#and even less the third

[theindiscreetbookworm]

"Man, fuck that guy" to "can I fuck that guy?", also know as the Izzy Hands fan experience.

[captainjonnitkessler]

You know I used to think "tumblr's absolute refusal to actually engage with the Trolley Problem in favor of insisting that there must be a third, morally pure option that doesn't require them to make a hard decision and anyone who asks them to make a binary choice is just a short-sighted idiot is really fucking annoying, but I guess it's not actually doing any harm".

Anyway that was before we asked tumblr at large to decide between "guy aiding a genocide but making progress elsewhere" and "guy who would actively and enthusiastically participate in a genocide and would also make everything else much, much worse for everyone elsewhere" and the response was that there must be a third, morally pure option that doesn't require them to make a hard decision and that anyone who asks them to make a binary choice is a short-sighted idiot.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Laios's three Boy Best Friends. And yes, they hate him.

[mobius-m-mobius]

loki in season two // mobius in season one (insp)

[yardsards]

i needed to express a sentiment in the creative stylings of @dunmeshiminimumwage

[l-just-want-to-see]

All I kept thinking about, over and over, was ‘You can’t live forever; you can’t live forever.’ 8/10

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald

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[stardestroyer81]

So @retrobee drew a Ruby Spears take on an absolutenutcase162 comic...

[reineydraws]

Saw your Mishanks bodyswap art! Very cute and fun! (Mihawk with a genuine smile on his face so so fun)

I imagine Shanks whould have trouble fighting in Mihawk's body at first since it's been years since he's had two arms

yes absolutely, i imagine that too! conversely, i think mihawk would have a little bit of trouble adjusting his balance and reach with a body missing one arm, as well. it's interesting to think about how they both would be forced to change their fighting style, and whether or not they would exchange swords.

mihawk's been seen using yoru with just one hand so he could probably pull it off with shanks's body. also interesting to think about shanks tripping up on having two arms until he naturally slips into his old fighting style again--or would he? because there's also the question of muscle memory, right? would mihawk's body automatically do things that shanks isn't predisposed to doing, and vice versa?

the other thing i find intriguing about body swapping in one piece is the question of whether or not your haki powers would switch as well. they say haki is spiritual presence, so presumably your haki switches if your spirits switch, but if it's the kind of spirit that's tethered to the presence of the body? then consider mihawk having the strongest conqueror's haki out on the blues, or shanks being able to use observation haki at mihawk's level, practically being able to predict the future--or mihawk, able to counter with shanks's haki-kill technique. food for thought!

[uncanny-tranny]

I'm tired of the idea that passing as a trans person is something you either are or aren't, that it is innate, and if you pass, you pass in every scenario otherwise, you don't pass, and if you don't pass, and it's because you aren't doing enough/aren't transitioning enough/aren't enough of your gender.

I'm tired of the idea that passing is this clearly defined phenomenon that happens to us all if we try hard enough, and that it's inherently our fault if we can't magically pass in every fucking scenario known to man.

[arttsuka]

lupin as a pygmy marmoset?

I tried

[naranjapetrificada]

The first thing I should ever have said about Izzy and the last thing I intend to say until at least October 26th.

[Although I am not Her strongest soldier, so who knows if I will stick the landing.]

So to start with, I was a "late" arrival to the show. I knew it existed of course, but I only occasionally saw things that reminded me it existed. The first time I saw a mention of "grumpy/sunshine" it was with a picture of Ed and Stede, so I guess on some level I knew there was shipping going on, but that was literally all I knew. I didn't even know it involved Blackbeard lol.

Which is all to say that I first approached and watched season 1 removed from basically anything anyone had to say about it. I think what actually got me to watch it wasn't anything anyone had to say either, it was from youtube recommendations? Like I think I had watched a couple Taika interviews or something and ofmd stuff started showing up? So after catching a few clips and intentionally spoiling the kiss for myself (life is too short to be queerbaited) I watched it in April/May 2023, and was Changed by it the way so many other people were. It grabbed me so hard I started looking for fics, and when fic grabbed me even harder I became a regular tumblr user for the first time ever in June 2023.

What I didn't do, before the second half of 2023, was care particularly much about Izzy Hands.

I remember describing him as psychologically fascinating to the first IRL friend I talked to about the show, and joking that he just needed a good dom. As much as his decision to call in the navy was a threat to Stede's and Ed's lives, I saw his actions as part of a thing needed for the story, and while I knew he was one of the season's villains there wasn't really any heat behind that assessment.

For me he was there to set things in motion, and to serve the narrative in certain ways, to be a foil, more storytelling tool than man. That doesn't mean I didn't think Con did an excellent job adding layers to him, he absolutely made Izzy take up space and feel more present and textured than he otherwise might have. But when I began to zoom out and consider things on meta level, Izzy existed to do a certain thing or occupy a certain place in relation to the narrative and other characters more than anything else. And that was fine.

Then I started reading meta here, and found myself surrounded by passionate conversations about Izzy from many directions occurring with an intensity that I couldn't wrap my brain around. I saw people tying themselves into knots to justify and excuse the behavior of a textual antagonist, and I was baffled and because I still saw Izzy for what his role in the narrative was, it literally made no sense to see his behavior explained away. In the framework I brought to the fandom when I first arrived, trying to explain away Izzy's behavior would be like looking at a forest fire and trying to explain away processes like combustion and oxidation. Or if you'll allow me to borrow another extended, nature-based metaphor from a fic in an entirely different fandom:

Again, because from where my head was at, it didn't make sense to look at Izzy's morality as a zero sum game because in this metaphor, he was functionally just a brackish body of water. I'm not saying the morality is brackish, I'm saying the morality was literally not the point because like an estuary, an antagonist "must exist" because antagonists exist for specific reasons directly related to storytelling goals.

So there was no real heat behind my feelings about him or his actions, beyond the natural emotional reactions we have to characters and their behaviors before we zoom out. I was of course upset with his treatment of Lucius, which was targeted compared to other members of the crew. I was annoyed with the way he talked to and about Ed. I laughed when his plans had the equal and opposite results of what he intended, which you could argue happened with every single plan he made for the entirety of season 1. And yes, especially as a Black person living in the US, I felt the fear and betrayal that comes from seeing someone call the cops (which given the show and its writers, it does not feel like a stretch to describe calling the navy that). I wondered if there was any coming back from a choice like that, which is a big overriding question for the series as a whole.

I'm not here to debate any of the points in the previous paragraph. I know how I feel and you feel how you feel and there's already been so much said about the morality of it all by people who have explained themselves well, so let them convince you or not. Instead I've been trying to talk about the two sides of my experience before and after getting into the fandom with Izzy.

Before: Izzy Hands, Narratively Useful Antagonist Portrayed Compellingly And Effectively by Con O'Neill.

After: Izzy Hands, Unfortunate Avatar Of The Sadly Common Tendency For Certain Fans To Hyperfocus On A White Antagonist Or Secondary Character When There Already Exists A Protagonist They're A Foil Of (And Also It Looks Bad TO Do That When The Protagonist Is Someone With A Marginalized Identity).

I'm not here to argue the merits of those assessments either, because that's not the point. The point is the vast gulf between them and how the latter does such an incredible disservice to the Izzy we were given and that so many people claim to love. The latter comes from a place where morality is the focus, which I'm sorry y'all, feels like it originates with people who refuse to countenance Izzy's role in the story as well as his characterization.

Viewers who were willing to see Izzy as an antagonist, who don't view the word "antagonist" as a value judgement in and of itself, who don't think that finding an antagonist charismatic or compelling means anything about their own morality, those people can look at the show we were given and take it for what it was made to be. I'm not saying that it's only the Izzy stans (not enjoyers, not jar people) who start fights or that people who understand that Izzy is an antagonist don't also have deep morality related feelings about him and his actions in the first season. What I am saying is that sanding off Izzy's rough edges and trying to make him into something he isn't poisons even the possibility of having a discussion about him because people enter the conversation with two completely different understandings of reality. If you cannot accept the job that season 1 Izzy was given to do to move the story along, well you might as well have watched a completely different show for how much that fanon Izzy has anything to do with the canon one.

This show deserves better than that. The writers deserve better than that. Con O'Neill deserves better than that. Israel Basilica Hands deserves better than that. We all do.

[coquelicoq]

went looking deep in my drafts for my list of favorite french words to pronounce to see if facétieuse was on there and 1) it wasn't, so i had the pleasure of adding it to the list, and 2) i then read one of the words at random and said, aloud, "oh my god" and had to immediately read the rest of the list out loud. insane mouthfeel. i should memorize the list and say it to myself when i get sad. anyway in case you're curious here's the list which i have sort of sorted into categories but don't think about it too hard because several words fit into multiple categories and also i probably missed some possible subgroupings. happy pronouncing~

words that are fun because of repeated vowels bonbon, ensemencement, manquement cocotte cumulus, pulluler raplapla tout fou (two words but one entry in the dictionary) volcanologie

words that are especially fun for me personally because i can't tell the difference between two vowels [ɔ̃] and [ɑ̃]: bombance, compensation, consciencieusement, contentement [ɔ] and [o]: autochtone, octogonaux, rococo, saucissonner

words that are fun because of repeated consonants sibilants: facétieuse, jaugeage, thésauriseuse glides and nasals: millionième, napoléonienne sibilants, glides, and nasal vowels: association, cessation, expiation, fascination, filialisation, glaciation, initiation, prononciation, scintillation, sensation, sentencieusement, vacillation quelconque traîtresse

words that are fun because they're the same thing twice with the last vowel changed clopin-clopant prêchi-prêcha

words that are fun because i love the symmetry of [eifje] déifier dragéifier gazéifier

words that are fun because i really like combos of [ik] or [ki] with optional friends [l] and/or [t] antiquité antithétique cliquetis coquelicot enquiquiner équilibre étiqueter héroïcomique kif-kif mastication pique-nique quiconque quiproquo rhythmique stoïque ticket

words that are fun because [j] a syllable or two after [ɲ] fucks severely champignonnière désignation ignominieux indignation

words that are fun because they're long with a string of alternating vowels and consonants that trips off the tongue antipathie authenticité habitabilité hétérogénéité infériorité parallélépipède territorialité tous azimuts

words that start with fun [p] consonant clusters pneu psittacidés psychédélique psychique

words that just have a certain je ne sais quoi architecture au-delà baby-foot gentilhommière houppe loufoque luxation mnémonique multimédia préalablement qualifier rouflaquettes saperlipopette scout schlinguer tacheter thérapeutique trouillomètre vrombir

[nipaaahh]

So I just finished Harrow the Ninth.

Wtf.

[yardsards]

fuck any job interviewer that's like "so how much money do you expect to be paid for this position"

idk dawg??? as much as you're willing to give me??? don't make me play "do i lowball it and risk getting underpaid or highball it and risk not getting hired" mind games. i did not come here to play the fucking price is right. you're the one writing the paychecks here.

[partiallithopseffect]

something something the doctor isn't a person theyre an idea. something about pretending to be the person you used to be. who everyone thinks you still are.

you regenerate and you're a different person. different face, different thoughts. but you have all these memories of this good, sweet, silly man with all these friends. so you call yourself him. you become him. and then you meet him, and of course he regenerated too. he's a shadow, and you're the shadow of a shadow. you're both just pretending, trying to be a doctor, trying to heal the universe. you're a function. a set of responses. you both are. and then you argue with him about recorders

[love-3-crimes]

felt a little silly,,,a little goofy even (context is that i have baby hotline stuck in my head and am procrastinating this essay)(send help)