#Shared Symbols

[triadic]

For me, the crux of the issue is how Obama always refused to say the words “America is exceptional.” His famous answer was, “Well, I mean, every nation thinks it’s exceptional. So, yes, America’s exceptional in the same way Greece is exceptional.” What a funny thing for the American president to say. Exceptionalism is the main way that the country has always defined itself, and he’s just casually negated that because it annoys him that Americans make such silly claims. I think that dismissiveness was toxic, because nations, in the end, consist of shared symbols and myths. Debunking those myths, and saying the nation is bad, is a recipe for tribalism and fratricide.

David Samuels Interviews MLK Biographer David Garrow on Barack Obama - Tablet Magazine

This whole interview is fascinating.

[lemongogo]

life of regret

[giotanner]

All Tim Drake has to do is say "millenial core" (support my entire video on tiktok)

ko-fi

[poobirdy]

xin mo did not become the demonic op sword of all three realms for this!!! for @kawouwu who asked for binggeyuan sillies! thank you for your donation to svsss' gotcha 4 gaza!

[katetorias]

there is something so horrible about destroying churches, or any place of worship. im not even religious. it’s about the fact that people were so devoted, put so much effort into building and decorating and just experiencing this part of their life, that they hold so important. and all that effort is taken away by a fucking bomb

I find religion beautiful, and it’s harrowing to see these things happening in PaIestine and no one cares. suddenly now no one cares about religion or the importance of religious monuments

[nagasleeps]

your teeth and your tongue, bright red from tiger's blood

[casscainmainly]

Though there are valid reasons to want characters to have their own identities, I think some people insist too much on the Batfamily having all individual, unique names. This is why the Orphan name persists so much in fandom, or even Wayne Family Adventures - it's a byproduct of seeing 'Batgirl' as transitory and lesser than. This is not only a misunderstanding of Batgirl, but a misunderstanding of legacy mantles. Legacy mantles aren't stepping stones towards individuality, but identities with symbolic and storied histories. Characters can, and sometimes should, end in a legacy role.

It's also interesting that this anti-legacy philosophy is exactly what DC adopted during the New 52. They destroyed virtually every legacy they could, including wiping Tim's Robin history, erasing the JSA, and deleting Cass and Steph's histories. We all agree New 52 was bad, but most people focus on the content/ramifications on a specific character, when it's the philosophy that was wrong. New 52 was an effort to diminish the power of legacy titles, and to dismiss many characters that fall under the legacy umbrella.

Some characters should grow out of their mantles, of course. But that doesn't make the mantle they grow out of less meaningful or important than the mantle they step into. If we want to leave the New 52 behind, we need to leave its anti-legacy philosophy behind, too.

[starry-bi-sky]

wolfpack. aka: if not friend, then why friend-shaped?

"Hey-- uh, Danny?" There's an almost imperceptible tremor in Tucker's voice.

Danny doesn't look up from what he's doing, his pencil scritching across his notebook as he tries to do another quadratic formula question. "Hm."

"What's -- uh -- what's with the dogs?"

He looks up now, and finally sees where Tucker is -- standing in the doorway of his room with an ashy look on his face and a skewed, nervous smile. He's got a white knuckle grip on the doorknob. Sam is wide-eyed behind him, and using him as a partial meat-shield.

Danny looks down to the two giant ghost wolves sprawled next to him lazily. One large green one with his head in Danny's lap, letting him use him as a prop-up for his notebook. Another equally large black one splayed against his hip, sleeping on her side with her head tilted inward to his calf.

Automatically, a grin tilts across Danny's face, and he lifts his notebook up to scratch behind the green one's ears. He opens a lazy eye, one that is bloody red with a ring of yellow around the pupil, before slipping it shut and leaning his head into Danny's touch. "This is Sirius and Procyon," he says, and reaches down to scratch Sirius' belly. "And they're not dogs, they're wolves."

"Great," Tucker says, his voice suddenly much smaller and faint, "Love that distinction."

Sirius makes a great big groan, and Danny's grin widens, his heart swelling with fondness. His hand slips away from her belly, and before he can put his notebook back down, Procyon pushes his head up his lap until his ear is against his stomach, demanding pets now too.

Sam peeks her head up from over Tucker's shoulder, "I think what Tucker's asking here is what are they doing here, Danny."

He shrugs, scratching under Procyon's chin. "They kinda just showed up. I tried sending them back to the Zone, but they keep returning." And they were weirdly intent on just following him around, which is the only reason he gave up on returning them. They weren't causing trouble, and they knew how to hide around the living. Plus, he just loves dogs. "So now I have two wolves living with me."

This, oddly enough, did not do anything to calm Sam and Tucker down. Tucker's mouth purses into a thin line, and he presses the sides of his palms to his lips in prayer. "How have your parents not found out about this?"

Danny wordlessly raises his hand, and his sleeve slides down to reveal a thin chain bracelet hooked around his wrist. He whistles sharply, and both Procyon and Sirius jerk their heads up to look at him, ears pricked up and eyes alert.

Silently, he points to his wrist and rattles it twice, and in unison both wolves stand up and pounce. Instantly, they turn into a respective, opaque black and green mist that swirls around the bracelet and forms into two, flat wolf charms.

Both wolves are posing in the stereotypical wolf howl, with little stars indented on the sides. Procyon's charm has the Canis Minor constellation engraved on it, while Sirius has the Canis Major.

Danny faces Sam and Tucker, and points at his wrist. "Like this."

[bytebun]

my piece for @thecodywanzine! thanks to the mods who let me go completely ham and cheese on this bad boy. this one's about living longer than you ever expected and not knowing what to do with it

[bixels]

I'm not explaining why re-imagining characters as POC is not the same as white-washing, here of all places should fucking understand.

[badly-drawn-doflamingo]

‘birthdays’ - full comic !!

“So, what did you wish for Usopp?”

“…”

“…”

“Another birthday like this one.”

“And a nap like Jinbe.”

“..is he breathing?-“ “I don’t know.”

[wanderingcritter]

idk if anyone else has done this yet, i feel like it's a pretty obvious combo but i have yet to see it used around the community anywhere else, but uh yeah if this inspires u at all go crazy with it ig 👍

[somnimagus]

My page for @kairizine. It was such a huge honor to be part of this wonderful book with everyone, I had so much fun!

[id in alt!]

[kokoasci]

finally drew the main doa together :>

[n0bluev]

Another, zzz