kellynickelsgf

[bauliya]

Lmao the fact that you seem to know nothing about eurovision yet bitch and moan about people following it. Get off your performative activism high horse and put your money where your mouth is. You bring disrepute to the cause you stand for when you sling insults and misinformation.

anyway reblog if you’re a performative activist on a high horse looking to put your money while your mouth is while slinging insults at the GENOCIDAL AND RACIST EUROVISION SONG CONTEST WITH ITS MOSTLY MID AND FORGETTABLE PERFORMANCES THAT ARE ARTISTICALLY BEREFT AND DECONTEXTUALISED DISCOUNTED KNOCK-OFFS OF MAINSTREAM ANGLO MUSIC HAS NOT ONLY ALLOWED ISRAEL TO REMAIN A CONTESTANT BUT HAVE AN ENTRY CALLED “OCTOBER RAIN” LITERALLY CELEBRATE THE ONGOING PALESTINIAN GENOCIDE AND BANNED ALL PALESTINAIN FLAGS AND SYMBOLS.

boycott eurovision. SUPPORT AND DONATE TO PALESTINIANS!!!! you can literally scroll through TikTok if you want to watch cringe dances set to derivatives ballads and pop.

[olderthannetfic]

Reading the anon abt the doll hobby not having anti drama, and I just had to make sure it didn't mention the BJD hobby, because that one is filled with drama and anti drama. I'm probably more prone to look for drama, but some of it isn't hard to find.

Idk why but I almost wanna share some of my highlights, so I'll do that. Buckle up, this is a long one, and it's only scratching some of the dumb shit bullshit that's happened over the years.

People constantly let themselves be scammed. There are some well known people, and when you look up their seller names you can literally find people who keep up with their renaming because they're such notorious scammers. People still "take a chance" and then a few weeks later: Guys you won't believe this, I got scammed.

There was an entire thing surrounding a company (companies?) selling dolls in the tone oriental. People were using that name because that's what it's literally named, and other people got upset and started an entire discourse about it. Yeah, only that it was an Asian company that had named that tone, they had been made aware of some Western collectors being upset about it, and really didn't care. There are several instances of Asian sellers and companies from Asia using the terms oriental.

The discourse about one Chinese doll company who made a statement on their Eng twitter about supporting the CCP in attacking Hong Kong. People were rightfully upset at the company, which had previously been criticized in the Western hobby sphere for Nazi-themed dolls. Yeah, so people started defending the company, claiming that the only did it to not get hurt by the CCP. Except no other company did something that stupid. It took several Chinese hobbyists from China coming over and making it pretty clear that that company has a real bad reputation in the Chinese hobby to begin with, and to stop defending them especially for the HK thing because that was their choice.

The hobby is actually incredibly open for cultural exchanges, and appreciation. But every once in a while there are people who start bitching about cultural appropriation, and then everyone has to tell them to shut up because people love their dolls and just think it looks neat and want to share.

On the topic of cultural appropriation. Some times the people who bitch about it mess up and attack people of that culture. One such person made a red doll, put it in a qipao for Lunar New year some years ago, saying she's a dragon. Yeah, turns out the artist is Chinese, and the people angry about "White people take a red doll, put it in a qipao calling it a dragon are fucking racist cultural appropriators." Also, once that came out, even before that, a bunch of people once again came in and made fun of these people, especially those that culturally celebrate Lunar new year.

On the same wave though, lol, that artist who made the doll is infamous for her completely batshit doll pre-order, and then her trying to hide that she took the money of a bunch of people and ran. It's even a doll that a lot of doll ooak artist youtubers worked with. The entire story is fucking wild, beyond her trying to blame the company (one person?) who'd produce them, and then pretending it was some flaw with the system they used to let people order.

"If you use runes, I'm gonna view you as a white Supremacist until you prove otherwise." Scandinavians and even Scandinavian poc people told them to shut up (there were actually good arguments about how offensive that statement was, but it was a good dress down), and then clearly not Scandinavian nor Scandi poc decided to double down. Last I saw there was still a stalemate between the Scandi's, and people who're sensible, and the people who just wanna be racist about Nordic runes and call them all white supremacist and attacking Scandi poc.

Sex dolls aren't BJDs...

People are also bitching about "child coded" dolls being put in naughty stuff. The problem is that these dolls often are bobbleheaded anime looking mofos. Even in the cases where you have a child doll: It's still not child porn. It's a hunk of plastic, calm down.

Some doll companies, like VOLKS have raffles/lotteries to have a change to buy the doll. You heard that right, just to be able to buy it. There has been tons of discourse about how unfair it is that US people get to enter twice. Or how people who don't even want the dolls just the raffles.

Scalpers. Nuff said.

People who can't budget, and constantly make that everyone else's problem when they buy a new doll they can't afford and then start panicking.

Customs. By God the customs bitching.

Paypal friends&family. For the love of Christ, stop buying things from random people with F&F especially when you don't know them, or if they're a confirmed fucking scammer.

There's literally a guy who's doll at first glance have some of the best diversity and rep, but the guy is an absolute asshole, and part of the hobby don't really know how to handle it. Small list: Told a disabled person who got frustrated when they were completely unable to assemble it that his dolls aren't made for them. Constantly bans people from buying from him for the dumbest reasons, like 1) Guy asking how shipping would be handled during 2020. 2) Person who got a faulty product, and asked what to do with it.* 3) Assuming a buyer was another already banned person, when it was made clear they weren't he still kept the ban. 4) Basically anyone who critiques his dolls. *He claims "wabi sabi", even though some of the product issues are way beyond any wabi sabi aesthetic. He also calls his "haters" the "entitled" and once made a comic about "eradicating the entitled" and had a doll in a striking uniform salute with a flat hand. Yeah so a Jewish person mentioned how the wording and pic combined gave bad Nazi'esque image and that he should avoid it. He banned the Jewish person. (The Jewish person was very respectful about it, and explained why phrasing things like "eradicating the entitled" and some other stuff was not a good combination.)

--

I remember back in the 00s seeing endless wank over people's porny photoshoots with their multiple BJDs that were styled as a visual kei group.

Also everyone's favorite perpetual wank topic: "OMG, how do you have 5? That's my rent for months!"

To this day, I see the acronym "BJD" and think "Time for popcorn!" even though I rarely see the wank anymore.

[a-roguish-gambit]

Turn of the century au thoughts: mail call

It's occurred to me that after mutants are outed to the world via a newsreel of the whole sentinel fight, and eventually the X-Men's name is cleared via a combo of teddy Roosevelt and a secondary News Reel of them fighting and taking down juggernaut, the X-Men are probably going to get a lot of mail from random places in the country and maybe even all over the world. There's definitely a lot of hate mail because people are awful and Logan, Jean, and the professor are having to make sure nothing dangerous in any of the packages or mail letters there being sent, and ororo is specifically filtering Evan's mail cause she is gonna protect her nephew from any and all assholes personally and track down anyone who sends him so much as a threat. Still it gets absolutely bonkers because at the time people still did do shitposting and trolling they just did it via the mail system. Not only were chain letters a thing but putting your mailing list out for any reason, and there were a lot of reasons to have a public mailing list, was a gamble because you could have random people sending you extremely random letters. People would send randos their stream of consciousness thoughts or pretend to be someone they aren't via mail. The owner of Sears and robucks would frequently get letters from people asking for advice about who they should marry and stuff like that for example.

The institutes address is probably out there for business reasons, and even if it's not totally public it's only a matter of time before people find it or figure it out because the institute is a public address, so yeah there would be lots of very random mail being sent to the X-Men kids malicious or otherwise.

I can see the international kids getting sent letters from people they do not know claiming to be family members trying to make some money off these kids because they assume that because these kids have fame they also have some kind of wealth which is not true at all a lot of them don't and are there because Xavier himself is wealthy and is willing to spend a lot of money on kids who aren't even his, and to them it's very very obvious and they make fun of it all the time.

Roberto got a letter in Spanish and he's laughing at it with Sam and Amara who read it out to him, where the person is claiming to be his long lost uncle from brazil and it's so obvious this person knows nothing about anything, because his whole family speaks Portuguese not Spanish, because, ya know, they are actually from Brazil. Amara notes that the Spanish is incredibly bad as well, so it was probably some random non latin American who wrote this.

Scott keeps getting letters from people telling him he's wasting his talent and what he should actually use his lazer eyes for x thing like they know how his powers work, or telling him how to fix his eyes, one guy is claiming he can cure Scott by waving magnets over his body. Jean is doubled over laughing when Scott reads that one to her. He's just like "if all it took were magnets to fix me I think all the fights with magneto would have done something by now..."

Jean keeps getting preachers telling her she needs to "renounce her satanic ways and turn to God for power," because apparently these people think her psychic abilities are devil magic. She ignores them but Scott keeps writing angry letters back to these people telling them to leave his girl alone.

Kitty keeps getting letters telling her it's improper to phase through walls, and that a young lady like her should be in an etiquette school not a school teaching her to phase through walls. she is absolutely baffled by this. The girls just come to the conclusion that "people will police women on literally anything". She gets a few offers from suffragette groups though too asking for her help, same with jean.

Ororo has been heavily filtering Evan's mail making sure he doesn't end up reading anything from a weirdo or a racist, but he has gotten interesting mail none the less. He got requests for interviews by several black publications for the perspective on being a mutant of African American descent, which has been fun. Some of the other kids are jealous, as he got a letter from W. E. B. Du Bois at one point, and Booker T Washington's widow and Lady principal of the Tuskegee institute, Margaret Washington, sent one about him potentially visiting the campus some time. But those kids are also getting good mail they are just also seeing some of the ridiculous stuff too.

Rogue seems to get two kinds of mail, one is people calling her a witch, and the other is marriage requests of all things. A lot of them claiming they can "fix her" (ew). A lot of men saw the news reels and apparently had gambit's same thought process about her dark looks. Remy is none too happy about these men, but rogue assures him she hasn't the slightest care for any of these men. They munch on the chocolates and other goodies they send her as rogue writes letters back simply saying "1. I have a lover. 2. My touch kills men. Leave me alone."

Kurt gets some of the wildest stuff: People trying to mail him exorcisms, people accusing him of turning their daughters into Satan worshippers because the girls want to meet him, letters from said daughters wanting to run away with him, people thinking he's the anti christ, with some demanding he leave the country and some asking for his orders to command them against the establishment, actual demon worshipers asking for his hand in marriage, A letter from Aleister Crowley himself, people asking if this is the true form of Germans, people asking him to curse their enemies, kids sending him letters telling him to make sure the krampus does not bother anyone this year, and so on and so on and so on. Poor boy is overwhelmed.

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

ofmd s2e1 rewatch where i pause to jot down my thoughts and other random shit

not quite a reaction post bc i've already watched the whole thing. not quite a liveblog bc it's one post and it's probably gonna take me a full hour to get through a 28 minute episode at the rate of pausing and typing i'll be doing

s2e1, s2e2, s2e3, s2e4, s2e5, s2e6, s2e7, s2e8

anyway, pirate time:

i love how much fun con is having choking on his own blood

dream!stede's extremely teary face right before he takes off running down the beach is doing psychic damage to me

also dream!stede's stupid ridiculous outfit with all the long ribbons and shit...

ed and stede make contact so hard shjfkhsgjkfd the loud OUGH sounds from both of them

also the return of ed's old beard! i didnt expect to see her at all this season, so that was a surprise.

"babe" "love" im tearing out my own hair

stede has yet to learn that ripping ass near your beloved can be a love language

stede is a terrible fucking roommate just deal with wee john's gas in silence like the rest of them. goddamn.

WHO HAS THE OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH TRAMP STAMP. WHO IS THAT.

i like when the background OST is familiar to me lol the little strings when stede starts his letter throwing me back to s1

olu: that–that's the swede the swede: Im the swede roach: he's single ;) me: *pissing my pants with laughter*

also the direct confirmation that the swede literally doesn't have a name. incredible

shjkfhdhfkj the crew encouraging him. stede's "it's okay" and roach "be brave" im CRYINGGGGG

stede doing customer service is something that can be so personal. "reservation?" "eat my fuckin' shit" "right! walk-ins, then" average restaurant experience

the random background guy saying "my favorite hand!" abt getting stabbed in the hand is making me giggle. i love the humor on this show

why does stede have so much shoulder movement going on when he's walking through the bar. whore behavior.

"this is for mom!" sorry but i want to know more abt whatever's going on there

also the purple mohawk. dope.

buttons is so distressed LET HIM RETURN TO THE SEA THESE CONDITIONS ARE INHUMANE

"i know the odds of you finding this are slim but so were the odds of us finding each other in the first place" IM RIPPING OFF MY OWN SKIN

also stede's lil sad hopeful smile after throwing the bottle... i care him

i love how they make this wedding fucking suck so we don't feel too bad abt the whole massacre thing. "the natural condition of humanity is base and vile. it is the obligation of people of standing, such as yourselves, to elevate the common human rabble through the sacred transaction of matrimony" if i was at a wedding and the officiant said that i'd also start killing people probably

yayy murder montage :)

FANG BREAKING THAT GUY'S SPINE OVER HIS KNEE

the whole cake scene is so fucking funny im sorry. i love u jim drawing the line at attacking a shitty wedding. i love u archie who wasn't here for the good old days so you dont really see a problem with how things are. i love u frenchie with ur box in ur brain that u never open again. i love u fang it's gonna get better i swear. i love u frenchie again bc u just took the cake right out of fang's hands while he was fucking sobbing hfjhgkjhdkjkf

I MISS IVAN JUSTICE FOR IVAN. wish they could've said he'd just fucked off somewhere instead of dying but i think that would've raised the question of why hasn't anyone else fucked off since they all seem so miserable

very relieved that stede isn't taking the racist/antisemitic caricature drawings of ed to make like a boyfriend scrapbook like some people were theorizing. would've been overkill if after episode 4 from last season stede still didn't realize that ed hated these sorts of depictions of him.

INTERESTING DETAIL THO the background music in this scene is "a pirate's life" aka the song frenchie sang in the pilot. it's an instrumental version obviously but yeah i recognize that tune

also more cool background ppl with dyed hair man i love this show

zheng yi sao flirting with olu is so good. he deserves it.

how nice of ed to offer his drugs to the crew. sharing is caring.

also it's so funny to me that the thing izzy is tormented by is ed saying "you can't do the job, someone else will" the toe thing's happened three times and apparently that was fine but the thing the show edits together right before izzy breaks down into the most pathetic aheemheem whimpers isn't any of that it's ed threatening to fire him

also they cut ed throwing knives at izzy!! what the hell.

releasing the clip of izzy crying kinda ruined it for me when it came time to watch it in the show bc i watched it several times since it dropped and now seeing it in context i was like "ok i've seen this already fast forward." i mean i didnt fast forward through it but i did kinda zone out bc i've seen this bit already. this post kinda sums up my thoughts on it

"trifling ingrate plan" dshkjfshgdskhfjkhgkjh

"SEMI-CLEAN WATER"

JACKIE CALLING THE SWEDE "BOO CAKES"

"i know that guy we had breakfast together!" "you'll be having a lot of breakfasts-es together" "oh, okay" i fucking love this whole dynamic like i can tell they're writing the swede out of most of the episodes for budget reasons (sorry nat faxon) but by god do they give him such an excellent fucking send-off. can't wait to see him again when he's in his trophy husband number 20 era

roach is upset abt not being able to cook, buttons is tied up so he doesn't go running back to the sea (i assume). stede you are not giving your crew the environment they need to thrive.

olu being an optimist :)

buttons opens his mouth to drink the rain and in the background u can see roach yanking the rope around buttons back fhdjskgfjhgkjfh STEDE YOUR SEA WITCH CANNOT THRIVE IN THESE CONDITIONS

stede tries to make things sound good in his bottle letters to ed but out loud he says his actual insecurities... it's so fucking tasty tho that he thinks ed could be doing better without him and THAT'S why he's been stalling so much. not afraid for his life even a little bit he just assumes he's not wanted. brb i have to cry now

"im sorry if that's a little bit creepy" "you are creepy" in this scene where they're soaked from the rain. ofmd said this prince ricky guys is creepy and wet.

stede's fucking FACE when prince ricky says "you're my hero" his fucking "clearly you dont own an air fryer" face I CANT STAND HIMMMMMM (affectionate)

prince ricky "these rubes" "men of our standing" yeah i cant fucking stand this guy (derogatory) i love how he's barely even in this episode

stede's face when the swede is talking abt how happy he is with jackie... my man believes in love so much im gonna cry

also in what fucking way does the swede owe them a life debt. roach and buttons literally tried to eat him

izzy's "you know me better than anyone knows me and i daresay the same about you" this is literally so false i dont even know where to begin. izzy in e6 being like "if i didnt know any better i'd think maybe ed might possibly maybe be actually enjoying bonnet's company" while ed and stede are giggling and making each other friendship bracelets. this guy doesn't know ed at all.

also i cant get over how izzy wont make eye contact he's like staring blankly into the middle distance delivering these lines so flatly until he goes to say "i have... love for you" and in that moment he looks like he'd rather ed were feeding him more toes.

"im worried about you, we all are" not gonna lie my dude you've had a weird way of showing it thus far. where was all that worry when you told him he was better off dead than wearing a robe and singing songs?? where was that fucking love then?

and NOW izzy wants to talk it through. izzy literally voted to make blackbeard great again and now he wants to give open communication a chance???

lmao there's a limit to how many characters can be in a bulleted list so here's fucking. part two. on the same post:

ed asking everyone if the vibe is poisonous and fang cant stop crying and ed's face is just like "eh good enough" im fdhksgfkjtdkh

anyway ed with a loaded gun under his chin talking to himself is hurting me so fucking much actually. ed my beloved babygirl for whom i would die. this poor traumatized man. yes he is making this workplace toxic as hell but god. GOD. im gonna throw up.

the way ed is so fucking casual about shooting izzy in the leg. just calm and jovial as he promotes frenchie to first mate. stepping over izzy all crumpled on the floor. everything about this is so fucking good. i mean it's horrible for ed and everyone around him but for me watching the show this shit is DELICIOUS. i love when the pirates get violent and unhinged i love when this shit gets fucked up. ed's mental state is so bad right now and it is causing me severe anguish but also it is so tasty. fuck.

anyway frenchie trying to turn down the promotion fhjkghdfjkhf

the cut to the swede performing the husbandly duties is INSANE. COMPLETE TONAL WHIPLASH. I LOVE THIS SHOW.

"fuck those hammies up!" spanish jackie i love you

black pete why are you so fucking loud AND WHY WOULD YOU JIX IT LIKE THAT???

why is prince ricky so small. he's like a full head shorter than stede. also this guy is insufferable i love how stede just fucking abandons him fhjkgdhkdfghkj

"the calf muscle is the most mysterious of alllll the muscles" what the FUCK does that even mean. oh swede i will miss you

NOSE REMOVAL FUCK YES. I LOVE THIS SHOW.

obsessed with the swede playing dumb. the dramatic gasp. "wow, so bad!" fhjsghdkjf

"aint you that soup bitch?" "im the money bitch" i love women.

sfdsjkh spanish jackie being into double-crossing. and slapping the swede's ass on the way out. i love this show

i love how zheng says "this much indigo is worth three times what i paid" while spanish jackie and the husbands are still like, right there. and they just don't hear that bit. incredible.

OUGH the back of jim's weird rope armor looks like a ribcage that's so cool

i love how jim is so fucking bad at telling this story. i love how the monkey's paw comes into it. i love fang asking them to do the voice. i love archie trying to hold back her laughter i love jim and fang giggling together I LOVE THIS SHOW

ed's fucking voice breaking through his whole convo with frenchie. im tearing out my own teeth

HEY DID YOU GUYS KNOW THEY HAVE POST-CREDITS SCENES IN THIS SEASON?????????? WHAT THE HELL

i take back what i said about jim being bad at telling this story their version is so much fucking better. squeaky voice "I pray to you, Dark Lord, to make me real flesh! I want to be real flesh!" IM FUCKING OBSESSED. JIM I WOULD DIE FOR YOU

[beardedmrbean]

Oh thank you for liking my American wizards ideas

And about guns, okay modern trick a lot of writers use that magic is often uncomfortable with modern technology.

Now my Americans wizards gun magic is that they use mainly colonial muskets, revolvers, and recent advancements allow WW1-2 guns to be used.

Also like for the modern AK-47 and desert eagles, okay gamifying a bit. But american wizards enchantments get slow to change the type of bullets the guns use, ie a enchantment take make the bullets releasing posion gas after hitting the target and such

Actually I notice something I notice in post hp fantasy settings and especially after Rings of Power. A lot of modern creators try to put modern or globalized characters into middle age inspired settings

Like the push for black rep in fantasy…the problem is that the type of fantasy people that could resembled modern black people is if the fantasy setting take place in colonial or industrial eras.

But I think a lot of black activists in these progressive circles never realize or took the hard pill that the average black American and the modern Yoruba people are strangers to each other. We have no pagan cultural roots to Africa

Yeah it’s sucks…but it sure as hell will help you in the long wrong

And as you know I’m a Midwestern. This tweet made me realize my fantasy ideas is so different

https://x.com/oliverjia1014/status/1770085801113849979?s=46

It was a fun read

Now my Americans wizards gun magic is that they use mainly colonial muskets, revolvers, and recent advancements allow WW1-2 guns to be used.

You were talking about a steampunk type visual, you'll see a lot of old flintlock, wheel lock, and cap and ball type with the people that do steampunk, it's Victorian era so basically if it existed prior to to 1901 you're good.

Actually I notice something I notice in post hp fantasy settings and especially after Rings of Power. A lot of modern creators try to put modern or globalized characters into middle age inspired settings

Ya it's getting old, fantasy setting is not bad that and how they explained Morgan Freeman's character in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves worked great.

Moorish man that Robin had befriended instead of killed while out on the Crusade, came back to see England with Robin. It had a few 'magic negro' moments but not really magic other than the magic of his voice.

Just a inspirational speech, telescope thing too iirc been a while not really magic but a great vehicle for inserting someone who would not appear normally in that area at that time into a story.

But I think a lot of black activists in these progressive circles never realize or took the hard pill that the average black American and the modern Yoruba people are strangers to each other. We have no pagan cultural roots to Africa

Some are acutely aware of it

It's the 'they took our jobs' that everyone says it racist when you're talking about immigrants, but this is slots in college admissions and not racist at all if you ask them.

Xenophobic would be closer.

And as you know I’m a Midwestern. This tweet made me realize my fantasy ideas is so different

Guy moves to farm country and find out that farmers aren't actually the racist hicks he thought they were, many such cases.

There's a imageset from a post from FB or twitter or something, black woman breaks down in the middle of farm country on her way somewhere and her worst nightmare comes true when a white dude with confederate flag and maga stickers pulls up.

Guy was friendly and polite, helped to get her car functional and showed her where was a good place close by where a more permanent fix could happen.

There's a few, variations on who was driving and one I'm thinking of their bumper came loose, others with flat tires and what not.

They all end the same way, preconceived notions wind up being shown to be incredibly wrong.

[magical-girl-topic]

Possible most hated magical girl anime

Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt is a magical girl anime which many people have had a problem with the past couple of years. I'm not really on either side of the argument about this anime, but I would like to talk about it on here. <3 Both sides have great points, and I would really like to share it with you guys. Thanks for the support recently :3 I'll get on w/ it now.

Ever since its come out, I've heard a lot of mixed opinions on PASWG, and I can see why. I watched this anime in early 2020, due to getting A TON of cosplays of these two angel sisters on my tiktok fyp. x3

To get it out of the way, personally I do really like this anime, I think its very funny, the character design is awesome! And overall, its just fun to watch. I understand why so many people have a problem with it though

The first problem I've noticed, was racism.

One of the biggest controversies paswg has had with the magical girl, and overall just anime community, has been their many racist character designs. While this was made in the early 2010's (2012 to be exact), and it is based off of popular adult animation at the time, like South Park, and Family Guy, which also has had some very offensive characters in it, it doesn't really change the fact that the designs we're racist, and very offensive to a lot of viewers.

In PASWG, they used a lot of racist stereotypes against POC for their designs, a lot of people have only recently spoke out about this, and the anime, and fandom, has gotten a lot of backlash.

(When I say recently, I don't mean too recent, I'm kinda late on this subject, but I do still see a lot of people talking about it to this day. When I mainly started seeing people speaking out about this, it was late 2020- early 2021)

While that is obviously a problem for the anime, it's not completely bad, I mean don't get me wrong, the anime isn't the greatest, but personally, I don't think it deserves too much hate.

I think the artwork is incredible, the animation style and just the way everything moves is insanely gorgeous, the colors chosen for every single scene is pure eye candy.

There's loads of references in every episode, it has me so focused on every little thing to find every little easter egg possible its insane. xD Their pet, chuck, himself is an entire reference to Gir from invader zim. I've found a list of every reference in each episode, which I'll link here if you wanna look.

You should check that out its pretty cool <333

I'm not going to go full in depth of every problem and every plus there is to this anime because loads of people have done that, and I'm just writing this for fun and because it's what I enjoy. There's loads of other blogs and articles on paswg, which if this was of any interest to you, I advise looking into it <333

PASWG is a super cool, but pretty strange anime, and if you've got the time and wanna check it out yourself, theres only 14 episodes, so you totally should and let me know your opinion on paswg! <3 (And I'd love to hear urs if you've already watched it!! :-))

Thank you for reading this blog, it means a lot. :33 I love u guys sm, thx 4 the support, be ready 4 some more blogs and I'll cya soon! xoxo bye bye!

[whatyourusherthinks]

The Killer's Game Review

We didn't get a trailer for this one, but we did get a poster. A physical poster we didn't use. Yeah, we use tv screens to display digital posters, but movie companies will still send us physical posters anyway. The managers just give them away to whoever wants them, so I'm proud to report that I've taken none of them. I'm not posters person. Anyway, this movie was getting savaged by critics. It's got only a 39% of Rotten Tomatoes. Which is actually misleading, since that percentage is the percentage of critics who recommend the movie, not an average of what critics rank the movie. If you want that, look at IMDB, which gave this movie a 5.8 out of 10.

Sigh. Man, how come the action movies this summer sucked? It's been a mostly horror centric year, since we opened up the year with the writer's strike so a lot of projects got delayed and horror movies are easier to make. So I would hope that means the four action movies that came out over the hot months would be good right? Nah half of 'em suck and the other half were just okay. And recently I've been very unenthused about everything I've watched. Yeah, I really liked Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, but I'm starting to realize my enjoyment was heightened by going to see it with my family and making it an event. Not that the quality of the movie has gone down, I think I just overhyped my personal enjoyment. My depression is kicking my ass recently too, so maybe I'm just being a sad sack.

What's The Movie About?

Dave Bautista is Joe Flood, a hitman who finds out he has a terminal illness, so he puts a hit out on himself to end his suffering early. Then he finds out his doctor mixed up the test results.

What I Like.

Well. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice sure got dethroned quickly. This movie gave me the kind of joy I haven't felt since, well, May.

First off, the action is amazing. It's fast paced, well choreographed, and damn fun. All of the hitmen who go after Joe are colorful and have gimmicks, like two brothers who kill their targets with motorbikes. Or a bisexual stripper team. This movie honestly reminded me of the action from The Crow reboot with it's inventiveness and brutality, but it was much more frequent. A lot of this movie kinda reminds me of The Crow if it didn't suck ass, since they also take time to set up Joe's girlfriend who then gets put in peril and he has to save her. But unlike THAT movie, the time it takes is actually interesting, the leads have good chemistry, and they set up way more than just two kids making moony eyes at each other. The characters are a lot of fun. Not only is Joe and his girlfriend a very cute couple, but the various hitmen and side characters are incredibly entertaining. I actually think the story was really good. The set-up seems stupid at the front, which it is, but they go out of their way to justify it and I think it made sense. The depiction of Joe's depression after he gets diagnosed is pretty damn realistic, and I think Dave Bautista nails it. I like the editing and pacing. It is very dynamic and interesting, there's a lot of fade ins and comic panel style compositions, but when it gets to the action they go to more standard camera. It's not a steady cam but it's not too shaky and the cuts are fairly restrained. The movie is funny as well. It's a lot of quips but it still had heart and there's a little bit of physical comedy to spice things up as well.

What I Didn't Like.

But the movie isn't perfect. While all the characters are fun, they are mostly stereotypes. Not just the colorful assassins or side characters, Ben Kingsley plays Joe's contractor who's a Jewish guy and his accent is so thick it felt kinda racist. Not that I'm accusing the movie or anything, I liked all the characters and it feels more like the over the top accents and ridiculous behaviors are there to characterize the hitmen rather than make us hate them or perpetuate a harmful ideal, but that might be why this movie got crapped on critics. Also, it's kinda sloppy in a lot of cases. I thought the movie was really funny, but not every one liner lands. The pacing jumps a bit. And occasionally stuff seems to just happen out of nowhere. And the acting from pretty much everyone except Dave and Sofia Boutella is ehhhhh. Mostly because the actors seem to be the kinds of actors who just play themselves but with a slightly different gimmick each time. Like you don't expect Terry Cruz to be anyone else except Terry Cruz but meaner in this movie. Although the good actors like Ben Kingsley and Alex Kingston seem to be doing the same thing? So I guess it's purposefully? All of these little things really makes the movie feel scrappy instead of amateurish.

Final Summation.

There has only two movie that have come out this year which I wanted to watch a second time in theater. The first was The Fall Guy, which is still the best movie that has come out this year. And the second is this one. The Killer's Game is awesome, don't let the negative critical reception fool you.

[moonjxsung]

✨Starrr, my love✨

Girl, I got some drama. So recently I joined a one shot for dnd where I live and got the phone numbers from the other 3 players, right. But today one dude, let’s call him Hal, started off by postponing our meet which was meant to be on the 31st of this March to JULY 1st??? Literally texted this at one in the morning.

And this afternoon, in the group chat Hal had randomly said “I learned a new racist term for black people from a guy from Washington State.” And the other girl and I in the group both were telling him, “okay, we don’t want to know. Please keep that to yourself,” and then he still said it. 🙂…

The other girl, let’s call her angel, responded with “If u think racism is funny we’re just gonna leave. I’m sick of men thinking jokes like that are okay.” And this bitch (Hal)(pardon my language) really replied with “Too bad. Life sucks. It's not fair. Nobody cares what you think. Not all racism's funny, just some of the jokes,” and in a moment of me regaining a sense of conscious from being so astounded at what he had said I respond with “Apparently having common decency is a virtue…” And this dude really pulls the ethnicity card of “oh, I’m Norwegian. A part of our whole thing is to raid villages and to die in battle.” And then continued to talk about how he got a kick out of seeing people suffer and when I told him that he should just respect peoples’ boundaries more if he wants to work with them he started going off on me and ended up saying some racist things to me like “go back from where you came from if your going to be so sensitive” and I just ignored him at that point…

But after, Angel and the other boy in the party started a new group chat with me and we’re gonna make our own campaign and actually have fun, so it worked out in the end!

-🌕🌊

OH MY GOD???????? No that’s literally insane…��. People who think racism is funny in the year 2024…… 😐 it’s never been funny considering it’s the lowest hanging fruit possible like you’re expecting somebody to laugh at a stereotype about a certain group? A slur? Where is the joke…. Enlighten me please…..

My ex was a lot like this toward the end (and he played dnd too) and whenever I’d tell him some stupid shit he said wasn’t funny, he’d joke that he was going to find another woman who did find those jokes funny (and he did, the girl he cheated on me with was incredibly racist!) but until the very end and until the day I die I will maintain that people who find racism to be “funny” are the least funny, least creative, least likely to contribute anything useful as long as they uphold those dumb beliefs. Men like that need to touch grass once in a while, good god 😭 and then they wonder why they have no friends, idk man I think it’s because you’re a ✨loser✨

ANYWAYS I’m so glad you started your own campaign and got rid of that dumbfuck that’s so exciting!!!!!! Glad you guys called him out and made him feel bad for his dumb jokes SHAME ON YOU DUDE. EVERYONE BOOED

lmk how the campaign comes along rahhhh I love hearing about people’s dnd campaigns!!!! Sending you sm love my angel 💓💕🩷💞💖💘🫶

[brasideios]

top ten favorite bands/musicians tag game

I was tagged by @mini-uzzy @aeide & @sleeplessincarcosa Thank you my dears 🤍

This is really difficult, but lemme see...

Joelistics - an Australian hip-hop artist, his solo work is about politics, story-telling, and is very self-reflective. Seamans Lullaby, In the Morning and Days are my absolute favourites. He was also the lead MC in the band TZU (pronounced tee-zed-you) and they made four albums which contain additional gems - Mondays and Coming Round are top tier. I've been following his work since the early 2000's (when Aussie hip-hop began, really) and it's so interesting tracing the development of his (and TZU's) music. It started very light and upbeat and grew steadily dourer and even a touch bleak by their final album. It says a lot for the times, and what growing up in this country is like, honestly. Very relatable.

Urthboy - another Aussie hip-hop artist with all the hallmarks of our brand of hip-hop. He is often upbeat - like Knee Length Socks, Shruggin' and Long Loud Hours are all great stories and/or cheerful beats - but he sometimes writes these stunningly intimate tracks - Daughter of the Light, which is an homage to his mum, or Natural Progression are good examples. He was (is?) also in the band The Herd. They are more politically focussed - the most famous song being 77% - a song that absolutely sizzles with anti-racist anger.

The Black Keys (of course) - I'd been aware of their existence for years and years (Gold on the Ceiling and Lonely Boy were everywhere at one point) but I had never been into it. Which retrospectively, is weird because I always like blues music, though I always skirted around the edges of it. What really grabbed me in the end was Howlin' for You, which began haunting me during last year. I'd wake up in the morning with that song in my head. So, I went digging for more, and an obsession was born. Personal faves include Crawling Kingsnake, Sinister Kid and Tighten Up - but there are so many great songs to choose from.

Editors - They are industrial rock (I think it's called) out of England, These guys are possibly my favourites of all time. Their music talks a lot about love and death in really interesting ways - it's a mix of rock, melancholy acoustic tunes and electro. Their album An End Has a Start is where I began, but The Back Room and The Weight of Your Love are brilliant albums. I'd single out All Sparks, Formaldehyde, and The Phone Book as their best, but it was a hard choice.

Kings of Leon - I was totally obsessed with their music around 2010 and I still passionately love several of their songs. Arizona, Knocked Up, King of the Rodeo, Waste a Moment, and Find Me are always going to be on a list of favourite tracks.

Talking Heads - I grew up in a musical household, in the sense that there was always music playing, mostly my dad's music. He was a young dad - 21 when I was born - so he was still very into popular music at the time (though definitely not R&B which was just starting to reach us in the late eighties. I often wonder what he would've made of Aussie hip-hop if he'd lived to hear it... anyway.) Talking Heads were big in my childhood, and I still really love their music - new wave is so fun and at times silly, I'm totally into it. Songs like Love for Sale, Psycho Killer, The Lady Don't Mind, And She Was and Girlfriend is Better are such cornerstones of my musical taste, I can hardly imagine who I'd be without them.

Dire Straits -Sultans of Swing is a forever favourite. It's one of those songs that reminds me really strongly of my dad. He had this silly way of singing the line 'it ain't what they call rock'n'roll.' I also really love Brothers in Arms and Romeo and Juliet.

Pink Floyd - the song Wish You Were Here absolutely defined a time in my life and sums up something about myself for which there are no words. The whole album (of the same name) is such a journey - even though I've always found Shine on you Crazy Diamond incredibly creepy. I also appreciate the album The Wall as a musical journey. Comfortably Numb, One of my Turns and the various iterations of Another Brick in the Wall are so, so good. Part 1 speaks to me on a cellular level.

Danheim - The soundtrack to my writing activities for years and years now, I couldn't make a list without mentioning him. I don't know the names of the tracks because I listen to whole albums at a time. They're all good. For some reason though, the song Glitnir is known to me as a particular favourite.

Heilung for the same reason as Danheim - though with Heilung, I've watched the full LIFA show like a thousand times; and I passionately love the song Norupo.

This is a very shabby, on the fly list - and I'm sorry for my inability to write anything short 😅

I'm tagging with zero pressure @liminalspacecowboah @i-gotta-get-normaller @myriath @woodsman2b @el-zorrito and anyone who I've undoubtedly forgotten who wants to jump in.

[artzychic27]

Any mlb as parks and rec quotes maybe even the sb and ib one

Aurore: Can you be civil?

Jean: I am civil. He's the stupid garbage head doo-doo face.

Aurore: That's perfect.

—

Marc: So I go by Narc now. They already had a Mark in the Parks department, and they suggested that they change my name to Narc. I told them my real name was Marc with a C, and they said "who cares?" What a fun bunch of guys.

—

Nino: Hey, John McClane!

Adrien: Who's that?

Nino: Die Hard.

Adrien: The battery?

—

Nathaniel: You know, "nerd culture" is mainstream now. So, when you use the word "nerd" derogatorily, it means you're the one that's out of the zeitgeist.

Alix: Yes, that's perfect. Just like that: be incredibly boring.

—

Austin T: How do I fight back? Give me some options.

Marc: Do you… Want me to seduce Austin A?

Austin T: How would that help?

Marc: I don't know. I just want to see if I can do it.

Austin T: I appreciate that but I don't know if it's something worth losing your virginity over.

—

Chloé: Eagleton is a bunch of rich snobs, and that's coming from someone who has a Mercedes with a Harman Kardon Logic 7 Surround Sound System.

—

Kim: Max, you... blew it! Take one last look, Max, because you'll never see this body again!

—

Ismael: *talking into tape recorder* 7:34 p.m. Man dressed as a nerd. Female dressed as... crazy witch.

Adrien/Marinette: …

Adrien: Neither of us is in costume.

Ismael: Case closed. Candy please.

—

Alix: It's your fault Manon is missing!

Nathaniel: You were the one who was supposed to be watching her!

Marinette: Nath, could you please shut up? I can't hear myself not talking to Adrien!

Adrien: Cosette, I don't know what I did wrong.

Marinette: Cosette, tell him he's stupid.

Cosette: Oh, all of you shut up! Adrien, Marinette is mad because you said 'Awesome sauce' instead of 'I love you, too'. Marinette, he loves you, so stop being a child. Alix, we all know that you lost Manon. Nathaniel, you shouldn't have been burying your face into funnel cakes. Now all of you apologize.

—

Reshma: There are two things I know about white people: they like Matchbox 20, and they are terrified of curses.

—

Ivan: You can't say your favorite kind of cake is birthday cake, that's like saying your favorite kind of cereal is breakfast cereal.

Kim: Mmm. I love breakfast cereal.

—

Lila: I shot Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

Chloé: You shot my Mercedes?! *She tackles Lila to the ground*

—

Sabrina: I didn't even ask you last night: What is going on with Chloé?

Alya: You just violated rules number one and three. You lose your coffee privileges. *Throws Sabrina’s coffee out of its cup*

—

Nathaniel: Every great work of art contains a message, and the message of this painting is, "Get out of my way unless you want an arrow in your ass."

—

Butler Jean: *teaching Chloé and Adrien how to do laundry* You always separate your lights from your darks.

Adrien: That's racist.

—

Zoé: *To Félix* Enjoy the fact that your overlords are a frail old woman and a tiny baby.

—

Zoé: I thought you needed some air, even if that air is fouled by the stench of European socialism.

—

Zoé: I'd invite you for a drink, but where would we find one here?

Félix: Are you kidding? This is London. There's a pub over there, there's a pub over there, and there's a pub between those two butcher shops.

Zoé: Let's go to that one, but we'll be stopping by those two butcher shops first.

—

Rose: Look, I don't like to throw around the word "butthead" too often. If you call everybody a butthead then it kinda loses its impact. But I can say without hesitation that Austin Q is being a real dick.

—

Ali: Hey! This is my girlfriend Rose, and this is Rose’s girlfriend Juleka.

Rose: Hi.

Mendeleieve: Hello. Oh. Wait, sorry. What's the situation?

Ali: What do you mean?

Mendeleive: How does this work?

Ali: Rose is gay but she's straight for me and she's gay for Juleka and Juleka really gay for Rose. And I just like Juleka.

Juleka: It's not that complicated.

Rose: No.

Mendeleive: Oh. Yeah. Sure. *In confessional* The thing about youth culture is I don't understand it.

[livemivida]

journal

i have so much to say. starting with i took a photo of myself tonight on august 29 2024.. i looked absolutely miserable. i looked 30 with a receding hairline😭 i look like i been doing drugs and shit. it felt pretty depressing to see if im honest… my life is moving so fast and i didnt even realize it. im turning 22 in 3 months.. i just turned 21. i barely even remember 21. probably because i didnt create very many memories.. i just need to make sure i get into school and take my classes and show up for them yk? it took me this long to start them.. its been 3 years since i graduated high school.. it feels long but would i think a 3 year okd baby is old? no.. id be like wow she has time. i dont know what this time crunch is when u get to ur 18 or 20s. it just feels like life speeds up and u have to get everything u ever wanted don. like there is this funny sound on tiktok that goes, did you know that u have 30 minutes??? and someone said me when blah blah life in my 20s to get their dream life. that is genuinely how it feels. it feels like i have 30 minutes to get all that i want. ngl im hust jappy imnnot where i use to be.. being 19 and talking to racist dudes all because i had no other options. i so badly wanted a bf i would make anyone fit the role. its like when u cant wait? so u jump the gun to early? like being in discord at 16… feining for make attention. male attention is so glorified. u think its some romanticcc thing but its really not… google says its because of socialization,, which makes sense i was taught boys dont like this they dont like when girls do that, etc. and if i was ever to get married i better make sure i hide this part of myself.

anyways.. what does this all rly matter!??!? it doesnt! thats the beautiful part i get to yap every thought this brain produces and reiterate it onto this rectangular device!! how exciting!!

and sadly i must. MUST. end my relationship with valorant for now.. as I have a theory my constant strife, frowning , upsetness or whatever ud like to call it, contributed towards my state in that picture. either way.. ill make it through. ill find a way through, ill show myself what im made of!! also. pray for my friend, he is struggling.. ):

OH! Also! one last thing! yk my dreamm about streaming valorant abd stuff? while being high and streaming with my facecam and my face appears symmetrical and my nose appears cutely and tiny shaped my face is snatched abd sharo and my eyes are alluring and hypnotizing?? that dream?? where i get paid for being so incredibly gorgeous that i could model and paid to play a game and paid to be high and have fun with friends abd create shit. i think my parents dont get it. they dont get that someone would just pay for u to live ur life? they dont get wats so interesting and they think the only way to make good money is through college. which is such a naive dilly thought bc so many successful billionaire entrepreneurs never even went or dropped out. they figured out another way to make their revenue. ANYWAYS.. i think about how disappointed my parts woykd be in me ifcthats how i lived my life? likr ploo? just gaming and playing games and and talking to strangers online?? and posting pics of musrlf??? i think they expect me to be something cool like a docyor but no im just gna be an inflenver guys… like ya no. talk more layer tho im sleepyyyyy gnightt evalissseeeee i love u evalissseee

[nekropsii]

Ok so hussie that SUCKS ass so much and he always came off to me from what he showed in his comics as a weirdo in so many ways. But like I never feel like i see this brought up whenever I talk about homestucks more questionable parts and I don't like that very much. U seem to talk about it a lot and I think that's good so I think it would be interesting to hear your honest unfiltered thoughts on the guy and everything that he's done

Ohh, boy. This is a doozy. Yeah, this is something I have a lot to say about… I try not to talk about Hussie too much, since they’re a bit of an upsetting topic, and I just don’t really like discussing real people, but… There comes a point where you literally have to acknowledge the Author when analyzing the Work. Sometimes, Death of the Author isn’t applicable in the way you hope it is, and sometimes, The Curtains Are Blue for a Reason.

That being said… Let’s get into this. I’m gonna be including a few links in this one, so here’s to hoping that it doesn’t break the post, and that it remains visible in tags. It’s an important discussion to have.

Content Warning: In-Depth Discussion of Racism, Mentions of Ableism and Child Predation.

Despite the fact that I prefer to analyze Homestuck from a largely Watsonian perspective, since Hussie isn’t very fun to think about, I cannot, in good faith, ignore it 24/7. In order to really be able to understand certain parts of Homestuck, you need to have some iota of cultural, racial, and sociopolitical awareness. This isn’t me saying “You need a high IQ in order to be able to understand Homestuck,” this is me saying there are certain parts of the story that are caked in stereotypes that a lot of Non-POC, especially Non-Black people, might not pick up on. Same goes for the Able-Bodied.

Hussie has proven themself time and time again to be a raging racist who is really, really weird about kids. Her writing is a double-edged sword- on one hand, Childhood, and the loss of it, is rendered beautifully in Homestuck in ways I haven’t quite been able to find in other media. The fearlessness and shamelessness in allowing the characters the make horrible mistakes and be flawed people as they grow up in harsh circumstances is an incredible thing to witness… But then there’s Hussie’s disturbing infatuation with Vriska Serket, who is a 13 year old girl, and his unabashed hatred for characters like Tavros Nitram, who is physically disabled, as well as Gamzee Makara, who is Black-Coded in a way that’s offensive.

Hussie’s bigotry is transparent. Let me use Gamzee in particular to expand upon this topic, because he’s… A pretty obvious choice when it comes to this discussion.

Gamzee Makara is a Dirty, Drug-Addled, Hedonistic, Unsupervised Mess of a child who has an Absent Father, Horrifically Violent Impulses, and a religious devotion to a Hip Hop/Rap band. While it’s undeniable that, from a Watsonian Perspective, Insane Clown Posse is a legitimate basis for a real, in-universe Cult, it’s also undeniable that- in tandem with the rest of his character- that obsessive devotion to those specific genres does not read well, as they’re historically Black music genres, and Black men are stereotyped as having a particular affinity for it. I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge how Gamzee’s character is largely treated as a joke, with him mostly being portrayed as significantly more stupid, bumbling, and useless than his peers- to the point where it’s a remarked upon thing in the text of the story- and that this, when taking in the context of the racism behind the rest of his character writing… Reads as a Minstrel Show.

This doesn’t even touch on the concept of “Chucklevoodoos” within the comic, which has its name derived from a real world, currently practiced, legitimate African Religion. It’s most often quite offensively boiled down to mysterious, spooky, magical nonsense, and as something that’s simultaneously unknowable (to white people,) all powerful, and primitive /lesser (than Abrahamic Religion.) The presence of “Jujus” as a set of mysterious, extremely powerful objects within the game of SBURB raises some red flags in conjunction with the rest of the things I’ve listed as well- it wouldn’t read nearly as poorly without the previously aforementioned extreme racism, and with said racism in mind, I can’t help but think that it also being associated with the Makaras while also being borrowed, once again, from African Religious Practices, was intentional. Don’t get me started on Kurloz.

(Wikipedia may not be the most detailed source ever, but it serves its purpose to prove that this is an actual thing, and I’m not just talking out of my ass here.)

It’s disheartening, but unsurprising, to see a fandom that seems to pride itself on a sense of Acceptance, Awareness, and Diversity be unable to grapple with the fact that the creator, and the source material they’re working with, is inherently bigoted. Pointing out that the Racism and Ableism in Homestuck exists is not at all something people should shit the bed about, and it’s not a conversation put on the table purely to tell people to stop liking Homestuck; Critical Enjoyment of media does exist, and you can be aware that a piece of work has some deep, deep issues and still enjoy it. I would know- I’m literally an Alpha Troll-centric blog.

Shifting gears here, but Hussie’s ableism is well known- ranging from things as obvious as early Homestuck’s liberal usage of the R-Slur, (though that was quite normalized online during the period in which it was used, and I’d argue that that’s partially a product of its time,) Tavros’s horrible treatment due to his disability being something that was supposed to be viewed as “deserved,” Tavros’s disability as being something that needed to be “cured,” and Terezi’s Pseudo-Blindness, to things as obscure as the way Hussie handled Horuss Zahhak’s canonical Systemhood.

Also, though it’s not in the vein of bigotry, I need to expand upon an earlier point… Hussie’s obsessive, unabashed attraction to Vriska Serket, who is a 13 year old girl, is a significantly more openly discussed topic, I feel, but I’ll go over it still. Andrew Hussie has what is functionally just a Self Insert within the comic, bearing their name and their- at the time- exact image. This Avatar of himself even shares the role of being the Writer of Homestuck, and the line between what is an actual reflection of Real World Hussie and what is just a character is extremely thin, and extremely blurred. That said, a decent portion of people took Hussie’s Avatar as near purely a character- but his attraction to Vriska was a genuine thing. Hussie’s Avatar takes every opportunity he can get to physically stalk Vriska, and sexually harass her. The stark age gap between the two of them is, if I recall correctly, remarked upon in the comic, and Vriska’s disgust and discomfort is seemingly supposed to be a part of the joke.

There’s a lot I could talk about here, but I’m not currently equipped enough time, mental and emotional energy, space, or words to tackle everything cleanly in one post. The start of the web is there, the foundation is built, but I can’t adequately weave it all in a single day. I hope you understand. There’s quite obviously more to be said, about Meenah’s use of AAVE, Damara’s aggressive over-sexualization paired with her speech patterns, the running theme of Child Predation, so on and so forth. A lot of my thoughts on Hussie aren’t kind. They really aren’t a good person, no matter how much any of us wish they were.

[tizzyizzy]

For fun, Iam going to explain why I like Izzy hands. Not that it will convince anyone that I only stan him do subconscious racism/sexism/homophobia.

Aesthetics. Shallow, but this isn't a philosophy dissertation. It's a matter of person preference. I love that he's got the vest and princess sleeves in all black. Being good with a sword is cool. Also, he is hot. That voice. He's also small! Love a small dangerous guy.

Moral greyness. I will almost always be interested in morally grey characters, especially darker ones.

In denial about vulnerability and feelings. There's something extra touching to me about a character putting on a tough facade. It makes me want them to be safe and be able to express their feelings.

Cynical and practical. I am like this myself and will always sympathize with characters trying to tell idealistic protagonists that they are being stupid, actually. All through ep 4 I was sympathetic to poor Izzy who just wanted orders from his boss to not die.

Responsible, orderly, reliable, honorable. Izzy is someone who takes his responsibilities seriously. Love that, especially as a disorganized disaster.

Lonely. He has no friends? He's so socially awkward? Poor baby! Sure he's mean, but I find it so sad that he doesn't know how to relate to people.

A masochist submissive. Love that for him.

Tragically in love and loyal. I am always weak for this. The pining!

And if you don't buy any of this, if you look at my past favorite characters, the trend become obvious.

Recently, I was extremely fond of Silko from Arcane. A small villain with sympathetic qualities with a great voice, dark aesthetic, and cool facade that hides his emotions.

Then there's Revolver Ocelot. He's a sharply dressed cowboy wannabe with a deep voice and incredible skill in using his revolvers. He's a villain, torturer, and sadist. It turns out a ton of the plot was actually just his ludicrously complicated plan to fulfill the dream of another (male) series villain he was loyal to and in love with. He's lighting is murder husband's cigar up there.

Tell me, do you think someone with a history of a loving pining gay loyal sadist villain Revolver Ocelot needs racism to fall for a character like Izzy Hands?

And I doubt that I'm the only enjoyer that has a list of favorite characters that share traits with Izzy. I saw a piece of fan art with both Izzy and Jean Vicquemare together, another gravelly voiced, prickly side character. Another of my favorite characters, btw.

If you aren't drawn to this particular character type? Absolutely fine. You do you. But don't assume people who like Izzy and sympathize with him are...racists or some shit.

Oh! Izzy fans! Please tell me why you love our babygirl!

[mst3kproject]

Thor and the Amazon Women

Although the title sounds like some kind of incredibly bloated and dreary Marvel/DC crossover movie, this is actually the crummy Maciste flick that appeared over the opening credits of Cave Dwellers. The director, Antonio Leonviola, also made previous Episodes that Never Were Mole Men Against the Son of Hercules and Nobody Named Atlas Goes Anywhere Near the Land of the Cyclops. Those both sucked in ways that really weren't even any fun, so this is probably going to hurt.  I apologize in advance for the truly appalling picture quality... I think this movie has been copied and recopied more times than the Star Wars Holiday Special.

The Queen of the Amazons receives a prophecy that her rule will be ended by a man so powerful he will defeat a hundred and one of her troops without even using a weapon!  She decides she needs to get this guy before he can get her, and after getting some tips from her prisoners, sends a party out to find him.  They locate the mighty hero Thor and wound him but are unable to capture him – instead, they imprison young Princess Tamar, daughter of the king the Amazon Queen deposed years ago.  Thor is nursed back to health by his cowardly friend Ubaratutu, and they set out to free Tamar, who has been forced to train as a gladiatrix, and fulfill the prophecy by bringing peaceful rule back to the land of Byblos.

So as I noted, this is my third Antonio Leonviola sword-and-sandal movie, and third time was definitely not the charm.  Amazon Women is by far the most racist, most sexist, and generally least entertaining of the lot.

Long ago I noted that Maciste films have a preponderance of tyrannical Evil Queens versus wise and fair Good Kings, as if the entire genre were preoccupied with the idea that women are incapable of rule.  At the time, I wondered if this were just because those were the films MST3K happened to pick, but I've seen a lot more of them now and yeah, turns out that's a thing.  Thor and the Amazon Women is particularly explicit about it, stating the philosophy out loud, repeatedly, through characters who are also women.

One notable moment of this comes at the climax, when Princess Tamar is wounded and believes she is dying.  Her adoptive father, her brother, and Thor, all urge her to live so that she can return to the throne and restore peace.  She replies that this is not a woman's job, but is in the hands of her twelve-year-old brother (whose name I never managed to decipher, but sounds a bit like 'Amoke'), who is clearly far more fit to rule than she.  At the end we see that she has survived after all, but that Amoke is king, and has made his friend Lulee his queen.  Lulee grew up among the Amazons and might have expected to wield some power in her own right, but seems quite content with this ending.

(I'm pretty sure Amoke and Lulee were dubbed by the same person, a grown woman doing a squeaky 'kid' voice.  Being as there are two of them, this is twice as annoying as in movies like Pod People that do it only once.)

That's not even the worst of it, though.  Earlier, a couple of the gladiatrices met to discuss overthrowing the queen, and they agreed that the rule of women is unnatural and that they were happier when they were subservient to their husbands!  At another point, Thor tells the queen that rule requires the use of force, which is natural to men but unnatural to women.  In other Maciste movies, the idea that women are naturally submissive was an undercurrent, possibly something the writers weren't even thinking about.  In Thor and the Amazon Women it is front and centre.

If this movie has a raison d'être besides telling the women in the audience to get back in the kitchen, it's showing the men in the audience scenes of women in skimpy outfits fighting each other to the death.  There are quite a few of these, and they are stunningly bad.  There's no fight choreography and none of these actresses look like they've ever picked up a sword or spear before in their lives.  If you told me the first time they handled the prop weapons was the day of shooting, I would believe you.  Of course, none of the actresses are at all muscular because that might be perceived as unfeminine... and I guess if the fight scenes were actually good the male audience might feel threatened instead of turned on.  At least it's kinda funny when they theatrically 'die' with an opponent's spear tucked under one arm like kids on a playground.

So there's the sexism.  The racism is brought to us by Ubaratutu and the Queen of the Amazons, both of whom are black.  The former is an absolute buffoon, who calls Thor 'master', expresses cowardice at every opportunity, and makes stupid decisions in the name of comic relief.  The latter is a cruel tyrant who suppresses dissent with merciless torture and bloodshed, and who we're told has repeatedly married men, spent a few days fucking them, and then had them killed when she gets tired of them – this was almost Ubaratutu's fate. Mole Men Against the Son of Hercules had Bangor, a similar black sidekick character, but treated him with slightly less contempt.  If you watch the movies in the order of their release (Atlas, then Mole Men, then Amazon Women) it's as if you can see Leonviola growing more and more bigoted over the course of the 1960s!

Some Maciste-type movies at least have nice sets and costumes for us to look at while all this bullshit goes on – even Nobody Named Atlas Goes Anywhere Near the Land of the Cyclops had that.  Thor and the Amazon Women must have had much less money behind it, because nearly the whole thing is filmed in a cave.  The opening credits thank the Yugoslavian government for allowing them to film in the Postojna cave system, and it's their only location.  I am not exaggerating when I say there isn't a single building in the entire film.  The shepherding people who raised Tamar and Amoke appear to live in tents in the wilderness.  They literally couldn't afford sets.

It appears to have been very cold in those caves, too... you can see the actress' breath in a couple of scenes.  It must have sucked wearing those off-the-shoulder minidresses in there.

There's only one thing going on in this movie that really had the potential to be interesting, and that's the way the Queen (who never has a name as far as I can tell – IMDB just calls her 'the Black Queen') brings about her own downfall in the attempt to prevent it. This is a theme associated mostly with Greek tragedy, most famously Oedipus, and suggests that the will of the gods is inevitable. The Oracle's warning leads the Queen to look for Thor in the hope of destroying him before he can destroy her.  Her troops fail to capture him but bring back Tamar, and it is the need to rescue Tamar that brings Thor to the Queen's domain.  If she'd left him alone, he would never have known about her.

When the Queen finally does have Thor in her power, she decides to put him to the test – the oracle said that he would be able to overcome a hundred and one of the Queen's warriors using only the strength of his hands.  The intelligent thing for the Queen to do would have been just to kill him, since he matches the prophecy in every other detail and she's got complete power over him in that moment.  Instead, she does indeed devise a test that pits him against a hundred and one of her best troops, not in battle but in a game of tug-of-war!  She could at least have tried to rig things by throwing one extra warrior in there or something.

This is why Oedipus works, and things like Thor and the Amazon Women do not.  Oedipus never makes a stupid mistake – his mistakes were made under circumstances when he could not have been expected to know better.  He just keeps pursuing the truth, even as his wife begs him to leave well enough alone.  Characters like the Queen of the Amazons have to do a series of dumb things despite having obvious better options, and therefore are destroyed not by the inevitability of divine will but by the equal inevitability of human stupidity.  I suppose we're meant to think she was actually destroyed by her hubris, but if she felt that secure on her throne why was she even worried about Thor in the first place?

The idea that the bad guys get the hero's attention by seeking to destroy him first is a common one in Maciste-type movies.  It kind of needs to be, because in many cases the plots have to find a way to bring the hero to a distant land and get him involved in a situation that really has nothing to do with him.  The prophecy thing is just the easiest way to do so, and in many cases I suspect this is the main thing the writers were thinking about.  They weren't actually interested in Greek tragedy, they were just being lazy.

Man, this movie sucks.  Remember the minute-and-a-half or so of footage from this that appeared in Cave Dwellers and mostly showed Thor and Ubaratutu wandering in some woods somewhere?  You can consider that Thor and the Amazon Women's highlight reel. Everything on screen here is absolute garbage.

[sitaarein]

Desi rep

okay so this is partly inspired because of a whole bunch of incredibly, incredibly dumb asks my friend has gotten but it is ALSO, more importantly, because I am sick of the shit I have seen so here, have a not very concise post about what to do and what to avoid if you are writing desi rep (this can also be applied outside of writing I guess??)

If you give a character an Indian name and call it a day, I will actually come and murder you. For starters, India has a whole CULTURE that you have very much decided to ignore and that. is. not. okay. If you can give your white characters all the attention and details and research in the world, you can do the same for your desi characters. Secondly, the word “desi” is used to describe so much more than simply Indian. Wanna know which countries qualify as desi? India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives. Don’t you even dare assume desi=indian and leave it at that.    

This point ties into what I just said about desi people. Please, I am actually begging you, include more than Indian characters if you want to include south asia in your writing. I am Pakistani and I am so so sick of my identity being erased wherever I look. NOT that I have anything against India or Indians. It is simply the ignorance of people assuming the whole of South Asia is simply India that is supremely horrible to see

 This is based off of personal experience. People actually think that either a) India isn’t a part of Asia or b) there are no countries in South Asia aside from India or c) both of those incredibly ignorant views. And all I can say is: what. the. fuck. Do not do that. Indians are Asians. Pakistanis are Asians. Nepalis are Asians. Bengalis are Asians. Bhutanese are Asians. Sri Lankans are Asians. Maldivians are Asians. If you do not think so, then that is actually just racist of you. Don’t talk to me until you’ve looked at a map.

Another personal point that just.. hurts. Do you know what the Muslim population of the Indian subcontinent is? (The Indian subcontinent is made up of all the countries mentioned above) The answer is: around 600 million. Out of 1.7 billion people, 600 million of them are Muslims. Put into perspective, its not a lot. But the Muslims have a whole separate identity. A separate culture. The whole reason Pakistan even came into existence is because the Muslims of the subcontinent were so fundamentally different. So if you have a desi based country or continent, please, please take a moment to think about the different cultures. 

The above point, but apply it to Sikhs and Brahmins and the numerous identities I do not even know of. They’re all unique. Look them up. Don’t just call a stereotyped culture “Indian” and leave it there.

Speaking of culture: Just. Do your bloody research. Each of the countries in the Indian subcontinent have different national languages, and then INSIDE the country there are multiple dialects based on areas and tribes. Going to take Pakistan as an example: Our national language is Urdu, but the language most commonly spoken by far is Punjabi. So the average Pakistani you meet is almost definitely bilingual, and if they have had an english education, they are almost definitely trilingual. Same goes for all the other countries, I’m sure

Speaking of culture, part 2: there is literally too much to talk about for me to cover it all in one post, so I’m just gonna say: all desi countries are very different to each other, and inside the countries the various provinces are incredibly different. In addition to the changes in language, you’ll also get different staple dishes (even though most the food of the Indian subcontinent are the same in every country, you get some kind of twist that is always uniquely of that country or region or province’s), different folk tales, different poetry and literature, different icons and heroes- the list goes on. So, once more: Do your research.   

I mentioned food briefly in the point above which reminded me of something else: I resent the fact that food that is pretty much native to the whole subcontinent is simply called... Indian. Once again, this is absolutely NOT out of hate for India, it is because that is such a generalization.  Its because by calling it Indian you are effectively dismissing 5 other countries who eat and cook the same food because it belongs to them just as much as it does to the Indians. If you want a general name, call it desi food. 

this point is... less serious than the others, its just something I find fun and could use more of in media. Desi people are obsessed with sports. Like, obsessed. Some of us pretty much breathe cricket. I just think its an interesting fact and pretty much a part of culture at this point, so I’d like to see the stereotypical desi uncle who wouldn’t miss a match for the life of him every once in a while

Back to seriousness. If you even bloody imply that your desi character is violent, I will duct tape you to a chair and make you watch dramatic pakistani dramas on repeat (it won’t be fun, trust me). I have had it with South Asia being portrayed as a terrorist hub. Do not even think of conforming to such a stereotype. I will literally hunt you down and make sure you never, ever even think of doing so ever again. 

Also: If you bloody dare imply that we are, in any way, backward, I will once more carry out the above punishments. Stop. Just stop.

Oh man, talk about the history of the Indian subcontinent. Talk about the heritage. Have you like... seen the architecture????? There’s more than just the Taj Mahal here my dudes. Forget all the “dangerous countries” bullshit. Focus on the brilliance of, well, everything, instead. 

Oh oh speaking of: Have you guys heard of mohenjo daro?? Look it up. There’s some fantasy/mystery potential there. Use it for whatever, it would make my day

Time to talk about geography. So first off: Mountains. So many amazing mountains. Both Everest and K-2 (the tallest and second tallest) are located here. The Himalayas are located here. Pretty amazing, eh? Second off: Deserts. Do you know how many mineral riches are hidden in those? Its amazing. Third off: Rivers. Oh man the rivers. Did you know the Indus river is full of blind dolphins native to the Indus river only? Did you know they’re very very endangered? Find some funds for them while you’re looking up info about them, btw. Also another sea animal native to South Asia which has pretty much been driven out of Pakistan and Myanmar: the gharial. look them up too, seriously. That would be great. Fourth off: The plains. Do you have any idea how fertile our soil is? Because. Its insane. And there’s so much more about the geography and topography of the Indian subcontinent, guys. Look it all up. I’m so sick of vague desert land descriptions for the Indian subcontinent.

Religion. Now this overlaps with culture a lot, since quite a few people choose to define their religion as their culture, but we’re still touching upon it. This is pretty vague, but there are definitely at least over seven. Each comes with its entirely unique practices. Do not even try having a desi character who is Sikh but knows nothing about Sikhism, or Muslim but knows nothing about Islam, because even if they aren’t practicing, they grow up learning about whatever religion their family practices, most of the time. 

If you’re desi, feel free to add on whatever you think is relevant here. If you’re not, shut the fuck up. This is not about you, and it will never be. Feel free to reblog, but kindly keep your comments or opinions to yourself if they are not in agreement with all the above points or promises to be less ignorant.

My inbox is open if you have any questions. Desi people let me know if I said something wrong or offensive and I promise I’ll do my best to correct it

[ilooklikeaburntchickenugget]

Addressing Lindsey

I really, really hate this topic a lot.

The fandom has been split forever over Lindsey. And here’s my take.

I’m the type of person where I believe love prevails over any emotion. It’s like overrule, the veto of emotions. There’s something so incredibly fascinating about love, true and genuine love. It’s a mystery until someone has found it, an unopened, untouched box.

That same box can open to a treasure chest of gold, and show the truest form of love. Or it can be Pandora’s box.

Yes, I believe Lindsey Way has many toxic personality traits. I don’t believe it is fair for me to classify her as a “bad person”, I don’t know her personally. However her actions lead me to believe she is definitely not a person to be necessarily fond of.

I’ve always been supportive of her and Gerard’s relationship, because (at least from what we can see) she makes Gerard happy. And after all that man has been through the very least he deserves is happiness and love. And he loves her, so I respect their relationship.

I’ve always had a very weird feeling about their relationship, however. Just the quick pace, and the events surrounding it. It just seems so calculated by her.

So Projekt Revolution starts, this is just post-Eliza breakup for Gerard. Yes, we all know she was also incredibly toxic. He was very possibly vulnerable, unsure what to do or where to go. And here comes up a woman who is ready to assist him through all of this.

We all know Gerard is highly emotional and empathetic, time after time in interviews he’s admitted it, other members of the bands have admitted it. Coming from someone with an EQ of 160 and an incredibly empathetic person as well, it’s easy to fall into the traps set up by other people. I’ve done it time and time again, but I’m still young and I know I can grow from those mistakes. So, he probably fell head over heels, not thinking too far in advance and thinking with his current emotions.

And what does she get in return? Gerard is an incredibly attractive man to begin with (I write fan fiction about him, lol, I would know) and MCR was practically on top of the world at that point. She’s a decently well known name in rock at that period, but marrying the cover of rock at that point would, well, boost you up quite a bit. Both as a musician, and in her art career.

I also want to truly mention the differences in the way they talk about one another. Basically every interview where Gerard talks about Lindsey he uses extremely strong and passionate language. When she talks about him, she does not. It almost seems bland, little to no emotion or tone. 

Not to mention as well the 2008 Fuse interview pre-Madison Square Garden show where Gerard mentions how she flew out to see him play his dream show. No offense, but in a marriage with someone who you will be spending the rest of your life with, isn’t being there to see them achieve their dream the lowest expectation? He made such a big deal out of her flying out, which tells me she made a big damn deal about it to him, which is incredibly unfair lowering the bar for yourself.

Her lack of emotion isn’t only with interviews regarding anything with Gerard. In general there’s almost no tone to her voice, she has little to no range. Her facial expressions don’t range, and her fan interactions seem less than emotional. I know various people have various ways of expressing themselves, but in general she seems to have a lot less expression within her voice, facial features, and actions than the average person.

And don’t get me started on her incredibly public, and incredibly immature meltdowns. I think it’s so important to mention that Gerard has never once defended her, which shows that he knows enough to conclude that she’s in the wrong in these situations. Especially with the whole opossum post making fun of Frank’s car accident in 2016, not cool.

In general she gives me such a weird, very off vibe. It’s hard for me to research her interviews, recorded through video or just printed and try to say that she seems like a caring, good, sound minded person. I really think something’s off, and I don’t want to accuse her of anything because I find that unfair, but my gut feeling since I joined the MCRmy almost four years has always been that she has her own intentions behind marrying Gerard, and it wasn’t just for love.

So Gerard fell victim to the forces of love. And to me, this seems more of a Pandora’s box situation. It seems in their early marriage he was incredibly happy, the happiest fans had ever seen him. In Danger Days he regresses back to his days of abusing substances, and I’m not saying by any means it’s due to her, but lots of people have commented on how he looks more miserable since then.

And I think now that he’s a father, it only adds an additional string of some sort of obligation he holds to her. We’ve seem him talk about Bandit, explain how she was the main reason he chose to come clean and eventually end the band after, once again, finding himself in another down turn of misery.

I just can’t help but think that when the timeline of some of his decline again matches up with their relationship, and no I don’t think it’s a coincidence.

And some fans may argue with me all they want, and accuse me of pushing a false narrative. But with how open Gerard has been with his character and how closed Lindsey has been aside from her public meltdowns, I can’t help but think there’s something off about the whole thing.

I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again: The entire relationship to me sounds like a fucked up 1800s gothic novel. Someone falls in love with someone else, and true love is a permanent glue: You can try to pry it off all you want, the stains remain forever.

However you guys feel about this I hope what I’m saying here won’t affect your perspective or view on my writing, since that’s my main forte. I’ve just been seeing more people bring this up again, especially after she blocked a fan on Twitter for calling her out for BLM (since MSI does have quite a few highly racist songs and lyrics) so I think it’s important to at least express my opinions, whether people agree with them or not.