#More of a rant really

[wowyoulikeflowers]

I just came across a community post asking whether Regulus could be considered a good person in canon, and out of curiosity, I clicked on the comments. One person's stood out to me and has made me feel a multitude of emotions, so here I am, ready to rant and create an essay of sorts as to why, yes, Regulus was a good person canonically.

For starters, we don't know for certain whether he willingly joined the Death Eaters. Sure, Kreacher said he did, but Kreacher has been indoctrinated by generations' worth of Black family blood purity beliefs and cannot imagine a world where his Master Regulus would go against the grain like Sirius did and betray their mother. And even if Regulus did, it's unlikely he would have told Kreacher because he would have very likely gone to Walburga and told her that Reg didn't believe in the cause anymore. Regulus may have been the heir at that point, but his mother was still Lady Black, and her commands would have outweighed his.

There are, of course, the newspaper clippings stuck to his wall about Voldemort and his victories during the First War, but we don't know the reasoning behind their existence. Sirius' room has Gryffindor memorabilia, muggle posters of half-naked women and motorbikes, and images of his friends stuck to the walls, and that was one of the ways he rebelled against his family. Regulus could have, very likely, been doing the opposite; sticking what his mother would approve of onto his walls so she still trusted him. He could have been using them for research purposes. Or, as is assumed in canon, maybe he did have those up as a pledge of his allegiance to the cause. We don't know.

All this to say, Regulus' motivations behind joining Voldemort in the first place will only ever be speculation. We'll never know for certain, but for the purposes of this 'essay', I'm going to assume that Regulus did willingly join at 16 and was excited to serve.

Now, continuing with what we know canonically. It is common knowledge, or at least not hidden away, that Regulus left the cause when he died. Sirius says in OoTP: "From what I found out after [Regulus] died, he got in so far, then panicked about what he was being asked to do and tried to back out" (p. 112). We obviously learn in DH that isn't exactly true, as well as a lot more about the nature surrounding his death. We know that he discovered the existence of Horcruxes, or at least knew of the one, and that he died attempting to retrieve the locket Horcrux so that Voldemort could be mortal and therefore killed.

The comment that inspired this rant claimed that he changed his mind in the end, but he still wasn't a good person. Disregarding the fact that this way of looking at someone's actions is incredibly reductionist and also implies people aren't allowed to change and grow, it's his defection I want to look at. We know of at least two other Death Eaters from the First War who defected: Severus Snape and Igor Karkaroff. Snape became a spy for the Order while Karkaroff was on the run before eventually being caught. Two very different methods of leaving the cause and changing allegiance. Regulus certainly could have gone the route Karkaroff went. He had the resources as Heir Black, and he obviously would have been smart enough to evade capture and discovery by both sides, as evidenced by the fact he pieced together that Voldemort had created a Horcrux, a piece of incredibly obscure and dark magic.

Instead, he went a route more similar to Snape, in the sense that he completely went against Voldemort and blatantly wanted to take him down. In his note, he says, "I face death in the hope that when you meet your match, you will be mortal once more" (p. 609, HBP). Regulus wanted Voldemort to die, wanted him to be vincible so his reign and regime would one day fail. And, sure, one could argue that he wasn't against what Voldemort was fighting for and instead the lengths he was going to. This is when I remind you of how Regulus died. Regulus died from drinking the potion the locket Horcrux resided in and then being dragged into the lake and drowned (and likely torn apart, too) by hundreds of Inferi.

And he did this in the place of his house elf.

It is mentioned quite a bit, what with Hermione's S.P.E.W. campaign, that house elves are commonly mistreated by Wixen society. They are seen as lesser, sub-beings, servants and little more by the majority of wix. If they mess up, they are forced to beat or injure themselves as punishment. And yet, Regulus Black, Heir to the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, a house that considers itself royalty and above other wix, much less non-human beings, died to protect a house elf.

If Regulus truly believed in the cause, why would he have been worried for Kreacher after he first returned from the cave? Why would he have "...told Kreacher to stay hidden and not to leave the house" (p. 195, DH)? Why would he have drunk the potion instead of having Kreacher drink it when it was proven the elf could survive it? Kreacher, someone who very few others would have considered protecting, much less treating well?

And, of course, I could go on about how Regulus (like Draco), didn't truly believe in the cause because he didn't know better, since he was placed in a vacuum chamber of sorts with other pureblood Slytherins who all grew up hearing the same mantra and was never truly challenged by anyone other than his brother (most likely), and it certainly wasn't explained to him why blood purity is nonsense, as well as joined as a 16-year-old and therefore wasn't anywhere near old enough or mentally developed enough to make such a large, drastic decision. But that isn't what this 'essay' is about, so I digress.

To conclude, Regulus was a boy, no older than 18, who died trying to bring down a dark wizard and going, quite firmly, against what he was raised to believe. He was a good person, and had he survived, I'm sure he would have become a champion for house elf rights with Hermione and done whatever intelligent, swotty thing his heart desired.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

[up-sideand-down]

24 for your choosing violence thing! 🌟

🔥 choose violence ask game 🔥

24. topic that brings up the most rancid discourse

Maybe it's because I'm ace, but I do not understand any of the ship wars in FF7. It doesn't matter. I don't care if the ship is toxic, pure like a cinnamon roll, or boring. It doesn't matter. You wanna know why?

IT'S AN RPG. Everyone is going to have a different experience, because you are meant to role play. Fuck it, I've had a difference experience each time I've played.

I don't care that much about your ship. At all. If you love it, good for you. Sometimes I'll read about it. But I'm interacting with you if all you do is spout hate about other ships. You don't have to like them, but for your own sake, stop thinking about them.

Learn to curate your online experience to be more positive for you.

[twinkuraba]

TBH OG twewy is like. The only time for me personally that NS actually... works.

And that's because it comes across as exactly what I'd personally label what it is at the time; a mutual teen crush.

They're both in this high stakes-high risk situation where their emotional states are already hitting the roof and continuing to climb so it's not unrealistic to think that 'oh this person is actually pretty cool and neat' is getting mixed in there.

The fact they don't have any hobbies in common isn't a big deal as teens; that's something they could solve by actually dating and figuring mutual interests out together.

But instead Neku gets shoved into the UG again. And Shiki is separated from him for 3 years and we get no background on if they ever even started dating officially and put in that work to ensure their relationship had a sturdy foundation.

It's just taken for granted that because Neku is the Boy and Shiki is the Girl their relationship is 100% a thing without actually putting in the work to make the relationship seem at all viable to anyone besides people who nod their heads and go 'yeah he's the main Boy and she's The Girl of course they're together'.

It's just so. Empty. Perfectly Female Gender Roles girlfriend and Perfectly Male Gender Roles boyfriend playing sweet empty domesticity that you could find in any standard mainstream m/f relationship and completely sandblasting both their original personalities for a relationship that has two people with nothing in common, built off teen feelings instead of anything substantial, where they didn't even see each other for three years, and feels like the narrative just brushes it's hands and goes "it's a Boy and a Girl, that's all people should need to think this relationship works."

And it's not even a ship sinking thing because I have never been under any impression that my main ship was going to be canon (nor did I ever want it to be, JN is more fun when it's non canon); it's basically 'I could cut out Shiki and replace her with Kairi from KH and nothing about this relationship would change.' They turned Shiki from an actual character into a cut and pastable female love interest and I fucking hate it.

[auroraboringaliceinwonderland]

Gosh damn I dread watching live action shite. The closeups are too close and there’s so many of them and then there’s romance and kissing and because of the closeups it’s right in your face and you’re just sitting there all aromantic and asexual and autistic and uncomfortable like AAAU (for aro/ace/autisic/uncomfortable) but at the same time you can’t look away from the screen because the characters are mumbling and the music in the background is too loud and sometimes there’s background noise irl so you have to look at the screen to see the subtitles but then there’s the closeups again and you’re like eeeeeeulgh and you can’t even look at the screen and you’re wondering if there’s something wrong with you because why can’t you just look at people they’re people so you should be able to look at them but then there’s closeups again and you literally cannot do you spend most of the time actually watching the space around the tv and reading the subtitles from the corner of your eyes but even then it’s uncomfortable because from the same corner of your eyeballs there’s the closeups and the—

[tomofjoy]

Finally done with this i guess but anyway i was actually done with it last class but when I came to class today my teacher just wasnt there like i couldn't find him at all i even checked the staff door thing but he was just gone and i didn't know what to do cuz i was done with this painting but i couldn't just go and start a different one cuz i didnt know which one and well it just seemed weird i guess??? So after like 7 minutes of standing awkwardly waiting for him i just got an easel and started working on this one again but i had like no idea what to do so i sorta just sat there for one and a half hours putting random strokes to look like I'm doing something and hoping i dont accidentally ruin it but then he came back and like i COULD just go up to him and say like hey yo im done with this, what do i do now but like at tht point i already accepted my fate. Oh and also while i was sitting there i kinda discovered that i talk to myself in my head? Like i don't know i guess i just never noticed before that i have conversations with myself mentally but cool that was fun . And about the easel things, i just googled the word for those and it kinda bothered me while i was in class that i didn't know what it was called but anyway the tiny little room everyone was painting in was like pretty densely packed(as in 4 people . It's like really small, not THAT small but the giant table in the middle takes up a lot of space ) so it was really awkward trying to get to 'my' spot first of all, and second, my seat was like really close to another girl's easel so i was just really really worried about accidentally leaning back too far and bonking my head on it so that was awkward. Also my shoulders are in absolute fucking pain right now.

Oh and when I was taking the picture I was in a hurry cuz everyone started packing and i didn't wanna stay in the way too long so it turned out crooked and at a weird angle. I knew it would be crooked when I was taking the photo, but damn i didn't think it would be THAT bad. My favourite part of this thing is probably the bottom right corner. Oh and the things on the like uhm . Wtf is it called. Basically the lamp and the things in the painting kept fucking moving every day i came there so like the lightning n all is very inconsistent on the weird wooden thing so thats annoying but whatever i guess. Not sure what I'm gonna be drawing next but i'll prolly go with gouache cause the watercolours stressed the hell out of me. Oh and speaking of watercolours, my dad said that im laying it too thick and it looks like gouache and that im using it wrong but like when I draw it too transparent it feels incomplete??? :'I so idk

Anyway thomas out, thank you for maybe reading

[honeypleasejustkillme]

i thought i was at my lowest but holy shit it gets lower

[bixels]

The final TF2 issue really got to me. Spoilers, but it’s the reveal that all of this suffering and murder and war over gravel and shitty land was for nothing but senseless, bottomless hatred. That the administrator can’t even remember where this revenge plot started as she flashes through different false memories of her parents’ deaths. There was never a tragic backstory or justification, only terrible people doing despicable things. And despite how crass and stupid and unserious TF2 is, the story subverts every expectation by showing the survivors and inheritors willingly breaking the cycle. Ms. Pauling lies to the administrator and chooses not to save her, and finally lets her die. (Hurts even more if you read into the subtext that Ms. Pauling is in love with the administrator.) She lets the final cache of Australium go and walks away from the burden and legacy of a century-old bloodfeud. Hale lets Gray’s daughter go and live her life freely. Spy is the first to arrive at Scout’s house and meet his big family, finally takes off his mask, and helps with the kids. Even Merasmus exhaustedly makes peace with himself and Soldier and chooses not to curse him or something. There’s nothing to finish, no promises to keep, and no one to avenge. The only thing to do is break the cycle and walk away.

It feels odd how happy and warm everything is, but it feels so right and earned. These bloodthirsty, awful, violent men were expendable cogs in a machine of endless violence, and they found a way out. It’s a genuinely great message about letting go the past that burdens you and finding the will and a way to hit the bricks, change, and be happy. Maybe they don’t technically deserve happiness, but they’ve got it nonetheless, and they’re not gonna let it go to waste. They’re still all crazy and violent, but on their own terms now and with people who love them! Smiles.

[loolilyumm]

Agent 3 interrupts the Octo Expansion character selection screen (not clickbait)

[kawareo]

"AI does this better than me :("

"My work is never as good as AI's :("

"I have to use AI to be good :("

you're devaluing yourself. AI is not smart, it's not creative, it just has access to the whole internet at once (which btw includes all the wrong things), and guess what, so do you. You're better than the plagiarism machine and you've been lied to and told that it's smarter than you and I hope you stop believing that because you deserve better

[rasangan-raspberry]

I don't think i posted this? lol

tbh after thinking about hancock a bit, i feel like she would become attached to anyone that treated her like how luffy treated her (as an equal and a friend, and not practically deifying her)

[papanowo]

i think dan should get to be a little weird too. as a treat

[stargirlintermission]

Some Starscream fans: Skyfire is waiting for Starscream to come back. He is going to help him leave the decepticons and his love is going to make Starscream redeem himself 🥺🥺

The Fire on the mountain poster:

[inkskinned]

i'm still trying to piece together the truth of it. when you left, you said: feel free to spin this narrative however you want. i have no idea if you were being cruel or if you just genuinely don't remember what you've done to me.

it's hard because i'd done so much of the work for you. i had seen the parts that flaked off, the rust underneath. i started separating you into two people - the one i loved, and the one who hurt me. i had this fantasy version of you - my partner - and then i had this stranger, a third person who would show up randomly to shatter me. i am deliriously glad i'm no longer with "the stranger". i miss the gentle (unreal?) "other" you terribly.

at first, i was so strict about my boundaries. i remember telling you to get the fuck out of my house if you were going to talk to me like that. by the end: i would justify your behavior for you, accepting even your mistreatment as "my fault" in the grand scheme. i look back on the person i was before you - smart, independent, confident - and i feel a strange sense of detachment. i don't even recognize me.

even in one of our last conversations, you said: if you want a partner that always talks warmly to you, find someone else. there was a time that a comment like that would have made me leave. and instead, somehow, i just placidly accepted that kind of thing. you were literally telling me that i wasn't allowed to have a reaction to your cruelty - and i just took it, because you'd so fully turned things around on me.

when people are faced with irrationality, a rational brain tries to make sense of it. this is the trap. they're lovely in the morning, gentle and blue-eyed and sweet. like nothing even happened, they breeze around the house and kiss you on the mouth. but at night; who is that? they snap almost randomly; flying into an impotent rage about just-about-anything. it just doesn't make sense. so the problem must be me, and my brain, and how i think.

the traumatized brain just wants peace. so maybe i'm misremembering. maybe you were just having a bad day. maybe it's actually me.

you eventually would fully turn on me and start implying that i am the bad actor in our relationship. that's what happens, right? that's literally in the playbook. you went to therapy for all of a month, told her a half-truth, co-opted therapyspeak. you figured out how to reframe your actions as "seeking peace." any time i stood my ground, i was "gaslighting." when i asked you to be more gentle, you said i was "tone policing." you said, randomly, i had emotionally manipulated you - i still have no idea what that's even specifically referring to. maybe my consistent requests for calmness and empathy?

and while i literally know better, and i'm sitting here, trained by you, thinking: wait, fuck. was i actually the person you made me out to be?

and the thing that scares me is that i literally do not know if you ever actually saw what you were doing to me. when you'd tell me how you remember arguments, you'd always summarize them in a way where you come off as gentle and easy: "i was trying to set an important boundary." what had actually happened was 15 minutes of you shouting at me i know you did something shady, just admit it already. eventually you'd say my reaction to your shouting (when i finally reacted, which usually happened around hour three) was inevitably "disappointing" and "another way i'm silencing your feelings."

how many times did i ask you - beg you - to just take accountability? looking back, i don't think i ever heard you say: you're right. the way i talked to you was wrong of me.

i am trying to tie together the two people into a full version of you in my head. yes, you made my coffee and made me laugh and spent hours on the phone with me. and yes - you would scream at me until i had to run away and hide behind something.

i wish i did have a narrative i could pull out and shape to my whim. i wish i did have some semblance of reality. instead i just stand here, strange and vibrating, wondering: what the fuck just happened?

[teratomatica]

you always land on all fours

[evilherehotel]

beach episode

man it has been a MINUTE since ive drawn basketone huh

[bennetsbonnet]

I know I turned this scene into a joke about how gorgeous Colin Firth is... but the pineapple that lurks in the background of the Netherfield ball when Mr Collins is yapping to Mr Darcy is such a subtle detail that I really appreciate!

The wealthy at this time in Britain were a little bit obsessed with pineapples. Depictions of them featured as decoration in country homes, in political cartoons, paintings and crockery (warning: Margaret Thatcher jumpscare🥴 but you can read more about that here and here).

But to have an actual pineapple on display during a large social gathering such as a ball? That was really showing off.

Especially when you consider it cost £150 (or approx. £28,000 today) to buy the initial plant, build a hothouse to grow them in and run it... with no guarantees they'd grow given the climate was not exactly suited for growing pineapples! It was a huge risk.

All this meant that pineapples were so scarce that they became incredibly sought after. Naturally, rich people did silly rich people things to acquire them and show them off... perhaps they were the NFTs of their day?

A single pineapple was valued at £60 (approx. £11,000 today). Given the cost and effort of acquiring one, you'd think people would be keen to tuck in and sample this exotic fruit? Nope. Pineapples were not eaten! Of course not! They were displayed on plates surrounded by other less prestigious fruit during dinner parties and other social occasions, usually until they rotted. They could be rented for special occasions too. Such was their value that naturally they became the target of thieves and some pineapples even had their own security guards!

In the end, colonialism (because all British history eventually returns to that) meant that pineapples could be imported cheaply and their status was devalued when the working classes could afford to buy them.

But next time you watch Pride and Prejudice (1995), pay attention the scenes in the dining room at the Netherfield ball and look out for the pineapple... which is the second prickliest thing in shot (behind Mr Darcy). 🍍

Also... just to throw in a little etymological rant... as a treat: I know most of the rest of the world calls them ananas... but in English (and other languages) all fruit used to be called an apple of some sort. We just never got around to changing pineapple.

The humble potato has some peculiar names in other languages... looking at you, French and Dutch with your pommes de terre (apples of the earth) and aardappels (earth apples)... and then there is also the Italian for tomato... pomodoro... (golden apple) when most the rest of the world call them some version of the Nahuatl 'tomatl'.

Languages are just funny like that and that's why I find them fascinating!