#This is extremely Irish. Like to the point it’s not even funny

[hearts4pearlescentmoon]

I would like to add to this!

my uncle is gay and he’s known it for a very long time, he says since he was like 10-ish in the early 80’s. My grandmother is a very religious woman. While she doesn’t go to church much anymore she still prays the rosary every night and day.

She was born in the mid 50s and raised 4 children while being a paperboy and cooking for a family of six every night. My grandmother also had to deal with a very strict father and basically raising her younger sister (from what I heard their mother wasn’t very attentive. Like she was there but not always or when needed.) now of corse my grandfather help a lot with these things when he could, he worked a very long tiring job but was there for his kids whenever possible. My point is that my grandparents worked very hard in uncertain times and they were dead set on caring for their kids while also leaving behind a legacy I could never dream of.

when my uncle was in his 20s he had already came out to my mom and it turned out well. She was in catholic school and was thought to love thy neighbor and all that (I’ve never been to catholic school I just did ccd for a few years so sorry if this isn’t really that accurate) Though he was nervous to come out to my grandmother as said, she was very religious and he didn’t know how she would take to it. He waited till his last year of college to come out. Do you wanna know what my grandmother said when he came out? “Well I’m Irish” this is in the early 90s and in a very small suburban Christian/catholic town where everyone knew everyone and all that. they had this whole heartfelt chat afterwards that I won’t go into detail with (partly because I don’t remember the story lol)

”Well I’m Irish” is (imo) one of the best was to respond to that. It’s like “yeah ok, it’s whatever, your still my son and I love you. Nothing will ever change that.” my grandfather had a similar response but he was just happy to see his kid in college and doing alright.

My 90yr old Irish Catholic grandpa doesn’t miss with my gender. He’s never gotten my name wrong, or my pronouns, never even faltered over it.

It’s all so natural too: son, big man, young man…

We’ve never talked about it. He’s the only one who hasn’t pushed for details. He just accepted it and carried on because it’s not a huge deal.

It’s so comforting.

[millieisawriter]

okay guys <33 requests keep coming in (just got one for arthur/dutch x brothel worker reader,) and i love that but for some reason (i'm still a lil sick, woke up with a terrible headache) writing has been going slow :( so! not wanting to leave y'all dry i've prepared something like this :)

headcannons: RDR2 men as dads

including: arthur, javier, charles, sean, lenny

Arthur Morgan

considering his past experiences, he'd feel so grateful to have another chance at having family

this time he would leave the outlaw life for his family, now he knows being two things at once, a criminal and a good father, doesn't work

tries to watch his language around the kid, and succeeds most of the time

the most protective dad ever, like he'd fr team up with the kid against you even if you're trying to scold the kid for something she/he did

when i say protective i mean it – if the kid coughs he's rushing her/him to the nearest doctor

he sucks at fishing, but he would take the kid fishing if she/he likes it

if the kid wants a dog, arthur is getting a dog for her/him immediately

would let the kid doodle in his journal

bedtime stories for the kid that are literally about the gang's past, excluding the darker parts of the story

Javier Escuella

writes his own lullabies for the kid

encourages any form of creativity like playing an instrument, singing, dancing

his kid would be the best dressed kid around, he's always getting the prettiest clothes for her/him and teaching about the importance of a clean appearance

but the kid would think it's extremely funny to run from him whenever he's trying to get them to wear a new shiny pair of boots, they just love to rebel against him

tries to watch his language around the kid, nearly failing often like "mierrrr–coles"

the kid would think spanish is harder than english, so whenever javier tried to teach her/him his language, the kid would get frustrated at some point and just scream gibberish

then javier would pick random days where he speaks only spanish to the kid. she/he might be reluctant to answer in spanish, but she/he understands the language well. however, javier will NOT reply until the kid speaks spanish

Charles Smith

teaching the kid about how important it is to respect the nature and the land

would make any toy the kid asks for by hand

i think that's obvious, but he would take the kid hunting when they're old enough

teaching the kid to take care of injured animals, that's how a rabbit ended up living in the house ("temporarily" at first)

would be so happy to let the kid braid his hair or put flowers in it, or if the kid made a flowercrown for him

most calm dad ever, he never gets angry at his kid. he doesn't even need to yell, one look is enough for the kid to stop whatever nonsense they're doing

doesn't panic as long as the kid isn't in a lot of pain. like maybe the kid will fall or get a scrape or a little cut, and charles would be just like "you're fine, walk it off" but he'd say it gently

good at playing hide and seek, many times the kid would just give up searching for him or throw a tantrum because charles found her/him so quick

Sean MacGuire

terrible influence, you couldn't have picked a worse father for your kids

doesn't bother to watch his language around the kid at all, so even if the kid doesn't pick up his accent, they would swear in sean's irish accent

allows his kid to stay up late, eat sweets instead of a normal meal, encourages mischevious behavior

would teach the kid to gamble

his kid is literally his partner in crime, sean would teach her/him how to silently steal from people's pockets or how to pick a lock

getting a mannequin, putting a jacket with many pockets on it, wrapping it in things that make noise like little bells on a string, and telling the kid to pickpocket it without making any noise

the kind of dad that will purposely do something to embarrass his kid in public, but would also brag about his kid

would offer a sip of beer to his kid a few times because "that's not even real alcohol!" but you quickly smack the idea out of his head

neither sean nor his kid are allowed around matches after a small incident that involved matches and hay

Lenny Summers

would make sure his kid is well-spoken and understands the importance of education

takes the kid for trips to a nearby bookstore

at first the kid didn't like reading much, feeling like lenny pressures them too much into it, but eventually they started enjoying books

would raise the kindest, gentlest, most obedient kid ever, the kind of kid that never talks back to the parents

yet still he'd also teach the kid to stand up for themselves when someone would try to push them around

IF the kid did something wrong, lenny would pull up with "I'm not mad, I'm disappointed"

would never fall into the loop of "why" questions, because his answers would be so long and detailed the kid would just give up

[someonesrealityshifting]

Celebrities I Think Shifted Here~

Anne Hathaway~

I’m sorry, she’s too unproblematic, she’s been an icon for years, she ages like a fine wine, and the Shakespeare thing? C’mon, that’s not a coincidence

Walker Scobell~

Dude spends his entire childhood telling everyone he is Percy Jackson, only to become Percy himself? Is absolutely obsessed with Marvel, ends up in a movie with Deadpool, Bruce Banner, and Gamora? And also Mobius (in a different film, but the point stands). No one is just that lucky.

Taylor Swift

No one manages to get that famous that fast and young while also being so self centered and, quite honestly, annoying, for as little talent as she actually has. Too much drama around her, too many heartthrob boyfriends, too many queer rumors, and too many famous friends who don’t make sense at all. Having said that, I don’t like her much, so that might have something to do with it. I don’t know.

Sabrina Carpenter~

I’m sorry, but this girl has had a model career. She’s kind, funny, extremely talented, and has had very minor celebrity drama that has only added to her success. Not to mention it makes zero sense for her to be dating the Irish guy, and yet here she is, dating the Irish guy. And I’m not even saying that negatively, he’s hot as fuck. She, in an of herself, became a TikTok trend, not just her song, and she did this twice in, like, two months. She’s iconic, she’s an amazing actress, she’s inspirational (I know I wanted to be just like her when I was a kid).

Josh Gates

While I’m not entirely sure everyone counts him as a celebrity, but in my home, he definitely is. He’s been a part of sooo many discoveries and he’s played such a massive part in modern history. Most of the history stuff I know came from him, not textbooks.

Let me know if you have any more, I’d love to hear y’all’s opinions on this, too! (Swifties don’t come for me)

[cecilioque]

The Submas Designs are a lot more clever than you thought.

First lets look at the Submas overall design.  We know that the original design was intended to make the Subway Bosses look like clowns and kind of creepy (that backfired); hence the comically large shoes and exaggerated expressions. Let’s start to break down each part of the design. 

To begin, The Submas extreme expressions are a possible reference to the symbol of theatre; the mask of Tragedy and the Mask of Comedy.  The mask of tragedy is commonly portrayed frowning ( not necessarily cry) on a black base mask while the mask of Comedy is portrayed smiling on a white base masks. Sometimes these masks are gold or split black and white color.  The masks together represent the two extremes of the human psyche. Definitely the contrast we see between Emmet's smile and Ingo’s frown.

Next up, the coats.  These are obviously designed to look like train tracks.  The vertical grey lines representing the rails, the red brown the tie (the wood connecting the rails), and the buttons are the spikes that secure the track.  You can see the pattern best on the back of the Submas coat.  Looking at it you could laugh and say “I guess that makes the Subway boss themselves the train”, and you know what? You’re right.

This brings us to the most interesting part of their design, the color and pose.  Yes, there is an explanation to the silly pose too.  It’s so silly that we can just brush this whole design off as being another funny Pokemon character design; but unfortunately it’s actually thought out.  

The Submas themselves are the New York Subway. Or at least they are the personified version of it.  Let’s look at the colors again.  Black and White.  Very fitting for a game literally called Pokemon Black and White.  That alone brings us to some interesting comparisons with the game themes and pokemon.

Kudari or (Emmet in the English version) wears all white. He values routine and rules and is ultimately pretty point blank.  We can easily make that conclusion that  Emmet represents Reshiram and truth. If we break down his name we see that in Japanese it means something along the lines of “down train” or moving away/going down hill.  The different translations usually mean the same, except the name “Emmet” is a bit out of place.  A lot of people say the Submas names in English are most likely to be puns of “Ingoing and Emitting”.  But my crazy self did more digging and found that Emmet means “truth” specifically universal truth.  This name goes back to old German, Irish, and even Hebrew. All looping back to Reshiram and themes of the game. (On a funny side note, Emmet is also the Cornish word for ant; so Emmet having a Durant is really funny. ) 

Next up is Nobori or Ingo who wears a black coat and appears frowning. Despite that , his is very encouraging and excited about moving forward. This makes sense since the name Nobori in Japanese more or less means to move up/forward ( specifically up a mountain).  That’s why a lot of people believe that the poor man was eebie deebied for the pun because Warden Ingo works on Mt. Coronet. In English, Ingo is thought to be a shortened version of “Ingoing” which also aligns with not only the Japanese name but the character’s reoccurring theme of progress, moving forward, and ideals. In this sense Ingo very much represents Zekrom and ideals. 

Truth and ideals, Reshiram and Zekrom, Tragedy and comedy, white and Black.  All very good interpretations and symbolism for two funny train men. I would be satisfied with just knowing that, but no; the Submas are also a funny gijinka of the New York Subway.  This is the part the has me laughing at how simple it is and yet we just easily accepted that they were just a bit strange.

Take a look at this. This is a Zebra Board.  

Yep, it’s black and white. And do you know what? This MTA sign only appears in the New York subway.  What does it do?  These are used by conductors to indicate safety and that the train has lined up in the station. Every time the subway comes into the station, the conductor has to physically point at this board/bar to indicate that it is safe for the doors to open. The action is called "point and call" or "point and acknowledge".  This practice is used in a few other train/subway stations (such as Japan), but the black and white board is New York specific. The pose of the submas suddenly makes a lot of sense.

Other Important notes observations.

The Submas face represents the front of the train.  So their eyes are the lights (hence Ingos glowing eyes in PLA), their side burns are cow catchers ( see graphic), and the Medalion on the hat is round like a train number plate.  Another interesting thing is that the Submas use airline Captain Pilot hats like Japanese train conductors use.  The only part of their outfit that confuses me is the arm bands.  This is more of a police uniform element and not a train conductor thing.

so to conclude, the Submas are basically a reference to in game themes, Reshiram/Zekrom, Trains, and literally the New York subway

I am not an expert. These are just my observations. I could be completely wrong.  Take and add what you would like to.  If you have more to add about the design, feel free to reblog that info. I would also like to see your interpretation.

[melrosing]

Hey, question, you know how GRRM is american but all of the dialogue in ASOIAF, aside from being old-fangled, is also supposed to be vaguely "british"? Like, everyone kind of is supposed to have those old english royalty accents and shit, all the northerners say "aye", etc. What's that like to you, an actual UK person?

it’s a weird one lol bc in some ways he leans into it and others he leans right out. I get the impression GRRM has watched a lot of British TV and so his ‘small folk’ dialect isn’t really that different (imo) from the staple working class dialect ascribed to characters in many British period pieces - which kind of sounds to me like an anaemic cockney or something, without the slang and quirks. on British TV it’s been the case for the longest time that for class reasons most of what you’re going to hear is broadly RP and you’d have to tune into specific shows to hear much else (that’s not as bad as it used to be but the impact is still pretty real).

anyway all of that to say, if that’s GRRM’s point of reference I don’t think he does a bad job with it?? it’s a shallow distinction between his smallfolk and his highborn, but w/e - it’s used about as effectively as it’s used in say, Downton Abbey lol. i.e. quite caricature-y but no more so than brits themselves are guilty of. I don’t really notice Americanisms slipping in and the only one he seems to fumble (afaik) is ‘aye’ which he occasionally has southern characters like the Lannisters use. and maybe southern brits did use ‘aye’ once but for a long time that’s been heavily associated w northerners/scotland/etc.

and also I know he isn’t actually trying to write AU UK here, Westeros is influenced by the histories of many different IRL countries and cultures, but it’s obvious that it very substantially draws on GRRM’s consumption of British media and culture in its depiction and so I do think based on that he could’ve had a bit more fun w the regional dialects. I know he doesn’t have to, he’s got enough on his hands and frankly there’s so much scope for fucking that up, but I think as bidonica said in a recent post, it’s kind of wild that across the entire continent of Westeros… the highborn and lowborn dialects are each the same. like suffice to say that is extremely not the case in the UK and was not the case even more historically speaking. my mum is northern and my dad came from a central London cockney neighbourhood and the words and phrases the other used to use would send them constantly.

so it’d be fun if there were variations between regions, and those wouldn’t even have to be based on any real British equivalent if GRRM were worried about getting it wrong. definitely amongst the smallfolk anyway, bc whilst I think at least in modern history the richest folk in the UK largely adopted the same upper class accent, that wasn’t the case for anyone else. the UK is about the size of a coin and yet comprises hundreds of different accents and languages. personally think it could be fun if he had played w that but he didn’t. idk if that’s bc he just cba or if as an American he basically just knows the queen’s english and the ‘it’s choosday’ accent but w/e.

anyway GOT is way funnier about this bc obviously their actors are all speaking in British accents so the comparisons and questions are inevitable and they are MANY. explain why davos and gendry, who come from precisely the same part of town, are speaking accents from diametrically opposite ends of the UK. why are Robert and Stannis speaking w northern accents and Renly w southern. two of Cersei’s children are distinctly northern Irish. it’s wild from head to toe but I can’t be mad it IS funny

[elodieunderglass]

Setting all other discourse about fiction and reality aside, I really love and appreciate how book-readers have decided that SOME little fake guys are actually extremely Real(tm). Like, even in the same BOOK, there will be fictional characters where the reader agrees that the author made a series of conscious and unconscious choices about this character, and there will in the same book be a little guy who absolutely DID exist and DID sentiently do these things.

Okay you need some examples. Most of you will understand Sam Vimes/Terry Pratchett. Everyone understands intellectually that Pratchett was a writer moving his little puppets around (except that Vimes is real, actually.) Pratchett could write Vimes doing ANYTHING and readers would believe it. When you see footlong discourse about Vimes it’s always presented as if he’s a Man who Chose To Do those Things, never a well-worn literary mechanism. People respect him: Sam vimes arrested a dragon - No he didn’t!! Man’s not real! Pratchett could’ve made him do anything! By some apotheosis Sam Vimes is a real little guy.

The character who is the most real is Stephen Maturin, who is much more Real but too obscure to start with. Stephen is the most character ever. He is Irish-Catalan active in 7 different anarchist separatist movements and also serves the British empire also. He is a horrible little scientist doctor surgeon spy, he is VERY dirty, addicted to 3 drugs, plays the cello, has broken every bone, and is smelly also. He has a sloth. He is the predecessor of all “put them in a jar with a twig” blorbos, but unlike YOUR degraded blorbos, he is real, actually. Look at how I write about him. He is our son Stephen who speaks every language. At no point do we accredit Patrick O’B for coming up with any of this hard work, let alone do we accuse him of making Stephen unbelievable or inaccurate. He is a real horrid little man.

With the possible exception of Paddington Bear, who is very polite, most Meta-Real entities are consistently horrid little men. This quality (plus the fact that ACD looms SO VISIBLY and distractingly over his shoulder) may be why Sherlock Holmes is beloved but unreal. He is horrid and detailed, but not little?

As you can see, I am trying to characterise the qualities of these entities, and whether there is a spectrum of reality. Jesus, for example, feels somewhat real, with cloudy edges possibly due to translation artefacts. Gilgamesh might be, ditto. Ishmael is NOT. Lizzie Bennett is a funny one (also a rare real female) because she is not at all real, but you could 100% encounter her ghost. Do you see what I mean here.

[oneluckygoose]

House of the Rising Suns

Info post about my Marauders era fanfic! It will be edited and added to as things about it change, so if you plan to regularly read, I suggest checking in every once in a while to see if something's changed.

It will be posted on Ao3 exclusively, so if you see it anywhere else it means someone has stolen my work. Don't be afraid to report it.

Here's a link to the first chapter: Dear Minerva

It is a fic starting in 1971 and ending 1981 following the Marauders, the Slytherin Skittles, and the Valkyries through their journey through Hogwarts and the First Wizarding War. I don't yet know if it is cannon compliment or not, but I will figure it out with time. All posts I make about it will be tagged with "#house of the rising suns" and "#house of the rising suns oneluckygoose"

Here are the characters that will have POVs: Minerva McGonagall, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, James Potter, Peter Pettigrew, Lily Evans, Marlene McKinnon, Dorcas Meadowes, Mary MacDonald, Regulus Black, Barty Crouch Jr., Evan Rosier, Pandora Lovegood (Rosier), Frank Longbottom, Alice Longbottom, and (ew) Severus Snape.

For the shippers out there --- Endgame ships: Wolfstar (Remus and Sirius), Jily (James and Lily), Dorlene (Dorcas and Marlene), Rosekiller (Evan and Barty), Fralice (Frank and Alice), the Lovegoods (I don't actually know their ship name, but it's Pandora and Xenophillious). --- Ships in the story: Jegulus (James and Regulus), Marylily (Mary and Lily), Pandalily (Pandora and Lily), Remus and Marlene, Sirius and Mary, and characters with OCs that I've added (none of them will be endgame or treated like well known and endgame ships, they're all destined to end eventually).

NO SMUT AT ALL! I'm asexual, I do not feel comfortable writing it. It'll happen eventually, but it won't be explicit. When it does, though, it will be fade to black or very very vague descriptions. They're teenagers, I get that, but I refuse to write it in detail. Sorry, but no.

There is a greater description of it all under the cut! (and in the reblogs, this got really long)

!!!!Disclaimer: The last one is extremely important, so if you don't want to read all of these, at least scroll down and read the last bullet point (which will be in the reblog)!!!!!

Scottish and Desi James; Welsh/Jewish Lily; Welsh Remus, and Severus; French/English Blacks; IRISH Peter; SCOTTISH Marlene; Dutch Dorcas; French Mary; British Rosiers; and British Barty, Italian/British Frank, Taiwanese/British Alice.

Jegulus, personally I think Jegulus is a very important thing for James’ growth and for Regulus to distance himself from his family’s ideals, but I also don’t think it could ever last. It will probably be a 5th-6th year arc and they break up after Regulus gets the Mark beginning of James' 7th.

Endgame Jily because their story is one of my favorites, and if I do make it a canon compliment ,then I would need to write it with natural progression. Also I just love Jily.

Get ready for a lot of 70's music. It becomes a big deal when Lily brings her record player in second year and then when Queen debuts in 1973 and Sirius falls in love.

I’m on the fence about making it a canon compliment because I choose to be HAPPY, but I don’t need to make that decision now and so I won’t (also I like the idea that Peter is good, screw me)

Aroace Peter, my little boy loves his friends and doesn’t understand why he doesn’t love like they do. A dating spree probably in 5th year but he just cannot figure out how to do the romance thing.

No sex, sorry guys we’re keeping this M rated. I’m asexual and do not feel comfortable writing that in the slightest, it would all be fade to black

Asexual Lily, to whoever HCed that, can I marry you? I love ace Lily and I think it just adds an arc to her story that is normally extremely sexualized. My girl will punch you in the face if you look even a tiny bit lower than her eyes.

*Side note* Lily's taste is also so funny. Like it goes: badass, rolemodel, stunning woman to badass, loving, protective, also stunning woman to badass, ethereal, insane, overwhelmingly beautiful woman to that one guy over there making love eyes and doing finger guns. God I love Jily so much. *End of side note*

Asexual Regulus. I am sick and tired of seeing Jegulus being completely sexualized in every single piece of content I encounter. I firmly believe their story can be extremely compelling and beautiful without falling into sexual stereotypes and just literally making everything about them sexual. All that aside, being asexual makes a lot of sense for Regulus' character, in my opinion. I want to make it clear I'm not doing this just to change Jegulus, I genuinely believe that Regulus' character is compelling with him being asexual, and I don't see a lot of asexual representation in the marauders fandom, so why not add in something good? (There'll be a lot more to Regulus' character though, trust me.)

More in reblogs

[talenlee]

The Three Repeat Cheats of Twenty Twenty Threet

For some reason, there were three completely different, categorically unrelated cheating scandals that earned enough attention to escape their specific niche interests in 2023. There were other kinds of cheating going on, in other industries but these were funny and stupid and I’ve wanted to talk about them for like, a year and like, this is my blog, so just handle it.

Also, I guess, some content warning? There’s discussion of blowjobs and buttplugs and a bit of animal cruelty. Fish, if that matters.

Irish Dancing (The Blowjob Exchange)

Let’s start with the one you’re least likely to have heard of.

[In July 2022,] the Irish Dancing Commission, or An Coimisiún Le Rincí Gaelacha (CLRG), the oldest and largest governing body for competitive Irish dancing, was informed of allegations that at least 12 Irish dancing teachers in Ireland and overseas were involved in the “fixing” of competitions by promising to award higher marks to competitors at Irish dancing events run by the commission in Ireland, the UK and the United States.

Irish dancing: Claims of competition fixes, sexual favours detailed in court challenge

The details about this one are pretty licentious, and I’m not going to replicate them, though I will note it’s interesting the way coverage asserted that male teachers were offering blowjobs (to other teachers) as a form of incentive to other judges. It seems that without going too in depth, the extremely competitive space of International Irish Dancing was revealed to have a collection of judges who were rigging scores amongst one another in exchange for favours both sexual and in-kind cheating allowances. The initial scandal drew in twelve judges, with forty-four judges being captured in the overall swirl of it. Notably, though, it’s very important to say (for litigious reasons) that there is no evidence that this influenced the results of the world championships that year.

Fun stuff, huh?

This kind of cheating is a sort of ‘top down’ cheat. The cheat here requires a collaboration between multiple people, in positions of trust, to be abusing that trust. This isn’t a really good way to cheat things, until you are doing it at which point it becomes enormously fruitful as a cheating form. Corrupting a judge is hard, but if a bunch of the judges are already corrupted somehow, that makes any given corruption something you can do over time, often very easily. It’s even notable that any given individual cheating behaviour in this space is easy to ‘hide’ in the majority of the types of cheating. After all, if it comes out that 15 tournaments were run by corrupt judges, the fact that you won one of those tournaments is in doubt but not necessarily going to be treated as the result of a cheater.

The challenge of a top-down cheat like this is that you need judges who are corruptible. That typically means that you have a mismatch between incentives and values. There are people who have zero stakes in zero value situations, like say, D&D games, who are adamantly against the idea of ‘fudging’ dice rolls – that is, the idea of ever changing the results of a system in the game are fundamentally wrong – and that kind of person obviously has a high value on the integrity of the game regardless of the stakes. On the other hand, there are people who don’t care about the integrity of the game but who value other things too highly for that to be useful – how do you bribe a billionaire, for example?

(Easily, billionaires are incredibly petty, venal and stupid people who will try to scab for pennies out of their friends)

To that end you need someone who can be assigned as a judge but not actually given enough reason to treat the integrity of the game seriously, but also not be in a position where their level of corruption is something they can trade. If the actual values are large enough you hit a problem. What this says to me is that this is an example of a cheating scandal where the judges don’t care that much about the thing they’re judging, and are therefore more interested in secondary social incentives.

Great scam, if you can get it, but getting it is incredibly difficult.

Fishing (That Sinking Feeling)

Next up we have the shockingly well documented scandal in the field of competitive walleye bass fishing. And you may think ‘that’s a weirdly specific niche’ but it turns out that no it’s not weirdly specific, fishing contests in the United States are just that particular for any given competition. It’s not that there’s only wall-eyed bash fishing, it’s that there are contests for every individual species of fish you can find in the United States, organised under the umbrella of the Federal Department of Fishing and Game’s regulations to ensure that the competitions are done in compliance with rules about ethical engagement with the wildlife.

In September 2022, a Cleveland Walleye Bass Fishing competition, at the Lake Erie Walleye Trail, two competitors were caught, in shocking scenes caught on multiple phone cameras, as their catch was pulled out of the investigation in the weigh-in and given further inspection. These fish were found to have massive lead sinkers, the size of a child’s fist, stuffed inside the fish, wrapped in meat (possibly to dilute the feeling of a big metal object inside the fish). This is, as you may not be surprised, against the rules, leading to these two men being disqualified from the tournament.

This is a scandal of particular significance because of the scale of the consequences. For a start, the actual tournament prizes included a boat and other miscellaneous sundry that totalled up $30,000 USD, which is $31,679.10 in today’s money. Also, it was a form of animal cruelty, cheating, and included a dash of ‘unlawful ownership of a wild animal,’ all of which totals up into having their fishing licenses suspended for three years, the impounding of their boats, large fines, and twelve days in jail.

And I don’t know much about jail but lemme tell you, that sounds like exactly the wrong amount of jail for anything that’s actually important.

Thing is, and this is the thing I find fascinating about this cheat, is that there are ways to design the game such that this cheat is not possible. This isn’t my expertise, but commentators at the time were prone to recommend that live catch, live release fishing competitions meant that this kind of thing couldn’t be done any more – if it’s a requirement of the event that any caught fish have to be able to released live means that it’s just categorically not doable to load the fish like that. I find this kind of thing interesting because it shows that you can design games to prevent inappropriate play.

Chess (The Buttplug Thing)

Alright now this is probably the one people know.

In mid 2023, Magnus Carlsen, who is, no jokes, probably the best chess player who has ever lived, and even if he’s not, he’s certainly in the conversation, resigned unexpectedly playing against Hans Niemann in the sixth round of a tournament. This is to say, in a tournament he basically gave up some games out of nowhere, and that’s not a thing you normally do if you’re the best at anything. At the time, this created a sudden void of information, a void in which Magnus reported he wasn’t in a position to talk about it, for fear of saying something he shouldn’t. There’s more to the context, sure, but that’s the core of it. Magnus retires against Niemann and in another match shortly after, he did it again, seemingly refusing to play against him.

Now, we know with the benefit of hindsight why he might say it that way, but, in the absence of information, people began to speculate on what the hell Magnus meant. At this point someone pointed out the host of ways to cheat in chess given the immensely complicated way that information could be processed and even tiny hints could be useful to manage an enormous advantage given the way that computers are specialised in beating chess. But while things like toe pinches, nose signals, ear pieces, and knee punches were all in the conversation, those things aren’t as funny or interesting as the idea of using a teledildonically enabled buttplug to communicate the simple signals the game state requires.

This is funny because, well, it was an excuse to talk about teledildonics, and yeah, absolutely, this is a viable way to transmit information across a space that a practiced person can handle. It’s not the best or most convenient way, it’s certainly not a way with meaningful advantages over so many other things, but it is funny to talk about, and like, people just get weird over the idea that butts exist. Especially the butts of boys. Those aren’t for putting things in, right? ha ha ha! How funny!

Anyway, turns out the reason that Carlsen didn’t want to play against Niemann is because he knew that Niemann had a history of cheating, which Carlsen knew because Niemann was cheating. A lot. Throughout his history. He was cheating on a website called Chess Dot Com, though, and they were investigating Niemann and that report wasn’t out yet. This means that Carlsen was kind of telling tales out of school, and the very mundane kind of ‘dude on a computer gets another computer to play chess for him’ cheating, rather than you know.

The butt stuff.

There you go. Three different cheating scandals, three totally different types of cheating.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[idridian]

for the reverse unpopular opinion thing: here's a blank check to talk about douglas rain 😘

thank you kindly for activating my trap card, here's a NON-EXHAUSTIVE list (in no particular order and pulled entirely from memory) of delightful facts about douglas rain:

cared so incredibly much about the canadian theatre scene and tried to improve it wherever he could, be that by performing or by teaching younger actors. he had many opinions about how to get people interested in theatre

rehearsals were apparently his favourite part of acting and he was highkey intense about it for understandable reasons, which does NOT detract from the ???? factor of finding out that he straight up built a partial replica of the stratford festival theatre stage in his fuckin attic at home so he could practice his lines and blocking there. like what the fuck douglas, can you chill

the only thing funnier than this is the line immediately preceding this nugget of info in his stratford festival archives entry, where one of the artistic directors of the shaw festival is like "douglas rain had the uncanny ability to be word-perfect by week two of rehearsals" like yeah bitch, i wonder why. he went home from rehearsals and went to his attic to continue rehearsing there lol

during the very first season of stratford, he understudied alec guinness as the title role in richard iii, and one time the director 'Big Man' guthrie challenged him to imitate mr guinness' performance as closely as he could, which resulted in guinness grabbing a two-by-four and chasing douglas around the stage with it???? douglas was not entirely sure if it was because he did it really well or really badly

apparently kept a vegetable garden. this has nothing to do with anything; i just think it's cute that he had hobbies

spoke in a particular (now basically extinct, from what i understand) version of canadian english called canadian dainty, which veers slightly towards british pronunciation. combined with his very precise diction, this makes him say some words kinda funny, which i find very endearing/entertaining

he was apparently also really good at doing other accents. the only physical evidence i have of this is his performance in william lyon mackenzie: a friend to his country, where he does a scottish accent (and again, i am delighted), but i've read in Extremely Old Newspapers that he could do like,,, a perfect irish accent as a child??

i tracked down his yearbook entry from when he graduated in 1950 (in my defence, the manitoba university has an archive of decades worth of yearbooks freely available as pdfs on their website; what else are they for if not this) and the last sentence of his entry says "future is undecided, but indications are good" which is incredibly funny. they really said 'yeah idk what his deal is exactly, but he seems to be having fun'. and they were RIGHT

my honest impression of him is that he would never intentionally cause chaos because that would be impolite, but if you dropped him into a chaotic situation he would take a look around and then immediately refuse to leave, which imo is even more hysterical

"all the best sweetie"

while i categorically enjoy everything he's involved in by pure virtue of him being there, i harbour a particular fondness for roles where he plays just,,,, an absolute DUMBASS. like i cannot express in words the joy i felt when listening to tartuffe (1968) and hearing him make indignant grumbling noises as he crawled under a table while martha henry, his irl wife playing his wife in the play, made fun of him. 11/10 it means everything to me

i find him very handsome also. again, nothing to do with anything, i just like to look at him y'know

anyway i have to stop now because if left to my own devices, this post would just keep going forever, but you get the point. i adore him <3

[lobo-inu]

It's me, the animal anon ask again! Tell me the animal analog for Robin and Miraak. Or some funny animal vs Miraak where he absolutely beefs it to a creature

ohhh another really fun question. here are some of my animal-based headcanons for the two!

• Robin’s favorite animals are dogs, goats and mammoths. he owns a good few of the former 2 throughout his life, including Meeko at one point 🖤

his fascination with mammoths comes from the fact that you don’t find many of them in the Rift. Robin grew up in Riften and didn’t venture too far from there until much later when he was more involved with the Thieves Guild, so seeing such majestic megafauna for the first time had him in awe. every time he sees mammoths, he takes a moment to just watch them for a bit

• Miraak on the other hand always was fond of deer, as well as dogs. i imagine him growing up in a small Atmoran village before he was of age to be indoctrinated into the Dragon Cult. before then, he would often hunt with his mother and would gain an infatuation with deer. large stags are his favorite, and i love the idea that part of his personal dragon hoard includes shed antlers he finds. it’s an interest he still has even after those thousands of years in Apocrypha.

i think he’d also just like dogs. he’s the kind of guy to say he’s annoyed by those needy animals, but then Robin finds him treating Meeko, a full grown irish wolfhound mind you, like a lapdog.

• Robin’s family actually has a good bit of bird symbolism and themes with both him and other family members! Robin’s non-traditional name comes from the fact that his mother’s name was Dove - it wasn’t her birth name, yet was a nickname given to her that never really rubbed off.

Dove’s name is an implication to the tragedy that is her life story. while doves as a species are often associated with hope during times of crisis, i actually had the idea of mourning doves in my brain when naming her. especially how doves are sometimes released at funerals or are also a symbol for mourning or passed loved ones. so both meanings oppose one another, but apply to this character all the same

Robin’s father wanted to name their child after Dove, or at least with a similar theme, to honor her - yet the name Robin was also chosen for purposeful symbolism. robins are often used as a sign of good luck. when the two had Robin, their relationship had been long tarnished and they honestly only had Robin as a way to “mend” their relationship. naming their child after a symbol of good luck was semi-purposeful, yet turned ironic considering not only did neither of his parents survive, but Robin’s life was… well. not very lucky lol.

i guess you could consider it “lucky” since he survived when his parents could not. he survived so many hardships that he genuinely didn’t believe he could despite the odds that were so overwhelmingly against him. (while Robin was his birth name, he still decided to keep it post-transition)

not to mention Robin being a Nightingale, with the whole bird symbolism thing. but back to more lighthearted facts!

• Robin’s main mount is a mule mare named Aska. she was a cheap purchase at the Riften stables back when Robin was a teen/young adult struggling in the Thieves Guild. her being discounted was for a reason, as she was (and still is) extremely ornery. over time, the two began to get along well and made quite a good team. Robin is still the only one who can ride her, though x)

• Miraak rides a draft breed gelding named Strunmah, meaning “mountain” in Dovahzul. appropriate for how large his steed is.

[ygoartreviews]

Dragunity Knight - Areadbhair

I have no idea where to start when it comes to pronouncing this card's name, but it's a cool dragon so hey whatever. The name itself means "Slaughterer," and it comes from a sentient, magical, bloodthirsty, flaming spear wielded by an Irish god. Saying all that kinda makes me wish this dragon was at least partially on fire, but I think the flame colored background suffices. Speaking of the background, the addition of Dragon Ravine in the lower background feels a little unnecessary because of how unnoticeable it is; I feel like the card would look essentially the same even if it wasn't there. I do like the multi wing look Areadbhair has going on (feel like you don't see that enough), and its extremely pointy face shape is fun too. Dragunity Legatus being so super tiny to the point he's almost unrecognizable is funny. Like there's no way he's actually directing Areadbhair to do anything, he's just along for the ride.

Rating: 8/10

[thebreakfastgenie]

can your nasty ugly ass stop repeating sinophobic bullshit? cho chang is a real cantonese name. just because you're a racist who thinks a word being a korean surname means it can't be a first name in another separate language doesn't make that true. try a little harder and you'll realise we're completely different people and languages despite your hideous spicy white ass seeing slitty eyes and assuming we're the same. if YOU think cho chang sounds like chingchong then you're the racist and i hope you get blown to pieces by hamas.

I'm not super inclined to trust what you have to say because I think if you had a good faith point about the etymology of the name "Cho Chang" you probably wouldn't have undermined that point with all that antisemitism. I'm not really sure what your motive is here other than being rude to someone who incidentally identified herself as Jewish.

I honestly don't know anything about this, I've seen this criticism a lot from people who know a lot more about the languages and ethnic groups involved than I do, so I tend to trust that information. There's also a pattern in that series of characters of color being tokens with extremely stereotypical names and being side characters who aren't really developed. Even the Irish character is kind of like that (although I should note here that Seamus blowing things up is an invention of the movies). So I used that character's name as an example because it's widely-known and easily recognizable. And you obviously know that's a popular criticism of the series because "it sounds like chingchong" is something other people have said, not something I mentioned in that post and not something I'm particularly comfortable repeating because I think it's still rooted in the idea that Chinese names sound funny.

Maybe Cho Chang is a believable name for an East Asian girl of mixed ancestry, I wouldn't know. What I do know is the author is white and English and the series is extremely white and English. Even if it is technically possible for someone to be named "Cho Chang," knowing what I know about the author it's much more likely that was an accident when she was coming up with a random Chinese sounding name.

If anyone here knows more about Chinese and Korean names and would like to weigh in I'm now genuinely curious.

[margridarnauds]

Hi,

So I finished the novel Queen's Gambit by Elizabeth Freemantle and am now extremely angry need to decompress and filter out her garbage I'm shocked that Penguin House published this book and that it is getting made into a movie. To portray young Princess Elizabeth as willingly seeking Seymour out and seducing him is vile. Parr's bitchy handmaid Dot finds them in bed together. What on Earth? No evidence for that. Then Catherine Parr gets angry, blames Elizabeth and they don't reconcile after she leaves. Heartbreaking. Plus, the portrayal of Catherine Parr is horrid there is no evidence she or her stepdaughter Meg were raped during the Pilgrimage of Grace, a devout woman like Catherine wouldn't be contemplating killing either of her husbands, or rejoicing in the prospect of being damned to hell as she puts it after Henry VIII dies. (Maybe with Henry she would think about it but not actually go through with it). I got the impression that this author had an anti-Christian as well as anti-Elizabeth attitude. Tried Sisters of Treason another book of hers but it was also bad. I want to send her an angry letter now calling out her disgusting portrayal of young Elizabeth. Did you send in a review or a note to the author after you read it?

Don't forget Dot's final monologue about Why Elizabeth Is Such A Bitch -- It's Almost Understandable That She's Such a Bitch-Slut.

It's common with historical fiction, really, to not understand the way that religion historically worked. It's very easy to put our feelings on religion, whatever they might be, onto historical figures in an attempt to make them More Like Us, but the simple reality is that they were living in a totally different cultural context. Characters are either religious fanatics so extreme that they make Frollo think "Hm, maybe they're overdoing it a tiny bit", they're Secretly Atheists, or religion just doesn't cross their mind ever (unless, in Tudor media, it's to establish them as a Cool Modern Protestant.)

As for what I did...honestly, put the book aside and thought about every single decision in my life that had led to me both reading and finishing it. As you can see by the fact that I still remember it in vivid detail, it holds a special place in my Hall of Shame. (And it isn't even batshit insane enough to be FUNNY, unfortunately.)

But, my piece of totally unsolicited advice that you are perfectly free to discard at your earliest convenience? ...when you do medieval Irish stuff. Or medieval Celtic stuff in general. You will NEVER see your field faithfully or even sensitively portrayed on page. Every single depiction you get will be based on old stereotypes, colonialist tropes, and outdated information. I've read things about my faves, in particular, that would make most people's hair stand up on end. Things that are truly, deeply vile, that are on par with the depiction of Elizabeth here, or even worse. And it is easy to be angry, it's understandable to be angry, and God knows that my friends have heard me ranting in the DMs. And when I was younger, I was, regularly. And then I got exhausted, because anger is exhausting, especially when it's you and your anger versus a tidal wave of misinformation. I didn't stop getting angry, no. But I started to use it as a tool, not as an explosive -- I let it fuel me, I used it for my scholarship, putting all these different pieces of pop culture about my field in conversation with one another and noting common trends, as well as making comparisons to trends in other areas to figure out what, in our contemporary cultural landscape, is causing us, as a general group, at this point in time, to portray these things in a certain way, as well as how we have portrayed them over time. I have built my career, at least in part, on defending the undefendable, on studying the ink blotches of historiography to see where the historical or literary records meet the popular image, specifically looking at figures who are frequently portrayed as villainous and monstrous. I don't deal in happy endings, I can't when I step in after their final death scenes, after the point where even the possibility of their deaths meaning *something* is gone, because they don't even get the satisfaction of being well remembered. I never expect to see my faves well portrayed -- sometimes, I'm surprised, but it is truly, deeply, RARE.

You send a note to an author, no matter how well-intentioned, and it's easy to write off. The author submitted that work for publication, it's done. They're still getting royalties off of them, whatever that means in the current hellacious publishing landscape, in this case, she even has a movie. They might care, but honestly? They probably won't. They can dismiss you as a crazed, unhinged fan, regardless of how much thought and effort you've put into the critique. You've wasted all that high quality, undiluted anger for something that won't have any tangible effect. My advice, instead? Feel your anger, let the hate flow through you, especially when it reflects biases like sexism, racism, and homophobia, sharpen it, and then use it -- it doesn't have to be in conference presentations or journal articles or any of the trappings of academia, but use it.

Write reviews, absolutely, put it into conversations with other pieces of Tudor and Elizabethan fiction, especially about young Elizabeth (Hell, compare it to, say, Elizabeth R, Becoming Elizabeth, Young Bess, or Lady Bess (Toho 2014/2018), just for examples of the young Elizabeth's life off the top of my head that dramatize the life of Elizabeth), see what other people have said, in journal articles, sure, but also in blog articles or GoodReads reviews online, without necessarily even talking to them, but just to get a survey of what they think and why they think it, and see what you can do. Why do we want to portray Elizabeth this way? Is it a desire to "knock her off her throne?" Portray her as a nymphomaniac bitch slut to contrast with the "Gloriana" image? Is it that we're uncomfortable with the topic of CSA? Or we don't like to think of it as something that historically occurred? (Especially when you compare it to the ongoing bimboification of Katherine Howard, even in allegedly sympathetic biographies.) Is it that we still don't want to believe that it could have happened? That we're willing to give more sympathy to a man than to a child? Some combination of all of them? And are we seeing progressively more nuanced portrayals, or are we seeing more of the same across the board? (I feel like Seymour, at least, has gone from being a romantic hero in Young Bess to being portrayed as genuinely manipulative, even if the execution is still lacking.) On the reverse side, are people more willing to defend, say, Elizabeth I and Catherine Howard than other historical women, specifically because of what they represent and because of their high profile status? Is there a double-edged sword here? Let your anger fuel you.

[sendandburn]

An Analysis of the hogwarts teachers

This iwas included in the Analysis of Severus Snape as a teacher but i decided to put it in a separete post 'cause i feared it would be to long for Tumblr.

"Fake Moody  [a Death Eater, but a Death Eater who fooled everyone, meaning his behavior was not that OOC for real Moody, whom Dumbledore hired]:

Transfigures Draco and slams him repeatedly against the stone floor while Draco is squealing in pain

tortures spiders with Crucio in front of Neville, which causes him such distress Hermione interrupts the lesson. Then, he “comforts” Neville. Now picture how Neville must have felt when he found out it was one of his parents’ torturers. That had to be more traumatic than watching your toad not get poisoned

curses students in class - “The rest of the class was very eager to leave; Moody had given them such a rigorous test of hex-deflection that many of them were nursing small injuries.” (r/harrypotter)

Ok , we don't know if the REAL Moody was even good at transfiguration so he might not have used that to punish Draco and as for the unforgivables....maybe...i mean, the reason Barty gave to show them that was a good one but Moody knew of the backgrounds of Harry and Neville so i'd like to think that he wouldn't use the unfogivables that affected them most with them in class.

"Flitwick:

does nothing about Luna’s bullying

has Seamus repeatedly write "I am a wizard, not a baboon brandishing a stick". The Irish were once openly compared to apes in England in the past, so that’s in extremely poor taste

Lavender bursts into tears during Charms, Flitwick doesn’t notice"

(r/harrypotter)

Ok, so i can't in good conscience say anything to defend him against points 2 and 3 'cause, quite frankly, there's no excuse for that, in fact point 2 makes him no better than Snape when he called Hermione the M word and he dosen't even have the excuse of once being anti-irish and trying to change,like Snpe does.

as for point 1 however the Harry Potter Wiki clearly states that when heads of houses decided to live at Hogwarts, they most likely had private quarters NEAR their House's common room. " note that it says Near, not In and as Luna's bullying happened In the dorms & common rooms, Flitwick would have no way of knowing about it unless she reported it, wich she never did.

"Trelawney:

predicts a death every year and generally distresses students with her predictions

To Hermione: “I don’t remember ever meeting a student whose mind was so hopelessly mundane.”

takes her anger about Umbridge’s performance review out on students: throws a book at Dean and Seamus, and thrusts another one so hard into Neville’s chest that he falls. She then calls the entire class a bunch of idiots: “You know what to do! Or am I such a substandard teacher that you have never learned how to open a book?”

Points 2 and 3 make her no better than Snape who is also often criticized by snaters for insulting his students, wich is funny if you consider that we clearly estabilished that he is not the only one who does this. As for predicting people's deaths, i understand that it's a part of her character, just like is a part of Snape's character to be snarky, however i can't help but think that she is incredibly stupid for doing that as it not only, as said distresses the students, but makes the theory that she is a fraud seem much more belivable.

"Slughorn:

starts an elitist club to promote his favorites and doesn't even bother to learn Ron's name. This clearly affects Ron (Molly is still raw about Arthur being excluded from the Slug Club, years later)

Ron is poisoned and he just stands there

was Tom Riddle’s mentor and his influence on Tom is apparent in Tom trying to become a teacher to influence young minds, and testing poisons on house elves; he is openly prejudiced, though non-violent. Further, Slytherins were groomed into the DEs under his nose." (r/harrypotter)

Ok, i'm not even going to defend him cause i never liked him and there are honestly no good arguments to defend his actions in any of those instances. Honestly, i can agree that Snape is a bad teacher but at least he never picked favorites or did nothing when a student was endagered in front of him.

"Dumbledore:

silenced student Snape after Sirius tried to kill him, and did not expel Sirius

His attitude toward Harry in OOTP was emotionally abusive

recruited students into the original Order while they were still his students in the Marauders era, and continued to use children for his war against Voldemort."

Look, i get silecing Snape as he didn't whant to put Remus in danger but Sirius punishment was fairly light in face of what he did, though i will disagree that he actively TRIED to kill Snape as the same point that was made in the original post about Snape and Trevor can be made about Sirius, to semi quote "Sirius  is competent enough that if he’d wanted Severus dead, he would be. " i mean....He is the son of Walburga OFF WITH THAT ELF'S HEAD Black and grew up having acess to more dark artefacts and dark arts spells than Snape could ever dream of having, thus it would be as the host of screen rant says " super easy,barerely an inconvenience" for Sirius to kill Severus without being caught. However, it was still Involuntary manslaughter and thus " a Friday afternoon detention for the rest of the year, along with being banned from playing Quidditch for the rest of the school year." is not a suitable punishment

As for Dumbledore in OOTP, i get that he was afraid that Voldemort could read Harry's mind but that could be solved by simply writting a porpusfully vague letter like " Harry, I'm afraid Voldemort can read your mind, that's why I can't look at you and I can't share my plans with you. I need you to trust me, I have a plan and the best thing you can do to help is put all your efforts in learning Occlumency. I would teach you myself but that may allow Voldemort to see my plans, but I happen to know of another expert at Occlumency who may be of help. You might not like him but he is by far the best person for this job. Don't worry, i will talk him into curbing down his behavior so that he is more civilized with you during those lessons"

There Harry won't know for sure who his teacher is going to be (thus neither will Voldemort ) but at least he won't be compleatly in the dark.

Point 3 was always something that irked me about him, but i suppose i can't say much as age is also not a factor in the recruitment of death eaters, though it can be noted that while Voldemort did manipulate his potential recruits, he never lied to them about what he expected of them wich can't be said about Dumbledore.

"Hagrid:

gives Dudley a tail because Dudley’s father insulted Dumbledore. Dudley has to get surgery to remove it. He intended to transfigure him into a pig

gets the Trio involved in his illegal and dangerous dragon hatching scheme, which results in them being caught and punished and in Ron being gravely injured, for which he blames Ron

calls Draco an idiot

first sends Draco and Neville alone, after the unicorn killer, then sends Harry and Draco alone, despite seeing that Draco is trying to cause trouble

sends Harry and Ron into the forest to speak with Aragog

Draco gets injured in Hagrid’s lesson

His blast-ended skrewts lesson result in multiple injured students

threatens Draco with transfiguration again after Moody’s stunt

asks Harry and Hermione to secretly look after his incredibly dangerous brother

makes a fuss about the Trio dropping his subject and guilt-trips them about it" (r/harrypotter)

ok so lets go in order:

Point 1: IRL, it was clearly another demonstration of Jk Rowlling's fatphobia. In potterverse, it was clearly irresponsible and constitutes as a violation of the status of secrecy as, although the Dursley's know about magic, the staff of the hospital where Dudley goes to remove his tail do not.

Point 2: once again, Irresponsible, but in character for Hagrid who seemingly fails to see how something like a Dragon could hurt the students.

Point 3: and Yet another teacher who insults his students ladies and gentlemen.

Point 4: One of his worst offences on this list, Investigating the Unicorn deaths was HIS JOB!!!! Honestly, call Snape what you will but he never used detentions to send students to get dangerous potion ingredients for him or set any detentions past curfew. Hagrid should have them do something like clean the owlery instead.

Point 5: i get that he though Aragog wouldn't eat them, wich is in character for him as he always sees dangerous creatures as inoffensive but he didn't know for sure and could have just told them to research Tom Riddle's geneology wich would have been just as effective and way less dangerous.

Point 6: Ok let's get this out of the way first: YES, Draco is partly to blame for this injury as he insulted Buckbeak when Hagrid specifically told him not to! However, in any class there will always, and i mean ALWAYS be a student that, for whatever reason, fails to follow instructions so if Draco hadn't said a word, you can bet that another student who wasn't paying attention would have! thus the end results would still be the same, with the only difference being how much power the parent's of said student have at the ministry and if they decide to press charges or not. The risk was always there and that's what he gets for bringing a XXX beast to a third year class.

"Lupin

endangers everyone for an entire year by covering up for a mass-murderer just to look good, even after said murderer has infiltrated the castle twice, once attacking and traumatizing the Fat Lady and once pulling a knife on Ron

is negligent with his Wolfsbane - Snape has to nag him about it. This leads to him transforming in front of the Trio

Hermione doesn’t get a chance to fight the boggart, leading to her first less than perfect grade, which affects her confidence well into her 5th year. As the DADA OWL exam included banishing a boggart, this is presumably why she doesn’t get the O she deserves

Has no apparent issue with executing Peter in front of three children" (r/harrypotter)

Point 1: Ok,so i believe that his reason for not telling people about Sirius being a dog animagus wasn't to, as the post said, "Look Good" but to be loyal to his friends whom,being who they were,probably made a pact in their first year to not tell any figure of authority about their mischiefs, wich included becoming animagus. Was it a bad decision? Yes,as he should have put the safety of his students above anything else but i understand his reason. it dosen't excuse it though.

Point 2: while i can understand that, as anyone would forget it with all that was happening, i can't defend him for that one.

Point 3: "his teaching style was obviously not good for Hermione, who got an E in DADA because she couldn't defeat a boggart, because she didn't get the same chance as everyone to practice in Y3. She remained insecure about her DADA skills, for no good reason" (pet_genius on reddit) Honestly, the fact that he let any of his students leave without having defeated their boggarts is something that i think no one could defend and is worrisome that, if it weren't for the Patronus lessons, Harry might not have gotten the chance to defeat his either.

Point 3: Ok i need to remind you that: LUPIN IS A WEREWOLF WHO DIDN'T TAKE WOLFSBANE AT THE TIME AND IT WAS THE NIGHT OF THE FULL MOON! meaning, the freaking Wolf while not in control of his body, was very active inside his mind and it, being an animal, dosen't care about the emotional impact Peter's execution could have had on the children and with it being so close to the front of Remus' mind, it was very capable of clouding Remus' rationality and common sense, making him focus only on his anger.

"McGonagall:

forces Harry to become Seeker without asking him if he wants to, threatening him with punishment if he doesn’t practice hard (in the process, ignores Draco’s attempt to steal Neville’s Remembrall)

pulls 1st-year Draco by his ear in addition to assigning detention and docking 20 points, doesn’t give points back or apologize when it turns out he wasn’t lying

sends 1st years to the Forbidden Forest to find a unicorn-slaying horror, in addition to docking the trio 150 points, thus making them a target for hatred, for breaking curfew

Doesn't notice 1st-year Ginny’s obvious distress

Allows Ron to study with a broken wand

catches Harry and Ron wandering the hallways alone, at a time when teachers escort students everywhere, and lets them get away with it because Harry lies that they’re going to see Hermione in the hospital wing; does not escort them there

Locks Nev out of the common room with a mass murderer on the loose for having his passwords stolen, a humiliating and dangerous punishment for something that's not Neville's fault, in addition to a ban from Hogsmeade visits and detention.

Lets Harry practice Quidditch outdoors in POA despite the danger he is in, because, as she explicitly says, she wants the Quidditch Cup

reacts to “Moody” torturing Draco by ordering Moody to take Draco to Snape to be punished some more, and doesn't check on him

humiliates Neville because she doesn’t want to look bad in front of the foreign delegations

punishes Harry for losing his temper with Umbridge, proceeds to do the same thing in front of him

admits she treated Peter poorly because he wasn't as talented as his friends

The worst two sets of troublemakers in school history were her charges and she failed to control them." (r/harrypotter)

Point 1: “threaten” changes the entire context. She says she “may change her mind about punishing him” but it’s not made to sound very serious, especially since she smiles immediately after that. " (Fae_Faye) That said, while, as Fae_Faye said, she might have allowed him to give up Quidditch after trying out should he want to, it wouldn't be Oc for her to pull a Voldemort emphasizing the fun and glory that Quidditch can bring more than the dangers it can cause,suibitably manipulating harry into trying out should he decide that he dosen't want to play or wants to wait for y2. Yes, she would respect his opinion should he make his denial clear but she would still try.

Point 2: "Pulling somebody by the ear is a common way for adults to punish children but the fact that physical abuse is extremely common does not make it right. Would you find it acceptable if your employer dragged you around by the ear if you spent too much time on break? No? Why not? Why would that be cause for a lawsuit, but not an adult doing it to a (physically much weaker) child in their care?

At worst, the child will actually come to believe that he deserves being psychically abused if he's done something wrong, which, later in life, will turn them into an adult who accepts domestic violence. (

At worst, the child will actually come to believe that he deserves being psychically abused if he's done something wrong, which, later in life, will turn them into an adult who accepts domestic violence. (Fae_Faye and to a lesser extent Vrajitoarea) Sure, she took more points of the trio than of Draco, but as his only misdeed was being out of the Snake's lair past curfew, a simple detention would have suficed.

Point 3: "There’s no evidence that McGonagall knew what the students were going to do for detention. It’s possible Hagrid asked for them without telling her why but the fact that she accepted to send three 11 y.o. to Hagrid, at 11 o'clock at night, without even asking what he would be doing with them? That's... somehow even worse.

Besides, Filch was the one McGonagall assigned to take them to Hagrid, and Filch knew what they'd be doing. Do you think Hagrid told Filch, whom he couldn't stand, but not McGonagall? And Filch didn't tell her either, for whatever reason?

About the point deduction –Harry and Hermione not only got into trouble themselves, but also put Neville and Draco into trouble as well, and already Harry and Draco have been troublemakers (having fights at the Hall over the Remembrall, breaking the rule about flying, and maybe some more- I can’t remember right now), so she was probably trying to discourage them from doing such a thing ever again by giving such a harsh punishment, especially since the school just recently had an issue with a troll on the loose and attacking students. In any case, Neville also had 50 points deducted, and Harry, Hermione, and Neville all became the target of bullying because of it. It doesn't matter what they did, putting a target on three 11 y.o. children's backs is wrong in itself. That it happened just for breaking curfew, and in addition to the detention in the FF, just makes it worse. (Fae_Faye and Vrajitoarea, semiquoted 'cause Vrajitoarea assumed Ron was involved)

Point 4: "Heads of Houses (i.e. real-life Housemasters) are parental stand-ins, and they're supposed to watch out exactly for this kind of situation. Ginny was visibly unwell, and Percy noticed, but couldn't force her to talk about it. Ron was a 12 y.o. child, he had no responsibility.But, anyway most people at that time were distressed with the opening of the Chamber, even the teachers. Which isn't an excuse. Checking up on 11 y.o. children who have just been separated from their families, for the first time in their lives, is the Head of House's job. After a superficial inquiry, it would have become clear that Ginny was having serious issues, which should have prompted further investigation." (Fae_Faye and Vrajitoarea)

Point 5: None of his teachers did anything about it. And Ron himself makes the decision not to get one because he doesn't want to suffer a howler: "Write home for another one," Harry suggested as the wand let off a volley of bangs like a firecracker. "Oh, yeah, and get another Howler back," said Ron, stuffing the now hissing wand into his bag. " `It's your own fault your wand got snapped-'" (Fae_Faye)

Point 6: McGonagall has no way of knowing that they’re lying; all she knows is that three thick friends have had one of their own petrified and so are desperate to see their friend. This scene showcases her empathy and kindness despite usually coming off as a disciplinarian. Also, the Hospital Wing is on the first floor and at the time McGonagall catches them, Harry and Ron were on the second – I don’t think it reflects that badly on her that she allowed them to go unescorted just one flight of stairs down, especially since she was rather too emotional at that time to think rationally (when Harry and Ron leave, McGonagall is tearing up and blowing her nose).(Fae_Faye)

Point 7: All McGonagall knows is that a boy habitually known for forgetting and misplacing things wrote down every password of the Gryffindor Common Room in the last week and then lost it while a mass murderer was on the loose and trying to get into the Gryffindor Common Room. Neville endangered every Gryffindor classmate of his by losing that parchment, and could have been the cause for all their deaths if Sirius had turned out to be the psychotic mass murderer he was painted as (especially since at that time, Ron was screaming about Sirius standing over him holding a knife). Sure, there were security trolls there to protect him ( “Poor Neville was forced to wait outside the common room every night for somebody to let him in, while the security trolls leered unpleasantly at him.” ) But, setting aside the sheer mental and emotional trauma Neville was experiencing by being forced to wait outside, fearing for his life, and to humiliate himself in front of his classmates by begging to be let inside his own "home"... Sirius Black was believed to be an extremely skilled killer, who walking around the castle without being seen. The trolls were not even a small guarantee that Sirius couldn't endanger Neville.

All this, for Neville supposedly having lost something (so, not a voluntary action, but the consequence of him being naturally forgetful, and of the fact that Cadogan was inventing harder and harder punishments, to the point that other students complained).

And Neville is an extremely sensitive child, so a punishment that would have been terrible for anyone, would be excruciating for him. McGonagall, as his Head of House, should know that. It's also extremely poor pedagogy - by having him there, it's a constant reminder to everyone else that he supposedly endangered their lives, which would prompt bullying." (Fae_Faye and Vrajitoarea)

Point 8: "Bad news, Harry. I've just been to see Professor McGonagall about the Firebolt. She -- er -- got a bit shirty with me. Told m' I'd got my priorities wrong. Seemed to think I cared more about winning the Cup than I do about you staying alive. Just because I told her I didn't care if it threw you off, as long as you caught the Snitch first." Wood shook his head in disbelief. "Honestly, the way she was yelling at me... you'd think I'd said something terrible... then I asked her how much longer she was going to keep it. He screwed up his face and imitated Professor McGonagall's severe voice. 'As long as necessary, Wood'..."*When it comes down to it, she clearly cares for Harry’s safety more than winning the Cup. I also doubt that Harry would have been in any danger out on the Quidditch field, since it’s part of the school, a wide open space and shooting spells at a person flying in the air would be almost impossible" (Fae_Faye)... so yeah that point is null and void but it is the only póint so far that is null and void.

Point 9: " I must say I don’t like how you word some of your points. McGonagall didn’t “order” Moody; she told him there were alternatives to transfiguring a student as punishment, which includes seeing their Head of House - and Moody immediately says he’ll do that.McGonagall’s reaction to “Moody torturing Draco” is thus: she "shrieks", drops her books, untransfigures Draco and then she scolds Moody "weakly". It’s made clear that she’s extremely stunned by what happened, still ,she didn't even bother to ask the Draco, who was visibly in pain, if he was OK, instead letting him be dragged away by his torturer, who was still threatening him." (Fae_Faye and Vrajitoarea)

Yes,his fall would probably not be considered serious but it dosen't change the fact that she should have asked about his wellbeing regardless of that: a scraped knee is not serious but it can still be painfull.

"In case of injury, you don't send the injured person to the "proper authorities", who will then send them to the hospital. Internal bleeding and ruptures are a thing.

About the pain, Draco might be slightly hurt by the ten-feet fall, but I doubt it's any more serious than a kid scraping their knee on the floor.

... repeatedly smashing someone into the floor isn't any more serious than a kid scraping their knee? Never mind the emotional trauma.

“I don’t think so!” roared Moody, pointing his wand at the ferret again—it flew ten feet into the air, fell with a smack to the floor, and then bounced upward once more. “I don’t like people who attack when their opponent’s back’s turned,” growled Moody as the ferret bounced higher and higher, squealing in pain. “Stinking, cowardly, scummy thing to do…” The ferret flew through the air, its legs and tail flailing helplessly. “Never—do—that—again—” said Moody, speaking each word as the ferret hit the stone floor and bounced upward again. [...] “Hello, Professor McGonagall,” said Moody calmly, bouncing the ferret still higher. [...] Draco Malfoy had reappeared, lying in a heap on the floor with his sleek blond hair all over his now brilliantly pink face. He got to his feet, wincing. [...] Malfoy, whose pale eyes were still watering with pain and humiliation, [weeks later] The Gryffindors roared with laughter. Malfoy flushed with anger, but apparently the memory of Moody’s punishment was still sufficiently painful to stop him from retorting.

It's made very clear that the experience was a truly traumatising one. (Vrajitoarea)

Point 10: "She scolds Neville for not being able to do a spell properly, and does so by mentioning the delegates. Neville has a history of endangering the class by melting his cauldrons (see PS, where the students have to climb on tables); Neville was supposed to have studied that particular potion over the summer; living in a magical household, he could have even practised brewing it (unlike a Muggle-born); Snape had also given them exact instructions as they were brewing; Snape is clearly frustrated with Neville's seeming intentional incompetence, and wants to make him learn - which is why he tells Neville he'll have to use the potion on Trevor - he tries to scare Neville into paying attention, because he thinks Neville can get better (not a good tactic for someone like Neville).

McGonagall, on the other hand, may belive in Neville ( as can be seen from the quote: You cannot pass an O.W.L.,” said Professor McGonagall grimly, “without serious application, practice, and study. I see no reason why everybody in this class should not achieve an O.W.L. in Transfiguration as long as they put in the work.” Neville made a sad little disbelieving noise. “Yes, you too, Longbottom,” said Professor McGonagall. “There’s nothing wrong with your work except lack of confidence." ) however, she never explains to him what he's doing wrong .

It's also mentioned that the only time she says something positive to Neville is in HBP, and then it's only because he was willing to die for Harry at the Ministry... which was actually the sort of reckless gesture that a teacher should not have been encouraging. If they had all stayed put, Sirius would have lived.

And, again, she was his Head of House - she was supposed to nurture him, help him gain self-confidence, not further undermine it.

She was often sharp with him, as she is with everybody. McGonagall holds all her students to high standards because she believes in them, and Peter probably didn’t meet those expectations often

(Fae_Faye and Vrajitoarea) Fae_Faye said and i agree that Minerva appears to not care what others think of her, but she knows that Neville does so her mentioning the delegates might have been done because she donse't want HIM to look bad in front of the foreign delegations.

Point 11: " There’s a difference. Harry is a student who can easily be punished by his professor for cheek and he is, after all, the person that the Ministry is trying to discredit as hard as they can. Though McGonagall’s job can be on the line, punishing her is a lot more difficult than with Harry, considering her stellar record of service in Hogwarts (thirty-nine years, wow). Their situations are nowhere near the same.

Point 12: "that is not what she said. Let’s see that quote, shall we? "Hero-worshipped Black and Potter,’ said Professor McGonagall. ‘Never quite in their league, talent-wise. I was often rather sharp with him. You can imagine how I – how I regret that now …’ She sounded as though she had a sudden head cold. ' She was often sharp with him, as she is with everybody. McGonagall holds all her students to high standards because she believes in them, and Peter probably didn’t meet those expectations often, , along with him being a troublemaker as part of the Marauders. She regrets her sharpness, as most people tend to regret their actions regarding a dead person, even if they were right in those actions." (Fae_Faye) and here we have the second null and void point.

Point 13: "She constantly tries. It’s not her fault that they are completely unwillingly to change and, no you can't use Lily's morals to imply James's. It's the sort of reasoning used to dismiss domestic abuse, for example - X can't possibly abuse Y, because Y is a good person who wouldn't stick with them/wouldn't tolerate a bad person.

Plenty of decent people are partnered with terrible ones.

Besides, in Y5, Lily downplayed James's actions, and even "almost smiled" at him tormenting Snape. JKR had also said she was already attracted to James, even while he was being the school bully. She wasn't a saint Sure, Plenty of people seemingly have a good relationship and marriage.

The Marauders, i.e. James's friends and accomplices, tell Harry, who is highly distressed, that his father's head "deflated a bit." Then admit that James lied to Lily (why would he, if he wasn't at fault), and continued hexing Snape behind her back (the idea that Snape was the initiator falls flat on its face, when Sirius admits James was the one to decide when the hexing would occur; similarly, if James had grown as a person, he could have just used the Map to avoid Snape).

James' maturity is, as far as I know, collaborated by every person who knew the two, except Snape, who is biased to hating James

It's not. Only Lupin and Sirius say James got better, and Sirius is the only person, throughout the books, to call James "a good person." Seriously.

Hadn’t people like Hagrid and Sirius told Harry how wonderful his father had been? (Yeah, well, look what Sirius was like himself, said a nagging voice inside Harry’s head… he was as bad, wasn’t he?)

Hagrid only says, to James's orphan son, that James was brave. Which he was, of course. The best that McGonagall has to say about James, while looking back through rose-tinted glasses, is that James was brilliant… and the leader of a gang.

“He is his father over again—”

“In looks, perhaps, but his deepest nature is much more like his mother’s.

Considering Dumbledore usually reflects the authorial voice, there you go.

As for James's behaviour post-Hogwarts, JKR wrote two short stories that portray James as reckless, arrogant, mocking of Muggles, and responsible for the collapse of Lily's relationship with Petunia. Which I honestly find weird, considering she clearly intended for James to have become decent, yet never got around to actually writing it.

In any case, "toning down the bullying and the sexual assaulting" != "becoming a good person."

I don't blame McGonagall for the Marauders' behaviour itself, just for the complete lack of consequences. I find it hard to believe she didn't know about t.On the other hand, Draco was Snape’s student but he never managed to make him a better person bu that's because Draco was the subject of heavy indoctrination, and Snape had the mission of pretending he agreed with said indoctrination. Draco actually acts behind Snape's back a lot, like in PoA, when he's taunting the Trio behind Snape's back, while pretending to be very injured in front of him."

Holly shit that was long! and looking back i find it interesting that Pomona and Aurora Sinistra were the only one's not criticized by the original post (not couinting  Septima Vector and Bathsheda Babbling who we don't see teaching cause the books were written in Harry's perspective and he never took their subjects), perhaps because they were the one's that actually deseve the title of best teacher at Hogwarts.

[mmelanch0ly]

Hi, hello I have never posted about this anywhere due to me feeling so crazy about this. My family makes jokes all the time saying how there isn't anything or I'm just anxious ect. Ever since I was little, I have always been terrified of my great grandmother's basement. Now I know what you are thinking, "Wow, you're not original with this. Everyone has been scared of a basement at least once in their life." Please hear me out on this though.

Tw for those who are any bit sensitive at all to anything like death or religions

Ever since I was young enough to start having memories, I can remember having these dreams about our property. For more info, our whole family lives on one big property along with woods and a large field for farming. The dreams would be normal, but for some reason, we would have native Americans on our property just come to pray in our woods. They would stand at the edge of the property line and mumble something in what I think is Cherokee (my mother is half-Cherokee, not that it matters cause she technically never lived on or near the property other than for a few months when I was around 8) which is the only native American culture I am aware of being in this area. The ones that spoke english would tell me "It's cursed" or others would say "they stole it from us!" I think they meant they cursed the land someone from my family stole. The dreams repeat but each time they get more extreme. The dreams started taking more of a turn from the praying when I started having dreams of the basement. The all seemed to be terrified of me or any family member that came out of the basement, they would even urge you to quickly come with them. Remember, all of this is a dream. I have never met a fully on Cherokee Indian other than my mother and her mother (you couldn't tell seeing how we are as white as can be, having also a lot of German and Irish in us).

Then the dreams would have people start being dead. Some of the Native Americans would be found dead in our basement, like one being hung from her neck under the basement stairs. I remember that one the most because she looked most like me. I remember just waking up screaming and gasping for air too after that dream.

In the more recent dreams, the entire tribe that prayed on the property line are dead. The dreams will start off as your normal dreams, but as soon as I start walking to my dad's house at night (in the dream, we aren't at the real events yet), I hear someone yell something about dancing at night. If I turn around I will see a contorted woman twitching her way at me dancing. She rises from the ground near the basement. She will do a weird dance where she just follows me and catches me no matter how fast I run to my father's house. They keep repeating! Anytime I have a dream now that starts on that property, I am chased by her in the night of the dream. I don't know who she is or what she is. I learned about the moon eyed people, I haven't done much research currently on them so I will update after I have on them specifically, but from the brief description I got that is almost exact to her. She is terrifying to me and my hands shake even just thinking about her for some reason.

My family, especially my dad's family that owns the property, are VERY religious. They are Christian and their domination is Baptist like most of the South is. Anytime you mention to them there might be something evil all they do is say, "Darling, just say 'I rebuke you in the name of Jesus!' if you feel scared. Besides, there isn't anything wrong. Your grandparents are good honest people." The only person who even agreed with something weird was only saying that because my old stepfather helped with the basement at one point and she hates him.

These are also the type of people who think it is funny to scare you. They will pick on you about it. For example, I am terrified of spiders due to something that happened when I was little and my step-brother throws them on me to watch me scream. So one day, they got tired of me saying I was scared of the basement and made me go down there for 5 minutes. I didn't last 2.

Now, this is one of the only many events I have evidence of. I felt like something was wrong, so before I even got to the bottom of the steps I pulled out my phone to record. I went around touring the basement with my camera. After a bit, I do feel a bit at ease but can't shake the feeling of someone staring me down. Suddenly as I am coming to the end of the tour and going to relax for a moment, something suddenly being thrown against a wall of a room I was looking at. I tried my best not to show obvious fear cause I have heard that can fuel it. I as calmly as I could got my ass up the steps.

Days later I did sadly have to go back down there. I was crying the whole time. I just couldn't stop as soon as I opened that door. I don't know if it was from fear or just me being lazy and mad someone made me get out of bed for something I hate. I was sent down there to get a bag for a present, but while I was down there decided to check what was thrown. There was a lamp that fell over and was on the other side of the room from where it was placed. This lamp was not a circular shape or in any bit a round shape. It is a rectangle. It couldn't have fallen and rolled, even if it did fall how did it fall? Why did it fall? It could have only fell if someone physically threw it or hit it hard. Also, wasn't one of those big lamps it was one we use for camping.

Last time I went down alone, I decided I should try religion. Maybe that would put my mind at ease. I started reciting parts of the bible I knew off the top of my head, but I was quickly silenced by my throat suddenly feeling like someone was grabbing it from the inside if that makes any sense at all. I couldn't breathe or even speak. It only stopped when I got out of the basement. I do have an inhaler for asthma, but that wasn't my normal asthma.

Everytime I am down there, someone or something is watching me. I don't know how to tell. I can't even show my family the video of the lamp incident because I know they would dismiss it or get mad I filmed their messy basement. I don't know where or who to go to about this cause the only people who ever believe me are people who aren't related to my family.

Also, I have no idea if this is even remotely relevant but I am very sensitive to energy and can see stuff that most do. The simplest way I feel I can explain is by saying I am a medium. This post is all over the place I am so sorry! I just get excited or hopeful that someone may read this or listen. If any of you know how to deal with this or at least help me with my family please comment! I may post the video here later if anyone is even interested in this.

Reasons I think it's targeting me:

1. It knows I know its there

2. I am the youngest by blood of my family

3. I am very anxious and have been diagnosed with depression from a young age so I am the most vulnerable. Melancholy and Eeyore have been my childhood nicknames given by by family.

4. I do have a hard time with religion. So much has been tried to be forced on me that I just slowly drifted away over time.

Thank you for reading if you have, please comment if you have any advice or at least like so I know someone is reading.

[keepsmagnetoaway]

X-Men 96 (December 1975)

Christ Claremont/Dave Cockrum

After the breakneck pace of the initial revial issues, this is sort of a breather in which some groundwork is laid and some important threads introduced - albeit a breather in which the X-Men fight and kill a demon from beyond time and space, so. This demon arrives in a very funny way: Scott is out in the woods angsting about his failure to save Proudstar and eye-beams right through an ancient cairn that somehow entombed a demon. This is the sort of hazard you should have checked fore before moving a bunch of mutants here, Xavier. Also, this isn't even the first time that Scott's angst-blasting has awoken an underground evil!

Meanwhile all the newbies are training, and Banshee - who is sort of not a newbie, you'll recall, and settling into the role of "elder statesman who isn't the leader" - is wearing an absolutely atrocious outfit.

Nothing worse than being dressed like an idiot when you run into someone you really fancy, but that's what happens when he opens the door to the first appearance of a major supporting character - it's Moira MacTaggert! Here introduced as "housekeeper", but this changes, like, next issue to "genius colleague of Xavier" which is certainly for the better.

This is also the issue that gives us this iconic panel.

Moira has been at the mansion for like an hour when this happens. One sign of a good housekeeper is that she immediately locates the armoury and familiarises herself with the weaponry there. Moira's Scottishness is obviously as cartoonish as Banshee's Irishness but somehow I find it less annoying, Moira's great. What is yon kelpie, though? Well, it's this guy.

This is sick, obviously (in the good way). This guy is just some random demon, there's a bunch of dialogue in the issue that attempts to establish lore for him but doesn't really matter, what matters is how fucking bonkers the art gets. Look at this!

That's fucking amazing! One of the wildest, most ambitious panels published in X-Men to date. There's a view that Cockrum's art is quite conservative but I think stuff like this shows that's just not true. Anyway, the demon is defeated by Storm resealing the cairn while Wolverine fights it off, but in the process we get two fantastic little character nuggets, first this:

And then this:

That's it, in both cases: we learn nothing more at this point about either of their pasts, but it's extremely intriguing and thrilling to get a glimpse of complex, unknown backstories for both of them (and, we presume, for the others too): this, even more than Moira, is the major bit of setting-up that's being done in this issue, the suggestion that all these new characters are already deep and storied, we just haven't heard the stories yet.