#and how they participated in genocide and murder

[blorbofrommyshows]

has Disney ever gotten darker than the owl house?

Like? “I’m starting to think you make those things just to destroy them. You have fun with it. Admit it!” the implications of this line. kind of cannot believe this was in there like holy christ.

[celibat]

and the thing is ppl are saying "yes biden is funding a genocide, but trump would do that AND kill us-americans [meaning white lgbt ppl or whatever]" biden is already doing this. biden is killing black people. black people are being murdered under biden. u just dont care.

[heritageposts]

if you support israel right now, you're supporting the extermination of the palestinian people.

it really is that simple.

this isn't a 'complicated conflict,' it isn't a situation that 'requires nuance,' it's not a 'geopolitical event' that requires us to condemn the 'bad actors' on 'both sides.'

it's a genocide.

there is no 'nuance' to be had here. it's a genocide, committed by the israeli state against the palestinian people, and it's happening right now as we speak. you don't have to infer anything: israel has openly, with next to no pushback from so-called liberal democracies, cut off gaza's access to water, food and electricity. that's more than two million palestinians denied even the basic necessities for life. a million of them, children.

what is that, if not a genocide?

and that's only the latest escalation. we could go all day, listing the atrocities the palestinian people have been subjected to. the killings, the beatings, the children sexually abused in detention center, all the hospitals and ambulances being blown up, videos of palestinians being heckled by settlers as they're driven from their homes, israelis gathering on hilltops to cheer as their military drops bombs on gaza...

but all westerns want to talk about, is hamas.

because the murder of palestinians by the IDF is status quo; it doesn't affect them. what's one more dead palestinian but a statistic? but if hamas has killed a handful of israelis — if they've go as far as to even kill babies — then that justifies the extermination of two million palestinians, children and infants included.

westerns will even say that the palestinians brought it on themselves; that they should have know that a drop of israeli blood requires a river in return.

and just so we're clear, you don't have to like hamas. but when you equate hamas with the IDF, when you derail every conversation by demanding a condemnation of 'both sides,' or when you, god forbid, agree that israel is justified in dismantling hamas — which, as israel themselves have outlined, will involve the complete destruction of gaza and the murder of hundreds of thousands of civilians — then either wake up, or own up to the fact that you're a participant in the extermination of the palestinian people.

do you think i'm being harsh? then imagine how it's like living under constant aerial bombardment. with no food, no water, no electricity. constant air-raid sirens. a bomb, dropping every minute. never knowing a moment a peace, always wondering if today is going to be your last day, if you and your family are still going to be here tomorrow.

could you stomach living in gaza, for even a day? i doubt it.

and still, now, on the eve of what might be the ground invasion of gaza — with one million palestinians being told to flee, with nowhere to go — i'm getting messages from people who demand my sympathy... for israel.

well, you're not getting it.

i'm not even humoring your hand-wringing.

if you live in israel, and you're one of the ones who've turned a blind-eye to the suffering of the palestinian people, if you've fought for the IDF or tacitly supported them, if you've callously called upon the memory of the holocaust thinking the death and suffering of your ancestors would wash the blood of your own hands....

then yeah, i think you deserve every single hamas rocket lobbed at you and so much more.

[drowsinginspace]

Speaking of boycotting Eurovision, after my latest reblog (linked), I need to express my thoughts, since this morning I've read the worst takes ever.

Some people saying "I just won't watch the Israeli entry" or "Actually boycotting doesn't work, just let us have this fun thing when the world is so awful right now" or "Boycotting from your sofa is just performative activism".

My gosh. Get educated.

The Palestinian Call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel asked for a boycott of the whole contest. A quote from the linked article says:

Participating in Eurovision for Israel is “a dream, in particular this year, when it has even more meaning.” Since October 2023, Israel has murdered more than 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including at least 12,300 children, and injured a further 70,000. Understanding the contest’s propaganda value, particularly in the time of genocide, the Israeli president Isaac Herzog says, “it’s important for Israel to appear in Eurovision.”

So, "just watching anything but the Israeli entry" does not count as boycotting.

"The world is awful right now" because awful people try to make propaganda out of "this fun thing", participating in a grandiose festival while people are still being killed and attacked every day.

This is exactly the right moment to think about Palestinian people! (Or the Armenian people who were killed and displaced by Azerbaijan during the recent Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.)

I am tired too, but I live in a privileged nation, where nobody is trying to actively harm me. I have a choice to watch the fun and the glitter and listen to silly songs or I can try to think of someone else who is getting attacked on the daily.

Mind you, you can still find a way to boycott the contest and listen to the songs, if you can't LIVE without them. Just don't add views or interactions to official channels who make money out of it, and don't use the hashtags. Talk to your buddies in DM and don't make it trend! How is that complicated??

And if this is still too much of a "performative activism", here's something else less passive that you can do, without even standing up from your sofa:

This google doc has a list of Palestinian people who need donations right now:

Donate hygiene kits:

Donate eSims:

Daily clicks:

And now you can block me if my post on your Eurovision tag is clouding your fun.

Please do not be antisemitic or islamophobic in the notes of this post and be respectful.

[buttercuparry]

URGENT: 2 GAZAN GFM, EXTREMELY LOW ON FUNDS

Long post but I need your attention!!

I am here to bring attention to 2 fundraisers which have been stagnating for a long time.  I am generally wary of punching together more than one fundraiser in a post because more often than not, even if the textpost gets sufficiently boosted, with notes reaching upto 4k or above, there  isn’t really a difference made in the fundraisers themselves. But still I am attempting something here. Please cooperate and have the patience to completely read through to reach the poll at the end. That is the most important thing here !! If done right,we can truly help these gfms. We are attempting to raise at least 2k for each of the families and it would not be possible without your participation. 

1. Alaa Amsee, reblogged by 90-ghost , has been struggling with her gfm since May. With only 5.18% of her goal raised till now, Alaa has begun to despair. Alaa has 2 beautiful children- Maria and Hazem, both of whom have fallen sick due to lack of access to proper sanitation. Alaa herself has contracted Hepatitis A and is very weak, because she cannot keep down even the meager amount of food she has access to. The family is malnourished, starving, tired from fighting illnesses without access to medical care. On top of that- they are facing bombing in Deir al-Balah currently!! They have almost lost hope of finding any sort of help from the Tumblr community. Alaa says that Hazem, who is only 3 years old, has started to talk only of war, bombs and tanks. Please donate and help soothe the heart of a mother. 

2. Mohammad Iwais is an entrepreneur from Gaza, who once lived a beautiful life. But soon his nightmare began when his house was bombed in the genocide. Not only that, the occupation has also murdered 10 of his family members- his sister was on death’s door too, after being shot by a quadcopter bullet. Luckily she survived, but Mohammed knows that luck is a very fickle thing in Gaza and he cannot bear to lose any more of his family members. After the smear campaign against Gazans, Mohammad was worried. He was ( in fact he still is) ready to lose every facet of his privacy. He hates it, but says if this is how his humanity can be judged, then so be it.  Please don’t make him go through such humiliation. Help him evacuate himself and the rest of his family. You can find all relevant info on the vetting here.

On tumblr we often have events where we get to push the silly buttons. The site went wild on April fool boops and vanilla extract. I want you to show the same energy here too- this is about someone’s life. Remember we are trying to raise at least 2k for each of these gfm. Please click on the relevant  option after you donate/boost and mention the fundraiser falling behind in the polls. 

Boost the post so that it can reach people! It is important please! Make sure you donate too, if possible.

[vermiciousyidreborn]

People like to talk about the lessons Jews should or did learn from the Holocaust, as though that's the only genocide we've been through. They like to say it should make us the nicest, kindest people because we've been through the worst so how could we ever inflict pain on others? How could we ever hold ourselves as more important to us than others, having seen the camps?

The thing is, we did learn a lesson. And it's a lesson we've been taught time and time again. That when it comes down to it, not only will non-Jews look the other way when Jews are slaughtered, they will gleefully participate and cheer it on. From Rome to the Crusades, to Spain, to Germany and all the places in between, we've learned that we're in this alone. We want to all be in this together, but everyone else has made it clear that that's never going to be the case.

So we know we're alone, that other than a very small minority, the only people who will ever object to Jews bieng murdered are other Jews. The Righteous Among the Nations are a tiny minority, and for every person who was a member, there are not hundreds who think they would have been. Some of them think they would have been and are celebrating the largest pogrom since WWII today. They're wrong, of course. If the Nazis came for the Jews, they'd do what they're doing: celebrate it.

Yes, we learned our lesson. We learned you all hate us, and Jewish existence has to be secured by Jews, no one else will do it for us or help us. This combined with our ancient longing to return to where we came from and created the modern state of Israel. Then there were more attempts to wipe out Jews, more attempts to drive us into the sea and destroy us, but this time, Jews took our future into our own hands and survived. Were there excesses? Yes. War crimes? Definitely. Have the past decades included missteps, crimes, and all sorts of horrible things? Yes.

But why would Israel do these things? Survival. Why has the war against Hamas in Gaza been so destructive? Why has it expanded to Yemen, to Lebanon, and potentially to Iran? Survival. In the end, Israel is a country with a single mandate written in stone: the Jewish people will live. And on October 7th, 2023, Hamas made it clear that whatever mellowing they'd appeared to do, whatever potential there had seemed for peace, Hamas finds that mandate to be intolerable. They believe the Jewish people must die. And then they killed as many as they could. Then the Houthis and Hezbollah joined in, firing rockets and drones.

If you're a country whose mandate is "the people of my country must survive" and with the historical understanding of "and no one will come to our aid if things get really serious" then what do you do? You, too, would view this struggle as existential. You, too, would likely accept casualties and destruction to try to root out the groups trying to wipe you off the face of the Earth. And you, too, wouldn't trust the people who seem weirdly obsessed with attacking the country that is going to extreme lengths to ensure that you survive.

What did the Jewish people learn from the Holocaust? We're alone. Help isn't coming. We have to deal with threats by ourselves. And that's why Gaza is in ruins, why Beirut is being bombed, and why Biden is trying to persude Netanyahu not to destroy Iran's oil refineries. And amid all this, you all are taking to the streets, calling for our deaths, and proving that those lessons were right, but might not have gone far enough.

[meanbossart]

Sorry if you’ve already answered this, but I’ve been wondering what would happen if DU Drow and Astarion were the only people in their party. If they never met any of the others and only had each other for company on the way to Baldur’s Gate.

Btw I love your art! I’m obsessed with the way you draw characters and their expressions in your style.

Ohhhhh god. I think that would be disastrous.

My personal belief aside that Astarion is by no means an idiot (not that I'm opposed to participating in the smooth-brained jokes - but, generally speaking, I think I might give his intellect more props than most), he is obviously not at his best at the start of the campaign at all. He is operating out of desperation and it's only halfway through the game that you get to see some of that emotional intelligence that I'm so fond of. And even so, he still requires a successful persuasion check at the end of his quest not to commit undead genocide (and I think he's the only companion who needs a check at all regardless of circumstance or approval).

Then we have DU drow who has no attachments to anyone around him, a penchant for murder, very little skill for self reflection and a proclivity towards latching onto one person and falling obsessively in love, assuming that the person in question knows how to play him - and Astarion would know how to play him.

Lest we forget, Astarion had practically no influence on DU drow's decision to oppose Bhaal. He just kind of goes along for the ride until you hit the point of no return, and only THEN he's like "Oh, uh, maybe this wasn't such a good idea". Shadowheart is the biggest factor on DU drow's decision to oppose Bhaal, with Aylin and Jaheira making for honorable mentions.

Ironically, DU drow's "base" personality (which he has access to thanks to his memory loss) tends to oppose religion, gods, and organized systems as a whole, but I think if it were only him and Astarion alone, they would feed each other's hunger for strength and power enough that DU drow would arrive into act 3 with absolutely no doubt about what he must do. He would very easily revert back to his old, domineering personality and do whatever he thinks he must to establish his status, and most importantly his power over his loved ones, lest what happened with Orin ever repeat itself.

This circumstance would be perfect for the eventual Bhaalist DU Drow + Spawn Astarion scenario. Which just makes it all the worse that Astarion would have had a HEAVY hand in steering him in this direction. And the cherry on top; he has no one else to turn to here.

On the flipside - this could potentially turn into a situation where Astarion keeps DU drow small enough to where he's able to Ascend, while his Bhaalspawn partner either refuses his father out of fear or loses the duel against Orin. I don't know how viable this is, since Astarion very much needs a strong and confident DU drow if he wants Cazador to die - but I guess anything is possible.

The point is, if left to their own devices there would be nothing stopping either of them from pursuing their very single-minded goals, and I don't think there's a scenario they BOTH come out on top either. Between DU drow's obsessive behavior and been-burned-before attitude, and Astarion's distrust and fear of losing control again, they would constantly wrestle for the opportunity to keep the other under their own thumbs.

And hell. All of this assuming they didn't kill each other on night two.

Thank you for the ask and for your kind words! Hopefully this isn't too depressive/disappointing of an answer, LOL.

[cosmicmordecai]

“ Why do people hate things being Jedi critical? It’s okay if they’re flawed.”

There’s flawed and then there’s presenting the idea the in universe religious minority who essentially have to fucking do everything as narratively ‘flawed’ bc they don’t appease everybody essentially. Be it Anakin, be it their philosophy, etc and correlate to the idea of how that leads to their fall. Most ‘Jedi critical’ points just assigns a unusual level of onus on them for simply existing. Jedi are human/human-like so we know they’re flawed to a point but when they’re accessory to slavery, accuse them of child taking, or whatever points and ignore context, it’s not being critical. Y’all just wanna slander.

Whats actually annoying is how this fandom & this franchise can look at this religious minority group (composing a lot of PoCs & allusions to other cultures) who get literally persecuted by a politician who created a entire army called Stormtroopers, which is right on the nose for Nazi allegories, and go “lets craft ideas & stories that suggest they’re at fault for really existing & not being perfect paragons of good.” This is the same fandom to say the Sith made some good “points” despite being a part of the problem, ignore the Mandalorian’s weird ass system of government, and find ways to sympathize with characters who participate in murder & genocide because they’re hot (Anakin, Kallus, Maul).

And to top it all off, the story had them killed via mind control to shoot them in the back by people they bonded with for maximum hurt & efficiency after fabricating a war using OTHERS.

[muffinlance]

Wait, what’s going on with Embers???? That fic has been on my read later list since 2021, what’s happened with it???

Brief overview, then I'm likely never touching this topic again, because this is not a Drama Blog:

Context: Embers is a super old AtLA fic that was written during the early fandom days, read widely at the time, and was the origin of the widely-used fanon name of "Wani" for Zuko's ship (kind of by default that it was one of the first popular fics to give his ship a name, I think?), even though most fic writers don't seem to realize it's from there anymore.

"What's Going On": I used to include a link in all my stories to it, because I believe in crediting other writers for borrowed elements, and I was using "Wani" in all my fics. But BOY did I not want to be sending readers that way anymore, so I've adopted a new name for Zuko's ship, and removed all Embers links.

None of the criticisms about Embers itself are new; I'm assuming they date back to when the fic was being written, because this isn't an "it aged badly" thing, this is an "actually yeah this gets worse the longer you think about it and I shouldn't have ignored my bad feelings just because some of the worldbuilding was interesting" thing.

An Incomplete List of Why I Made the Change:

I don't actually like the story that much anymore, and don't want to rec it

I tried to re-read it recently to see if some things were as bad as I remembered and it turns out they were So Much Worse Oh Yikes. More specifically, the treatment of Katara and Aang and their respective cultures has... rather a lot going on. One example: The Fire Nation and Air Nomads are both given multiple backstory elements in an attempt to make the average Fire Nation soldier's participation in the genocide/war in large part the fault of the Avatar and the Air Nomads themselves, and also fully justified from the Fire Nation perspective. And I do mean fully. One of its core tenants is "People from the Fire Nation (and only people from the Fire Nation) who don't follow orders Literally Die, therefore murdering pacifists and babies and continuing the war (and their regularly scheduled war crimes) is the only thing it is physically possible for them to do". I cannot emphasize enough how literal that is.

Also the name "Wani" means "Alligator" and is... objectively a pretty lame name for Zuko's ship? Where's the personality, where's the deeper meaning, where's the resonance with Zuko's themes? @tuktukpodfics initially thought I was calling the ship "Wanyi", and that's what I've switched to, because it is Objectively So Much Better. In their words: “Wànyī (萬一): Literally ‘one in ten thousand,’ ‘perchance.’ Used grammatically in Chinese to mean ‘what if’ or ‘just in case.’ I think a ship called ‘The Perchance’ is perfect for a boy clinging to false hope.”

TL:DR; I don't rec Embers anymore, because I don't actually like the story anymore, and there are things about it that get worse the more I think on them. I've removed links to it and renamed Zuko's ship to "Wanyi" ("The Perchance") because our boy deserves a ship name that reflects his character arc.

[bloop-bl00p]

Are the suffering and consequences in the room with us?

For a place that is supposed to be Hell, there’s little to no effort into showing that these people are punished. Not necessarily by the Hellborns, I very much like the approach of “Hell is other people” but the writers failed at showing us this aspect. Vivziepop's version of Hell feels more like L.A. painted in red. And that’s disappointing.

It’s still a messed up place but outside of episode 4, there’s no real investment in making sure we understand that this is HELL. We see people do drugs yet we see nobody in a zombie-like state on the street. The closest we had was a randoe in Happy Day in Hell but it was a joke.

This is something very blatant with HH, most of the time, when something serious is presented it’s a joke (Sexual assault, drugs, etc...) It’ll depend on whether you're Viv's favorite character or not.

*cough*

Sir Pentious was not.

*cough*

You also see this in how they approached the crimes committed by characters, most of them did messed up things but Charlie never tries to address these despite being the one supposed to care about redemption.

Vaggie participated in genocide, she was angry but for one episode only, and her rant to Alastor was too light-hearted to be taken seriously (again a joke). Rewatch the scene, with an Alastor that doesn't give a damn, the funny music in the background, her goofy facial expression and tone, that’s not taking it seriously narratively.

Alastor was a serial killer and took pleasure in torturing his victims. Currently, he’s a cannibal and slave owner, Charlie does nothing about it. I’m not asking her to free Husk and Nifty we don’t know if she really can, but she could have had a conversation asking Al to not torture people during his stay at the hotel or treat his employees like humans and not pets.

Angel Dust was part of the mafia. From what we’ve seen he isn't against killing people, in fact, he seems to like it.

Every time we see him fight he’s smiling and enjoying himself, it’s said in the pilot that he’ll never miss an opportunity to help Cherry fight in those turf wars of hers. But his problem is druUuUUugs (this is an issue but that’s the only thing pointed out.)

That’s even more noticeable with the cannibals… who are nice? Whoa… you’re saying that the people whose whole culture is to jump you at your most vulnerable, tear through your flesh with teeth and hands just to feast on you in the middle of the street are actually silly guys and gals who like meat a bit too much. How charming ☺️

She was more annoyed that guts and blood went into her eye than anything.

There isn’t enough effort to showcase the horrors of living in a place where your only chance to survive is to be physically stronger and a good manipulator. When we’re shown something awful like “murders or cannibalizing someone” it’s presented as quirky, and funny, and nobody really mentions it. Aren't we supposed to believe that Hell is a bad place as a whole? Is Extermination really the only thing we have to worry about?

What’s the point of adding concepts like forced labor, addiction, and an unfair hierarchical system if you’re not going to show the viewer the horrendous reality of these things?

Vivziepop needs to pick a consistent tone for her series, there’s nothing wrong with joking about murders and EdgyyYyy humor, but that makes the audience detach from the reality of these things and they will have a hard time caring for a character the second they are portrayed as bad. Especially when the transition between funny and serious is from one episode to another.

“Angel and Husk are suffering!!!!!”

The characters that are supposed to be addicts are sober every time we see them on screen. We see Husk drink alcohol directly from the bottle and rather than showing that the toxins are affecting his body by making him sluggish and/or on the verge of vomiting he’s still able to stand still and hold a conversation perfectly. Even if Husk drank like a sailor, there’s so much alcohol your liver can take before eventually letting it affect your system.

But maybe we could use his addiction in a way to reinforce the fact that he isn't free.

Think of it like this, show a few scenes where Husk is excessively drinking experiencing bad hangovers, and not doing his job correctly as a whole. Vaggie complains about this to Alastor saying that til now he has done nothing significant to help the hotel and the employees he brought aren’t even behaving properly. She threatens him saying that he might get kicked out if this continues.

To that, Alastor could later threaten Husk saying he better fix his drinking habits or he’ll broadcast his scream or whatever. Later Husk would still be drinking but you could have little details of Alastor side-eyeing him and him just letting go of his bottles. He’ll still be sluggish but he’ll make sure he’s sober enough to keep The Radio Demon happy.

We never really felt like Husk’s movements were controlled by Alastor, he was just brought into the hotel without his concent, that sucks, but he can still converse normally with the others. In the Pilot, he insulted Deer Boe in his face with no repercussions. A few more scenes like the one in episode 5 to reinforce the power dynamics between him and Al wouldn't kill.

And Angel Dust how many scenes do we see him do drugs yet his body is able to take it all?

He’s supposed to be an addict, there are few mentions of him hiding things in his room but it's all talking! Talking is not bad, you can talk, but it’s boring and holds NO substances when there isn't SHOWING. Imagine this:

Charlie is worried because it’s been an hour and Angel hasn't come back to the Hotel, she knows his schedule as a sex worker is extremely busy but she usually knows when he comes back and he didn't respond to any of her messages.

Before she could go out to search for him, Cherry burst out into the room, a beaten and knocked out Angel on her shoulder. She was barely standing herself as she was also injured, with many cuts freshly bleeding mainly on her arms and face.

Charlie and the other help her get Angel to his room to tend to his wounds and Cherry’s. When she asks for an explanation Bomb explains that Angel couldn't buy his usual stash of drugs at the local store he went to anymore, as it got plundered right after the end of the extermination, the owner was killed and the shop was vulnerable to thieves.

Angel was looking for a very rare type of drug, made in the Gluttony ring, usually, the things made there take you quickly to cloud nine practically knocking you out in the process. The store he bought it from was the only one with prices affordable enough for him.

He eventually found a gang that was willing to give him a very small portion of drugs in exchange for money. Except that he didn't have nearly enough for what they were asking but he still went with it just after his work in one of Val’s clubs, already a shitty idea since he was exposed to many illicit substances when working with the moth so he wasn’t clean.

Obliviously the gang didn't accept a slip payment and tried to rob and take advantage of him. Cherry stepped up, fought a bit, and escaped with Angel, thanks to her smoke bombs, before things could get too serious. She goes on a small rant about how she and Angel are friends and they mutually help each other, when her wounds are patched up she leaves not before asking Angel to call her when he wakes up. Before she could go Charlie proposed to her to stay at the hotel but Cherry refused stating that there were people in the street who probably needed her help, but she might send people to Charlie’s hotel if she felt like they couldn’t survive in the street.

There’s probably a lot I could fix with this story but that’s just a quick example. What did I manage to convey without blatantly saying it? Angel Dust isn’t in a great financial situation, his addiction is so bad that he’s willing to put himself in danger just to get his hand on the strongest dope and Hell is a fucked up place. I didn't say it I showed it and since you’re smart you understood the subtext.

Some will say that there’s Extermination, but first, we just learned that they can fight back and they have a year to prepare themselves so the stakes are lesser.

Second, it’s surprisingly easy to get angelic weapons.

Someone like Striker managed to get multiple angelic weapons to kill Stolas and a rope that neutralized his powers.

An imp, the cockroach of the society, either his killing business is extremely successful or Carmilla’s prices aren’t that high. And don’t go tell me “Stealaa bought it!!” that’s never implied or stated.

Plus the angel leaves these in the open, I’d say it’s quite easy to get one of those right after an Extermination, nobody was surprised Vaggie has a spear so it feels like it’s common for someone to have them.

[anamericangirl]

I used to wonder how a vast number of people could let themselves not only go along with, but actively support things like slavery or the holocaust. How could anyone get to the point where they are applauding and/or participating in mass murder or abuse of others?

I no longer wonder. I’ve seen it happen. Turns out you just have to be a left wing person who is morally bankrupt and ready and willing to vilify an entire people to the point where the only solution in your demented mind is that those people must be eliminated.

So if someone tells them Jews are bad and committing genocide they don’t see a reason to question that or independently verify it before calling for a holocaust 2.0

It is sad how easily those people have allowed themselves to become the Nazis they pretended to hate for so long. They say wouldn’t have been a Nazi and they’d hide Jews in their homes but they wouldn’t because they aren’t the saviors today they claimed they would be. They’re the ones pulling up the floor boards to turn them in because they were told Jews were bad and didn’t see a reason to question it.

Everyone who just decides to blindly support Palestine regardless of what they do and vilify Israel regardless of what they do because they heard Israel Bad on the news would have been the first people to rally behind Hitler and would jump at the chance to do it today even with the history of the holocaust behind us because they aren’t the people who learn from history. They are the people who repeat it.

[stackslip]

frankly i can't find a better illustration of how arakawa chooses to write the ishbalan genocide than these two pages, one of which directly follows the next.

on one hand you have two soldiers who actively, willingly participated in the genocide, acting in it until the very end for their "fellow soldiers", before waxing maudlin about how tragic war is but how it is their duty to Protect Everybody and they will change the country so less people die. by less people they also mean less of their fellow soldiers btw bc these matter more than actual genocide victims. and this is framed as this great deep nuanced moral lesson after we saw them continue following orders to mass murder, shoot and burn people until the very last one to "protect their fellow soldier". sure ok

on the other, right after this, you have the depiction of scar. scar who just lost his entire people and family in the genocide. who is horrifically traumatized. scar who is portrayed as bad bc he woke, saw amestrian soldiers in panic killed them--and this is the "sin" he has to carry the entire fucking manga. roy and riza can carry all the atrocities they did as this Nuanced Lesson, scar meanwhile here is portrayed as feral, and brutal, and bloodthirsty (a bad thing) for the people who committed these atrocities. he's covered in the blood of the poor innocent rockbells. like. that's it. Revenge Bad. roy and riza want to build something constructive (how nice of them.) and scar wants to build something destructive. not even like, a page to show scar crying, or broken, in the aftermath of horrors so bleak that anyone would be traumatized by them. no, he's just a violent brutal husk possessed by the Evil Spirit of revenge.

how fucked is this? it's so unbelievably fucked. just. i keep being told again and again by random tumblr users and the like that really the genocide of ishbal is nuancely and respectfully depicted in the manga and it's like, is your understand of a "nuanced" tale of genocide, especially one that is so obviously coded after american intervention in the middle east, really that fucking skewed by all these american war movies? do you think american sniper is a nuanced tale too? wanna tell me all about how anti imperialist fma is? yes i know this is all fictional. yes i know this is shounen. i think if you're going to graphically depict women and children being burned to death by a sympathetic character who justifies it as his duty of being a soldier and depict his PTSD and survivor's guilt with nuance--following interviews you made with soldiers of real conflict!--but you can't be fucking bothered to give the victims of said soldiers even a quarter of the same kind of attention and nuance, nevermind this fucking bullshit, you should maybe not write about these subjects at all, especially when the rest of your shounen is about a fucking stupid magical mystery guy who is the Real Evil Bad Guy!

[yanderes-galore]

Idea by @shinjisdone. Thank you once again for fueling my obsession. Lots of love <3 You were originally going to be a non-sorcerer, but I swapped it to you were and just don't like his values. I haven't read/seen Volume 0 yet so things may be wrong/speculated. Man I wish I knew how to pace stories better instead of just letting my brain run with it.

Could've Been Different

Yandere! Curse User! Suguru Geto Short

Pairing: Romantic

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Obsession, Manipulation, Implied kidnapping, Murder, Violence, Blood, Genocidal views (Geto...), Possessive behavior, "Protective behavior", Mind break, Mature themes, Dark/Yandere themes, Consensual turned forced relationship.

You cherished times before the Riko incident. Times where you were companions of both Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto. You missed it when you were a trio... when things were simple during Jujutsu Sorcerer training.

Back then you truly did love Geto. When he had gone on a date with you due to Gojo's pestering, you two hit it off. You two had been sweethearts ever since.

Then everything changed, you don't even recall how long it's been since then. Eight... nine years since you were all students? You had even participated in the Star Plasma Vessel mission....

You don't think Geto ever recovered from that.

No, the Geto you fell in love with was long gone now. Ever since the massacre by his hands he was never himself. No, now he had changed... becoming a charismatic cult leader to feed off of curses and developing a genocidal view towards non-sorcerers.

You don't agree with his views...

Yet you can't leave him either.

Geto wasn't the man he once was, yet you still felt you could fix him... at the start, anyways. He has lost his way, instead choosing to eradicate the weak rather than protect them. You had originally followed him to try and help him.

It never worked.

No you've been stuck here for years, missing older times and the friend you both shared. The person you were stuck with now wasn't nice, calm, or collected anymore. Instead he turned possessive with you. He plays with your head and does anything to keep your attention on him.

You've seen him kill people throughout the years... just for getting too close.

The members of his cult were merely pawns. They were just meant to feed him curses and use to his advantage. You and his daughters are the only thing he's cherished for years since he snapped.

You know that as anyone else has their blood spilled onto the floorboards.

"They're filthy monkeys... merely meant to bow and do tricks until their usefulness is up." Geto always tells you, wiping the blood from his most recent victim off himself with a grimace. Later, those same hands seem to caress you with so much love as he kisses you.

You wanted to believe your boyfriend was still in there. Unfortunately, you began to learn better before you could leave. Now... Geto wasn't planning on letting you leave.

Here, under his watch and protection he felt you were pure. That's why it angered him when he saw his pet monkeys touch you. They don't deserve you, they deserve to grovel at your feel while Geto holds you.

You are his equal. A skilled sorcerer he could never get out of his head or heart. Although... while he once had your heart and body as his, he no longer seemed to have your heart fully.

Geto is not oblivious to your different views. He found it amusing yet thoughtful that you tried to "change" him. You stuck by him, unaware that the longer you stayed... the more you were stuck to him like a fly in a glue trap.

Geto would be a fool to let you leave now. You're chained to him emotionally, perhaps even physically if you push him. Geto knows you can't leave him.

Unfortunately... so do you.

Even after everything he's done, you can't leave. You hate what he's doing, yet you love him deep down. Geto keeps managing to drag you in with every touch and kiss, having you on a metaphorical leash.

Your beliefs will never change, his won't either. Despite this... you aren't sure what you'd do without him. Even if Geto let you go willingly...

Would you really leave?

That question echoes in your head as you lean against Geto. Do you love him... do you hate him... does it matter if you can't leave anyways? You know everything is wrong, that none of this is okay, but-

"I love you..." Geto keeps murmuring against your skin, having himself locked around you in a tight vice. He has always loved you. Since you were both young, he considered you his.

Eventually you'll understand he's doing this for your protection, right?

"Are you aware of how easy it is to lose you?" Geto whispers between kisses. You know he's saying that due to what happened with Riko. You're sitting in his lap, feeling his touch wrapped around your waist. He treats you like you're porcelain... while culling the weak like they're cattle.

You hate it, so much.

You hate that you can't do anything about it.

"See... you belong right here." Geto nips, eyes glancing at your distant ones. "Right here in my grasp... safe behind these walls... where no curse or wretched monkey can touch you."

You say nothing to his words, just focusing on potential solutions to your problem. The sad thing was you couldn't find any. Your mind and heart are torn. Your love torments you...you miss Gojo.

But you can no longer go back there.

"I can tell you're overthinking, love..." Geto murmurs, pulling his head up to look you in the eyes properly. "Are you still thinking of the past...?"

Even if you didn't say anything, Geto can tell by the look on your face that you're thinking about the past. He frowns, you could sense a sadness within him but it's quickly replaced by irritation. He cups your cheek, his gaze soft yet... stern.

"It doesn't matter now." His voice rings out in a stern tone. "Forget about those weaklings. Forget about Gojo...

Geto then leans closer, lips ghosting your own.

"Just focus on me..." Geto whispers, kissing your lips as though the taste was euphoric. "Only me."

Regardless of how you felt, you comply. You've missed moments like this, so much to the point you're willing to delude yourself into ignoring what he's done. When he kisses you like this... it's like he's the Geto you once knew.

But as his touch and kiss get rougher, it becomes harder to ignore....

You wish things could've been different, that you could've done something... but in the end you're trapped in a prison of your own design.

[gatheringbones]

[“Cisgender conceptualizations of trans bodies further highlight the construction of differential pariah femininities and subordinate masculinities. Pariah femininities contaminate the relations between femininities and masculinities. “Pariah trans femininities” contaminate the relations between masculinities and femininities, are viewed as fundamentally uncomplimentary to hegemonic and dominant masculinities, and are perceived as assaults upon one’s manhood or lesbian identity. This results in cis-het men who are attracted to trans women embodying a “hyper-subordinated masculinity.” Violence against Black trans women becomes the vehicle for cis-het men to recuperate their masculinity and regain their status within a hierarchy of masculinities, and cis-LBQ women become complicit in this violence by rendering trans women as tricksters. Cis-ness, thus, is a necropolitical force. Cis-ness relies upon anti-Black trans violence and the murders of Black trans women to sustain itself.

It is not possible to thoroughly analyze and make sense of cis-ness without attention to the ways in which it was birthed out of the racist and capitalist colonization, enslavement, and genocide of Black and Indigenous Peoples and is simultaneously perpetuated through anti-Black racism. Not only was this evident in cis-het men participants’ ranking the photo of a White, cis-passing trans woman as more desirable than photos of other women, but it was also evident in how they spoke of the range of women presented in the photos with the White, “cis-passing” woman being viewed as warm, kind, non-threatening, and nurturing in comparison to photos of more “visibly trans” women of color which were described with harsher features, such as “sharp” facial structure, strong, mean, and “ratchet.” Race, class, and gender intersected in how women were viewed not only in terms of desire but also in terms of “passability.” The racialization of “passing” as cisgender elucidates, in part, why trans women of color may be more vulnerable to being seen as trans and thus targeted for anti-trans violence.

Western ontologies of “body reasoning” remain prevalent shaping the ways in which individuals are interpreted in society. When individual’s interpretations of other’s bodies do not line up with preconceived notions of sex/gender, they are left without the cultural tools to make sense of the individual in front of them resulting in panic, confusion, and violence. The body and the symbols that attach value to some bodies and not to others are central to cis-ness. Trans bodies are excess or surplus to the binary logic of cis-ness, and, thus, they are not only undesirable but unnecessary. It is this lack of value attached to trans bodies and trans people that allowed many participants to justify, understand, and/or make sense out of the murders of Black trans women.”]

alithia zamantakis, from thinking cis: cisgender heterosexual men, and queer women’s roles in anti-trans violence, 2023

[motherofplatypus]

Record of Genocide (Pt. 2)

[Part 3]

The List

Upon Children

Deaf man's son killed by Assrael

Leg of a girl Assrael blown up

A man carrying his baby that's killed by Assrael

Babies killed by Assrael

Two kids killed by Assrael

A girl had to be amputated after Assrael attacks

Assrael bombed civilians in their home

A doctor testimony on how Assrael killed a kid

Assrael killed a father's son

US doctor's testimony that assrael deliberately sniping children

A child amputated because of assrael

What Assrael did to children

Assrael killed a father's child

A dog eating a child killed by assrael

Assrael taking civilians to concentration camp and abuse women and children

Assraeli soldier kidnapped, stripped a boy naked, and abuse him

Toddler amputated because of assrael

Assrael justify detaining, torturing, and sexually abuse 12 years old children

Children that Assrael murdered

Assrael sniped 11-months old baby

Baby murdered by assrael

Multiple children injured from assrael targeted attack

Upon Palestinian in general

A doctor likely raped to death by Assraeli

Journalist spoke about the condition in Gaza

Assrael killing aid workers

Assrael airstrikes killed a journalist, killing him and severed his hand

Assrael opened fire and killed a man at a refugee checkpoint

An American citizen using tourist visa to commit war crimes in Gaza for two months

Assraeli justifying bombing civilians

Rescue worker killed by Assrael when he tried to save people

Assrael dropped bombs on UNRWA school

Assraeli soldier confessed their goal of occupation and ethnic cleansing.

Former USMC Captain and State Department Officer's testimony of assrael war crimes

UK doctor's testimony of Assrael war crimes

Assrael accused of poisoning food for civilians

An AI created to target people at home

An Assraeli drone dropped bomb on civilians home

Assrael ran over a woman alive with a tank

Assrael bombing praying site

A man holds a severed hand of a martyr that Assrael murdered

A man holds a severed leg of a martyr that Assrael murdered

Assrael replaced humanitarian aid food with C4 explosives

Assrael replaced humanitarian aids with sand and stole food from UN aid trucks

Assrael bombing university

Assrael bombing civilians tents

Assraelis assaulted a family

Three Assraelis ganging up on a man and abuse him

Assrael shooting ambulance

Mass grave from Nakba 1948 massacre uncovered under Tel Aviv

Assrael burn humanitarian aid

Assrael bombed a shop, killing multiple civilians

Assrael use quadcopter emitting baby's cry to lure civilians out and kill them

Assrael raided a hospital to steal the bodies of the people they killed

Assrael bombed residential building, killing 6 civilians

Assrael bans anaesthetic, crutches, dates, leading to people being amputated without anaesthetic.

Assrael destroying synagogue

Upon Lebanon

Assraeli soldier filming themselves blowing up a village in Lebanon

Assraeli soldiers sings while destroying an entire village in Lebanon

Assrael destroying Lebanon

BBC reveals Assrael lie about Hezbollah

Targeting residential building in Beirut again

Scottish journalist's testimony of assrael crimes in Lebanon

Assrael carpet bombing Lebanon

Assrael bombed civilians in Lebanon during a ceasefire deal

Assrael attacked a Lebanese footballer and put her in a coma

Assrael desecrates a church and mocks the Virgin Mary

Assrael violates ceasefire deal and attacked Lebanon at least 100 times

Outside of Palestine

Rabbi Shmulley's confession

Western media lying about what happened in Amsterdam

Rabbi Dovid Feldman was attacked by a zionist in New York

Zionist harassing people in praying site in Texas

Assrael official admits it was never about the hostages

Zionist making death threats and confirming of colonialization of Palestine

Assrael threatens to kill people everywhere (from November 2023)

Billionaires attack on anti-genocide protesters

Assrael attacked American ship in 1967, killing 34 and injured 174 others.

US vetoed another ceasefire, deepening their participation in genocide.

The US refuse to comply with ICC order

Assraeli soldier attacked UNICEF worker

Anti-African rally in Assrael

Christopher Bollyn comment about zionism

Assrael weaponizing Judaism for genocide

How zionism violates Judaism in every way

Testimony from the taxi driver assrael hooligans attacked

Jews and Assrael are two separate things

Assraeli Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi threatens the US

Former Assraeli Minister testimony about assrael (from 2002)

Assrael made Jews hated by the world

Jewish Rabbi burn assrael flag as protest against genocide

Nelson Mandela on assrael illegal occupation

Assrael stealing babies from Yemeni Jews since 1950s

Australian politicians pressured by US to vote against ceasefire

How US's "best ally" treat the US.

US cops assaulted unarmed peaceful protester

How bibi sees the US

Zionism is not Judaism

Assraeli using Judaism to justify murdering children

Assrael murdered three WCF workers, adding more deaths to the previous one

US-funded bombs being used to kill civilians in Palestine and Lebanon

Assraeli minister admits of wanting to illegally steal a land

This is not a complete list.

[desaintjustfancam]

Bodies in Nier Replicant

NieR Replicant is a game characterized by a preoccupation with bodies, their failures, their betrayals, and their significance both constructed and inherent. Each of its protagonists enjoys a complicated relationship with their body, its main plot threads revolve around the discrepancy between body and soul, and the game both out of necessity and seemingly some genuine interest engages with sexual politics. An accounting of this ought to be made in an organized and thoughtful fashion, and I believe the best way to proceed with such an account is to discuss how the questions of corporeality touch upon each of our protagonists, painting a picture as we go. It is worth noting that I will from time to time touch upon the question of authorial intent, as Yoko Taro and associates have been vocal and engaged with fan questions. While this may be the case, I am engaging with NieR as a text, of which its creators' interpretations are one of many and do not possess a unique charisma of truth. I also do not wish to make conjecture about authorial intent, but merely about what I regard to be substantive and valid readings of a work of fiction. Spoilers will be unmarked and plentiful.

Kaine is a fairly apparent and explicit case of bodily and sexual politics. Kaine is an intersex woman of uncertain parentage raised in a xenophobic, superstitious, and authoritarian society. Within her society she is a pariah along with her grandmother Kali and is forced to the social margins, often subject to violence and abuse from a young age. Kaine is a creature of contrasts and contradictions: a beautiful woman full of hatred and profanity, a victim who has become a fierce warrior and herself a victimizer, a social outsider who herself participates in genocide and the destruction of the other, a woman ashamed of her body who dresses in an outfit that would make Hugh Heffner blush, a human and a shade, an object of sexual gratification but also one of revulsion.

The issue of Kaine's presentation is a recurring discussion in the game, frequent reference is made to her undress and Weiss refers to her with the increasingly affectionate nickname "hussy", despite the fact that Kaine's sexuality is actually a subject that is not broached in the game – her existence is solitary and lonely, and her only romantic inclinations are rather chastely directed towards Nier himself within the game itself. Indeed, in Ending E, NieR is reincarnated with all his purity in the body of a child, and the pair cling to each other in nudity amid a pure white blossom – a Lunar Tear, which by this point has taken its place as a signifier of pure love (Yonah and Nier, Kali and Kaine, and now Kaine and Nier). As Kaine holds NieR, there does not appear to be a sexual element to her protective embrace. In this sense, we see a glimpse of Kaine the maiden, Kaine the woman.

The audio CD "Lust" depicts Kaine as lustful and fixated on Nier, and engaging in necrophilia by proxy in a fit of madness. Kaine is also a murderer, with a dark passenger in the form of the shade Tyrann who permits her to live only so long as she victimizes others. Kaine is uniquely situated to prevent the wholesale slaughter inflicted by Nier upon the Shades, including innumerable children and infants, yet she remains quiet and does not disclose her understanding of their language. Kaine drips with profanity, threatens to mutilate her enemies often in sexualized fashions. Kaine, in this context, is powerful, violent, lustful – here we have Kaine the monster, the phallic Kaine.

These contradictions are not tolerated well within Kaine. Her duality, reflected in her twin swords, one of which is ultimately destroyed in her conflict with Nier, is the source of a great deal of suffering. She struggles to continue to psychologically steel herself to kill Shades as the apparent evil of her deeds makes itself clear. Even after avenging herself on the shade Hook, Kaine is not satisfied and simply wishes, feeling her purpose exhausted, for death to take her before being, effectively, reanimated by the benevolence and purity of child Nier. Even Tyrann, symbolic of Kaine's evil and masculinity is eventually moved by the experience of love and comes to regard himself and his actions with disgust. Kaine ultimately resolves the struggle between feminine-masculine, good-evil, chastity-sexuality in favor of her womanhood.

However, as in all conflicts there is a unity in opposites. Kaine's phallic aspect is given rise to by her desire to protect her womanhood, her virtue, from the community of hatred that surrounds her, from a society that spurns and rejects her. Kaine is hateful and murderous because she has been given no other recourse, no other communities, no other options. A clear example of this is in Ending E, where when the player attempts to manipulate the camera to obtain the vaunted panty shot, and as the game's achievements frames it, "discover her secret" – a clear reference to her ambiguous genitalia, Kaine assaults and eventually murders the player themselves to defend her chastity and modesty. Rather than an intrinsic quality of her person, her aggression and masculinity are passed onto her by her grandmother as means of self defense. Kaine's greatest acts of evil and murder are all fundamentally acts of love, tribute, and defense to those who have given her life meaning. One might interpret her clothing, which shows clearly a body she hates and despises, as an act of self-sacrifice, a hair shirt, a tribute to the efforts of her grandmother and to those that love her.

Emil is textually homosexual. He expresses his wish during the wedding of Facade's King to Fyra that he might enjoy such a wedding some day and as Nier assures him he will find a bride some day, he is left to awkwardly note in his absence that this is not what he desires. The creators of the game have similarly confirmed their understanding of Emil as a homosexual character who is motivated by an unreciprocated love for Nier. Emil is depicted as pure and essentially omnibenevolent, despite being cursed with a body that destroys everything that he sees and later contains a monstrosity so profound that it exterminates entire communities. His love for Nier is chaste and is held in contradiction to the terror of his condition.

I think, however, equally compelling as a strictly homosexual reading is a reading of Emil as transgender. Wishing to be the bride in a wedding is conducive to such a reading, and NieR is a game with a lot to say about bodies. Emil is first met wearing a blindfold, alone, isolated from the world, unable to see the people he loves or wishes to give himself to, the very act of looking, of desiring, in this regard, becomes violent for Emil. Emil spends more time with Kaine than Nier for his time in the narrative, and they develop a close bond. It is, as well, Kaine who Emil petrifies with his gaze, not Nier. It is to free Kaine from the stone which symbolizes Emil's world that Emil descends into the depths of his home, his past, to confront the monstrosity within, represented by Halua, his twin sister, who has been reduced to a monster.

Emil gives himself to the monstrosity willingly, sublimating himself and being devoured by it with the hope that he might take it similarly into himself. And he does. Emil and his feminine counterpart, twins, exist within each other as anima and animus. Emil is blessed with sight, desire, knowledge, power, but is placed into a monstrous, hideous, ghoulish body, which he despises and which provokes fear and hatred from those who might previously have offered him kindness. It is a body designed to inflict harm, a body which does not suit its contents, a body which Emil himself desperately fears. In joining Kaine within the ranks of monstrous bodies and dysphoria, Emil is able to free her from this self-imposed prison. He is able to enable her to live a normal life. Emil rescues Kaine again in the narrative, saving her in Ending E and in the Shadowlord's Castle. These are tasks Nier is incapable of performing. Nier, despite loving Kaine, does not appear to understand her and might be incapable of understanding her. It is only her peer, someone who truly does empathize with her monstrosity, Emil, that is able to free her.

Emil as a pre-awareness transgender woman, trapped in a rotting, artificial, ghoulish body designed to do harm on her and others, able to free and empathize with those like her, pining after a man who cannot understand her, now free to desire but acutely aware of her own ugliness, inadequacy, and the hatred her desire provokes in others, I argue is extremely compelling. It is worth noting that Emil's bodily monstrosity escalates as the end of the eternal childhood her body had been trapped in, her beatific and cherubic features melting away to bones at crude angles, her hair falling away, at the moment she is meant to be graduating into self assurance and control.

Nier and Weiss are somewhat less involved from the perspective of body politics. Nier is noteworthy in that per associated works he was forced into sex work as an adolescent in order to get by, and that as a result he binds his hair into a ponytail as a response to sexual trauma. As he matures into adulthood he severs this ponytail, wearing his hair loose, representing in ways a growth past this. In doing so, however, Nier steels himself into a warrior, devoted only to recovering Yonah, sacrificing everything in his path to do so. In this sense I am not sure Nier has grown past his trauma so much as he has sublimated it into the acts of brutality which he inflicts upon others and his obsessive, bordering on incestuous, fixation on his sister. Nier is repeatedly prompted to feel empathy for other victims and outsiders and refuses to do so willfully, choosing to remain ignorant and deluded in his quest. Weiss, himself without a body or bodily autonomy, assists Nier in remaining blind and hardening his heart.

Louise forms a mirror to the concerns of bodies that are exhibited by Emil and Kaine. A Gestalt without a corresponding Replicant, Louise is a girl who was born without any options, a cruel product of fate. Able to think, feel, and take a false form as a woman, Louise is unable to speak or sing or perform in human society. She admires the beauty of humanity and desperately wishes to join them, cursing her own hideousness and admiring, desiring, the beauty of the world. She is infatuated with Hans the Postman, who cannot and will not reciprocate her love. She is denied humanity or sympathy by Nier and Weiss – although Kaine and Hans are able to provide it for her posthumously. In this sense Louise is a mirror of Kaine and Emil. This parallel might cast Neir and Hans in somewhat of a Walrus and the Carpenter role – they will both mercilessly eradicate the Other from the world, but one will, at least, cry about it.

Louise, is of course, the pinnacle of the Other. She has no Replicant. No earthly or human attachment. She cannot become anything except herself, her efforts to do so render her even more monstrous, hideous, and terrible than before. The sort of perverse excitement with which Nier and Weiss regard her extraordinarily powerful body feels at times reminiscent of discourse about the physicality of transgender women and athletes. It reminds me of the times one clocks involuntarily a person they encounter. It feels dirty, transgressive, and wrong.

There are innumerable stones left unturned in this brief discussion of how NieR Replicant talks about and shows bodies and people's relationships to them, but I thought it would be interesting to reflect on my own thoughts on the issue, how they made me feel, and what kinds of readings can be made of the work.