#I think a lot of people forget that we are part of the ecosystem

[trans-yllz]

BEN 🫶🏻 what's your favorite part of nature :)

waah what a good and also difficult question 😭 I feel like my relationship to nature is so intrinsically tied to my relationship with people and every answer I came up with just involved interacting with others 😭 so I think probably... it's incredible ability to bring people together. to learn, to enjoy, to fight for, to be part of. I always enjoy wildlife most when I can share it with other people in some way, when I can fawn over a slug with my best friend or point out a deer to a stranger or teach my students about ecosystems or learn something new from someone else!

speaking of sharing nature lmao here's a deer and a snake that I saw last week :^)

[sereniv]

I saved a daddy long legs!

i was scared and (i know dont @ me) was considering spraying him because I still fear spiders and spider-look-a-likes

up until past few years ive been working really hard on figuring out how to save them rather than kill bc ofc, it doesnt align with my views to kill them

normally i let my dog eat them to justify it- ironically, bc "im not killing them, my dog is"

but he was in one place, not moving and i was on the toilet, so i took the time to read up about him.

i named him, forced myself to, and to call him cute, so that it would make it harder for me to go through with killing him

i tried to imagine him being curious, or scared, or relaxing. Though i know most likely they arent capable of it in a way we can understand, it still helped me see him as no different than my dog or cat or me, rather than "just a bug' or some type of 'scary thing'

and in the end i saved him! container and a folder.

i still was scared, but seeing the (idk another word) humanity in him, the value he has and that he has for himself as a living being, helped make it possible to save him

its still really hard, and on occasion i do end up killing spiders or having my dog eat them when its quick scenarios where i dont have time to think it through

but compared to years ago ive gone from saving 0 to maybe 80%

and this is one of those moments where, its not exactly possible for me to push myself because it can undo all the work ive done. and thats ok.

this is the best i can do right now and im proud of myself.

my best, is not how i imagine my best being. in my mind, i could push myself harder but thats not practical.

doing your best is strategic.

im just so glad i didnt kill him. reading about him, learning about him, appreciating his role, and labeling him cute and giving him a name helped a lot

and sometimes, anthropomorphizing animals can be beneficial. i know he doesnt feel fear and curiosity like i do, but if it means not unnecessarily taking a life, then he does to me in that moment

[kingofthewilderwest]

Am I the only one who feels like HTTYD isn't as memeable as Shrek or KFP? I know we have "You're as beautiful as the day I lost you." and the famous dancing Toothless, but that one was really from a parody recap. Other than that, I really don't see a lot of memes from it.

I think that means HTTYD is successfully doing its job with the type of narration it intends.

There are comedic lines like "talking fishbone" and "thanks for nothing, you useless reptile" that fandom has parroted since the early days. There's Hiccup encouraging Toothless while the Light Fury looks aghast as a meme template. And fandom can find anything to josh with, be it Hiccup's hot froglegs in HTTYD 2, or Hiccup's love affair with scrap metal from RTTE, or throwing everyone in the dungeon who made a Stoick joke (I am DATING my time in the fandom here, y'all). There will always be moments we play with, as it were.

But HTTYD, while funny, is built on heart. Shrek and KFP have heart, too (especially KFP), but they're built around different vibes (especially Shrek). Shrek was an intentional, abrupt, genuinely shocking aberration from animated fairy tale movies. For people who weren't around when it happened, there's a REASON it was a HUGE, rocking sensation and has become part of permanent culture. Meanwhile, KFP is a comedy action. HTTYD, at its core, is the story of a boy and his dragon, and a boy and his dad. I wouldn't expect fan response or general societal response to respond to these different frameworks the same way.

When audiences think about the impact of HTTYD, they aren't thinking about the pleasurable absurdisms that lead to "You're tearing me APART, Lisa!" or "I don't like sand" (which actually, for the record, I think is an unironically good character scene, sue me).

You ever watch a movie where they try soooo hard to be meme-able? Or they're throwing in jokes at places they shouldn't? I'm not not not saying it happened here, but one of the things I think THW could've improved was by reducing the number of gags it tried to run - while competing for time to emotionally conclude a sweeping trilogy. Sometimes it's not the place for a movie to have the content that'd make it meme-able. HTTYD's always been funny, yeah, and that's part of the franchise's charm. But different types of funny bring different audience results, and you ain't gonna beat Shrek when it comes for appropriate humor vibes for memes.

I could be forgetting a ton in my sleep-deprived state. But I'd agree it's not as meme-able as Shrek, one of the most meme-worthy pieces of media to exist. It means both have their place in the ecosystem of movies, and it makes both of them fantastic for what they are.

[a-minke-whales-tale]

Metacommentary on "TikTok Therians" - A Curious Observation

There is currently a lot of discourse regarding tiktok therians and I have noticed something odd. Often when I see people here complain about "TikTok therians" it is their lack of education and not taking things seiously and their views against physical nonhumans and CLCZs (clinical lycanthropes/clinical zoanthropes). Then often in replies there are comments from young therians expressing their frustration that they -do- put in the work and -are- serious and express acceptance of clczs. Today in a discord server someone was complaining of "TikTok therians" and their lack of education and their pushing of holothere and physical nonhuman identity.

This is rather curious naturally as you have two seperate groups hating "TikTok therians" for opposite reasons but similar justification. However, I see plenty on tumblr attacks against physical nonhuman identities, and often even when acceptance is expressed it is done so in a pretty belittling and invalidating way. However though, I have only seen other CLCZs express frustration with this situation. I think for most people on tumblr, you can pretty well curate your experience, and for myself as a CLCZ, it should be little surprise that most of my feed is people either in that community or adjacent communities and largely express support.

I admit I have never used TikTok nor do I have any interest in it or shortform content in general. It makes me wonder though if either "TikTok therian" has simply become shorthand for "a -bad- therian" or if this might be a case of selection bias. Inside my ecosystem on tumblr there is a good amount of support and acceptance of people like me; however should a post come in from outside my ecosystem, it is not uncommon for the person to be against the inclusion of our voices and think that we need therapy and pills or hospitalisation (which I have had all of and I am still a whale). This does though beg the question - do these posts represent a large portion of belief on the site? Or alternatively - has this post entered my ecosystem because someone in my ecosystem got cross about the post and shared it to express their anger? And conversely - is my experience on the site being generally accepting of physical therian identity a result of the site being broadly accepting? Or have I instead simply curated my experience through liking and following people with similar views to me and blocking those who cause me distress and other people blocking myself? It is to be honest hard to know, and it would be honestly difficult to measure.

Conversely to the previous experience, is TikTok in general a platform with low acceptance and tolerance of physical identity? And if so, why then did that fellow from the first paragraph have the opposite experience? I am not myself a TikTok user, thus my experiences of TikTok are primarily others expressing their opinions or sometimes sharing a video clip. Generally if someone is riled up enough to express something that happened on another platform it is going to tend to be anger, and given my ecosystem that will be anger against people condemning physical identities.

This makes me ask - is "TikTok therian" simply a pejoritive meaning "the bad therians"? Do users of the site see those against physical identity and identify them as "TikTok therian" but see users aligned with them and see them not also as a "TikTok therian" but a comrade fighting the good fight? Negative expriences stand out more in the mind, do we simply only see those opposing us and forget the others? Or is the selection bias purposeful, not on our parts but on TikTok's part? There is a collective agreement TikTok is a hellhole, from both therians and the general public alike. This also applies similarly to other social media sites like twitter and facebook. There was at one point information that came out with facebook, I believe, that they would purposefully show things that made people angry because it would drive up use time and interaction. Could TikTok be doing the same? And if they are, is this divide in the community genuine, or exasperated by an algorithm trying to maximise profits for its owners?

On tumblr I have near complete control over my feed. At least my following feed, the people I see there are all my favourite people on the site and is usually the content I want to see, with the only exceptions being advertisements and tumblrs "because of your/your-followed-blog's likes" which I normally either follow, block, or tell tumblr I am not interested aftering seeing it so many times. From my understanding TikTok is entirely a feed, and though I think you can like, follow, and block, much of what you see is determined by an algorithm, and it would be to me entirely expected if that algorithm showed you things that make you angry because then youll watch it longer, you may even comment and share it beyond (and even if not malicious this would be the natural outcome of an ML algorithm targeted to maximize interaction and use time).

I really question if "TikTok therians" as we concieve them in our heads meaningfully exist. Yes there are of course many therians on TikTok and many of them are particularly young; however there are also very many young people on Tumblr as well. While there are a few of us in our 30s or older, there are far far more minors and quite young minors. We should also not forget that while we sit here now, that Tumblrkin was really not so long ago the same concept as current "TikTok therians" and most people here at least would like to consider this a more serious place for therianthropy with the days of the forums behind us. I think in the end, the kids will be alright, and should they find themselves here, for those who are earnest in their therian identity, I will welcome and accept them same as I would one from tumblr or discord or from the forums before.

~Kala

[what-gs-watching]

"It said quarter to five, but it was quarter to ass…"

I’m sorry but it’s time for a quick appreciation post for Community’s season 5. I realize I shouldn’t be watching Community yet again since I was just into it like eight months ago and obviously wrote a love letter to it  but we’re here already so deal with it. 

This is an incredibly deep cut situation, but I don’t care. Season 5 has some of my all-time favorite episodes, even if it’s likely a lot of people gave up on the show before it ever came out because Dan Harmon had left for season 4 and there was always so much upheaval around it even being renewed and blah blah AND Donald Glover left that season.

Which, I admit, was devastating. But even so, there are a bunch of gems in the 13-episode run. 

Starting with "Basic Intergluteal Numismatics", wherein the study group tries to FINALLY solve the case of the Asscrack Bandit, a shadowy figure who’s running around campus dropping quarters down unsuspecting asscracks. Literally, that’s the entire premise. The episode is based on movies like Zodiac, it’s dark and brooding and it’s fucking hilarious because everyone takes it so seriously and it’s a perfect Community homage. They had BEN FOLDS do two different songs to include in it and they’re catchy as hell, honestly they fucking slap, and I’m still not sure who I think is the asscrack bandit, and I hope to never find out. 

Another pure favorite is “Geothermal Escapism”, which is Donald Glover’s final episode, and a perfect way to send him off. Abed declares a school-wide game of “the floor is lava” and it’s such a good replacement for the paintball game episodes. As usual, everyone in the school is completely committed to the bit except for Britta for once, who’s trying to force the group to properly deal with Troy leaving, she’s the surprising voice of reason throughout and the loophole they come up with to help Abed deal with losing his best friend is so Community. I cry everytime I watch this one - literally, their relationship is so pure and beautiful and sweet and the episode is simultaneously fun and bittersweet. 

Also, we can’t forget about "Analysis of Cork-Based Networking". The only reason I love this episode is like, a fairly small part of the entire story, but it makes me hysterically laugh every time. The group has formed a ‘Save Greendale’ committee and Annie is off navigating the labyrinth of bureaucracy which leaves Jeff, Shirley, Chang and Duncan to pick a theme for the midterm dance. After Chang has a meltdown, they agree to his pitch of “Bear down for midterms” which no one understands, but they commit to it. Eventually, they find out why Chang was so insistent on the theme, and it’s not great. I honest to god still yell “BEAR DOWN FOR MIDTERMS” when I’m dealing with something I don’t want to do. Like right now, with the case study I’m doing for an interview process. My husband always knows what I mean, and I love it.

Finally gang, "App Development and Condiments". Fucking Meowmeowbeanz. This is the episode where the entire school gets caught up in a social media app that lets them rate each other, and the entire social ecosystem falls apart. The important part here is that this episode was made BEFORE that Black Mirror episode you’re thinking about. Community is streets ahead, and always has been. The commentary is scathing, and fucking hilarious. 

I have no real point to any of this, I’ve just been thinking about it for the past two days and I had to get it out. I can never sing enough praises for Community. I’ve decided on this (10th? 15th? who knows) rewatch that it is literally my favorite show in the world. Like, it’s my desert island show and my comfort show and my comedy show and my sad show. It’s my every show.

Community, oh how I love you.

[scienceoftheidiot]

I've grown way too unhinged with these "asks", but I've been meaning to send you this one for a while, so please indulge me!

From what I've noticed, a lot of the Royai fan artists I follow tend to prefer drawing Riza, when they're not portraying her with Roy. But I've noticed that a number of your pieces focused on Roy only, which I find very interesting! Would you say that his character inspires you more than Riza, artistically/creatively speaking? If so, in what ways?

Please tell us more! And thank you, as always <3

Lol not unhinged at all I love to receive asks, I just always forget to reply 🥲🥲 sorry 🥲 so, first, thank you very much for asking ! 🥰❤️

And lol yeah, sometimes I feel like I stick out like a sore thumb among the Royai people. But eh, healthy ecosystems need biodiversity 🤣

I hope my answer isn't too long.

I do have a preference for Roy in drawing, for a number of reasons.

I precise in drawing, because I do love writing Riza, not more than I do writing Roy, but they're relatively even for me - even if, yes, I tend to favour Roy because he's easier for me, there, too.

I like to draw him, because I like his face, expressions and postures, and I like to explore them. He's a fun little guy to draw, when I think Riza is cool AF (and I have a lot to say about her character, too!) but she's not as fun to draw for me (once again I love her and she's in fact the female character I have drawn the most I think, because I have a hard time drawing women, but still, if I'm looking for a quick doodle, I'll go towards Roy).

But yes, they're more or less indissociable for me, and for proof my first fan art for FMA was indeed Royai (here!).

Anyway. While Royai is my favourite ship and I love Riza to bits, my favourite character in FMA is Roy. Roy first. (And my husband has understood that well, he's calling me when we do a rewatch and Roy appears on screen and I'm not watching. Like HURRY ROY IS THERE).

Now, if anyone who knows me from earlier than my FMA obsession reads this, and I describe the utter mess that is Roy, they'll understand that it couldn't have gone any other way. Here's a man in a position of power, who hides everything behind a façade, who's a nerd and highly intelligent (I admit I'm often irked by some posts in the royai fandom. This guy is smart. He's goofy, he's a dork, but he's smart. Book smart, he's a fine tactician, and he can command. Erasing that is erasing part of his identity, and I'm sure part of why Riza loves him, too), has a weird sense of humour even though he can also be intense af, is crushed by unbelievable guilt from his past actions (I admit Roy and Roza both beat all of my previous fixations in that, good job being war criminals, guys 🙃) and intends to repair what he's done as much as he can, one way or another, whose sole goal is to make things better for others/his place/his country, whatever he has to give up for it to work, who inspires others doing that, and who gets badly injured/disabled during the story and keeps going and fighting teeth and nails through it and beyond?

WELL. There is no question I will fall for this dude instantly. This is like. Checking all the boxes for me to be instantly in love with this guy. Like. I think he's actually the only one who checks ALL of my boxes.

I do think however that Roy isn't complete without Riza, and that it's the same on her side (like. I've only tagged my current fic with "codependency" but that's how I write them whatever I write). I'm just fixating on him first, but I still find Riza an awesome character, there's no debate there 😊

Here you go! I've written a novel again lol but I hope I've replied to all your questions. I can talk more about how I see Roy and Riza, I always have more to tell, but really that would just make this even more unpalatable 😅 thank you again for asking 😊

[rallamajoop]

Theme, character, and a few more thoughts on the RE4 Remake

So, having played the Resident Evil 4 remake, I had a ton of fun – but in the end, I think it worked better for me when they remade this game as Resident Evil Village instead.

As every gaming outlet on the net has already told you, there’s a lot to recommend this title. The gameplay is terrific, new!Leon is still stupidly endearing to me, and there are so many little details in his character animation that I love to bits (seriously, he and Ashley actually managed to make me feel guilty about making them run back through the pouring rain hunting that one treasure on the map I’d missed – it’s that good).

But story-wise, I can only wish they’d had the guts to remake this thing a little harder. And while I have sunk a truly stupid number of hours into getting every achievement in RE8, RE4 seems to have tailored its own post-game ecosystem specifically to turn me away. And that's just a little disappointing.

The full RE4 experience is roughly twice as long as Village, but it feels like it has about half the actual plot. Most of what happens once you leave the village area feels like padding, the game spinning its wheels to fill in time. The lore makes less sense the more I try to get my head around it. Parts like Ada’s role feel so unfinished I can only hope there’s more coming in DLC. And despite token attempts to link events thematically to RE2, the result probably works better if you haven’t actually played the RE2 remake lately.

And while you can always say, “C’mon, it’s RE4! No-one remembers that game for the plot!” I’m left going, well, sure, but they remade Leon’s story in RE2 so well! And everything that left me wanting here was stuff they did just as well in RE8 – which was already basically a stealth remake of RE4. Was it so unreasonable to hope they could pull off the same here?

But enough hand waving. Let’s talk specifics. I’ve already talked Luis. So it’s time to talk Leon and Ashley.

I have so many mixed feelings about RE4-remake!Leon. So many.

In so many ways, he just works. He’s not the same Leon of RE2, but he’s changed in ways that make sense given several years of special ops training. He's taken several levels in badass and he's a lot more jaded, but at heart, he’s still a sweetheart who does this work because he wants to help people. And yet people who know him still call him ‘rookie’, still insinuate he hasn’t changed, and it’d be nice if that was something the game was more interested in exploring.

But while RE2 was inarguably the biggest day of his life to date, RE4 ultimately feels like just another day at the office for new!Leon: beat the bad guy, save the girl, fail to figure out what the fuck Ada’s deal is, go home. Nothing that happens to him in RE4 feels personal. Everything that’s changed him between RE2 and here has already happened, off-screen, and I can’t help but wish we were telling one of those stories instead.

It's not for lack of trying. RE4 opens on a heck of a thesis-statement about Leon: what he’s been through since RE2, hints of conflict with his current employer (“I was ‘asked’ later to join a top-secret government program. Not that I had a choice. The training, the punishing missions, almost killed me.”) There’s also one hell of a mission-statement about his feelings on the Raccoon City incident: “If I could just forget what happened that night, the pain, even for a second, this time, it can be different.”

That’s great as an opener! First question: different how?

What difference here is worth celebrating? This time Ada got away, blatantly alive and with the prize in hand, not even pretending she wasn’t using you? This time you got to save the little-infected-blonde-girl (who-was-only-involved-because-of-her-parents’-career-choices) yourself, instead of Claire doing all the real work? This time you rode out the explosion with only one other survivor for company instead of two? You still saw more people die than you saved! You still left a whole infected-and-dying population behind when you left! Seriously, what’s supposed to be different here?

The game seems to want us to believe that saving Ashley is enough to make it "different." On my second playthrough, I even caught Leon repeating that line, ‘it has to be different this time!’ as he carries her into Luis’ lab. But this doesn’t land for me, because – again – Leon got out of Raccoon City with Claire and Sherry. Claire didn’t need a whole lot of rescuing (much as I gripe about her story, she objectively achieved a whole lot more than Leon did), but she certainly appreciated his help. RE4 even shows us a shot of them all walking off into the sunrise together in its Raccoon City flashback.

The lore surrounding this franchise suggests that post RE2, Leon becomes almost family to Sherry ‒ you'd really think she'd count. I’m sure there’s an angle you can find somewhere where Leon would feel like saving Ashley is ‘different’ enough ‒ guilt isn’t a highly logical emotion ‒ but it’s really not coming through for me. And that makes the game's whole thesis statement feel awfully hollow.

Some other token thematic attempts are made: on the boat with Ada, Leon says, “you try to save one person, you get a hundred more killed.” Well, in the process of saving Ashley, they got Luis, Mike, and both those Spanish cops from the opening sequence killed. Saddler and his cult do get wiped out in a way more definitive way than Umbrella did in RE2 ‒ and that surely saves more lives in the long run than saving just Ashley ever could ‒ but that doesn’t seem to be what "has to be different" is going for. This is a lot like my issues with how Jill’s PTSD was dealt with in RE3 – we’re just vaguely waving at a past conflict as a way to lend nebulous weight to the present, and hoping the audience will fill in the blanks without further prompting. This is not how successful theming works!

Really, what makes this so disappointing to me is that it’s not like Capcom has never done PTSD-backstory well. See, as exhibit A: Resident Evil 8. Game opens with multiple reminders that Ethan is still dealing with trauma from RE7, the feeling that he ‘never really left the Baker’s basement’ – and as the story progresses, we learn that in a very real sense, he never did.

The reveal is the answer to a mystery that's been teased repeatedly since RE7, and coming to terms with it is a vital part of Ethan’s character arc. Though plenty is still left to the audience’s imagination, the pieces are all there. Ethan’s no longer in denial about how much his experience has changed him, but what matters to him hasn’t changed. If he’d come out of the Baker’s basement still human, he’d never have survived long enough to save Rose ‒ hell, there'd have been no Rose at all. There’s no going home again for Ethan, but he’s at peace with that. It’s really that simple: give us specifics, and specifics that make sense.

Ultimately, I think trying to frame RE4 as RE2-but-different was a mistake. The original RE4 wasn’t conceived that way, and the remake hasn’t been remade hard enough to make it so.

That doesn’t mean there’s no Leon-centric thematic material to explore. That opening also sets out a wealth of great potential surrounding Leon’s ‘not that I had a choice’ position. Build on the conflict between the Leon who’s out here trying to save a girl’s life, vs the Leon who’s out here trying to protect US political interests. Play with the idea that he’s still being used by the US, just as Ada was using him back in RE2! Let the enemies point out that Leon is as much a puppet of the US administration as the ganados are puppets of Saddler! Fucking do something with Krauser: one of the very same people who put Leon through all that ‘training that almost killed him’ has turned around and decided that their job is a sucker’s bet ‒ that should be a thematic goldmine! And then let Leon turn around and tell them all to go to hell. It’s all right there, c’mon!

The game toys with the question of whether Leon’s changed since RE2 – Krauser says he hasn’t, Ada says he hasn’t – heck, even Luis’ final words, a guy can change, right? are poking around the edges of similar themes. Leon’s problem back in RE2 was never a failure to save people, it’s getting too caught up in other people’s power plays to make any real difference himself. Is that still true here? It's really not clear.

Similarly, it’s so easy to imagine Leon was chosen for the job in RE4 because he’s got such a hero-complex he’s obviously going to work hardest to keep Ashley safe – because no, Leon may have taken a dozen levels in badass, but at his core, he hasn’t changed. But I’m pretty sure he’s going to be okay with that, just as long as he’s changed enough to be able to get the job done.

And think how much more it should give Leon and Ashley to bond over too, when… oh, right. Time to talk about Ashley.

The general buzz about remake!Ashley has been overwhelmingly positive. She’s so much better than the infamously-annoying original!Ashley, she feels like a real person now, people legitimately care about protecting her, and so on. And I sure as hell don’t want to tell anyone they shouldn’t like new-Ashley. She’s not annoying. I didn’t dislike her as a character. But the longer I spent with her in this game (and you spend more time with her than another other non-Leon character), the less she felt like an actual person to me, and the more glaring it was just how little I knew about her.

Here’s what we do learn about Ashley. She’s a college student, apparently 20 years old (she doesn’t really look that old, but what the hell, there are 20yos who look like Ashley, let’s not get stuck on this one). Her father is the president of the United States. She develops quite the crush on Leon over the course of the game (and who can blame her?) Leon handles this as deftly as you could ask for under the circumstances – he doesn’t want to lead her on, but he also doesn’t want to shut her down any harder than he has to. Ashley is understandably terrified, but coping with it with enough composure to keep her head most of the time, and the one time she does freak out and run off, it leads to one of my favourite scenes in the game – where Leon comforts her, and gets to show his gentler side.

Over the course of the game, she gains a certain level of confidence – in herself, and in Leon’s ability to protect her. All that talk about being his partner and wanting to become an agent like him is probably just her crush showing, but again, Leon treads a careful line to validate her as much as possible without ever really saying yes.

And this is all fine, but nothing really changes in Leon’s feelings about Ashley as they spend more time together. He’s 100% there to protect her before they met, and after spending all that time with her, sure, same deal. That’s his job. Nor does Ashley herself really get to change much. In her early chapters, she's already capable of smashing a window to save Leon from a burning building. By the end, she's... still completely helpless to save herself without him. Nothing really pays off.

Alright, now let me tell you about Ashley.

Ashley is a fucking political prisoner, a pawn to people who see her only as a means to an end, and yet the notion she’s in a situation any bigger than herself never enters the picture. At an age when a girl should be earning some independence, she’s going to be officially pigeonholed as her father’s daughter in the minds of the entire world. For four to eight years of the past and/or future, she’s going to be one of the most important and over-protected people on the planet. And yet, within the last day or two, all that security failed. People she and her father trusted – heck, that the whole US government administration trusted – betrayed them. She’s been kidnapped out of the blue, presumably bundled into a plane and flown across the world to some hick-village in rural Spain.

Surely Ashley should have some kind of opinion on all that, right?

There are all sorts of plausible reactions someone might have to this kind of situation. She could blame herself for not taking security more seriously. She could blame her security team for letting her down; her dad for putting her in this position, the possibilities go on. The game does vaguely wave in the direction of Ashley having (reasonable) trust issues when Leon first appears, given she attacks him with a candlestick and runs off, but then she, well, sees some ganados out the window, and everything is forgotten? It’s all over very quickly. Her only opinion on her situation is that she doesn't want to be taken over by a parasite. Such character!

Later in the game, we discover that Krauser was personally involved in her abduction. Ashley never gets to have an opinion on this. Did she know Krauser personally, or was he just pulling strings from a distance? Wouldn’t she have questions for Leon about his relationship with Krauser? Wouldn’t this have been a great opportunity to expand on Leon’s barely-a-footnote history with Krauser and that whole messed up political conspiracy ‒ even to talk about why Leon was trusted enough to be sent on this mission alone? Well, too bad – we’re on the back foot of the Ashley-two-step throughout both Krauser’s appearances, so Ashley’s not around. And Krauser’s own motivations are apparently no more complicated than "wants to be more macho than everyone else." What a damn waste.

Beyond the initial section set in the village itself, it’s disappointing how much of the plot of RE4 basically comes down to: Ashley gets captured, Leon rescues her, rinse and repeat. There are variations, sure (Ashley freaks out and runs off, Leon has to find her, Leon gets trapped, Ashley has to free him) – but the overall pattern gets pretty monotonous. Ashley frees Leon, then immediately gets captured. Leon tries to rescue her, but fails, and is thrown down a hole. Leon almost catches up with Ashley, but she’s being moved to the island. Leon finds Ashley on the island and rescues her, finally! Ashley swiftly gets captured again. Leon rescues her, again. But don’t you dare let Ashley get carried off by one of those goons out of sequence, that’s an insta-fail state. What, you think this is a situation where the bad guys can just carry Ashley away with impunity? Ha.

This is what I really mean when I say it feels like this game is just spinning its wheels for so much of its runtime. There is some additional plot surrounding Luis to break things up a bit, and a few allusions to the idea Ada’s up to something, somewhere, with a grand total of 4 named boss-villains popping up to monologue and/or fight you. But they're all kept pretty rigorously segregated from one another, like cast members who will no longer appear in the same scenes for contractual reasons. 'Wants power' or 'is under mind control' is as complex as the villainous motivations get.

The villains of RE2, 7 and 8 all had their own relationships, conflicts and internal power struggles, all presented for you in cutscenes and dialogue, and the result created some of the most memorable characters of the whole franchise. In RE4, you're lucky if you glimpse a vague hint of history in a document somewhere. C’mon, game, you’ve put Sargent Rambo and Midget Napoleon on the same team, and I don’t even get to see how much they must hate each other? That’s just not fair!

Ada’s role in this game feels like such a missed opportunity too. The final note she and Leon end on in RE2 could have gone in so many directions (how much did she genuinely care about him? Was she just bluffing by lowering her gun?) if they’d only had the sense to play into it. But RE4 seems to have picked up the tune a few verses earlier, back at ‘Ada’s evil and using Leon without a care’, and just keeps on repeating that until the scene fades out. Leon gets no answers. Maybe Ada sees him as slightly more than a useful tool, but who’d know? Ada’s just… there. Remember Ada? She’s a thing that happens to Leon sometimes.

But there was still the potential to do so much more. Tell me more about Ashley, to begin with! What’s her relationship with her father like? What’s she studying at uni? How well did she know her security team? Does she even know what country she’s in? Let her and Leon bond over their positions as human pawns in political schemes so much bigger than them as people. Let someone wonder if it’s better Ashley dies than comes home infected. Let the goal of saving-Ashley come into conflict with the goal of defeating-Saddler! Let Leon question his superiors' priorities! It's all right there to play with, I promise you!

Heck, let Hunnigan (or some other official voice in Leon’s earpiece) disagree with him at some point. Delve deeper into the scale and implications of Krauser’s betrayal! Contrast him with Luis – they’re on virtually opposite tracks as people who’ve switched sides, but they’ve both made more meaningful decisions about who to work for than Leon ever has. Let me feel all the different interests at conflict here – between Luis, Ada, the US government, Krauser’s rebellion, and Saddler’s cult, there should be enough of them. Let Leon question what he’s doing there – saving one girl or saving the whole US administration, but ultimately just saving one girl. And if you still want to tie it to RE2, it doesn’t have to be about it being different, it can be about Leon feeling like he’s made a difference this time. There’s got to be something you can find here that’ll resonate.

Going by the general reception to the game, these don’t seem to be issues that have bothered the masses. Given how revered RE4 is in gaming history, I can well believe there was real resistance at Capcom HQ about to trying to rework it more than a relative minimum, without trying to build any real thematic weight into what originally worked as a fairly cartoony rescue-the-princess caper. It’s still got great gameplay and some lovely character moments – I wouldn’t dream of debating that. But as a whole, RE4 felt thematically empty in a way I didn’t get from RE’s 7, 8 or Leon’s story from the remake of 2. If anything, it reminded me more of my problems with RE3 or Claire’s story in 2 – there are ideas here, but what they add up to is less than the sum of its parts. And that’s a disappointing feeling to come away with.

The remake still has a lot going for it. But remade a little harder, I can’t help but feel it could’ve been so much more.

[gothicprep]

the worst part about the information-social media ecosystem rn is that we’ll have, like, people will support Thing. then you’ll have an anti-Thing market emerge. and then you have the anti-anti-Thing market. backlash to backlash, dust to dust.

the current thing with this is “wokeness”, a word I hate more than I hate ranch dressing. the problem with the anti-anti-woke guys is that they generally don’t acknowledge that socialists have been critiquing identity politics for decades before the first conservative ever uttered the word “woke”. and ignoring the criticisms of this from the left strikes me as not engaging with the skeptics’ strongest argument by pretending they don’t exist. I get that the socialists arguing this are generally smarter than Gary from Facebook, which makes them harder targets. either way. I just don’t like this very much. it’s shallow.

that preamble out of the way, I was watching YouTube video from someone on team anti-anti. I’m not sure why I keep doing this because I always get disappointed for the same reasons, but some may call it masochism and I dont appreciate being non-sexually kink shamed.

the person in the video brought up nerdy youtube film critics who were angry about the Star Wars sequel trilogy as a pet example, but I feel like this is a really weak point. the sequel trilogy is done now, and knowing how poorly it played out, we may have to admit that the bitter nerds who said that it starred a woman and two men of color as just a cyclical marketing decision might have seen something we did not. they did basically nothing with oscar isaac and john boyega which is so. imagine signing them to your movie and doing nothing with these amazing actors! felony! go to jail! at least boyega has the good sense to be openly critical of this. and as for rey, she doesn’t exactly have an arc.

I rewatched the force awakens for the first time in a long time in a while a few months ago and, now that we’re out of the cultural moment it was released in, it feels very different. very 2015 pilled in the sense that it aged like milk that's been sitting in the fridge for 8 years and has begun to cultivate bacteria that no microbiologist has ever observed. and i don't think the bitter nerds were wrong to interpret kylo ren as a strawmen of, well, people like them who don't want people messing with a franchise they have a lot of emotional investment in. and while you can write this off as them saying "we don't want women to enjoy star wars", observing that these movies are ultimately products, disney aspires to have a larger net worth than god, and not trusting where they're going with this... it's not entirely unfair, even though there are very real problems of racism and misogyny in nerd circles.

sometimes when we defend stuff from the angle that representation is good, we inadvertently forget that the "you can be a jedi too, little girl or black child of unspecified gender" thing is mostly done with the intention of consumer outreach because we're biased in favor of rep. the bitter nerds are not, and it gives them shinigami eyes. pandering is a bit more obvious when you're not the one being catered to. or something. i also don't think this is exclusively right wing, it's just that a lot of lefties are more reluctant to say something. if you phrase yourself incorrectly, it looks REALLY sketchy, even if you frame it through the "ultimately, these are products" lens, and sometimes it's best to just not comment.

i saw critical drinker, who's one of the more annoying of these youtube film critic types, on a podcast semi recently, and when he drops the anti-woke kayfabe, you just see a frustrated guy who writes screenplays as a hobby and doesn't like how many female-led stories skimp on developing conflict, or the disappearance of the mentor/student dynamic in storytelling and why this is doesn't bode well for franchise reboots that are meant to pass the torch, how unearned that feels. and even though i think his videos are cringey as shit, they're coming from a real place of caring about stories and being frustrated that the biggest purveyors of them don't seem to care back. i'm sympathetic to this, even if i think "wokeness" is an intellectually lazy copout and the preferred method of delivery makes me want to get my eardrum pierced.

iunno. i think, maybe, if you want to talk about these guys, it would make for a better story if you talked to them. or at the very least, try to understand what the substantive meat of their problem is as a fly on the wall. even if you ultimately decide that they're being irrational, "irrational" is not synonymous with "random". that's an important thing not to lose sight of. and while i do believe a lot of the anti-woke stuff is irrational, i do think it's worth trying to make a real effort to figure out what's going on underneath it all. but thinking too much gives you wrinkles, or whatever malibu stacey said. oh well!

[rgenvs3000f23]

Blog 5

Hey! This week we were asked to write whatever was on our minds (presumably still related to nature interpretation).

This semester I’m in the process of completing an independent research project on aquatic plants, so needless to say they’ve been on my mind quite a bit recently. I thought my some of my experiences with the project and things I’ve learned so far fit in well with this class. There are two topics I wanted to write about today, the first being aquatic ecosystems in general, and the second being science communication and some thoughts on the readings for this week. The project I’m working on focuses on freshwater macrophytes. Macrophytes are aquatic plants that function as carbon sinks and important sources of oxygen, in addition to providing food and habitats to a variety of species (Bornette & Puijalon, 2011). I’m looking at their physiology, and determining how abiotic environmental parameters contribute to their survival and success. Specifically, my project focuses on pH (how acidic or basic the water is), and how aquatic plants respond to changes in water pH. The pH of freshwater systems is affected by climate change, in ways that are less predictable than marine systems (Hasler et al. 2016). If the pH of a lake changes to a level that its macrophytes can’t handle as well, they are at much greater risk of being outcompeted by photosynthetic algae (Sayer et al. 2010). This contributes to algal blooms, an issue that’s become quite prevalent recently. So, having a greater understanding of aquatic plants can assist with preventing algal blooms, as well as restoring damaged freshwater ecosystems. Reviews have found that most research on aquatic plants focuses on marine ecosystems, and very little research is done on freshwater ecosystems (Hasler et al. 2016). In my own (very non-qualitative) analysis from watching nature documentaries, it definitely seems like there’s a much greater focus on marine environments. While there is certainly more water in oceans than anywhere else, I think it’s important not to forget about freshwater ecosystems. So many of us, especially in Canada, get to enjoy being surrounded by so many beautiful lakes and rivers. It can definitely be easy to take them for granted. The readings for this week focused on interpreting nature through science, which is something I’ve been learning a lot about while working on my project. Currently, I’m in the process of learning how to communicate something I care about in a way that’s accessible to a variety of audiences. Part of the course is writing papers on the topic, as well as giving presentations. It’s made me realize how easy it can be in the sciences to get excited about a relatively niche topic (ex: freshwater botany) and essentially start speaking in a language that few people are going to understand. And if someone can’t understand a topic, they’re probably a lot less likely to care about it. So, it’s made me think about how important communicating science is when it comes to nature interpretation, as well as conservation.

References: Bornette, G. & Puijalon, S. (2011). Response of aquatic plants to abiotic factors: a review. Aquat Sci, 73, 1–14.

Hasler, C.T., Butman, D., Jeffrey, J.D. & Suski, C.D. (2016). Freshwater biota and rising pCO 2 ? Ecol Lett, 19, 98–108.

Sayer, C.D., Burgess, A., Kari, K., Davidson, T.A., Peglar, S., Yang, H., et al. (2010). Long-term dynamics of submerged macrophytes and algae in a small and shallow, eutrophic lake: implications for the stability of macrophyte-dominance. Freshwater Biology, 55, 565–583.

[carrieleblancart]

In response to your questions about the timelapse videos, here are my two cents. Engagement doesn’t usually give you anything on tumblr other than a bump of serotonin, but it can lead to commissions or sales if you provide an easy link and are chill about it. But people are touchy about the word “engagement.” They want to feel like a community or maybe a cultural salon, rather than part of an extractive media process.

Your most successful process videos are going to show a satisfying finished piece at the end and give people time to look at it and go “wow.” So for most art some editing will be necessary to get there in a short video.

Another thing I should bring up is that the music you used for that sketch video was pretty grating. If you���re going to use music, i’d suggest finding something more relaxing. Just because the video is sped up doesn’t mean the sound has to be frantic.

Your painting process is so interesting, and your art is great! People here love cats with all their hearts and mostly really enjoy art. I wish you all the best!

Hi anon, thank you so much for your input! I really appreciate it, and I'm still getting used to actually getting responses, after trying to get it noticed for 10+ years (this isn't my first tumblr blog).

There's a lot going on with trying to share my art in the current internet ecosystem, probably something a lot of artists are dealing with. I'll try my best to describe what's going on on my end.

I don't like the term engagement either. I am trying to share my art through four main platforms at this time: Instagram, Tiktok, YouTube, and of course our precious hellsite: Tumblr. So my use of the term is more from the vernacular being used on other platforms, with what seems to be a kind of agreed upon use by artists of "this is what we have to deal with, so might as well lean into it." Maybe I'm mis-interpreting that (not surprising).

So far, Instagram is where I get my art noticed the most and has lead to the most sales/commissions/financial support. I think this has to do with the cat community that has formed over there. Tumblr definitely has its cat lovers, but I think a lot of them are over on IG so that they can follow internet cat celebrities and the like (I'm one of them!). So things like engagement and trends will dictate how I share my art with at least algorithm-led platforms. Also all of the cat people and friends I've met at shows regularly have Instagrams, not that that's a reason to be on there.

I agree that I should add time of the video at the end to show the piece to give it time to be seen. This can be easily accomplished if I make sure to take a photo of the art and include it in the video. I haven't had the best record of doing this due to my own ADHD and the pace at which these sketch paintings are being made.

Most of these recent sketch paintings were made back in August during CatCon on the spot! It's a crazy thing to do and I haven't seen anyone else do something quite what I'm doing, which is I guess part of my marketing for conventions and shows. So, sometimes I forget to take a picture at the end, but I'm getting better at including it in my process. And yes I call them sketches because they're fairly quick (I aim for 30 minutes for a 6"x6") and I don't get to add all the details I would like to if time was available. (I'm currently working on a new 3"x3" fully detailed piece of a famous internet cat, I've spent an hour and a half on it, and it's not done yet!)

Part of the timelapse question is not just to see what people prefer to determine how much time I should put into editing, but also how much effort I should put into digital storage. I have a couple different ways of recording footage, and the main way I've been doing so is with my iPhone. And so when I'm at events that I fly to, like CatCon, sometimes I'm having to transfer videos from my phone to an SD card until I can get home and get the footage onto a larger storage device. This can be tricky especially if I don't make sure to clear my phone storage before going to an event (something I'm adding to my list!) However, if I use the timelapse feature already available on the iPhone, then that makes editing and storage even easier for me later. I used this a lot with my Black Cat October series. But this timelapse footage doesn't look as good (maybe) and I don't have the option to do other edits later. Which then comes to the question for myself, am I really going to go back and make another edit for these sketch paintings? Perhaps the answer is timelapses for sketches, and full videos for fully detailed paintings.

And thank you for your input on the music part! The reason for the music in the last video was because of what's trending right now. Sometimes IG will save a copy of the video I posted with whatever music, so I had reused it in today's post. I think I'll make sure to use something more soothing/calming going forward just for tumblr, because you all have a special place in my heart.

Usually I'll open TikTok and do a separate video save to have a hi-res copy with music, but since I had recently created a shop on TT I only have commercially available music. Maybe I should take the shop down anyways, I'm really not sure if it'll help my art get notice or sell more stickers. I'd rather manage sales from my website anyways, but I feel like I should at least give it a try. You're welcome to tell me your thoughts on that!

I could go more into detail about my process for just uploading videos, but I feel like this is already getting TLDR. So feel free to let me know if you want me to ramble some more! I'd love to get input on that, as well as get an idea of what other artists are doing since I have no idea what I'm doing!

[the-hydrangea-witch]

A short list of students attending [insert name] college of witchcraft and symbolic magic with their race and symbol

Claire Celeste Estrella | Human | Amber Star | The protagonist. Full of anxiety, bless her heart, girlie has no idea what she wants to do with her life after she graduated high school. Has a bit of a hyperfixation on horror, death, and funeral practices (just like me fr).

Heather Dean Forester | Human | Green Hydrangea (Limelight) | Basically Claire's brother, they are childhood best friends. He's the only one who calls her Celeste for the most part. The one who first discovered magic for both of them, and also the only one of the two with a job and his own car. Also has no idea what to do with his life but fuck it we ball oh shit there's magic that's cool hey claire let's just hop dimensions lol

London River Knight | God-Abandoned: Wolf | Lavender Moon | One of Heather and Claire's dorm mates at the college. Also full of extreme anxiety (what's up with this new Celestial trio, the previous one wasn't like this, were they?) but this one is scared of a common superstitious prophecy present in the Other World that is a common trope in media on top of being pretty widely believed in. When I first made him he was a self indulgent Cool Goth Werewolf Witch and now he's grown up to be So Shaky I swear

Serra Mun | God-Touched: Cat | Hot Pink Cherry | The other dorm mate of Heather, Claire, and London. He's also long time frenemy of London, and they didn't plan on dorming together but alas fate brought them together so he could annoy the hell out of London. Serra is also the first character I made for this story and his design is so inconsistent I keep wanting to give him scars or an eyepatch but forget other times and it's just a mess (love him though). I'm not sure if I'll ever make London x Serra canon but lord do I Think About Them

Daphne Rosa Clover | Elf | Water Lily | "Omg flowy mint green outfits and pink hair and flower crowns and white star shapes makeup freckles to look like a mushroom she must be so cutesy and nice and innocent" WRONG she is a HUGE NERD ABOUT DEATH AND THE DARKER ASPECTS OF MAGIC. People from the Other World have tales and warnings about what happens to people who delve too deep into like the physics of magic rather than the philosophy of magic like everyone else and how they all go INSANE and DIE and daphne looks at them and goes "we really know nothing about magic despite it being so prevalent in our lives and also wdym by insane guys its [other world equivalent of 2023] u should know better" The type of person to pick up roadkill so she can study its anatomy then lay it to rest respectfully and then get lost in thought about the role it plays in the ecosystem even in death (if only there were cars in the Other World like on earth)

Pippa Jane Owen | Human | Dandelion | By huge coincidence, she went to school with Heather and Claire. She received the book the two used for the enrollment ritual firsthand from a Mysterious Source, and decided to leave it for someone else to find because she thought someone else would like to also learn magic. Very sweet, love her dearly, terrifyingly adept at using magic in extremely creative ways for a human.

Nova Éliane Jones | Human | Blue Sun | The last third of the Celestial trio. Totally unfazed by her near instant popularity upon entering the college when everyone found out her symbol and was excited to see if the rest of the prophetic trio would arrive too for the first time in centuries. Not as good as Pippa in terms of sheer creativity and fluidity in magic, but she's very determined when it comes to perfecting magic one spell at a time.

Halia Ka Hiwa Kapule | Human | Crimson Hibiscus | Similar popularity to Pippa and Nova by association, but a lot more reserved. While Pippa learns by exploring magic by herself and Nova is by the books, Halia is competitive with herself and an observer, taking note of what does and doesn't work for others and how it can apply to herself, so people only see her get things right on the "first try." Very distinguished, love me a turtleneck under a fitted jacket

Dragonfly Saccharum "Sock" Elm | Elf | Pink Feather | Local prankster prone to messing with underclassmen with tall tales about the horrible/amazing things they've seen and done with magic, since most people of the Other World never learn symbolic magic outside of college. Acts like a cool older sibling to the Weird Freshmen offering advice that is rarely useful. Everyone calls them Sock.

Divya Deshmukh | Human | Gold Hourglass | One of the few humans born in the Other World. Best Friend to Sock, except a lot less chaotic than Sock and way more studious. I'm lying Sock is a saint next to Divya don't trust their cool exterior they are SO elaborate in their revenge and pranks, not to mention how they figured out how to use their magic in really subtle and almost unnoticeable ways by breaking down their hourglass symbol into multiple parts of the glass and sand separately. Great person to get on their good side though, always excited to talk about a cool trick they learned with their magic and how it could be translated to other symbols, but damn if they aren't SINISTER and OFFPUTTING once you figure out their small movements that tell you when they're lying or secretly using magic

Bela Briar True | Cryptid: Vampire Elf | Wisteria | Vampires aren't real, stop perpetuating this rumor, Bela isn't a vampire they're just creepy.

Yvenna | Elf+? | Red Anemone Flower | Ok so it turns out with the way the Alltongue spell works on humans from Earth, the term for people like Yvenna actually gets interpreted (at least in English) as Vampire, so that being said YVENNA ALL THE NEW STUDENTS FROM EARTH THINK YOURE A WEIRDO AND CREEPY FOR TELLING THEM TO WATCH OUT FOR BELA BECAUSE THEYRE A VAMPIRE

Marigold | Elf | Salt | Ok we get it the previous Star Witch was like the Father of modern Yonderworld necromancy but that doesn't mean the new one will be a prodigy at or even be interested, stop pestering her based on a centuries old prophecy that's been telephone'd to hell

Welwitschia | Stitched | Blue Teacup | Again with this? This student died a year ago in front of you, you didn't even know her

[russeliarat]

I find it so weird how people think that healing is a constant, linear thing. Because it's not and, as a system, healing fluctuates for us as individuals.

For example, I, Russelia, formed in 2021 to deal with some kind of trauma as an ANP (apparently normal part, I didn't have memories of trauma) and lived on a different layer where I didn't front very often. I lived with several other alters in our own kind of mini ecosystem. But then in 2022, I suddenly was made to forget that year of forming by whatever gatekeepers we had at the time, became riddled with trauma memories, and forced to exist in the main fronting layer and be the new host after Ruby went dormant.

Even now, as I'm growing and changing, it's never a straight line. Last year was amazing for growth but as recently as 2 months ago, I lost a lot of people I held close and was shaken by constant paranoia and flashbacks to our childhood. Now, I'm hanging on and starting to improve again.

If you were to ask another alter like Legend, he'd tell you he's never had a worse time in his life than right now, despite the fact he was doing so well he fused with another alter named Lacey about 2 or 3 months ago. The lad is constantly reliving his trauma memories all day and all night because of an incident with a persecutor alter.

But if you were to ask Whole, he'd be completely fine because he doesn't hold any memories of trauma, he's decided to disconnect himself from them to be the system's main gatekeeper. He knows a lot of the trauma we faced, but he doesn't deal with it so he's okay. The most Whole has to deal with is his relationships with his husband and brothers and me. He doesn't need to heal since the trauma he faced in his childhood has healed over the years of his source.

Neurotypical people have trauma all wrong man, and it doesn't help when you have very complex dissociative trauma disorders too. That's a whole other level of complicated added to the mix.

♡ Russ

[lokigodofaces]

Rewatching Captain America: Civil War (obligatory on December 16), and it's making me wonder just how much of the encrypted files Natasha leaked have actually been unencrypted and are known. I'm not just talking about the public, I understand that there's a lot they won't know. There's still stuff that would be classified, it just went to different agencies. But seriously it seems like no one has tried to unecrypt anything other than Zemo. You would think that the CIA, UN, and Avengers would have those files and know what happened.

The line that made me think about this was Vision's whole thing about the Avengers causing conflict and more things happening ever since Tony became Iron Man. But that is completely untrue! It is true that the public has been made aware of more and more stuff since Tony announced he is Iron Man. Not necessarily the fault of the Avengers in most cases (Tony did choose to announce he is Iron Man, but it's not like any of them had control over Loki deciding to attack New York for example). But we know of tons of wild things that have been happening on Earth. Just from what we know has been shown or mentioned (no particular order):

(*=should be recorded in S.H.I.E.L.D. files, ATCU files, or other agencies should be aware; **=at least some information should be known, ie. S.H.I.E.L.D. maybe knew an unidentified object entered the atmosphere and left but don't know anything about Peter Quill)

Kree and Skrulls on Earth in Captain Marvel*

Kree attacking Carol and kidnapping her*

Kree experimenting on humans thousand of years ago to make Inhumans*

One of those Inhumans, Hive, being exiled from Earth*

Inhumans living for all of those thousands of years and creating their own society to stay secret*

Kree body found by S.H.I.E.L.D. and used to bring dead agents back to life. When those agents went insane, their memories were wiped and they were given new identities*

Hydra has existed ever since Hive was exiled and tried for centuries to bring him back to Earth*

A head of Hydra found a Diviner and experimented on its destructive tendencies towards humans**

Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne went on missions in the late 1900s*

Peter Quill was kidnapped**

Ego visited Earth

Centipede had been experimenting with robotic parts/super soldier serum since the 1990s*

Kree built an Inhuman temple under Puerto Rico, recently was fought over by S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra, and two Inhumans went through terrigenesis**

Ava Starr became enhanced because of an explosion*

I don't remember why the Lighthouse was built, but it was to house people in case of a freak accident S.H.I.E.L.D. was able to stop*

Antimatter asteroid that landed in ocean near Florida mentioned by Coulson*

Everything with the Red Room (known at the time, it wasn't known that Dreykov and the program survived)*

Black Panthers in Wakanda

Egyptian gods and their avatars

The guy that was obsessed with Coulson's love interest got his powers*

Several people were put on the Index for decades before Iron Man*

May fought two Inhumans in Bahrain**

S.H.I.E.L.D. fought several rogue Inhumans from Afterlife**

Terrigen had been dumped into the ecosystem and several people are going through terrigenesis*

Asgardians, Jotuns, etc have been going to Earth for a long time*

Sorcerers at Kamar Taj have been around forever

Probably more that I'm forgetting

But you get my point. A lot of this stuff was recorded by S.H.I.E.L.D., yet everyone in the UN, CIA, even some of the Avengers think things only went crazy when they came around. That is so unbelievably untrue. So has no one done anything about those files Natasha leaked other than double check about Hydra being around?

[rtenvs3000f24]

Blog 3

Hi everyone! For this week’s blog, I want to first talk about what privilege means to me. It refers to the unearned benefits that people experience just based on different aspects of their identity. The main ones that come to mind first are race, socioeconomic status, gender, sexuality, and ability. These advantages can shape perspectives, opportunities, and access to resources. Since we are talking about privilege in nature interpretation, this holds a bit of a different meaning to me. On top of the definition I have given, it also could mean having access to nature spaces, like parks, outdoor activities, and nature reserves. This being said, I also do understand that everyone has a different meaning of the word, so I'm looking forward to seeing what it means to everyone!

One way that privilege plays a role in nature interpretation is though accessibility. Not everyone gets the opportunities that I got when I was growing up, whether that looked like going on nature walks with my family, or even going to class trips to a farm. My parents gave me many opportunities to explore things in nature, which allowed me to find a passion. Accessibility can also mean financial accessibility. I am privileged to be able to pay to go to university, but even smaller things like visiting conservation areas and parks that cost money to visit. I got the privilege of travelling to different parts of the world to experience the beautiful nature there, which is something that a lot of people do not get to do. If we circle back to the beginning of this cycle, I can even say I was privileged enough to be able to get a job when I was a teenager, and work as much or as little as I want through the years. Without this, I would not get to experience nature at such a deep level.

Another way that privilege plays a role is through education. There are a lot of people who do not get the privilege of getting a post-secondary education. I think sometimes as university students, we forget that we are so lucky to be here. In nature interpretation, we are so privileged to have the opportunities surrounding our education. We get to learn about how ecosystems survive, how different species interact with each other, and how we can protect nature around us. These are things that we can sometimes take for granted, and we have to remember that not everyone gets the same opportunities as us. Without having the knowledge that we gain from learning at the university, it would be very hard to be great interpreters.

These are only a few ways that privilege play a role in nature interpretation in my life. It is so easy to take these things for granted, as I grew up very privileged. It is so important to reflect on these things in order to stay aware of them. This can help make you a better interpreter because it will create a more inclusive learning environment, connecting with a larger range of people.

Thanks for reading my blog this week!

[edelweissacermacrophyllum]

The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom.

Job 35-37, Proverbs 4:1-9, Matthw 24:1-31

Elihu continues speaking here and I can't help but notice, despite the fact that narratively I think it is more satisfying if he's just a useless, arrogant blowhard, he does make some new points. It's poetry and it is beautiful, and I agree with Mr. Keating that the goal of poetry is not to be mined for meaning but to be experienced. However I lack the skill to to a brilliant and worthwhile commentary on the poetry so I will stick to trying to mining it for meaning. Elihu says to Job, in short, "God is big and doesn't need you."

Both of these things are true, but they are reductive and misleading. I came up with a concept of God a while ago and I still find it compelling. If God is a being of infinite attention, comprehension, and focus; then they are capable of holding in their mind every little thing in the universe. Knowledge, in my experience, leads to passion, especially in scientists but also in sports fans, chefs, etc. Maybe passion leads to knowledge too, but regardless, I consider God to be a universe enthusiast. I think that any other character assumption of God doesn't take into account their infinite knowledge. God cannot be cruel or a sadist because an infinite being would not take any pleasure in torturing a finite being. It would be like a human being amused by torturing a stone. God cannot be power hungry because they are already omnipotent. I haven't put much thought into the horny God hypothesis, but given God's lack of glands (except for that one time in which He was celibate) I don't consider that a viable God concept either.

So what Elihu got wrong was that he thought that God was big and therefore had every right to ignore Job and that Job was being incredibly presumptuous just for asking if God had forgotten him. But God's nature, I think, is not to forget anything, but to be deeply invest in every part of Their creation.

The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom (Proverbs 4:7a) This might be profound but I was amused to read it. I will interpret it to mean something I already believe: That wisdom comes from outside oneself. Introspection is not usually helpful and won't often teach you something you don't already know.

Jesus talks about the end times in this passage and I don't like it. One of the main assumptions of the people listening to this passage would have been that they would be around for the events that Jesus was talking about. At the end of the chapter, Jesus says outright, "This generation will not pass away until all these things have happened." And it's been 2000 years. A whole lot of theologist energy has gone into explaining away this discrepancy but I haven't found an answer I am comfortable with. It's not a huge issue, but it is problematic. I would like to think that some person later added those words of Jesus because apocalyptic prophecy would sell well like it does now. But of course that casts doubt on a lot of the other words of Jesus and until now we have been assuming that they've been recorded reasonably well. There's not enough evidence to make a claim of later modification of this texts, so I am comfortable leaving it unknown for now.

The thing is that when we have an infinite God, a lot of things will be outside our comprehension, especially the end times. We can't comprehend the end of the world because we have no concept of there not being a world. But do not worship sacred mysteries. That is only to worship one's own ignorance. Worship God for the parts of Them that you do understand, not the parts that you don't. God is a universe enthusiast and we assume that They want it to work well and for the seas to be clean and the ecosystems healthy and the humans kind. If that is the kind of God that exists then I am comfortable worshiping Them. And as for the elements of their bigness that I don't understand, well, I'll trust Them to handle it.

[inkskinned]

i got upset in therapy today, which isn't like me. usually i am laughing through the bad things. rather than cry about it, i held up my handmade halloween costume. i'm going as a sunset.

i threw my back out again, and what they don't tell you about a slipped disc is that it kind of feels like your spine is leaking hot fluid into your body. like a car engine.

i have more plants than i can count. i've killed a lot of them in the past year living here, since we don't get the right sunlight for it. i used to live in a room that got sun through every hour of the day. i dragged a 50 pound table up two flights of stairs into my breakfast nook and then painted it by hand to look like green jade. this was during the time i should have broken up with her; because my apartment almost got broken into, and she was angry when i asked if i could crash at hers for the night.

i do my work most of the time, unless it's a longterm goal. i should really clean the rug. i have been in therapy for 2 years and am still discovering the ways i have been used like a pincushion. yuck.

i think maybe i don't have a personality and i am just trying on the shapes of people and whichever one doesn't disgust me is good enough for keeping. i can't pretend that this choice is easy; because usually i choose people that are loveable and charming. today if i am a person she has her arms at the wrong angles, and her back is thrown out. i am gonna try to make a stop at party city and put my pale hands onto expensive decorative things i will not purchase. i spent too much money on the dog they neglected.

they did neglect the dog, though. i was talking about it before kate made me almost-cry. i have been babysitting him while they cruise the ocean. he returns home on friday. my immediate reaction was but i really can't take him permanently, he hurts my back, and i don't have enough space or money -

kate held up her hand. is there a reason that you believe you're the one who has to resolve everything?

here is how i feel about myself: genuinely i believe that a grain of sand is only important in the context of a world without a beach. which is to say that i probably overwhelm my apartment's sink disposal. sometimes for fun when they raise the rent i think about pouring paint into their plumbing, but it's not worth the microplastics in the ecosystem.

i don't! is the thing. i just don't. why would i bother? it is easier to feel in love with the sunlight through leaves. it is easier to be in a museum after dark. recently i've been listening to a lot of dimension 20. recently i've been journaling, but i'm fundamentally bored by all of the secrets i've been telling.

i think the problem is linguistics. i feel a lot of things, probably, even if i feel them a little to the left. and i really do have a strong sense of myself, and honestly i don't mind her. she's nice enough. creative. tough. this is one of those questions that my neurodivergence never manages to correctly analyze. i am fine with myself, i have to be. she's, like. fine.

the problem is that when things go wrong, that girl isn't me. it isn't me in the panic attack or driving the car into the side of the truck or forgetting her meds. it isn't me being always-late to things. i am someone tolerable and kind; fun and flirty. i am funny and sweet. there is somebody i rebuke, just, like, ruining my life from a corner of my body. biblically accurate angel; i have 23 eyes staring out from inside me. the thing that i-am-not is constantly trying to fucking kill me.

the internet usually posits self-love as like, a choice to be making. but when i settle into a mug of tea, that's me taking care of the real-me, not the little demon self. when i shower for a long time or go for a walk or make a good meal: the good-me deserves this, and she receives it. she is putting up with the actual devil.

it's not like i can forgive the bad parts of me, she's not going to change her behavior. and how exactly can i come to terms with that, huh? with what poem? this isn't how i raised myself. what even is the point in making a fuss. just try to minimize the damage and eventually go and clean up.

they neglected this dog so much that i have been combing him out for 24 straight hours and have pulled 2 full trashbags of fur off him. i would never suggest shaving a double-coated dog, but his fur had impacted and i had to remove these inch-thick blankets of hair from his hindquarters. a dead bug tumbled out. he spent a summer like that, which horrifies me. no wonder he struggled with his breathing.

i guess if i am a person i'm just a solution, is the thing. like, i make my own problems, and then this is the version that solves them. like i am always apologizing for the mess. like i have to make up for the rest of it, for the issues that will arise whether or not i like it. there is no longterm solution to certain symptoms. you just have to resolve your life around it; a bitter equation of checks and balances. it's not that i don't ask for help - it's that i never recognize that help is an option. isn't it just, like, easier to do it yourself?

i had a nightmare that i drank the matted fur by accident. when i woke up, for a second, i thought i had become the dog, going home on friday. ironically the problem was that i was medically suffocating: i developed asthma in childhood after my father smoked continuously under my room.

it was a direct result of neglect.

How do you feel about yourself?