#OP this is great I genuinely love this style

[trollartistry]

LOOKIT HOW ANGULAR 10TH IS, bro's gonna slice me with his pointy nose- /jk

wake up friends new hyperfixation just dropped!!!

[pr]

sorry but yall are lying to yourselves when you say j*seph k*hns music videos were not the top 5 ones she has ever done like as if the horribly color graded conceptually hodgepodge music videos she made post him are somehow an improvement over "bad lighting" aldhalaja

[artsy-hobbitses]

Are there any facts or headcanons you can share about Megatron?

-Cracks knuckles- By which you mean old man Morgantron, boy do I.

LOVES dogs. Thaddeus/Terminus used to own a mining dog that would help pull carts, a Bernese Mountain named Boudicca which both he and a young Morgan would dote over. While Bouda passed away in his late teens, that childish adoration for dogs hasn't diminished, and has instead been transferred to Old Fella---an old pit bull rescued and initially intended for rehoming by Barricade/Barrin, who eventually couldn't find the heart to give him up. Megs often has Old Fella curled up at his feet while he's catching up on reading in his free time.

Has a surprising sweet tooth. Sugar was a luxury in Morgan's childhood and not something Thaddeus couldn't afford very often on miner pay, and what sweet food was common there were coal miner cakes… which are loved but an acquired taste. His guilty pleasures include Mars Bars which a young!Omar/OP would share with him through the fence that separated them as children, and more poignantly, Brooklyn-style Blackout Cake since it was tradition for Thaddeus to get him a slice of it for his birthday every year until they were shipped off to Messatine.

Within Morgan's personal office in a glass case is an old blood-spattered and battered copy of Umar ibn al-Khattâb: His Life and Times (Volume One). This is the very first book he read outside of what was greenlit/approved for the manual class and was lent to him decades ago by a young Omar, who threw it over the fence they would talk through, for him to catch. It had been confiscated from him during a spotcheck, but he found it years and years later in a HR contraband warehouse and he's kept it guarded ever since. What he doesn't know is that Omar still has the second volume of that book (there are two) kept in the same manner.

Secretly listens in on Omar's increasingly popular book club sessions (Part of an Autobot PR programme after they figured out that Omar had a voice fit for ASMR and people genuinely wanted to hear him read to them) on the radio during nights where he's feeling particularly lonely and melancholy.

Is an excellent fiddler. However, was not allowed to bring his instrument to Messatine and hasn't played since.

Morgan can cook, but is primarily relegated to British pub fare. Makes a mean steak and ale pie, one of his favorite foods. He also serves potential Decepticon recruits slices of coal miner cake he bakes during their first meet/interview (he does not tell them he baked it) to see how they react. If they act like they're too good for the humble bit of joy miners like him partook in, they're out.

Morgan does not have a great sense of direction, because when you're living 80% of your life underground, everything looks the same and you simply follow the neatly delineated cart tracks to your workplace or berth. Tracks above ground ie. roads are. Messy, and very confusing. He gets lost more easily than one might expect.

He has however, a sharper than usual sense of smell, which helped him out a lot as a miner when it came to seeking out fresh air and quickly identifying toxic or flammable gases emitted underground.

He is also in Grimlock/Graeme's team of Sometimes Cannibalism Is Correct. Those guards who beat to death a miner in front of him while he was on Mining Outpost C-12? He found two of them years and years later (he never forgot their voices over the miner's pleas) as a gladiator, killed the one who struck the first blow and ate their heart (they had no hearts to begin with, he surmises, so really, they're not missing anything) while the other watched. This was symbolic of his hatred for them, but also to loosen the remaining guard's lips about Decimus' movements after the incident up to this point, and for sure, it worked.

No longer gets drunk (he assumes his gladiatorial 'upgrades' are part of the reason for this), deeply wishes he still could sometimes.

Morgan forged his own armor pieces as a gladiator, and this is something that has carried on into the present, as he helps forge the armor the inner circle Deceptions wear, which is then programmed by Shockwave (the exception is Starscream/Stefan, who has been using a prototype armored flightsuit made by Senator Shockwave/Sharifuddin from day one). He uses this time as a one on one session to get to know them better.

Still visits the little public library in the Dead End that Omar set up in honor of him every now and then when he needs somewhere quiet to collect his thoughts and slog through paperwork.

Is the asshole who dog-ears books, but in his defense, he'd never seen a book in his community as a child that wasn't banged up to hell and back---what mattered were the contents. The SOLE exception here is the book that OP gave him and was confiscated from him. It's more than a book; it's a gift from his oldest friend.

"You didn't ask, I don't see why it's an issue" gay. Though one can't tell from first glance because Impactor will bring up the time that he booked a male and female stripper for Megs as a 20th birthday surprise/joke, and came back to find both of them engrossed listening to Megs reading his notes for Towards Peace and discussing it between the three of them. Basically, he's Enjolras (cause above all) for everything and everyone except Prime.

If you're an enemy he respects, he'll kill you himself and make it quick. If he hates you, he'll prolong it. If you don't register on his radar/aren't worth the effort, you get Tarn.

Suffers from a mild case of black lung carried over from his mining days, which only becomes more apparent in his 50s, as his healing factor slowly decreases.

[etz-ashashiyot]

About Me/FAQs

You can call me Avital. I am a non-binary traditional egalitarian Jew living in the US. Any pronouns except they/them are fine. (!היא/את בעברית, בבקשה. תודה)

I really appreciate human interaction. That being the case, if you follow me and I don't already follow you, please send me a DM with the following:

What you want me to call you (internet name, username, nickname, whatever)

What brought you here and made you want to follow me

Something random about you that you feel comfortable sharing (pet pics are always welcome too <3)

I had a whole lot of other rules on my previous blog to weed out the faint of heart, but I genuinely don't know how well that worked, so instead I will simply put roughly the same information below as resources and recommended reading. Fair warning: I will operate from a baseline assumption that you've done the reading and therefore will not be explaining anything in them.

I also had a listing of my firm opinions and other miscellaneous information. That got long and unwieldy, but a lot of people seemed to appreciate it, so I will post roughly the same list under the cut.

The current username refers to my current symbol of a tree of lanterns in the starlight. This is related to my desire to create self-symbolism, old school style (like I really want to create a family crest, a flag, a seal, and other heraldic nonsense. Why? Because it delights me, of course.)

This page is under construction and subject to change at any time.

B'vracha,

Avital

Recommend Reading

For followers who are Christian, were Christian, are non-Jews who grew up in a Christian culture and/or have only learned about Judaism through Christianity, these links are very helpful in unpacking some of the antisemitism you were taught:

Better Parables (specifically the article about Pharisees, but read the rest of the site too, it's great)

Antisemitic readings of the Temple table-flipping incident in the New Testament

The current Israel-Hamas war and just המצב discourse in general require a lot of background knowledge to discuss intelligently, and not just propaganda. There is a LOT of antisemitism in the public around this topic and it is having serious real-world consequences for Jews all over the world. The mis- and disinformation is causing problems for everyone involved. Islamophobia in the West has increased as well. If you're going to engage in this discussion, I am respectfully but forcefully asking you to read the following sources. They are useful regardless of where you fall on that political scale.

There Is No Magic Peace Fairy

Ways to help: [1], [2], [3]

Muslim organizations advocating for peace, education, positive interfaith relations, and fighting antisemitism

This is perhaps my best summary of my own feelings on the whole thing

Is your pro-Palestine activism hurting innocent people? Here's how to avoid that

Please learn what Kahanism is, because it actually is what people think Zionism is. Zionism is simply a desire for Jewish self-determination in our ancestral homeland of eretz Yisrael. Kahanism is a type of racism that cloaks itself in Zionism but is fundamentally bigoted.

A non-exhaustive list of antisemitic incidents, attacks, and pogroms during [OP's] lifetime

An exceptionally long and thorough explanation of antisemitism and antisemitic violence throughout history

Why The Most Educated People in America Fall for Antisemitic Lies by Dara Horn (tumblr link in case the article link gets broken)

This explanation of the atrocities endured by Soviet Jews and how the legacy of Soviet antisemitism undergirds western "antizionism-not-antisemitism." If you call yourself an anti-Zionist, this is required reading.

An excellent overview of the basics

This is nowhere near complete information, but it's an important start. I will very likely continue to add resources as they become available and would love to create a primer on this topic more generally.

If you don't believe that October 7th happened or wasn't that bad, or really any atrocity denial please read this article from a reporter who was shown the actual footage, as well as this article documenting its effects on him.

If you are still in denial about the pattern of gender based violence, sexualized torture, and widespread rape as a war tactic committed by Hamas on 10/7, you are legally required to read this article.

About the blog:

I’m going to try my best to keep this blog to primarily Judaism, comparative religion and theology, with the occasional side sprinkling of queer & trans stuff, BUT it is absolutely a personal blog at the end of the day.

I talked about Israel and המצב stuff a lot on my previous blog and will likely continue a bit over here too. I welcome a broad swath of opinions, so long as they objectively treat all parties involved as human and deserving of safety, stability, freedom, dignity, and peace. That is apparently a large ask these days, and a not-small part of why I keep talking about this issue. Please be part of the voices that give me hope for the future, okay?

Minors can follow and interact but please keep in mind that I’m probably closer to your parents' age than yours if you do want to interact with me directly.

Interactions:

Rude asks will be deleted. Harassing blogs will be blocked and probably reported.

I consider anything even remotely in the vicinity of trying to proselytize to me to be “harassing,” or at a minimum, rude. Just FYI.

Otherwise, nice interactions are welcomed.

Banter is encouraged; trolling will be ignored

If you are a goy and want to argue with me about Jewish theology, you have to match my perfect score on this popquiz, no cheating by looking things up during the quiz. I learned Judaism as an adult mostly through self-study so you have no excuse. If you're invested enough to argue with me you're invested enough to do the reading homework. (To clarify: I'm happy to explain Jewish stuff to anyone who is sincerely asking or just have a friendly comparative theology discussion or whatever. But I have zero patience for those who want to argue with me about basic shit claiming they know more than me, especially if what they're claiming they "know" is not only wrong but antisemitic and wrong.)

If I don't respond to your interaction, there's a strong chance that I (a) have no idea what to say and am thinking about it, (2) totally meant to respond and just forgot after the notif disappeared, and/or (3) got incredibly busy. It's not personal! Please don't be shy about following up with me if you like. I promise that if we have a problem that is fixable, you'll know. If we have a problem that is not fixable, you'll be blocked.

I am currently learning Ivrit and am delighted to have interactions in Hebrew. Please feel free to message me, reply to posts or reblog, submit asks, etc. in Hebrew and I will do my best to read and respond to it. (Responses will be slower, but not for lack of appreciation of your thoughts!)

Anything else, just ask.

Hard stances:

You're not going to change my mind on these things; I've looked at the evidence, my personal experiences, and thought about them long and hard, and I am not going to be swayed by an internet rando. I can (often, but not always) co-exist just fine with people who I disagree with, but if seeing my posts about this is going to upset you, just do us both a favor and block me now please.

I am deeply distressed at how many people are choosing to live in a "post-factual society" where the truth is based on truthiness vibes and the politics are based on the quippiest of slogans. I don't care who's doing it, misinfo, disinfo, propaganda, atrocity denial, and gaslighting are BAD. There is no nuance here; these are bad things. They are bad if they go against your cause and they are bad if they "support" your cause. No cause is better than the truth.

If we cannot have a discussion where we are operating from the same baseline reality of verifiable facts, we cannot have a productive conversation and I will not engage with you. We can agree or disagree on a lot and that is fine, but facts matter.

If you cannot be reasoned with in accepting verifiable facts as reality, you need help. I'm serious. That is cult behavior. Get off tumblr and get help.

I don't know how to tell you that you should care about other people. If you don't see the inherent worth in other human beings' lives, I can't fix that. Go take that struggle to G-d and heal your soul.

I support the right of the Jewish people to self-determination in our ancestral homeland of Israel, the same way that I support other indigenous groups' right to self-determination in their ancestral homelands. If you don't, I'm going to need you to examine why Jews should be singled out of every other group to be denied this right or denied support in seeking it. That said, I definitely do not agree with many of the decisions made by the Israeli government, especially (but far from exclusively) regarding their treatment of Palestinians. I think both Jews and Palestinians deserve to live in peace, safety, freedom, dignity, and self-determination for both. No one is going anywhere; any real solution must recognize that. I tend to favor this proposal by A Land for All as an ideal (and given the grassroots nature of this idea, I think it could work pragmatically too, if the political will exists on both sides.)

I reject the Zionist/anti-Zionist dichotomy altogether for a number of reasons: 1) It impedes conversation because too many people agree but will never know it because they refuse to talk about what they actually mean by those labels and instead make assumptions about the other group. 2) It inherently puts the validity of an existing state up for debate rather than looking at real solutions for the future. You cannot unmake the state of Israel without widespread atrocities, but you can figure out options for everyone to live together in peace and heal from the collective trauma. 3) It also makes it way too easy to play Good Jew/Bad Jew and "Zionist" has basically become the slur de jour for "Jew." It sucks that people took a Jewish word for an important Jewish concept and made it synonymous with "bloodthirsty racist," but personally I don't think arguing over that at this exact juncture in time is helpful.

Bottom line: I'm a humanitarian and a pragmatist, and I care about all the people who call that part of the world home.

Update: for real, if you have trouble seeing Israelis and Palestinians both as human and deserving of safety, dignity, freedom, and inherent worth as living human beings, I don't want to know you. I don't want to talk to you. Go fix yourself.

🌻 I stand with Ukraine 🇺🇦

Free Iran from the Islamic Republic // Women Life Freedom

Abortion is a human right and should be safe, legal, available on demand, and shameless. It's a necessary medical procedure and it's completely barbaric that we're still talking about it as anything else.

Birth control, abortion, and no-fault divorce are actively positive parts of society and building healthy families.

Transition care is healthcare and also a human right. Allowing people to transition prevents self-harm and suicide, and has an extremely high efficacy rate with an exceptionally low level of risk or regret. We now have well over a century of data on this.

That said, detransitioners who are still supportive of trans people/aren't transphobic are more than welcome here, as any exploratory process deserves the right to say, "Interesting! But nope!"

Transunity, ace/aro positivity, and just inclusionism in general, 100%. Fuck off with anything else.

Queer might be a slur in the mouths of some people, but my identity isn't. Don't reblog my posts if you're going to tag it with "q slur" or "q word" or censored in some way. I'm not Gay as in "I prioritize cis men over the entire rest of the community" but Queer as in "my personal labels are none of your business but my political stance on queer liberation sure as fuck will be."

If you don't vaccinate yourself and your kids for any reason other than medical necessity, and especially if you promote anti-vaxxer views and the associated pseudoscience, you are actively harming the most vulnerable members of society for entirely selfish reasons and that makes you a bad person. I hope your kids bypass you to get vaccinated.

Wear a mask 😷

[literallyanythingabouteverything]

Stunning Guatemalan Miku!

Are we still doing the cultural Miku’s

[insipid-drivel]

Horses: Since There Seems To Be An Even Wider Knowledge Gap Than I Anticipated

...And actually find it really exciting that I have a reason to expand and address some comments and questions from my first post!

This is a sequel/addition to my original post, "Horses: Since There Seems To be A Knowledge Gap". I want to address more horse-related knowledge gaps, common misinformation and mistakes made by well-meaning and very skilled creators that wouldn't know otherwise unless they worked with horses directly. You should not have to work hands-on with horses to learn some of this stuff, but the fact remains that horse facts and riding knowledge is often underdiscussed and usually only shared by other people that work with/around horses. A lot of this information should be within easier reach for writers and artists, too!

Before I begin, I'd like to thank all of you that politely reached out in the comments, tags, and my DMs/asks with your thoughtful additions to details I forgot/left out/hadn't even considered, and your brave questions posed to me personally that I was more than happy to answer. I'm truly thankful to all of you who contributed with a positive energy, or that had the courage to reach out to me - the OP - with questions my first post didn't manage to help you with. I will never punish, shame, or otherwise mistreat anyone who comes to me with an earnest question or correction in good faith, anonymous or not. If you're polite to me, I will be polite to you. I will try my hardest to answer questions I may not have much experience with, but I will still do my best to research the answers so you don't have to, and tag/cite/refer you to people, books, or other knowledge sources that have more answers and experience than I do if I can't.

So, what more is there to know about writing and portraying horses? I'll just get started off the top of my head with some of the most frequent additions other tumblr horse folk have been hollerin' at me about, and with good reason, because you guys were right to point out what you did and really got me thinking!

-Spurs: My Second Take. In my original post, I voiced my personal distaste for the use of spurs in riding. Spurs, for those who don't know, were traditionally made as sharp metal pinwheels that attached to the back of riding boots for enhanced communication between the rider and the horse, much like how riding crops are used. I, personally, have had a lot of bad experiences seeing riders misuse spurs to hurt horses that I cared for as a stable hand and genuinely loved, and so I've been very shut down about the topic of spurs for many years.

Several people spoke up in defense of spurs as riding and communication tools, and I honestly believe that you guys were very on-point and made some great arguments: Spurs are only as harmful to horses as the intent the rider has in applying them, and I didn't have enough updated information about the different types of spurs that can be used nowadays that are not designed to be sharp or uncomfortable for the horse! I always grew up around traditional Cowboy-style spurs, which are sharp, stabby, star-shaped wheels, and can wound a horse and draw blood if used too aggressively. Tragically, most inexperienced and newer riders will use spurs too forcefully and wind up hurting the horse, and it's largely because new riders are inherently scared of riding, and over-rely on tools like spurs and crops rather than trust the horse to know what it's doing and be intelligent enough to know how to care for a human rider's safety.

Now, I've since learned that there are spurs with rubber wheels, blunted tips like those on the ends of safety-fencing foils, round metal bumpers instead of spurs at all, and even spurs that sport rotating metal balls that just feel (to the horse) like someone rolling a large ball-point pen over their sides, and more! So, to those of you that spoke up in tags and comments, thank you for doing so in a way that got me to open my own mind and check myself and my bad memories. You guys taught me something really cool and valuable that genuinely changed my perspective and opinions, and that's a really good thing!

-A Group Of Zombies/Unarmed Humans Can Take Down A Healthy Adult Horse. This is specifically aimed at The Walking Dead, but... yeah, you know the second episode when Rick rides a horse into the zombie-overrun Atlanta and the only way he's able to survive is when the zombies are distracted taking down and eating his obviously-jello-and-rubber horse?

Yeah, no. That is not how it would happen. At all. I think any biologists in the audience would back me up on that.

See, horses are prey animals, and they are herbivores. We're often used to thinking of herbivorous prey animals as shy, retiring, vulnerable animals that will simply keel over and die of fright when cornered by a predator. In reality, the opposite is often the case! Predatory animals tend to be much more shy, and much more cautious with their physical safety and wellbeing than prey animals tend to be, and that's usually because predators need to be able to remain uninjured and able-bodied enough to hunt again later, or else they and their babies may starve to death. Prey animals, especially herbivores, have evolved to deal with being hunted, and inherently don't need to be quite as healthy and able-bodied as a predator in order to avoid starving in the wild. Grass and leaves don't run away or try to fight back (unless it's like, poison oak or something), so an herbivore can generally recover from more environmental beatings than a predator typically can.

When cornered, horses very often only understand one thing: Murder. That's why you need horse whisperers and stable hands that know how to "gentle" a panicked horse as essential personnel at boarding and teaching ranches. While a horse can absolutely love and adore even the smallest of children and never harm them (at least intentionally - accidents happen), they can and absolutely will kill in order to defend themselves if running isn't an option. Horses can kick with up to 2,000lbs/907kg of force with their back legs. That's enough to break bones, shatter skulls, insta-kill grown men, and if you're kicked in the chest? Cause spontaneous cardiac arrest. Horses kick so hard and so fast they can literally make your heart stop from the speed and force of the impact alone: not from tissue damage. Horses will also paw and stomp with their front hooves until the Threatening Thing is effectively a mincemeat pancake, bite hard enough to take off fingers and hands, and can even cat-jump into the air off all four hooves in order to kick outward with all four legs at once. Spanish cavalry officers traditionally trained their horses to cat-jump on command in order to prevent them and their horse from being surrounded by footsoldiers in battle.

Horses will also use their body weight to roll, crush, scrape, and flatten anything or anyone that they don't want holding onto them. They will use environmental objects like trees, fences, or the corners of buildings to scrape unwanted hangers-on off into bloody smears (my mom's horse actually did this to a guy twice and he wound up in the ER with severe lacerations, bruises, splinters, and worse). Basically: a horse will use its entire body and the weight that comes with it as well as the entire world around it to fucking OBLITERATE anything they see as an unavoidable threat to their safety.

Without heavy-duty ropes, weapons, or tools, a group of adult, living, human men the size of football (the fake kind) linebackers wouldn't be able to successfully wrestle a fully-grown, panicked horse to the ground, much less a bunch of undead, mostly-decomposing zombies that only know how to bite and scratch. The horse Rick is riding on looks like it's probably a Quarterhorse, too. Quarterhorses are very sturdy, moderately-sized breeds that are also the iconic Cowboy Horse. They're tough, they're brave, they're hearty, and if they snap, they can and will kill both other animals and humans.

A horse's skin is so thick and tough that it's virtually impossible for a human to successfully bite or scratch hard enough to puncture through their outer dermal layers. As stable hands, a regular tool we use for getting mud out of a horse's hair is a literal metal wire brush that can rip open our skin if we try to use them, but the horses lean into them without even a hint of damage to their skin from doing so. There may be some tiny welts and a little bit of blood if a human tries to claw and bite at a horse, but horses do far worse to each other when they're just playing! Our fingernails and jaw muscles just aren't strong enough to do much damage to a healthy horse's skin.

-Horses aren't domestic animals.

...Yes they are. But just like other domestic animals, there can be wild populations of them that have had little or no human contact or intervention. Genetically speaking, however, horses are indeed domesticated. They're large domestic animals , but they are very much domesticated. Humans have been working alongside horses for at least 6,000 years. Domestic cats have only been domesticated for about 10,000 years. Truly wild horses in herds today, sadly, are pretty much 100% descended from domesticated horses. The recently-reintroduced-to-the-wild Przewalski's Horse is probably the closest genetic link to the original wild horses native to what are now modern Mongolia and Kazakhstan. Even the revered American Mustang is the product of domestication and planned breeding practices by both white colonists and Indigenous Americans over thousands of years, but Indigenous Americans were capable of maintaining a healthy balance between their personal horses and the essential need for herds of wild horses for the environment, too. White colonists did not understand this and intentionally stripped the North American frontier of its herds of wild horses, and are the primary reason the Mustang is only recently reappearing in wild herds in North America.

Sheep are domestic animals. Cows are domestic animals. Goats are domestic animals. Just because an animal has hooves and doesn't usually live in your house with you does not mean it isn't domesticated: You've just never had to live in an environment where they're essential to daily life or considered welcome companions, so they seem more like wild animals than cats and dogs. Hundreds of years ago, before modern building techniques created houses that could stay sustainably warm year-round, it was very normal for families to bring in cattle as large as horses and cows into their homes and sleep in the same rooms together for security and warmth, dookie and all (horse and cow poop doesn't smell as rank as dog or cat poo; they're herbivores, so it just doesn't smell as foul, and happens to make very good fuel for the fire). We don't do that anymore for health and safety reasons, and so horses, among other farmyard and "rural" domestic animals have become increasingly alienated from most people's psyches as being animals just as capable of being pets as your dog or cat.

-You can calculate how long a horse can run or work every day. This one is largely in response to some well-meaning questions I got from anons that seemed to want me to give them precise hourly work rates and mileage horses can tolerate. I was frustrated by questions like this, because it's a really cool subject to discuss, but not an easy question to answer. Horses are not machines, and "horsepower" is a unit of measurement derived from horses - not applied to them. "Horsepower" is a term used in machinery like tractors and cars. The total horsepower of your average horse is... well, 1, because that's how many horses a single horse can be without getting into some Welcome To Night Vale shit, which I'd love to do, but is a bit too far off topic for this particular post.

A horse's capacity to work or travel is heavily determined by outside factors, as well as organic factors in regards to the individual horse. How old is the horse? How heavy is it? How heavy is the rider? Is it also carrying cargo, like armor and camping supplies? Is it working on a farm and pulling a plow? If so, what quality is the soil? Has it been plowed before? Does the farmer own more than one horse? Is it hot outside? Is the horse going up and downhill? Is it fly season? Is the ground rocky? Are there burrowing animals in the area? Is there clay in the soil? Did it rain recently? How well-kept are the roads? Are there roads to use? What time of year is it- Aaaaaaah!

Ultimately, the answer is: A horse can work as long as it's willing to, and as long as its owner/handler judges is safe for the horse. A horse may be able to pull an old-fashioned plow through well-tilled soil for most of a cool morning before needing a break to cool down, eat, and rehydrate. It takes the judgment of the person commanding the horse when to call for a break or a full-stop to working for that horse by observing how tired it is (is it panting? Sweating? Slowing down? Are there any signs of strain in the hooves or legs?) or if it's in any way injured or in pain. The same applies with traveling long distances: It's up to the rider's judgment and how forgiving the environment is on the horse's body. In some cases, a riding horse may not be able to be ridden safely if the road is too treacherous or uneven for the horse to handle balancing its own weight and the rider's. In those cases, it's better for the rider to get off the horse and gently lead them through the bad terrain until it smooths out.

Also... horses can just... choose to quit. Some are quite sassy or very clear about their boundaries, and if they don't feel motivated or get too bored, they won't cooperate at all. The only way to deal with this is by letting them go do their own thing in the paddock until they decide they wanna cooperate again. Abusive people my try to whip or spur a horse into working past its limits, but humane people just let the guys take a break.

-Two adult people can ride on the same horse for a long time. GOD NO. PLEASE GOD NO. DO NOT DO THIS. PLEASE DO NOT EVER, EVER DO THIS.

Horses can only safely carry a maximum of about 30% of their total body weight on their backs without risking severe spinal damage, if not a broken spine altogether. A Thoroughbred - the iconic racing horse - typically maxes out at about 1,000lbs total in weight as an adult. Thoroughbreds are fairly tall compared to other fast, hot-blooded horses, like Arabians. That means that, at best, a perfectly healthy, not-too-old, not-too-young Thoroughbred horse would not be able to carry a total weight of more than about 450lbs, including the weight of its saddle and other tack, supplies carried by the rider, armor or other gear worn by the rider, and the impacts of gravity and the shocks of the rider's weight on the horse's back when it's moving at any speed. In the vast majority of cases, two adults cannot safely ride on the same horse for more than a very short distance before the horse enters the danger-zone for suffering severe and permanent spinal damage that can result in euthanasia. An adult carrying a baby or toddler is different, but two adults? Please don't. Please. Even if you're getting married and the owner of the super-huge pretty draft horse you're renting to take a gallant shared ride with your spouse with for pictures that reassures you it's fine, do not do it. Please just rent a carriage or pay extra for two horses. Please.

-A paddock with grass is all a horse needs to meet its nutritional needs. If that were true, horses would still be kept as pets more commonly around the world than they actually are. Unfortunately, to really thrive in the wild, horses need hundreds, if not thousands, of hectares of territory they can freely travel around in, while most paddocks are rarely larger than 10-20 acres when you're not talking about generational wealth or land. One of the reasons domestically-raised horses are almost entirely dependent on humans for food is due to the restricted spaces they're kept in. Grass only produces nutrition when the soil itself is fertile, and we humans don't necessarily have the natural ability to sense when soil is too nutrient-deprived for the plant life growing from it to be enough to provide just one horse with the vitamins and minerals they need on a daily basis to be healthy.

Another fact largely lost to history is that, back when most families had to farm to survive, farmers would store green leaves from various healthy and tasty trees and bushes in the boughs of other trees within their cattle paddocks and fields. By doing this, it kept large amounts of pests like rats from infesting the leaves, and keeping the cut branches and leaves stored within other leafy trees actually kept the greens fresher much longer than if they were stored on the ground or in a storage room. Horses would then graze from the leaves in the trees above their heads as well as the grass.

Stable hands and private owners keep rigorous dietary routines tailored to the needs of each individual horse. We're usually up and feeding the horses by dawn at the latest. The horses are usually given a few scoops of oats (not too much, because oats bloat up when they absorb liquid, and too much of that can give a horse colic), carrots and other vegetables for extra vitamins, salt licks (which are infused with extra minerals like a giant multivitamin), and even vitamin tablets/powder that goes straight into their dinner hay or alfalfa. Vets are essential for evaluating a horse's specific nutritional needs, so horses can actually get "prescriptions" for specific ingredients in their regular meals given to us from licensed large animal veterinarians, and not just a wealthy owner's best guess.

-Horses can throw up. Nope! It's not even physically possible for a horse to spit up food! That's part of why stable hands and owners have to be so careful in maintaining a regular, stable, healthy diet for their horses and keep their pastures and paddocks checked for toxic substances like poisonous plants that a horse may not know is toxic, or notice in the grass it's munching on.

Because they have such long necks and tall legs, horses need special muscles in their upper GI tracts in order to graze and drink water without constantly choking and fighting gravity. By having an esophagus that's one-way-only, as well as a muscle that clamps their stomachs shut at the top called a French Tie, horses hold down anything they swallow, even if it's enough to kill them.

-Horses are the best farm animals for a pre-industrial setting. Goodness no! Not at all! In fact, horses didn't start really replacing oxen on farms until the dawn of Draft Horses in the Victorian Era in the West. While many Eastern countries still retain the use of oxen for farming, Western European farmers fell prey to what we all dread: Peer pressure.

When Draft Horses started to appear in the scene in formal horse fancier associations, they were readily advertised as being excellent replacements for oxen (neutered male cows; so, a bull that has no balls). Oxen can be very stubborn, yet affectionate animals, and newer farmers often struggle more with handling oxen compared to horses. The Victorian Era saw a small boom in private farms, and so there became an increasing demand for "easy" farm cattle for newbie farmers to employ.

The other factor that played into horses replacing oxen in Western farming was clout. Horses are more expensive than oxen and generally seen as more prestigious to own. So, farmers often wound up "upgrading" from oxen to horses when their financial means allowed them to. The problem was that, in order to do the same amount of farm work with horses, you need more horses to replace exhausted or injured horses throughout each working day compared to how many more oxen you need to swap out throughout a day of heavy labor. But, nonetheless, horses took over for being "more trainable" and "more intelligent" than oxen (admittedly, oxen can be trickier to work with, but that does NOT mean that horses do a better job at hard field labor), and the Western oxen training industry has almost completely gone extinct.

Really, oxen do a lot better at extremely heavy jobs like tilling and plowing soil for growing crops and hauling large, heavy weights. Because oxen have cloven (two) hooves, they're a lot better at gripping the terrain and avoiding injury to their feet when they're working hard at awkward angles or on rough terrain. Oxen also pack on a lot more muscle and fat around their entire bodies, and so they have fewer vulnerable zones that can become irreparably damaged from exerting a lot of muscle power. Horses, only having a single hoof, can be rendered completely incapable of working or even running just from fracturing a hoof or stepping on a sharp object, like a nail.

-Any leg injury means instant euthanasia. No! No, no, no! There are lots of ways to treat a variety of injuries and illnesses that present in a horse's leg or foot. Especially nowadays, thanks to advances in all forms of prosthetics and 3D printing, horses are euthanized less and less for increasingly severe leg injuries courtesy of prosthetics and mobility aids! Some advances have been made so far that a horse that loses the lower portion of its leg can live a healthy life with a prosthetic!

Don't believe me?

Even in history, there have been treatments for leg and foot ailments for horses used before any talk of euthanasia is brought up. Remember: horses are often beloved service animals to people, today and a thousand years ago! Would you jump straight to euthanizing not only your best friend, but your primary mode of transport, as well as your extraordinarily-expensive ESA?

It's only in cases of severe breaks in a leg bone that injury-related euthanasia is discussed for a horse. Smaller fractures and hoof damage can actually be treated and healed, especially with modern veterinary science, and some fractures can be so successfully treated that a horse can return to riding and competing after recovering!

-Bits are cruel.

Look. There's one person that raked me over the coals in the replies for being ignorant in espousing bits as essential parts of a horse's bridle. I know who you are, and honestly, I feel the compassion you have for the animals... but you're still sipping a little much from PETA's kool-aid and did not convince me over to your side.

Yes, there are bridles that do not require bits to control a horse's head and communicate with it. Yes, there are riders that prefer them, and there are horses that can only be ridden with them due to bad experiences with bit-training or past dental problems. No, it's not cool to tut your fucking finger at me and call me ignorant when I assert that it's a very normal, standard part of tacking up and riding a horse, and the worst a bit can do is pinch the corner of a horse's lip or tongue if you are a jerk with your rein-etiquette. There are bits, just like I observed with spurs, that are specifically designed not to hurt or cause any distress to the horse, so if the person that dumped on me in the last post reads this one: Calm the fuck down and go take yourself on a walk along with your horse. Have an apple. You've clearly been in your stall too long.

As I was saying: Yes, there are different kinds of bits that are specifically designed not to harm a horse. Sometimes horses with smaller mouths or wrinklier lips (it's a thing) can have a hard time with specific bits due many of them sporting hinges where they wrap around out of the horse's mouth and connect to the bridle. This can be easily addressed by switching to a different kind of bit that's less harsh and more flexible for the sake of a horse's comfort, or getting rid of a bit altogether and swapping to bitless bridles. Ironically, I've met horses that actually stim with their bridles; they play with the bits with their tongues when they're excited before an event, kinda like they're grinding their teeth.

And yes, some horses can still have bad sensory issues with bits, and can need bitless bridles, and that's okay! The important thing about bridles in general is that they're the primary way a rider can communicate with the horse's head and show them where they want to go. As with riding, horses tend to go in the direction their heads are facing; they don't usually walk while looking sideways, but rather stand still to look sideways before turning back to the direction they want to go in to walk or run. A lot of riders are taught the phrase, "Head like a princess, hips like a whore," as a reminder to keep their hips loose and moving with the horse, but their heads focusing on where they want the horse to go, rather than looking at the scenery. Most riders, even those that are very experienced, can get distracted and accidentally put a little too much pressure on the horse's bridle and side in the direction of where they're looking, and that causes the horse to go off course, too.

-Horseshoes are incredibly painful and must be replaced only when absolutely necessary. Not at all! A horse's hoof is basically like a gigantic fingernail. While the inner core of the hoof, which is typically concave with a V shape in the middle and needs cleaning by stable hands on a regular basis to keep gunk, debris, and dangerous stuff like nails out of their feet is vulnerable to pain and injury, the rest of the hoof is literally a giant fingernail! A ferrier specializes at grooming a horse's hooves and trimming them so they don't overgrow (which can happen if they spend a lot of time on soft surfaces like grass), and many ferriers also specialize at setting and replacing horseshoes. A horseshoe specifically sits around the outer edge of a horse's hoof - specifically where a hoof is least sensitive and most likely to split or become damaged while riding and lead to infection and pain later - where the horse has no nerve endings. The nails that go into the horseshoe to hold it in place are actually very short and narrow at the tips, and only go into the solid nail a couple of inches into that same nerveless outer edge. The shortest horseshoe nails I've seen used are only 1.5 inches, or 4cm, and the largest around 2 inches, or 5cm and the worst a horse feels when a shoe is being set or replaced is a dull thudding from the tapping of the small hammer used to set the nails. A horse can literally go right back to business after their shoes are fitted, although a ferrier may recommend having them spend some quiet time in their stall for a couple of hours to really make sure the shoes are set properly and the horse is comfortable if something like a trip caused the original shoe to come off (the technical term is "casting a shoe").

My evening meds are kicking in, so I'll stop this very, very long sequel here.

As before, feel free to send me asks with more questions. I'm sure there are even more things I'm too sleepy to remember right now, and this post is running incredibly long.

[thefanciestdressedotter]

OP as parents: Robin

TW: None, pure fluff since I felt bad after the last hc

Also has the patience of a saint like Marco, also bc she is on a crew of idiots

Congrats, you have a whole family now, including the older siblings (Sanji, Zoro), middle siblings (Nami, Usopp), younger siblings (Chopper, Luffy), a dad (Franky bc this is a Frobin blog), and grandpas (Brook, Jinbei)

Robin is an AMAZING mother, we have all seen how she is with Chopper, she is great

Teaches you about the world through books bc of course

Really wants to give you the childhood she never got

Engages you in all your stupid questions or behaviors bc she genuinely wants you to feel safe with her, she never belittles you or looks down on you

There are times where things get harder for her (this woman definitely has PTSD from all the shit she went through), and that is when the rest of your family takes over

Nami loves teaching you about how to steal from men and about navigation

Zoro takes naps with you under the sun and gets you to help him steal alcohol from the kitchen

Sanji teaches you to cook and about the importance of not wasting food

Franky tells you about the mechanisms of the ship with you seated on his shoulders

Chopper and you talk about random things and laugh and play

Usopp tells you ridiculous stories while helping you learn your way around a slingshot he made himself

Luffy joins in on you and Chopper running around and sometimes even grabs you and zooms himself around the ship

Brook teaches you how to sightread and tells you about his times on his old crew (and lover bc Yorki and him definitely were together lets be honest, there was tension there)

Jinbei tells you the history of his people and their struggle towards rights, anti-racist king that teaches you young

When fights break out as they often do, Robin immediately makes sure you are safe below deck and tells one of the others to stay with you just in case

You are also taught how to fight by everyone, so your fighting style is a fucked up conglomeration of all of the Strawhats, you confuse anyone who fights you

Overall, 10/10 mother I want her to adopt me

[adobe-outdesign]

Can you do a moehog review? I feel loke they are one of those forgotten pets that don't get a lot of attention

Moehogs are one of those pets that pretty much just fall into the "regular animal" category, along with pets like the Lupe and the Mynci. In this case, they're more-or-less warthogs, with the only real differences being a mohawk-style mane and a few stripes. Their name would imply that the mohawk is supposed to be their main feature, but it's so small and non-descript that it really doesn't make them stand out at all. I would've loved to see the Moehog actually rocking a super tall mohawk, really leaning into that punk look to help it stand out a bit more.

One thing that I really do like about Moehogs though is their expression. I don't know why, but they always just seemed so chill and happy compared to other Neopets. They would 100% ask you how your day went and genuinely want to know the details.

Color-wise, the default Moehog has an orange mane, which looks a bit out-of-place (though less so on the yellow one). I feel like the mane either needed to be black to match the hooves and stripes, or have all three be a darker version of the base color.

The Moehog has basically remained completely unchanged via conversion except for a few shading tweaks and the odd decision to move the back foreleg up.

Favorite Colours:

Halloween: I'm not usually that big on the Halloween pets that look like they're just wearing costumes, but the UC/styled Halloween Moehog is absolutely fantastic. Not only is the Dr. Sloth concept great, but the post and expression are all fantastic, as is the dull green, black ,and red palette.

The converted version is... okay, I guess, but you should be able to see the inside of the cloak from this angle, especially because the loss of it results in the color palette losing the much-needed red. Also, the far right eye is really jacked up for some reason.

Darigan: The converted Darigan Moehog is honestly really boring and it wouldn't even be on this list if not for the fact that the UC/styled version absolutely slaps. The body shape has been adjusted to make it look far more bulky and threatening, and there are some really nice tweaks there as well, such as making the mane run all the way down the body to the tail, adding stripes to the legs to match the ones on the back, and changing the ear shape. I'm not usually big on the more muted-looking Darigan pets, but it works well for the Moehog given the warthog inspiration.

Island: The island Moehog really goes the extra mile all around. The white, tan, and green palette looks very nice and is complimented by a op of red with the flowers. I love how the usual stripes are seamlessly integrated directly into the tan markings, and how the grass skirt and bracelets match the green mane—not to mention things like the shell necklace and earrings, which didn't need to be included but are much appreciated. By far the best detail are the tusks, which have a super subtle carved look to them.

BONUS: The chocolate Moehog has banana tusks and this delights me. That is all.

[bluecheeseinmyoffwhites]

Very late, but, https://www.tumblr.com/blue-cheeseinmyoffwhites/756639587329277952/rwby-asks-are-open-im-bored?source=share

Who's you're favorite character?

Quick shoutout to the lovely @tumblingxelian for their amazing RWBY content check them out on YT

Let’s do Top 5

Mercury Black

This is solely because of his fighting style. If I could fuck up some stuff with my legs I’d probably be a dick about it too. I started RWBY during V2 & he was one of the first faces I met. I remember LOVING his design & liking his cool laid-back attitude. He started gaining my attention in Volume 3 after his fight with Coco & Yatsu, then won me over after his fight with Yang. I remember being baffled after his prosthetic reveal, & after learning about his allusion it all came together. For the longest time I was trying to decode his semblance (I thought it was something to do with wind manipulation) then V6 came around & shut all that down. I understand he hasn’t been very popular as of late, but I think he has so much potential & they just need to give him more screentime in V10+

Sun Wukong

I appreciate an unconditionally positive character. Sun & Mercury have always just been so cool to me. His design is great too, I like his monkey traits & how he shows his abs. His weapon is genuinely top 5 in the series, & his semblance matches his bright personality. One of my favorite fight scenes is Blake & Sun vs Sea Feilong & his contribution played a big part of that. I did like his appearance in V4-V5 & I was excited to see his gun-chucks return against Ilia. I think he is a great foil to Blake & serves her character arc really well.

Cinder Fall

Sorry but Cinder Fall is just that bitch. I hate everything she does & that’s why I love her. She knows what she wants & can easily get people on her side to do her bidding. She actually pushes the narrative & I consider her to be the main antagonist. The animators take real care when it comes to her battles. She has not missed a SINGLE fight she has been in. Seriously every one has been a hit: Glynda, Amber, Ozpin, Pyrrha, Raven, Neo, Winter, Penny, etc etc. Anytime there is a fight involving Cinder it’s going to be rememberable in some way, especially the Raven vs Cinder fight. I vividly remember my mind going numb watching it for the first time. I do feel they made her a little OP but it’s whatever. I really like her character arc & how she’s slowly turning into a Grimm. I loved her backstory, a lot of people didn’t because it’s just “Cinderella but dark” but like…..that’s kinda the entire point of this series, dark retellings of fairytales. She’s a great foil to Ruby & actually learns from her to gain victory in V8. I just want them to have a proper fight.

Qrow Branwen

Qrow Qrow Qrow. I love their man & want to give him hugs. If there’s one thing RWBY does amazingly, it is setup & payoff. I love his they slowly teased him in V1-V2 as a badass & then finally let us visualize it in V3. He doesn’t take crap from anyone & says what’s on his mind. Love Love LOVE his relationship with Ruby (forever holding onto my cracktheory that he’s her real dad). He acts as her mentor & influenced her fighting style. I like how he became the leader of the team for some time & how his laid-back attitude conflicts with him suddenly having to take care of 8 kids. But he does it anyway. His fight scenes are also amazing. He always looks so confident. His first appearance in V3 he had that super dynamic fight against Winter. In V4 he fought Tyrian & showed Team RNJR (& us) the difference between students & Huntsmen. V7 is where he really shined for me. He finally had a relationship that wasn’t affected by his semblance & can just chill for a while. I very much enjoyed his relationship with Clover & was heartbroken by what happened after. But those last 2 fights with them were pretty great. I hope his semblance evolves into Good Luck as well.

Yang Xiao Long

I like all members of Team RWBY but Yang stands out for obvious reasons. She had the best Trailer for one. Also her fighting style is the most different from her teammates. They’re all swing-swing-slash & she’s all punch-punch-kick. Like Cinder, Yang gets the best treatment when it comes to fight scenes. She’s been marketed as the strongest member & it shows over & over again. Her semblance is super cool & makes her look like a Goddess. I like how her character arc revolves around her fighting style & we can actually see her improvement throughout the volumes. I like how she is the most vocal about the whole trust situation in V5-V8. She lost her arm for this war, she of all people deserves some answers. I really adore her relationship with Blake & I think their story is perfect. She’s the heart of the team & it’s most present in V5 when she is the one reuniting the team.

[the-derpy-duck]

SKYBOUND TRANSFORMERS SPOILERS

I love this cover and it’s not a spoiler so hopefully it will cover the spoilers but yeah///

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So like- it’s so funny to read SS say “the squishies are trying to fight?” Out of context but in context it’s actually so disturbing???? Like I’m laughing but also why Starscream? Why are you like this?

I love Optimus Prime so much he’s so cool. The amount of emotion shown when Bumblebee died was just- AHHHH I feel so bad for him and I can see how devastated he is. He clearly values all form of life (he holds the deer similarly to how he held BB and seemed genuinely remorseful for accidentally crushing it) and is kind of having a horrible time so far. I wanna see him fight some decepticons. I also like how the humans are being utilized, they are small and weak compared to the transformers but they are able to help in ways that are surprising. Spike and Carly greatly helped Optimus Prime escape by just pushing the gun and the fact that they know earth and the area allowed them to give the Autobots a place to hide and recover for a bit. The guy with the Duke tag idk if that’s his name but I don’t know why it wouldn’t be (I don’t do military stuff) was able to temporarily take down Starscream and escape, which is about as good as one can hope for. The decepticons have been brutal so far and I can’t wait to see what will happen when Megatron shows up. Which I am assuming he will do because of one of the covers for I think issue 5.

Carly is great I love her, I love her dad he seemed cool and I’m sad he is dead :(

Love this new world so far, so glad I live fairly close to a comic store. I’m going to try to exclusively just get the OP covers because they look soooo good. I love the art style. Also the Starscream cover (where you can see the guy in the fighter jet going at him) also looks really great I just love how Optimus Prime looks especially in the art style.

[beevean]

For the ask game: ❤ 💖 💔 💀 for Castlevania

Answered the last one here!

❤: Which character do you think is the most egregiously mischaracterized by the fandom?

ISAAC

MY DARLING BABYGIRL ISAAC

He is not just a cock-thirsty shallow Joker 😭 there is depth to him! He's passionate, driven, so terribly embittered by being shunned and cast aside, yet he respected Hector and still cares for Julia, he refused to hurt her even when Cursed! He tainted his body in a show of loyalty to a Lord who only saw him as a tool, and let the clothes rot off his body to show himself in his truest self! And so he too saw himself as a weapon and took pride in that role! And yet he's a hypocrite who falls prey to his own emotions and desires, because if he truly was a weapon he wouldn't have been jealous of Hector getting everything he wanted! He wouldn't have been consumed by his own (admittedly understandable, Hector really was cruel to him) hatred to the point of dying! He did all he could to cast away a humanity he felt had no need for yet he was so terribly human, much like his master! And he died as a tool, and a defective one too!

fhsdkjghjksdhgkjh my boy i love him so much he's complex and fascinating and even relatable in some aspects but no one except my enlightened besties, mwah understands him and they reduce him to a crazy bdsm joke 😭😭😭

oh and on the same note if people can stop reducing hector to a shallow edgelord without weaknesses and softness that would be great thanks

💖: What is your biggest unpopular opinion about the series?

obligatory show bad both as an adaptation and its own thing

Circle of the Moon is a bad game. I genuinely cannot understand what people like in it, because if you want a hard Igavania, OoE is right there and is less pointlessly cheap. CoTM clearly tried to fix SoTN's absolutely non-existant difficulty, but it went about it the worst way possible, to the point that even moving around is painful, let alone orienting yourself in this dim, boring castle full of dead ends that forces you to go through the Abyss Stairway over and over again. I ain't forgiving it for the shit it pulls after you defeat Hugh and you have to dodge those dark knights without healing up :^)

By contrast, I find Harmony of Dissonance very fun, I love the psychedelic colors, I love the chiptune eerie music, the game is so fun to break and speedrun, Juste most OP Belmont come at me.

I think my overall biggest take is... the games have a solid lore and story. It's a shame that they get put aside (not here on Tumblr, but definitely in places like Reddit) for the sake of propping up the show. Dracula's Curse has some crazy intricate lore when you put everything together. Games parallel each other, like HoD being written to be a prelude to Richter's fall from grace. You can get everything you need to know about Simon's personality, who otherwise never speaks in a main game, simply by that scene in Simon's Quest where he makes a grave for Dracula. The games are so fun to read between the lines, they hit that perfect balance between giving you enough information to get you interested and leave enough room for thought and interpretation.

... I also don't hate DoS' anime style. I think it's cute. PoR is the one that really got hit by the ugly stick, I think.

💔: If you had to remove one major character from the series, who would you choose?

^ Konami when they decided to quietly erase Grant from existence

Can't think of anyone. All major characters contribute to something. Maybe Hammer? I never cared for him, sorry, and his personality in DoS is hard to like. But I'm not sure he counts as major.

[because-of-a-friend]

Seventeen Fluff Headcanons

MASTERLIST

Thanks for the request @tyongf-sunflower99 - I know it was quite some time ago that you requested 😅 but I hope I can at least write something you'll enjoy! Since you couldn't decide between Jun or Myungho, I decided to put this in the form of a reaction so you could get both and I could play around with the fluffy request! Again- I feel like I write best in this format! I hope you like it!

Warnings: None that I can think of, let me know if I missed something!

Remember- gifs aren't mine! If you like the gifs you see, click through and show their OPs some love!

CHOI SEUNGCHEOL

Coups is 100% a caring and coddling boyfriend. He's used to taking care of other people so it's natural instinct for him. He's the type of boyfriend that hardly ever needs things pointed out to him. He notices you looking at the dishes in distress? He's going to do them. He notices you're tired? He's making you get some rest. He sees the signs that you're hungry? He's suggesting that the two of you eat at some place you like. You're upset? He's going to be the shoulder you cry on. Cheol notices everything and he's prepared for everything. You're never at your wits end wondering how your partner could be so oblivious to your needs with Cheol. He is a responsible and selfless human being who is in this with you for the long run.

YOON JEONGHAN

Jeonghan may not be one of the entertainers or comedians of the group, but he has the uncanny ability to always make you laugh. It's always unexpected too. He'll notice you getting riled up while ranting about something that happened that day. He'll just say any random thing in a completely normal tone that has you laughing before you even realize that you are. He can do it anytime no matter how upset you are about something. When you're already happy, he'll have you laughing so hard that your stomach hurts. Jeonghan is able to read you so well that he always knows exactly what to say to turn your sour frown into a bright smile.

JOSHUA HONG

Joshua is such a little heart eyes person. He's just ~always~ staring at you. You have a barrage of photos from your friends that are just of you talking/eating/playing and Joshua sitting next to you just looking at you all full of love. You catch him doing it all the time. Joshua genuinely just enjoys watching you during every moment of your lives together. He doesn't want to miss out on a single thing you do. He loves seeing you in all your different styles, doing all different things, and picking up on more and more of your little quirks. Joshua just loves looking at you.

WEN JUNHUI

I've always said that Jun is a wildcard boyfriend and I stand by it. You never know which boyfriend you're going to get when you come home. Maybe he's got all kinds of adventures planned for the evening. Maybe he just wants to stay in. Maybe he's feeling needy. Maybe he wants to do something to spoil you. You never know what Jun will be up to, but you know it will be great. Jun just wants to make you happy no matter what you will be up to. So even if things are all over the place, he'll always put the most effort into it. If he plans an evening out, it'll be perfect. He picks the best places and makes sure to pack a bag of supplies to make the adventure as comfortable as possible. If you have a night in, he's cooking dinner, picking up snacks for a movie, and making a nest of blankets for you two to rest in. Jun always does the most to put a smile on your face.

KWON SOONYOUNG

Soonyoung is the type of boyfriend that always wants to be touching you. You'll be holding hands whenever you're out and about. He always greets you with a hug. When you're cooking in the kitchen, he'll stop by and rest a hand on your lower back while he asks how you're doing. He likes playing with your hair. He jumps at the chance to apply your lotion on for you. Soonyoung just loves knowing that you're there and that you're his partner. He takes great comfort in any and all casual touches between the two of you.

JEON WONWOO

Wonwoo is a no pressure type of boyfriend. He loves just existing with you. He is the exact type of person you can enjoy comfortable silence with. In fact, some of his favorite moments with you are when the two of you are simply enjoying time together while each of you are doing your own thing. He loves listening to the natural sounds of the world while you're both reading, or working, or scrolling on your phones, or just doing any hobby. Wonwoo revels in having someone in his life that he doesn't feel pressured to entertain or always be talking to. He loves that both of you are happy simply being with each other.

LEE JIHOON

Woozi comes to you first for everything. You are his confidant, his muse, his guide. He comes to you for your advice for every single step of writing a song. Your opinion is so important to him and he holds your advice in such high regard. If you're his partner then you're going to be his partner. He wants to work with you in all aspects of life, and showing you a bit of his world is important to him. He's equally supportive of anything you want to show him/get his advice on. He also secretly really wants to make you proud and impress you with his work. You will always hear Jihoon's songs before anyone else.

LEE SEOKMIN

Seokie is just such a happy boyfriend. He cares about you so much. He loves getting to do traditional boyfriend things. He gets elated to do things like buy you flowers. He'll spend twenty full minutes picking out each and every flower for a boquet with absolute care. The workers at the flower shop down the street from your apartment know Seokmin by name and fawn over him caring so much about every flower he gets you. Everything you receive from Seokmin has his own personal touch of love to it.

KIM MINGYU

This guy includes you in all his interests and hobbies. If he gets super into fashion, then he's going to take you shopping and try to style you. If he gets into cooking, he'll pick recipes for the two of you to make together. He wants to try knitting? He bought needles for you too. New show? You're watching it together. New game? He's teaching you the controls. He wants you to be a part of his whole life, from the big picture to the little things. Mingyu wants you included in all of it.

XU MYUNGHO

Myungho knows everything about you intimately. When you mention you like something, he wants to know why, for how long, what's your favorite part of it. Nothing stays at surface level with Myungho. He knows your favorite everything and exactly why it's your favorite and every aspect of your life that is has defined. He wants to know your whole person. He's always curious about who you are and what else he can learn about you. No information about you is every boring to him, it's you. He wants to know it all.

BOO SEUNGKWAN

Kwannie loves bragging about you. Introduces you loudly and happily as his partner to anyone he can. He is just as loud when it comes to supporting all of your endeavors. He'll show off pics of your outfit to anyone who will listen. If you get him a gift, he'll walk around with it until someone asks about it and he gets to tell them that you got it for him. Seungkwan is always telling stories about you to all his friends. He loves you so much and he's so proud of you and everything you do and everyone needs to know that.

VERNON CHWE

Vernon loves texting you throughout the day. Every little thing that happens in his day is sent your way in a text message. Work keeps both of you pretty busy during the week, so he tries to keep y'all connected by sharing his day with you. He also does little check in texts. He'll ask how your day is going, if you've eaten yet, if your presentation went well. He makes memes based off the tea you shared with him about your coworkers to make you laugh. Vernon just wants you to know that he's thinking of you always.

LEE CHAN

Chan considers you his escape. He enjoys alone time with you so much because he feels like he can actually relax. Chan trusts you completely. Chan is generally slow to trust so it's a big honor for him to believe in you so completely. Like Jihoon, he wants you to be proud of him. He always does his best in everything he accomplishes in his day so he can tell you about it. Chan wants to be the best man he can be for you. He wants you to feel like your partner can provide for you and protect you. He wants you to be confident in who you chose to date, and he does everything he can to show you that you made the right decision with him.

[danandphilplay]

i’ve done this poll before but it would be fun to see any dif game responses since then :>

my discussion got a bit long so my top 3 are pikuniku, sims medieval and life is strange

i still haven’t given up hope that there will be a life is strange dapg playthrough. ok alright i did have a poll draft recently where i accepted it probably isn’t ever going to happen but i really want it to. i’m sure there’s a dapg vid from 2015 where dan says it’s the most requested game they play i just can’t find the video at all

i don’t know if it ‘fits’ their gaming style idk i guess with it takes two i thought they might branch into more long games but it takes two has sadly,,,, disappeared,,, into the dapg void but yk that could be specific to the game

and i know some people think life is strange is definitely of a Time and i agree like the writing is cringe at times but i have such a nostalgic connection to it that i don’t even care like the cringe does not register for me even writing this i’m like ,,, i need to play right now also as interactive christmas adventure Creators they would LOVE a pick your choice/ending game even though lets be real it does not matter in life is strange like the choices do Not do much and yes i will always choose chloe dying bc i love a sad ending. also i genuinely think the soundtrack has such a huge nostalgia factor like some of the songs on there i CANNOT listen to without wanting to replay the game obstacles. kids will be skeletons.

i would also still love them to play pikuniku i love this game so much

the whole plot is saving these cute blobby villager characters from an evil capitalist robot stealing their crops and trees. it’s literally just such a dapg game and it has all these fun minigames like the dance battle with the robot, the baskick championship thing, drawing the scarecrow face, reuniting the baby birds with the angry giant mum bird, breaking all the pottery at that one villager’s house. THE FIGHT WITH THE EVIL TOASTER. it’s also really cheap. the only thing i hate is the keyboard controls are weird and there’s no setting to change them so i’d recommend playing on switch if you have one but like if you can get used to awkward controls then it’s literally no issue at all. also it’s on sale rn it’s only £2.19 on steam. BARGAINNN also the soundtrack is amazing and the art style is just really cute. and there’s a co op mode which i haven’t played bc idk anyone who has the game 🥲🥲 but like @amazingphil @danielhowell pls consider amazing game amazing dapg content i love this game so much

also would still love a sims medieval spinoff even if it’s not a long series it’s so much fun. i can kinda see if dnp only want to stick with sims 4 as it’s a big series for the channel but sims medieval is just rly great

honourable mention to them trying to play minecraft again and doki doki i think would be fun for spooky week but idk if they would it’s a LOT of reading

[mincedpeaches]

Transformers One post

Okay FIRST off I have to say. Sentinel Prime. He was everything. Blue and gold color scheme, with gorgeous gold WINGS. The most obvious villain in existence, but still kind of charms with his first overly friendly reaction to Megs and OP. The scene were he killed Alpha Trion: SERVING. Arachnid being his fag hag. I'm kind of obsessed.

Anyway. I just got back. Walked into the movie theater at 7pm in business casual since I came from work (after a quick detour to pick up dinner to sneak in). I say I want a ticket for Transformers. The teller goes "just one?" with a just barely perceptible bit of puzzlement. I say yup and proceed to have the entire theater to myself. Because no one is taking their kids to see Transformers One on a school night at 7:15pm. And I came alone. 👍

Of course I had fun. The humor I'd say was like 75/25 for me. I had some chuckles and laughs. For kid humor I thought it was really good.

Once again I kind of struggle to conceptualize what it would be like to be watching it as a fresh face though, and someone NOT well versed in transformers canon and lore. Like of course I (metaphorically) barked and clapped my hands like a seal when I saw Transformers I recognized but had no real lines. But a normal kid isn't really gonna care about that.

Anyway, again. It's late for me and I'm trying to get thoughts down now. What else. Let's try rapid fire all over the place.

Loved Elita's whole career woman thing and REALLY loved her "I'm better than you" bit because A) woman after my own heart and B) we love some unironic "girls rule boys drool" style feminism in this house. and I'm so serious.

I don't want to reduce Arachnid to just Sentinel's fag hag either because she also ruled. Her helicopter design looked siiick. The extra eyes on the front of her face and they way they moved independently was also sick. The way she was always yelling when she was stabbing guys was also kinda funny. (The way they used her eyes "seeing everything" to expose video of Sentinel, SOMEHOW, was actually kinda dumb. But don't worry about it.)

The way the trains and roads appeared in front of the train/driver looked really cool.

The scene where Optimus was dead and was floating into the heart of Cybertron, conversely, looked bad.

When it was first revealed in the movie promo content that Optimus was also going to be a miner alongside Megatron, while I wasn't as disappointed as the average tfp simp, I did think it was kinda of a bummer. That being said, it actually fucking RULED how Optimus was a miner. Ever since the introduction of oppressed bots into the tf canon, it was always this post. But in THIS canon Optimus is right there with Megs being oppressed and Optimus is the one that's fighting for social change, while Megatron is towing the line until he learns its all a lie. And once they learn its a lie, Optimus is still advocating for that change, and meanwhile Megatron is just really pissed off and down to get revenge and murder. I remember when I watched Siege and my conclusion was "hey guys, you can just do Autobots Good Deceptions Bad"! Well guess what. they DID that here, to great affect.

That being said..... it did make the megop slightly less tasty. 😔 Autobots Good Deceptions Bad generally requires a goofier, more G1 style favoring of megop. The scene were Megatron drops Optimus into the pit is very befitting of him being evil but if he's already willing to genuinely kill Optimus this early? It does not bode well for the homoeroticism.

Also what this movie loses in not having the Megatron be a liberator is how he gets followers. The Deceptions being the old high council is such a odd thing. Sure they'd want to get rid of Sentinel now, but it's odd to think of them with their whole "the strongest bot rules" thing (or whatever it was, I forget the exact line but you get the gist) but wouldn't they have been working for the other Primes before Sentinel? Who were ostensibly the good guys? Why would they all join up with Megs after getting rid of Sentinel, when Megs goals are seemingly going to shape up to be "just killin everyone". Where would the Council's bloodlust be coming from? Maybe its a political party thing, the Prime Left vs the Council Right lol. Or maybe I missed something. Also side note is funny how Starscream had them all languishing in cowardice when I all I could think the same thoughts I had when a very similar thing happened in IDW's Spotlight Megatron, which was: "come on, it can't all be Starscream's fault. the other guys like Soundwave are competent right. why aren't guys like Soundwave doing shit."

Also may I say. HUGE ups to the timescale in this movie. It's been "50 cycles" since the quint war and if Megs and Optimus were born after it then they're 50 "cycles" old at most. And I missed it but I think Alpha Trion says the war went on for "hundreds and hundreds" of cycles. Four millions year naps? We don't know her!

Bumblebee was the kid appeal guy of course, but it wasn't too grating to me. What I think also helped is alot of the slightly awkward-to-me humor was already in the trailers. So I was prepared for it.

Finally, when Megatron generates his canon. Oooo big sexy.

I enjoyed myself alot! Of course its for kids but that at least wasn't to it's detriment. And it made me want to go look up some toys so. A SUCCESS on the only front Hasbro really cares about, lol.

[hologramcowboy]

I try not to compare Gen and Danneel/the Ackles and the Padaleckis, but sometimes I just can’t help myself, and this past weekend was just too on the nose to not voice my thoughts. And I’m not saying these things to start a competition or shame Danneel. It’s just interesting how two women can have so much overlap/similarities and still be completely different. Execution is everything people!

Gen’s outfits from the con in Salt Lake this weekend were remarkably similar to Danneel’s outfits at Cross Roads Con back in March. Both women wore all black outfits with chunky black shoes. I’m guessing the thought process behind both their fashion choices was neutral outfits so they didn’t clash with anyone in the photo op but still stood out, and comfortable shoes for the long day. However, Gen looked great at her con and Danneel looked like a cheap clown throwing together outfits from the last of the clean clothes in her suitcase. Gen’s pieces were nicely tailored, nothing was attention grabbing and she hit that sweet spot between professional and casual. Danneel’s clothes at cross roads were poorly fitted, and she managed to look too costumey and too casual all at once (I’m still not over the fact that she showed up to an event fans spent big money on wearing track pants). Gen’s glam was very reminiscent of the clean girl trend, Danneel looked like she hadn’t showered in days and was just putting on another face of makeup every day for the last week over the old face. And again, I’m not trying to shame Danneel by saying these things. But pride in your appearance goes along way in a professional setting, and cons are a job. None of us would never show up to work looking sloppy.

And even the con behavior is so different. All of the stories from crossroads made it clear that all interacts with Danneel were very quick and impersonal. No cute stories, just fans trying to turn her not visibly cringing into being the best interaction they’ve ever had. There are so many tweets from RICC and FanX Salt Lake of fans talking with Gen about books and their shared hobbies. And Gen has reposted fans sharing their photo ops thanking them for their time on her stories after both cons.

The difference between their husband + wife panels was not unexpected, but it really just put into perspective just how bad Jenneel performed at CC. And their stans will try to say we can’t compare because there are no recordings, but we’ve seen enough clips, pictures and transcript tweets to know that it was awful. Jared and Gen are both really in tune with one another, and know how to work an audience. Their panel was playful and personable. Jensen and Danneel were so stiff and and distant, both with each other and the audience. They were constantly trying to one up the other and get all eyes on them, no interest in sharing the stage with their “partner”. They’ve lost all ability to pull over the happily married charade, and yet still insist on doing so. They had two angles to work off of that con, their personal and their professional lives, and they failed on both fronts.

It will be interesting to see if Danneel and Jensen try their hand at another husband and wife con, and if they learn anything from the Padaleckis.

Couldn't agree more. Gen has a warm energy and she knows how to style herself without falling into ridiculous. She styles herself gracefully. Wish I could say the same for Danneel.

The main difference between the two is that Gen genuinely loves her husband, Danneel has proven time and time again that Jensen is just her ticket to fame, for this reason I will never like her.

[17mujipens]

the dragon prince season 5 live thoughts:

the way Rayla constantly has the weight of the world and her parents and her personal relationship and then the world again on her shoulders is insane

Terry is bf goals, he really saw his girl having a meltdown and was like here are some nice textures. autism wins again

Callum really was like ‘my girl can commit any crime she wants :)’

that little bug elf person is so scary for no reason

loooove the dragon designs. like every time we see a dragon i’m fascinated

im so glad that in-universe people understand that Ezran is just a kid. like its heartbreaking but i’m glad it is discussed

side note but Corvus and Soren are def fucking and Corvus is not proud of it

i love how everyone is experiencing trauma and Rayla and Callum are in some second chance romance fluffy story

THEYRE SO CUTEEEE

VIREN mindscape

that scene between King Harrow and Viren genuinely has me hyperventilating

oh Harrow is that bird for sure for sure

oh to have a partner as dedicated to your success as Terry….

baby Soren is such a sweetie!!!!! im gonna cry

oh even more beautiful dragons

i totally forgot that Aarovos whispered something to the previous queen and now that intrigue is back

i feel like i gotta stop saying something every time Terry does/says something incredibly sweet because we’ll be here for so long

they keep reiterating how important family is to Viren and i mean it’s not a necessarily new characteristic but it’s more intense now. like the way morality doesn’t exist when it concerns them. before it was all for power and now its all for them and it doesn’t matter that Soren is on the ‘enemy’ side so it has me thinking that something is going to happen to one of his children that will. result in either Viren’s self sacrifice or his betrayal of Aarovos

Amaya and Janai are so so real

OMG baby Claudia!

Callum and Rayla’s frustration over being forbidden from going to Lux Area is hilarious, especially how Callum gave a freaking illustration shdjjdbdb

Aunt Amaya is a real one

oh i just knooow Karim’s storyline is going to be so so messy

also this made me think. like what the fuck do you even do after you get banished. like where do you go

Claudia and Viren sinking and saving each other is mirrored is just muah delicious

Soren running away terrified Viren but Claudia turning out just like him is scaring him even more

Claudia is my wet cat pathetic but also op character

some eye of sauron shit in Lux Aurea

the nerd elf is so cute and way too innocent for all this bullshit

Aunt Amaya is a real one pt. 2

omg. didn’t i say Karim’s story is going to be insane

i feel like Amaya’s monologue about love is going to be so heartbreaking in a few episodes

i’m usually a throwback montage hater but this one is so cute and sweet and it really highlights just how much they’ve grown and how far these two have come

Stella is a little kleptomaniac. sweetie.

Karim is constantly misunderstanding things because of his own biases. like how he thought the Janai wouldn’t fight because he came to the conclusion that the throne doesn’t matter to her because she didn’t lead like he wanted her to. and now he thinks that what Sol Regem needs is sight when what he actually needs is hope

the ‘i would do anything for you’ is sounding scary in the context of we just heard that that’s what started Viren’s descend into darkness

the library fight sequence is great, always fun to see their different fighting styles and how the cooperate

but it also gave me so much anxiety because Amaya is exactly the character that’s important and beloved enough that the writers might decide to make her infected so we all suffer

Dragon Queen to the rescue!!! oh how powerful dragons are…

why are u always leaving Bait behind :( he’s just a baby :(

NO I SPOKE TOO SOON!!! AMAYAAA

AND CORVUS TOO??????? agony and pain in Xadia

oh and i totally forgot about the Queen herself!!!!

oh Viren’s brain is doing a full reset

EZRAN YOU SWEETHEART <33333

i’m obsessed with Tina already. her design and her grumpy old woman attitude

oh Terry and Claudia you will always be famous to me

Akiyu and Lujanne would be besties

‘ when your mind is telling you to speak, instead you must listen’ LMAO

i know this Bloodhuntress is evil, they even say this out loud but… she’s kinda hot, yeah?

im really hoping that they find some way to cure the dragon queen. we don’t need to preteen kings

that boat set up is terrifying. and way too similar to Charon to be comfortable

bright hope cove…or scumport

this made me realise how much i just need at least a short story or something on Rayla years alone

this is such a fun setting. i have a soft spot for these types of towns in stories

i NEED the reaction pic someone already should have made of Ezran and Bait after Finnegran announced the ship’s price

omg pirate return!!

Claudia my girl who is worse <3

baby glow toads are 80% eye and 20% body lol

oh another return appearance!! i hope Nyx’ll bring some interpersonal drama

yeah, and she’s already pushing Callum’s buttons lol

damn, Soren is strong as hell, swimming in armour

oof i think she shouldn’t trust Miyana, wasn’t she Karim’s lover?

now that i see the Bloodhuntress in daylight, i have to say im not a fan of her colour scheme BUT powers are so cool visually, this whole fight sequence is amazing

Callum is just so powerful… i feel like we forget it sometimes but he is the first human mage to use any primal magic and the scale of the spells he’s using here is just insane

ITS A FUCKING HERMIT CRAB?????

oh god seeing Anaya in pain and despair is somehow worse than anyone else. and seeing her grief turn into anger muah chefs kiss

why is this y-7 show giving me anxiety. i literally started watching this to relax and think about interesting fantasy concepts what’s all this!!

oh shit this intro has Callum in it. shits about to hit the fan

i feel like that sea shanty has to have some deeper meaning. i hope it’s not that they’re going to drown our heroes

WHY IS THERE TORTURE IN HERE!!!!

don’t get me wrong i’m a tragedy enjoyer, i should know that by now but holy shit i just wasn’t emotionally prepared for all this

Soren, himbo of all time

Finnergrin is a great character to contrast our heroes actually and push them over

HES FREEZING HER BLOOD

oh Callum :( i love those moments where his anger boils over but i also love how they show how that scares him

Finnegrin is putting Rayla in mortal danger…i HOPE Callum goes feral

oh yeah this is some serious levelling up!!! Go Callum!!!

Soren, sweetheart :( he really saw this wood man get treated like trash, recognised it and at great personal cost helped him free himself :) using his daddy issues for the greater good

oh wow that greater good is apparently killing! slay

i feel like i gotta say something about Callum using dark magic to free himself but god that’s just plain heavy

oh Zubeia is still grieving and she’s just going on for her kid :(((

it’s day 30, damon what a way to up the already high stakes

Ezran was so sure that the prison being underwater would stump them but they figured it out so quick

my one thing is, this is open sea, if they’re even approximately at the same place, shouldn’t they have seen each other?

Aaravos really says every single sentence like it’s some dirty talk. like bro is saying something about borrowing consciousness or whatever with the same voice u usually hear say some shit like ‘oh you like that?’

finally Claudia and Callum and Ezran meeting! the way she truly believes that the ends justify the means and that all that dark magic hasn’t had its affect on her… wow

OUR CHILD? this whole monologue has me in hysterics

also because like…if he didn’t say anything, and was just like ‘kill this homunculus and your life will be restored’ Viren probably would have done it

i fear that ultimately, Viren will be too little too late for Claudia. because while he turned into who he is while an adult, Claudia was raised to be like this. so if he tries to change her, it’d be a betrayal to her

yeah, see Claudia is even more extreme than her father. because she has nothing else besides him, there is not status or prestige, or brother, or anyone else. it’s just her and him

fucking hell, i KNEW Miyana wasn’t to be trusted!

i think Karim will have a devastating win in s6, but it’ll be short lived, because like i said before he lacks critical thinking

what the hell is this mushroom mage and how soon can he help us retake Lux Aurea

what the fuck did he mean by ‘swallow’

Claudia is literally destroying herself in her quest. like we know that dark magic is detrimental to not only your physical but also your mental health, like we saw with Viren, and Claudia’s hair, but now literally her leg is gone. how far will she go?

side note: i think that because Viren reset, that’s why all his mentality and soul came back and that’s why his morals are so much stronger than we ever saw them?

OH THATS JUST A CRAZY INSANE CRUEL PLACE TO FINISH THE SEASON WOW