#BC Humanists
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barbenheimer for people whose IQ is in the double digits at the very least
#actual contemporary feminist and lgbt societal critique & a deeply humanist tragedy with love and brotherhood and humanity at its core#society of the snow and anatomy of a fall THE OSCAR GOES TO YOU !!!!!!!!!!#FAAWK BARBIE AND OPPENHEIMER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FAWKING HATE THOSE MOVIES#bakma bana#im here to incentivize you all to watch these two movies bc my lame ass watching baftas rn hoping sots gets the award ššš#watching award shows at my big age it's so wack but i want recognition for SOTS it's literally the best movie made in the last 10 years#WATCH SOCIETY OF THE SNOW NNEOOWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!#society of the snow#anatomy of a fall
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Something something something book omensā focus is about the love of humanity something something shows is about the love between two (not) ppl something something something dolphins
#good omens#book omens#idk neilmans green light to make it canonically and textually Gayā¢ļø makes the book that way too in my mind#itās my cake now mr neilman! i do what i want!!#and while the show does (*in theory*) have that humanist core itās focus is very much on azicrow#the book meanwhile bleeds and oozes itās love of the messy complex and contradictory world and ppl who live in it#and it does so in large part via azicrow and like they love earth SO much#they love people and they understand that to be the core of THEIR Relationship and love#and so yes their relationship to each other isnāt THE focus but it again#is an integral part of the plot just bc they rely and care and worry and LEAN on each other#I like the show! but man if I donāt love the book and the way these two idiots love and hope and care for the World and each other#and the Them! ohhhhh the them I love Them so much ughhhhh
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S2E18: "Okay. Let's stop this zombie apocalypse."
for @rosenapp
#Ravi looks like's a about to cry a little. Big day for humanist ideals.#izombie#Liv Moore#Ravi Chakrabarti#Blaine DeBeers#I admit I had to do the whole scene bc of the last two#Liv is so precious in the last two.#cw cannibalism#i guess but she's still adorable
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thinking about these friends partners
#cut stuff out bc i cant do their whole intros and outros it'd be too long but#THINKING ABOUT THEM#about these takes on survival#and about the doctor#who i think.........................shares in some capacity both of these takes on survival#pryce&cutter are so fun bc like#i think their drives are profoundly humanist#which is a really fun way for your antagonists who have absolutely no qualms burning through human lives to get what theyre after#and in some ways thats their own human lives as well as other peoples#i like that we know exactly what drives them both#it was them and then it was twissy for me like#it's the partnership the equality#the not having the exact same tastes or opinions on how to go about things but nevertheless this shared vision#he can give her some of what she needs in return she can offer some of what he needs and together they can get what they dont have yet#i love that scene at the end of terms and conditions where we get to see like their entire dynamic laid bare#'enemies i can deal with. physics i can deal with. what i CANT deal with is /the smartest woman in the world improvising/ when her life is#on the line. THEN i start to get worried'#the way they have this like contract abt how their partnership works. and she disagreed with his strategy#which is fine. but NOT in front of an audience. not when it's HER life at stake. then you DONT undermine me#the way in the script after he says 'be quiet' it says 'it's like an insult a slap to the face'#bc theyre PARTNERS. he does Not have the right to say that to her#but she broke the contract first today#anyway. i can see a thoschei where the doctor never left for earth that turned out like this#not in their aspirations. but in the way the relationship works#the way missy says 'Friends'
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born to read fiction forced to read stem books
#one day i'll have my c2 cert#if i don't die from some infection bc 2024 is not my health's year#and i need to know the scientific terminology bc they love scientific texts#they never ask the pretentious words you can find in novels#like tawdry or bleary#once again they hate humanistics girlies#emma and her stupid vent
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i feel like so much anti theism is a trauma response from being subjected to oppressive (mostly christian, since thats the pov i hear from the most) religious institutions. it reminds me of when radfems are likeĀ āmen are bad so we need to kill them/wall them off from us/they serve no purpose and should be ignored/ostracized/exiled, etc.ā and we all know theyāre only saying that bc of trauma.
#you really gotta be able to like. put your trauma aside in these kinds of conversations- especially conversations over who deserves to be#listened to or supported or.. welcomed in society and not shamed for literally just existing as they are#because if you use your trauma to inform all of your opinions you're not gonna know what to do when theres like. *the perfect guy* who#proves your trauma informed belief wrong. like if ur traumatized by dudes and all of ur arguments are based off of ur trauma with dudes-#what do you do when a genuinely good guy comes along? do you just pretend theres something wrong with him by virtue of being a dude?#that seems incredibly unfair.#i think you'll find theres not many good or moral ways to argue for ppls ostracization.#i really just think like. ppl feel uncomfortable with ppl of the same demographic as their abusers supporting the same causes they do#like i understand you feel uncomfortable and maybe triggered by the person who says 'god is within us and moving us to revolution'#but thats. like.... not a good enough reason to act like they're not on your side or dont deserve to be.#just. avoid those ppl. stop trying to find reasons they're against you. your enemy cant be neatly fit in boxes anyways.#bc surprise surprise theres actually cishet white men who Aren't entirely toxic and (like some of yall apparently believe) irredeemable.#this is why people talk about bringing facts into these debates bc your experiences arent universal and cant be applied everywhere.#and the Fact is that you cant claim to have any humanist positions if you're arguing for why some humans shouldnt be treated equally
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heh. into the wild but its in a polish highschool. different clans r different profiles but its just the apprentices and like. fuckin longtail. the teachers r the mentors (plus a couple other characters) but i give them whatever subjects i feel like
just thought of a banger wc au but its for an extremely niche audience (me only)
#warrior cats#tigerclaw 100% teaches some hard shit like physics#ravenpaw is so scared of him because hes a humanist and is not passing his class#also bc he witnessed him kill the geography teacher but you dont need to know that
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So, I could be out-of-bounds here since I think you meant it as dark humor, but what did you mean in the tags of that 'israel-hamas war' post? I suspect you(and op) are criticizing that framing because Israel is obviously demolishing much more than 'Hamas'(and probably doing a terrible job of actually targeting terrorists- they seem content to reduce Gaza to rubble even if the brass of Hamas escapes). I'm guessing that by saying "joining the Israel-Hamas war on the side of Hamas" you mean, if they're going to conflate Palestinians with Hamas unilaterally, then you're saying, whatever the media wants to call Palestinian civilians- you still support them. I am asking anyways though bc, given reports of increasing antisemitic activity in the US and Europe, I am worried about the potential for blurring lines between the cause of Palestinian civilians and the alt-right individuals who are likely masking their antisemitism in the context of being anti-Zionist. Although Israel's government has been the source of Palestinian loss for decades, (it seems to me that) even joking about supporting terrorism is enough to reinforce the persuasion that Israeli/Palestinian Jews and Palestinian Arabs must be mutually-exclusive peoples. I don't think it's fully rational per se(tho I'm not claiming to have all the relevant information myself, and I'm white US American goyim so like- grain of salt-), but I think that existential fear is the incredible hurdle facing Zionist Jews. (Idc too much about the opinions of non-Jewish Zionists bc I don't grant that they are dealing with the same emotional complications at this time, although that doesn't stop me from arguing w my acquaintances abt their callous acceptance of US/Israeli propaganda.) I just think..... isn't it overall harmful to allow anti-semitic rhetoric, even used sarcastically, to enter the genuine humanist cause for Palestinian liberation? Or, have I misunderstood, and you actually are not in opposition to Hamas, or something else I didn't think of?
hi! thank you for approaching the question thoughtfully and with curiosity, i really appreciate it. i was being kind of flippant with that meme, but this is the only ask i'm going to reply to on the matter given that i am neither jewish nor arab, so i'm going to answer in earnest:
hamas is a political resistance movement with an armed wing, much like the black panthers party was, and like the bpp, a large part of the organization is dedicated to social welfare and civic restoration.
they have stated that they are not against judaism, but against the zionist project. they openly support political solutions.
labeling hamas a terrorist group is a propaganda tactic used by the united states and israel to justify the horrors of settler colonization.
hamas is palestine, a part of it, even if palestinians like any other demographic on earth, are not a unified, single-minded people. to declare hamas a separate entity falls prey to the imperialist lie that there is an enemy to fight "fairly" within the people they are displacing and exterminating.
am i rejoicing in the deaths of israelis? of course not. killing civilians and taking civilian hostages is a war crime, whether it is committed by the opresor or the oppressed. the israeli government is not its people, and many jews, within israel as well as in the US, are bravely risking their lives to publicly dissent the criminal acts of the israeli government. all loss of human life is a tragedy.
no one should ever be faced with the choice between annihilation and murderous violence after exhausting all other forms of peaceful protest and being massacred like animals.
but why is it that we consider a resistance group formed within a population with a median age of eighteen a terrorist group, and not the IDF, a US-backed military force with an annual budget of twenty billion dollars?
i am currently reading hamas and civil society in gaza by sara roy to learn more about hamas and the history of israel in palestine. i'll remember to post more excerpts which i am admittedly terrible at.
but all of the information above can be found by reading wikipedia. investigating with duckduckgo searches (not gonna pretend google isn't prioritizing propaganda, to be fair), and reading reliable news coverage like aljazeera and the many journalists who are at risk of, or have lost their lives, reporting on the ground.
i have also appreciated reading posts from @determinate-negation @opencommunion @fairuzfan @ibtisams and @bloglikeanegyptian amongst others
in conclusion:
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idk if you have watched much press for s4 but maddie bailey is sending me with her responses to any riara related questions or fan praiseā¦. (i think sheās obviously traumatised from the jiara situation.) anyway bailey made a comment about how kiara couldnāt stand murder let alone someone harming a fly which would make riara totally incompatible - and whilst i agree thatās true i also feel like her character would be the most capable of empathy/forgiveness compared to the other pogues!?!? like sheās so humanistic!!!!
would love your thoughts and a potential kiara deep dive š«£
This ask is very apropos and youāre gonna need a drinkā¦
Iām with you on the fact that Madison is probably traumatized by the way jiara was blown out of proportion by some fans and how that bled into their dynamics irl. It sucks so much thatās how it went down and I feel for them that they canāt be friends without things being made weird.
That being said, I donāt understand this extreme hatred she has towards Rafe potentially working his way to being a better personā regardless of him being someone who could potentially be with Kiara. Sure, donāt ship them but to say the fans of the ship donāt care about Kiara isā¦ a take.
I 1000% agree with you, I think more so than anyone else Kiara as a character is capable of forgiveness given the opportunity to understand someone. Her heart and passion is what drew me in, she is so empathetic that its sometimes comes at her expenseā I think thatās what her parents are terrified about when they see her hanging around the Pogues. Granted, the Pogues we know are genuine guys but her parents donāt know that or care to take the time to get to know them. Kiara did and since has had an unwavering loyalty to them. Her heart is so big and itās perplexing to me that Madison thinks that thereās a cap on that? I personally donāt get it. I see Rafe as someone deeply troubled and who has never given a chance to get helpā he lives with what he did everyday and resents himself for it. He was unwell, but rather than allowing him some grace, weāre what? Bashing him as heās trying to make amends? Personally I believe that under the right circumstances any single one of the Pogues wouldāve done what Rafe did regardless of who was in front of the gun, but their loyalty fits right on them and not on him. Rafe has continually expressed such a complex range of emotions about what heās done and how heās managing itā none of it was linear but that makes sense to me. I donāt expect him to have a clear path out of this but fucking hell heās trying.
What really confuses me about their rhetoric is that they hate the idea of Kiara and Rafe because heās dangerous, a murderer, psychotic, buzzword buzzword but then theyāre happy to ship him with Sofia? Then all of a sudden itās a cute relationship and heās found his match. Dpmo. If they really believed Rafe was that dangerous why would they want Sofia, who is completely innocent in all this, to be with someone who has the potential to be violent again š¤Ø Bc sheās āchangedā him? Itās insipid and hypocritical.
Now for a mini Kie deep diveā at first I didnāt really get why Madison was playing Kiara like that during their scene together. She looked genuinely terrified seeing Rafe and her body language was so telling. And in my mind Iām surprised by her reaction because weāre seeing him heheing it up with Sofia and making business moves like? What are you afraid of? Venture capitalists? Yes. But then I took a moment to think about the state of mind Kiara was in.
I donāt think it was an extreme thing she did to pull out the knife. In her point of view someone just tried to kill her. Drown her no less and who else tried to drown her? Rafe. Her survival instincts were probably shooting through the roof because every time she sees Rafe, itās never for a good reason. And you got to remember the very last time she saw him was at the beach with the sea turtlesā¦ not a good memory. Sheās got no reason to trust heās here out of the kindness of his heart, she doesnāt see/know him like that. All that mixed in with that batshit guy whoās hunting the Pogues down and the fact sheās aloneā yeah the knife was a smart move. I think she wouldāve done the same if Topper showed up tbh. Iām also proud of Rafe for not freaking out when seeing her hostility lmao, heās come a long way. Back in the day (s2) if he saw that knife come out, he wouldāve escalated the situation and made things worse.
And just to throw my two cents hereā Rafe has been dogged this season. Oh my goooooddddd. Youāre telling me heās scattering his dadās ashes alone, the only Cameron who cares? His dad who he last saw going off to South America with the Pogues? The Pogues who hate Ward and want him gone? And then his dad dies? Right after Rafe finally gets the approval and affection from Ward that heās always wanted? And no one has given him an explanation of what went down? Iām surprised he hasnāt crashed out on them tbh. That little tiff he had with John B was too polite. In his mind 2+2= the Pogues killed Ward. Sarah and Rafe quite literally carried Ward to the tarmac together and it was all for nothing? No small reconciliation for the sake of Wardās memory, after all he was their father. And he died for Sarah. Itās crazy to me.
Anyway Iām a spiteful person and the more people hate something the more I lean into it. The cast hating riara is hilarious to me because this ship was born out of nothing and now itās in their mouths. Wild. Iām just upset that theyāre facilitating hate towards people who ship riara, Iām of the mentality that you ship and let ship. Not gonna yuck anyoneās yum!
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and the thing is i DO have a more modern font that is Very Very Very close to identical to this one (and definitely more well-proportioned), with the most prominent, yet still extremely minute difference being that the older file flares its ends just a slight little bit more in a way that feels reminiscent of brush strokes
like i'm sure these images are like identical to most of you. but not to me. and that's what has me feeling like i've fallen in love with some fucking shit-tier ugly-ass elf as i go about and make minor fixes to the latter
back on my font editing nonsense and i think my favorite thing abt the Very Old, ostensibly kind of corrupted font file nearest to what they use on taiwanese road signs is that it's just kind of ugly in the most benign ways. like sometimes it's got strokes extending out farther than they're supposed to be in ways that make me go "bro ur wenis".
#the fact that it has elements that are reminiscent of brush strokes is very important bc that's smth i noticed on the road signs#you can also tell that the proportions are a bit more humanist in the latter#except for the shitty spacing btwn radicals at times lol#it also has blatantly inconsistent stroke widths from time to time but i mean it was like 1992 or whatever#I Forgive It.#maybe i should look at old photos from when my mom was younger / my dad was living in taiwan#see if there are any pictures with road signs in them. And Compare
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Twenty (Three!) Years of Humanistic!
Abandoned Pools' first album, Humanistic was released 23 years ago today, on September 25th, 2001! For anyone who doesn't know, Abandoned Pools is my all time favorite band! I found them through Clone High in September of 2020 and immediately connected with a LOT of their songs, and in that time, Humanistic became my all time favorite album! A spot that it still retains to this day hehe.
So when I found out that the following year, almost a year to the day from when I started listening to Abandoned Pools, was Humanistic's 20th anniversary, I knew I wanted to make something big for that occasion! I ended up making a drawing based on each song in the album! This is similar to what I did for Owl City's album Cinematic later on, which I posted last year.
This is also sort of a look at proto Let's Get Back! in a way! I made this when LGB! was still just a duo act with PB and Shep, since Rye and Pumpernickel didn't join the lineup until I was about halfway through the project, and the band wasn't officially named Let's Get Back! until February of 2022 lol. The cover image here is based on the actual album cover for Humanistic, and I edited later to say "Covers by Let's Get Back!" to make it consistent with the rest of my LGB! art :3
Each piece in the series is below the cut along with the song they're connected to and some explanation about each one. Again, these pieces are three years old at this point, so some of the art is a bit wonky looking and some of these piece I'd do differently if I were to do them today, but most of them still hold up pretty well I think! :D
1: The Remedy
I based this one on the line āsave your breath, your soul is hollowā and wanted to do something simplistic but still interesting! According to my friend who also likes the song, this is āexactly how that song feelsā lol. It was fun working with silhouettes here, which is something I've done here and there in the time since.
2: Mercy Kiss
I decided to not actually draw them kissing bc the song says āI donāt need your mercy kissā haha. Wanted to capture sort of a defiant attitude for this one. Posing is a little off here, and I've tweaked some minor things abt their design but overall one that I'm still pretty happy with :]
3: Start Over
I was SUPER happy with the posing on this one, I love the sense of motion it has. Basically, I wanted to express being stuck in a cycle and just wanting to go back to the way things were, which was something I was REALLY feeling at the time, but is still sort of applicable today.
4: Monster
Another one I REALLY like, with this one, I wanted to show that I can be a force to be reckoned with when standing up for myself. Or at least thatās how the song makes me feel. Itās a good rampage song too. This is another case where I really like how the pose came out. As you can also see, this is the only piece without PB since I wasn't sure how to incorporate him into this idea, but Iām sure heās still involved somehow lol. Also this is the best song called Monster, I do not take criticism at this time.
5: Blood
Blood always feels like a sort of gloomy, spiral-y type song, so thatās what I went for. The line āwe watch it burn, and we never learn, this canāt be what youāre waiting forā was really the focus for this one. A neat vibe with this one overall I think that I'm pretty happy with.
6: Suburban Muse
Suburban Muse makes me think of like, a fake sitcom town where things look normal, but things arenāt as great as they seem if you look a little closer. It even says ācue the canned applauseā at one point. Also, those sort of, weird reality dreamscape neighborhood liminal space images like this where you can see where it's coming from but they just feel, off y'know
7: Sunny Day
This one is kinda weird because Sunny Day is kinda weird (though in like the best possible way, I love it). I couldnāt quite come up with a solid idea for both my OCs here, so I based them on two separate lines: āmy head is inside a cloudā for PB, and āget off the bathroom floorā for Shep. In hindsight, I don't think the two separate lines approach really worked here since it feels more disjointed and not really representative of the full song, but I still like it well enough.
8: L.V.B.D.
This one was hard to come up with something for. Iāve never been super crazy abt L.V.B.D. since it feels, Very Heteroā¢ and Iām not about that. But itās still sounds great and Iām definitely super glad itās part of the album. Went for drawing Shep and PB here as little stuffed dolls, which is related to the acronym in the songās title (which stands for Little Virgin Baby Doll) and I couldnāt think of anything better aha. I should draw plushies more often though
9: Ruin Your Life
Important: Shep and PB are only upset with upset with each other for the sake of this drawing, as I refuse to let anything bad happen between them for real. Anyways, the expressions were really fun in this one, and oh boy does this song feel very relatable over the last year or so.
10: Never
This one is very similar to Ruin Your Life for me, where itās a sort of comforting during a dark time kind of way. Just crossing the days off hoping that things will get better soon, thatās what I went for here. The calendar is listed as 10/12 since this is the 10th song out of the 12 on the album, and the image is a reference to a previous drawing I had done of PB and Shep together :3
11: Seed
Personally, Seed is my least favorite song from the album as a whole, for similar reasons to L.V.B.D. but in a, more gross kinda way that conflicts with my ace side. The song still sounds great musically for sure. Even tho Iām not super crazy abt the song, I actually really like how this drawing came out, in fact it might be my favorite out of the whole batch, ironically enough lol. The boys are looking down into a hole from the line āthereās no more grace to fall from, thereās nowhere left to go but downā and I'm really happy with how the perspective turned out!
12: Fluorescein
Finally, Fluorescein is my favorite song of the entire album, and my favorite song in general! Itās so aggressive and loud, I love it. I decided to draw PB confronting a giant Shep bc the song makes me feel like I can take on a huge adversary and win >:] Although I do like what I chose to do here, I kinda wish I had come up with something better to represent my all time favorite song lol
So in conclusion, like I said, Humanistic is my all time favorite album and it means so much to me. Really all of APās work really means a lot to me, but Humanistic in particular. I found the band through watching Clone High and I am all the better for it. So thank you to Abandoned Pools for making something that Iāve gotten so much out of and I absolutely cannot wait for the sixth album coming at the end of next year!! :D
So I hope you guys liked this little trip down memory lane with me, and if you're also an enjoyer of Abandoned Pools, please let me know what you think of these and what your favorite AP songs are! I'd love to know! And if you don't listen to Abandoned Pools, I highly recommend their music if you can't tell lol. If you enjoy early 2000s alt rock sort of stuff, there's a solid chance you'll enjoy Abandoned Pools :3
#TacDraws#art#my art#oc: Shep#oc: PBnJ#Let's Get Back!#Abandoned Pools#Humanistic#Abandoned Pools Humanistic#music#music art#music fanart#album#album redraw#furry#furry art#furry oc#furry character#furry community#furry artist#sfw furry#clean furry#anthro furry#anthro#anthro art#fursona#sona#digital art#artists on tumblr
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š¦ anyone knows where can i watch humanist vampire seeking conseting suicidal person (movie 2023) for free or low price? or a free vnp to change locations bc apparently it is in prime video but bc of where i live i cant watch it
Mod reminder: Please stick to legal suggestions. This is not the blog to give instruction on piracy.
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And on the topic of Astarion making reparations to the Gur people, I think the choices he makes in the present day are far more impactful (and, if he chooses well, healing) than any sort of torture for something he did 200 years ago.
The thing about Astarion kidnapping the Gur children (which I think was like a year prior to the start of BG3) is that, because of vampire spawn/master compulsion, he literally, bodily, had no choice but to do it, right? So in this case, the obvious evil of kidnapping children clashes with the tragedy of Astarion literally/magically being compelled to do this.
BUT
In the present day of BG3, Astarion has managed to find his freedom so that he's no longer compelled to do what Cazador orders. And it's in this freedom, where Astarion's actions are his own and no one else can take responsibility, that allows Astarion to demonstrate that he's more than just his prejudices/trauma and knows how to do the right thing.
The entire point of Astarion's storyline is basically to go, yes he was a victim in the past, but now he's free! And now that he's free, he has to make decisions for himself, decide what he wants, and decide what he values. To this end, when the party encounters the Gur children in Cazador's dungeon, Astarion is confronted with one such decision. In the past, he kidnapped the Gur children, leading directly to their harm/torture, because he had no choice. However, now he DOES have a choice. And by choosing not to sacrifice the children in the ascension ritual, Astarion demonstrates that he has chosen reparations over personal gain. When finally given the freedom to follow his own path, he does the right thing. Regardless of whether you think it's more moral to kill or free all of the spawn in the ritual*, Astarion's decision is to not sacrifice the children he put in harm's way. Even though said children are members of an ethnic group he has a reason (not a good reason, but a reason) to despise.
*For their part, the Gur seem to have mixed feelings either way. If you kill the spawn, they're happy that the spawns were cleansed before they could get out and cause trouble. But if you let them go, Ulma and the others are conflicted on what to do with their now-vampiric children.
So like, I dunno. To me, if the goal is for the Gur to receive justice, it's way more impactful for justice to take the form of "Astarion uses his free will to surrender power and spare the lives of the children he kidnapped" than it would be if justice was "Oh Astarion was an asshole racist as a magistrate so him becoming a spawn is kind of karmic justice for that."
It's the difference between holding Astarion accountable for something he did 200 years ago (in a life he can't even remember, that was so long ago basically no one he might've wronged is still alive to testify) versus holding him accountable for something he's doing right now. And it means that you can engage in the issue of Astarion's racism (which is important) and how he should face consequences for that, without falling into the trap of implying that Astarion's abuse is something he deserved or that is somehow "justice" for something he did long in the past.
Actually another Astarion hot take that I have is that idc what was in early access or the supplementary material, I take what's in the game at current release and the current lore is that Astarion barely remembers anything from his past life, so there's no way of knowing if he was a corrupt magistrate or not.
But even if we did know, I think that that's irrelevant to Astarion's storyline and if anything obfuscates what the themes of his story are supposed to be. It's very clear that his entire character is an allegory for/literally an example of someone who's a survivor of abuse and sex trafficking, and what's one of the most basic tenets of dealing humanely with abuse survivors? Understanding that no one deserves to be abused. So to me, even bringing up the question of "So was Astarion a good magistrate or a corrupt one?" is bringing in a moral judgement, and with that moral judgement brings a silent question of "So, did Astarion deserve what happened to him as karmic justice, or is he just an innocent victim who was in the wrong place at the wrong time?"
And when you consider the timeline of Astarion's pre-vampiric life (39 years) versus his vampiric life (200 years), it's very clear that even if you go purely by numerical terms, all of the suffering Astarion has gone through is way out of proportion to any wrongdoing he did. And again, I have to emphasize that for a character whose entire story is an allegory for abuse and whose themes revolve around the cyclical nature of abuse, bringing in ideas of good/bad and whether Astarion did something to deserve it or not is counterproductive to the narrative the writers chose, which was to focus on how trauma warps people into the worst versions of themselves. In order to remain thematically and (dare I say) morally correct, a story about an abuse victim shouldn't involve their backstory being "well, he kind of had it coming."
Though again, even if Astarion was canonically (not in EA, not in supplementary materials, in game during content that players can access) a shitty magistrate/person in his past life, literally no one deserves to be kept as a slave, emotionally abused, tortured, isolated, sexually exploited, and dehumanized. That's an incredibly punitive way of thinking that, again, is at odds with the primary theme of Astarion's story, which is about how an individual copes with trauma and deals with the cycle of abuse.
Plus, if you really want Astarion to be a problematic fave... he literally is problematic, right now, during the course of the game's story. I don't see how Astarion's actions as a magistrate 200 years ago are even relevant compared to all the bullshit he's doing right now that he's actually directly responsible for ššš
Though if you want my thoughts on Astarion's backstory re: the Gur (which idk if anyone else has talked about but I feel like they deserve a stronger presence in discussions of him), see the cut (and also my next reblog bc I want to give them their own section)
First of all, I'd like to point out that Astarion was turned into a vampire 200 years ago, and every single member of the Gur tribe that we see is human. Assuming that every Gur is human, that means that every single person who could've possibly been involved in Astarion's rulings as a magistrate (good or bad) is long dead, and so are their children, and their children's children.
And since the Gur hate vampires and see them as undead abominations, would they even see Astarion becoming a vampire spawn as justice?? If anything, they would be angry about the creation of another vampire and the fact that a vampire lord is free to create more victims to torture whenever he wants. So even if you want to go at it from a punitive justice perspective on behalf of the Gur, I'm not sure Astarion's enslavement would even be a satisfying punishment from their eyes. You know, assuming Astarion even did anything wrong to begin with, which in my opinion is purely up to headcanon anyways.
Secondly, a lot of people bring up EA Astarion having done deals with Cazador and sending him children before becoming a vampire. And they usually do this with a silent implication of, "Of course Astarion is racist towards the Gur, he was already racist towards them before." But I don't think that necessarily has to be the case. There's obviously no good reason to be racist towards anyone, but given that this is a story where characters are supposed to be realistic and flawed, I think that Astarion hating Gur because he was murdered by a gang of Gur is sufficient explanation. And rather than EA Astarion's raw, pure asshole bigotry, current!Astarion's bigotry is way more sympathetic in a "tragedy for everyone involved" sort of way. What I mean is:
Whatever ruling Astarion made, whether it was good or bad or neither, he was beaten to death by a gang of vigilantes. Even if the vigilantes just intended to seek justice for their side (assuming that Astarion's ruling was even against the Gur to begin with, the thugs could've just as easily been hired by some noble), their actions led to Astarion being enslaved by an evil vampire and tortured for centuries. It's a "nobody wins" scenario where an act of hatred (on Astarion's part, the Gur's part, or some random person who wanted Astarion killed) led to immeasurable suffering even though most of the people who instigated the fight to begin with are already long dead. Not just Astarion's suffering, but also his siblings, as well as all the victims they took on Cazador's behalf.
And while there's nothing in current BG3 precluding Astarion from having been racist to Gur while he was alive, I really prefer the idea of him only becoming bigoted due to trauma. Because again, to reiterate the point I made above, quibbling about whether Astarion was a racist or corrupt or evil when he was alive dilutes the themes of his story from "abuse victim empowered to choose between freedom or perpetuating the cycle" to "yeah, he was a victim, but he was kind of an racist asshole so he did deserve it a little."
I'm not saying this because I think Astarion needs to be a blameless victim, or because I think abuse survivors IRL can't be problematic/should have any problematic behavior be excused because they're traumatized. I'm speaking of it purely from a narrative perspective, especially from the angle of representation. The way stories portray abuse, if done poorly, can perpetuate stereotypes about abuse victims, such as saying that they must've done something to warrant being treated badly, or that certain types of people deserve to be abused because they're evil.
And even though it's perfectly okay to write characters who are shitty and problematic, I think writing stories in a way that perpetuate harmful views towards real life people and social issues is something that definitely SHOULD be avoided.
I'm also going at it from a restorative justice perspective. As someone who prefers to write stories with a more humanistic perspective, I've never liked the "Astarion kinda deserved it if he was evil beforehand" take because... Cazador?? Is not an agent of justice whatsoever? He's a shitty, controlling, abusive vampire who takes pleasure in controlling and torturing others. He treated his vampire spawn as slaves to bring him victims and even planned to sacrifice their lives for his own benefit. Even if you think it's possible for the spawn to deserve what Cazador did to them, how is it morally right to condone/water down Cazador's actions by implying that one (or more) of his victims was a shitty person, so technically it's just karma in a way? Cazador isn't some karmic force delivering justice to people who tried to escape it-- he's literally just an asshole abusing other people for fun.
#squiggposting#okay meta post over now i've said everything i meant to say#the TLDR is that i think whether astarion was a good or bad magistrate/person is irrelevant at best#and actively harmful to the themes of his story at worst#what i'm saying is that if there's anything to judge him by. his current actions matter far more than anything he did 200 years ago#because the most immediate harm he caused is in the present#and the most immediate reparations (or crimes) he can do for them are also in the present#whether astarion was a bad person in the past is irrelevant because the truly pressing question is if he's a bad person NOW#the issue is whether astarion chooses to use his freedom for personal benefit or to help others#this way the two halves of him as both abuse victim and perpetrator of violence/suffering are put in the forefront#w/o either one cancelling the other out#and like again from a humanistic perspective. the moral issue isn't whether astarion was bad in the past. the issue is if he can change NOW#if he can make amends NOW and help people NOW and stop/prevent suffering NOW#basically i'm putting a statute of limitations on his pre-vampiric life LMFAO#i'm not OPPOSED to the concept of an asshole getting karmic justice and having to spend the rest of his (un)life#making up for that and suffering bc he's an asshole. i just don't think it's thematically fitting in astarion's case#i mean cazador literally is the asshole who gets what's coming to him bc of karmic justice (complicated a lil by his backstory)#but the humanistic themes of bg3's story don't. really extend to him bc he's the antagonist of astarion's story#what other ending is there to the story BUT for him to die so that all of his victims can be free
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i feel like i have a hard time talking with some people (well. letās be so for real. white people) about religion sometimes bc like. growing up i was a CHURCH KID. like i went every sunday and was involved pretty deeply with the community. and i liked it! i wanted my friends to go with me at least once if they seemed interested, because it was fun and friendly and really chill
it was not a christian church. i grew up in a ~humanist tradition~ more than a solid religion. we had people of all denominations who came there because the community built by my church felt more welcoming. especially to religious or spiritual queer folks. we learned from each other. it shaped who i am today and i feel like im a better person for having followed those principles in my life and grown up with them
and what sucks is that when i tell people about it they either automatically assume that i was in a cult (which is really really isnāt) or that the tenets of my faith were just like ābe nice :)ā which it isā¦more than just that.
anyways i wish there was more tolerance for religious or spiritual people in general, especially on here. i wish people who were atheist or agnostic were more tolerant and willing to listen to why having a spiritual community is important to some people. i wish being religious or faithful or spiritual in an earnest way didnāt make people label you a weirdo.
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US:
We were starcrossed lovers
But..
We defied the fucking stars
Wrote our own damn rules
Gemini and Aquarius
Perfect lovers
Drawn together
A gravitational pull
The twins and their water-bearer
Cosmic attraction
Celestial intellect
Air signs conjoined at the hip,
At the heart,
At the mind
Free-spirits, humanists,
Freedom fighters
Equals in all things
Air breathes the breath of life
Creates the spark of fire
Without air, fire cannot exist
Constellations 3 and 11
When these stars speak,
They are partners in crime
Who say,
"I love you!"
HELP WHAT IS THIS HOW MUCH EFFORT DID U PUT INTO THIS BC GOOGLE ISNT SAYING ITS A POEM OR A SONG???
IM NOT A GEMINI OR AN AQUARIUS???
STOP IM NOT GONA MARRY YOU
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@starlightomatic another jewish poll for the pile š
If you are not Jewish, please refrain from responding, and check back in a week if you're curious about the results! There unfortunately wasn't room in the poll to include a throwaway "show results" option this time.
(Do feel free to reblog, though, whether or not you're Jewish, in case you have Jewish followers! Larger sample size, etc. etc.)
If you're Jewish and affiliated with multiple movements (e.g., "I sometimes go to Reform services and sometimes to Reconstructionist"), or if you identify as an in-between place on the spectrum (e.g., "Conservadox"), try to pick one you feel most connected to in some way ā whether that be based on your halachic observance, the services you most often attend, the services you would want to attend if you could, or something else.
#voted humanistic bc hashtag represent#idk its super complicated and a mix of like. observances vs what i can do irl vs spiritual stances vs all sorts#anyway loon taggin ya cuz ur my jewish poll Source so figured u cld hel spread it
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