#AND A LITTLE GRAIN OF SALT

[pinkravat-art]

so funny that multiple audio drama podcasts have creepy eye motifs because OH NO. NOT THE CONCEPT OF VISION IN MY AUDIO ONLY FICTION

[theladyyavilee]

ooooh, yes very much this! I've been turning this over inside my head for the entire last week after I first talked about it with a friend on friday after the episode (but like op I was not sure if I wanted to open that particular can of worms in this fandom xD)! I'll put what I said then here, with a few addendums, because I pretty much still stand by it and actually REALLY like what they did with tommy there and I hope they'll touch on this again maybe!

"but it [tommy getting a little snippy, especially with the closet line and the 'no, it's mine' and not telling buck right away that it's about not pressuring him] made sense, in the way that tommy is not perfect either? the fandom has kinda built him into this perfect queer awakening guru for buck a little, who can do no wrong and knows exactly what to do and how to handle everything and who will guide buck through everything with endless patience and grace and I just didn't super vibe with that [and it's not really fair to expect that of him either!]

I like it better like this where tommy obviously in some way felt a little triggered by buck's behaviour (which again, buck's behavior was SO relatable, it was painful, but extremely real, I felt so so so seen, probably a little too seen [I had flashbacks to that one time an accquaintance dropped it on me and my best friend that he thought we were a couple and I had a full breakdown, like I was probs almost as bad as buck there 😅]), but like, it was also pretty hurtful and for someone like tommy who we know also struggled a lot with being in the closet and fought to get to this point where he is comfortable being seen as queer, i think maybe in the moment this feeling of being pushed back into the closet in front of eddie, whose opinion probably matters to him, by buck who he really cares about? I assume that hit him in exactly the wrong way and made him kinda lash out in this 'okay I am not doing this again' way! which [the way that he kinda didn't talk to buck about it and just straight up left] maybe is not super fair to buck, but I guess it made sense that in the moment tommy was also overwhelmed by all this and what buck did also was not exactly fair? [and to be fair, he did very gently tell him that he thinks buck is not ready, which at this point is very fair for tommy to think]

but yeah especially that reaction in the episode made me realize that yeaaaah he too probably has his insecurities and things he's been through that might intersect badly with exactly this way that buck is acting"

all of which is not to say that tommy isn't actually treating buck very gently and patiently and kind of helping him along into settling into who he is and displaying a ton of insight and understanding, because he absolutely is doing that and I think that is very much in character for him as a person and for the backstory he has! because I think a lot of us - and especially those of us who really struggled into our own identities - it is very much an ingrained instinct to be the kind of person we wish we had and think everyone deserves to have when you first start figuring yourself out to every newly-figuring-themselves-out queer person we meet! and that makes so much sense for tommy and he is very much doing that!

but yeah, I agree that the way he reacted at the date and how he left very much implied at least some degree of hurt/annoyance/unwillingness to be put in that position and was not just about not pressuring buck, though I do think that is an intention that probably was already there in that moment in a 'I can see you are not ready for this and I don't wanna push you too fast but I would have to push you to get you to a point where I would be comfortable in this situationship again, so instead I am leaving because you are not ready' kinda way if that makes sense? like the way he very gently told buck that he wasn't ready shows that I think partially it was already about care for buck too because he gets where buck is at and why he is struggling, but he can't be in that situation at that point and time yeah, it was not the main motivation! I think the 'I didn't want to pressure you' being part of his motivation was a realization he himself only had later on and that solidified into an actual want for buck!

(I would at this point also like to add that I also very much loved the slight hesitance in him when he first showed up at the coffee date and the protective body language of having his hands in his hoodie pockets, which just made him seem like he was holding himself back in a self-protection kinda way, just a little bit, because he was - for obvious reasons - a little unsure where this conversation was gonna go and how much more buck was gonna be ready for!)

all this to say, I loved these choices and very much saw them as tommy having his own fears and insecurities that intersected with buck's in not so great ways, and to me it actually made him feel more real, gave him more depth AND made me love him MORE and both of them acted in very relatable ways and if anyone tries to imply that either of them did something wrong I will actually fight you 😌

Okay. I'm about to say something that's probably going to get me run out of the fandom, but.

I don't actually think Tommy leaving their date early had anything to do with him not wanting to pressure Buck (regardless of what he claimed later). Instead, I think it had everything to do with Tommy being annoyed and no longer into it that evening, and I think that is both okay AND significantly more interesting than taking him at his word later and framing it as some selfless act by a sanitized elder gay shepherd just trying to do right by Buck.

[percedurza]

this came to me in a dream (i got no sleep last night)

[four-unwell-lesbians]

Thinking about the way dungeon meshi does queer horror. Using horror to tell queer stories is already subversive, but dungeon meshi subverts it even more

Normal queer horror is like. A monsterous desire and immortal love of something isolated/hated and the uncontrollable but suppressed need to consume someone to live and they only die if you break/pierce their heart. its great.

In dungeon meshi, the group is STARVING. they do things the way they're expected to and they're so deprived that eventually, one of them is consumed by that monsterous desire.

Then when Falin becomes a monster, she doesn't eat Marcille because she doesn't NEED to, Marcille already offered herself up as part of Falin by mixing her own blood with the dragon's for the resurrection.

Also Marcille is a monster too!! She doesn't need to be turned by Falin. She's a 'witch' doing black magic for one but she's also very vampiric

Her name is super vampirey especially given one of the translation spellings was Marcilla, an annogram of Carmilla*. And Marcille is very similar to Marceline from Adventure Time so it's a name with heavy connotations to me. Also her staff is Ambrosia which means immortal.

*ps Carmilla is the original modern vampire that inspired Dracula and also a lesbian. she used annagrams of her name (Marcilla, Mircalla, Millarca) to disguise herself across hundreds of years.

Marcille is like. a vampire in that death is a big part of her theme. She can breathe that immortality into someone else using her resurrection black magic and death is a huge part of her character. She wants them to live as long as she does. To make them immortal. Like. Like a vampire. Vampires which are unholy when her love interest is a cleric.

But once again this is subverted!! she doesn't 'turn' Falin, she makes her undead by giving her own blood instead of taking Falin's. Falin becomes a monster not because she's attacked or turned, but because her DNA, something INHERENT about her is now intertwined with the monster. so a god-like figure merges them. Then the only way to free her from that frenzy and grant her autonomy again is to finally consume her. something inherently lesbian about all that i think idk about you

[haveihitanerve]

Vicky Vale: would you kill yourself if Batman asked you to? Robin(Dick): thats a bad question Vicky: why? Robin(Dick): *makes eye contact with her camera* because my father would never ask me to do that.  ~~~ Vicky: would you kill yourself for the Batman? Robin(Tim): No. Vicky: no? Tell me why. Robin(Tim): *makes eye contact with her camera* because the Batman would never let me.  ~~~ Vicky: would you kill the Batman if he turned on you? Robin(Jason): No. Vicky: you wouldn't? Why not? Robin(Jason): *makes eye contact with her camera* because I Gotham needs the Batman. And I would never do anything to harm Gotham.  ~~~ Vicky: if the Batman asked you to, would you kill him? Robin(Steph): No, never Vicky: even if he was dangerous?? Why not? Robin(Steph): *makes eye contact with her camera* because he’s dangerous now. And I would never dare to harm the one person who actually cares about me the people of Gotham and not just himself.  ~~~ Vicky: Would you take a bullet for the Batman? Robin(Damian): undoubtedly. But I never will. Vicky: no? Why not? Robin(Damian): *makes eye contact with her camera* because my father would shield me and take the bullet instead.

[dr-zeddy]

I also believe that Miquella was jealous of Mohg/saw him as competition regarding his original plans

and intentionally made the Mohgwyn Dynasty look like an awful alternative to what he tried to do with the Haligtree.

This is on my personal speculative side but with the in-game context of what the Formless Mother religion symbolized in the Land's of Shadow, we may assume Mohg and his followers celebrated her in a similar fashion before Miquella took over his mind.

The bloodfiends are literally just vibing until you attack them/invade their territory. Bloodshed isn't the only thing this Outer God represents, it's also a symbolism for maternal love/birth/rebirth for those shunned and cursed (Hence why she blessed Mohg and showed up to the "subjugated tribe" in the Land's of Shadow), which we know from the "Outer God Heirloom"

I believe this deity is still twisted and not to meddled around with, but I don't think the Formless Mother exclusively stands for murdering people. We also know that the bloodfiends resulted to SH occasionally to serve their "mother" (which is in itself a little problematic but it also indicates that they do not walk around and randomly kill everything in their path) (see "Bloodfiend's Fork")

So my take is that when Miquella brainwashed Mohg this entire cult got corrupted too, making it the center of (mercy) killings and death while Miquella is the only anchor of life, we see this in the "Lord of Blood Exultation Talisman":

Spilling blood to create a new life. Which is, naturally speaking, nonsense and as I said before, a lot of things point to the fact that the FM has natural roots, while giving hope to those who were shunned.

This indicates that Mohg had similar goals to Miquella with his Haligtree, offering outcasts a haven/place to be/belong to. Miquella always relied on enchanting/manipulating people to achieve his goals, I guess he was pissed that Mohg was able to do this, only by being naturally charismatic, since we know that he had to be quite the leader if he pulls actual reasonable people like Ansbach to his side. He was the perfect leader for outcasts and the oppressed (see additonally my post about Mohg's appearence being extremley devine in the Land's of Shadow) and therefore was a direct threat to the things Miquella wanted to achieve with his Haligtree. Because why follow Miquella when there already was a similar cult/religion with a charismatic leader like Mohg?

[feelsmetal-alchemist]

Idk if you are all following whats going on in the Gravity Falls tag rn but I was curious bcuz my sister was going nuts and so I got involved.

Anyways... I think ive figured out the issue with the countdown.

Looking at the css for the website and basically:

The code is meant to fetch a file to determine if the countdown should end. If the file is populated with a link, it will redirect to that link. If it is populated with a new date and time, the countdown will change to that. However, if the file is populated with 'NO' like it currently is, the countdown will continue and update every second until there is a change.

This is what that looks like btw:

You can see this by going to files.thisisnotawebsitedotcom.com/is-it-time-yet/well-is-it.txt

.

While on this topic:

Some people have been looking at this snippet

And interpreting it as meaning the countdown will end at 7pm, or when the timer hits -07:00, but this is also false. That is there to adjust for time zones or whatever. This is basically saying it should have ended at 12:00 pacific time... which is why the countdown is now in the negatives.

The class for the Soos image and textbox are labelled as "error", so I think these may actually be honest error messages because theres been some delay. This may all be intentional, who knows?

.

.

.

So in short:

We will probably be waiting an indefinite amount of time, because the events at the end of the countdown arent triggered by an actual time value. The end of the countdown is triggered by a file being updated with a link, and the file is still populated with the word "NO".

[canisalbus]

For some reason, I was always under the impression that Machete (through various misfortunes and happenstance) just sort of... BECAME a priest - I wasn't aware that be actually WANTED to be one :0 what was his reasoning for that line of work? I mean, I guess growing up in and around the church might foster an interest, but...?

Well, priests were held in extremely high regard at the time. Apart from nobility who had the benefit of proper education, they were usually the only people who were literate, and being able to read was a massive advantage. Social classes were extremely rigid, if you were born a peasant you died a peasant and so on. But if you managed to join the clergy, had luck on your side and didn't do abysmal job, you might be able to ascend to a higher status, accumulate more wealth and live reasonably comfortably regardless of your origins (to my understanding the main reason people didn't choose this path to escape poverty and hardship was because of the literacy requirement. I've read that some village priests could only write their name and memorized everything else, but for the most part you had to be able to write, read and speak at least passable Latin). Committing crimes against men of God was a severe offence, more so than regular laypeople, and (at leasts in some eras and places) priests themselves couldn't be tried in regular courts and had their own ecclesiastical courts instead, all of this made clergy kind of a protected class.

Machete spent his early childhood in a monastery, after his parents left him there (he was sickly and his family was stretched thin and couldn't care for him anymore. Before orphanages monasteries sometimes housed orphans and foundlings until they were old enough to be apprenticed). He grew up in a strongly religious environment so a certain sense of spirituality and fear of God was ingrained in him from early age. He was a quiet, meek, punctual and polite kid, and because he didn't like to play outside and was so well behaved, he was allowed inside the scriptorium and the library. He was inquisitive and very fascinated by books so the monks taught him to read, and when they commented he'd make a good priest he was instantly entranced with the idea. He wasn't interested in preaching, but if there was a chance he could be safe and respected, even regarded as holy, he felt he had to do everything in his power to attain that. Sure he was sort of guided and trained towards that goal all along, but he also genuinely thought it was something that would give his existence meaning and significance, after being discarded by his birth family and feeling vague worthlessness and lack of belonging ever since.

[violinist-rachel]

Fluster

It’s the end of the day and the sun is starting to set. Karl is leaning against a wooden support beam, somberly looking outside.

Karl: "Hm. Time passes unfairly quickly when you're here..."

He turns to Rachel. Karl: "I suppose you have to go soon?"

Rachel: "Yes... It appears so..."

Rachel looks down at the inside of her violin case. She tucks away her instrument and its bow so that they remain in place within their molds. A question pesters her, causing her to fidget nervously while Karl continues to quietly look at the sunset.

Finally, Rachel breaks the silence.

---

Rachel: "Karl?"

Karl: "?"

Rachel: "Forgive me if this is a rude question, but can you really not feel anything?"

He gives her a skeptical look. Karl: "I don't know… This conversation's starting to feel a little painful, if you ask me."

Rachel: "O-oh... I'm sorry... I shouldn't have said anything..."

Karl (waving his hands): "I'm kidding! I'm kidding. But last I've checked, statues don't have any nerve endings."

"Why do you ask?"

Rachel looks down at Karl's foot. Rachel: "Well... You almost lost your leg from those crocodiles that one time... But even if you did, would it have hurt? In any way at all?"

“That’s what she’s worried about?” He thinks to himself, bemused.

Karl: "I can feel things, but probably not in the sense you're thinking of."

"I can 'feel' the tugging and impact of forces hitting me, and I can 'feel' my limbs in the sense that I can still move them, even when they're detached. But I have to admit, I barely have an idea of what you humans consider 'pain'..."

He pauses.

"Not that I'm envious. It doesn't look like a good time."

---

Rachel: "Does that mean you can sense if something's on you?"

Karl grins wryly. Karl: "I'll always be able to tell if it's you, but we can test that if you're curious..."

Rachel blushes lightly and pushes Karl playfully by his shoulder. Rachel: "Karl-! Do you even know what you're saying..?!"

Karl (clapping): "Haha! Your reaction's really all I need to know! You're so cute when you're flustered."

Rachel (flustered): "Y-You…! Ahh!! Stop teasing me-!!"

Karl laughs at her again.

Karl: "But to answer your question, it depends on the object. If it were something light, like a bug, then probably not."

Rachel: "Let's say you were to balance a heavy book on your head. Would you feel it?"

Karl: "An odd thing to put on your head, but I might be able to feel its weight. Heavy can be relative, after all."

Rachel: "What about water? Do you feel damp when you're drenched?"

Karl: "Thankfully, my resin coating makes it glide right off me, like water off a duck's back! So… no."

Rachel: "How about temperature? Do you feel bothered by hot or cold weather?"

Karl: "Not particularly. Though, I can feel the effects of it; the cold makes me more rigid, so I feel myself using more energy to move around"

Rachel: "I see..."

---

Karl eyes her curiously. Karl: "Why the sudden interest, though?"

Rachel: "Hm?"

Karl: "Gasp! Could it be?" Karl: "Are you, perhaps, interested in learning about my body more... intimately?"

Rachel (amused): "Karl..."

Karl (coyly): "Because if you want, I can teach you everything you want to know, and more."

Rachel scoffs and rolls her eyes at him. She ponders a bit before her eyes light up and suddenly, her expression turns mischievous.

Rachel: "And what if I take you up on that offer?"

Karl raises an eyebrow. Karl: "Oh?"

---

Rachel starts advancing closer to him.

Rachel: "I've always been curious about you, Karl. And I've been wondering how you'd feel if you were put in... certain situations..."

Rachel doesn't break eye contact, gazing at him as she closes the distance with an expression that makes him nervous, and yet, excited at the same time.

Karl: "For example...?"

Rachel: "For example..."

She puts her hand on his chest, pushing against him with just enough force to make him lean against the wooden support.

Rachel: "Would you be able to feel my weight if I sat on top of you?"

Rachel rests her other hand against the support and brings her hand up to lightly caress his lips with her fingertips.

Rachel: "Would you be able to feel the moisture of my lips if I were to press them against yours?"

She moves her hand onto Karl's shoulder and leans forward, her face inches away from his face.

Rachel: "Would you be able to feel the heat radiating from me if you were close enough to hear my heart beat?"

She gazes at him intently. Rachel: "I'm just so curious, Karl..."

Karl looks back at her, speechless and baffled by this sudden shift. His eyes scans her face as he desperately tries to process a cryptic expression that he’s never seen from her before. Tense with anticipation, he waits to see what she’ll do next.

---

A moment passes, and Rachel sighs wistfully, backing away from Karl with faux disappointment.

Rachel: "Based on your answers, though, it doesn't sound like any of those would do much for you."

"...Right?"

Karl snaps back to reality, realizing it's his turn to answer.

Karl: "...!" Karl: "Ahah…" Karl: "Ahaha!!" Karl: "Well!" Karl: "M-Maybe in theory...!"

Karl relaxes a little, though still shaken from the residual fluster. He tries to laugh it off, hoping she hasn’t noticed his lost composure.

Karl: "But you never know unless you try... right?"

Rachel smiles teasingly. She walks over to where her violin rests and picks it up.

Rachel: "It's getting late, Karl. I think should get going before it gets too dark."

Karl deflates a little. Karl: "Ah yes… Of course…" Time really does pass unfairly quickly when she's with him.

Karl: "Let me walk you to the bridge, at least."

Rachel: "Please."

---

The two walk over to their usual parting spot outside.

As usual, Rachel's stayed a little longer than she should've tonight. Not that she's ever minded, but she feels bad about worrying her poor mother back home. She'll have to do something to make up for it later.

Rachel: "Alright then. I'll see you around, Karl."

Karl: "I'll be here..."

Rachel smiles. Rachel: "Take care."

Karl watched Rachel as she walked away.

He wished she didn't have to go. She usually visits him once or twice every week, but he's never truly sure when he'll see her again, whether it's due to an upcoming event, or simply because she's not feeling well. She tries to keep him updated, but there's been times when he wasn't able to see her for weeks, without any warning. Sometimes even months.

Karl: "Rachel!"

Rachel turns around.

Karl (grinning): "Made you look!"

Rachel laughs and shakes her head. She waves at him before turning back around.

He always hated sad good-byes.

[t00thpasteface]

there's a lot of comparisons to be made between catch-22 and m*a*s*h, and i think those have a lot of merit, but the thing about catch-22 is that in addition to the dark humor and pointed social commentary, it's DEEPLY absurdist. and for this reason i would say the most apt popcultural comparison for catch-22 is not m*a*s*h, but rather... ace attorney

[sometinysludge]

"But, the funny thing is…

you’ll persevere and do

it yourself anyway."

— Full image under cut!

[melina-mellow]

Continuing on from one of my previous post about Jinx's survival on how she either left Zaun or is still somewhere in the undercity?.

It's also very possible that she did fall into the core and got teleported somewhere when it exploded...and if I had to guess where she'd be, it'd be Noxus (either willing or against her will)

Now hear me out! This is a complete crack theory born out of my delusions and whatever LoL lore I still remember!!

Y'know how Jinx in Arcane is heavily associated with crows and how they're usually following her around?

You wanna know who else is associated with crows in LoL?

THIS MOTHERFUCKER RIGHT HERE!

His stupid ass bird even showed up in the finale meaning this bastard knows very well what went down in Piltover and Zaun.

And since they've confirmed they'll make more shows about LoL, with how they showed Mel taking Ambessa's place and returning to Noxus...

It would not be all that surprising if the next show they make is more Mel centric and focuses on Noxus.

Not saying Jinx went and got herself kidnapped by another evil dilf.... but honestly would it really be the first time this has happened to her?

[asurrogateblog]

The Syd Poll

the topic of this poll is one that is frequently avoided in the pink floyd fandom, but inevitably one we all consider – our individual views on what we think caused syd's psychological struggles (and by extension, led to his departure from the band). I think that – at least in this neighborhood of tumblr – this is a conversation we are capable of having in a way that is civil, nuanced, and at least minimally disrespectful to syd.

So, to help facilitate this, here are some ground rules:

let's all assume we have a mutual understanding of the complexities of this. syd could never actually be reduced down to a poll, and all of our viewpoints are limited in various ways

the poll options just serve as just a conversation starter, and responses are not necessarily a statement of absolute beliefs

feel free to discuss as much or as little of your own perspective as you feel comfortable sharing.

in the case that debates break out, please try to assume good intent – and also demonstrate it (unless, for instance, someone is being blatantly insulting beyond a misunderstanding that needs correcting)

please do NOT vote if you are not actually a pink floyd fan with at least basic knowledge about what we're talking about here.

The options I've included below are not meant to be exhaustive, they are simply the "theories" that I have seen most commonly circulated. I have also decided not to include combinations. I'm fairly sure we'd all agree multiple factors were involved. Rather than make the poll too complicated, I ask you to instead select the one that you think is the "most" important to your viewpoint, and clarify further in your tags/comments as you wish.

so. here we go.

READ BEFORE VOTING ^^^^

(note of correction: "late-onset schizophrenia" should just be "schizophrenia". the typical timeline for onset of symptoms is late adolescence/early adulthood, so syd would've been well within that period at the time)

[skrunksthatwunk]

kinda thinking about how the women who serve as maternal figures/raise kids in yyh are never quite ready for it. genkai's an arguable exception, but like.. atsuko had yusuke at 15, shizuru's basically in charge of kazuma full time in her early 20s/late teens (depending on version) with very very absent parents, and even shiori is given a kid she wasn't expecting, in the form of an old, old demon rather than like. a regular, blank slate ass human baby. and although shiori seems to do quite well with kurama, kurama can never be honest with shiori about who he is, or much of what he's seen. if he was, it'd probably make things far more complicated and overwhelming. atsuko, no matter how much she cares for yusuke, Could Not Have Been and thus wasn't ready to have him at 15. her attempts to make the most of that situation have had middling success at best. shizuru has also been placed into a parental role. we don't really know how long she's been raising kuwabara, but that's.. probably still parentification anyway. she shouldn't have to do that, and she shouldn't have to do that so young. and i think some of her coarseness with kuwa is out of frustration with her own inexperience + inadequacy + uncertainty, his not cooperating, and their parents for putting this on her in the first place. the ones who know the full extent of their situation grow desperate and it squeaks out in unpleasant ways, and the one who seems unbothered by it is the only one who has no idea that she's in way over her head. and i mean. ok. gonna preface this by saying keiko is NOT yusuke's mom in any sense of the word. but she does take care of him in a way atsuko couldn't manage to. she's often looking after him and cleaning up after his messes and stuff. she takes him on as a responsibility, and that is, in a way, a caretaker role. not to say that it SHOULD be her responsibility, but it's how she ends up being.

and when the stress of trying to make someone take care of themselves or be kind or good or Whatever goes awry, again, the violence and arguing and distance and ugliness of caring for someone reveals itself.

and i wonder about that. for a series dedicated to physical fighting as a form of communication, what does it say that this extends to the complicated, quietly desperate situations of so many of the women/girls it depicts, whom our more central characters were shaped and raised by?

hell, even hiei touches on this, because hina loved hiei, but there was no way she was prepared for him, obviously, nor for the pain of losing him. rui (whom i also see as a sort of caretaker figure to hiei, inasmuch as either of them were caretakers) literally throws him off a cliff because she couldn't face down the village elders, and out of some mixture of care for hina and, likely, fear for her own survival. and the guilt and pain of that killed hina and deeply wounded rui.

it's like motherhood, this thing that's so often treated as sacred and beautiful, is a kind of stitched up, painful, eggshell-walking thing that hurts parent and child and it's just. oughh

[celestial-druidic]

Noticed something while rewatching Good Omens s2

When Jim said in his second big flashback “It would be an institutional problem”, It can actually be interpreted in two different ways. First, we realize that it is in reference to what the Metatron said about Gabriel being cast down to hell. He is saying that Gabriel won’t be banished from Heaven for rejecting Armageddon 2.0, but instead be demoted to scrivener. Except at the culmination of the episode, we learn that Gabriel had been meeting with Beelzebub, falling in love with them. So when we go back to the “institutional problem” line, it now has a second meaning. Having another set of Angel/Demon run off together would make it seem like an institutional problem, meaning that they would be wrong on another occasion.

Not really an epiphany but i was high so idk

[sh1-n0bu]

my issue with the natlan characters being white (color, not ethnicity) is that

1: it doesn't make sense from a environmental standpoint. If they're based on all these places with more sun, wouldn't the natlan genetic pool have adapted so that those in hotter places have darker skin? for example: Mexico, Africa, India, any other country on the equator? (Not including European integration)

2: why blend all these cultures of color beautifully (i was so looking forward to an aztec based region) just to put a pale person in their place? We *know* they can put poc characters in their games. We have plenty of colored npcs, Arlan in Hsr, and even the eremites.

And 3: I saw an edit of the main three people have been upset about with darker skin (the green and black guy, little Geo girl, and white haired hydro girl) AND I COULDN'T EVEN TELL THEY WERE EDITED UNTIL I READ THE CAPTION. They were gorgeous, truly. The truth is, genshin's sales in other countries would spike if they made these new characters darker. There would be that much more representation, opening the community to others who would grow the community

Tldr: There's no reason to make these characters pale other than origin country specific beauty standards. Everyone, and I mean everyone, no matter poc or not, should refrain from spending money on genshin for the foreseeable future. It will be difficult to those used to buying their primogems, especially with the new Nilou skin dropping, (looking at you, whales) but we gotta.

And come on, the new Kirara skin can totally hold us over

exactly! hoyoverse CAN make darker skin tone but they just DON’T want to. a few example images i’ve gotten from the enemies

every enemy we have came across have a darker shade of skin than the playable ones. even the fatui enemy has a darker/ombre type of shade of skin color. and from what i’ve seen the new enemies in natlan had darker skin tone than these ones. i have another point i have forgotten to mention in my latest post answering abt the natlan situation and this may seem like a huge stretch but hear me out.

we all know and have heard of the ‘big black beast’ writing racism right? how media will portray POC as the aggressor, enemy, the wrong side, the abuser, the pet etc etc. basically using a character’s skin tone to hide their racism. and please take this with a bag of salt as i may be reading too deep into it here, but isn’t it odd how the enemies always end up having a darker shade of skin? not just entirely POC but south asian ones too.

paimon and traveler have always been shown to be wary of or even downright afraid of every darker skinned character they meet in sumeru. eremites are darker skinned and have POC features (dreadlocks), the new enemies shown in natlan trailer does as well (dark skin and POC feature like dreadlock). its almost as if they’re trying to do the ‘big black beast’ racism in writing thing