#and I won’t feel bad about it

[everyone-calm-down]

I think we as young people get caught in thoughts of activities we SHOULD do and things we SHOULD like when really we’re allowed to not like them.

I never went to a high school party, like I had sleepovers but I never went to one of the classic movie parties that get framed as a universal formative experience for American teens. I just never wanted to.

So I thought I’d have that formative-partier experience in college. At a college party or the club or somewhere. “The club” whatever that means. But I never did. I don’t drink, and I got tired at 11pm because I went hiking in the morning, and none of the friends I made went to nightclubs either. At least not regularly. So in the four years I went to college I never went to a nightclub.

And I’m not sad or regretful about that AT ALL. There was a time where I thought I SHOULD be tho. I SHOULD be sad that I never went to a rager in my early twenties. But I’m not. I SHOULD be sad that I never went to a high school party. But I’m not. I look back on that time and don’t regret a single thing. Not in a “I still have time to be a partier” way (even though that’s true) but in a “I’m not a partier and I wasn’t a partier and I’m probably never going to BE a partier” way.

And that’s fine. I like the adult I’ve turned into and none of the things I like about myself were traits that would have come from getting drunk to EDM. And there aren’t any traits I wish I had that would come from it either. I might have missed some iconic experience but I am not worse off for it. And I’m not better off for it either. I just am the person that I am and I like and dislike the activities that I do and that’s okay.

[vogelmeister]

decided to reread merel’s monologue in wings of love and i noticed the best unintentional parallel

[blue-mood-blue]

I can pinpoint the moment that destroyed my life today:

It’s been a handful of weeks since Murderbot came within inches of having a new, organic governor module implanted in its head via infection - do you think, maybe, that’s also been hiding behind the redacted? Not the way everything else is, just as a deep-seated reminder of what it can’t afford to lose?

What a way to be told “I love you” - to be told “I will not lose you, I will not let go, I will do the hard part of holding on even if you don’t want me to”

[daeyumi]

au Ganondorf 🪷

ngl i am Very proud of his design

[willthespy]

Yes, I use solangelo for all my little drawing experiments. What about it?

EDIT: this looks like the fucking propaganda posters that they throw at you in history class... i might have accidentally created solangelo propaganda, i fear

[notaplaceofhonour]

idk, when i joke/meme in passing about something that happened to hezbollah that has a real potential for shifting the balance of power away from the axis and get told that’s treating it like “team sports” by (genuinely good well-meaning people who I otherwise have a lot of agreement & respect for, not talking about the people who approve of Hamas, Hez, etc.) but then I see footage of the people in Lebanon who’ve actually had to live with the reality of Hezbollah partying & passing around treats in celebration like it’s a tailgate party over the same news, i don’t feel i’m in the wrong

it’s not a game to me, but people often process big serious things—big feelings, big news, etc—through humor. it’s only natural.

and it’s the real impact that it has on people that makes me excited hezbollah is getting it’s shit wrecked. the people who’ve been terrorized by that regime have every right to be glad in the potential of its downfall. so why should i not be glad with them?

[keferon]

I'm a beginner artist and I love how you draw Swindle. Baby needs more love and attention. Sorry for blowing up your motifs by spam liking Ur posts (⁠*⁠´⁠ω⁠｀⁠*⁠)

Ah thank you:3

But also, feel free to spam like all you want. I don’t really care about numbers, so I turned off notifs for likes and commentless reblogs. The only thing I see is when someone saying/adding something. Like replying or leaving funny tags or something like that.

[housederiva]

Idk maybe it sounds weird but I wanted to say thank you for openly saying you didn't like some parts of the game. I've seen so many comments like "oh just admit that you actually hate dragon age" when someone is trying to question certain decisions the devs made. I love dragon age, i love each of the 3 games and I love how complex, nuanced and colorful this story has been. I don't hate the new game, I actually love some parts of it - it's just different. It feels different, the writing is different and sometimes questionable, a lot of the things I expected to see were not there, the lore feels a bit altered. It's good that we can all discuss these things I guess

I think most of the people saying those things have me blocked because I haven’t seen any of that (which you know is fair you should curate your own space and all that)

There isn’t a series that means more to me the Dragon Age, it has had a very special place in my heart for 15 years, which is why I held Veilguard in such a high regard before release. It sounds silly to say but these games have gotten me through quite a few hard things in my life and Veilguard is going to get me through another

Veilguard is a fine game for what it is. I love the companions and the combat is fun and it’s beautiful. I yelled in excitement and I cried with grief and sadness several times… but it could’ve been so much more. There were so many things tossed to the side that could’ve been made into something wonderful. There’s nothing wrong with acknowledging that

It’s not healthy to place something on so high of a pedestal you cannot see its flaws anymore, regardless of how important it is to you

I know I have a few devs following me and it’s not my intention to insult or belittle anyone’s work. You did a great job with what you were given and I’m grateful for that. Veilguard is a different game with a different kind of heart to it, but that isn’t entirely a bad thing. Regardless, we can still be sad about what it could’ve been and what it isn’t

[mythalism]

…

[antiquepearlss]

I’m too tired to post an essay but my girl was just a victim of bad writing and a lack of critical thinking from the audience okay I love her.

[hplonesomeart]

Hehe this man is broken and severely emotionally distressed. Silly lovable guy but given self esteem issues because of the crushing weight of perfectionism. Not so funny if you think about it too long. But at least on the upside he cries pretty :))

No but seriously for all those who relate to Mr. Puzzles just want you to know your accomplishments alone do not define your value and worth as a person. Even when you’re a messy work in progress, you are loved and appreciated more than you may recognize. Thank you for being here. Don’t get me wrong it’s good to be idealistic and set goals, but don’t undermine yourself if you don’t get that perfect score….or if you start to fall behind compared to everyone else. Everyone goes through those moments of doubt or perceived failure. We need to fail every once in a while. And that’s okay

…a-anyways funny goofy dramatic TV guy we love him so much so silly so slay he lives in my head rent free yipeee. This animation is dedicated to him because if anyone in the cast deserved a feature length film it was definitely him, and he sure took up the spotlight in Puzzlevison and absolutely owned it. I’m excited for his future endeavors ✨

[greelin]

it sucks so bad that whenever the evil very loud and annoying and all consuming voice in my head starts telling me everyone hates me and i don’t belong here (like. on earth. alive. around other people) there’s now an equally as loud and annoying voice being like “Well who’s the authority on that. who’s deciding? who is saying this? YOU? i have to laugh.”

[faelapis]

journey to bethlehem SLAPS. it is so fucking extra. its so "high school musical but 5% more religious" that i genuinely had to double-check to make sure kenny ortega had nothing to do with it.

[dykedvonte]

I have this sick idea in my head that Jimmy and Curly have brought up the hypothetical situation about a mutiny and if they’d have the heart to shoot each other.

And I believe that Curly would say he’d never use the gun and if he absolutely had to he’d turn it on himself because, obviously, if even Jimmy is against him, he must’ve fucked up royally. It’s sweet and he’s raw with it, talking about how much he values being a good Captain and what it/Jimmy mean to him and how the gun is never something he considers, hence why he doesn’t even know the code (likely required if the code scanner is tampered with but he’d make the risky choice) and it leaves Jimmy a bit speechless. He wouldn’t answer for himself until Curly asks, teasing like he’s expecting something equally as sappy and sentimental but Jimmy just says he would.

Right between the eyes. No hesitation. Quick and easy to get it over with. He’s having fun with it, it’s crass and cold and he doesn’t even realize Curly didn’t even let out his usual awkward laugh when Jimmy talks like that. No placating smile, just a sort of dejected and surprised look. The formations of an epiphany. And Jimmy can see how off put Curly is and the hurt and he says he’s just joking. The cockpit is quite after that but Jimmy doesn’t care and things go by as usual despite it. Curly’s talking to him the next time they meet and all is well. He forgets about it.

But I think it sticks with Curly for a long time and he tries hard to brush it off as just another off kilter thing Jimmy would say. That in the moment, Jimmy wouldn’t or he’d try not to or he’d at the very least hesitate. He’d settle for just apologizing before pulling the trigger.

But in the back of his mind he knows theirs a subtle truth to those words.

[turtleblogatlast]

Thinking about the Don Suave scene and what it means in terms of LGBTQ+ representation because my brain does nothing if not torment me with random topics to ramble about on the regular.

Anyway, I just wanted to ramble about why I like the scene but to get it out of the way - the scene can very easily be interpreted in so many different ways, and all of them are valid. I personally see it as Leo having at least some attraction to a man. And the following is an explanation of my own interpretation and thoughts on it and what it means especially for Leo’s portrayal in the grand scheme of things.

Long-winded interpretation under the cut!

Now, to start with, it’s important to me that in the scene Leo looks at Don Suave in the very beginning and then for the entirety of the rest of the time the man is on screen, Leo’s eyes are closed. Yet, in the end, he is still visibly enamored with Don Suave, happily cuddling up to him as he’s being carried away.

You can very easily interpret this as Leo being spellbound and that’s honestly super valid and I believe he likely was at least somewhat in the beginning, but considering how fast he looked away and how he never looked again, I personally think it makes more sense to read it as Leo just finding the man attractive, at least somewhat. (For the record, I personally headcanon Rise Leo as bisexual with a heavy preference for men, but I want to be blunt when I say that any interpretation is valid. Literally any. Ace, pan, gay, bi, none of the above or a mixture of something new literally all of it is more than okay and fair. Hell you could even interpret this entire scene as more romantic attraction than physical and it would still work. Anything goes!! Don’t bother people, guys, really.)

The main reason I take this scene to be at the very least LGBTQ+ adjacent isn’t just because of how it’s portrayed, but because of who Leonardo is. Not in terms of Rise of the TMNT, but in terms of the entire Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles™️ franchise.

Leo’s a character who, while changing with each iteration, has still at his core been around for decades upon decades as “the blue one”. One fourth of the team. He’s the one most are going to look at as the Leader, and oftentimes he is the one closest to having the title of Main Character. Not to say the others aren’t just as important, but Leo’s presence in the A plots of basically all TMNT media is often something very main character-esque.

And that’s very, very important to note. Here we have a Main Character of a prolific and decades long-running franchise distributed by a children’s television network. You can play around with his and his brothers’ characters all you like, but there is always going to be challenges to dodge around, especially since this was still in 2018-2019.

For example, you can play around with their designs so long as they’re color coded turtles, but their sexualities? Now that’s tricky.

“But what about Hypno and Warren?” Not main characters and also they’re Rise originals. They have a lot more room to play around with than a character like Leo does. But even talking about main characters in the franchise, you could arguably have an easier time playing around with Donnie or Mikey’s sexualities than Leo or even Raph, as (unfortunately) the former two tend to get more B plots, so they’d likely have had a little more leeway (still not a lot though.)

So, where does this leave us?

It leaves us in a place where outright stating and/or showing undeniable proof of Leo’s attraction to men is very, very difficult. So, workarounds!

Workarounds like the entire Don Suave situation.

To be honest, as left up to interpretation and lowkey and deniable as it is, this whole scene means a lot to me because of who Leo is as a character. It’s just nice when we get so see even the bare bones of representation with characters that have been such a large part of pop culture for decades, y’know? Even if more would be so much nicer, this is better than I thought we’d ever get for these boys.

And, again, literally nothing I’ve said is the only way to interpret it, I’m more than happy when people interpret media on their own honestly, it’s just something I’ve been thinking of lately and I was wondering if others felt the same way.

Whatever you think when you interpret this scene or Rise Leo as a whole, I just thought this would be interesting to think about, even if it was ramble-y, haha.

[lesbiassoon]

"An Amazon promotion that allowed customers to deliver a $5 tip to their delivery driver maxed out in less than 48 hours thanks to high participation."

Unfortunately, guys, the offer is officially over! It maxed out within a day of me making the og post. However, the above article is a great read on the current state of Amazon, its business practices, and the conditions that workers are in and will be in for the rest of the holiday season.