#I like the other characters just fine

[the-derpy-duck]

Orko not needing to be “useful” to be loved and valued is a thing that I think about often.

My knowledge of He Man is very limited and I only really watched any of the shows for Orko. But like he used to be really great at magic but because of circumstances that were mostly out of his control he can’t really do magic anymore. His abilities are severely stunted for basically his entire time on Eternia. He saves Adam and that wins him favor with the king and queen and he gets to be a court jester. He tries to use magic to do his job and he fails a lot. When he messes up he always works to fix his mistakes and he wants to help. He’s doing his best and the people around him love him for who he is.

He-Man was made and aired during the 1980s. The Cold War had begun to sort of wind down (as in the hostility between the USA and USSR) before this point because Carter (who was president from 1976 to 1980) was actively worked to be less involved in conflicts. Dumbasses who say trump was the first president to not have the USA participate in war during his presidency either ignore or are unaware of Carter until they need to bring up the Iran Hostage Crisis. Reagan, who proceeded Carter, immediately started working on undoing everything Carter worked to do. He removed solar panels from the White House that Jimmy Carter installed and also made the AIDs Crisis a lot worse than it needed to be (Jimmy lead the eradication effort of guinea worm because he saw a woman suffering and decided to do something about it). Regan also deregulated some aspects of the TV industry which allowed for the 30 minute toy commercials that started many beloved franchise. The Regan administration sort of revived the Cold War. Although the red scare had already happened and communists weren’t well liked during Carter’s presidency tensions were still dying down. But when He-Man was airing tensions had begun to rise again.

I don’t know how long production for He-Man was but if it was less than three years than it is safe to say that the writers were at least aware of the political climate. He-Man is not political commentary. Although cartoons at the time definitely did reflect current issues and some of those issue would be political (such as The Transformers clearly commenting on the energy crisis and also just in general being pretty anti war), He-Man and all of these other shows existed to sell toys to children. That is why a good portion of children’s entertainment exists. The capitalist society we live in requires everything to make money, I promise you this will be important in just a second. But the historical context for He-Man was that the Cold War was getting warmer. So the Capitalist v Communist narrative had started up again. I need you to keep this idea in mind or at least entertain it: Orko is, in one way or another, disabled or able to represent disability. He needs to use magic in his everyday life and he now has a significantly harder time using magic. His entire life and world was magic and his role, both on Trolla and on Eternia, requires him to use magic. And because he looses his magic wand he also looses the ability to preform magic at the capacity that he used to. And I know it would be easier for him to preform magic on Trolla but he’s not on Trolla for most of the show so that’s kind of irrelevant. What’s relevant is that he is a magician, he performs magic on Trolla and on Enternia and he is now less able to do his job on Enternia, and he sort of can’t go back to Trolla. Please keep this idea in mind.

We live in a capitalistic society that demands everyone to contribute and if you can’t contribute then you die. Systems exist to help people who are unable to work. I don’t know a lot about those systems and from what little I understand they aren’t that good. Because the foundations of our society relies on people believing that they need to be “useful” to be “valuable” or just worthy of living and not starving on the streets I’ve found that it leads to attitudes that people who can’t work are leaching off of others. However time stops for no one and eventually your body will start to deteriorate and you won’t be as capable of working or preforming tasks as before. And that’s fine. We are valuable because we exist and we are people. No one needs to prove that they are a person and no one has to earn the right to exist and be happy. That is a person’s birth right. I think our society’s obsession with working is partly why aging is seen as negative. Another reason is definitely that death is scary and not being able to do everything you used to isn’t great but part of that being seen as not great isn’t just not being able to do certain things you liked to do (like running or playing a sport) but rather because you can’t contribute as much/work as much as before.

And there’s other factors to this besides capitalism but ultimately it’s the foundation of our modern world and getting rid of it wouldn’t solve everything as the other issues would still exist but it would make things better. Capitalism leads us to be more individualistic and cruel. If you ask most people “hey should our neighbor Bob die because he can’t afford healthcare or his medication” they will say no, but they will also say no to universal healthcare because taxes will increase. Money is absolutely useless. It has no value. Gold is pretty, but ultimately a weak (and also heavy) metal. Money is only valuable because we think it is and gold is/was so valuable because we said it was and because we think it’s pretty (it is). If the world was to collapse tomorrow and everything shut down (like nuclear fallout or a zombie apocalypse), money would be worthless. You can’t eat it, it won’t build you a shelter, it cannot heal you, it cannot protect you. At some point we decided that a piece of paper was more valuable and important than actual human lives.

I’m under no delusion that I am the first person to realize this or that this is a new thing. By ‘we’ I mean humans in general but also at some point every person decides when they are willing to sacrifice the lives and wellbeing of others for their financial gain. And that’s not an entirely bad thing. I believe that being “selfish” is, to an extent, good. This guy named Maslow came up with a hierarchy of needs. It’s not perfect and some levels can be fulfilled before others can but the basic idea is that certain needs must be fulfilled and satisfied before others can be. You can’t be in a relationship or employed if you can’t breath. You MUST look out for yourself and keep yourself alive before you can help others. You need to put on your air mask before attempting to assist others. And if or not that should be considered “selfish” is arguable. Humans are social creatures, so it is generally frowned upon to not look out for others. We would not be where we are today as a species if we followed an “Everyman for themselves” type of philosophy. But capitalism demands that we do. But even without capitalism you still need to be a little selfish to survive. And at some point being unselfish becomes selfish when you are in charge of the care of others. If a person has kids then they must provide and care for those kids and so they would have the interest of their family unit in the forefront of their mind. And it would be fucking insane if they didn’t and if someone looked down on them for that. Drowning yourself won’t help others who are drowning.

We are expected to contribute and to view people who don’t contribute as less than. Orko as a character stands in direct opposition to this idea. He isn’t seen as inherently less than because he isn’t as good at performing magic as he was before. He does his best at his job and he is still treated as a person despite him not being a great magician. He doesn’t need to be great, or good, or even ok at magic because he is good enough. He is a person and that is enough. He tries everyday and that is enough. He is kind and trusting and a little guy and that is enough. Orko is enough and he will always be enough. He isn’t a failure and he is not treated as such. He might be insecure at times but that’s just a part of being alive. He makes mistakes and messes up and can be annoying (to some people) sometimes but that doesn’t make him less worthy of anything. It doesn’t make him less of person. People, disabled or not, do not “loose value” because they are “annoying” or because they make a mistake. Placing superhuman expectations on humans is inherently unfair. You cannot expect (yourself, your neighbors, your family, random people on the street) to be perfect. Humans are flawed and we will all make mistakes. We are all going to age and we will die at some point and that’s ok. If everyone will eventually end up dead then we should spend the time we have being compassionate towards each other. There’s limits of course, and people don’t need to be happy or nice all of the time but I think avoiding being overtly cruel is a good thing.

Orko doesn’t need to be “fixed”. He is loved as he is and the people around him don’t force him to be a thing that he is not. He is loved, and I know I keep saying that but it’s really important to me. He’s silly. He’s an inherently goofy character and he’s a character that means a lot to me personally. I really like him. I like that the people around him love him and care about him. He’s not perfect. He’s a very flawed character but he ultimately wants to do good and be good. He’s not perfect and he never needed to be perfect. He is treated as equal by the people around him and he is treated like a person. Yeah the bar is in hell but a lot of people think that the bar is just a little bit too high for them. Even if Orko isn’t disabled, him not needing to prove that he deserves love is very important to me. He can just be a person who is flawed and just kind of normal.

I know he’s just a silly little guy. I know whoever was writing the he-man episodes wasn’t thinking about this. Or maybe they were, I was actually lying about knowing. But they probably weren’t. He’s a goofy guy. His goofiness and the thoughts I have about him are why I love him so much. And it’s mostly the silliness, but my thoughts are all that I have and they are what makes me myself.

Anyway live laugh love Orko

[noodles-and-tea]

Just some more thoughts on that jayvik dbh au

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

The squad of all time has arrived on scene.

[spitedemon]

i really don’t think it’s “typical dragon age fandom nonsense” for people to be genuinely upset about the world state choices. combat, level design, art direction, gameplay gimmicks, those have all varied across each dragon age game. the one thing that’s remained constant are nods to our previous choices.

i wasn’t expecting my HoF to come riding in on a griffon, but i can’t find a monument dedicated to warden tabris somewhere around the anderfels? lucanis couldn’t have some lines about the time that one arainai boy was stirring up trouble in antiva city? you’re gonna tell me that making a mage the new divine wouldn’t have some impact on nevarra and antiva? on the anderfels, the supposed most devout militant andrastian nation in thedas? you’re saying nobody in the north is paying attention to who rules orlais or ferelden? come on.

[seventh-district]

Making Incorrect H:SR Quotes Until I Run Out of (hopefully) Original Ideas - Pt. 6

[Pt. 1] [Pt. 2] [Pt. 3] [Pt. 4] [Pt. 5]

[wojtekaneko]

Drawings of MAG 160 because I'm completely normal about The Watcher's Crown scene c:

[knifearo]

ultimately when it comes to shipping and fandom space treatment of aspec characters i just don't accept "aro/ace people can still date/have sex" as an answer from nonaspecs. like yeah. mhm. okay. now i think we both know that you're not saying that out of real interest in the diversity of aspec experiences. so you can turn in your seventeen-page essay on why and how you plan to examine this character's aspec identity within the context of a romantic or sexual relationship complete with evidence from canon and peer reviews from multiple aspec people within the next week or i'm putting you in the pit from the edgar allen poe story

[giantkillerjack]

Me: hm, I want something to put on the TV as background noise... Huh. Looks like YouTube is recommending something called The Last Unicorn. That's perfect, it's probably some old shitty animation that has aged poorly! I can watch it ironically!

Me, 2 hours later as the credits roll: *crying, cheering, buying the book, composing the songs*

Me, 2 weeks later: So I have compiled all of the quotes from the book that I think could make good tattoos, and also, HOW HAVE I NEVER LEARNED ABOUT HOW THE LAST UNICORN FUCKING SLAPS??? This gay-ass little fairytale fed my soul! Watered my crops! Transed my gender! Can't believe I heard of this story from youtube recommendations, of all places!!

[raptorrobot]

i feel like i'm fighting for my fucking life here

[bixels]

The more I think about it, the more I question Arcane S2's politics and themes, which were so foundational to S1. Like, a tiny example [SPOILERS AHEAD]:

Singed wins. He gets exactly what he wants in the end. All his "efforts" are rewarded. What does that say about people who share his ideology of eugenics? He is the source of nearly every horrible thing and conflict that happened (Shimmer, the factory deaths, Jinx, Vander as Warwick, the corruption of Viktor), and he gets a happier ending than any other character. Not even a 'he got what he wanted but he has become completely unrecognizable/monstrous to his daughter' tag at the end. You can say they're setting him up and need to open his daughter to future shows, but the way you end a character's story says something about what you think about that character. What does it say when the eugenicist war criminal gets the happy ending he doesn't deserve?

[iliterallydecepticanteven]

Writing a multi-chapter fic is fun until you gotta re-read the whole fucking thing multiple times to ensure that you’re staying consistent and not accidentally fucking up your consistency with new chapters and have a whole note page about who knows what and who has what items and who is where doing what

[yakuza-emulation]

Shinichi Kudo- I mean.. Conan Edogawa, Detective.

I’ve been enjoying Detective Conan a lot recently, watching it with my father has been incredibly fun. (Including when we both yell at the screen at the utter idiocy of most of the characters)

We’re not that far in yet, still at the 250’s, but we’re getting there slowly but surely :D

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Kiss Kiss Fallen Tree!

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[quotidian-oblivion]

The people who simply can't understand why Zuko sought his dad's acceptance and love for so long, and why he still wants to reconcile with Azula (in the comics), clearly don't know anything about child abuse. Nor do they seem to want to understand.

A lot of people don't. That's Zuko's dad. That his sister. That's really the main thing you need to know. It's reason enough.

[dykedvonte]

Curly not immediately punishing Jimmy for assaulting Anya is something I don’t think a lot of people are viewing in the complex context for Curly as the superior to both of them and closest confidante they had.

Like I am in no way saying he didn’t under react or fail Anya by not being harsh or direct with Jimmy but it really is the case that he really couldn’t. Imagine being stuck in such a confined space with very little areas to genuinely hold someone if they commit a crime. It’s not like this was an event that occurred before they departed or that they have easy communication with The Pony Express to ask for how to proceed when something like this arises. Not to mention, Jimmy’s relative power in relation to Anya as the co-pilot and second in command, he has the knowledge and access to do something to her had Curly directly punished him in this setting.

They were also Curly’s friends. It’s not just the case of him mediating something between his subordinates but people he is personally invested in don’t want to see spiral further in Anya’s case while also not wanting believe his friend go that bad in Jimmy’s actions. They were both suicidal and Curly putting Jimmy’s stability first is both out of bias but also the fact he’s aware at some level Jimmy is a danger to himself and others if not constantly placated. Combined with the fact he was in denial or just not piecing together what Anya said it’s hard to say what he buying time for and what he had treat as urgent. This isn’t even saying he doesn’t care about Anya but he’s not going jump to the worst conclusions about his friends even if part of him acknowledges the evidence saying so. It’s a complicated thing but he’s still human and needed to process it on top of trying to keep a ship that already took on a lot of water from further sinking, metaphorically.

I just personally think that while Curly failed Anya, it was a scenario where there wasn’t much he could do to the best thing by her safely and like Jimmy, we are underestimating what a good leader would do in a very fragile and tense situation like he was in. By the time he may have been ready and had a plan, things were much too late.

[thatswhatsushesaid]

psa that the day there are no jgy stans left on tumblr dot com is the day i am dead

but rest assured i'll go to my grave exactly as i lived: obnoxiously proclaiming to everyone within earshot how great lianfang-zun is. narratively, metaphorically, spiritually. sexually, too, like why limit myself. i like to keep my options open