#Colon would have to say

[thedisdainfullysilentvisitor]

AU where when Kathony announces they're leaving again, Ben, Hyacinth and Gregory elect to go with them to India both to share in Kathony's experience and to get away from Lady Whistledown

[elvisqueso]

"...Will you go home?" — "Well, it's not like I have much of a home to go back to. I've never really...belonged anywhere."

Pocahontas (1995)

[themyscirah]

Complaining abt Suicide Squad yet again but the fact that they have Waller exposing the alien community to space racist attacks and talking abt how she got to her position through deceit and being a terrible person and stuff is just. Ahsfiwueh JUST SAY YOU DONT KNOW WALLER.

Anyways literally the 3rd mission of the Squad ever (and the first framed as smth Waller picked and not orders from above) was the Squad discrediting and stopping a rogue vigilante who was only arresting POC and funneling white people into white supremacy groups (of which he was the most prominent member) in SUICIDE SQUAD #4. and it's explicitly framed as this mission being personal for Waller that she's hiding from the government bc its illegal like. Guys. Please why are we having her incite (space bc comics) racist attacks now

Also the whole "Amanda got her position through deceit and being a terrible person" NO. she KEPT her position through being shitty and playing complicated political games!!! She wasn't always that way like there is a difference and it is IMPORTANT ppl PLEASEEEE. In Secret Origins #14 we learn Amanda's backstory and she used to be a normal, caring person! Like even after she entered into working in government and politics she wasn't automatically morally bankrupt like please people. She was originally given control of the Squad by Reagan (*sigh* 80s comics...) to distract and get rid of her because she was so successful at pushing progressive social policy in Congress. Acting like she's this static pillar of evil is such a waste of her character and so fucking uninteresting and disrespectful to her arc it drives me MAD.

Like I am NOT saying Waller is all sunshine and rainbows, she fucking SUCKS (said w love <3) but like there's a human being there. It's a progression, she has a character arc like please, DC, please!!! They've fucked up Waller so bad and made her so opaque and uninteresting she can't even be the protagonist of her own story for fucks sake!

Like I don't know how many times I have to scream it until DC hears me or remembers but WALLER IS THE MAIN CHARACTER OF SUICIDE SQUAD. ITS HER BOOK. yet right now she's a cutout to be used as the villain wherever the writers please. Even in her book we get none of her perspective really displayed, no exploration of her thoughts with any kind of understanding of the role she traditionally has played and was made to play in the story.

[sukibenders]

Korra hate going up, Aang hate going up, Iroh hate/criticism still at an all time low. Ohhh, these new Avatar rumors need to stay far away from this fandom, please let them not be true!

[tripleskxawng]

as someone who was briefly a woman of color in stem (im now a man of color in a pink collar job #thriving) i often wonderrrr if the avatar was empowering to alma in the workplace. when i was a stem fem my superiors didn't take me seriously when i met with them in person, and their treatment of me noticeably shifted when i started meeting with them through zoom during covid and was no longer physically a foot below them and when my asian features were somewhat obscured by a shitty webcam. also i have an anecdote from a friend whose racist family member was IN LOVE with netytiri until he realized she was portrayed by a black woman. when he realized she was zoe saldana under the blue cgi he reacted like he'd been catfished.

in a meta sense i think white guys see black woman characters very differently through the lens of a na'vi or avatar body and i wonder if that might extend in-universe.

obviously spending all her time in the avatar was an unhealthy way of coping with identity issues but i wonder if those identity issues had anything to do with how she was treated in the RDA as a black woman. plus we don't know how tall alma is because this is a video game but i think she's extremely 5 foot coded and regardless physically towering over men who metaphorically look down on you i think would probably be an ego boost.

i'd like to believe Human racism and sexism aren't as big of a problem by 2154 but if they werent ingrained into the fabric of the culture i think they wouldnt be doing any of that shit to pandora in the first place like i have no evidence but i imagine an antiracist culture probably would not genocide and colonize a species of indigenous-coded blue alien people. also the way mercer talks about the humanities reeks of scott yenorism

[ofmermaidstories]

Merms, would you consider it rude if people point out spelling errors and the like? It's just been on my mind for a while cos with anything I read, I end up just compartmentalizing little things that stick out to me (like when you wrote scrabbled eggs!), and spelling mistakes end up being the most common, lol.

Eh, I think the politest thing to do would ask your writer how comfortable they are with being beta’d on the fly. 🥹😅 Like for example, in theory I personally don’t mind it, because i do hate the idea of some dumb idiot typo jarring people out of the story, but then at the same time i always end up getting embarrassed that i made the dumb idiot typo in the first place and then i don’t want to write again for like three days LMAOOO, so at this point it’s probably just safer for everyone to either pretend they don’t see the mistake or find another fic to read LOL. 💀 So it literally just depends on the writer in question. 🥹 We’re all different people!!

[ace-and-ranty]

Okay, so, hear me out. Here is how I would have tidied up a bit the MESS that is She-Ra's lore.

The native native Etherians, the ones who evolved and originated from the planet, are people like Angella and Madam Razz; not people like we know them, but beings, manifestations of the planet's magic, immortal and la-di-da and ancient and mysterious.

Over time, immigrants started moving to Etheria, first and foremost humans, who spread out and got settled and started intermarrying with the magic natives, until we get to a planet that has some native magical beings still around, but is mostly their descendants with immigrants. This is how you get all the princesses, and that explains why most princesses are humans (descendants of humans and native beings), Scorpia specifically is not (descendant of a different immigrant population and a native being), and what Angella is (one of the very few beings still around by the time SPOP rolls around, who is only now handing over her rune to a mixed descendant)

She-Ra was one of those native beings, who slowly got integrated into the immigrant population, creating this Avatar-like cycle of She-Ras that was going just fine until:

The First Ones arrive.

The First Ones are not human. They are humanoid because of course, but are distinctively non-human, with specific identifying characteristics like Scorpia or Angella or Horde Prime. Like. Hell if I know. Make them elves.

There's a targeted propaganda machine to make the (mixed) native Etherians think the First Ones are helpful helping helpers, here to bring modern machines and shit to the natives!! She-Ra is handed over willingly, despite protests by various fractions. And then Mara blows the whistle.

Greyskull Squadron is not Mara's old squadron, or not only that, but a group of Etherians that Mara allied herself with, trying to oppose the First Ones. Like. Just show us a little bit of the Etherians fighting for their own planet, like what the show is currently trying to be about. Would be even better if later, Adora finds information not just from old First One tech, but from records left by the Etherians themselves.

[suckerforfluff]

is it fucked up that as a filipino i dont know any filipino mc streamers or filipino streamers in general? like the ones who actually stream in tagalog/bisaya/ilocano/ilonggo/whatever dialect???

like im so envious of the ppl who are like "so and so was my childhood im excited to see them in qsmp" and here i am like "wow filipino streamers huh can't wait to meet them ^_^"

[queers4years]

Indigenous Hawaiians really had a good system going: wake up reaaally early and do most of the days work while it's cool and by the time the sun was up and it got hot the work was done and you're free to surf and socialize. I wish the white people realized they themselves could work smarter and not harder and get time to relax. Instead of calling Hawaiians lazy (and being genocidal about it)

[pixiestein]

i’ve really been hoping that g3 Venus would be Indigenous bc venus flytraps the actual plant are exclusively indigenous to coastal areas in north & south carolina usa so it would make sense & be cool to see venus be part of an Indigenous nation in the same area. it’s looking like in this gen she’s going to be black/black coded but afroindigenous ppl exist so maybe i’m still holding out hope lmao

[thedevotionaltour]

alien romulus i wish it gave me more but i don't know what i want from it. it wants to be original alien but it isn't while also still wanting to be its own movie but it's also trying really hard to be alien. does that make sense.

[fuckmeyer]

María is a bad bitch queen supreme with a simple dream of reclaiming her land Volturi-style after her human life was tragically cut short by a Texan who had invaded Mexico to create his own vampire Golden Corral. RESPECT HER OR PERISH

[chai-en-kaadhale]

thinking about the walls of benin and how the british destroyed them, and thinking about all of the literature of south america that the spanish destroyed just like that and then thinking about the library of alexandria

because how many more libraries were ravaged by colonialization yk? how much knowledge and architecture was destroyed for conquest?

feeling feelings

[sskk-manifesto]

Atsushi's back in the game!!! ۶( ˆ o ˆ )

[age-of-moonknight]

“For Now,” Phases of the Moon Knight (Vol. 1/2024), #4.

Writer: Fabian Nicieza; Penciler and Inker: Moisés Hidalgo; Colorist: Fer Sifuentes-Sujo; Letterer: Cory Petit

[bardinthezone]

Night Vale and the Power of Stories

So I’ve been losing my mind about this latest arc. Full hyperfixation. Studying for finals? Calling my parents? Enjoying other hobbies? Eating?? Who’s she, never heard of her. There is only the “#wtnv spoilers” tag.

Anyways, inspired primarily by this post, this post, and this post, I have been thinking about Night Vale as a place of stories.

Night Vale is a deeply weird place. It is a place where all the crazy conspiracies and contradictions and creepy crawlies can coexist (try saying that 5 times fast), and it is built on stories.

We know from “109: A Story About Huntokar” that Huntokar singlehandedly saved the town from nuclear destruction in 1983. This in and of itself is beautiful, tragic, terrifying and wonderful (I could write a whole essay on the lasting effects of the Cold War on the American psyche and how that’s impacted our media, but that’s not what this post is about). But what Huntokar says in describing this moment is fascinating: “ The people of Night Vale huddled, waiting for the end to their story.” The use of the word “story” here is so poignant and poetic. This was her town, a narrative she had lovingly followed since its inception, with an ever rotating cast of characters, finally seeming as though it would come to an end. And yet she managed to continue their story. The people of Night Vale, of every alternate universe Night Vale, are kept alive because Huntokar wanted to keep the narrative going. It is a town kept alive-- inverted and shattered and bizarre, but alive-- because someone saw the tale coming to an end and wasn’t satisfied with that. Night Vale is a place of stories.

And Cecil. Cecil Gershwin-Palmer is such a wonderful enigma. He’s a deeply troubled man, he’s the town’s beloved radio host, he is the voice of Night Vale. As the town’s only (?) regular source of news, he carries incredible weight in shaping the public’s perception of reality. It is his radio show that keeps the people informed through all of these earth-shattering events-- it is Cecil who, for as goofy and cringefail (thank you @bigcommunist for that phrase) as he can be, has been responsible for keeping his citizens safe. In “227: A Word With Dr. Jones,” Dr. Janet Lubelle notes that one of his traits is “town leadership.” When Cecil speaks, things happen. He rallies the people, against Strexcorp or the Beagle Puppy or Steve Carlsberg and his dry, dry scones. Hell, he says “weather” and everyone stops, or sometimes (Like in “204: Audition”) it literally saves his life. @lostboywriting raises a fascinating theory about Cecil having inadvertently brought the Faceless Old Woman into existence through his repression of his complicated relationship with his mother-- and while this contradicts with the backstory presented in "The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives Inside Your Home," who’s to say that both origins can’t be true, with how splintered and fractured Night Vale’s existence (and especially relation to time) is? Perhaps Cecil, as the Voice Of Night Vale, is capable of changing the world more than he knows.

Either way, this is why Dr. Lubelle’s Explaining of the town has so much of a tangible effect on it-- because she’s coming in and using something “empirical” to change the narrative. That is why she’s so threatening-- because how do you argue with the facts? How do you argue with science? She is using logic to insist that her reality is right, that these stories and poetics used to keep the town alive are meaningless. That it would be better for them to not exist than to exist outside her narrative. She said it herself-- she cannot imagine that anyone thinks differently to herself about anything, and she is all to happy to provide any who disagrees with an Explanation. No matter the cost.

In 227, Cecil remarks that “Science is not good or bad, as language is not good or bad, as religion is not good or bad, because humans are not inherently good or bad.” This sets up a fascinating play between science, language, and religion that I think is perfectly encapsulated by Dr. Lubelle, representing science, Cecil, representing language, and Huntokar, representing religion. Whether she knows it or not, Dr. Lubelle is directly undoing all of the hard work of Huntokar, and attempting to use Cecil as the most powerful tool at her disposal.

And this works in conjunction with my distinction of the What vs. the Why. We can take the incursion point of November 7th, 1983, and view it through both lenses. From Huntokar’s perspective, we get the Why: Night Vale was in danger, and it needed saving, so she saved it. But from Dr Lubelle’s perspective, we just get the What: Night Vale was the target of a nuclear missile. Nuclear missiles are unstoppable by any force known to science. This is a town that should have been empty for 40 years.

I posit a world in which Dr. Lubelle reduces Night Vale to what it “should be:” A town ruined by nuclear destruction. The empirical facts, the anchors that held Night Vale down to reality, the threads that Huntokar broke-- Dr. Lubelle is seeking to tie them back together. And with the Voice of Night Vale on her side, Explained and ready to share the Truth, of course she can make that happen. Perhaps Huntokar takes center stage again to show that science is not the end-all-be-all. Perhaps Carlos steps in to replace Dr. Lubelle as the Scientist in this equation, to provide a good alternative to her callous methods. 

Or I could be totally off-base with that prediction. I imagine the bodies being dug up in the sand wastes and the murals of flesh will play a major role in the finale. Maybe she’ll uncover the splintered realities of Night Vale and won’t know how to explain them away. Hell, people keep hyping up a Desert Bluffs return, what with the Sandstorm tapes and the talk of doubles-- Maybe Kevin and Lauren will be the “religion” in the triumvirate, and drive Dr. Lubelle mad with their unrelenting fervor. Who knows? I have my theories, but I’m just excited to see where this all goes.

.

Also from a meta perspective, this is 100% harkening back to all those early-days fan theories that “Night Vale is a normal town and Cecil is just off his rocker” (Thanks @maxgicalgirl for that one!). Welcome To Night Vale is a show that has never been about continuity and tight lore-- it’s about spinning a fun narrative, it’s about the poetry, the music, the aesthetics; it’s about everything that Dr. Lubelle HATES. From a meta perspective, Dr. Lubelle is every theorist who tries to ruin the magic of a story, who nitpicks it endlessly because it doesn’t adhere to how the “real world” functions. She doesn’t care about why story elements are included, she just needs what’s included to adhere to her worldview. And I can’t wait to see her get taken down, no matter how it happens.

Thanks again to @maxgicalgirl, @lostboywriting, @eclipse-song​, and everyone who’s been sharing their thoughts about the latest arc on tumblr. I would not be writing this without y’all!!