#Shapes Against Humanity

[nattikay]

after the post from yesterday, thinking more about the folks who claim that the RDA are “actually the good guys” and the more I think about it the more baffled I am that this is an actual take people have.

First, I’m not sure where people are getting the idea that the RDA in A1 is trying to “save humanity” (most of the what arguments I see are regarding A1 so Bridgehead City and Ardmore’s “new home for humanity” thing in A2 are irrelevant and a topic for another day). As I already detailed in the previous post, A1 makes it pretty dang explicitly clear that the RDA is mining unobtainium for the money and the money only. Unobtainium is a convenience for humans, it’s desirable, but it’s not a necessity. They can use it to make some dang fancy technology, but they can survive without it.

But ok, let’s play devil’s advocate for a moment. For the sake of argument, let’s pretend that the RDA’s main goal is to protect humanity and that unobtainium is crucial to humanity’s survival. Does that justify their actions? The bombing of Hometree, the bulldozing of the Tree of Voices, the assault on the Well of Souls?

Starting with Hometree, it may be true that the unobtainium deposit underneath it was the richest in the local area, but that doesn’t mean it was the only possible deposit available anywhere. They’d just have to move their operation somewhere else. “They [the Na'vi] can move!”, Selfridge shouts? You can move too, buddy. Violently forcing the Omatikaya out of their home to take the resources you need (even if you really do need them, not just want them!) is not justified when you can just get said resources somewhere else. Sure, it would be a hassle to pack up and move the operation, but violence is not a proportional response to inconvenience.

But ok, let’s add another stipulation, let’s say that the deposit under Hometree was THE only one available absolutely anywhere. Combined with the idea that humanity needs unobtainium to survive (which again is not actually true, but for the sake of the argument), this is the closest you can come to possibly justifying the attack. Even with all these stipulations, though…bombing a village and killing innocent people in the process is still…not good. You can certainly argue that it’s a necessary evil in these specific circumstances—a desperate “either they die or we die, we can’t both live, so of course we’re gonna fight for ourselves to be the survivors” kind of thing—but still an evil nonetheless.

But even if you can kinda-sorta justify Hometree IF you pretend that 1.) humanity needs unobtainium for their survival and 2.) the unobtainium deposit under Hometree is the only one available on the whole moon, what about their other attacks?

What about bulldozing the Tree of Voices? That place didn’t have a special unobtainium deposit. What could bulldozing that area possibly do to “save humanity”? What would the point of that be?

Well, they tell you in the movie. Grace comments on the situation, “they bulldozed a sacred place on purpose to trigger a response”. Jake concurs, “when people are sitting on s*** that you want, you make them your enemy, and then you’re justified in taking it.”

The RDA bulldozed the Tree of Voices specifically to anger the Na'vi, to provoke them into retaliation so that the RDA has a better excuse to attack Hometree. I’m sorry but you cannot justify that with “but they’re just trying to save humanity guys!!1!”

And the attack on the Well of Souls? Even worse. Bombing the Well of Souls was not meant to “help humanity”, it was meant explicitly to harm the Na'vi. Quaritch says during his briefing, “we will blast a crater in their racial memory so deep that they will never come within a thousand klicks of this place ever again”. I cannot fathom how anyone can hear a brief like that and not recognize it as straight-up literal terrorism.

…and then, of course, you remember that canonically the RDA is not doing any of this to “save humanity”, they’re doing it for MONEY. They’re doing it to protect their bottom line. Any shred of justification they might have been able to scrape as “defenders of humanity” evaporates there.

And that’s only the stuff they do in A1! They have a plethora of other sins under their belt, such as the massacre of the Sarentu clan in AFoP. I don’t even wanna know how the RDA defenders attempt to justify that.

so um. Yeah. Believe it or not the very clear and very obvious bad guys are in fact the bad guys. Again it absolutely baffles me that this has to be stated but apparently it does.

[local-redhead-bookworm]

If you somehow managed to watch any of Mobile Suit Gundam and think it was apolitical, I am going to tape your eyes open and force you to rewatch it

[pcktknife]

what do you think about sunset shimmer/twilight sparkle as a ship?

i dont really care that much about it which is funny cause the last nextgen i did does have them paired up w a kid

[sysig]

Haha, this Winterkov stuff is fun- where did all these other feelings come from (Patreon)

[thegreatyin]

I need to know: have you started Evolution yet, and if so did the Scoundrel yeet the Youthful Naturalist off their ship?

i've not only started evolution- i've finished it!

the scoundrel didn't yeet him mostly because they were flabbergasted at his audacity. an ambitious little academic? a pitiful human, no less?? stowing away on THEIR ship??? their ego couldn't take it. they weren't sure whether to be amused or appalled. they eventually settled on being deeply, deeply curious-

and, well.

that curiosity ended up taking the both of them pretty far, to say the least.

[juliareed]

There is a lighthouse In the middle of the deep And I'm still stranded on the shoreline there And nobody hears me scream

[many-gay-magpies]

oh also the reveal that powerful knight gloreth telling the big scary monster to "go back to the shadows from whence you came" was actually little kid gloreth turning against her shape-shifting friends because her parents told her she was a monster hit me BIG TIME.

[glitchydyke]

genuinely so hard to be a dgr fan bc everyone else is just fucking Wrong. wdym i google the sdr2 cast and one of the results is some rando on reddit calling chiaki the “most forgettable character” .can anyone hear me. its so dark in here.im going to bash my head in with a rock maybe that will help

[kisslovegoodbye]

Rima Samman, image 60,

From the series Love is worn around the neck (2020)

A group of Lebanese and French photographers is selling limited-edition prints to fundraise for people in Lebanon who have been displaced by Israel’s recent attacks.

In recent months, wide-scale walkie-talkie explosions and escalating Israeli airstrikes on the region have resulted in thousands of deaths and injuries and raised alarm about the future of the country’s infrastructure and ancient cultural heritage sites.

Photographers for Lebanon, which kicked off on October 25, is selling 100 prints by over 35 photographers through November 25 to generate proceeds for the on-site Lebanese nonprofit Mon Liban d’Azur. Each print, which measures about 8 inches by 11 inches (20 by 30 cm) is limited to 15 copies and listed at €150 (~$162), excluding shipping costs.

[is-the-owl-video-cute]

ah genderkoolaid (the op of the queer post) is one of those transmisogynistic bloggers that believes in “transandrophobia” :/ his pinned is all about it

oh anon this is not a can of worms I’m equipped to speak on in depth due to not publishing anything about my agab or gender identity on this blog.

[pinkyjulien]

🟨 Negative Traits Tag Game

Tagged by @kittenchrissy and @elvenbeard THANK YOU! 💛

▶ RULES: bold what always or almost always applies, italicize occasional or situational, strikethrough never applies.

aggressive | arrogant | authoritarian | bitter | brutal | callous | cannibal | careless | cold/cold-hearted | compulsive | controlling | corrects others constantly | cowardly | critical | cruel | demanding | disillusioned | domineering | envious | emotionally stunted | greedy | grim | guarded | hard | harsh | hypocritical | impatient | impolite | intimidating | irritable | kidnapper | lazy | liar | lustful | materialistic | mean | merciless | messianic | mistrusting | narrow-minded | obsessive | opinionated | overbearing | over-critical | over-emotional | over-thinking | patronizing | proud | remote | repressed | rigid | rules with an iron fist | ruthless | sarcastic | self-righteous | self-indulgent | taciturn | torturer | touchy | traitorous | unsympathetic | unpredictable | uptight | vain | vengeful

Valentin can also be reaaally stubborn and jealous at time!

He's a sensible boy, often dealing with mood swings; you could talk with the usual bubbly, sunny Val' in the morning and get hit with a brooding, cold gaze in the after-noon, all because he overheard some gonks talking about his past as a wraith, or because he couldn't figure out what wasn't working earlier during his shift.

Everyone knows that Valentin's filters totally vanish when drunk, but his lack of tact can be noticeable during certain sobber conversations- he can be clumsy with his words, and hurt people unintentionally.

He does not forget, nor forgive; he holds grudges passively, not letting it ruin his life more than it already did in the past, but bringing up those subjects can make Valentin spiral down in his own memories for some time until he brooms them back where they came from.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

▶ TAGGING: @arcandoria - @a-pirate - @dreamskug - @nw-art - @lokiina - @saevus-brutalis and anyone who'd want to do it! I know a lot of y'all already been tagged 🤏

[mycomori]

i should legally be allowed to stab someone i think like i don’t wanna hurt or kill anyone but also i really wanna fucking stab somethin over an dover and over again until i pass out

[skullmoss]

sorry guys about dragon age posting i’m regressing i’m a shitty dragon age fan at my Core

but i am not sorry about being a Solas Hater (again, positive. in the way you’re supposed to hate him as a complicated dude doing a Fucked Up thing)

dude doesn’t think anyone who doesn’t fit his very specific ancient elf criteria as People and even when he claims to have a slight Change Of Heart when he starts to befriend non-elves in the inquisition dude still is going through with his plans to essentially kill most people in thedas to get the elves back to their original ancient elf selves, immortal and all powerful, ruling the world that THEY TOOK FROM THE TITANS AND DWARVES ANYWAY??????? like you realize ancient elves are the reason why dwarves were made to live underground. that they severed the dwarves from the Stone and believe they ‘liberated’ them?

people do realize city elves are left out of solas’s equation too, right? his plans only consider “true elves” part of the equation, which city elves are not due to the lives in which they were forced to live for centuries as a diaspora under human rule and oppression. city elves to solas are not pure, they’re lost causes, sacrifices who will die for the sake of real elves who will be brought back.

but sure he feels bad :(

[navree]

anyway the only version of jason going non-lethal that makes sense is the version he brings up in #975 where he makes clear that he's going against his moral compass and his convictions on what he thinks is right explicitly so that he can maintain a connection with his family. none of this mealy mouthed 'jason realizes Killing Is Bad' thing (i'm of the opinion that jason's kinda the direct opposite of bruce in that where it would be too easy for the latter to start killing and not stop jason can kill and obviously has but the easier option for him is to just not do it and he does it because that's how his philosophy works) but jason admitting that he's taking the easy way out and being selfish at the expense of his own moral code so that he can still be a part of the batfamily. it's the only thing that makes sense to me.

[girlboyburger]

Is it ok if I reference your art? I want to make a reference sheet for my character and you're so good at drawing my body type. I would NOT directly trace yours, but it might come out as the same pose as whatever I end up referencing. If that's not okay, I understand and it's completely fine! If it makes you uncomfortable, I will not use your art as a reference. (Sorry I'm bad at wording things)

sure! referencing poses or w/e is super okay with me ^^ also tbh, i don't mind if people trace* my art,

****AS LONG AS*****

they're not posting it, and especially not posting it claiming it's their own. anyone can *privately * use my work to learn shapes or lines or whatever else, tracing is a good tool to feel out the shapes in art.

👍

note: by tracing, i specifically mean breaking down the art to bare bones shapes. finding the circles and squares and bean shapes that compose the anatomy in a piece, NOT just tracing along the lines. direct tracing does not work as a tool, and is something i'm very not okay with happening to my work. ... annnd is something i very heavily encourage you to avoid for the sake of learning on your own.

[pyomatic]

oh no i'm realising my two special interests of medieval Christianity and spirituality, and 19th century boating disasters leading to exposure and cannibalism would dovetail into a really coherent story