years. But most of these “new” jobs are backfilling losses from the pandemic lockdowns. The U.S. has fewer jobs than it was on track to add before the pandemic.

What’s more, all the Biden-Harris spending has yielded little economic bang for the taxpayer buck. Washington has borrowed more than $400,000 for every additional job added under Mr. Biden compared to Mr. Trump’s first three years. Most new jobs are concentrated in government, healthcare and social assistance—60% of new jobs in the last year.

Administrative agencies are also creating uncertainty by blitzing businesses with costly regulations—for instance, expanding overtime pay, restricting independent contractors, setting stricter emissions limits on power plants and factories, micro-managing broadband buildout and requiring CO2 emissions calculations in environmental reviews.

The economy is still expanding, but business investment has slowed. And although the affluent are doing relatively well because of buoyant asset prices, surveys show that most Americans feel financially insecure. Thus another political paradox of the Biden-Harris years: Socioeconomic disparities have increased.

Ms. Harris is promising the same economic policies with a shinier countenance. Don’t expect better results.

[uwmspeccoll]

World Kindness Day!

Today is World Kindness Day, so to celebrate, we present An Act or Two of Kindness by William Saroyan with wood engravings by Helen Siegl. Published by Penmaen Press in 1977 in Lincoln, MA, this first edition was designed and set by Michael McCurdy. This book features two tales that highlight acts of kindness amidst a world consumed by greed. The stories are titled The Ashtree Talker and The Crying Drunk. 

William Saroyan (1908-1981) was an Armenian American novelist, playwright, and short story writer. He extensively wrote about the experiences of Armenian immigrants living in America. In 1940, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and, in 1943, an Academy Award for Best Story. 

Helen Siegl (1924-2009) was a printmaker born in Austria who spent most of her life in the United States. However, her experiences in her home city of Vienna during the tumultuous period of Nazi annexation, World War II, and the subsequent Soviet occupation shaped her artistic beliefs. 

View other posts on the Penmaen Press.

View other posts with work by Helen Siegl.

-Melissa, Special Collections Graduate Intern

[boyrobott]

the jesus christ allegory for 2009 astro is so insane for real. he's the only living son of a man who can create life from nothing (tenma), he's blessed with incredible powers beyond any ordinary understanding, he offers kindness and forgiveness to everyone he meets (cora, zane, hamegg), he revives the dead and heals the sick (zog), he descends from "heaven" (metro city) to "earth" (the surface) to live as a mortal man (pretending to be a human kid), he is shunned and persecuted for his powers despite living peacefully and helping others, he is sentenced to death by the authorities, he sacrifices his own life to protect others from their "sins" (president stone, who symbolizes the citizens' greed and moral decay), and he is resurrected later by his own power (the blue core from zog). literally why are we sleeping on this it's so fucking cool

[jellypawss]

Why the sims 4 sucks;

The sims 3: 2009-2014 (Not the best in the franchise but jam packed full of content and not over produced like the sims 4.)

The sims 4: 2014-current (It's been ten years, the game is shallow, there are ZERO fun quirks like the past titles, this is the sims but for literally children when their playerbase is 18+. At least four packs have the same theme and are just recycled content. They are capitalizing as much as they are coping with this dying game. It sucks.)

There is no life or love in the sims 4 and so far the details about Project Renee really highlight the greed of EA. Project Renee is set to be almost like a mobile game, multiplayer with actions that earn you money and a "battlepass."

EA doesn't care what you want, no matter how long you've supported this game. They want your money. Stop defending them.

[chcrryade]

⠀EVERY  TIME,⠀I  MAKE  IT  SO  OUTRAGEOUS!  ˚ ◯ ⁺⠀⠀⸻⠀⠀Born out of just the right mix of spite,  desperation,  and greed,  CHERRYADE  ( 체리 에이드 )  are a last-ditch attempt—a withered hand clawing its way out of the grave—at boy group fame for their managing company JAGUAR.  Following their previous list of tragedies,  the seven-piece ensemble  (cobbled together with more members that weren’t even signed to them to begin with that those that were)  seemed to be yet another set-up,  another failed venture that would last a year or two at the very most before a scandal ripped them apart from the inside out and they were shoved aside to make room for the next five minutes of fame JAGUAR were chasing.

However,  they seemed to be the ones that broke the mould of those that had come before them.  Wrapped in an almost artificially sugary-sweet concept with the uneasy-on-the-eyes colour scheme to match  (although the contrasting tang of their sharp personalities cut through the façade more often than not),  CHERRYADE saw success after their debut release ‘DOUBLE DIP,’  a five-track mini album that made everything seem a little bit more real,  proving all those that had been calling bullshit wrong.  They were here,  and they were hopefully here to stay—for better or for worse,  completely uncaring of whether people liked them or not;  as was per with all of JAGUAR’s attempts before them.

They were  (predictably)  not without scandal,  and allegations were thrown at them not long after debut for both their less-than-stellar treatment of their fellow idols in the industry and having loose lips when it came to secrets that weren’t always their own,  but surprisingly there was nothing to be heard about infighting this time around.  Some said they were just the ones that managed to get along,  or they had turned over new leaves, but others theorised that they were all still horrible,  and this time had simply united to wreak their havoc on their mutual enemies instead.

Still,  despite the articles and the fan videos and the general confusion of the crowds at all of their shows while they wondered if they should be throwing rocks or waving their lightsticks in time,  CHERRYADE persevered.  Next was the full album ‘TASTE TEST’ in March 2022,  one that,  despite the more suggestive nature of the songs within,  was another that was met with widespread success.  Everything seemed to be going swimmingly—until the November 2022 one-time-only reunion of JAGUAR’s first and only co-ed duo JUST4U,  who ran from 2009 until 2016.  Another explosive scene of theirs erupted right in plain view,  for everyone to see,  more insults thrown and glass smashed.  An apology  (that,  although was signed by Seungdae,  no-one believes he actually wrote a word of—witnesses said he was egging them on,  if anything)  was released after the media got ahold of the story,  and after that all things JAGUAR  (and by proxy,  all things CHERRYADE)  seemed to fall quiet for a while.  No comeback was announced,  nor rumoured,  nor..  Anything.  It took the leader of the seven himself making a stand and asking for something to be done for any more moves to be made,  and not terribly long after—May 2023,  to be exact—the mini album ‘SWEET (SOUR)’ was dropped.

It seemed the hype hadn’t died down at all,  as fans were just as excited as they’d been for the previous two releases,  and the attention was back in full swing.  Next came the second full album ‘CLUB SODA’ in November 2023,  and most recently the mini album ‘LEMON ON ICE’ in April 2024.  Allegations and accusations have followed them all throughout their careers,  ranging from bullying to drug use to renting rooms in love hotels to the countless rumours of infighting that seem to crop up every two weeks.  But CHERRYADE just keeps on pushing,  not paying any mind to any article that drags their name through the mud for the nth time. 

They have yet to take the title of JAGUAR’s longest running group  (as that crown still belongs to the aforementioned duo JUST4U),  but fans are hopeful and non-fans are more..  Curious.  One journalist described them as a group that was a little like an incoming car crash—you don’t know how things are going to end up,  but you still don’t want to look away.

So,  whether you’re dancing along to their  (admittedly catchy)  discography,  or praying on their imminent disbandment,  CHERRYADE will be here to welcome you all the same.  Grab a gumdrop and make yourself comfortable,  because it’s almost certain that you’re going to be here for a while.

⁺⠀ෆ  ⠀›  ⠀ ᶻ .ᐟ  BACK2BASICS…

GROUP NAME⠀☆⠀CHERRYADE  ( 체리 에이드 )

LABEL⠀☆⠀JAGUAR

DEBUT DATE⠀☆⠀AUG 1,  2021

DEBUT RELEASE⠀☆⠀DOUBLE DIP  ( MINI-ALBUM )

CONCEPT⠀☆⠀COLOURFUL,  SUGARY GOODNESS!

GREETING⠀☆⠀CRACK,  FIZZLE,  POP!  WE’RE CHERRYADE!

FANDOM NAME⠀☆⠀SODA BOMBS

⁺⠀ෆ  ⠀›  ⠀ ᶻ .ᐟ  LINEUP…

KIL DOYEON⠀✶⠀‘98  LEADER MAIN DANCER

DUAN ‘JALEN’ JIEYANG⠀✶⠀‘97  MAIN VOCALIST DANCER

JEON HAEIL⠀✶⠀‘99  LEAD VOCALIST LEAD RAPPER

QIAO YIJUN⠀✶⠀‘01  MAIN RAPPER CENTRE

HWAN ‘GOGO’ MINHUI⠀✶⠀‘02  MAIN DANCER VOCALIST

AHN JAEHEE⠀✶⠀‘02  MAIN RAPPER VISUAL

LEE HASUN⠀✶⠀‘03  MAIN VOCALIST MAKNAE

⁺⠀ෆ  ⠀›  ⠀ ᶻ .ᐟ  DISCOGRAPHY…

AUGUST 2021⠀‘DOUBLE DIP’⠀MINI ALBUM

MARCH 2022⠀‘TASTE TEST’⠀FULL ALBUM

MAY 2023⠀‘SWEET (SOUR)’⠀MINI ALBUM

NOVEMBER 2023⠀‘CLUB SODA’⠀FULL ALBUM

APRIL 2024⠀‘LEMON ON ICE’⠀MINI ALBUM

[imabeautifulbutterfly]

Hi Mimi 🥰

Congrats on your follower milestone!!!

For your event, may I request "Here Comes The Sun" by the Beetles with Tup x Fem!Reader? (I decided against the bass 😂)

Please and thank you 💚💚💚

@the-bad-batch-baroness

Thank you so much love @the-bad-batch-baroness!

This was such a good request, not only do I love the Beetles, but I love Tup, and we were robbed of his screen time.

I hope you love my take on this song.

Also 'euk cyar'ika' means little darling/sweetheart. Close enough. ;)

Love oo.

Here Comes The Sun

Warnings: Mentions of tattoo meanings, discussions of slavery, murder, prison, killing, saving, surviving, tenderness, kissing. If I miss anything, please let me know.

Main Master List   | Star Wars Jukebox Roulette |   AO3 Link

You had a crush on Tup from the first moment you met him.

It didn’t surprise you when you both quickly became friends, after all he had a calming and friendly personality, which made it easy for him to become friends with just about anyone. You smiled as you tilted your head while you had lunch with him.

“What is it, mesh’la?”

“Why a teardrop tattoo? I don’t get it. I mean it looks good, but usually a teardrop tattoo signifies a prison term or the fact you’re a murderer. Which you aren’t.”

“Aren’t I?” Tup lowered his utensils and looked at you, a soft smile on his face, “I may not be in prison, but I am an indentured servant to the Republic. I may not have killed out of necessity, greed, or even passion, but am I not killing when I’m in battle?”

“But you’re a soldier.”

“Does that make it more acceptable to take a life?” He shook his head, “I’m sorry mesh’la, maybe this is a bit too heavy-handed a topic for lunch.”

You reached your hand forward and took his, “Is that what you think of yourself, a prisoner who commits murder?”

“Am I wrong?”

You let out a sigh, as you tugged him to his feet to follow you. You guided him to your quarters, and pulled out a holopic display that hung on one of the shelving units. He watched as you swiped through several pictures, until you found the one of your village. 

“This was my village.”

“Was?”

You nodded, “Separatist droids came in and wiped most of them out. There’s only a handful of us left. What they did,” you pointed to the picture, “was murder. You aren’t killing people, Tup. You’re saving them. It’s because of soldiers like you, that my village … whatever is left of it is able to keep surviving. Plus you’re not killing your dismantling droids.”

Despite the turmoil within him, he couldn’t help but feel a weight had lifted off his shoulder. As his eyes drifted to your face, he could feel his soul healing, as though the long, cold, lonely winter that had been his existence since he emerged from his growth chamber had finally started to melt.

He felt his first genuine smile return to his face as he looked at you, he let out a slight chuckle, “You surprise me mesh’la.”

“Me?”

“Mmhmm,” he nodded as he put back your holopic display back to its original spot. “No one has ever … no, no one was ever concerned about my thoughts or even asked me about the teardrop tattoo.” He turned to look at you, “No one bothered to ask, about what I felt inside. What had been tormenting me since the very beginning, but you…”

He closed the distance between the two of you, his gaze was full of his own heart’s desire. He wanted to tell you so many times, countless times of what you meant to him. He gently reached up and gently cupped your cheek, his thumb stroking the soft skin under his finger. 

“You’re the only one that sees me. It’s as though you’re my sun, you make everything alright, just with your smile alone.” His other hand reached up to cup your cheeks, almost keeping your head there, looking up into his eyes.

“Because of you, euk cyar’ika, the ice that has surrounded my heart since the day I was born has finally started to melt. Because of you …” he leaned closer, his breath brushing against your face. 

Your hands moved, holding his forearms, you weren’t sure if it was to steady yourself or to keep him close.

“Because of you, there’s sun in my life, ner euk cyar’ika” he closed the distance, pressing his lips against yours, wanting, needing to pour out everything he had felt for you since the moment you came into his life. 

Main Master List   | Star Wars Jukebox Roulette |   AO3 Link

Tag list:

@liadamerondjarin @badbatch-simp24@spicymcnuggies@lady-ren @firstofficerwiggles @darkangel4121 @discofern @kavecika @monako-jinn-stories @ladykatakuri @avathebestx @theroguesully @furyhellfire66 @carodealmeida @ciramaris @sprout-fics @twinkofthedink @dindjarin-mandalorian @ulchabhangorm @littlemisspascal @tortor-mcgee @vodika-vibes @clonethirstingisreal @crosshair-is-the-superior-clone @totallyunidentified @griffedeloup @leotatombs @leotawrites

[the-monkey-ruler]

Monkey King 2009 美猴王 Episode 40 (subs)

40th Episode of the 2009 Monkey King series with Subtitles. Wukong refuses to listen to any of heaven's rule and leads him and King Li to butt heads. Is there any way to solve this? Luier meanwhile takes advantage of a foolish immortal's greed to finally release the full power of the NIned Headed Lion Saint.

[fullmetal-scar-simping]

Any thoughts on them changing Scar’s face in 03? It’s so much smoother compared to Mangahood. Like do you prefer one face over the other? Thoughts on the fact that they changed Scar’s face but nobody else’s, why do you think it happened at all?

Hm. I do have thoughts on the matter, but so much of it is more about how fans perceive 03 Scar vs the mangahood Scars (because manga and Broho Scar do differ in their appearance as well, though perhaps not as immediately as 03 does) than anything to do with the contrasts in the anime vs the manga itself.

The way fans talk about 03 Scar's appearance just. Man. Bums me out. Pre-Brotherhood you had your bog standard cishet white dudes harping about Scar looking "like he should be in a boy band," and listen. If you were a teen or young adult in the oughts, you knew exactly what the subtext for the statement was: fag.

I'd have thought, all these years later, that I would be seeing better quality opinions on the dude. Unfortunately, rejoining the fandom after over a decade post-Brotherhood I seem to find similar, disparaging sentiments. Except now it's painted more as a critique of 03 being a separate beast from the manga's canon. Yet the unmistakable undercurrent of disdain towards a man being rendered more pretty, young, vulnerable, and with a somewhat greater range of emotionality remains intact, only now Western fans have the more overtly masculine, older, emotionally restrained depiction of Scar everyone prefers in Brotherhood to use as an additional way to shit on 03 Scar's looks.

People seem forever confounded by a version of Scar who isn't Peak Masc™®© and 'scary'/intimidating, so they gawk at 03's version like its a rift in reality. But when I first saw what Scar looks like in the manga a ways back (please note, I started with 03 back before 2009 and Brotherhood) I just shrugged. And finally watching Brotherhood earlier this year I was no less unbothered over the shift in Scar's appearance.

To me the change in artstyles alone across both anime and the manga makes everyone look rather different; 03 Envy and Broho Envy have completely different faces, hair density, and even demeanours but I don't see non-stop posts about them. Hell, 03 Greed vs Mangahood Greed looks VERY different to me. Mangahood looks so young and, as you put it, smooth. 03 looks older, more like he actually lives in the seedy underbelly of society. But again, no one bats an eye at this. Folks have at least noted Ed and (human body) Al's design differences, but that's accepted without much hullabaloo. 03 Lust also has (albeit more subtle) design changes over the manga, and the later Broho version looks unlike both 03 and manga Lusts. Hohenheim of Light and Von Hohenheim? Look quite different! Their face shapes aren't even identical. So no, I don't actually feel that only Scar ended up looking unlike his manga counterpart. It's a more overt change compared to most of the rest of the cast, but he's not the only one who looks younger/more beautiful. (And come on, damn near everyone has a retroactive glow-up in 03 versus Brotherhood, given the difference in styles.)

I just don't get why Scar's changes should be such a big deal.

Maybe I'm used to media that has scores of iterations of the same core characters, where even artstyles change on the regular. So 03 Scar vs manga Scar vs Broho Scar designs never registered as anything controversial. Frankly the fact of these differences are banal. Tweaks in appearance happens per iteration. Which isn't to say that there aren't choices being made by the artists. Just that it doesn't impact how I feel or engage with each version of this character.

What I find the most bizarre about this memefication of "2003 Scar is a twinky emo boy who cries and is wimpy, give us back our brick wall Big Man who has two expressions max" is that this comes from a mostly queer contingent on tunglr dot fuck. A queer, "feminist" fandom, who giggles at a character of colour the fandom mostly sees as a 'fearsome villain' having ever been rendered with such proximity to emotional complexity, to the the feminine, and deriding this character design and writing choice. It also flanderizes the version of Scar they supposedly prefer, because the mangahood Scars aren't Mega-Sized American Shooter Space Marines Who Are Gruff and Feel Nothing despite whatever weird cultural-gender hangups these same fans are (perhaps unwittingly) clinging to. The role those Scars are meant to inhabit is the racialized caricature of the dangerous Other, but even they aren't as flattened as the fanon renders them.

We can be honest though. Nobody in this fandom has a problem with other attractive characters. Only 03 Scar fuck's 'em up. And most of the people bothered by 03 Scar's appearance aren't even Scar fans to begin with. They just find it uncanny that a "terrorist villain" could ever look, well. Alluring. It crosses people's wires.

Skill issue.

As for why the 03 character designer(s) chose to change Scar's appearance from the manga, I can only speculate. It's worth noting that a cleaner, more youthful appearance does tend to carry its own signifiers in pop media. Especially for a younger audience, a more relatively youthful design can encourage seeing oneself in a character's shoes. To strip away some of the degree of separation that teen and young adult viewers may otherwise feel towards a displaced, religious, soldier-murdering character, in the hopes that they instead connect with Scar. Not as a figure meant to terrify them but rather a fleshed out character grappling with his own journey.

Maybe, more cynically, the character designers just thought a younger, more conventionally attractive Scar might better draw in viewers.

Unless anyone has some sources from the team behind the 2003 anime, we can't know the reasons with any certainty.

To answer your question: looks wise, I don't have a strong preference. Older, younger, more (relatively) bulky or more (relatively) trim (but for real tho, we know 03 Scar isn't a twig, yeah?), a prettier face or a more grizzled one, doesn't matter to me. It just adds variety to the meal, ya know? All Scars are gorgeous to me. If I could lovingly cradle all three huge men in my arms at the same time, I would.

But character wise? 03 is my fave, hands down. I prefer his staunch principles, his struggles, his characterization, his arc, his radicalism, his emotional range, just! Everything about him is pitch perfect to me. There's a reason why he's the one in my pfp, the one I drew for my blog header, hell the one I draw the most obsessively overall.

Sucks ass that sifting through ages of fan content yields so much constant trash slung at my fave amongst faves. 🥲 But my expectations for this fandom have never left rock bottom anyhow.

[i-am-minty-fresh]

God (?) Headcanons for One Piece:

Luffy is the god of the hearth. Looks like gear five.

Zoro is the demon king of the wrath ring. His real form looks like his Asura form.

Sanji is the fallen angel of creation. His true form looks like the bliblically accurate eye of rings kinda.

Nami is the demon queen of the greed ring. A imagining a naga kinda deal (totally blinged out with gold and shit tho).

Usopp is a fae nymph. He looks the same but he’s got sharp canines and gold spiraling eyes (and also somehow always has got leaves in his hair).

Chopper is an earth deity for good health that takes the form of a small boy with deer-like features (who’s true form kinda looks like the Jötunn from the movie The Ritual).

Robin is an ancient god of knowledge. In my mind she kinda looks like Life from The Loving Reaper Comics by Jenny Jinya with long hair that shows the stars and long black gowns that look like molten rock.

Franky is a sentinel who’s real form is his post-timeskip form. His kinda like Zog from the 2009 Astroboy movie, but instead of hard metal he’s rock like the Terra-cotta sculptures in China (the Terra-cotta Army in the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, I mean).

Brook is the king of death. His normal form has him looking like he did when he was alive with plaster white tattoos of his skeleton all over his body. He’s got like a hades thing going on.

Jimbei is the god of the sea. It’s got a human form that looks incredibly similar to his god form (never changing the dad build). When he’s in his real form he glows like a lava lamp to show the sea (it changes with his mood).

I like to imagine that none of the strawhats know that Luffy is also a god so they all have to hide their mystical forms when he’s around (they’ve all got jewelry to keep their human forms: Zoro’s earrings, Sanji’s tongue piercing, Usopp’s got a lip ring, Nami’s got her bracelets, Chopper’s got his hat to hide his horns, Robin uses an old spell, Franky can just change on command, Brook’s got a shell necklace, and Jimbei’s got rings. (Luffy has a helix piercing that he only half understands what it does)).

[tbcanary]

2023 reading list: Blackest Night (2009)

There is life after death.

Bonus: Tiny lanterns!

(ID below the cut.)

ID: Six animated panels and one still image from Green Lantern: Blackest Night.

1: A supernova of green lantern light in the middle of a black expanse. The explosion expands into a rainbow of light, with a penumbra of multiple colors around it.

2: Bruce Wayne in his Batman costume and Hal Jordan in his Green Lantern uniform stand in front of large glass windows, showing a view of Earth and the Sun from space. Speech bubbles pop up: Hal: You saw them die in front of you? / Bruce: Yes. / Hal: I didn't know. When I was a kid-- / Bruce: You watched a plane crash take your father's life. / Hal: No wonder we're both screwed up. / Bruce: Speak for yourself.

3: A display of every dead superhero, including Batman and the Martian Manhunter. Speech bubbles pop up that say, "How, Hal? Why?" A thought panel from Hal pops up and says: I don't even know where to start.

4: A Black Lantern slowly lights up and casts its sigil over the sky. Two thought panels appear: Welcome, all of you. Welcome back to the darkness.

5: The same sigil of the Black Lantern inside the expanded eye socket of a skull. Five different Lantern Corps lanterns -- green, yellow, red, purple, blue and indigo -- are suspended in front of it, held in place by the hands of different officers. Each lantern lights up its respective color in turn.

6: Six panels of the different deputized superheroes and villains receiving their temporary rings in front of a rainbow background. Barry Allen receives a blue ring of hope, Lex Luthor receives an orange ring of greed, Jonathan Crane receives a yellow ring of fear, Ray Palmer receives an indigo ring of compassion, Queen Mera receives a red ring of anger, and Diana of Themyscira receives a purple ring of love. Each one flickers from their regular costumes (or, in Diana's case, the outfit of a Black Lantern) to the costumes of their new corps.

7: A tiny transparent collection of the Green Lanterns: John Stewart, Hal Jordan, and Guy Gardner all wave to a crowd, and Kyle Rayner throws his hands up in celebration.

/End ID.

[docgold13]

Profiles in Villainy

Envy

Thousands of years ago, the brilliant alchemist Van Hohenheim created a powerful homunculus bestowed with sentience and its own free will.  This Homunculus would go on to be known as 'Father.'  This Father would go on to become the official alchemist to the emperor of the ancient nation of Xerxes.  The Emperor wanted Father to make him an immortal, yet Father tricked him and cast an alchemic spell that killed the emperor as well as the entire population of Xerxes.  

The countless souls of the populace were then sealed within seven Philosopher Stones which Father mixed with the blood of Hohenheim so to create seven new Homunculi.  Father named each his creations after the Seven Deadly Sins of the Old Testament: Wrath, Greed, Gluttony, Pride, Sloth, Lust and Envy.  Father and his Seven Sins would go on to wage terror for years, secretly manipulating the course of mankind whilst further garnering power and influence.  

Envy is one of these dangerous Homunculi.  Along with being a tremendously skilled combatant, he has the ability to alter his form thus making him the ultimate master of disguise.  Although Envy prefers the pronouns he/him, his appearance is entirely androgynous.  

Similar to his namesake, Envy feels a great contempt and jealousy. He has a seething hatred toward humankind, envious of the authenticity of their beings, their inner strength and capacity to foster true interpersonal connections with one another.  The unmet desire to feel this himself has caused Envy to hate humanity with a great passion and he relishes any opportunity for manipulation, murder and mayhem.

Actresses Minami Takayama provided the voice for Envy in the anime (with actress Wendy Powell voicing the character in the English dub). The villain first appeared in the first episode of the Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood anime, airing on April 5th, 2009.

[orthodoxydaily]

Mother Thekla, who died on Aug. 7, 2011 at aged 93, was the last surviving nun to have occupied the enclosed Orthodox Monastery of the Assumption in North Yorkshire, but became better known to the wider world as the spiritual muse of the composer Sir John Tavener. Mother Thekla wrote the following letter in 2009, when she was 91 years old. You can read more about her.

Dear “John” (New Orthodox Convert):

“Are you expecting a kind of earthly paradise with plenty of incense and the right kind of music?

Do you expect to go straight to heaven if you cross yourself slowly, pompously and in the correct form from the right side?

Are you an expert in kissing three times on every possible or improper occasion? … Can you prostrate elegantly without dropping a variety of stationery out of your pockets?

OR….. Have you read the Gospels?

Have you faced Christ crucified?… Above all, are you prepared to accept all things as from God?

If we are meant, always, to be ‘happy’, why the Crucifixion? Are you prepared, whatever happens, to believe that somewhere, somehow, it must make sense? That does not mean passive endurance, but it means constant vigilance, listening, for what is demanded; and above all, Love.

Poor, old, sick, to our last breath, we can love. Not sentimental nonsense so often confused with love, but the love of sacrifice – inner crucifixion of greed, envy, pride. … And never confuse love with sentimentality.

And never confuse worship with affectation.”

—excerpts from a 2009 letter to a new convert, from Mother Thekla, Abbess of the Monastery of the Assumption, Normandy

Mother Thekla reposed Aug 7, 2011 at the age of 93.

Source: Journey through Orthodoxy

[fatehbaz]

Over the years, I’ve had the pleasure of doing various projects with artist Natascha Sadr Haghighian [...]. The conversation you mention took place in 2009 in the large, upscale organic Whole Foods supermarket in New York’s Bowery neighbourhood [...] We walked through the Whole Foods [...], talking about the commercialisation of organic food, the way Whole Foods was appropriating radical ecological and political ideas for profit and political agency. Natascha had pointed out a sign in the store that read ‘Power to the People’, and I was describing some of what was not signed in the store that suggested a far more radical anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist ecological approach: People’s Park; MOVE; Earth First!; the Diggers, from whose 1649 manifesto against greed, private property, inequality and war [...]. Natascha raised the question of whether revealing or exposing the hidden facts or histories was effective in producing action or change. [...]

Calling up and out, naming what’s missing, is as much about haunting as it is about history. Naming the Diggers, for example, provides information many might not have, and it also creates a connection across time and space so we who are living now can work to put an end to the conditions that repeat and thus haunt. The exposure or revelation gives notice to the sedimented conditions that make putting that ‘Power for the People’ sign up in a megastore even possible. I’m quite interested in time, the feel of it and what form it takes in social struggles, which I find difficult to express in abstract or academic language. We tend to call this time-form memory, even if the memories are constructed and staged. You’re absolutely right that the force field – the connection – must be activated. It might always be there; that’s certainly my argument about the utopian margins, and Toni Morrison’s argument about those ‘rememories’ that are always waiting for you [...].

The wilful amnesia about anti-racist struggles and racism can be explained in part, given the direction of the discussion with Natascha, by the whitening of radical environmental politics and the history of the commons, such that the Diggers, the various maroon societies, the Seminoles, the Zapatistas and the keelboatmen, for example, appear as if in separate universes and in separate histories rather than part of one.

It’s striking today that despite widespread interest in and attention to climate change and global warming – all school-children know these terms – environmental racism and the histories of those struggles, which necessarily addressed racial capitalism, even if they didn’t name it as such, remain almost completely invisible.

The lack of visibility of a critical environmental justice – as that seasoned environmental anti-racist scholar David N. Pellow has proposed, where the Movement for Black Lives, the prison abolition movement and the anti-occupation struggle of Palestinians are all considered ‘environmental’ or ecological – is evident and to the detriment of dealing with these catastrophic problems. [...]

The point is rather to show what is living and breathing in the place blinded from view. [...]. Movements and activists, whether they make them explicit or not, assume standpoints, historiographies, terms of solidarities and what Alex Lubin calls ‘geographies of liberation.’ [...]. What do matter and are necessary are the deeper understandings, visions, values and connections – the collective wisdom, or what Haghighian calls the emotional intelligence – that are carried [...] and articulated in the daily operating organisational cultures in which activists and movements think and act.

---

Words of Avery F. Gordon. As interviewed by Brenna Bhandar and Rafeef Ziadah. “Revolutionary Feminisms: Avery F. Gordon.” Published online in the Blog section of Verso Books. 2 September 2020. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks added by me.]

[namori-kimblee]

Finally after a week of working on this, Namori has a New OC Reference Page! She's my baby and this post is my new favorite personal project of mine! I hope you enjoy it!

P.S. I also attached Her Fullmetal Alchemist brief summary if y'all are interested in her lore that I have of her so far! 💜

Brief summary of Namori's Past:

Mother: Carina Varma (Carpet Weaver)

Father: Chao-Feng Li (Investigative Journalist)

---

Namori is a Human born (1890) and raised in Ishval. Her Mother (Carina Varma) was also Ishvalan while her Father (Chao-Feng Li) was Xingese. Growing up, Namori was taught about Ishvala at a young age, however after moving to Xing and going to school there, she became more open towards learning different religions, but eventually becomes overall agnostic by the time she is out of the Ishvalan Refugee camps at Amestris. She is mostly a good character surviving in several bad environments. Her love interest is 2003 Kimbley/2009 Kimblee

Before the events of FMA, Namori, at 11 years old, was forced to escape her homeland right at the time where the Amestrian soldier shot an Ishvalan child in 1901. Her mother was separated and killed during the escape. Devastated, Chao-Feng reluctantly decides they both live with his mother, Wen Li, temporarily until he can get back on his feet and provide for his only daughter. Namori's grandmother is the matriarch of the family and the Leader of the very small Li clan.

Over the next few years, Namori and her father learn about Alkahestry and Martial Arts together until he becomes very sick and eventually passes away. Even the best Alkahestrists couldn't cure his broken heart. A lot of pressure and blame is put on Namori after her father's death in 1906. This is when the Li clan brings out their true colors. Namori, now 15 years old, would be blamed and gaslit for the death of her father and for "tainting" the family tree. When she starting voicing out her opinions and standing up for herself, she learns quickly that the only rules to follow were her grandmother's rules...or else she would be ignored or bullied or cast out. She would soon find out the word "No" was not a choice for her anymore.

This takes a severe toll on her mental health, she eventually becomes the black sheep of the family at 19. The emotional and psychological abuse Namori goes through begins to become physical when her own grandmother attempts her usual punishments, leaving Namori to defend herself this time and accidentally severely injure her biggest abuser. Believing that she may have killed the Matriarch, she is forced to run away out of fear of punishment and cross the desert again to Amestris with nothing but an emergency bag full of some saved up money, water, several pieces of clothing and an Alkahestry book she inherited by her late father.

The year is 1910 and Namori sneaks into the border of Amestris to the city north of Ishval, where she encounters living in her first (of many) Ishvalan Refugee Camp. This is where she starts her journey for personal growth, independence and choosing her family.

During the events of FMA, Namori is a Bartender for the Devil's Nest for the short time up until Greed and the Chimeras are forced to evacuate the Devil's Nest.