#and I am unable to post even if I want to

[inasimad7]

📢Very urgent.!

🚨 We Need Your Kindness to Survive 🚨

My name is Inas Imad, from Gaza, and I am 30 year old wife and first time expecting mother living in the most unimaginable and dire circumstances for over a year now. Three years ago I married my best friend and have struggled trying to start a family. Even after this war began, my husband and I did not lose hope in starting our family and we continued in determination to live and to bring new life into this world. I am now currently pregnant with our first child, however due to the consequences of this war, I am faced with a high risk, dangerous pregnancy according to the doctor and I am very afraid that if I do not get get adequate nutrition, the medications, and supplies that I need, I will lose my child. The doctor has ordered medication to be given by injection throughout my pregnancy to help me carry my baby to term, however I do not have the money to purchase the medication and syringes needed, nor do we have the money to purchase adequate nutrition. Life here in Gaza is very difficult and we become more hopeless by the day. My husband and I had just started to build our lives together. We had a nice home where we had planned to start our family, and now we are subjected to living in a tent where there is no bathroom and we spend our nights just trying to get warm. It has been difficult being pregnant and not having a bathroom or even a bed to sleep on, but I want my child more than anything. The only hope we have left is in our baby and I am asking you to stand with us. Please, help us in any way you can to save our child. We feel very alone and abandoned, but we are determined to live and we want to see our child be one of the miracles that comes out of Gaza. Any amount you can donate, no matter how small, means the world to us. We will never forget you standing with us. Please, help me to evacuate from Gaza so that I can see my dream of being a mother and bringing my beautiful baby into this world to make it a better place and helping my husband and I be able to watch our child grow up. We will be forever grateful to you.

Please you are hope for me!

Don't make me lose hope.!

He is my first child.!😭😭😭

How You Can Help:

I’m sharing our story with the hope that someone out there might care. Even $10 can make a big difference for us, and if you’re unable to donate, just reblogging this post can help spread the word.!

✅️Vetted by @gazavetters , my number verified on the list is ( #425 )✅️

Campaign link🔗⬇️

@90-ghost @nabulsi @feluka @awomanofsomeimportance @watermotif @sayruq @sar-soor @palipunk-blog @irhabiya @wellwaterhysteria @buttercupsticksntricks @gothhabiba @khangkhaiki-blog @neptunerings @malcriaada @apagou @dykesbat @dykesbat @gazagfmboost @palhelp @kibumkim @transmutationdice @socalgal @chilewithcarnage @victoriaw @rhubarbspring @rainy-fog @captainsaltymuyfancy2 @i-dream-of-alcremie @mayoiayasep @northgazaupdates2

[recycledmoviecostumes]

hey, just wanted to let you know that more people will see your posts if you put spaces in the tags (Julie Andrews vs JulieAndrews). If you put the spaces in, they'll show up for people following the movie/actor/etc tags but not otherwise. Anyway, great blog, love your work!

Thank you so much!

The reason I am unable to do that, is because I do not post directly to Tumblr anymore. My tumblr feed imports from as social scheduler that schedules to multiple platforms - and hashtags on Insta and Facebook are sans spaces.

I have had to go with an auto scheduler for social channels to save time, as I simply don't have the time to dedicate to posting every single day, individually, on multiple platforms. Even loading the tumblr queue with literally hundreds of posts takes longer than I have, sadly.

So it was either have it import from a scheduler, or scrap tumblr altogether. I didn't want to do that, because I know I've got a lot of enthusiastic followers here, and also let's face it...Tumblr is the best social platform. I mean, it just is. Hands down. No offense to other platforms...and...I am NOT using a social scheduler to write this message, so no other platforms can see me say this and get jealous...

Anyway, using an auto scheduler is imperfect, but I've got to do the best I can with the very little time that I have.

It really does mean a lot to me that you took the time to want to help Recycled Movie Costumes find more viewers! For real, that's such a kind thing to take the time to do! You are awesome, anon!

And thank you to ALL of my viewers/readers who take the time to read, reblog, share, write me messages both public and private, etc. You all mean the world to me!

[ch3rrybbie]

Messy (part 2 of please please please)

Summary: he’s back like a cat with a dead bird.

Warnings: smut, p in v, no protection, oral fem rec. , dead body, blood, ominous end?

Note from the author: based it off the song by Lola young (loosely) mainly bc he is too messy but when he relates to the song it’s bc he’s pathetic yet dangerous lol idk if that makes sense.

———

Gore, blood and sweat enveloped him.

He heaves out heavy breaths, eyes unrelenting from yours.

Unconsciously your feet carried you back from him.

Had he looked this way at whoever’s blood was on him?

“Come. Here” he punctuated. The emblematic flag of freedom swinging behind him like a grotesque red flag.

Eyes scanning his face for danger, you relent tenderly walking towards him.

His gloves creak as they stretch to soothe your fearful face.

You’d seen the posts come through live on social media, Vought news smothering all reports of his rampage.

“I had to do that baby” he whispers nodding in self assurance.

When your expression didn’t soften from your apprehension he started to do his typical ranting.

A string of false preaching to bring you to his side.

“I mean they were going to take you away from me when I told then what you wanted and i will never let that happen. I would’ve done that a thousand times over, I will do it a thousand times over”. he’s left grasping at breath passion makes his eyes wild his hair is drooping into his face.

He looks villainous.

You cant help but reach up and smooth it back, “what have you done?” a voice drips out shaky and unrecognisable.

Cold breeze breaks your attention as the soft cotton curtains beckon you. Moving to grasp them you are breathless at the sight before you.

Dumped on the balcony is Stormfront, eyes gone with ragged laser marks across her face and body.

His body is marble behind you when you step back in shock. Toned hard planes keeping you upright. Kissing your cheek sweetly he grips your hand and guides you out, eventually dragging you over the threshold into the biting air.

It was his idea of some sick sort of wedding gift, an I am yours for ever and ever gift, a fate sealing bauble. And like a cat that got the cream he beams at you, face nuzzling into your beating neck.

“I love you” he sighs.

In the distance a sirens race towards the destruction he’d left. A promotion board with him and stormfront is almost unrecognisable, stormfronts picture is hanging above the shocked civilians.

His image grins down proud.

———

You’d been unable to speak and he barely batted an eyelid.

Shuffling around making you food and coffee. Keeping you no further than his eyesight. He was finally yours.

But did you want that?

He was even still covered in her blood. You couldn’t hold it in any longer. Fat hot tears slip down your face in whispers and he rushes from the stove to grasp you like you’d disappear.

Confused he pleads, “what’s wrong tell me i’ll sort it baby”.

Still in shock you finally let your looping thoughts fly free at him.

“You killed her”.

He sours.

“No,no,no” his finger wags in your face

“You asked me to kill her my love”

You breathe in sharply, you did ask him. He obeyed you, and not so deep down you wanted that.

Needed that proof of loyalty.

Once trembling and begging before you he now stands over you.

Worshipper victorious. He had sacrificed for you, he would always sacrifice for you.

“Let me take care of you baby” he smooths at you slick as silk, he kisses you softly but you knew hunger bludgeoned in him.

———

Food forgotten and probably burning he pulls you into the bathroom. Gently pulling clothes from you he smoothes his hands over your soft skin. Looking at you like you’re a marvel. A mere mortal that swayed his heart, perhaps you were a marvel.

You settled under the warmth of the shower attempting to breathe through the images of stormfronts ragdolled body on your balcony.

His sudden heavy presence behind you brings you back and you lean in to him letting him ground you. His skin is hot under the burning water. Steam perfumes the space between you and you feel his hardened cock bob and nudge into you. He grips your hips to him, but you couldn’t fuck him covered in blood.

Covered in your commands, your vicious dog. Turning to look up at him you begin to wash the blood off him, an iron tang hits your senses. He smirks down at you knowingly.

Arousal and blood.

You can’t help but let him kiss you, all teeth and tongue. Blood be dammed.

He kneels devoted, parts you legs desperate to taste you, he is unrelenting and messy when he kisses your aching pussy. You drip with desire, a string of wanton moans music to his ears and he begins to moan back into you. Drawing back he looks up at you, bloodied face, mused hair and swollen lips. He relishes in your shocked face as he pushes two of his fingers in, knuckle deep. His hair is gripped in a silent command for more and you wrench him back up to you.

Fervent desire sets your senses alight the salty water spray and copper tang of his bloodied lips envelop you. He pushes into you and the burn is delicious. A wet cacophony of thwacks and groans accompany his pursuit of your pleasure. Suddenly you are up against the cold tiled wall and you nipples pebble at the temperature change. The new angle means his relentless fucking into your sopping cunt hits the most perfect spots and the sheer size of him brings a pleasurable pain.

He is stoic. Looking down through wet hair and bloodied trails he grins and reaches down to harshly rub your clit. Letting your nails dig into his taught back you release around him. Fingers and toes curling and tingling you are out of your body as you violently clench down on his twitching cock, pulling him in. He comes in hot spurts lining your spasming walls.

You are satiated. For now.

He gently lowers you and peppers you with kisses, pushing your hair from your face.

“I love you” he asserts

“I know” is all you can return.

He finishes washing you and escorts you to bed, all thoughts of the burnt food and stormfronts corpse vanquished.

You can’t help but think about how calm and quiet he seems as you drift off to sleep in his arms.

You don’t see him rise and clear away the burnt food and stormfronts corpse.

You don’t see him slip back into bed and whisper promises of your new life together.

You didn’t see the messages from Ashley about the missing compound V and his foolish plan.

———

TAG LIST: @melody-deathnote

[twig-tea]

2024 BL/GL/QL Round-Up Post

Since I did this last year, I thought for posterity I'd post another reflection on everything I watched that completed in 2024. For me, that means anything that started in 2023 but the last episode was in 2024 is on this list, but anything that was still be airing after 31 December 2024 11:59 my time (EST) is not on this list, even if the bulk of the show did air in 2024.

A few stats:

[The image is TL;DR for what follows lol]

I watched ~150 discrete pieces of new QL content in 2024 (series/films) that I tracked [It gets complicated with specials and split seasons but I did my best to be consistent]; plus 10 things that I would consider "adjacent". For contrast, I listed 110 pieces of discrete content in 2023; that's a 45% increase year over year!

This clocked in at an est. 900 hours of new BL/GL and adjacent content (up from ~600 in 2023--which also tells us that the content I tracked was a little longer overall because that's a full 50% increase in terms of hours spent).

The new content I watched came from 9 different countries [same as 2023]: (Cambodia [1], Philippines [2, down from 3], Hong Kong [1], Japan [32, up from 18 in 2023], Korea [20; was 19], Myanmar [2, up from 1], Taiwan [12, up from 6], Thailand [75; up from 56], Vietnam [4, down from 7]), China [5], and then 3 joint effort productions from Thailand/Korea [2] and Thailand/Taiwan [1]

This means just under ~47% of the content I watched on this list is from Thailand [close to the 50% in 2023]

So many more shows had multiple or varied distributions this year, but like last year ~85% of my content was on 3 platforms: YouTube [38%; down from 40%], GaGaOoLaLa [30%; up from 23%] and iQIYI [17%; down from 21%] Note: I'm in Canada and my access routes are sometimes affected by that.

As unbelievable as it sounds with all that, I did actually drop shows this year! I dropped 9 shows, which is I think more than I've dropped in my entire previous 20+ years watching queer asian media combined (that might be an exaggeration but I do really hate dropping shows); 4 Thai, 3 Filipino, 1 Taiwanese and 1 Japanese (listed at the very bottom of this post if you want to be messy). I didn't track any dropped shows in 2023.

And if you're wondering how many shows there are in the world in total, I am aware of an additional 11 shows I just did not have time to even start (2 from Cambodia, 4 from the Philippines, 3 from Thailand, and 1 each from Korea and Myanmar). That does not include the vertical short reels that I didn't track this year--see @ellsieee 's tracking post for these--as well as several GL shorts from JPC media YouTube channel and Sastra film app YouTube channel that I just have not had time to try or even keep track of, though I do peek in on them to see if there's anything that looks particularly good, and I do always link these folks in my GL round-ups.

All of this doesn't include re-watches or catching up on old shows, or non-QL queer media, or non-queer media (the hets sometimes do deserve rights); but does include films as well as shows.

I hope you all appreciate that with this much content, and with my general brand of being unable to make decisions, I really struggled to narrow down a top 10 list. What follows is the best I could do lol

Top 25 QLs I'd Recommend From This Year:

[Links are self-indulgently to what I thought was the most relevant post I'd made this year relevant to that series/media, mostly spoiler-free pitches]

She Loves to Cook and She Loves to Eat S2 (Tsukutabe) [GL]

Love in the Big City

Love For Love's Sake

Tadaima Okaeri [anime]

Ossan no pantsu ga nandatte ii janai ka (Oppan)

Marahuyo Project

Knock Knock Boys

Let Free the Curse of Taekwondo

Love is Like a Poison (Doku koi)

Ossan's Love Returns

Twilight out of Focus [anime]

At 25:00 in Akasaka

Cooking Crush

Cherry Magic [anime]

Cherry Magic Thailand

Takara no Vidro

Soul Sisters / Twin Rabbits [GL]

Perfect Propose

Unknown the series

Paradise of Thorns [film]

Blue Canvas of Youthful Days

The Secret of Us [GL]

Mr Mitsuya's Planned Feeding (Mitsuya-Sensei)

The Time of Fever

A Man Who Defies the World of BL S3

I tried to put these in some kind of order but honestly if you asked me to rank them the numbering would change all the time and I would combust. The ones I liked best are closer to the top of this list. I also debated back and forth on whether Paradise of Thorns counts as QL so many times. But in the end I decided the main character was queer and queer romance of a sort was at the heart of the drama, so I've left it in this list even though technically it should probably sit with the 'adjacent's.

Worth noting that though only ~20% of the content I watched was from Japan, ~45% of my favourites were from Japan.

+5 notable pulp offerings worth mentioning:

Bagan Beginning (Myanmar)

City of Stars (Thailand)

Gym Affairs (China)

To the Ex Who Hated Me (Korea, GL)

Under the Oak Tree (Vietnam)

I think I'll do a top 10 GL post separately since we had enough content to warrant a top 10 (yay!) but this is already long enough. I just want to take a second to acknowledge that this year was so much better than in 2023 when I didn't feel like I could recommend any of the new GL shows. Thank you content creators for better and more GL in 2024, please keep that energy for 2025!

Bonus: Not a QL but worth calling out:

How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies (Thai film)

I saw both this and Paradise of Thorns in theatres during the Toronto International Film Festival and they were both so powerful! Extremely different tones but they surprisingly hit on similar themes, and very beautifully filmed. HTMMBGD was a complicated film filled with very rounded and complex characters, and I still think about it all the time. Very excited for more folks to have access to both of these soon.

Sidenote: The fact that I watched 45% more shows in 2024 than I did in 2023 and still managed to keep my rec list to 30 (*cough1cough*) does seem to back up the general feeling that though we had more content, we didn't have a proportional rise in good content. I do want to crunch those numbers in another post.

Double Plus Bonus: Best Older QL Content I watched for the first time in 2024:

Life as a Girl / Joshi-teki Seikatsu (Japan, 2018; I'm so sad I missed out on this one for so long due to misinfo, it is fantastic! Thanks to @so-much-yet-to-learn for helping propel me to this one)

Iron Ladies (Thailand, 2000; thank you for the rec, @happypotato48)

Nacchan's Secret / Himitsu no Nacchan (Japan, 2023; thank you @furritsubs for making this watch possible)

Can I Buy Your Love From a Vending Machine / Sono Koi, Jihanki de Kaemasuka? (Japan, 2023; thanks to @nicks-den for making this watch possible)

I Fell In Love with the Villainness (Japan, 2023; watched because of a convo with @pilanthitasanilaphat)

Doi Boy (Thailand, 2023; this one I had on my list and just had to work up the energy to watch, but it was a beautiful film and I'm glad I did)

BL Metamorphosis (Japan, 2022; another thank you to @furritsubs)

Dear Dad (India, 2016; thanks to @neuroticbookworm for the rec!)

Salty Blue / Kakenuketara, Umi (Japan, 2023, thank you again @nicks-den!)

[I can't believe I forgot this at first] The Miracle of Teddy Bear (Thailand, 2022, thanks for going on that journey and writing great meta with me and for calling me out for forgetting @lurkingshan!)

There is so much good content in the world and despite my best efforts I haven't seen everything! So grateful to the fansubbers and people who write about past shows so that those of us who missed them the first time still get a chance to see them.

In terms of my output based on all this input, I continued not lurking this year, and have enjoyed it very much; see my Top 10 posts from 2024 here as well as the content I linked in my recommended shows above--going through the process of adding those links really highlighted to me how much more I've written this year, and how much more motivated I am to write about shows I love. It's no surprise I had dedicated posts for most of my top shows! To highlight a few specific projects this year that I'm proud of, I participated in the Love in the Big City Book Club read and watch-alongs organized by @lurkingshan, which was such a fun project that I am grateful for, and I started my GL Odds and Ends posts (tagged with #gl recs) that I am still feeling out but am really enjoying seeing the impact whenever someone watches a show because they found out about it through one of my posts. I also made an appearance on several episodes of @the-conversation-pod and had an incredible time trying out different things in a quarterly 'Dispatch' and having some really rich conversations with @bengiyo and @shortpplfedup. I love this corner of tumblr that we've carved out for ourselves as a QL watching community, and I just want to say to everyone I've interacted with in 2024: Thank you, and wish good things for you all in 2025!

Full list of 2024 shows under the cut for anyone curious! [Mostly in order it completed but may be slightly off--if a special aired immediately after the final episode I only list them as one thing and count the airing of the special as the end date, for example].

Bagan Beginning

Love Senior the Series

After SunDown

VIP Only

Twins the Series

Last Twilight

Night Dream the Series

My Universe

Bake Me Please special episode

Sahara Sensei to Tori Kun / Mr Sahara and Toki-kun

Love for Love's Sake

7 Days Before Valentine

Happy Ending

PitBabe the series

For Him the series

Cooking Crush

The Sign

Chaser Game W

Playboyy the series

Perfect Propose

Ossan's Love Returns

Tsukuritai Onna to Tabetai Onna S2 / She Loves to Cook and She Loves to Eat

Cherry Magic Th

Dead Friend Forever

Sukidoya / Although I Love You and You / Sukiyaken kedo dou yaroka?

Healing Thingyan

Love You in Every Multiverse

Cherry Magic (anime)

Please Teach Me

Anti Reset

Jazz for Two

Blank the Series

A Secretly Love

To Be Continued the series

Love is Better the Second time around / Koi wo Surunara Nidome ga Joto

City of Stars

Sea You Soon

Human Too

Man Who Defies the World of BL s3

Gray Shelter / Gray Currents / Grey Current

Gym Affairs

1000 Years Old the Series

Love is Like a Cat

To the Ex Who Hated Me

Lady Boy Friends the series

Deep Night the series + Special Episode

Unknown the series

Memory in the Letter

You are My Star

Lonely Girls

Boys Be Brave / Roommates / I Can't Confess

Blossom Campus

Two Worlds

VIP Only special episode

Pray In Love

I Fell In Love with My Male Best Friend

Friend With Benefit

Stay By My Side special episode

23.5

You Made My Day

Living With Him

City Boy Log pt3

Anti-Reset special episode

The Time of Huan Nan

Xiao Xiang Yi Jiu

Inverse Identity

At 25:00 in Akasaka

Only Boo!

Tadaima Okaeri

Love Bully (Club Friday)

Blank the Series S2

Marahuyo Project

The Two of Us

Blue Boys

OMG Vampire!

My Stand-In

We Are the series

Ossan no pantsu ga nandatte ii janai ka / Oppan

Wandee Goodday

Under the Oak Tree

The Rebound

Love Enemy

Love in the Apocalypse

Bad Guy

My Marvellous Dream is You/ Dream the Series

Century of Love

Knock Knock Boys

Be Your Star

Meet You at the Blossom

BOYTOY

The Secret of Us

Ayaka is in love with Hiroko / Ayaka-chan wa Hiroko-sempai ni koi shiteru

My Love Mix-Up!

This Love Doesn't Have Long Beans

Love Sea the series

Cosmetic Playlover

City Boy Log s4

Sunset Vibes

Mr Mitsuya's Planned Feeding

Takara no Vidro / Takara's Treasure

Paradise of Thorns

I Hear the Sunspot

The Time of Fever / when your temperature reaches my fingertips

4 Minutes The Trainee

Twilight out of Focus

Happy of the End

The On1y One

Live in Love

Heaven'sxCandy

The Two of Us s2

Addicted Heroin

I Saw You In My Dream

Monster Next Door

Our Golden Times

Affair

First Note of Love

Battle of the Writers

Reverse 4 U

Unlock Your Love

Chaser Game W s2

Let free the Curse of Taekwondo

Uncle Unknown

The Hidden Moon the series

Love in the Big City [the series]

Smells Like Green Spirit

Red Whisper

Eccentric Romance/PT is Love

My Damn Business

Apple My Love

Dominant Yakuza and Wimpy Corporate Slave

The Nipple Talk

Kidnap the series

Every You Every Me

Jack & Joker

People Come Later

Blue Canvas of Youthful Days

The Loyal Pin

Let's Eat Together Aki and Haru 2

Love is Like a Poison / doku koi: doku mo sugireba koi to naru

Bad Guy My Boss

Haunted Hearts

Seoul Blues

The Renovation

Love Sick 2024

Love in the Big City [the film]

Spare Me Your Mercy / Euthanasia

Soul Sisters / Twin Rabbits

My Hot Butch Roommate

Whisper Me a Love Song / Sasayaku you ni koi wo utau

Boys' Christmas

Bonus: FuFuKnows bi-weekly shorts [every other week they post a short film, almost always a QL storyline; there were 23 in 2024]

And those QL-adjacent shows I mentioned [these are all adapted from QL media or starred QL actors or were part of a QL franchise but did not have a canon queer romance at the core of its storytelling]:

The Spirealm

Close Friend 3 - Soju Bomb

How to Make a Million Before Grandma Dies

Man Suang

High School Return Of A Gangster / I, a Gangster, Became a High Schooler

Kimi to Yukite Saku: Shinsengumi Seishunroku

Hoshikuzu Telepath

A Balloon's Landing

Peaceful Property

My Strawberry Film

The shows I dropped:

Time the series

Beside You

Sugar Dog Life

The Whisperer

Kiseki in Tokyo

Q18

Sky Valley

The Fate Trap

Dear Miss Becky

And as a shout-out in penance, the shows I had on my list to get to but haven't yet watched:

A Blue Sky (Cambodia)

Ending Friend (Cambodia)

Pretty Boys (Philippines - requires an access fee on VivaMax+)

Oh My Boo (Philippines)

The Perfect Heartbreak (Philippines)

Where I found You (Philippines)

My_ the series (Myanmar)

What's In My Bag (Korean GL - requires an access fee on Vimeo)

Complicated (Thai)

Club Friday: Hot Love Issue (Thai)

2nd Chance (Thai; not to be confused with Second Chance, this was a smaller 3-episode short series from this year)

Thank you for reading!

[sapphiresaphics]

So I woke up to THIS conversation this morning:

So yeah… apparently Zaun = Gaza and Israel = Piltover now. We’ve done it! We’ve linked Arcane to real world politics now! Doesn’t matter that the show was in production nearly a decade before the horrific attack on October 7th, or anything. Doesn’t matter that Christian Linke has said his inspiration was American politics. Doesn’t matter that throughout history conflicts like this have existed for centuries. Nope! Apparently this was all “planned” as an allegory to the war in Gaza from the start!

I’m gonna have an aneurysm….

Is THIS why so many people are unable to look at Arcane’s story as anything other than oppressors oppressing the innocent, and are incapable of looking at the larger nuances and parallels Arcane is taking? They’ve conflated their political ideologies and real world situations to that of a fictional setting?Is THIS why you guys hate the “we must come together to fight a greater evil” ending????

And like… if you’re going to view Piltover and Zaun through such uncritical eyes… then what the FUCK does Season 2 Episode 1 have to say about your beliefs? Cuz in that episode, during a PEACEFUL MEMORIAL, Zaun invades Piltover and attacks and slaughters a score of people. If you are on the side of Zaun does that parallel you being on the side of the terrorists who slaughtered people on October 7th?

Real talk: I had a couple friends and some distant family members DIE in that October 7th attack… They were people I knew. They weren’t soldiers. I can’t even process how ANGRY this person’s hateful and ignorant response to me is right now. Imagine losing a friend in such a brutal way and some rando comes up to you and says you deserve to die because of it. Jesus Christ…

Also, I really REALLY shouldn’t have to say this… but if someone says “Jew” and you hear “Zionist” instead, YOU ARE BEING AN ANTISEMITE. That’s how dog whistles and hateful rhetoric WORKS.

When Caitlyn angrily grits her teeth and says Zaunites are “animals,” that’s YOU when you’re saying “Zionist” to a Jew. Learn the fucking parallels you pieces of shit.

You think you’re being Jinx, but in reality you’re just being Caitlyn. Like the whole POINT of Caitlyn going off the rails is because her anger and hatred caused her to “other” people she should be caring about and protecting. That’s what you’re doing. And you took NO EFFORT to try and learn what my beliefs or politics were because the SECOND I said I was Jewish, you conflated me with the IDF slaughtering children. Fuck you and your ignorant black and white world view!

I’m not surprised this is the level of intelligence and reading comprehension on this website, but I am still disappointed all the same.

Ps: I’m not gonna bring up my IRL politics about the war in Gaza and all that shit after this post, because I deserve to put some distance between reality and fiction. But I needed to get this out there because I am horrified at how this interaction went and you should be too. If anyone wants to come at me for being Jewish and not supporting the war, don’t bother, and If you try to argue about the war with me or on any of my posts I’m just gonna block you.

[jewishbarbies]

I think that a huge part of unpacking antisemitism is recognising one’s capacity for evil. I think a lot of leftists and liberals cannot accept that are antisemitic or can be antisemitic because they truly believe that they cannot do any wrong, or at least anything wrong to that degree. They truly believe that they themselves cannot be racist, they themselves cannot be antisemitic, they themselves cannot be homophobic, etc, so they don’t see anything wrong with the things that they perpetuate. That’s why the “it’s not antisemitism, it’s anti Zionism!” shit spread so fast, because antisemitism = bad, and recognising that what they’re saying is antisemitic would be recognising that they themselves are maybe not bad people, but are spreading bad rhetoric. So they needed something to oppose their rhetoric that they could call “bad” instead, which in this case is Zionism. Now I don’t have any dog in this fight when it comes to imposing morality or immorality upon the concept of Zionism because I myself am not a Jewish or Israeli person, but this is just something that came across my mind earlier today when I was thinking about my own morals, beliefs, and feelings and how sometimes I truly find myself unable to at first empathise with certain people and I started thinking about my own capacity for what either is evil or may be perceived as evil. I don’t think people have to go as far as thinking that they’re a psychopath or something, but just actually recognising that you’re not a perfect person and that you will have biases that may be harmful to other groups of people and opening yourself up to unpacking and dealing with them can go a long way because thinking that you’re a great person who could never commit such atrocities (like being racist and/or antisemitic, etc) creates this weird sense of leftist or liberal narcissism.

this is really well worded.

many if not all leftist spaces lack the room for self reflection to the detriment of everyone in them. leftism doesn’t teach self reflection, only projection, so they’ve never actually unpacked any of the biases and bigotries required to be as good a person as they claim to be by virtue of being a leftist. they want to be good so bad but they’re intellectually incapable of committing to that work, it takes too long and it’s not something you can post about with a hashtag. truly, even just as a human being, they need to look inward.

[brklynbxby]

The air, far from offering the clarity they sought, was thick and stifling, like the charged moments before a thunderstorm. Every breath felt heavy, burdened by emotions neither of them could escape. Somewhere down the street, laughter and muffled music spilled from another bar, a cruel reminder of a world still spinning while theirs seemed frozen in this moment of heartbreak. Above them, a faint drizzle began to fall, cool droplets settling on their skin, unnoticed by either of them as they stood in the suffocating weight of their words.

Mena’s tears streamed down her face, glistening in the dim light like rivers of molten glass, their warmth stark against the cool night. But it was the silence between her words that struck the loudest, filling the space like a dark chasm, impossible to bridge. Milo stood rigid, his fists clenched at his sides, the ache in his chest radiating outward like a bruise. His voice, when it came, was low and gravelly, raw from the strain of unspoken truths. “Mena,” he said, his tone laced with incredulity, “do you even hear yourself?” He laughed, the sound bitter and jagged, devoid of any mirth.

“I’m not a fucking mind reader,” he said, his voice rising, sharp enough to cut through the tension in the air. He stepped closer, his eyes narrowing, piercing hers with a gaze that demanded answers. “I know you, Mena, or at least I thought I did. But how am I supposed to piece together this mess? This jigsaw puzzle built on half-truths and unspoken feelings? You needed to tell me that night wasn’t just some drunken mistake. That it meant something to you because it did to me.” His words hung in the air, heavy and unrelenting, as the drizzle turned to a steadier rain, dampening his hair and plastering stray locks to his forehead.

He shook his head, his voice breaking as he continued. “You say you left him for me. But where were the words, Mena? I laid myself bare to you, I told you everything, and you gave me silence. And even after you left James, you had time to post some happy little picture with him —” He choked on the words, unable to finish. Milo’s voice softened after taking a moment to regain, but the despair in it was no less sharp. “So, is that it? When we feel ashamed, we let the people we love burn because pride comes first? I’m so glad I meant so much to you,” he said bitterly, his jaw clenching. “Maybe this was a bullet dodged. Maybe we never would have worked... You say you still need me,” he whispered, his voice barely audible over the rain now falling in earnest, “but all I see is someone who doesn’t know what they want.”

The rain seemed to pour harder, soaking through his clothes and mingling with the tears he refused to shed. For a moment, his eyes locked with hers, searching for something—anything—that might salvage what had been lost. But the weight of it all was unbearable, the truth cutting him deeper than he thought possible. The words she had spoken, words he might have once longed to hear, now felt like a cruel twist of fate, reopening old wounds and leaving him more confused, more broken, than before. 

His question was legitimate and Mena hated that she had no real answer to it, at least not one that would make up for any of it. At least, not any that she hadn't given, that she had needed time to process it all, that she had been scared. "And I thought you understood that I felt the same way. You were supposed to know me, to know what it meant for me too." How could they have hurt each others that way, when it seemed like they had both loved each others. "I didn't want to loose you," she said once again. She wished she was back in the bar now, people closing out on her, sound drowning her thoughts. Because this was too painful and following him outside had been a mistake, one she could never forget. Would she had kept the status quo much longer? That was something she didn't know but she felt like she wouldn't have, would have followed her heart. "You were drunk Milo and then you never said anything about it again. I thought you had been too drunk to know or something." They had been drunk together plenty of times and that line had never been crossed so she didn't know what changed that night for Milo.

"I slept with you Milo. I cheated on someone with you. I couldn't say the words because I was ashamed of how quickly I was ready to throw everything away for you but it never meant I didn't love you." In her mind, back then, saying the words seemed bigger than hooking up with him. She thought he would know that she wouldn't do such a thing lightly, just like he seemed to have thought she would know he wouldn't do such a thing lightly. It seemed like they might not have known each others as well as they had thought, or had been too stupid to see through it all. The woman wanted to hold onto something, her feelings overtaking her and she wished she could still feel the sticky wood from the bar inside. Mena needed something physical to anchor her and all she could think about was how her elbow had rested on something wet back then. Now there was only openness around her and it was too much.

The way Milo laughed as he repeated her words, paraphrased them, how she took her time because she was afraid that it would ruin them, hurt her even more. Hadn't she been right? They were left with nothing because of their actions of that night. But then he said he was trying to survive her and the breath was knocked out of her. She hadn't imagine that her actions hurt him that much, hadn't considered that the scars could run as deep as hers. It create such duality in Mena, the sudden realization that they needed each others as deeply and that yet, it could only hurt them. His words left her speechless and dizzy, her mind running in every directions at once.

"You think this isn't hard for me?" she asked, her voice barely a whisper. She wanted to reach out to him, needed to comfort him, like she had always done in the past but she had never been the cause of such anguish from him. "That it's not killing me that you're here with someone else, someone who belongs to a place that used to be ours? I stopped going to that place and everywhere we went because all I saw there was the emptiness you left with me." She was crying now, from anger, hurt, frustration and probably so many other emotions she couldn't discern at the moment. "I left James because of you, for you. And I went back to him not because I loved him but because I couldn't be alone. And I lay next to him in bed and think of you. I needed you, still do." Her hand went to her mouth, the weigh of her words being too much.

[heynhay]

I think too many of us love you to disappear….

haha ohhhh okay this is so fine

[uhbasicallyjustmilex]

me stubbornly forcing myself to drink green tea and rest from my THIRD COLD THIS MONTH

[silverwhittlingknife]

hi Silver! o/ because that fanart made me wonder - would you happen to know when/where Dick's stuffed elephant plush Zitka turns up in the comics?

GREETINGS CAM <3333 THAT ART WAS SO CUTE

Yeah, I think your instincts are right - it's a truly adorable bit of transformative fandom, but I'm 95% percent sure it's not comics canon. Barbara has canon plushies, but I don't think anyone else does.

I got kinda invested in the investigation (it's hard to prove a negative!) and I ended up typing out an entire History of Elinore/Zitka, so, uh, if you're curious, meet me below the cut for:

Where does Elinore / Zitka - the animal - appear in comics?

Did Dick ever have a stuffed elephant toy in comics?

Where does Elinore / Zitka appear in comics?

We're gonna go in chronological order!

Dick's circus elephant friend was first created for practical reasons: in Batman 436, Marv Wolfman does a big expanded flashback to Dick's circus backstory as a way to subtly show us Tim before officially introducing him (so that we can have a technically-solvable mystery-of-Tim's-identity in LPoD). In this comic, there's an elephant named Elinore who loves Dick:

Aww. Such a cute elephant!

Batman 436 comes out in August 1989. New Titans 60 comes out a few months later, in November, and guess what? When Dick visits the circus, he is suddenly surprised by an unexpected blast from the past! It turns out that even though it's been years, Elinore still remembers him!

Here's the part where Elinore remembers Dick:

SUCH a cute elephant. I love her.

(Guess who else still remembers Dick even though it was so long ago. Guess which other character is about to be an unexpected blast from the past. Guess which character Elinore is directly paralleling guess guess guess sorry everything is about Dick and Tim in my mind but I can focus I swear)

Four years later, in 1993, Batman: The Animated Series retells Dick's origin story. They like and keep Wolfman's elephant, but they change her name to Zitka:

Wolfman doesn't return to the elephant beyond those two appearances, and a few years down the line, New Titans gets cancelled and Wolfman's not writing Dick anymore anyway. So the animal gets abandoned for a while, until Devin Grayson, a fan of both Wolfman and B:tAS, revives the Wolfman-era Titans team in JLA/Titans and then the ongoing series Titans 1999.

Grayson then brings back the elephant in a flashback to Dick's past in Titans 16 (Jun 2000), where she imports the B:tAS name. Sometimes I'm skeptical of TV-to-comics imports, but honestly, I endorse this one. You lose the alliteration, which is a shame, but IMO Zitka is a better elephant name than Elinore.

Here's Dick with the newly-christened Zitka in Titans 16:

Grayson also briefly references the elephant in Gotham Knights 20 and - in a final angsty callback - in Nightwing 88 (Feb 2004), where Zitka tries futilely to comfort Dick in the midst of his trauma conga line:

... And... honestly, I think that's it for comic appearances? The two Wolfman comics plus the three Grayson comics.

Both Wolfman and Grayson are writing multiple titles - Batman, New Titans, Titans, Gotham Knights, and Nightwing between the two of them, spanning a big chunk of Dick's post-Crisis canon - and both writers use the elephant for heartwarming moments of nostalgia, which means if you're doing a post-Crisis readthrough for Dick, Elinore/Zitka feels memorable. But I don't think she actually shows up that much.

For post-2011, I am not as well-informed - throwing this out to the dash? anyone know? - but I feel like Zitka the heartwarming symbol of Dick's heartwarming circus past is, uh, thematically very at odds with the Court of Owls evil!circus vibes, so my instinct is that this story element was almost certainly dropped in the reboot.

Did Dick ever have a stuffed elephant toy in comics?

In WFA, yes; in main comics continuity, no. Technically, I have not read every comic ever published, so I could be wrong!! But I don't think so.

Below, find my rambling reasoning on the tonal vibes of pre-Crisis, post-Crisis, and post-2011, and why this particular story element doesn't seem right to me for the first two.

Pre-Crisis (...okay, mostly the Silver Age): stuffed animal, yes or no?

tl;dr no, requires too much background knowledge on the part of the reader, plus the elephant wasn't a thing until later

Elinore doesn't get created until post-Crisis, but also just generally, pre-Crisis callbacks are more along the lines of this reference in Batman 129 (published in 1960), where, wow, Batman and Robin are hunting jewel thieves - and it turns out Robin recognized this strongman! BUT HOW?!

The comic goes on to recap Dick's entire origin story in flashback, on the assumption that you may not know it.

(BTW, if you'd like to know more about Haly's Circus throughout the years, nightwingology has a great post here summarizing a lot of fun plotlines and characters!)

Basically: Silver Age comics are very self-consciously episodic and kid-friendly; they're not generally gonna do overly-elaborate callbacks because they don't know what comics their kid readers may have randomly picked up or remember.

By the time of post-Crisis, comic books were being written for an adult audience buying from the direct market, i.e. readers who are collecting whole runs & don't need or want Dick's origin story to be recapped to us in full every time it's referenced. That's why in post-Crisis, we get stuff like "hey, neat, this particular soda brand is getting mentioned in several different books!!" or "in order to understand this story arc, buy SIXTEEN DIFFERENT COMICS in FIVE DIFFERENT RUNS and read them ALL ACCORDING TO A NUMBERED ORDER and also you better be following the individual plotlines and recognize these five minor characters who we don't bother to introduce!! Good luck!!" But the elaborate post-Crisis plotlines - and subtler worldbuilding like a stuffed animal callback to Dick's backstory - don't make a lot of story sense UNLESS you're imagining your readers as completionist adult fans.

So IMO a stuffed animal wouldn't be a pre-Crisis thing unless it was The Episodic Story Of the Week, and I don't think a stuffed animal is action-adventure-y enough for the fast-paced storytelling of the Silver Age. (Unless it, like, came to life and tried to eat you or something.)

Post-Crisis: stuffed animals, yes or no?

tl;dr: no, Dick's a manly tough guy, he's not gonna have a stuffed animal, that'd be lame, like something Tim might do

Part of the edgy grimdark adult vibes in 80s/90s comics is that some characters who used to be kinda silly & goofy & lighthearted - like Batman and Robin - get reimagined as Serious and Angsty and Edgy in a Tough Cool Manly Brooding Way. This massively affects characterization for Bruce, Dick, and Bruce and Dick's relationship.

(I obviously love this change & love the tense Bruce-and-Dick interactions, but plenty of fans of the earlier fluffy comics really disliked the edgy retcons of Miller / Wolfman / Starlin / et al.)

The upshot is that post-Crisis is a period when you could have a recurring reference like a stuffed elephant, but you wouldn't have a stuffed elephant, not for Dick. I think a toy like that would be too cutesy / childish / effeminate to give a male character in post-Crisis, unless you were poking fun at him.

Now, you could probably let Tim have a stuffed animal, because Tim is sometimes cool but also sometimes a tryhard loser who is faking being cool and not entirely pulling it off (see e.g. the Robin comic where he practices tough-guy faces in the mirror, or the Teen Titans comic where Conner discovers his cringy Enya CD, or when he's fanboying over Connor and it's awkward, etc etc.). A stuffed animal would be deeply embarrassing, and you'd have to be careful to compensate by having Tim do something cool afterward - but Tim's character concept allows for "he's kind of a loser sometimes."

But Dick isn't!! In post-Crisis, Dick's a tough / impressive / "cool guy" character, the kind of guy anyone would want to be, even in the flashbacks where he's Robin, and even in the stories where he's more lighthearted than angsty. It'd be kinda lame for Dick to have a stuffed elephant, so he wouldn't. I feel like Dick would be more likely to poke fun at it if someone had one, like when he's making fun of Wally for liking the Hardy Boys. Dick could have a Batman action figure, at most, and if he had one he would have it ironically.

Basically: in post-Crisis, a male character hugging a stuffed elephant feels more likely to be a punchline to me, not something poignant. (Even with Tim, Tim could have an embarrassing stuffed animal, but he couldn't hug it when sad - that's too far. Maybe Booster Gold might do this. Probably he wouldn't, but spiritually, he would. Sorry Booster ilu! <3)

Instead, Dick instinctively deals with his inner turmoil like the TORTURED ACTION HERO he is: by punching things and brooding and yelling and joining the mob and sleeping on rooftops and going on obsessive secret missions and acquiring Angsty Stubble!! Just like Batman!

(Technically I don't know if Bruce ever joined the mob but you know he would.)

Anyway as you know this is my favorite continuity and I am poking fun affectionately, but uh, yeah sdfsfdsfs. No stuffed animals.

Post-2011 / Infinite Frontier / Wayne Family Adventures: stuffed animals, yes or no?

tl;dr it's in WFA! Probably not anywhere else, but it could be.

Post-2011 stuff tends to be cutesier overall, most of all in the current Infinite Frontier era. So I don't feel like this would be tonally out-of-line with IF comics. Taylor tends to go for more meme-y references rather than fanfic references, though.

So the obvious best fit is WFA, which is aiming for a rough approximation of Silver Age family-friendly vibes - wholesome, episodic plots, Teaching Good Moral Lessons For The Youth, etc. - plus lots of Easter eggs for fanfic readers and some comic references.

And look, here we are:

Aww.

Whew - that's everything I could find!

Anyway as you can probably tell, I LOVE the elephant, so this was a very entertaining rabbit hole to go down, thank you <3

[skunkes]

gonna keep making this post forever i guess because it just keeps getting wilder the more time passes and my brain forgets the immediate sensations/experience but i can't believe i got SURGERY. CRAZY. Not even this specific surgery but the fact that I got any surgery at all!!! SO WILD

[bungobble-my-balls]

Re-reading the bsd manga and picking up more stuff now and it is an experience.

Because Asagiri and Harukawa wtf is THIS

You can't just drop this and never bring up these two together again.

I know WHY this is here. It's at the end of volume 10 where it's revealed that Gin is Akutagawa's younger sister, so it's art showing the two younger sister's in the Mafia and the ADA.

But WHY do they look so good here! They look straight up devious too like they know something or have secrets?? Naomi I am looking directly at you because you look so suspicious here but I don't know what to suspect you of.

They're back to back and melding into eachother like they're rivals or something too, this single image feels so important but it's literally the ONLY mention we ever have of these two at the same time.

This literally gives me the same feeling of looking at art of sskk in the ying/yang position or soukoku in opposing/matching colours.

I know it's probably because they're the sisters in opposing organisations but why does this art make me feel like this is much less about their organisations and more about THEM opposing/paralleling eachother.

I am now hoping so much that this art is also foreshadowing because whatever this art of them and whatever dynamic it implies is just so interesting to think about.

[sadkachow]

if i hear one more pro-ai take i fear i may start exploding people with my brain

[al-luviec]

still haven't moved on from zane in this episode (aka I hit tag limit again and am unhappy about it)

[club-prideguin]

quick reminder that i currently have some very affordable sketch commissions open. if anyone would like to give a bit of money to an unemployed queer person in exchange for something small, I am available. Here's where you can order on ko-fi: [link]

I know that other people need money more right now.. But it would be nice to have some money to buy gifts for the people I care about this december is all.

[bibuckleykinard]

how many times do we need to learn as people that irony and hyperbole can be harmful because 'jokes' aren't easily distinguished from genuine thoughts and feelings until we stop rewarding people for speaking or posting about violence

like even if you're joking/don't actually believe that/think whoever you are insulting is bad/immoral/fictional therefore deserves it - ad hominem attacks always do more harm to the people who share those characteristic then the individual you intend to cause harm to or discredit