#They had an opportunity to explain

[scribe-of-hael]

BUT WHY THOUGH ?! I JUST WANTED TO SEE MY SPIDER BOY OK

I'm really disappointed to know that 2 major scenes would have explained alot. Having tarantulas instead of Soundwave would make sense SOUNDWAVE IS STILL UPSET and maybe didn't wanna help. Now I have no idea the status of Soundwave for whats gonna be set up for next season cause all points seem to be at Soundwave still being upset and not being ok with any of this.

His lack of presence at the end of the season would have made sense cause mayne he'd be the next antagonist. Everything has kinda pointed to that. Including when he was captured and had ravage pop out.

Which btw WAS explained in another deleted scene

Kitty ravage (she/her) and Soundwave!! She has a purpose and it explained how and why she popped out. It also gave staracream more time to show "yeah star is still a schemer and not the best guy" not taking away from his trauma but it is starscream we are talking about. Making his character a bit more established and his moment with Hashtag more earned. Given if I had no prior idea to who staracream is , I'd have no idea why ppl domt like staravream and just assumed he was bad.

Also Soundwave character stuff with ravage. The story board arits sound itvwas a good choice to cut it since it took attention away from the episode 14. But??? It didn't???? Like it explained how Shockwave got out, why ravage popped out and more of Starscream's character. I dont know why they didn't go with it because it makes Soundwave and Ravage whole thing so purposeless and makes no sense.

I'm a bit frustrated with it all. It was still amazing. First season. Still a wonderful show. But makes no sense to cut these things out when it laid a better understanding and it left things in that now have no purpose being there and probs won't be mentioned of expanded upon. Because no there is no point to. We're past that point.

[shoccolat]

okay but this dialogue will always make me crazy because like???

kiryu????

that's 100% flirting.

"guess i'll be stuck out in the cold 🥺 wanna come warm me up? 😏" LIKE?? KIRYU!

[makedonsgriva]

People who say Bingqiu is forced not only do not have basic reading comprehension skills, they are also clueless about being queer in a society that hates everyone who is queer. They fail to understand the nuances of repressing your identity and straight up denying it to the point that that denial becomes your identity. These people will deny the acceptance and existence of queer people who do not have the support to be queer and were never given the opportunity to safely explore their sexuality and queer people who do not fit the conventional standards of being queer. These people do not understand the depths of Shen Qingqiu’s character of a repressed queer man who has never had the outlet of expressing himself and his emotions and these people cannot be trusted with novels who have unreliable as fuck narrators.

[plushie-lovey]

FINALLY!! At long last, I've gotten my hands on a Pumpkin Kitty, after a whole year of wanting and waiting.

Her name is Latte! (Short for Miss Pumpkin Spice Latte) You can also call her Miss Spice!

[angelbitezzz]

Goofy nerd in slutty white tank top save me...save me goofy nerd in slutty white tank top

[fleshandwires]

she's so important to me (crying sobbing)

[wildsaltair]

husband? husband???

[not-the-coffee-machine4]

will forever amuse me that the beautiful, romantic, heartbreaking, song written in first person about Freddie being sad about his break up with Joe Fanelli was written by *checks notes* Brian May

[shannonsketches]

I just think Toei gives Vegeta a lot of shit for a guy who's maintained his rank within the top ten most powerful beings in the mortal realm since he was like five years old.

[iguessitsjustme]

Ter stop talking over and making decisions for Dee challenge 2k24. Y'all ain't even friends at this point you're just the annoying coworker go away

[ruvviks]

"Colton and Akiyama have a long and rich history, having worked together for Arasaka since their early twenties— Colton as director of the SERPENT projects and Head of Special Programs, and Akiyama as recruiter and quality control manager across all of the corporation's Night City facilities. The two disliked each other from the start and from an outsider's perspective only rarely saw eye to eye; but if anything their rivalry was a challenge, a way to keep each other sharp, and one of the only ways they could have some fun in the megacorporation's grasp. Years later, the two reunite at Club Bodytalk following the incident in spaceship Elysium and the fall of Cobra Cybernetics. Surrounded by the victims of the projects they once ran, their heads are forcibly turned into the direction of their past mistakes— their guilt connects them and it forges a bond of understanding they can't get with anyone else, and while they cannot erase their past they can ensure that no one else ever has to go through any of that again." ↳ andy belongs to @mojaves, template here [x]

taglist (opt in/out)

@shellibisshe, @florbelles, @ncytiri, @roseeway, @stars-of-the-heart;

@lestatlioncunt, @katsigian, @radioactiveshitstorm, @estevnys, @adelaidedrubman;

@celticwoman, @rindemption, @carlosoliveiraa, @noirapocalypto, @dickytwister;

@killerspinal, @euryalex, @ri-a-rose, @velocitic, @thedeadthree;

@kanos, @swordcoasts, @ordinarymaine, @claudiawolf

[victorluvsalice]

Merry Christmas Ace!

@ace-of-tales You asked for Aziraphale and Crowley from Good Omens visiting Secundus, as you thought Aziraphale in particular would like all the inventions there...and then I mentioned him getting a taste of the March Hare's tarts, and you were like "YES THAT." XD So here that is! Hope you like!

--

“Oh, these – these are absolutely amazing! Crowley, you have to try some!”

Alice did her best to stifle a laugh as she watched one half of the newest pair at the tea table go to absolute town on the March Hare’s tarts. “I take it you’re pleased with the vittles on offer?” she commented, leaning on her elbow.

“I think it’s safe to say this is now his favorite part of our trip here,” Crowley replied, grinning at his partner over an untouched cup of tea. “Always been a bit weak for good food, haven’t you?”

Aziraphale shot him a playfully-scolding look. “It’s your fault,” he declared once his mouth was empty. “You’re the one who introduced me to it.”

“Yessss,” Crowley said, smirking back. “Best bit of temptation I ever did.”

Aziraphale chuckled. “I won’t argue with that.” He grinned over at the March Hare. “Genuinely, these are absolutely fantastic. I thought Jane Austen’s tarts were delectable, but these – ! Oh, you can simply taste the love.”

“I make every batch with as much love – and strawberries – as I can fit in them,” March said, beaming back and bouncing in his chair. “Delighted to hear they pass muster! Though not mustard. That’d be horrible.”

“It would,” Victor agreed with a little laugh.

“Oh, indeed – but instead, now you can tell everyone who comes by that your tarts are truly heavenly,” Richard added, giving March a nudge and a theatrical wink.

“Oh, I’m sure they’re much better than that,” Crowley said, picking up a tart and examining it. “You lot are a lot more – creative than Heaven or Hell. Part of the reason Aziraphale and I were so keen on sticking around on Earth – that and avoiding all the nonsense Upstairs and Down. Humans make some fascinating things, when they put their minds to it.”

“I’m a hare,” March pointed out, pulling up his ears for emphasis.

“I think he’s using ‘human’ to mean sapient creatures as a whole,” Alice said, patting his head. “After all, it doesn’t sound like they have anything like you, Dormy, or Cheshire where they come from.”

“Not that I’ve seen – our world is quite sadly lacking in intelligent animals with stupendous baking skills,” Aziraphale confirmed. “I don’t believe we have anyone quite like your ‘Touched’ either, which is a shame. Some of the inventions you have around here are fantastic – that clock tower, for instance, with the giant bird coming out of it on the hour. Most amusing!”

“Oh, Cuckoo Ben? That nearly scared the life out of me when I first heard it go off,” Victor admitted, grinning. “But it is funny, once you get used to it.”

“Me, I liked that motorized bicycle we saw the other day,” Crowley said, with a sharp-toothed grin. “The one that fellow was bragging could outrun any horse. Reminded me of the Bentley, the way he was zipping around. I could something like that while we’re in the city. Get us places a lot faster than that carriage we rented.”

“I’m – I’m rather content with the speed at which our horses move,” Aziraphale said, grinning nervously. “And that demonstration did end with the inventor going straight into a wall. I had to, ah, assist slightly in making sure he didn’t end up in the morgue.”

“I noticed – though I don’t know if you really had to,” Crowley pointed out. “Based on what we’ve heard, these folks could have just shocked him back again.” He frowned, turning his tart over in his hands. “Which – does feel like it should be causing more of a fuss on both our ends. Hell doesn’t like a sinner escaping.”

“And Heaven would be rather cross about the population going down,” Aziraphale agreed. “But I don’t know much about the local theology.”

“We’re still trying to figure that out ourselves,” Richard told them. “The recently undeceased don’t tend to remember much about their time on the other side. What little we’ve gotten out of them makes it sound like everybody gets chucked into a waiting room first.”

“Mmm – meaning the local versions of Heaven and Hell might have already compensated for our propensity for bring people back to life by not letting anyone in until they’re sure they’re dead,” Alice added.

“Maybe,” Crowley shrugged, and took an experimental bite of tart. “Not like I’m going to – oh.”

He stopped, blinking behind his sunglasses. “Oh wow,” he continued, sounding lightly stunned. “This is good.”

“What did I tell you?” Aziraphale chuckled. “Congratulations Mr. Hare – you’ve won over the agents of both Heaven and Hell with your cookery.”

“Excellent – though it does feel like those should cancel each other out,” March noted, rubbing his chin. “Guess we won’t know until I die, though! And get past the waiting room.”

“Which hopefully won’t be for a long, long time,” Alice said, patting his head. “Anyway – is there anything else you two wanted to see while you’re visiting?

“Well...” Aziraphale grinned. “I did hear something about a restaurant where the food literally rains down from the sky...”

[elisgeorge]

Ok but what if Regina had been shown the Swan pendant when Tinkerbell showed her her true love. And then when they get to Neverland, Tinkerbell is PISSED because she knows Regina spent years looking for Emma before she became the Evil Queen and now Emma is RIGHT THERE and she's, what, ogling a pirate?

[avirael]

FFxivWrite 2024

Day 29 - Keepsake

They attacked at night. When everyone was asleep, when no one expected it. The women and children they could have easily subdued as soon as they were out of side of the settlement. But the men? The men may have been naive and tired but they also were angry from all the years they spent on the run and then in the hellhole of a town that had been Little Ala Mhigo.

They were afraid the men would give them trouble, so of course - like the cowards they were - they attacked them when they least expected it. In their sleep with spears pointed at their faces or blades at their throats. Torn from their dreams of a better future in the blink of an eye. The motivation and promises - it had all been a devious game of lies from the very beginning.

A’viloh was awoken by a sharp scream. And so was Laqa who had slept close beside him, arms wrapped around each other to keep one another warm in this cold winter night. Startled by the horrible scream A‘viloh had tried to sit up but Laqa had instinctively held him back and pulled him closer, trying to protect him.

„Shhh…“, he had whispered almost silently and signaled for A‘viloh to stay still. Laqa did not move but his eyes and ears scanned their environment. With one hand he steadied himself on the ground while the other reached for the dagger at his belt. Then as one of the armed men stepped closer, still thinking them asleep, Laqa leapt up like a snake that had waited for the right moment to strike.

A‘viloh, still with no clue what was happening at all, turned around to get a better look at the small makeshift camp they had set up for the night. Shocked he pressed a hand to his mouth, to keep himself from screaming as he saw the chaos unfolding in front of him.

He did not immediately recognise the people attacking them as the same ones who had promised to bring them into the city and give them work there, so they wouldn’t have to live in one of the slums outside of Ul‘dah’s gates. But he recognised the people that were pressed to the ground crying and screaming, while armed men tied them up. He recognised an ala mhigan man that had reached for his sword and tried to fight the attackers off, only to be hopelessly outnumbered. He was too proud to give up and threw all he had at his opponents, only to be struck down by a sword striking him from behind.

With a sudden burst of panic A‘viloh‘s eyes searched for Laqa, finding him only a few yalms away, still fighting against one of the men. Swiftly he swung his dagger at his opponent but his range just wasn’t good enough, at least fighting against a much taller enemy with a sword. Defensively he leapt back a little as the sword swung down towards him, trying to block the hit with his dagger. It slowed down the blow but his opponent was a lot stronger than him and kept pushing. Ilm by ilm the blade moved closer to his face and A‘viloh felt too petrified to do anything but watch in horror.

Then with an angry growl Laqa brought up his other hand, and grabbed the sharp blade of the sword, pushing against it with both arms, to keep the man at a distance. For a moment this duel of strength almost seemed equal, if not for the blood dripping off of Laqa‘s hand and running down his opponent’s sword. Then suddenly another man stepped closer and used the pommel of his weapon to hit Laqa against the side of his head.

With a scared shriek A‘viloh rushed forward to the other Miqo’te, who had instantly collapsed to the ground and now lay there unconscious. Protectively A‘viloh threw his body over Laqa‘s and, lacking any other means of denfense, hissed at the attackers. But the two men simply laughed about such a weak attempt of resistance. Roughly one of them grabbed A‘viloh by his arms and pulled him away, and in no time both of them had their hands tied up just like all the other innocent people who had traveled with them.

By the time the attackers had secured all of them and checked everyone for hidden weapons the sun already began to rise. A‘viloh shivered, lying curled up by Laqa‘s side, as the other Miqo’te slowly regained his consciousness and groaned in pain.

„Laqa!“, A‘viloh exclaimed silently and helped him sit up as good as he could with both his own hands tied up too.

„Vi?…“, the other Miqo’te said dazed. „Are you alright?“

A‘viloh nodded and looked down at Laqa’s tied wrists with worry. „Better than you at least…“

With a quiet hiss of pain Laqa unfurled his hand and looked at the deep red cut inside his palm. Carefully he tried to move his fingers, which fortunately still worked, but at the same time the movement made the wound start bleeding again.

„Hold still!“, A’viloh demanded and with his tied up hands needed a moment to awkwardly peel a soft deep-green scarf from his own neck. „Let me bandage that up.“

But Laqa pulled back his palm, knowing fully well how important that piece of clothing was to A‘viloh - the only keepsake he had of his dead mother. „No! Not with this! It will only get dirty…“

With a sad smile A‘viloh nodded, took Laqa’s hand and pulled it closer again. „It will, but this is more important. The cut will only keep on bleeding otherwise and you shouldn’t get dust and sand into it. I can try to clean the scarf if we make it out of this alive, but I cannot heal your hand…“

„I am so sorry…“, Laqa murmured while A‘viloh bandaged his hand but it sounded like more than just an apology for ruining A’viloh’s precious scarf.

„It‘s not your fault…“, A’viloh insisted, wrapping the thin, light fabric around Laqa‘s hand a few times, before making a knot and wrapping the rest of it around his lower arm.

With a guilty expression Laqa looked to the ground and stayed silent. Still slightly shaking, A‘viloh shifted to sit closely beside him and rested his head on Laqa‘s shoulder. With a sigh the blonde Miqo’te tilted his head to rest on A’viloh’s. „I am sorry, Vi… You have to be so scared...“

„I am.“, A‘viloh admitted and closed his eyes. „But I was more scared about you…“

[mademoiselle-cookie]

Bariss as a terrorist is not problematic just because a good and kind character get assasinated to prop up the MC without any preparation, or bc we lost a good example of a good Master-Padawan relationship, hence giving ammunition to anti-jedi. It’s also, and mostly, because of racism. 

The Mirialans are Muslim-coded, they are all women who wear the veil. It doesn't come out of nowhere if fans think that. In the West, if we think “veiled women”, we think Muslims. If the news talks about the problem of the veil, they are talking about the Muslim veil, not the Hindu veil, not the Amish veil, not the Christian veil, and no one hearing them will think for a second that they are talking about things other than the veil Muslim. The veil is a very characteristic element of Muslims for an average person.

(In the movies, Luminara and Bariss aren't even played by white actresses, so we can't say it's 'just a veil, nothing deeper behind'.)

The West has a history with Muslims and terrorism. 9/11 still has an impact today, even more so during the making of TCW. So using a veiled woman as a terrorist is clumsy at best, and not having bad intentions doesn’t erase the impact this representation has. 

This reinforces the stereotype of the Muslim terrorist used to harass and oppress members of this religion. I don’t make this “shortcut” between Bariss Muslim-coded and terrorism because I think all Muslims are terrorists. I do it because I live in a country where the veil is considered a symbol of evil, where women who wear it are insulted and attacked, where laws are created to prohibit them from displaying their religion and/or culture.

The fact that the writers chose Bariss to play this role is certainly intellectual laziness, but they could, and should, have thought about what that entailed. “Think before you act” is not a lesson that only applies to Jedi.

Never heard of ‘queer-coded villains’? This is when authors attribute traits associated with queer people to bad guys, hence demonizing these traits. Did these authors think their villains were queer? In the vast majority of cases, no. They simply used traits often associated with villains to emphasize the evil side of theirs without thinking more than that. The absence of bad intentions does not cancel out the damage it causes.

And all this reflection is based on the principle that the parallel between the Mirialans and the Muslims is involuntary. I haven't seen a quote from LucasFilm saying anything, but I find it hard to believe. The Jedi were created to be extremely diverse, in direct opposition to the Empire made up of mostly old white human men, and this is not the first time that Lucas has drawn inspiration from cultures and religions existing in our world, especially Arab populations. There is no reason to think that he did not intentionally use Muslims to create Bariss and Luminara.

The most absurd thing is to think that LucasFilm is incapable of being racist. These are the same people who whitewashed the clones, who used Arab populations as very clear inspiration for a group of violent slavers who communicate only through pig squeals and will be massacred by a white man without any real consequences. The same people who, after being acquired by Disney, will replace a black character with his white neo-Nazi abuser in his role as main character/love interest, who will whitewash an already animated character, who will create clones superior to the others who are incidentally more white, who will cast a white actress for a character who clearly had Arab features in animation.

So no, we don’t have a problem with Bariss being Muslim-coded bc we think Muslims are terrorists, but bc the stereotype of Muslims being terrorists exists and is extremely harmful to the Muslim community. 

If you can’t see that, check your own bias and bigotry. 

[hitracks]

been thinking about how if ghost schlatt was normaler and how that would’ve gone. Drags my hand down my face . Lord Above help me