#Support rallying

[cvl-kestis]

i'm also very annoyed about how the symbolism of cassian's character was handled throughout this season. in rogue one and going into season two, the great tragedy of cassian was that he was no one at all -- destined to go unremembered and never live to see the world he gave everything to create. he had been through hell and back not because it had to be that way but because he was brave enough to choose hell in hopes that it might make a better tomorrow. and then he was wiped off the map and the men who destroyed the death star using the plans he stole never knew his name.

according to andor season two, though, cassian was always meant to be on scarif because he's a "messenger." he has lampshaded plot armor until he can die the way he was born to die, because it was always his destiny to make sure those plans made it off that base. also, he is survived by his partner and a child he never knew about, solidifying his legacy. this... is silly. it is beyond noble for cassian to make the willing choice to be forgotten in service of a greater cause. i'm much less compelled if the story is about cassian unintentionally being dragged to his death by fate and then getting remembered as a hero.

[misspepeshi]

@bigraaga, is nurse Valentine accepting new patients? I fear my dear vampire Ezran is in dire need of medical attention.

[aqlstar]

Also the Eurovision Israel haters gloating about how Israel didn’t win don’t seem to understand that to literally every Jewish person, Yuval did win.

Second place is absolutely winning; we’re not like the Soviet Union where if you place second you get disappeared or whatever.

We are so proud of Yuval for putting on an amazing show and winning second place.

[destinysbounty]

As any self-respecting Zane stan, of course I've seen Decoded. And of course I loved the sweet but subtle character moment of him being bashful and awkward when Jay brought up the statue.

For the longest time, I've always interpreted this moment as Zane being his typical humble, bashful self. And while I'm sure that's true to an extent, recent events from Dragons Rising have led me to consider an alternative interpretation.

If I may bring your attention to this quote from DRpt2:

"Zane had impressive shoes to fill. No one could live up to him, maybe not even Zane himself."

I dunno. There's just something about the fact that Zane's own legacy has outgrown him, that he's overshadowed by the memory of his past self, that rather than a testament to the love his friends and community have for him he instead sees the statue as an insurmountable burden he can never hope to live up to...

Which brings me to yet another blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment from the Shadow of Ronin video game (I know it's canon-ness is debatable, but hear me out for a sec)

While everyone is gathered around Nya and speaking to Borg via hologram, Zane is...gone. He's off in the distance, standing at the base of his statue, just...staring at it.

God, and when you add this all up to Zane's Ice Emperor baggage...yeah.

[jjoneechan]

a silly lil thing to clown on

[anastasiareyreed]

two years have already passed...

today, two years ago, all of Ukraine woke up to explosions, sounds of flying fighter jets, gunshots and screams of terror. today, February 24, is the anniversary of russia's invasion of Ukraine. full-scale invasion, escalation of ten-year genocide. I can't explain the feeling when I first saw wounded people, when I first heard a rocket flying overhead aimed at a residential building.

it is emotionally difficult to comprehend all the terrible events that happened during this time. everything I'm trying to cover here as soon as I get my thoughts together. and everything that I don't have enough strength for...

Bucha massacre

Mass burials in Izium

Mass execution of Ukrainian prisoners in Olenivka

The tragedy of Mariupol

Defense of Azovstal

Bakhmut Fortress

Ecological disaster in Kakhovka

The tragedy of Hroza

Tens of thousands of Ukrainian children forcibly deported to russia

Torture of civilians

The battle for Donetsk Airport

The Ilovaisk Tragedy

russian manipulation and propaganda

burning Ukrainian books, destroying Ukrainian museums and entire cities, torturing people for tattoos connected to Ukraine. forced re-education of children and adults who are forced to learn the russian national anthem, worship portraits of putin every day and receive russian documents in order to receive water and food in the occupied territories. daily shelling and casualties, daily struggle for survival and freedom, which russians want to take away from us.

all the terrible cases of execution of Ukrainian soldiers: beheadings, castration, amputation of limbs, execution of prisoners. burning civilians alive, raping women, men and children, torturing even animals, even little mice. tons of photos and videos that I don't want to add here because even the slightest glimpse of all those images breaks my heart and causes me to have a panic attack. however, you can find it all freely available on the Internet by simply typing in keywords.

instead, I would like to show photos of rallies in support of Ukraine, which took place today all over the world. to find out where each photo is from, see the alt text for them.

despite the fact that in russia they celebrate the war, Ukrainians, who were forced to flee from the war, gathered at rallies around the world, together with residents of the countries that gave them shelter. the civilized world expresses sympathy and grief, with calls to provide arms to Ukraine so that we can defeat russia as soon as possible and return peace to our lives.

it's sad that more photos can't be added to show as many cities as possible that came out to support us today. but I've been looking at all the photos and videos of the rallies all day today and I have tears of gratitude in my eyes. thank you all for continuing to stand with Ukraine!

[florad0ra]

miss ma’am Chérie for late Mother’s Day 🏆✨

Former captain of the cheer team, now chairwoman of the Troll Tree Pep Committee 5 years straight and won't let anyone forget it (or break her streak 🙃)

[clonerightsagenda]

I'm really grateful I have a group I'm already involved in right now, because I'm seeing a lot of despair and "I don't know what to do" and "I'm the only one in my community who feels this way", whereas we're like. well. we know what to do. It's going to suck, it might not work, people are going to get hurt in the meantime no matter how hard we try to limit the damage, but we do know what we need to do.

The reality is, this is not a mobilization problem. It's not going to get fixed by convincing more people to go to the polls, or if a few third party voters had held the party line, so you might as well stop blaming them. Actually unfortunately the next steps rely on stopping blaming individual people, but go ahead and take however long you need to get it out of your system. I get it.

As I said, it's not a mobilization problem. A large portion of the population voted the way they did on purpose, and a big reason for that is because for a large portion of the United States population, life kind of sucks and has been getting worse. The Democratic party has failed to run on a coherent narrative of why this is and how they're going to make it better. The Republican party, on the other hand, has run on a very strong narrative of how they will make it better by getting rid of all the things and people who are to blame. It's a narrative that has worked for a lot of groups in the past. It's working now, in the increasingly polarized social media landscape, even in demographics Democrats have typically considered safe. Everyone loves the luxury of having someone to blame.

Unfortunately, the fix to this is long, and slow, and hard. It's not begging politicians for scraps. It's getting offline and going outside. Talking to your neighbors about their lives, their fears, their needs, and what kind of world would meet those needs. Even the one with the Trump sign in their front yard. Some of these people are in it for the racism and the cruelty and siphoning everything to their rich cronies, but a lot of them are struggling and desperate and grabbed for the life preserver someone threw them, even if it's secretly stuffed with arsenic. If thrown a different life preserver, they can be convinced to grab it.

And no, it's not ok that they decided to shove vulnerable minorities' heads under water just so they could theoretically get theirs. You're allowed to be angry! But unfortunately further isolating these people only pushes them deeper into the fascist movement ready to embrace them. They need to interact with real representatives of the groups they've been trained to blame and fear. They need to be given a different narrative with real solutions, but screaming it at them on Twitter won't do it. Long conversations where people take their hardships seriously but direct them more constructively might.

That's not going to be easy. You may not like or forgive them. And not everyone can do this work! It's going to be safer for white, not visibly queer/gnc folks to make some of these initial contacts. (At one of our meetings, a femme woman of color was talking about canvassing transit riders and dealing with misogynistic comments and having to decide, ok, where do I personally draw the line saying I cannot work with this person versus being aware that a lot of people are not steeped in politically correct language and can change. It's a tough line to walk!) People also aren't interested in answering their doors for canvassers these days, so organic social connections work best. Maybe you're talking to people in your workplace. Your apartment complex. Your neighborhood. Your own family. Maybe you join a book club full of seniors at your public library. Many people want positive change! My state notoriously always votes for progressive ballot measures and then turns around and votes in conservatives who try to dismantle them. There's a logic gap there, but in that gap is a potential for conversation, because we have places where we already agree and want to work together.

The theory here is, if we can talk to enough people, if we can build genuine real world offline connections where we agree on our shared problems and our shared desires for a better world and come up with solid solutions beyond pointing fingers, we can build a large enough coalition to start making demands, most likely through targeted disruptions (strikes, walkouts, etc.). The handy thing is, if you can get that many people demanding something, it doesn't actually matter which party is in power.

Is that possible? I don't know! Organizing that many people is really really hard. It's hard reaching out to people who've just punched you in the gut. Some people will not change. Some people will have hard lines that don't mesh with your hard lines. And I'm certainly really scared myself about the likely takeover of all three branches of government and probable draconian measures against dissent. We're going to have to carefully consider risk/reward when planning actions and disruptions. We're going to have to fight through fear and exhaustion and apathy and pain and betrayal, and I don't know if we can. I don't know if I'll see something like this happen in my lifetime (although the UAW sure is gonna try in 2028). Hell I don't know if we'll have elections 4 years from now. But that's the path. If you're not up for walking it right now, that's fine. If you're not up for walking it ever, ok. But I don't think there are any shortcuts or miracles. This is what we can try, and if it fails, at least we did what we could.

(If you see this post and your instinct is to reply with some variation of 'nice speech but we're all fucked and might as well give up', I understand why you feel this way. It's a feeling a lot of us are struggling with right now. Take the time you need to take care of yourself, and when you're ready, you can come back and we'll be happy to have you.)

[gingerswagfreckles]

It's really depressing to watch your circle of allies get smaller and smaller and smaller as you realize just how many people are willing to cut you off and throw you under the bus if they think doing so might help them save themselves.

[bizarrelittlemew]

i was hoping to make a post like this under happier circumstances, but here goes.

as some of you know, everything with the cancellation and renewal campaign has happened right on top of the worst part of my mom's cancer treatment (plus the show was cancelled on my actual birthday 💀). i won't go into details, but it's been tough. lots of ups and downs, mostly downs, luckily ending (for now) on as much of an up as circumstances allow. the whole thing has been weirdly tied to the cancellation for me, kind of amplifying every feeling. the grief got mixed up, and there was so much of it - mourning the loss of the kind of future i thought i'd have with my mother and the time we might not get, mourning the end of a show that means so much to me and is such a big part of my life. different types of grief, sure, and of different magnitudes, but in one big ugly swirl. i sort of had a breakdown right at the start of february, and it was because of news about my mom, but it morphed into my brain telling me everything i'd ever written was shit and wanting to delete it all. stuff like that, spilling over.

anyway. i was holding off on writing this post to see if the show got picked up by someone else. but i still want to say it. because what also spilled over was the support and community from this fandom, and being in this space (despite the rough times and high emotions) helped me through it, because of all of you here. whether we talk regularly, or you left a comforting reply or simply a like on one of my posts about having a hard time (i tried to keep them few), or wrote a nice comment on a fic, or said something funny or nice or insightful in the tags of a gifset, or was active here (or on twt) in any way, talking/sharing/creating stuff about the show - THANK YOU.

you all helped me through all the ups and downs, and i am so grateful. thank you for being here, listening, distracting, helping me feel some joy despite the horrors. i love you and i love this incredible show and all it has brought and will continue to bring and inspire, and although it should go without saying, i'm not going anywhere. just do me a favor and give yourself a big ol' hug from me, and know that you made a difference for some random guy on the internet (but in reality for many more, and for this fandom as a whole, just by being here and being you) 💕

[minsu-the-cowardly-human]

Cuddles (Se-Mi x Nam-Gyu)

Before I post these doodles and rant a bit, I wanna say thank you guys so much for the support on the last post I made about these two!! Honestly I thought it was a bit too toxic for more than well..basically me to like haha but you guys showed ur support for it and I really appreciate it!! :D

Anyways but this is close to how I imagine them basically..in front of the rest of Thanos gang he tries to act cool/mean towards her but in private he just wants to be cuddled by her...idk chat what do we think?

[tea-time-terrier]

We're having a super fun time in Alberta right now. The UCP has released some very concerning anti-trans legislature that if passed could come into effect next year and seriously harm trans and gender diverse youth in particular.

[nando161mando]

▶️ US protesters rally outside White House in support of Palestinians in Gaza

[gingerswagfreckles]

Hi,

I'm sorry to bother you but do you have any sources on specific antisemitic incidents or speech spread by Khalil or anything going on in NYC?

I don't want to sound contrarian, I just noticed that there's a lack of links related to evidence on the matter in your latest post compared to the details of Khalil's arrest.

Asking as someone who's pro-Israel/Anti-Zionist but equally concerned about antisemitism going unnoticed amid the crackdown on the Free Palestine movement.

@dappercritter I am really quite frustrated by this. The sources I linked talk about how he has held the position of negotiator in the CUAD organization for over a year at least. CUAD is an explicitly pro Hamas organization that organizes a day of mourning for Sinwar and regularly organizes pro Hamas protests. I don't know how to explain to you or anyone else that holding a formal position in the administration of an organization that supports Hamas. Is proof that one supports Hamas. You are not the first person to say this and I am extremely frustrated. This man doesn't have a social media presence. What possible other evidence could you ask for other than multiple videos of him negotiating on behalf of CUAD literally less than a week ago during their building take over? What else can I do here but beg you guys to understand that holding a position with a pro Hamas organization counts as supporting Hamas??

[sieglinde-freud]

finally, after all this time… lafast.

[vv-ispy]

nameless bard ameno archon au.............