#EG Vs Alliance

[astoundingbeyondbelief]

Kaiju Week in Review (December 10-16, 2023)

Suit actor Kenpachiro Satsuma, who originated the roles of Gigan and Hedorah and played Godzilla in all of the Heisei films, passed away on Saturday at the age of 76. A serious performer paired with a serious Godzilla, he approached the role with near-religious reverence. Asked to give advice to Godzilla's next actor following the completion of Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, he said, "Be Godzilla. Don't do anything else. Write books about playing Godzilla, talk to reporters about playing Godzilla, but don't do anything else. Just be Godzilla." His second stint as the character, Godzilla vs. Biollante, is my favorite movie of all time, and it's pretty staggering how many of its key people are gone now. Rest in peace.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters finally brought Godzilla into the present-day storyline—and finally let him enter Japanese waters in the flashbacks to 1955. (The only other time he's done this in the Monsterverse is in the debatably-canon Godzilla: Awakening.) I enjoyed the flashbacks a lot more than the main story this time, as the latter is just piling on the Ominous Pronouncements while withholding details to a degree that seems unrealistic from a Watsonian perspective. Give me a well-acted, doomed love triangle any day.

Comic book sales data is nigh-impossible to find these days, but 2022's Godzilla vs. the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers must have made bank, since it's getting a sequel! Writer Cullen Bunn and colorist Andrew Dalhouse are back, with Baldemar Rivas now handling the art. First issue's coming in April. The logline:

Worlds collide a second time as everyone’s favorite kaiju meets up with Earth’s mightiest warriors once again to take on the most fearsome monsters from both sides of the multiverse, with Rita Repulsa egging them on! This one has it all: SpaceGodzilla! Clawhammer! Tentacreep! But what exactly does Rita intend to do with their collective might, and how have her mysterious new allies, Astronema and the Alliance of Evil, given her added reach across worlds? The Power Rangers are on a mission to find out, but first…all roads lead back to Godzilla!

I recognize some of the proper nouns in there, at least!

Godzilla Minus One added even more North American theaters (from 2,540 to 2,622), but with stiffer competition in the form of Wonka, it fell to fourth with $5 million. That gets it over $30 million here; we'll see how much of a boost it gets from the holidays. The film is piling up accolades from regional critic groups, as well as a nomination at the Critics Choice Awards for Best Foreign Language Film.

I'm also making my way through all the videos Toho put on YouTube when I was desperately dodging spoilers, so look forward to more Minus One gifs and screenshots.

One more trailer for the Kaiju No. 8 anime, which is, for whatever reason, going to stream worldwide via X/Twitter. (Maybe they saw that users there already upload entire movies and decided to get ahead of the curve?) Don't worry, it'll be on Crunchyroll too.

[where-the-water-flows]

character asks—hit me up with your hottest jiao liqiao takes

JIAO LIQIAO my best beloved nightmare failgirlboss. she cannot malewife for very long but by god can she manipulate and murder.

favorite thing about them honestly I love that she has a goal and she fucking goes for it, zero hesitation. is it a good, reasonable goal? well no. she would have been better finding someone to fixate on who was not somewhere on the utterly asexual to entirely homosexual spectrum, but y'know, can't win them all. A+ dedication, F- execution.

least favorite thing about them the laugh the laugh I know it is like, the most standard trope signifier thing but the high pitched ahHAHEHEHA laugh is always so jarring in a 'pulls me right out of the narrative' kind of way, I know it is petty but also oh my god please. please you sound like a second rate cartoon villain. please. On a more character less shallow note, bestie babygirl please stop playing with your food. it literally never works out for you, for the love of god. please learn your lesson after the eighth time it bites you in the ass. (also like on the one hand, I would love for her to not have a plot centered around how she is deeply unhinged for/about a man. but on the otherhand, like, idk, I think she's fun. terrible awful etc, but also, she's putting the fun in extremely dysfunctional <3)

favorite line look I love so much every unhinged word out of her mouth, especially the argument she has with snow master when he's like 'girl that man is gay/ace the magic incense amnesia did not make him suddenly not gay/ace he is Manipulating You' and she is like 'lalalala not listening he loves me also we both know that man can't/won't lie to save his life, also also if he is lying I'll mutilate him and keep him like a purse pet <3 but he's not lying. because he loves me.' I recognise that is not a line but like. you know what I mean.

brOTP uhhh I don't really know that she... has... bros. like I guess granny blood (rip), who is basically always full 'yes girl get your man he will def love you this time' in the manner of someone who knows that her friend is lusting after a guy who is 1)not ever going to be interested even if he wasn't 2)very gay/ace and is 3)probably mid at best in bed no matter how much her friend is like SEX GOD. like the most 'yeah girl go get your man!!!! (why that man though have you considered any other man literally there are so many other men) oh no, def the red lipstick, he'll love you in that (but why him for the love of god just buy a vibrator)' that said, I do think the wildly divergent au where li xiangyi ends up 1)aware of nanyin bloodline like. Early On 2) jinyuan alliance aligned, he and his cousin jiao liqiao would be a hilarious pair of nightmares. absolutely ends in disaster for everyone, including them and definitely including di feisheng, I have an entire stupid au vaguely plotted out about this, it is purely nonsense. compels me though.

OTP no<3 that said, like, obviously I do not want the boys to be mmmmm torture mutilated noncon wifed as the otp of my heart, but also, I think jiao liqiao deserves a harem of moderately to severely brainwashed/mutilated/etc malewives! as a treat! god forbid women do anything. I contain multitudes, the dirty joke here is left as an exercise for the reader.

nOTP shan gudao. I just. I think it would be a mess, and not even a fun one. like as an actual relationship I mean, not proxy fighting spy vs spy manipulation But With Sex kinda bullshit, that's fine and fun, but they are not romantically compatible except as a triad where the third part of it is the idea of the man they are individually personally psycho/sexually obsessed with. which I guess makes it like. a weird poly U, with two theoretical ends. weird poly u with them mostly egging each other on in their dysfunction, 100% fine, any sort of Actual Healthy Relationship, no. also, therapy. I think therapy would only make her worse, but on the off chance it did not, I don't want that for her. she's a nightmare! again, god forbid a woman do anything.

random headcanon she was literally never expected to take the throne, nor expected to be the primary way that her particular fork of the nanyin royal line passed down. which means she likely has at least one sister and probably a brother. I don't know if this is backed up or contradicted by canon, but also, she was raised knowing she was nanyin royalty (??) but also was allowed to just fuck off into the jianghu at age [mlc timeline is nonsensical]. like if that is your single heir of the bloodline you have been carefully keeping alive and aware of how they were The True Imperial Family, you are not letting said heir go out and get their ass killed playing with swords. therefore. youngest child jiao liqiao. no further questions, you know in your heart I'm right. less world logistics based, I think she absolutely can't fucking cook, but, crucially, feels that she is fucking aces at it. does she cook? irrelevant, also no obviously not, she is a lady of rank, we have servants for that. but, crucially, she feels in her heart that she is a great cook. not that she cares about it. but again, she is great at it. this is never challenged because 1)di feisheng, the one person I can see her lowering herself to actually cook for, does not pay attention to the taste of food unless he has amnesia, and thus he's certainly not going to be like 'you suck at cooking, ew'. 2) if you are not di feisheng are you going to challenge fucking saintess on her bad cooking? no! she will stab you in the eyeball with a chopstick.

unpopular opinion honestly I don't know that I have that many unpopular opinions on her. other than that she's fun. a nightmare and like, deeply uncomfortable as a character with how incredibly rapey she is, obviously. but fun! she is a problematic queen. terrible woman who really sort of stands out as one of the few of the main cast who uh...doesn't really seem to have any reason behind the terribad decisions she makes other than there is something Wrong With Her, but again, god forbid, etc.

song i associate with them Girlfriend, by Avril Lavigne; the early 2000s angry brat pop is just. so on brand. see also, so much for my happy ending. (also, this has given me the image of idea of early 2000s scene kids jinyuan alliance, which is the funniest fucking thing in the world to me. I don't know what sigu sect would be, but it's just so fucking funny.)

favorite picture of them quick and nasty screencap bc this response has already taken me two days, but like. the whole turn on li lianhua when he's in chains and she's like 'oh you're dangerous to talk to', I just. I feel so abnormal about it. she is so hot and scary.

[lord-squiggletits]

For your MegOP conundrum:

What are your thoughts on MegOP romance in forced truce situations eg. Quintessons attack, or everyone on the battle feild was taken by slavers type thing. Do your thoughts vary on continuity TFA vs Prime vs IDW, etc?

Hope this helps

Bookwyrm

I think Forced Truce as a trope is probably one of the easiest/most convenient ways to create an alliance/eventual reconciliation between the factions without just sidestepping the issue altogether. I think it's especially cool to have there be a temporary truce BUT the issues between the factions are still messing up communication, causing trust issues that make units work together less cohesively, etc. It's really great because it forces the factions/Megatron and Optimus to work together, EXCEPT if they fail to cooperate, it doesn't just mean a continuation of an endless, tedious war, but it could spell out the end of their species altogether. There's a ton of stakes inherent to it; if we're talking MegOP romance, then what's at stake isn't just the emotional pain of their bad relationship/breaking up because they can't make it work, but the physical consequences of them failing to defeat a greater foe. It lends the romance/truce particularly heavy symbolism-- that this temporary truce isn't merely a convenience, the blooming love isn't merely an emotion, but that both of these things could be the key to life itself. And I'm always a big sucker for that kind of theme where reconciliation/hope/cooperation/etc save the day.

I can really only comment on IDW since that's my bread and butter, but it's an interesting discussion because there's actually at least three times where Megatron and Optimus (and their factions by extension) did a forced truce where, obviously, it wasn't enough for them to reconcile afterwards:

Autocracy: Orion and Megatron team up to beat Zeta, ends with Megatron shooting Orion and the Autobots being imprisoned

Stormbringer: Mostly kept off screen, but the Bots and Cons have to keep up to try and defeat Thunderwing(?), who's basically a walking natural disaster created by all the environmental devastation of the war

Dark Cybertron: Teaming up to stop Shockwave from putting the whole universe in a singularity. Famously the series where Megatron became an Autobot. Has a really underrated/never talked about scene where Megatron and Optimus actually speak together in a quiet moment before going out to face everyone (and presumably Megatron is taken into custody in preparation for the trial).

Stormbringer is actually the most interesting one to me, because I love it when TF stories in general explore the environmental devastation of the war. I love it when Megatron and Optimus are punished for their war by the very planet dying, or in this case, creating a monster that both of them combined can barely stop. They disagreed on whether to basically bomb the whole planet to ash to stop Thunderwing (Megatron) or to keep the planet intact and hope to beat him some other way (Optimus), which I think if it were the focus of a story, is a really interesting example of what I mentioned above where differences in faction/philosophy don't vanish simply because they're temporarily working together.

One of the biggest reasons I love MegOP is because the two faction leaders are kind of like the King Arthur of their respective factions: whatever befalls the commander/king is a reflection of what happens to his army. So forced truce + unresolved tension (political, personal, romantic) is fucking fantastic because it means that whatever Megatron and Optimus do trying to deal with each other could fuck over their factions as well. And I really like the idea of MegOP struggling together in a relationship NOT because of personal differences or even emotional issues, but because they have some sort of obligation to their factions (fulfilling their goals, bringing their idea of justice) that means that coming together romantically would be betraying their factions.

Sorry for the rambling answer; hoped this had at least a few interesting ideas in it!

[miralyk]

oh lore for your nuzlockes???? i'm curious, what's on ur mind for " crosslocke " and characters like ethan

(the original drawing in question w reblogs turned off and what may have incited this ask)

AUGH sorry for not getting to this asap bc my house's power (and thus my progress finishing and uploading charm/sticker art) is still being fixed atm, but i have a lot on my mind!! this'll at least be an interesting read to hopefully have you guys interested and spend time biding on atm, so i won't put this under the cut.

crosslocke is basically just what i call "crossover" nuzlockes i've played and talked about before with friends; two years ago i was bored during spring break and wanted to play an omega ruby nuzlocke to be more interesting -> thus nicknamed everyone i caught after resident evil characters bc i was hyperfixated on the franchise at the time, and what started as a jokey theme ended up being "wait these ideas w how both pokemon/re click together are actually cooking", so it ended up being a pretty thorough au!

for my personal crosslocke runs, basically it's a gijinka and/or mystery dungeon sort of au where everyone's pokemon people, haha; my trainersona's a shiny zorua/zoroark with aura powers exploring the various regions, and meet other people and how they manifest both their pokemon powers and aura in unique ways. so far i have 4 crosslockes, so i'll summarize their concepts and what they're crossed over with:

rising ruby (enhancement hack for omega ruby) x "resident evil" = an aurapocalypse where instead of a biological infection, it's aura being mutated,, a new twist to re's viruses due to how chi philosophy, which overlaps both the physical and spiritual, work in people and the environment's aura. it's played both for comedy and drama, like ethan coming back, Again, but as an aura-mutated Ghost zombie,, But also still unaware of his new infected state until everyone starts screaming at his new look lmao

eternal x (enhancement hack for x) x "kingdom hearts" = the crosslocke world is one world that's an "unreality" like quadratum to the kh world, and explores how magic and light/fairy-types vs darkness/dark-types play out,, along with how technology that integrates such magic can either aid or abuse (eg kh's synthesized ultima weapon and pokemon's engineered ultimate weapon have some similarities, don't you think)

prismatic moon (enhancement hack for ultra moon) x "jojo's bizarre adventure" = after the reality-warping events of the resident evil and kingdom hearts crosslockes that tampered with the natural order/balance of aura, ultra wormholes open up to different realities and timelines, in which kao cooperates with various jojo characters "eyes of heaven"-style, esp given her unique circumstances of not being a stand user, but a hamon an aura user able to still perceive/interact with stands + directly control aura in general, which stand users are incapable of doing

sv+ (enhancement hack for scarlet) x one piece academy/gakuen, the spinoff au manga = kao's aura powers are basically seen as conqueror's haki when roped into an alliance with the straw hats to uncover mysteries of not just the academy's treasure hunt, but phenomena like terastalizing and area zero. again like any other crosslocke, mostly for fun, but there's still drama due to the game events, hooh boy LMAO

depending on how retelling these stories would go (realistically, maybe something like a "story recap/analysis video essay" and jaiden animations way of regaling stories to summarize the au and whatever's drawn for them), i'm open to playing more crosslockes and talking about them not to just friends in private, but publicly online! depending on how pokemon legends Z-A turns out, it could be crossed over with assassin's creed (given the precedence of isu technology and the overlap of ancient technology w history and humanity), stuff like that ( ´ ∀｀;; )

what i like most about crosslocke is how it funnily enough ended up being a fun and experimental thing like nuzlocke comics and the dnd-esque culture of drawing and artistically interpreting your personal gameplay + sharing the experiences with others, not to mention how it accidentally also became a homage to the very first nuzlocke (comic) itself,, a guy being bored with pokemon and thus played a nuzlocke naming everyone after pop culture icons/characters, especially the titular nuzlocke being a nuzleaf named after john locke from lost.

given the circumstances of the world and my personal life, i don't want to put all my eggs in one basket investing (too much) in these nuzlocke aus, but we'll see how it goes; i love unique ways of experiencing stories and sharing them, and especially as someone who has a lot of personal experience and friends with nuzlocke comics, something that's very underrated today, it'd be a lot of fun to at least try out a little in the future if things are able!

[saxafimedianetwork]

Red Sea is not the Suez Canal: What will be the Outcome of Egyptian Intervention in Ethiopia's Sea Access Quest?

#RedSea vs #SuezCanal: #Egypt's intervention in #Ethiopia's sea access quest through #Somaliland sparks concerns. Will #Somalia benefit from direct negotiations or external alliances? Read more on the implications of EG's actions for maritime rights & regional dynamics

Continue reading Red Sea is not the Suez Canal: What will be the Outcome of Egyptian Intervention in Ethiopia’s Sea Access Quest?

[thecoolerliauditore]

ok uhhh. not a fan of the changes made to the first death(s) in the game. in the manga this first death being entirely player-caused is a. Massive game-changer for how everyone else behaves for the rest of it. the big theme in this game is trusting eachother and the fact that most of the players see someone Stab Another Guy To Death puts alot of their behaviour later on into perspective.

this also really messes with the rest of the character's personalities too, probably the most glaring example is:

manga banda straight up telling akifumi to stab genki with a fucking knife vs show banda telling akifumi to tell genki the wrong mark. of course in both instances banda is telling akifumi to kill genki, stabbing someone and getting the game to kill someone on your behalf are two very different levels of personal involvement and show banda ends up seeming like a much more. Grounded person as a result than intended to be because yeah. if someone beats the shit out of me so I can tell them their mark, lying and having them pay with their life would be at the forefront of my mind too.

the manga is aware that this is The Normal response, since manga akifumi (who is characterized as being meek) does this on his own with no egging on from banda

as for genki, this is relatively minor compared to banda but I'm not a huge fan of show genki just. believing akifumi's lie since in the manga him not buying it was kinda a nice little subversion of the brute force solves everything archetype he represents. manga genki was a big dumb idiot but he was a big dumb idiot who understood how to play the game well and I always thought that was neat and have believability to how this guy managed to survive until now.

(there's also the tiniest bit of self-awareness here which is. cool to me)

meanwhile show genki just believes akifumi and dies lol.

finally, I think ippei's non-existence in the show is really going to impact us more and more down the line because urumi's character is just getting. stranger.

In the manga, it's emphasized to us again and again that ippei's group is essentially the weak protecting eachother and seto presents a dilemma -- abandon the values of the group (protecting the weak) or put everyone in the alliance in danger by associating with him.

abandoning seto is the first sign of the group's cracking foundation, as it shows everyone in the group that the alliance has conditional factors and that the other members are not completely to be relied on or trusted. it's this discourse that urumi later weaponizes to turn everyone against eachother (and how it backfires on her as well).

In the show, Urumi simply recruits Seto and then directs the others to lie to him about his mark. This sudden turn from "hey wanna hang" to "let's kill him" is such a dramatic shift that, even if Urumi herself is insane and doing this for her own entertainment, it feels weird for the rest of the group to follow her lead.

All in all just. very seemingly minor changes that make the plot overall much less cohesive.

[crow-posting]

Rent makes sense because even countries like Finland and China have rent, and the Vanguard doesn't want Guardians to be given any special treatment (some are even expelled for wanting Guardians to rule the City). Rent probably pays for upkeep, utilities, and public services [similar to property taxes].

Fun fact: landlords do exist in the City, we just don't know how they operate.

Homelessness / a housing crisis doesn't make sense imo, but considering the Eliksni Quarter is built inside ruined sectors from the Red War, there are at least several communities who are still displaced. We also know some Districts are more affluent than others, though this doesn't mean that "poor" Districts exist.

In terms of general economy, I need to brush on specific lore, but we know that vendors and ads [esp. for weapon foundries] exist, and that there are separate markets for Guardians vs. civilians (eg the "I want the kind the Hunters use" idle voiceline in the Tower). Drinks and food at food stalls are paid for using Glimmer; commissions / Eververse items are paid for with Silver. Public organizations like the Cryptarchy and Owl Sector are responsible for retrieving tech and supplies from outside of the City - but Guardians also help via Vanguard bounties. TL;DR: the City isn't capitalistic, but a lot of it isn't free either.

Btw, arcades / electronic entertainment are a lost concept for the City, as evidenced by idle interactions with Nimbus while on Neomuna. Plenty of bars and gambling tho.

In my opinion, the Last City is a socialist-based society, tho more medieval than modern (since it was literally built it from nothing and only few Awoken returned to help and Bungie also gave it that aesthetic according to the artbooks). With info shared amongst the Alliance, things will likely improve rapidly from here on out.

i think some usamerican wiriting their last city headcanons are nuts.....

why does your guardian pay rent.. why are there homeless beggars in the street...... why do you think this is something that would happen in the last city

[writingwithcolor]

Mixing North America with Old World Cultures in Fantasy: What Are The Issues?

So I sent in an ask several years ago that, due in no small part to your response, I have grown from and eventually led to a complete restructuring of my story. I included a measure of context in this, so if you need to skip it, my main three questions are at the bottom. I think this mostly applies to Mod Lesya.

The new setting is both inspired by and based on North America in the late 1400s where the indigenous cultures thrive and are major powers on the continent. Since there is no “Europe” in this setting the colonization and plague events never happened. Within the continent itself (since it is a fantasy setting) there are also analogous cultures that resemble Norse, Central European, Persian, Arabic, Indian, and Bengali. Although not native to the fantasy continent, there is also a high population of ‘African’ and ‘Oceanic’ peoples of many cultures, the latter usually limited to coastal cities as traders and sailors. Elves are entirely not-human, or at least evolved parallel to humans ala Neanderthals/Denisovans; they have green blood, black sclera, and skin tones that run from pale to dark. 

The main national setting of the story takes great inspiration from a Byzantine/Turkish/Mississippian background, and the neighboring nations are based on the Haudenosee (Iriquois Confederacy), Numunuu (Comancheria), and the Hopi and Zuni (as the descendants of the Ancestral Puebloans) (I also know that 2 of these 3 occur much later than the 1400s, but I love the government systems and they provide excellent narrative foils for the more ‘traditional’ fantasy government that takes place in the story). The Maya inhabit the role analogous to Ancient Greece in that most writing systems on the continent descend from Maya script and all the Great Philosophers were Maya (and nobility from across the continent spend lots of money to send their children to schools in the Maya City-States or in the Triple Alliance (Aztec Empire)). There is magic with varying traditions, practices, and methods spread across the continent, some of which are kept secret from outsiders, so I would hope that this avoids the “Magical Native” trope. 

Beyond the setting, I have three main questions:

When it comes to foodstuffs, I was originally planning to limit myself to Pre-Columbian cuisine from the Americas (eg the Three Sisters and potatoes) but in doing my research, Navajo fry-bread seems to be a fairly integral part of the food culture and that does require flour, which originated in the Old World. Would it be better to incorporate some of the Old World stuff that has since become traditional to indigenous groups?

For place names used in the setting and writing systems would it be better to use existing languages or writing systems or ones inspired by them? EG should I make a language that is very similar to Cherokee, complete with its own syllabary, or should I use IRL Cherokee and its extant syllabary? I ask because I feel like using the real language might step on some toes, but using the conlang might seem like erasure.

One of the main themes of this story is the harm that even a ‘benevolent’ Empire can wreak on people. The Byzantine/Turkish/Mississippian culture is the main Empire on the continent, taking cues from both western and American monarchical systems (eg the Triple Alliance (Aztec) and The Four Regions (the Inca Empire)), but when I think about it having any kind of even vaguely western ‘Empire’ spring up from the soil of a North American inspired setting might be troubling.

Thank you for your time and consideration! Do you guys have a kofi or something so I can compensate you for time spent?

I actually do remember you, and I am going to 99% disregard your questions here because you went from glaringly obvious racism to covert racism, and none of your questions ask if your basic strings of logic for assumptions you built into the setting are okay. 

Since there is some extremely flawed basic logic in here, I’m going to tackle that first.

Question 1: Why did you originally title this “Pre Colombian North American Fantasy World” when you have more old world cultures than new world cultures?

A very simple, straightforward question. The actual content of the setting is what made me retitle it.

If you want to write a North American fantasy setting… why are there so many old world cultures represented here? 

Old world: - Greece (as a societal myth; see next point) - Byzantine - Turkey - Norse - Central European - Persian - Arabic - Indian - Bengali - African (which, let’s be honest, should be heavily broken up into multiple peoples) - Oceana (which, again, should be heavily broken up into multiple peoples)

New world: - Mississippian - Iroquois  - Numunuu - Hopi - Zuni - Maya - Aztec - Inca (maybe? not mentioned as having their own place on the continent, but one of your questions mentions them) - Navajo (maybe? See above)

To account for respecting Africa and Oceana, I’m going to make African cultures count as 3 and Oceanic cultures count as 5, and this is a purposeful lowball.

Old World: 17 New World: 9

It’s a giant discrepancy, especially if your attempt is writing an exclusively New World fantasy. And this is bare minimum old world, considering the fact I tried to limit myself to peoples who would be more likely to interact with the heavy Mediterranean/Alexander the Great’s Empire centricity. 

Question 2: Why does there have to be a Greece analogue?

I haven’t spoken about this topic at length on this blog, but Greek worship in the Western world is a very carefully crafted white supremacy based mythos that was created to prop up European “Excellence” and actually erases the reality of Greece as a peoples.

Cultural evolutionism is a theory that states the (assumed-white-European) Greeks were superior because of their philosophy, their abstract art, and their mathematics. When many of these concepts were refined in Egypt (African, aka Black), or the Arab world (aka brown), but white Europeans did not want to admit any of this so they instead painted everything as coming out of their ideas of Greece lock stock and barrel. 

The theory also ignored Iroquois science, Plains and Southwestern abstract art, and generally everything about North America, because the theory was designed to move the goalposts and paint North America as something it wasn’t, just to make Europeans feel okay taking it over and “bringing it to civilization.”

This theory was still taught in force up until the 1970s, and is still a major school of anthropological thought to this day (and still taught in some universities), so it is still very much influencing the Western world.

While the theory itself is only from the 1800s, it had long-growing roots in white/ noble Europe’s attempt to prop up European “Excellence” during its multiple periods of colonization, from the Crusades, onwards. You can see it in the copious amount of art produced during the Renaissance.

Europeans ignored the sheer amount of settling and travel that happened within Greece and Rome, and you’ll notice how many Renaissance paintings depict Greek philosophers as white, teaching other white people. In reality, we have no idea what their skin tone was, and they could have taught a huge variety of different skin tones. But it was appealing to European nobility to have people like them be the founders of all things great and “advanced”, so they invested huge amounts of time and money in creating this myth.

(Note: I said their nobility, not their population. People of colour existed en masse in Europe, but the nobility has been downplaying that for an exceptionally long time)

Greece took over most of the old world. It borrowed and stole from hundreds of cultures, brought it all back, and was assigned credit for it. White Europeans didn’t want to admit that the concept of 0 came from the Arabs, the pythagorean theorem came from Egypt, etc, and since Greece won, detailed records of how they were perceived and what they stole are long lost. It’s only glaring when they took from other global powers.

Question 3: Why would you pick totally different biomes to mix in here?

Turkey and the Mississippi are very, very different places when it comes to what can grow and what sort of housing is required, which makes them on the difficult side to merge together. They relied on different methods of trade, as well (boats vs roads), and generally just don’t line up.

The fact you pick such a specific European powerhouse—the Byzantine Empire—to mix into your “not European” fantasy world is… coming back to my above point about Greek (and Roman) worship in the West. Why can’t a fantasy world set in North America be enough on its own? Why does it need Europe copycats?

Question 4: Why are you missing a variety of nomads and Plains peoples?

Nomadic plains peoples were a thing across the globe, from the Cree to the Blackfoot to the Mongols. You have hyperfocused on settled peoples (with only one nomadic group named in both new and old world), which… comes across as very odd to me, because it is, again, very European sounding. That continent was about the only one without major populations that were nomadic, and if you look at European history, nomadic peoples were very highly demonized because of the aforementioned Mongols. 

Cultural evolutionism also absolutely hated nomadic peoples, which is where we get the term “savage” (hunter-gatherers, nomads) and “barbarian” (horticulturalists and pastoralists, the latter nomadic); these were “lesser cultures” that needed to settle down and be brought to “civilization” (European agriculture), and nothing good could ever come out of them.

Meanwhile, in North America, nomadic peoples took up a very large portion of landmass, produced a huge amount of culture and cultural diffusion, and mostly ignoring them while trying to create a “fantasy North America” is, well, like I said: odd. 

General Discussion Points

My suggestion for you is to write a fantasy Mediterranean region. Completely serious, here.

With the kinds of dynamics you are attracted to—the empires, the continental powers, the fact you keep trying to make Europe analogues in North America—you will do a much, much more respectful job by going into a really richly researched Mediterranean fantasy world than attempting to mix Europe and North America together in ways that show European traits (settled peoples, agriculture, a single empire dominating the whole culture and being viewed as superior) as the default.

I legitimately cannot see anything in here that feels like it comes from North America, or at the very least, treats non-sensationalized peoples (aka, those outside the Maya and Mississippian region) with respect. 

It falls into Maya worship, which is a very sensationalized topic and is fuelled by racist fascination, assuming no Indigenous peoples could be that smart. 

It falls into settled peoples worship, which is something that has cultural evolutionism roots because under such a model only settled peoples with agriculture are “civilized.”

It falls into placing Western concepts (public schools, large cities, the ilk) as the ideal, better solution, compared to methods better suited to horticulturalists, pastoralists, and hunter-gatherers and letting those teaching methods be respected.

There is no shame in writing inside Europe

The Mediterranean region contains Indigenous peoples, contains a huge diversity of skin tones, contains empires, contains democracy/a variety of governments, and in general contains every aspect of what you’re trying to create without playing god with a continent that did not evolve the way you’re trying to make it. 

A Mediterranean fantasy world would still be a departure from “fantasy world 35″ as I like to call it, because it would be different from the vaguely Germanic/ French/ Norse fantasy worlds that are Tolkien ripoffs. You can dig beyond the whitewashed historical revisions and write something that actually reflects the region, and get all the fun conflicts you want.

You don’t need to go creating a European/North American blend to “be diverse.” You can perfectly respectfully write inside Europe and have as much variety in peoples as you can write in a non-European setting. Europe is not the antithesis to diversity.

North America developed a certain way for a reason. It had the required fauna, space, resources, and climate to produce what it created. The old world developed a certain way for its own reasons, based off its own factors in the same categories.

You’re not really going to get them to blend very easily, and if you did, the fact there is such a strong European way-of-life preference (by picking places that mirror European society on the surface) makes me raise an eyebrow. It’s subtle, but very much there, and the fact you are ignorant to it shows me you still need to do more work before you go writing North American Indigenous Peoples.

Writing in Europe isn’t the problem, here. Writing a whitewashed, mythologized, everyone-not-white-is-a-caricature, ahistorical “Europe” is the problem. And you cannot fix this problem by simply painting European ways of life a different skin tone when the setting isn’t European. In fact, you’re perpetuating harm by doing that, because you are recreating the cultural evolutionism that calls anything you can find in Europe “better.” Indigenous cultures were vastly different from Europe, even if they shared similar trappings. 

Let North America exist without trying to shoehorn its most famous peoples into European analogues.

~ Mod Lesya

[invitedeath]

SEPHIROTH                          — relationship & plotter call.

hello lovely isolians! it’s been actually ages since i made my first one, or my second one, so i’m coming back with new vigour & hopefully some new ideas to tempt you all into friendship ( or...enemy...ship) with sephiroth!

so liking this post means that you are 100% down with interacting with me in some fashion! ways this might happen may be... → me sending you im’s / tumblr asks to plot or chat! i can be quite a talkative person as a forewarning, as i love discussing rp things as well as getting to know my rp partner!  → if we are already friends on discord or twitter, i might message you that way to ask you about plots or ideas or to run things by you. → exchanging ask memes / meme day things that might be a bit more personal than a general sentence meme. → possible random starters or musings dedicated to your muse, sometimes i get sudden inspiration for these things! i will always check first that you’re okay with taking on a new thread, but yes this is for just... if i get inspired & want to put something up for you! → general tomfoolery and shenanigans in character ( and ooc if you like )

you can contact me via the im system here, by the /ask feature or you can ask for my discord/twitter if you prefer those. just let me know. discord is the most private however so we’d need to chat a bit more elsewhere first just for my comfort! i am in the isola discord sever however so we can totally talk in that server for a bit too!

FRIENDS.

↪ honestly friendships aren’t typically on the agenda for him. he is arrogant beyond belief and considers everyone to be weaker than him or to some degree unworthy of his time or energy. he really does not have any interest emotionally in anyone besides himself, instead he is far more likely to use and discard people when they are no longer needed. HOWEVER, in 2020 sephiroth underwent quite a big character development stage, essentially his long-term goal came to a head and it backfired pretty back when he got all his powers back, so while he’s super strong again now, he’s also semi-content (i guess) with living in isola for a while, if only so he can figure out how the multiverse works (meta, i know). he talks to people now (wow!) and engages in mostly philosophical conversations, about... life. death. etc.

↪  i am down to... vague villain-alliance type deals with fellow power players here. he wont consider your muse a friend, but rather a pawn or even a means to an end, that end being his goal of generally using this island for his means, apologies. preferably the intellectual, over-powered, edgy types will probably gravitate towards him more, but i’m willing to throw anything at the wall to see what sticks. he’s not a nice guy, by any means, but it would be interesting to see how he has to play the game here to his advantage until he regains powers. i especially would like to interact with other villains who are kind of just chilling, maybe they’re veterans in spirale also and they can share a glass of wine over watching all the citizens running around like ants. we could also do a murder if you are into that. 

↪ there are some cases where he might engage in conversation with non-villain types and these would likely be far more dialogue-heavy threads including metaphorical topics or debates. the conversations of life, death, mortality, good vs evil, frailty of existence, legacy, power and corruption, calamities, birthright and betrayal are just some of the topics possible to arise in discussion. that being said, whilst these topics would be of interest to him, the character themselves must meet his standard of what he considers worthy of his time eg. those just willing to argue with him will bore him whereas someone curious to his nature might be treated to an actual conversation. over time this has opened up into most people being capable of talking to him. he has less patience for over-eager plucky types, but anyone with a respectable manner who likes talking a lot will probably find an interesting conversation partner in this... ONLY SLIGHTLY CHILLED sephiroth. he’s not totally chill, he’s just a lil chill.

↪ warriors, outcasts, villains, intellectuals, fellow puppet-master type villains especially, those he ‘befriended’ in past events, perhaps even neighbours to his castle would all be likely connections. friends of those he has worked alongside or met, or those wishing to seek great power and know of his existence might seek him out also, but yes... ““““friends”“““ is a very difficult term for him. he’s getting better.

→ his most recent developments see him as a far more casual version of his canon self, over a year of living as close to a “domestic life” as possible have meant that whilst he is aloof and cold, he is also far more likely to be out and about, buying wine at some creepy gas station at 4:30am for example. he chats when he’s in the mood and might even stick around to cause some chaos for the sake of boredom eating him alive. so whilst he is still very much a dangerous inhabitant here in spirale, sephiroth is currently Domesticated somewhat. 

ENEMIES.

↪ heroes of all shapes and sizes might feel threatened by the ominous presence of a monster who seems inclined to side with chaos as opposed to peace. he’s not outright starting fires here but he is present in the more morbid moments of isolian discourse, an omen of death lingering on the sideline. he has his plans and he may just mock you with them, but in general since he does and WILL cut down npcs ( or players ) alike, he makes for the perfect villain. BE WARY he has all of his powers unlocked and knows the island well. fighting him would not guarantee your victory, especially if you are a freshly applied character.

in feb 2020 he almost brought chaos to spirale too so i’m sure anyone holding a grudge or wary of a potential threat like that would be very aggro towards him.

↪ he has traumas. plenty of them. some of them originate from labs and white coats, meaning he might just view you as an enemy if you’re a scientist or someone who dabbles in human experimentation. his reasons are his own, but let’s just say that if you consider him a good candidate for poking and prodding with scientific equipment, you may just lose an arm.

↪ i LOVE fight threads especially really gritty, bloody types. i would prefer to plot these out so we know what’s going on beforehand, but feel free to develop these with me honestly i love a good old classic villain hero showdown. he’s less likely to get into these without a good reason but if we do one, the winner is randomly determined via generator to make it fair if your character is also uncapped!

→ police/law enforcers/general crime stoppers might remember him for causing a bit of trouble in the past! insert how bad me be gif. try and ??? get him to apologise i guess. arresting sephiroth sounds like the plot of a funny movie. 

LOVERS.

↪ this man has a bf now, can you believe it? 2021...isola gay rights. 

MISC.

↪ pawns and such would be a fun dynamic later. his general presence is pretty terrifying, so it wouldn’t be a stretch if you have an appropriate muse for them to be fearful enough to carry out some little tasks for him. this might be more common later on, but i’m down to discussion for it currently!

↪ places you may find him can include:                 ↪ near his residence ( personal housing; castle in the mistwood  )                 ↪ fibonacci ward ( levels 3 and 4 especially due to the museums and things. but also the lowest levels, he tends to wander around there as if searching for something... feel free to try and figure out what it is )                 ↪ golden ward ( the university if only to borrow books from the library, he can read there for days at a time without sleep or food. he reads all kinds of things, both fiction and non fiction. )                 ↪ archimedes ward ( pretty much everywhere in this ward, it’s my favourite. he enjoys music and art sometimes. hit me with that biblical shit. )                ↪ the mistwood ( 100% down to be that cryptic creature that leads you from your path to your likely doom )                ↪ the city of yesteryear ( typically the underground areas, just investigating really. any strange occurrences would likely draw him there as would any presence of a strong power. )                ↪ atop skyscrapers, looming at the ‘edge’ of the world we can currently explore, typically more active at night, perhaps at the scene of a murder / attack ( plotted ), if he’s feeling extra ballsy he might be found in a bar but its very rare. very VERY rare, wandering broken buildings, invading scientific facilities or buildings. he’s not going to be found in busy, socially strained areas basically.

↪ i’m down for any ideas you might have too for plots so feel free to just message me if nothing here caters!

STATS PAGE | APPLICATION | PLOTTING PAGE

[randomidiocyncrazies]

because i’m incapable of shutting up about post empyre kree-skrull royal court, i’d really like to see the Kaplan-Altmans’ interactions with the court, both separately and together:

Teddy

so proud of my boy Teddy! he’s a good leader, and the defining characteristic of his reign is his kindness, which is Very Different from kree/skrull culture. as evil grandma says there will be those who see his mercy as a weakness, and there are veterans on both sides of the war who can’t accept the new status quo of a unified kree-skrull empire—a deeper look at how to deal with people who refuse to consider anything but bloodshed without losing your own kindness would be interesting to tackle (esp when there are more people who reject the unification/pacifist rule than initially expected)

I also don’t think Teddy actually wants to rule an empire; he’s clearly comfortable with being a leader now and is willing to step up to the plate, but empires by definition have specific connotations. it’d be kinda rad if Teddy doesn’t just aim for a merciful reign, but seeks to change the structure of the empire itself, eg. introduce concepts like democracy or other systems of governance. Teddy tackling the question of whether leading is necessarily the same as ruling, and navigating the similarities/differences between them is MY JAM

also... i love Teddy and he’s clearly competent at his job so far, but he didn't grow up learning statecraft. i know comics love Huge Cosmic Events but honestly? intergalactic diplomatic dinners are just as high-stakes—what’s the point of making characters royalty if they’re not drawn into political intrigue????? 

Billy

there's a lot of potential for Mur-G'nn & Billy interactions imo—Billy’s been appointed as Court Mage at the royal wedding, which was her job on the flagship. in Lords of Empyre #1 her assessment of Billy in front of the court suggests that her main concern isn’t Billy’s human heritage, or even Teddy’s devotion to the alliance being divided, but because "this man is a chaos-bringer. He threatens destiny itself.” on the other hand, she seems a bit more apologetic about separating Billy from Teddy than the other detractors, and sends Carol and Johnny to Billy for help when fake!Teddy orders their exile

given the factors above i’d like it if Billy and Mur-G’nn get along well, but disagree on the concept of destiny and its role in Teddy’s reign. it’d also be great if neither are presented as being foolish, but have ways of looking at the world and certain beliefs due to their upbringing and personal experiences. (Mur-G’nn and her cohorts being hunted to near extinction, with the Dorrek Supreme prophecy giving their lives meaning and hope, makes sense for why she thinks destiny is sacred and must be protected. Billy, bullied viciously as a teenager because he can’t/is unwilling to hide who he is, plus his op powerset and upbringing, naturally has different ideas about destiny.)

... add the myriad kree/skrull perspectives on spirituality, religion and belief (pssst marvel bring Xavin back!) and you have a hook for understanding the people of the combined empire better imo. again, making it Billy vs everyone else is super boring, so a spectrum is appreciated.

also? just imagine space politicians trying to schmooze with William “it’s other people who have a problem with me” Kaplan-Altman—he’s polite enough but they soon realize he has a stubborn streak

Together

I’ll k*ll marvel with my bare hands if they get broken up

that said, i think adjusting to their new circumstances could be really quite compelling? like, on earth Billy’s the "more important one” in the sense that he gets more missions with other heroes, and a lot of Young Avenger plots are connected to him/his powers, but Teddy is now KING of SPACE. on earth the’re relatively independent heroes, but at court their titles comes with certain specific responsibilities and expectations. their relationship is going to be everybody’s business now, so there’s probably some culture shock all around until they get used to it. 

it’s all politics, even when it doesn’t look like it—again, neither of Billy or Teddy grew up learning statecraft, they’re getting by with natural charisma right now. their advisors probably wanna cry

Others

I’d actually really like to see Kl’rt trying (and knowing marvel probably failing) to serve as a diplomat. just trying REALLY HARD to promote peace when instincts tell him to settle the matter by violence, doing his best to atone for all the innocent lives he had cut short, processing the notion of duty and service to his nation/the crown and the nuances involved. honestly i think having him struggle between his past training and his new determination to not disappoint Teddy’s expectations could be really compelling—furthermore if they take the time to examine his loyalty to Teddy: how much of it is motivated by patriotism and belief in Teddy’s reign, how much of it is personal guilt?

It’d also be rad as heck if the family from Meet the Skrulls and Road to Empyre are featured in a small plot or two—it’s an opportunity to see how Teddy’s policies affect Kree/Skrulls on earth! After all, now will the agents on earth react to long-term peace?

I’d also LOVE IT if Xavin comes back, even just briefly. like... they believed in Teddy even when Teddy didn’t want to face his responsibilities (”To not believe in you, the savior, the uniter, is to not believe in hope.”). them being inactive for so damn long means they’ll have to process the kree-skrull unification, and how it’s probably different than what they had expected initially when it’s said Teddy will unite the skrulls—i don’t think Xavin ever thought a kree-skrull alliance is possible growing up, so that could be interesting. also? i just miss them lol

[mysticalmusicwhispers]

Do you have any headcanons for any asian characters in hetalia?

Thanks for the ask anon!

The Asians (as a group and individually) have my heart so you can expect a lot of headcanons for them. I’ve posted a list of China headcanons here (scroll down and you’ll find them eventually), but I’ll probably put new ones in this ask too. Anyway:

- All the Asians love to take food pictures! I know this is a “fashionable thing” to do all over the world nowadays, but I feel like the Asian countries are like the epitome of food pictures. Taiwan, HK, Japan, South Korea, and maybe Macau would do this the most. They’d probably run a joint social media account just for food pictures (as well as food selfies, since they’re all super photogenic). I also think they might compete with each other to take the best pictures, and have people vote on whose is the best?? 

Also just imagine China cooking the food for them and then all the young’uns crowding around the plate taking pictures for a long time, after 5 minutes they hear China yell “Hey! The food’s going to get cold if you don’t start EATING!” *mutters “Sheesh, they’re too phone addicted”*

- A lot of people headcanon Yao/China as the boomer of the Asians (and in general), and make him like an old man not knowing how to use a phone and everything. But… literally, real China has so much social media and internet stuff, like they’ve literally almost phased out using cash because everyone just pays for stuff using WeChat on their phones… like literally, this stuff is way ahead of America’s cash rn, so I think China would be able to absorb his people’s phone/internet prowess and not be so “boomer-y” like everyone thinks?? I have to admit that the boomer China situation would be pretty funny but I just don’t think it’s very realistic?

- Ok this part is just a rant about South Korea. WHy in the worLd does he need to be all perverted???? Like why is he so obsessed with people’s body parts/breasts???? Like what, why can you not make him a normal person who is a tech savvy enthusiastic photogenic Asian who is definitely a nerdy jock (if those exist) instead of some random groper??? Ok anyway, I’ve got no idea what’s up with canon SK but I think he’d be like the Denmark in the asians? Very excitable, friendly, and overall gives off cool vibes. Also I think he just pretends to be dumb sometimes to make people laugh, but can read the mood pretty well even if people don’t think he can. He’s also pretty smart and good with technology, and can strike up conversations with a lot of people really quickly (this also leads to him getting a lot of connections if it’s in a Human AU) Overall, I think modern day SK’s got his heart in the right place, he just might mess up a few times.

- Ancient Times: the Asians in history are kinda complicated, because a) HK, Taiwan, and Macau are pretty much irrelevant right now, b) I am clueless about Southeast Asian history so idk what Thailand and Vietnam are doing at that time, and c) China, Japan, and Korea weren’t exactly friends all the time (and they weren’t really friends from WWI to the Korean War). Also to complicate stuff, Korea had three kingdoms: Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla; Silla apparently took over the other two later (with the help of the Chinese Tang dynasty) and became Unified Korea, and then the Korean War happened and it split again. So, idk what’s up with them (canon makes it more complicated because China took in Japan, I assume he would’ve taken Korea or the 3 kingdoms in as well because there’s a lot of shared history/trade/alliances between those three). There’s a lot of backstabbing and wars and stuff, some between China and Japan, some between China and Korea vs Japan, some between Korea and Japan, etc. If the countries were physically kids, I guess you could reason it out that they were just small bastards who were really rowdy and liked to fight, but I think that at least China would have been in his late teens/early 20s, and he took in Japan before most of the wars, so maybe that’s just Japan being a rebellious kid? Idk man East Asian history is complicated

- I think the young’uns are all fans of something (I think Japan and HK and maybe Taiwan are anime/manga fans, and SK likes his kpop idols) and they always get China to come along with them resignedly, to a convention or concert or whatever. But let’s be real, he hates on the others’ stuff but watches his own tv dramas just fine (although he hates the characters’ decisions a lot and rants a lot too)

- They get so competitive during sports! Especially at big things like the Olympics, or any international ____ competition (like swimming or something with lots of events). I think everybody would roast China for always failing soccer at FIFA (mens or womens) even if they themselves didn’t get in (usually Japan and Korea qualify, and they might even make it to like round of 8 or something). Other events, they’d just root for their own team and possibly make bets as to who’s going to win.

- I don’t know why China doesn’t have glasses in his design because literally so many people are nearsighted!!! (me included hhh) but idk I guess an explanation is he used to wear them and then was teased by his kids for being an old grandpa so he got contacts instead or something

- And because of genetics or something I think HK and Taiwan would also have nearsightedness but (I think in Taiwan at least) the trend is to get laser eye surgery, so I think both of them would’ve gotten it so they could keep looking cOoL (or something)

- All of them like TEA of some kind. Japan and China prefer to stick with the normal tea (brewed with tea leaves and stuff) but Taiwan loves bubble tea, and HK and Korea prefer iced tea more? But I think they’d all be able to switch between different types and not complain (except China, the old man)

- If China forgot he had a meeting scheduled and on that day, he invited all the others to his house, I think he’d begrudgingly put Japan in charge and leave, but I think Japan would let the others do whatever they want (he lowkey loves pranking China) and by the time China is back the house would either be wrecked or they’d went through all his stuff and now have a hoard of private things to ask him. China would throw them all out and then somehow find a way to get back at Japan

- I read a headcanon somewhere that they all think their own cooking is the best, and that would be very funny to write, but I think at dinners and stuff they’d all bring their favorite dish and just share, because nostalgia, sometimes they just feel like eating stuff that reminds them of their past or when they were at ____’s house (eg. Japan and Korea with Chinese food, Taiwan with Japanese food, etc.)

- Lots of family arguing and mutual pranks

- Lots and lots of low and high key roasts and lots of sarcasm (especially from the older ones). 

Taiwan: “How do you think this dress looks?” 

China: “Like you took fashion advice as bad as England’s cooking”

Japan: “I hate to say this, but China is 100% on point.”

Taiwan: D:

- Disapproval of clothing! China arguing at his kids that their clothes are too unconservative or show too much skin or something, and his kids arguing back that he dresses like he blindly picked out clothes without opening his eyes

OK yeah that’s it thanks for listening if you made it down here! I was originally intending to include Thailand and Macau and Vietnam but then realized I have next to nothing for them so… I’m sorry if you wanted some about them! Take my humblest apologies. Anyway, you probably noticed the Asians have my heart and definitely ask for more if you want! I’d never deny the chance to think about what dumb stuff they’d do lol

[terfslying]

Sorry but can you explain what a terf is? I legitimately don’t know.

First off: I apologise for the impending info dump. You’re going to know so much stuff that you never even cared about if you get through this post.

Tl;dr - TERF is short for ‘Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist’ - they’re people who selectively use radical feminist ideology to justify transphobia.

TERFs generally believe in some way or another that transgender people are harmful to women because a) all males are violent and evil and trans women are male ergo they’re violent and evil, despite facts that show otherwise and b) women who aren’t feminine are ‘confused’ into being trans and ‘mutilating themselves’.

Historically TERFs are actually kind of interesting. Here’s the cliff notes:

Late 1960′s: Radical Feminism is a thing that appears. People become radfems. It’s a good time in the USA for things like abortion rights, domestic violence protection, etc. because radfems were great with forcing legal changes with that.

1970′s: ‘Sex Essentialist’ Radfems start kicking shit off. These are your proto-TERFs. They are female-separatists and are also known as ‘political lesbians’ - women who are lesbian for feminist political reasons, but do not consider themselves part of the lesbian community and are highly critical of existing lesbians. They are not well liked by real lesbians.

1971: Anne Koedt (a reasonably well-known proto-TERF) publishes her pamphlet ‘Lesbianism and Feminism’, claiming that “The agreement that there is nothing innately sick about persons having sex with someone of their own sex does not mean that therefore all gay behavior is healthy in feminist terms,” and criticises lesbian culture for encouraging butchness. This was a common position for political lesbians.

1979: Sex Essentialist Radfems publically attack a radfem lesbian trans woman, Beth Elliot, at the West Coast Lesbian Conference. The WCLC attendees end up taking a vote on whether Beth Elliot should be allowed to perform and stay at the event; 2/3rds vote ‘yes’ for her staying. Several Sex Essentialist radfems proceed to slander Beth Elliot in their speeches over the next few days. Among the slander she calls Beth “a rapist, a predator, an intruder”.

1980: The National Centre of Health Care Technology (NCHCT) in the US commissions well-known ‘Sex Essentialist’ Janice Raymond (who wrote in her 1979 book that ‘transsexuality should be morally mandated out of existence’) to write a report for them on the ethical considerations of transsexual medical treatment. Hers was one of three reports, the other two being a cost analysis and a review of the medical methods and risks.

1981: The US Office of Health Technology Assessment (OHTA) takes over the duties of NCHCT. They pass a policy that transsexual surgeries are “too experimental, controversial, and expensive”, citing Janice Raymond’s OHTA report and the two other OHTA reports. Trans healthcare in the US is basically put on the ‘do not cover’ list for public and private health insurers and remains that way until the 2000′s.

1980′s: Several studies that claim ‘autogynephilia’ exist are adopted by proto-TERFs. Autogynephilia theory claimed that there were two kinds of trans women (attracted to men, and not attracted to men) and the ones that were not attracted to men were ‘autogynephiles’ - men turned on by the idea of being women. (It was later discovered that these studies were performed on a very small group of white, middle-aged, middle-class people, who demographically happen to also be the #1 leading group for having transvestite fetishism. When they redid these studies years later with a representative sample by race & economic status, the concept of ‘autogynephiles’ was shown to be not really relevant at all to trans women). The idea that all trans women are innately perverted or sexually deviant is widely embraced by proto-TERFs, if they didn’t already believe it.

1990′s: ‘Sex Essentialist Radical Feminism’ primarily spread in the UK during this time, resulting in the wide variety of UK-based ‘feminist’ activist groups that are TERFs in the current time.

2008: Radical feminist spaces in livejournal are (over the course of only a few months) suddenly filled with trans-exclusionary radfems. Trans-positive and trans-neutral radfems create the term TERF to distinguish the ‘new’ extremists.

Modern TERFs tend to disown the past of their own movement, and many internet-era radfems are unaware of the past violent events and constant conflict with actual real lesbians vs. their group. Modern TERFs have a variety of activist groups (primarily UK based in most cases thanks to the 90′s) which are known to work closely with right-wing US groups like Alliance Defending Freedom and the Heritage Foundation (who have both openly worked with (and even funded, in the ADF’s case) the group Women’s Liberation Front, despite both of them being anti-gay and anti-abortion, the antithesis of lesbian radfems). TERF groups have also been responsible for anti-pride demonstrations in the UK in the last few years (‘Drop the T’), anti-trans billboards, and a $40,000 full-page anti-trans advertisement in a newspaper in the UK. Some UK TERF groups also actively publish misleading research (eg. Fair Play For Women, which made the 40% of trans women in prison are sex offenders claim, based on taking 4 years worth of case meeting paperwork and counting the number of times the word ‘transgender’ was mentioned, and only specifically considering trans women ‘not sex offenders’ if they were housed in prisons where sex offenders are never housed)

[kendrixtermina]

-the governments of the Alliance and the Kingdom is very bad. It's still her deciding that if people won't agree with her they are wrong and they must be attacked and removed from power, that only she and the Adrestian Empire are allowed to determine what happens. Again I just don't like a war of aggression where she actively invades two entire states because they refuse to agree with her. They should be allowed to find their own paths and not submit to the one she desires.

That would be a fine line of argument if “the people” were actually the ones doing the ruling but *they’re not*. That’s the very problem Edelgard seeks to remedy. 

The average person in Fodlan has little means to exert their political will or form a political opinion (it’s no accident that one of the plans she cooks up with Ferdinand in their supports is to Educate the populace - Hubert also has a lecture question about it) and though the nobles have *some* power the church makes sure to keep em indoctrinated and the legitimacy of their rule is essentially derived from a false story cooked up by Seiros, they’re unlikely to bite the hand that feeds them. 

The people aren’t ruling, not even the leaders of the three factions, including previous Adrestian emperors, really are - The two shadow factions have all the power, and they’re the ones Edelgard got beef with. If she needs to go through the rulers of Leicester and Faerghus to remove them, she will, if she doesn’t have to, she won’t.

And i suppose that could be called a callous decision, but one has to consider that the human mind tends to overestimate harm caused by action vs. harm caused by inaction. Acting has a cost, but doing nothing has a cost, too. If she does nothing, all the wrong in the world will just go on and on and on and keep claiming casualties forever and ever and ever. 

The “peace” at the start of the story is an illusion, almost all the characters have been fucked over by corruption, inequality, xenophobia, obsession with bloodlines and the church’s supression of dissenters in their backstory. 

Sometimes all choices you have are bad ones and you have to pick the least bad one. 

I mean none of those people she fights WANT to be controlled by shadow factions. They don’t know about them, or don’t believe Edelgard about them because of indoctrination. They’re already having someone elses’ will imposed on them - Edelgard wants to stop that. 

The Church controls everything, makes sure to indoctrinate each new generation of leaders (that’s what the officers acdemy is, isn’t it? Make the young nobles kill rebels so they never think of defying the church) cuts down anyone who disagrees, and TSWITD basically removed the two most powerful men in Fodlan (Labert and Ionius) to install their own agents.

It required extensive machinations for Edelgard to even wrest control of her OWN country after her father was reduced to a puppet ruler, and even then she couldn’t do it without playing nice with Thales, whom she loathes and who casually threatens to nuke the empire at once point - She has to be carefull af about when and how she defies him. 

“The people of Faerghus and Leicester” (or of Adrestia, for that matter) have nothing to say before Edelgard attacked.  So she’s technically the aggressor but only in the way that, say, someone rebelling against foreign overlords would be.

The fight isn’t really Adrestia vs. Faerghus and the Alliance but Edelgard and her inner circle vs. the Shadow Factions and whomever they can manipulate to fight for them. (in which she starts with the church planning to backstab Agartha later once she’s consolidated power) and if you don’t feature that in you’ve understood nothing about the plot

Even if she loses Fodlan invariably winds up better off for her actions, 2 times out of 3 she & Hubert still play a huge role in removing the slither boys (every route except Azure moon) and 3 times out of 4, we get a more egalitarian form of government with more participation by the commonfolk (any route except Silver Snow), and better foreign relations (All four routes - All Lords want to hget along with the neighbors, and Seteths ending mentions him encouraging more tolerance between different faiths) - Even if its not her or even someone she’d pick an actual citizen of fodlan winds up in charge rather than Seiros or the Slither Boys the removal of which was her main goal. 

And she did this knowing full well she might end up an unsung hero, reviled by everyone. She’s amazing and extremly altruistic and to characterize her as someone who just imposes her will when her whole motivation is to make sure that the voices of the average joes are heard at all is just a gross misrepresentation. 

Of course you might have a different interpretation here and you’re entitled to it, but I’m just as entitled to mine. 

Tl;DR: It makes little sense to accuse her of “imposing her will on the people” if the people were never in charge to begin with. It’s only due to her efforts to remove the shadow factions that rule by actual people even becomes possible - and once she does that she steps down and packs up to go eat cake. 

Also, purely characterization wise she’s really not this my way or the highway sorta person that some read her as…. at all. Her supports, as well as various in-story descriptions (eg by Ladislava), make it clear that she actually questions herself alot and is quite receptive to constructive criticism/inputs.  That self-awareness is like almost one of the main reasons I like her. 

[tryingahandinholdingapen]

(disclaimer that I don't know bnha canon at all and also reject roughly half of the fanon stuff I've found so)

I have a fic idea for bnha and idek if I want to read it or write it more but either way the idea keeps coming back to me

so shigaraki using video game terms

let's say that's partly bc he just enjoys video games and partly bc it's frequently a convenient metaphor/way of communicating stuff fast (like, u could say that guy over there has a Quirk that affects 10 metres in a radius around him, or u could say his attacks Aoe is 10m (don't be mad at me if I get terminology wrong lmao I'm just tryna get the gist of the idea across))

anyway

let's say this is a fic where

- dabi is touya todoroki

- several (but not all) of class 1-A have in the past or in the present strayed into vigilantism

- we have shinsou hitoshi in class 1-A bc I say so

- dabi/hawks

- hero commission bashing

- maybe some all might bashing?

I feel like I keep going off on tangents lmao anyway my main idea is that like basically Izuku forcibly adds all of Class 1-A (but no teachers) and all of the League of Villains to a discord or made up gc app, or gets someone else to do it, via hacking or smth like he doesn't approach them everyone just gets a notification of some form saying they've been added to a gc

and basically what happens is that several things are mentioned eg 1-A hating Endeavor, hints at vigilantism, and hero commission bashing, that makes the League slightly more inclined to listen, and then Izuku just fucking.

he makes it a video game basically lmao

everyone is aware that this is somewhere between an extremely extended metaphor and a weird agreement of challenges/engagement that only works if everyone keeps to the internally agreed rules, but everyone DOES keep to the internal rules of the game bc it's entertaining and bc it leads to more compromises that help both sides get shit done, it benefits communication and honestly why not. why not just see where this goes

izuku (and possibly another character or OC who is more believably villainish inclined?) plays like. narrator almost, assigning missions and conditions for failure/success etc. you can accept or refuse missions but there may be consequences

it's probably not actually discord they're doing this on it'd be some made up app for the purpose of the fic but it functions similarly in that it has channels/subgroups that only certain people can access. there's one for everyone, there's one for the League, there's one for all students, there's one for the vigilantes (some of 1-A plus Dabi), an anti-Endeavor one, etc etc etc. there's a lot of groups. the vigilante one may or may not be a separate channel to the one for those who r on the line between hero and villain (this includes Hawks, who is not a villain but loves Dabi, hates the hero commission, was sent to spy on the League by the Commission, and is constantly internally screaming at all times)

at first it seems there are only two overarching arcs/missions available: Hero or Villain, and everyone at first has to publicly pick one and it's v much 1-A vs League, tho the missions etc are subtly made so that they harm each other and bystanders slightly less than before the discord started

over time it becomes clear that 1) literally nobody there even the 100% heroes likes the commission the best case scenario is "I think it needs some reform to be effective and more ethical yikes" 2) its not just heroes and villains there's ppl in between. at some point there's how many is revealed but not who, after the first choice of Hero vs Villain (reform/imprison all villains and vigilantes and save as many as possible vs kill all might and in some way destroy the hero society structure type deal) nobody is necessarily obligated to tell anyone what they currently feel or their alliances or what they're aiming for

(Hawks causes complete fucking chaos at one point by posting on the main channel smth along the lines of "I'm going to cry someone else just approached me and I am now on five separate sides someone help me I am not this good at acting or time management I'm gonna get Caught I'm gonna Die I can't be a quadruple agent" to which naturally everyone went WHAT THE FUCK WHAT FIVE SIDES ARE YOU ON and THERE'S F I V E SIDES NOW and WHAT SIDE ARE YOU ACTUALLY FUCKING WORKING FOR THEN etc)

(the five sides are in no particular order 1) the hero commission 2) the league 3) UA/Nezu 4) vigilantes 5) heroes who do not agree with the commission OR vigilantism)

(someone help Hawks he is so very very stuck)

(he refuses to clarify what side he's on but does clarify that "I'm not even sure I know rn I have some allies everywhere and some enemies...not everywhere but lots of places" and "but I can assure u I too hate the hero commission fuck the hero commission")

everyone involved keeps this shit QUIET okay nobody except those on the discord knows the discord exists

but it does still influence their actions

which means yeah there's UA teachers having a crisis bc "why are the League suddenly so quiet and not committing more violent crimes" "why did that hero student just let that villain run away..." "what is happening"

eventually the League of Villains becomes the League of Vigilantes, yay reformation sort of

all for one fucking dies

fuck the hero commission

there's reluctant "live and let live" attitude to the L of V but all of 1-A loves them

it's great

this isn't v coherent but idk how to explain it better I promise in my head it's amazing lmao

[hexephre]

Sentient Species of Kenah: Dragons

Dragons are, in the most basic terms, large (usually) winged reptiles. They come in a huge range of sizes, from dragons smaller than a human to many stories tall. (Plus an outlier who may be the size of a mountain, but we don’t talk about Dragons Georg.) Aside from that, almost anything goes - they can have two legs or four, scales, leathery skin, fur, feathers, horns, spikes… From a design perspective, I don���t want to limit myself!

Dragons embody the Mind Principle of the Self, and tend to be concerned with what was.

Dragons are the most magically powerful species on Kenah, and are deeply attuned to the planetary elemental balance. Each Dragon has access to three aspects, though none may be in direct opposition to each other (eg. a Dragon with Lumia cannot also have Skadis). Dragons are so strong, and their numbers so few, that each one’s power over their elements can actually shift the planetary balance.

Draconic social norms stem mainly from much older individuals and millennia of tradition, as well as Dragons’ natural tendency toward solitude. Territory is a Dragon’s most valuable social asset; its worth is based on size as well as physical and magical resources. To many older Dragons, a Dragon without a territory is a Dragon who cannot make a name for themselves, and to decline a territorial challenge is a greater dishonour than to lose a fight in defending one’s land. Territorial disputes are common and often heated.

Although some Dragons certainly fit the old Terran stereotype of terrorizing or razing small villages, there isn’t actually any benefit to eating virgins vs. non virgins. Alliances may spring up at borders with other Dragons or with non-Dragon settlements, and this is where the second most valuable asset comes in: every Dragon has a natural disposition to hoard something. The hoard item can range from sand (fairly easy to hoard, but they probably want a lot of it) to ancient Draconic texts (good luck, scrub).

Due to their lifespan, Dragons tend to be unconcerned with progress and change, as they perceive it to happen so quickly around them with or without their influence. This does seem to be changing with the younger generations, however, as they spend more time in close contact with the other species.

[invitedeath]

SEPHIROTH                           — relationship & plotter call.

hello lovely isolians! a new year means new plots and ideas, hence why i’m reposting this mammoth of a plotter once again! 

so liking this post means that you are 100% down with interacting with me in some fashion! ways this might happen may be... → me sending you im’s / tumblr asks to plot or chat! i can be quite a talkative person as a forewarning, as i love discussing rp things as well as getting to know my rp partner! → if we are already friends on discord or twitter, i might message you that way to ask you about plots or ideas! → exchanging ask memes / meme day things that might be a bit more personal than a general sentence meme → possible random starters or musings dedicated to your muse, sometimes i get sudden inspiration for these things! → general tomfoolery and shenanigans in character ( and ooc if you like )

you can contact me via the im system here, by the /ask feature or you can ask for my discord/twitter if you prefer those. just let me know.

FRIENDS.

↪ honestly friendships aren’t typically on the agenda for him. he is arrogant beyond belief and considers everyone to be weaker than him or to some degree unworthy of his time or energy. he really does not have any interest emotionally in anyone besides himself, instead he is far more likely to use and discard people when they are no longer needed.

↪ however! i am down to... vague villain-alliance type deals with fellow power players here. he wont consider your muse a friend, but rather a pawn or even a means to an end, that end being his goal of generally using this island for his means, apologies. preferably the intellectual, over-powered, edgy types will probably gravitate towards him more, but i’m willing to throw anything at the wall to see what sticks. he’s not a nice guy, by any means, but it would be interesting to see how he has to play the game here to his advantage until he regains powers.

↪ there are some cases where he might engage in conversation with non-villain types and these would likely be far more dialogue-heavy threads including metaphorical topics or debates. the conversations of life, death, mortality, good vs evil, frailty of existence, legacy, power and corruption, calamities, birthright and betrayal are just some of the topics possible to arise in discussion. that being said, whilst these topics would be of interest to him, the character themselves must meet his standard of what he considers worthy of his time eg. those just willing to argue with him will bore him whereas someone curious to his nature might be treated to an actual conversation

↪ warriors, outcasts, villains, intellectuals, fellow puppet-master type villains especially, those he ‘befriended’ in past events, perhaps even neighbours to his house would all be likely connections. friends of those he has worked alongside or met, or those wishing to seek great power and know of his existence might seek him out also, but yes... ““““friends”“““ is a very difficult term for him.

→ his most recent developments see him as a far more casual version of his canon self, over a year of living as close to a “domestic life” as possible have meant that whilst he is aloof and cold, he is also far more likely to be out and about, buying wine at some creepy gas station at 4:30am for example. he chats when he’s in the mood and might even stick around to cause some chaos for the sake of boredom eating him alive. so whilst he is still very much a dangerous inhabitant here in spirale, sephiroth is currently Domesticated somewhat as he buys his time... for something...

ENEMIES.

↪ heroes of all shapes and sizes might feel threatened by the ominous presence of a monster who seems inclined to side with chaos as opposed to peace. he’s not outright starting fires here but he is present in the more morbid moments of isolian discourse, an omen of death lingering on the sideline. he has his plans and he may just mock you with them, but in general since he does and WILL cut down npcs ( or players ) alike, he makes for the perfect villain. BE WARY he has a few unlocked powers and knows the island well. fighting him would not guarantee your victory.

↪ he has traumas. plenty of them. some of them originate from white labs and white coats, meaning he might just view you as an enemy if you’re a scientist or someone who dabbles in human experimentation. his reasons are his own, but let’s just say that if you consider him a good candidate for poking and prodding with scientific equipment, you may just lose an arm.

↪ i LOVE fight threads especially really gritty, bloody types. i would prefer to plot these out so we know what’s going on beforehand, but feel free to develop these with me honestly i love a good old classic villain hero showdown. i determine winners based on the powers unlocked or a random generator. i don’t want to win every fight, but i also don’t want to unrealistically lose unless the odds are 50/50. i only write fights that both you and i are comfortable with ending!

↪ be a human. that’s it, you’re officially the enemy. a cocky, arrogant, interfering one would be oh so annoying. he wont attack because you’re a human, exactly... but the attitude that goes with one. considering yourself the top of the food chain, for example, might just end up being the defining reason for you own self becoming the meal.

→ police/law enforcers/general crime stoppers might try and get involved when they see him stabbing someone with that great big sword of his. typically he’ll turn the sword on them too, but if you’re interesting enough, or maybe aren’t as pure as you seem, he may just put it down long enough to chat. typically though you will get stabbed. sorry.

LOVERS.

↪ for the last year i’ve pretty much tried to stay away from developing anything too romantic. besides one sort of amusing game he has with a character currently in the group ( lanque bombyx ), sephiroth has avoided love or relationships or even flirting really. that being said, once he has ranked up and my development for this current “arc” of his character in isola comes to a close, i will be opening him up more for shipping potential!

however for the meantime... 

MISC.

↪ pawns and such would be a fun dynamic later. his general presence is pretty terrifying, so it wouldn’t be a stretch if you have an appropriate muse for them to be fearful enough to carry out some little tasks for him. this might be more common later on, but i’m down to discussion for it currently!

↪ places you may find him can include:                  ↪ near his residence ( personal housing; castle in the mistwood  )                  ↪ fibonacci ward ( levels 3 and 4 especially due to the museums and things. but also the lowest levels, he tends to wander around there as if searching for something... feel free to try and figure out what it is )                  ↪ cotes ward ( perhaps wandering by the castle when there aren’t people there, reading alone there or writing is also very likely. )                  ↪ golden ward ( the university if only to borrow books from the library, he can read there for days at a time without sleep or food. he reads all kinds of things, both fiction and non fiction. )                  ↪ archimedes ward ( pretty much everywhere in this ward, it’s my favourite. he enjoys music and art sometimes. hit me with that biblical shit. )                 ↪ the mistwood ( 100% down to be that cryptic creature that leads you from your path to your likely doom )                 ↪ the city of yesteryear ( typically the underground areas, just investigating really. any strange occurrences would likely draw him there as would any presence of a strong power. )                 ↪ atop skyscrapers, looming at the ‘edge’ of the world we can currently explore, typically more active at night, perhaps at the scene of a murder / attack ( plotted ), if he’s feeling extra ballsy he might be found in a bar but its very rare. very VERY rare, wandering broken buildings, invading scientific facilities or buildings. he’s not going to be found in busy, socially strained areas basically.

↪ i’m down for any ideas you might have too for plots so feel free to just message me if nothing here caters!

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