#The first screencap is not but it's still valid

[syncopatedid]

"I love you in every universe."

[yourhighness6]

Zutara's Song is Definetely The Great War by Taylor Swift

I've seen a lot of Zutara songs and playlists out there and I wanted to share my opinion on my personal favorite

I want to start out by saying that this analysis is going to completely ignore Taylor Swift's intentions when she wrote the song and any analysis of the song in concurrence with her life. I'm also going off my personal feelings that the first verse and chorus are Zuko talking to Katara, the second verse, chorus, and bridge are Katara talking to Zuko, and the remaining parts of the song are them reflecting after the war.

My knuckles were bruised like violets,

Sucker punching walls, cursed you as I sleep talked,

For me, this was pretty typical season 1 Zuko. Angry at the world, fighting everything in sight, ect, ect. It's only after the first two lines that the song gets a little bit more specific.

Spineless in my tomb of silence,

Tore your banners down, took the battle underground,

That third line is really reminiscent of Ba Sing Se. He took himself out of the story, until, of course, he had to make a choice in "Crossroads of Destiny"

And we know what he chooses

It's almost phrased in the form of an apology, which connects it even further to their story. "Tore your banners down" could also mean the fall of Ba Sing Se in general. Aang is Katara's banner, the avatar who she put so much hope in, but the Earth Kingdom banner is also who she was fighting behind. Azula killed Aang, so I would personally say it's the latter, but I saw two meanings behind it so it's totally up for interpretation.

And maybe it was egos swinging,

The "egos swinging" bit resonated with me a lot, because at this point in the story Zuko isn't done with his character arc. He still seeks his father's validation over his own moral code, and although it seems to me like he's gotten over a lot of his entitlement, I think he still feels entitled to his throne. That's one of my favorite things about his arc, actually, that he comes from a place of privilege but eventually, unlike Azula, realizes that the right to rule isn't given by birth but by true care for the people you represent. (some politicians should take notes)

Maybe it was her,

To me, the "her" in this case is Azula, convincing Zuko their father will be proud of him if he returns to the Fire Nation, although it could also mean Mai. Again, open for interpretation.

Flashes of the battle come back to me in a blur,

This could mean a lot for different people. I've seen a theory about Zuko possibly disassociating (not unlike similar theories about Darth Vader), which I think is interesting. It could also maybe represent the guilt he still feels, which is my personal opinion.

Moving on, the chorus is fairly generic once again,

All that bloodshed, crimson clover,

Uh-uh, sweet dream was over,

My hand was the one you reached for,

All throughout the great war,

The hand part stuck out to me because of the part in the final agni Kai when they reach for each other:

(screencaps are bad quality but ya'll get the idea)

Then it goes back to the any enemies-to-lovers generic dynamic again...

Always remember, uh-uh,

Tears on the letter,

I vowed not to cry anymore,

If we survived the Great War.

And then we switch to Katara's POV:

You drew up some good faith treaties,

I drew curtains closed, drank my poison all alone,

You could argue that this is several moments throughout the series, maybe at the end of the war when she gets together with Aang, but I connected it most with her time spent on the ship after book 2. While Zuko was trying to fix his relationship with the Fire Nation and return to his family, Katara was isolating herself, worried about the war, about the avatar, avoiding her father and Sokka out of shame and feelings of abandonment. It was an extremely dark time for her, and although Zuko was trying to feel hopeful about his return, he doesn't even smile when he reunites with Mai. He knows he made the wrong decision.

You said I have to trust more freely,

This is after Zuko's redemption arc, during "The Southern Raiders" (which is probably my favorite ATLA episode, btw). Zuko encourages Katara to trust him, feeling that he is changed and is now deserving of it.

But she refuses to forgive or trust him

I would argue this is for good reason. She is clearly angry at more than just him, the entire Fire Nation, in fact, for murdering her mother and starting the war, but it is also very personal. When he betrayed her in Ba Sing Se after she revealed such a devastating detail of her life and they shared a connection, her abandonment issues probably came into play. It's similar to the trauma she had with her father after he left to join the war. She is scared that the people she cares about will leave her, just like her parents did, whether they had a choice or not, and just like Aang did when Azula shot him with lightning, again, without meaning to. Zuko left her intentionally to join the Fire Nation, even after she offered to heal his scar, a very important moment in their arcs. She is forgiving, optimistic, helpful, and kind to someone who hunted her and her friends for nearly a year, and he throws the offer of her most valuable asset back in her face and is instrumental in Aang's near death experience.

But diesel is desire, you were playing with fire,

He helps her. He uncovers her trauma, aids her in working through it, is supportive even when it was probably more than he bargained for.

And maybe it's the past that's talking,

Screaming from the crypt,

Telling me to punish you for things you never did,

Her mother did die at the hands of the Fire Nation, under Zuko's family's orders, whether they came directly from Ozai or not. But he wasn't the one who killed her or ordered her death, and he IS the one who is trying to defeat his father and end the war in favor of balance and peace. She realizes that...

So I just defied it,

...And finds it in her heart to forgive him.

After that, we start on the chorus again.

All that bloodshed, crimson clover,

Uh-uh, the bombs were closer,

I think that last line also refers to a different scene, much earlier in "the Southern Raiders", when Azula attacks the temple...

My hand was the one you reached for,

All throughout the Great War

...And Zuko saves Katara.

(I might do a separate post analyzing just this moment because holy crap there is A LOT there)

Always remember, uh-uh,

The burning embers,

I vowed not to fight anymore,

If we survived the Great War,

I think this refers to the agni Kai specifically, as does most of the bridge. The fire everywhere, the fear, the fact that it's the last battle of the war. It just fits.

It turned into something bigger,

Somewhere in the haze got the sense I'd been betrayed,

Your finger on my hairpin trigger,

Everything is depending on this battle. If they can't defeat Azula, what will happen to the Fire Nation? Will the people now just be under a new, arguably stronger and more powerful tyrant?

Soldier down, on that icy ground,

Looked up at me with honor and truth,

Broken and blue, so I called off the troops,

But they never learn what would have happened, because their combined efforts defeat Azula.

That was the night I nearly lost you,

I really thought I'd lost you

But not before Zuko (or rather, Azula) gives Katara the fright of her life.

(the love and concern on her face is so heartbreakingly beautiful it makes me want to sob)

And now everything is fine! The bridge is over and the next verse is full of hope.

We can plant a memory garden,

Say a solemn prayer, place a poppy in my hair,

For the poppy part, I'd like to address a particular fan theory. In the final scene, Katara has a pink flower in her hair.

(I left the usernames on, but please lmk if anyone wants a different type of credit. screenshot taken from this post: x)

According to another source I found, this flower is a pink peony, which symbolizes prosperity and a happy marriage.

(flower analysis originally from this post: x)

I know that this is a peony, not a poppy, but close enough? Also, if it were a poppy, it would symbolize compassion and platonic love.

Either way, I think of this as a kind of goodbye from Zuko to Katara. No matter what the situation was at the end of the series, whether Zuko was in love with Katara, Katara was in love with Zuko, or they were in love with each other, "platonic love" and "happy marriage" were a goodbye. It's either wishing her the best with Aang, or saying they can only be friends because of Aang or because of duty, but that he loves her anyway. (oh look, I made myself cry) At least, I think that in canon context. But within the song, it's a peony and they're now engaged lol

Anyway, the verse continues.

There's no morning glory, it was war, it wasn't fair,

And we will never go back to that,

And then the chorus starts again, but it's tone is far more hopeful than before. The worst is behind them. The war is over.

Bloodshed, crimson clover,

Uh-uh, the worst was over,

My hand was the one you reached for,

All throughout the Great War,

Always remember, uh-uh,

We're burned for better,

I vowed I would always be yours,

'Cause we survived the Great War.

It's just so perfect! I love it! (psst, if anyone wants me to also analyze another "Zutara song" feel free to ask)

[okiecookie20]

EXO "Obsession" theory part 1

Lucky One Theory | the Cube

• Let's first dive into the main theme before exploring other details. Obsession makes us wonder whether X-EXO are evil clones. On the contrary Baek mentioned something similar in their behind the scenes video (pls click on individual screencaps to read):

The boys are involved in this good v. evil fight as we know. Now that we have the theme of alter egos confirmed I wanted to mention there is a song on the album called Jekyll (지킬) the idea is borrowed from R. L. Stevenson's book and makes it easy to connect the dots. The lyrics of the song make it clear about the main plot of this era so we move on...

• Chen plays a game of chess with his evil counterpart. At the end there are certain pieces that remain - knight, knight, 4 pawns idk how this is valid since if a king is in checkmate the game ends conventionally.

I believe Chen and his counterpart are the knights. Now knights + pawns = 6 members in comeback. This might mean that Chen is in control and knows things which the other 5 don't since they are just "pawns" for the time being. He is also the only good guy remaining or smth out of these 6 and others might have been corrupted or defeated??!

I believe Chën won.

There are multiple footages of their chess board too: it might mean each of their actions is being watched by the RF. But I'm still not sure why they have the screens in their room (since Chen has the power of Thunder which could roughly go with electricity?). Is Chen keeping an eye on Chën?

• Moving on.. Chanyeøl is the one in center when the song begins. He is also the only member with eye-catching continuous patterns on his outfit. Something about Chanyeol seems a little off. I have started thinking of reasons for his behavior and vulnerability which I'll surely discuss another time :)

Clearly they emphasize how Chanyeøl is the leader of X-EXO or smth, like the most destructive force. In the mv all of X-EXO (except Sehůn) glow red but we see that only Chanyeol (special emphasis on red eyes) looks like that. This makes me think he is consumed by his evil ego:

Chanyeol and his X-EXO counterpart engage in a physical battle using fire:

At one point Chanyeøl is engulfed by fire as they fight and later we see Chanyeol radiating flames. He is also seen on the red side of the ground, encircled by the fire - hence it is clear he loses the fight. More explained about the fate of doubles in part 2

THANK YOU FOR READING THIS FAR!! 😀

• Kai is a biker and his scenes with Kāi reminds us of bullfighting. In the first gif below, we see how Kai tries to dodge his matador counterpart:

There are negative versions of Kai and his evil counterpart (maybe they fight in two different worlds since we know Kai teleports like in MAMA). I'm unsure who wins the fight since both appear with subdued expressions in inverted colors.

I'll also mention that in the performance video of EXO AND X-EXO, Kāi and Kai interact:

• In this picture we see there are 12 rooms → for the original 12 "legends". Only 6 members took part in this comeback so the other rooms are empty (Luhan Tao and 🥴 belong to the rooms below but were trapped in the maze). Notice how Kai is in the center of the OT9 rooms — he is the key to something. From Japanese, Kai translates to Recovery in English: it could mean protection and restoration of the tree of life to its prosperous state since "tree of life and the heart slowly grew dry" in MAMA intro. This is something very important to revert to as we unravel their clues to the story.

•We see exo playing video games/reading comics in some teaser photos of other releases, the vcr from their EXplOration Dot (Day 1, Seoul) and even Power mv and merch reflects this vibe - which makes sense that the battle at such a physical level is fictitious (and being endured mentally). These might be dreams the boys have after the RF drugged them or possibly influenced them in some way.

Another thing is that the drugs induced by the RF (Lucky One) might have smth to do with the creation of alter egos. The boys try to fight the evil versions of themselves but they were created so that RF takes control over the good Exo who foil their plans and to exploit their powers.

_oh well that's all for now, I will create a part 2 to incorporate it all. Have a nice day!!⭐

[jupitermelichios]

What the fuck is Riverdale actually about anyway?

that's not an easy question to answer, but I've been asked it a lot, so I'm going to do my best.

disclaimer: while the plot summaries are accurate, my interpretation of the themes is just my interpretation. other fans might disagree, and that's valid. unless it's about season 6. if you disagree with me about season 6, you're wrong. archie literally sings bread and roses. union busting is compared to mass murder. that one's not up for debate.

Season 1

[ID: a promo image for riverdale season 1, showing the characters of betty, veronica, and archie in the diner, while cheryl, josie, and jughead pose dramatically outside the window. The words 'riverdale series premier tonight' are superimposed over the picture]

The Plot: the murder of a highschool student leads his classmates to discover that the adults in their small town are all hiding dark secrets. also there's a love triangle.

What it's actually about: mostly just that, tbh. there's not a lot of subtext in season 1. This is the season where they let showrunner Roberto Aguierra-Sacassa (he of glee and pretty little liars infamy) write stuff, before the writers all barricaded themselves in the writing room and started writing plots which are just about how much they hate him and his ideas

Season 2

[ID: a screencap, showing archie posing with the vigilante gang he starts. the gang is made up of shirtless men wearing red balaclavas. archie is wearing a blue shirt and his face is uncovered, because when you're bating a serial killer it's important to let them know what you look like]

The Plot: A serial killer, the black hood, begins terrorising the town. Jughead accepts his birthright and joins a biker gang. Meanwhile Veronica's gangster father begins trying to take over the town so he can commit crimes with impunity

What it's actually about: this season is mostly a series of increasingly self-aware riffs on different horror and thriller subgenres. It's the transition between the uninspired first season and the genre-parodies that make up the rest of the show, so it's not as tight as other seasons. It does feature an episode which is almost entirely just the writer being real pissed off about aguira-sacassa framing a teacher-student relationship as romantic and consensual in season 1, in which the teacher in question is shown to be a serial abuser and then immediately brutally murdered because of it, and ngl, that was pretty based.

Season 3

[ID: a screencap, showing the main actors playing their character's parents in a flashback to the first gargoyle king murder. the characters are dressed as fantasy stereotypes; a paladin, rogue, warrior-king, nobleman, and wizard. they are pointing their weapons at someone off screen]

The Plot: A new serial killer, the gargoyle king, begins terrorising the town and seems to be connected to a ttrpg which mind controls its players. Meanwhile a cult which claims to allow its members to contact the dead has started recruiting at the school. Also Archie is sent to prison for a murder he didn't commit and forced to participate in an underground fightclub but that only lasts like 5 episodes.

What it's actually about: wouldn't it be ridiculous if the shit people believed during the satanic panic was true? wouldn't that be insane? wouldn't it be unbelievable. wouldn't be insane if, say, a huge portion of trump voters still believed in the satanic panic? tell me you believe in the satanic panic, i dare you, i fucking dare you-

Season 4

[ID: a screencap showing the entire cast dressed as Hedwig from Hedwig and the Angry Inch, with blond wigs, blue eye make-up, denim miniskirts, and high-healed boots]

The Plot: Jughead gets involved in a murderous battle to become the new ghost-writer for a hardy boys parody that ends with him faking his own death. Archie starts a boxing club for underpriviledged youth but Veronica's dad keeps trying to shut it down because he thinks Archie might be going to uncover his illegal paladium smuggling ring. Veronica becomes a bootlegger and opens a speakeasy because she wants her dad to respect her and thinks the only way to get that is by being the fucking worst before she realises that actually he sucks and she shouldn't care what he thinks.

What it's actually about: rich people are the fucking worst and we should probably just kill all of them. Listen. Listen, they're evil. It's very important to all the writers that you know this. They're all evil.

Season 5

[ID: a screencap showing what is referred to in the show as mothman, a boney humanoid with no hair, ridges over its eyes, and boney stubs that may be the tops of wings growing out of its back]

The Plot: following a 7 year timeskip, the gang return to Riverdale as adults and try to stop the town from being discorporated and demolished by Veronica's dad to make way for a new property developement. Betty hunts a serial killer who's been targetting sex workers in the area. Also Cheryl starts a Maple Syrup-themed cult and controls bees with her mind.

What it's actually about: Honestly, this season is mostly just about genre parodies. They're good genre parodies, don't get me wrong, but there's not a lot of coherent theming.

Season 6

[ID: a screencap, showing archie topless and tied to a saint andrew's cross, wearing a crown made of antlers. cheryl is standing in front of him wearing a red robe, elaborate headdress, and holding a knife, as she prepares to sacrifice him to ensure a good maple syrup harvest]

The Plot: after riverdale colides with a parallel universe, the gang find they have developed superpowers which are all related to their key character traits, which they must use to battle an evil wizard called percival pickens who is trying to destroy the world using a magical train. the genre parodies get weird this season, because a lot of them are comics riffs rather than movie or tv riffs. also there's an extended alan wake parody.

What it's actually about: Unionize. Unionize right the fuck now. Why are you not already in a union? Don't you know joining a union will literally improve your changes of getting into heaven? Look at Archie Andrews singing bread and roses and tell me you still think unions are bad you coporate bootlicking piece of shit!

Season 7 (so far)

[ID: a promotional image for season 7, showing betty, archie, and veronica wearing costumes based on the archie comics of the 1950s. They are sitting in the diner, and Berry and Veronica are each holding one of archie's hands]

The Plot: as a result of stopping the evil wizard in S6, the gang are sent back in time to the 1950s with no memory of their previous lives, where they are once again in highschool. Jughead has been told by an angel to make the town more just as this will help the angel bring them back to their own time, but someone is commiting murders and framing kids in the highschool for them. also there's an extended reference to alex hirsch's fight with disney S&P over gravity falls, which I did not see coming

What it's actually about (so far): oh, you think this show would be better if it was set in the 50s? You do know the 50s were the fucking worst, right? You do know the apple pie america the archie comics are set in never existed, right? you do know people who insist the 50s were a great decade are all racist homophobic sexist pieces of shit, right? right?!

[gordontheengineswifenirmal]

Please report the following posts.

They continue to spread hate

This post is meant to antagonise -

https://www.tumblr.com/bruhstation/769773435112046592/senja-comes-back-and-absolutely-fucking-eats-with

These are original weblogs where they called me names for not agreeing with them about the Gaza scambots. These were the original reboots that were intended to harass me. To be clear, I had not contacted them first. I had posted something about another user who messaged me inbox and harassed me because they did not agree with what I had said regarding scam profiles. I was FURIOUS and replied to their false accusations, assumptions, and other forms of harassment.

https://www.tumblr.com/bruhstation/769766415429517312/youre-a-fecking-child-who-knows-nothing-you

https://www.tumblr.com/bruhstation/769734760748761088/i-did-not-believe-that-youre-able-to-sink-lower

https://www.tumblr.com/tttemeetsthestarskys/769781557372321792?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/wreckontherails/769771455572492288/yknow-for-a-fan-of-a-childrens-show-that-promotes?source=share

These two bring in a previous misgendering incident on another platform (discord) in order to make me look bad -

https://www.tumblr.com/haru-mmd/769776757009235968/airing-the-laundry?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/tttemeetsthestarskys/769769012803649536/wow-yikes-holy-fuck-this-whole-thing-is-so?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/woodland-scenics

https://crinkly-spinkly.tumblr.com

https://www.tumblr.com/bruhstation/

https://www.tumblr.com/wreckontherails/

https://www.tumblr.com/haru-mmd/

https://www.tumblr.com/tttemeetsthestarskys/

https://www.tumblr.com/crinkly-spinkly

https://www.tumblr.com/cinnabowlii

https://www.tumblr.com/6lovelytenders

https://www.tumblr.com/pixie-dvsst

https://www.tumblr.com/deviousdiesel

I’ve also reported each of these posts for harassment, and blocked the users.

This fun! I’m not a ‘ZIO’ - a Zionist. I’m not Jewish, and I do not support what EITHER side is doing. If there were ‘Zionist’ scammers, I’d feel the same way. There r scammers from Africa on blue sky. I block n report them too. I block, report, and shame ANY HARASSER/scammer. Also, the so called ‘anon’ they refer to is tttemeetsthestarskys. The link in me screencap matches the link above for their post. It’s a patch of psychotic extremists looking for validation.

This moron decided to not only post images from a past discord where they misgendered me, but called me names on top of it. They claim I’m in the wrong, but they’re doing worse. All because that bandwagon is convenient and they are cowards. Also, ironically enough, they are connected to tttemeetsthestarskys. Funny how that works.

It’s like this - when I say older, chronological age is only half. Yea, that CAN mean little. However, in that time that I’ve been alive, I’ve accrued far more LIFE EXPERIENCE. So, yeah, I do have a right to tell off a spoilt brat who thinks they know everything, but doesn’t. If u were Paris Hilton or Kim Kardashian’s, who r slightly older than me, I should still tell u off, because u r spoilt n clueless. If u were an old person who is just as spoiled, id perhaps be a bit kinder, but id still lay down the law. I was taught to respect elders, n not harass them, even if I dont agree with them, as long as they aren’t doing anything to me. I didnt come to your blogs spouting shite. That is on YOU.

It’s even MORE disgusting that YOU take money away from those in Gaza who really do need it by feeding the scammers. It utterly boggles the mind how utterly thick you are to believe those images and videos aren’t stolen. Yes, they are real images and videos, but they do NOT belong to the profiles. You honestly have the GALL to believe the SAME sob story repeated over and over with maybe a few words changed here n there. It’s HILARIOUS how idiotic you are in this age. You sound like the people who believe psychos word for word. You are willing victims. You deserve to be laughed at and mocked mercilessly. I hope u get scammed and your identity stolen for harassing me. It’s the only way u will learn - maybe. This is what life experience teaches, not YOU YHINK YOU KNOW.

You havnt had to deal with an old man physically fighting with u n pissing into cat food tins. Or arguing because he didn’t wash his hair in 4 months, or spreads his faeces on walls, or wants to eat mouldy food, whilst your mum cries about wanting to off herself. You may not have lost ur father at 16. You certainly didn’t have to deal with this all at once. You didn’t give up your home so ur mother could be safe in care. Why yes, the actual people in Gaza are struggling more, I get that. I’m not comparing meself to them. I’m simply saying that there is struggle that some folks never have to deal with. Lucky u feckers - but u have NO place to be pointing fingers. I NEVER messaged ur inboxes asking for money. And I won’t. Unless ur a scam profile, just to feck with them n give them some of their own back. Get over yourselves. You are deplorable. You don’t even have imagination, dredging up unrelated stuff because u hold a grudge n repeating the same insults I called you, and you deserved.

[forcebookish]

I just have to say you are restoring my faith in humanity with all your Top and Mew opinions. People are so weird about them I just don't get it. Their dynamic to me is so exciting and I look forward to their scenes every week. What really strikes me about Top and what a lot of people don't want to see is that he truly wants someone to care for and look after. The way he so quickly took to taking care of Mew you can tell he really treasures him. I also just love how much of an enigma Mew is (in the best way), he always subverts expectations and I think he really needed someone like Top in his life, regardless of what's going to happen in the future.

thank you, anon 🙏

you put it perfectly, they "don't want to see" who he actually is, so caught up in their own narrative of what they want him and the drama to be - something neither of them are. like, why do they think top wanted to still be with mew after he thought that he wasn't a virgin, had lied to him about actually liking him, and might have been cheating on him with ray? just... 'cause? he told boston he still liked him even after all of that, after being so hurt that he slept with someone else. how many times does a guy have to say he likes someone before people believe him????

and you're so right about him taking care of mew!! i've been planning a post about this since ray asked, "is top the kind of boyfriend you want?" because uhhh, you mean a boyfriend who takes care of him? validates his feelings? worships his body? respects his boundaries? and like you said, treasures him.

on their first date, he buys him the sex book lol

on their second date, he puts on his laser tag light up thingie for him

he helps him at water skiing

(i mean lol that second one is obviously a move but still)

on their silent disco date, he puts on mew's headphones for him and gets him a drink

he assembles furniture for him

he gets his drinks for him at the party, he takes him home

(side-note: i've seen folks have a problem with this checklist line, as if he's "faking" at being a good boyfriend, but it's just a reference to mew saying he has his a checklist.....)

he's so concerned for mew when he gets hurt, he wants to go after biker, and "fixes" his glasses (an attempt was made ok😂)

like???? do they think he didn't take care of his exes??? he doesn't know what mew's "type" is, he's just acting like how he acts in relationships. and he was taking care of him even before mew said that!! (inb4 that line about him only caring about coming and making himself happy, he said specifically that he couldn't remember the last time he felt like that; that doesn't mean he never has, it just means that mew's the most serious boyfriend he's ever had. he's never been in love before, that doesn't mean he's not now.)

who goes that far just to "pretend" to care for someone?? and even if he did, don't you think that would lead to him actually caring about him? they really go, hmmm, he's a good boyfriend🤔🤔🤔 suspicious🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔 lmao

to your point about mew, he is an enigma! every week, i want to know more about him. i've never seen a character like mew before - even though i've known people like him in real life.

and i agree that top's actually been good for mew, even if it leads to (momentary?🥺 interim?🥺 please not permanent🥺🥺🥺) heartbreak, it's good that he's getting out of his shell. we haven't seen a lot of his backstory, but top keeps introducing him to new experiences outside of just reading, helping him live a life outside of studies. and, uh, (at least soon) help him realize how shitty his friends are😅

so pleased my silly little (ok, overly long) posts restore your faith in humanity, anon. it's asks like these that restore my faith in humanity. so glad i'm not alone in loving them <3

(and glad that you anons seem to like it when i make your asks into HUGE ASS POSTS COMPLETE WITH SCREENCAPS OMG I DON'T KNOW WHY ANYONE READS THESE BUT I'M GLAD Y'ALL DO)

[the-sun-princess]

Emi Plays Revue Starlight: El Dorado Part 14

okay mahiru nana stageplay time aka i screencap all the mahiru praise

starts off similarly to the futaba claudine version

carmencita gets at Least one more line lol

intewesting...instead of immediately opting to take salvatore under his dad's wing, alejandro suggests bein a soldier over a sailor. ends up in the same place tho.

oo zulfikar doesn't surprise them with isobel, they pinpoint him before he attacks

FINALLY the mahiru gushing i've been waiting for this entire time. are u feeling it now, mr krabs

ok rude. i mean it was a first impression but rude.

mahiru is the shiningnest brightnessest

THATS WHAT I'VE BEEN SAYING. MAHIRU IS TOP STAR BC SHE THE SUN!!!!!

mahiwu legy

mm nana's alejandro is leadin mahiru's salvatore into certain actions

mahiru literally the Only One of the seisho girls here who that description actually fits

salvatore actually inviting isabel along If he ever gets to sail bc apparently he's Not going with alejandro? he's doomed to be in charge of the household on land (not rlly, obv, but the 'plan')

honestly a way better lead into salvatore pulling isabel into a kiss than the others like it actually felt Fitting

also nana/alejandro reaction shot lol

can my ac shut the fuck up i wanna hear mahiru. lol alejandro finishes off his dad

funny how its the opposite in this one

nana time to praise mahiru

ok tbf hikari + karen did that, not junna, but i guess junna did kick ur ass about ur pity party afterwards

and u lifted me up like a child. literally

doting gf karen-chan

what

claudine n kaoruko what will they talk about

lol

honestly i thought kaoruko was talkin about mahiru n claudine nana akjhkdjhf welp. they are similar like that

amemiya getting flustered at nana calling her shion-chan as if i havent been wondering the whole time Why nana of all ppl was using last name-san

.....she still referred to masai as masai-san tho kjfkjshdfkjh

~interlude for me to shower~

oh carmencita's not dead. yet. maybe

i should Not be surprised mahiru and nana have similar ranges in this bg song- they are also a duet irl with harmoe

i can pick apart who is who in this song just bc im very used to mahiru's voice ksjdhfjh

interesting. alejandro baits zulfikar with miguel, not el dorado this time

i Am curious why they would even Need zulfikar now- is it just for a boat

isabel just hopped along with alejandro no need to stowaway this time

OR NOT KAJHKJHSKJDH

THAT'S EVEN FUNNIER. also for a master assassin zulfikar sure is cheaply bought

oh now theres' the jelly

sjdkfhksj this is extremely funny to me rip alejandro no royal pussy for u

....nevermind lmao jealous the other way around.

dude u need a crew to get there anyway whats another person

rip to everyone mahiru salvatore captures everyone's heart. lol

this salvatore is way more fun skjhdkfjdh "spite"

even tho he has the Option to fulfill his promise with alejandro. once he learned alejandro used him he's like Fuck You which valid. like. his best friend allowed his dad to rape him- i wouldnt forgive that either

yeh u are mahiru

he does tell alejandro if he wants to come he as to follow him he aint just gon take ale with

ah salvatore still gets slashied up by ale. into the ocean he n isabel go

o actual epilogue

alejandro killed himself i guess. rip. miguel hooked up with zulfikar. and isabel and salvatore made it to el dorado

hehe

also goddammit where is hikari

but good yes praise mahiru

after party time cmon hikari. cmon. show up

oh image limit well we got thru the stageplay. after party time

<<part 13 part 15>>

[velvetglow]

Alright! So here's Part 2 of my Classic Macintosh Screencap series! Beginning in order of left to right beginning from top to bottom:

The contents of a report about the Anglo Saxons that I wrote.

I wrote this back in 2008! I refuse to believe that 2008 was almost 16 years ago. I was in high school at the time, so please excuse my atrocious writing. Honestly, doing my schoolwork in this emulator (full-screen) was actually quite nice, it served as a pleasant environment for some distraction-free writing.

Artwork by my niece who was around 8 at the time. I'd let her use the emulator environment from time to time to play games or in this case, draw. Crazy that she's in college now, time sure flies.

The Stickies application that we've known and loved in macOS is a lot older than you think. It debuted in Macintosh System 7.5 in 1994!

The contents of the main drive and also the System Folder where the System Software resides. A neat thing about the System Folder: You can move it anywhere even while the system is running, you can stuff it in a folder elsewhere, and the Mac will still find the System Folder and be able to boot from it! It is no longer possible to do this trick starting with the first release of Mac OS X/macOS back in 2001 and the folder is simply called 'System' ever since.

System related settings were in the form of Control Panels, they were essentially little program snippets and you can freely move them in and out of the Control Panels folder. Third party applications would sometimes include their own Control Panels for better system integration. An example would be a Control Panel for your graphics card. Starting with Mac OS X the Control Panels were replaced by System Preferences/System Settings and the panels are fixed. They cannot be removed or moved around.

A simple maze game called Baby Labyrinth.

SimCity Classic is one of my favorite vintage games to play. It doesn't like running on any color setting other than black & white, even telling you to set it to this color setting, then quits. Much older software that was written without color displays in mind might not work and might even crash until you change the color settings. However not all vintage Macs supported setting the color to black and white.

Ok so the disk image is actually a tad bit older than I thought. This saved game was from 2007!

The disk image format style of installing applications by opening a DMG file, and dragging it into an Applications icon in the present day? It's been around since the early days of Macs. It was originally used to preserve the resource fork of files as it couldn't be easily transferred and preserved over networks. Even though resource forks aren't really being used any longer, this method of software distribution has been standard and preferred ever since.

An error message. Nothing serious, the application just couldn't find a particular piece of software.

A game of Risk!

Some wallpapers that came bundled with the system. Hmm... yes purple.

Before Spotlight, this is what you'd use to look for files. Since indexing wasn't a thing that was built into the system, it would take a considerable amount of time to find a document. I tried searching for that Anglo Saxon document that I wrote and about 5 mins later it was still searching. I gave up.

Another feature that has existed for quite a while: The ability to select a startup disk in the Control Panel. Drives that contain a valid System Folder will show up in this panel. Once you select a drive, the system will then boot up from that drive moving forward, until you return to the same Startup Disk control panel then specify a different drive.

I have an actual Mac stashed away in storage that I'd like to share more pics and screen caps, but sadly I'm out of state at the moment and not sure when I'll have a chance to revisit it.

[ageless-aislynn]

You know what? I am SO glad I made that Halo Reach vid. It put me back in the mindset of making something just for me. If other people watch it, if other people like it, well, of course that’s great, but if it gets 0 comments, 0 notes, 0 hits straight across the board? I’m still so happy with it!

I’ve had this vid in my head literally from the first time I heard the song. Every time I’d hear it again, I just felt that it was meant for me to use for a Noble Team tribute. I really wanted to see it come to life, to put the pieces in place, and then to finally be able to step back and see it as a completed whole.

You can tell that I made this just for me because of the super-indulgent long outro it has, lol! I went into Firefight to record the footage I needed, then had to figure out how to unlock the theater camera so I could zoom ahead of myself to get “clean” footage (not entirely successful and my bit of a hand tremor kept it from being as smooth as I wanted). But still! That’s the vision I had, even if it’s not as professionally done as I wish. It was one of those things that I put together and was just all “Eeeeee!” after the fact. I had so much fun with this entire thing, I can’t even tell you! 😁

Plus, I noticed some things in the cutscenes that I hadn’t noticed before. I want to do a GIF or screencap post about them in the next day or two. Will anybody care? Probably not but I’m going to try to do them anyway. This is all about getting back to where I started with fandom, just making things that I love because I love them, not making them “certain” ways because that’s how other people think it should be done or whatever. This is about getting back to creating for the sheer love of it.

I think that’s how I’m going to conquer my writer’s block. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about what’s stopping me from finishing my WIPs and, honestly, I think the root of the problem is that I’m afraid I’m going to “mess them up” by making choices in the final chapters that other people won’t like. I can’t control what other people like, though. I can only do my best. And, just like making this Reach vid, if I make something that I like, the way I like it, that’s not only valid, it’s awesome!

PS - I wasn’t going to link to the vid because this wasn’t meant as a commercial for it, lol, but, well... If I were reading this from somebody else, I’d want the vid link, so, here you go: “Legends Never Die.” Feel free to skip, though. Like I said, this isn’t meant to drum up views or comments, though all that’s welcome, of course. I really did make this one for me and it’s already served its purpose and has made me so happy! 💖

[quailfence]

[Image description: 35 images centered around Amy Pond from Doctor Who. They are a mix of stills from the show, exceprts from scripts, and Discord messages.

Image 1: Discord: Amy was highly neglected as a child and subjected to various traumatic experiences that (highlight) she was expected to deal with on her own or in the presence of very unsympathetic adults(end highlight); this is not conjecture, this is all based on what we can see on screen throughout season 5 scenes with young Amelia.

Image 2: Screencap. The elevneth Doctor is leaning on a stove. He is grinniing and looking at a young Amerlia, who is stirring a pot on the stove

Image 3: Text: Doctor: I know. So, your aunt, where is she? Amelia: She's out. Doctor: And she left you all alone? Amelia: I'm not scared.

Image 4: Discord: When she prays to Santa in the beginning, she assures him that "it's an emergency" — which displays the internal mindset of a child who doesn't think she can ask for things outside of holidays or emergencies. She prides herself on not being scared by most things, even into adulthood, mostly (highlight) because she knows that she has to rely on herself first to save herself (end highlight).

Image 5: Screencap. Young Amelia and the Doctor stand at the base of a staircase. The Doctor talks to Amelia.

Image 6: Discord: This is all before the Doctor comes into the picture. (Highlight) The Doctor is inherently different from all of the adults in Amelia's life, because he does not treat her with condescension (end highlight). He views her concerns about the crack in her wall as valid and warranted. He hears the voice coming from the wall. He knows that grown-ups lie, and he wants to be seen as more trustworthy than other grown-ups. He doesn't even deny Amelia's request to come with him in his time machine; he simply answers that it's not safe and he'll be back in five minutes when it is. He says "Trust me, I'm the Doctor." (Highlight) Amelia trusts him. He leaves (end highlight).

Image 7: Text: Doctor: You're Amelia. Amy: And you're late. Doctor: Amelia Pond. (Highlight) You're the little girl (end highlight). Amy: I'm Amelia and you're late. Doctor: What happened? Amy: (Highlight) Twelve years (end highlight).

Image 8: Screncap. Shot of Amy's skirt and legs.

Image 9: Discord: This was when she started to become aware that the people around her could look at her in a different light than she was accustomed to (namely, the crazy Scottish girl who kept talking about her imaginary friend as if he was actual fact.) (Highlight) Instead, she was perceived through the lens of her physical attractiveness (end highlight) - and in that process, she becomes a different person in their eyes.

Image 10: Screencap. Amy looking shocked

Image 11: Text: Doctor: And what sort of job's a kissogram? Amy: (Highlight) I go to parties and I kiss people (end highlight). With outfits. It's a laugh. Doctor: (Highlight) You were a little girl five minutes ago (end highlight).

Image 12: Discord: And then the Doctor comes back. And (highlight) the Doctor is affronted by all of the things Amy has done to feel mature and in control (end highlight) - you were a little girl five minutes ago! (Highlight) What happened to that little girl who I came back for? (End highlight) She grew up. Oh, you never want to do that.

Image 13: Text: Amy: I don't believe you. Doctor: Just twenty minutes. Just believe me for twenty minutes.

Image 14: Screencap. The Doctor talks to Amy, who holds an apple.

Image 15: This makes everything more complicated for Amelia, because he does not come back… but she doesn't give up her trust in him, her faith. She holds onto the belief of him coming back for her for years - and the more people try to wrest it out of her hands, the more she clings onto it. (Highlight) This is doubly hurtful for Amy's self-image, because now she can no longer be seen as mature and self-possessed - now she's childish, a little girl who's fixated on her imaginary friend (end highlight). Nobody else will treat her with the same lack of condescension that the Doctor afforded her; no one will believe her. Even Rory, her closest friend, openly admitted to pretending to believe about the Doctor. (Highlight) She's stuck between two places she hates: being seen as stubbornly childish, like a silly — or worse, crazy - kid who won't accept reality, or giving up her faith in her own lived experiences, something she knows to be true (end highlight).

Image 16: Screencap. Young Amelia pulls up a curtain and looks out a window.

Image 17: Text: Zero: Poor Amy Pond. Still such a child inside.

Image 18: Screencap. Amy looks serious.

Image 19: Text: Amy: I grew up. Doctor: Don't worry. I'll soon fix that.

Image 20: Screencap. Amy is in her bedroom, lying on her bed. The TARDIS is in the corner, and the Doctor is talking to her

Image 21: Discord. That gives her a kind of power, too - if she knows that someone is attracted to her, she can make them do whatever she wants (which is a fair bit of the basis of Amy and Rory's early relationship, anyway.) (Highlight) She relishes having that power (or the illusion of that power) because her early childhood experiences are so deeply characterized by powerlessness (end highlight) - she is powerless from being left alone all the time, powerless to bring the Doctor back. But in this, (highlight) she gains power, which gives her a sense of worth. The idea of losing that scares her, because she's not sure what she would have left without it (end highlight).

Image 22: Screencap. Close-up of Amy on the bed. She looks a nit taken aback

Image 23: Text: Doctor: I'm nine hundred and seven, and look at me. I don't get older, I just change. You get older, I don't, and this can't ever work.

Image 24: Screencap. Amy in the TARDIS. The camera is focused on her legs

Image 25: Discord: By the time the Doctor meets her at 19 and 21, (highlight) she has become so entrenched in the mindset that relationships inherently involve some kind of transaction; nothing is simply given (end highlight). She does not believe that the Doctor would simply want her around without also wanting her. And

Image 26: Text: Amy: Oh come on, you turn up in the middle of the night, Get me out of my bed in my nightie, Which you then don't let me change out of for ages, And take me for a spin in your time machine. No, no, you're right no mixed signals there, that is just a signal. Doctor: That is not why you're here. Amy: (Highlight) Then why am I here (end highlight)?

Image 27: Screencap. The Doctor talking to Amy

Image 28: Discord: And while, sure, I think Amy's genuine attraction to the Doctor plays into it, I mostly view that scene as an extension of (highlight) her long-internalized mindset that her beauty and her sexuality is tied up with her worth (end highlight).

Image 29: Text: Dream Lord: But listen. You're in there. Loves a redhead, the Doctor.

Image 30: Screencap. Rory looks at a tired Amy, who stares into the distance

Image 31: Text: Rory: I want the other life. You know, where we're happy and settled (Highlight) and about to have a baby (end highlight). Amy: But don't you wonder, if that life is real, (highlight) then why would we give up all this (end highlight)? Why would anyone? Rory: We have to grow up eventually. Amy: Says who?

Image 32: Screencap. Amy and Rory are in a dark room. Amy has a blanket around her shoulders

Image 33: Screencap. A pregnant Amy is sitting down, eating fish sticks and custard. Rory kneels in front of her

Image 34: Text: [deleted] Amy: I'm not the first person you've taken with you in the box. I mean, I know that. I'm not even the, what, the hundredth. (Highlight) And one day I'll get eaten, or I'll grow up, or, or meet someone and get married (end highlight), and then you'll stare off moodily into the distance whenever people mention me.

Image 35: (Highlight) If she grows up too much, she will lose everything (end highlight). End description.]

[Plain text: amy pond: on beauty, ageing and birth ( part two here )

[ all text with grey background is from the lovely @amelia​​​​ <3 the most accomplished amy scholar of our time || the eleventh hour, flesh and stone, meanwhile in the tardis, amy’s choice, S5 draft of the doctor’s wife ]. End plain text]

@dw-described

amy pond: on beauty, ageing and birth ( part two here )

[ all text with grey background is from the lovely @amelia​​​​ <3 the most accomplished amy scholar of our time || the eleventh hour, flesh and stone, meanwhile in the tardis, amy’s choice, S5 draft of the doctor’s wife ]

[endversewinchester]

Let’s do the entire Molly and Sirius argument (+Lupin) next 🥳🥳 gonna grab my laptop for this so hang tight with the screencaps.

So the pre fight context: Sirius being forced to face everything that he went through (everything. From childhood too) for the first time since leaving Azkaban is making him very grumpy.

Molly being forced back into a war with her 7 kids (+ Harry and Hermione) and really worried about the impact it will have on all of them. She is also worried about how close Harry is to Sirius, because she doesn't really think his godfather is doing his role of a parent properly (cue the Mundungus argument)

Cool? Let's go.

Lupin in this argument works as the middle ground, as you are going to see as we go forward. That he is wary of how harshly Sirius approached the topic with Harry is a sign that Molly's concerns aren't unfounded, and Remus himself probably shares them. But unlike her, Remus cares deeply about Sirius too. So rather than judging him for acting up instead of being a proper parent, he is worried (wary) about him.

I also want to preface this by saying Harry doesn't understand the dynamic of this scene. You're going to see that later on. He is 15, and too young to understand. So much so he attributes Lupin's wary look to Voldemort's name being said, and not to Sirius' behavior.

Matching Remus, Molly too doesn't like how Sirius breached the topic. We know she already doesn't think he's fit to be a parent, and how carelessly he brought this up doesn't help, though she is trying to hold back and remain civil. Right now, the argument can be broken down to her believing Harry is too young to know, and Sirius thinks he should. But the other context I'm giving is what makes it escalate.

Sirius is Harry's godfather. He has no legal claim to him as a wanted criminal, but he is the parent that James and Lily chose to be there in case anything went wrong. And to make matters deeper, Harry too considers Sirius a father figure far more than he considers the Weasleys per his own words last book.

And speaking of the last book, Sirius, for his part, was also trying really hard to be there for Harry as much as he could. Down to turning into padfoot and staying in the infirmary with him at the end, despite Fudge being in the castle AND IN THE ROOM WITH HIM.

So that is where Sirius is coming from. He respects how Molly parents her children, even if he doesn't agree (he could have told the twins what is going on but didn't), but where Harry is concerned, he is the parent.

While I don't personally disagree he is the parent, because Harry sees him as such, Siri should remember that in the decade he wasn't there, Harry had other adults in his life. Not all of them awful like the Dursleys.

This was interesting. Molly is clearly hurt for being cut out as one of Harry's parents, but she knows she can't claim Sirius is not Harry's guardian and that she is (for the reasons I cited above, he is the godfather and Harry sees him as such), so she tries to involve Dumbledore.

Up until now in this saga, every single adult and kid on the "good" side respects and obeys Dumbledore. With that card, she hopes to convince Sirius that her views on how Harry should be handled are valid, and that he is too young to know.

Remus is still concerned about Sirius and how he's handling... everything. With Sirius' explosive and impulsive personality, it is also possible that he's afraid Sirius will snap at Molly, which wouldn't be helpful at all on any level. Please do keep watching him, Moons.

This point of the argument doesn't bother me. While I see where Molly is coming from, I agree with Sirius. It doesn't really matter if Harry is too young. It is him that Voldemort is after, and he should be ready.

This stung. All of it, down to Harry's innocence. Do I think there's some projecting going around? Absolutely. Both Sirius and Harry see each other as James to an extent (though I think Harry projects more than Sirius does because Harry wants a father). I have no problem with Molly discussing this with Sirius, but she should do it privately.

To do it in front of everyone, especially the kids, and especially Harry was just uncalled for. Fortunately Harry is too young to understand the implications of that. But if he wasn't, she would have made him question whether Sirius really loves him or not, and that for a kid that really really wants a family would be heartbreaking.

You care so deeply about Harry's safety, Molly? Then why are you trying to scar him for life?

And again, completely unnecessary to bring James up to discuss that Sirius should be more mindful of how he's parenting Harry. She could have just said that. "Hey Sirius, I know you think Harry is a very capable wizard, which he is, but he is still a child. Maybe you should consider making things age-appropriate for him".

Her bringing Dumbledore up again to further her point is a bit manipulative. If Dumbledore didn't trust Sirius because he's rash, he wouldn't have made Grimmauld Palace the HQ, nor would he have allowed Sirius anywhere near Harry.

LOL Arthur doesn't want anything to do with this mess. He knows Molly has a good heart, but that she is taking it too far. And I can only imagine what facial expressions Sirius had to be making when Molly was bringing up extremely hurtful topics to him so carelessly that Remus spent two entire pages staring at him.

And I think this is why he took Sirius' side. Sirius is actually keeping himself in check really well despite what is being said for Harry's sake instead of taking the bait, which proves that he can actually control himself and act rationally. It proves that Sirius doesn't just want Harry involved in the order so he can go on missions with the kid and pretend he's James, but that he actually thought this through.

And here is where it all goes off the rails for good. Molly bringing Dumbledore up for the third time to try and make them bend to her will wouldn't be so bad, if she hadn't implied Sirius doesn't have Harry's best interests at heart.

That, on top of everything else that was already said was too much for Sirius, and so he bit back. Unfortunately, he's wrong. Yes, she shouldn't be trying to undermine his feelings for the boy, but the same can be said from him towards her.

Awful as the circumstances were, he wasn't there. And since he wasn't there, there were other adults that had to be, Molly being one. It's not fair to undermine her role in his life and her care for him anymore than it is for her to do it to him.

Now this was a big yikes from her. She's saying what I said above. That while he wasn't there, there were other adults that had to be. But she is doing so in a very cruel manner. It's not his fault that he wasn't there. He didn't do anything wrong, and he didn't deserve 12 to spend 12 years in jail. This said in this manner is completely uncalled for, and it got to him.

And that is most likely why Remus intervened. He could scold both of them for acting out in the entire convo, but he only scolds her. What she said cut deep, hence the "his face white".

So there we have it! The argument. Let's look at the fallout next.

[queencvbra]

this was her “oh shit 🥺❤️” moment

[gottagobuycheese]

“Well,” Crowley said, and shrugged. “Got you here, haven’t I? Seems like a stroke of luck to me.” He smiled, suddenly, a slightly lopsided grin.

Aziraphale, instinctively, smiled back. the many-venomed earth (Chapter 5): by @fremulon 

nothing like a fun murder mystery full of shenanigans and unnecessary feelings budding alliances set in 1930′s England to get the creative juices unstuck, am I right?  

[unbidden-yidden-deactivated20240]

Hello! Did you by chance see the article on Hey Alma that came out today (9/29) by about being anexvangelical Jewish convert and also an Atheist? People seem to be very angry about it, and see the person's actions as appropriative based on the way she talks about her reasons for conversion, but I (a Jew by birth myself) am genuinely having a hard time seeing the problem--to my eye it seems that if born-Jews can be Atheists, there is no reason a convert cannot do so as well, and still be genuinely a Jew and feel called to other parts of Jewish experience. I think some of the rage is that she came from an evangelical tradition that was appropriative, and part of her call to Judaism was that she wanted a faith community and went to Judaism because it felt familiar, comfortable. A lot of people seem to feel like if you're not converting out of spiritual desire, then why do it, and see her need for community and rootedness as better served elsewhere. But it seems to me like she's come as a genuine participant, learner, and seeker, if not of god exactly, and that all the rest is between her and her Rabbi. But people are REALLY mad about this, and if there is something I'm missing, i want to understand what it is. You often have really interesting and nuanced takes about these sorts of things (conversion, appropriation, the intersect of ex-christian-experiencing those things), so I'm just very curious to hear what you make of it, if you're willing to share.

Hi! Thank you for your kind words and confidence in my ability to unpack this... situation.

I assume this is the article you mean?

I think part of the problem here is not that you can't be atheistic or non-theistic as a ger - plenty of valid Reconstructionist gerim fit that description - and rather that this article was framed in a deliberately provocative presentation and tone. It's on Hey Alma so that's not promising.

There aren't comments on the article itself, so I checked Twitter and there's like, one or two comments defending her in a sea of criticism, much of it unnecessarily cruel. That said, I think the article I linked has been edited. This is what the article says as I read it now:

And this is a screencap I saw on Twitter:

The first one is fine (if somewhat confusing as to what her point is); the second one is big yikes. 😬

If this was changed, then it's very possible that other edits were made as well. Even just this one change from the original shows that the original piece very much has a "not like other girls" vibe to it that I don't appreciate.

All that said, Judaism is an orthopraxic religion, so I'm a lot more interested in what an atheist convert does and how she acts than I am in dissecting her exact beliefs beyond just "does she pass the sniff test?"

At the end of the day, she either had a valid conversion or not. If not, then she's not Jewish and Hey Alma should retract the piece and issue an apology. If she did have a valid conversion through an accepted Jewish movement, then the issue of whether she should have been converted or not lies solely with her conversion rabbi and beit din. They are the ones who act as gatekeepers for the community and it is their professional responsibility to decide if someone's motives are correct and if their behavior backs up their stated goals and motives. If they think a conversion is a bad idea, it is their job to work with the person to explain why it's not a good fit and to gauge sincerity if their reasons shift.

And look, there's a lot worse reasons to convert than a sense of belonging to the Jewish people and a search for community. There are people who try to convert solely to be able to speak about their anti-Zionism "as a Jew" rather than as a plain old vanilla gentile. There are also people who try to convert because they think it will bring them closer to Jesus and/or allow them to "connect to The Holy Land." There are people who try to convert because they think it will make them richer or give them better networking connections. There are people who grudgingly convert rather than break up with their Jewish fiance. There are people who try to convert because they think it will make them more interesting. There are people who try to convert so they can be "Jewitches" and deflect accusations of appropriation in their pagan practice.

There are bad reasons to convert, but I don't think this quite crosses that line.

I don't love it, and I don't like her original language about other gerim. Admittedly I am very much a theist and hope that everyone finds the right path for connecting to the Divine, whether that's from an overtly theistic perspective or through a deep appreciation for the vastness of the universe and our part in it. (There's also a conversation to be had about whether the strict binary of theist/atheist is even remotely coherent, but that's for another post.) But it's not up to me. It was up to her rabbi and beit din, who I trust exercised their professional judgment in making that determination.

So yeah, if someone feels like a member of the Tribe and takes the right steps to formally join, including commiting to living a life of Torah and mitzvot, even in the absence of a belief in G-d, then who am I to judge? A rabbi and beit din found this person worth converting, and absent other indications of intentional malice or deceit, she's a Jew and people need to chill out.

When did we start holding by Beit Shammai rather than Beit Hillel?

[joyfulexperiment]

Joyful Experiment, Day #1: "Anna" Study, charcoal

"So I'll walk through this night Stumbling blindly toward the light And do the next right thing."

Art diary (and excuses, explanations) under the cut.

All things considered, I think this is a good start to the month. It's not polished by any means, but it's better than usual. Let me tell you the story of "the usual."

I drew all the time as a kid, but primarily for the sake of telling stories. I didn't make "hang-on-the-fridge" art. I made comics and magazines and newspapers and storyboards and scenes for computer games. Plenty of OC's, but I stole my style from 80's cartoons.

(Not my art, but very much the style I was learning from. Credit to Peyo, image from "Johan and Peewit")

Around eleven we moved to another province, and my pencil crayons disappeared amongst the luggage for months. I focused on writing instead, and write my first little novel that year. And thus I became a writer, not an artist. I honed my author craft religiously throughout my teens, and if I ever drew, it was mindless doodling during family read alouds - doodles of people who still looked weirdly like Smurfs and Care Bears despite being human. I went through a fortnight of sketching historical costumes out of a book, mostly for the validation from my parents, who loved them, but little of the experience stayed.

Then, I took an art history course that required us to sketch ten acknowledged masterpieces of the past. Our professor was not particularly picky about skill, as there was no artistic instruction in the course, and it was only necessary to produce something that demonstrated you'd looked at some art.

Nonetheless, perfectionist that I am, I spent ages on every one of those sketches. I made grids with a hundred squares and painstakingly reproduced every detail of the "Starry Night" and the "Muse of Comedy" and the Michelangelo-inspired philosopher in Raphael's "School of Athens." Several audiobooks sketched themselves into those works in the process - for me Rudyard Kipling and E. Nesbit are still heavily associated with charcoal fingers.

By the time I turned in my portofolio, I had rather astounded myself, because, while the work was nowhere near excellent, it was mindblowingly better than anything I had produced before. Because I was actually looking at the shapes and using reference carefully. My professor told me that though my art was rough there was something there and I should pursue it.

Reader, I did not pursue it. I seldom do aught but doodle, and I am capable of drawing two poses: Standing up straight with hands at sides, or with hands behind back. I cannot eyeball proportions, even making a character hold out a hand reveals that I have never seen a human arm in my life, shading tends to look a bit like leprosy -and just - it's a mess. Here's a good example of what my art looks like when I'm actually trying:

(It wouldn't be too bad if the character in question wasn't supposed to be a grown man...)

Things turn out a little bit better if I use reference, but frankly, I'm afraid to use reference that isn't someone else's art. Drawing from life or photos is HARD, because someone else hasn't made the artistic choices for me, hasn't chosen which lines are needed and which can be left out. But, that kind of thing is generally frowned on as intellectual property theft unless you keep the art strictly to yourself.

I want to start drawing from photos. I want to start mixing and matching elements from multiple photos. I want to mix ideas out of my head with appropriate reference. So... I picked a middle ground for this starting sketch. I picked a Disney CGI movie, because it's a bit like drawing from a photo, but still with a number of artistic choices already clear on the screen. (Also Disney is so huge I don't mind doing studies of their screencaps and posting them the same way I would just finding an Indie artist and doing a study of their work.)

It's a stepping stone - I don't want to stay stuck doing this kind of thing, but it's what I need to get the ball rolling. I'm not especially a "Frozen" fan, but I do have a soft spot for Anna.

Disclosures: When I uploaded the sketches I arranged them to be closer together for a more pleasing look, and I increased the clarity by 25% to make up for the greying/fading my scanner causes. Otherwise, this is the art as it looks on the page. For the large image of Anna, I did permit myself to cheat by tracing rudimentary markings to show the distance from eye to eye, from top to bottom of the face, etc, but I tried to avoid any major tracing. (It's from a screencap, not from lineart so there wasn't much in the way of lines to trace anyway.)

[felassan]

Some DA trivia and dev commentary from Twitter

There’s a lot of different tweets, so I’m just pasting and linking to the source rather than screencapping them all or making several different posts or something. Post under cut for length.

User: Was dragon age 2 your favourite in the franchise?

David Gaider: DA2 was the project where my writing team was firing on all cylinders, and they wrote like the wind- because they had to! Second draft? Pfft. Plot reviews? Pfft. I was so proud of what we all accomplished in such a brief time. I didn't think it was possible. [source] DA2 is, however, also where the goal posts kept moving. Things kept getting cut, even while we worked. I had to write that dialogue where Orsino turned even if you sided with him, because his boss battle had been cut and there was no time to fix the plot. A real WTF moment. >:( [source]

Mike Rousseau: I remember bugging that! And then being told it wasn't a bug, and being so confused. Doing QA for DA2 was an experience. Trial by fire. [source]

DG: So I think it's safe to say DA2 is my favorite entry in the DA franchise and also the sort of thing I never want to live through ever again. Mixed feelings galore. [source]

User: (I personally blame whoever it was for ruining most romance arcs in other games for me; they don't live up to Fenris's romance storyline)

DG: I wrote Fenris, so uh - me, I guess? Or maybe his cinematic designer, who put in the puppy dog eyes. [source]

User: If DA2 had just been an expansion, do you think it would have been better received? There was a lot of great stuff in there, and I think my initial dislike of it was because of the zone reuse. If it hadn't needed to be a full game, would that issue not have arisen?

DG: Hard to say. It was either going to be an over-scoped expansion or an under-scoped sequel. If it had stayed an expansion, it might never have received the resources/push it DID get. [source]

User: I'd love to visit the universe where you had an extra year or so to work on it. You did a very good job as it stands, but it definitely had rough edges. Not just the writing team either. The whole game had hit and miss moments, that just a little more dev time could have fixed.

DG: On one hand, DA2 existed to fill a hole in the release schedule. More time was never in the cards. DA2 was originally planned as an expansion! On the other, if we had more time, would we have started doing that thing where we second guess/iterate ourselves into mediocrity? [shrug emoji] [source] 

Jennifer Hepler: This is what I love about DA2. Personally, I greatly prefer something that's rough and raw and sincere to something that's had all the soul polished out of it. Extra time would have helped for art and levels, but it would have lost something too. [source]

DG: Right? I think we could have used some time for peer reviews (and fewer cuts), but I think the rawness of the writing lent a certain spark that we usually polished out. [source]

JH: Definitely. I think the structure (more character-driven) and the tightness of the timeframe let each individual writer's voice really come through. Polish can be very homogenizing. [source]

DG: I should add I'm not, by any means, against iteration. Some iteration is good and necessary. The problem that BioWare often had is that we never knew when to stop. Like a goldfish, we would fill the space given to us by constantly re-iterating on things that were "good enough". [source]

Patrick Weekes: I appreciate your incredibly diplomatic use of the past tense on "had". :D [source]

User: DA2 was my gateway into the series and I’m so happy it is. I love the game the way that it is. It’s one of my favorites of all time. But I am also aware of everything that was said here. If it were remastered, do you think it would change?

DG: I'd be surprised if it was ever remastered. If it was, do you really think they'd change things? Do remasters do that? No idea. [source]

User: Both sides got undercut as I recall. Didn't that whole sequence also end with the mage leader embracing blood magic? It was very much "a plague on both your houses" moment, at least for me.

DG: Yep. Orsino was supposed to have his own version of Meredith's end battle, which only happened if you sided with the templars. That got cut, but the team still wanted to use the model we'd made for him. So... that happened. [source]

DG: I would personally say that DA2 is a fantastic game hidden under a mountain of compromises, cut corners, and tight deadlines. If you can see past all that, you'll see a fantastic game. I don't doubt, however, that it's very difficult for most to do that. [source]

PW: I love DAI with all my selfish "I worked on this" heart, but DA2's follower arcs and relationships are probably my favorite in the series. [source]

User: As I've expressed many times, I love the game, especially it's writing and characters but, for me, the most impressive aspect of it, in consideration of it's lack of time for drafts and revisions, is the 2nd act with Arishok.  What amazingly complex character and fantastic duel

User: Just played it again and I have to agree. Though he is bound by the harsher tenants of the Qun, he makes valid points about free marcher society. Though it is obvious that he and Hawke will come to blows eventually, the tension builds gradually and understandably

DG: Luke did such a fantastic job with the Arishok I found myself sometimes wishing the Qunari plot had just been THE plot. [source]

User: What do you think would have changed, story wise, if you had more time for DA2?

DG: I would have taken out that thing where Meredith gets the idol. It was forced on me because she needed to be "super-powered" with red lyrium for her final battle. Being "crazy", however, robbed her side of the mage/templar argument of any legitimacy. I hated hated hated that. [source]

User: I deeply lament that there wasn't/couldn't be some sort of DA2 equivalent of Throne of Bhaal's Ascension mod.

DG: I'd have done it, if DA2 had allowed for anything but the most rudimentary of modding. ;) [source]

User: I mean, and I think I understand where you were trying, but how much legitimacy did the Templars and her as top Templar have after they're keeping the mages locked up against their will in the old slave quarters? Feel free to not reply.

DG: I think it's the kind of discussion which requires nuance, and which discussions on the Internet are not prone to. [source]

User: Was a compromise that the quest lines don’t branch? It felt like it was supposed to be that way but then you end up in the same place later regardless of what you pick. Like I hoodwinked the templars so good to help the apostates escape but in Act II they were caught anyway.

DG: I remember us having a lot more branching in the initial planning yes. Most of this got trimmed out in the first or second wave of cuts, in an effort to not cut the plots altogether. [source]

DG: "If you could Zack Snyder DA2, what would you change?" Wow. I'm willing to bet Mark or Mike (or anyone else on the team) would give very different answers than me, but it's enough to give a sober man pause, because that was THE Project of Multiple Regrets. [source] I mean, it's the most hypothetical of hypotheticals. It's never gonna happen. I wouldn't be surprised if EA considered DA2 its embarrassing red-headed stepchild. We'd also need to ignore that in many ways DA2 was as good as it was bad BECAUSE of how it was made. But that aside? [source] First, either restore the progressive changes to Kirkwall we'd planned over the passing of in-game years or reduce the time between acts to months instead of years... which, in hindsight, probably should have been done as soon as the progressive stuff was cut. [source] I'm sure you're like "get rid of repeated levels!" ...but I don't care about that. All I wanted was for Kirkwall to feel like a bigger city. Way more crowded. More alive! Fewer blood mages. [source] I'd want to restore the plot where a mage Hawke came THIS close to becoming an abomination. An entire story spent trapped in one's own head while trapped on the edge of possession. Why? Because Hawke is the only mage who apparently never struggles with this. It was a hard cut. [source]

User: I would LOVE to hear more details about this! I don’t suppose there’s any chance of a short story?

DG: I don't even remember the details of the story, sorry. There was a fight, and you caught the bad guy and then realized none of it was real and woke up idk [source]

DG: I'd want to restore all those alternate lines we cut, meaning people forget they'd met you. Or that they knew you were a mage. Or, oh god, that maybe they'd romanced you in DAO. So much carnage. [source] I'd want to restore the Act 3 plots we cut only because they were worked on too late, but which would have made the buildup to the mage/templar clash less sudden. Though I don't remember what they were, now. Some never got beyond being index cards posted on the wall. [grimace emoji] [source] As I mentioned elsewhere, I'd want to restore Orsino's end battle so he wouldn't need to turn on you even if you sided with him. And I'd want an end fight with the templars that didn't require Meredith to have red lyrium and go full Tetsuo. [source] Heck, maybe an end decision where you sided with neither the mages nor the templars. Because it certainly ended up feeling like you could brand both sides as batshit pretty legitimately, no? That was never planned, tho. No idea how to make that feel like an actual path atm. [source] Maybe an option to go "umm, Anders... what are you DOING?" 👀 [source] And, of course, a Varric romance, because Mary took that "slimy car salesman" character we'd planned and did the impossible with him. I can feel Mary glaring at me for even suggesting this, tho. [source] Lastly, the original expanded opening to the game which allowed you to spend time with Bethany and Carver BEFORE the darkspawn attacked. And, um, that's about it off the top of my head. Zack Snyder, WHAT PANDORA'S BOX HAVE YOU OPENED. [source] Shit, I remembered two more things: 1) Restore the "Varric exaggerates the heck out of the story" at the beginning of every Act, until Cassandra calls him on it. Yes, that was a thing. 2) Make DA: Exodus. Yes, I am still bitter. [source] God damn it, I meant "Make DA: Exalted March". The DA2 expansion, NOT Exodus since that was DA2's original name and makes no sense. Because the expansion ended with Varric dying, and that will always be on my "things left undone" list. [source]

User: Whaaaat?

DG: Well, you know that scene in Wrath of Khan where Spock goes into the dilithium chamber because he's a Vulcan? Well, imagine that but with Varric and red lyrium and because he's a dwarf. ;) [source]

John Epler: I distinctly remember referencing the bit from MGS4 where you crawl through the microwave corridor in the split screen, while cinematic battle rages on the other half. [source]

DG: It would have been glorious, John. Glorious. [source]

JE: I don't think I've ever been so certain what a shot should look like as I did Hawke coming in and finding Varric in the broken throne, just like when he was telling Cassandra his story. [source]

DG: It would have come full circle! Auggghh, it still kills me. [source]

User: Lord, you folks are a little too good at this.

JE: The true secret behind videogame narrative is knowing how to make yourself seem a lot more clever than you actually are. [source] 'Oh, we TOTALLY planned that.' [source]

User: Ok, this thread [the DA2 regrets thread, which is the big chunks above] but Inquisition.

DG: My regrets about Inquisition are, more or less, the normal kind. Nothing so dramatic, I'm afraid. [source]

User: You can keep your Varric romance, I want a Flemeth romance goddamnit!

DG: I would allow for one flirt option, and then a recording of Kate Mulgrew laughing for three minutes straight. [source]

User: I had a hypothesis about the repetitive caves in DA2. They're repetitive because it's Varric telling the story and he didn't consider them important.  They're like sets in a play.  (Okay, I really suspect it was a time/money/resources thing but I like my fake explanation better.)

DG: Hang a lampshade on it, maybe? Cassandra: "But that's the exact cave you were in last time?" Varric: "Whatever. They all look the same, I'm not THAT kind of dwarf. Can we move on?" [source]

User: that makes sense, hypothetically to make Varric romanceable and keep his arc—that had to happen for the main plot—I imagine you would have to make double the content (or more)? which would've been a tall order given the time/budget constraints the game was under

DG: Right. When it comes to "romance arc" vs. "follower story arc", we generally only had time to do one or the other. Never both. Romancing Varric would have meant not getting the story of his that you did. [source]

Mary Kirby: The one exaggeration I really, REALLY wanted, that we never got to do was Varric narrating his own death scene with Hawke weeping over him, then cutting to Cassandra's pissed off glaring at him. [source]

DG: Haha! The one I wanted was Varric's plot where he takes on the baddies single-handedly, sliding across the floor like Jet Lee, action movie-style, until finally Cassandra gets irritated and he has to admit Hawke & the rest of the party showed up to help. [source]

MK: We did that one! (He didn't do any Jet Lee moves, though.) Jepler gave him letterboxing to get The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly showdown vibes while he shot a ton of mooks single-handed. [source]

DG: Wow. Shows how much I remember. [source]

JE: I found it! I remember seeing this sequence as my treat for doing a bunch of much more challenging work. It was fun to see how far I could push our limited library of animations. [link] [source]

DG: Heh awesome. I could have sworn it was cut, honestly. I think I was even in that meeting. [source]

User: no disrespect but that’s surprising and rich of Mary “Hard in Hightown” Kirby to think DA2 shouldn’t have had a Varric romance when she wrote an entire book of Varric’s self-insert character pining over his Hawke insert character… HIH is the reason we had VHawke Summer 2018

DG: I can't *really* speak for Mary, or how she feels about it now compared to back then. I only know how she felt about it back then, and I'm not sure it was as much the concept of the romance but that Varric's entire story would be bent to "romance arc" ...a very different thing. [source]

JH: I remember pushing to have the first DLC start with Hawke having an option to ask Varric, "Did you tell Cassandra about us?" and if you picked it, Varric would answer, "Of course not, baby. I told her you were sleeping with X..." and then proceed as if you had had a full romance. [source]

DG: I still wonder how that would have gone over. x) [source]

JE: Okay, one more DA2 thing. Putting together the cinematics for this scene was a blast. [link] [source]

MK: These lines are my greatest legacy. I want "Make sure the world knows I died... at Chateau Haine!" inscribed on my tombstone. [source]

JE: I was so glad no one said 'no' to the crane shot. [source]

MK: It needs that crane shot. It's the perfect icing on that cake made from solid cheese. [source]

DG: The designers were all "we need more combat" and I think we were all "I think you underestimate just HOW interesting we can make this dinner party". [source]

JE: And finally. I think @SherylChee wrote the one-liner. I think we had a collection of like, 20. [link] [source]

Sheryl Chee: Yeah! Something like that! I remember submitted a whole bunch and Frank said you only needed one. Wish I'd kept the other fifteen. [source]

JE: A random chooser where, each time through the scene, you get a different one-liner. [source]

JE: DA2 is the project I'm the proudest of. I also absolutely get that it didn't land for a lot of people. But I don't think it's inaccurate to say that, in a lot of ways, DA2 defined my career. [source]  Everyone spent a year working at their maximum ability. I was a fresh cinematic designer and was given all of Varric's content, as well as the Act 1 Finale mission. It was a lot for someone who had been doing the Cinematics thing for literally 6 months. [source]  There's some stuff in there I can't look at without wincing. And there's some stuff I'm genuinely proud of. Not to mention, it was my introduction to most of the writing team. Several of whom I'm still working with today! Albeit in a different capacity [source] Also, weirdly, one of my most enduring memories of Dragon Age 2 is how much Bad Company 2 we'd play at lunch. It was a LOT. [source] Every game I've worked on has a game I played attached to it. ME2 is Borderlands. DA2 is Bad Company 2. DAI is DayZ. I, hmm. There's a progression there. I don't know how I feel about it. [source]

User: Is DA4 going to be tarkov then?

JE: I've kind of churned out of Tarkov for now. Probably Hunt Showdown, at least right now. [source]

User: I think people also don't take nuance into consideration -- like I FULLY acknowledge the flaws in my favorite games and will openly criticize them, but that doesn't mean they're not my favorite games anymore??? You can like and thing and still be critical of it.

JE: A lot of my favourite shit is deeply flawed! I acknowledge it and I think it's interesting to dissect the flaws. [source]

User: I still wish Justice was an actual character in DA2 rather than a plot point.

DG: There was a moment during DAI where we *almost* put in you running into Justice with the Grey Wardens, and he's all "Kirkwall? I never went to Kirkwall" [source]

User: Does that imply that Justice was shoehorned in to DA2?

DG: Nah, it was an in-joke where we thought it'd be fun to suggest that "Justice" was simply some demon that tricked Anders in DA2. Wooo those tricky demons! We didn't do it, though. [source]

User: [about templars]  except, I don't think it had very much legitimacy to begin with. keep in mind, we interact with other characters with the same argument. The one that comes to mind is Cullen, a sane templar in power. The templar's side of the argument is inherently flawed.

DG: I don't doubt that many people agree with you, and yet people can and do argue on behalf of the templars as well. My place isn't to pick a side, but to provide evidence that players can interpret for themselves [source]

User: Can you shed some light for us on how DA was able to do multiple same-sex romance options for different genders but the Mass Effect team treated them like the plague? What process existed for your team that just wasn't their for the other tentpole franchise?

DG: Different people making the decisions, almost different cultures. I don't know what it's like now, but for many years the Mass Effect team and the Dragon Age team were almost like two different studios working within the same building. [source]

User: It truly boggles the mind. Kudos for doing demonstrably better on consistent queer representation than the ME teams. Y'all never needed us to make petitions to try to get the studio's attention and ask them to do better by us. That's the fight we're once again embroiled in now.

DG: Honestly, I don't feel like tut-tutting the Mass Effect team. They did their part, and if they were a bit later to the show than the DA team they certainly did more than almost every other game out there -- and willingly. [source]

Updates begin here

User: So what was the reason for naming Dragon age 2 "Dragon age II" and not using a subtitle?

DG: As I recall, that was purely a publisher decision. I think they wanted to avoid the impression it was an expansion. [source]

User: Is there no chance of ever remaking DA2 under better circumstances? -Somehow remove the repetitiveness of gameplay by making changes and updating the tech and adding much more to the storyline. It could almost be a new very exciting game.

DG: I'd say there's zero chance of that. Let's keep our hopes up for the next DA title instead. [source]

User: I am a little confused here, help me out here please! How exactly was the cut boss battle with Orsino supposed to work out? How it would've kept him from turning against the player?

DG: It means that, if you sided with the templars, the entire boss bottle at the end would have been against Orsino and the mages. No fight against Meredith. The end decision would have been more divergent. [source]

User: I do remember that one of the reasons going around for that, was that resources were going to the transition to Frostbite. I'm still not fully sold on that having been a good choice. I felt that more time should have been given for that transition considering it was made for FPSs

DG: We didn't transition to Frostbite until DAI. Given our time frame for DA2, I don't think we *could* have transitioned to a new engine. [source]

User: Since your talking about the what could have been for DA2. Could you say what your script was for Anthem? Cause I remember reading that you wrote the plot on that game.

DG: I created a setting for Anthem and scripted out a plot - but, as I understand it, almost none of that ended up being used. So it's a bit pointless to talk about what I'd planned, as that'd be for some completely different type of game. [source]

User: [in reference to the exchange above where DG said “Being "crazy", however, robbed her side of the mage/templar argument of any legitimacy. I hated hated hated that.” re: Meredith] except, I don't think it had very much legitimacy to begin with. keep in mind, we interact with other characters with the same argument. The one that comes to mind is Cullen, a sane templar in power. The templar's side of the argument is inherently flawed.

DG: I don't doubt that many people agree with you, and yet people can and do argue on behalf of the templars as well. My place isn't to pick a side, but to provide evidence that players can interpret for themselves. [source]

If I missed a tweet, got the wrong source link or included a tweet twice, feel free to let me know and I’ll correct.

Edit / Update: Post update 22nd April