#as in i dont want to suggest that because they were children that the history is supposed to be sanitized

[battle-of-alberta]

I am making a very simple timeline of founding dates that will probably take at least two parts (part one being 17th-19th centuries and part two being 20th, 21st)

I’m trying to focus mostly on founding dates before the contextual information which I may add later on, I guess what I’m saying is consider it an ongoing work in progress. it will be somewhat euro/can-centric in its beginning because unfortunately most timelines are, but I will think about how to start unpicking that as I get a baseline going.

one of the big challenges apart from the whole historiographical element is 1. i forgot how much i struggle drawing children 2. specifically how much i struggle imagining mac as anything other than a grown man, lol

[watcherintheweyr]

'Rhaenyra is a bad mom bc she knowingly gave birth to bastards and she knew how much danger they'd be in!!!!'

1. She had no way of knowing those babies wouldn't pop out looking exactly like her, beforehand. And unfortunately she couldn't stop at Jace. The throne needed an heir. Driftmark needed an heir. And a spare was needed as well, given the sheer rate of Targaryen children dying untimely deaths.

2. She had to provide heirs to the throne, and to Driftmark. If she hadn't, society wouldn't have blamed Laenor, they would have blamed her- which makes her position even more unstable, bc then she 'can't fulfill a woman's duty' so why would men think her 'able' to fill a 'man's role' by ruling the kingdom? And she and Laenor tried. He was either unable (meaning infertile or impotent, or unable to get it up), or unwilling. (And they did try. We dont know what they tried but Rhaenyra is shown to be clever in the show so honestly i have no doubt she attempted what Margaery suggested with Renly.) Laenor was in on the entire thing. He was aware of every part of this. He wasn't duped, he wasn't cuckholded- it was a plan greenlit by him, bc this way he and Rhaenyra would both have their heirs and a family. This cannot in any way shape or form be compared to Cersei cuckholding Robert (fuck Robert Baratheon tho), seeing as Robert was **not** at all aware that his children weren't his, and wouldn't have been OK with that.

Either way- she chose not to maritally r*pe her husband and put him through more trauma after it was clear their attempts weren't working. Yall are always so upset for Alicent (rightfully so, bc show!alicent was maritally raped, even if it wasn't considered as such in that time), but you... WANT Rhaenyra to do that to Laenor? Hello???

[And no. Rhaenyra did NOT rape or coerce Criston Cole. The actors, writers, and directors have all stated their sex was consensual and 'an act of love.' It was Rhaenyra going to someone she felt close to and trusted after feeling abandoned and unwanted and betrayed. In that scene you literally watch, as after Cole tells Rhaenyra to stop undressing herself, she moves aside so she isn't blocking his way to the door. The director states that the moment they show Cole folding and setting down his cloak was him choosing his desire over his oaths. And Criston Cole has known Rhaenyra since she was 14. He knew damn well the sort of person she was- and she was not the person who would have harmed him for saying no. She was an intoxicated and emotionally vulnerable 19 year old- Criston was in his late 20s to early 30s. And it's explicitly stated in ep.9 that the ONLY person a Kingsguard cannot refuse is the king. In ep.7 Criston disobeys a direct order from Alicent when she wants him to mutilate Lucerys. Criston Cole was not assaulted. Stop trying to assign Aegon's sins to Rhaenyra so that you can feel better for supporting him.]

3. In the books, the rumors of their bastardry at large halted when all of Rhaenyra's boys' cradle eggs hatched. The ONLY people who continued to try and raise issue were the core green faction. But the realm at large *did not give a fuck* why? Because every actually relevant party claimed those boys. Repeatedly and without flinching. Laenor claimed and loved those boys even face to face with Alicent's bullshit. Corlys claimed and love those boys- he was proud of them, and it's been stated by the actor in the show that Luke was his favorite- that given the... events of ep.10, Corlys will be out for blood. And Viserys repeatedly insisted upon their legitimacy- because Laenor and Corlys claimed them, because he knew that by forcing Rhaenyra to marry Laenor in order to repair the damage his insults caused House Velaryon, that he had backed her into a corner.

Rhaenyras boys are remembered to history as Velaryon. Even **Green supporters** noted that they were good, capable, intelligent, and **worthy** princes. That their deaths were unfortunate *for the realm.*

Legally, those boys are legitimate. They cannot be proven illegitimate without Laenor renouncing them, and he never did. Furthermore, trying to declare children illegitimate due to their appearance is a stupid, dangerous precedent. The fact that it's people who have no ties to House Velaryon pushing these rumors and pushing for disinheritance makes it even worse, because they're meddling in the succession of a House that *is not theirs.* if that became a standard, imagine the feuds and conflicts that would erupt- lords pushing for the children of rivals to be declared illegitimate all for the sake of trying to grasp and steal land, power, and influence as a norm? The realm would tear itself apart. Not to mention the sheer danger that would place women in, in Westeros.

Furthermore, even whilst usurping her, even while calling her children bastards, the Greens also imply Laenor's homosexuality was inherited by the Velaryon princes- that they would use Rhaenyra's 'promiscuity' and Laenor's 'predilections' to turn the Red Keep into a brothel- ironic, considering that's more what Aegon would've done. So even while claiming that Rhaenyras children are bastards that shouldn't inherit, they try to state that what the boys inherit or learn from Laenor makes them unfit for the throne. They can't keep their own damn story straight- because their usurpation was never about what is moral, what is right, or the greater good. It was about greed. Power. Sexism.

It doesn't matter what those boys looked like, especially seeing as Rhaenys had dark hair in the books. What matters is that Corlys and Laenor and Viserys claimed them and declared them legitimate, and that they **never** deviated from that.

As for Vaemond, he was a second son. And he waited until Corlys and Viserys were dying and too ill to stop him to make a grasp for power. Youre not supposed to look at that and feel hes in the right. Youre supposed to look at that and see a man consumed by greed, and literally trying to bury Corlys' will and intentions before the man is even in a grave. He was NEVER Corlys' heir- he just wanted power. It wasn't about his House, or their legacy, it was about him.

(And before yall start shit about Rhaenyras boys stealing Laena's girls' inheritance... Rhaena and Baela are *TARGARYEN*. Not Velaryon. Their claim was to the throne or to any holdings in Daemon's name. NOT to Driftmark.)

Rhaenyras boys being betrothed to Rhaena and Baela tied up any issue of 'Velaryon blood.' Baela would have been queen consort of the seven kingdoms at Jace's side, and they very clearly adored one another in book and show. Rhaena would have been Lady of the Tides- which she never would have had a chance for, without Rhaenyra (and Laena) making those betrothals. She and Luke were also canonically very close- and in show she's very encouraging of him whenever he looks nervous or uncertain. They had a bond.

Rhaenyra stole nothing. She gave those girls more. And she loved them- they were the only daughters she got to have, seeing as the Greens treachery caused the early death of baby Visenya. If she hadn't loved them, she wouldn't have trusted Rhaena to look after Joffrey or give her Morning's egg from Syrax. She wouldn't have immediately invited both girls to the table when she was queen, which is something her father did not do for her until much, much later. He allowed Rhaenyra's voice to be silenced too often when she was first made heir. Rhaenyra did not repeat that hurt to her girls or her boys.

Anyways, moving on.

You lot do also remember that Rhaenyra herself has Velaryon blood, right? Jaehaerys I's mother was Alyssa Velaryon. Aegon, Rhaenys, and Visenya the Conquerors' mother was Valaena Velaryon. It's not immediate, but there *is* Velaryon blood through *all* of Rhaenyras boys.

Ultimately, Rhaenyras boys were only in danger because of the core Green faction usurping the throne. If they hadnt- no succession crisis or rebellion could have truly threatened Rhaenyras boys- because none of them would have had dragons. All of Rhaenyras children loved one another- her sons by Daemon would not have turned on her sons with Laenor (and Harwin). They were a true, loving family- possibly one of the healthiest and most close knit one House Targaryen ever boasted.

And another thing... 'her having babies with Harwin was stupid, she should have picked someone Valyrian!'

Here's the thing. Rhaenyra had to be careful as hell choosing who would father her and Laenor's heirs. She had to choose someone who was physically close, and who could be trusted. Someone who wouldn't try to publicly claim those boys in boast or jealousy. Someone who would keep their mouth shut and had no ambition of their own in regards to the throne. Do you really think Vaemond Velaryon (as I see him suggested a lot) would've kept his mouth shut? That he wouldn't have tried to use this to blackmail Rhaenyra and Laenor for more power and status? Do you think Rhaenys would have ever fought for or supported Rhaenyra if Rhaenyra had tried to have Corlys sire her children? And flying to see Daemon in Pentos and having a purely Valyrian child 9 months later would have made things look even more suspect.

Furthermore... she chose someone who cared for her deeply. Who clearly had a positive relationship with Laenor. She chose someone so she wouldn't have to traumatize herself- she took power over her body in a way almost no Westerosi woman has ever been able to. They were a family unit- Rhaenyra, Laenor, and Harwin. Those children were loved and cherished by two fathers and their mother. They were raised never doubting their mothers love, nor their father's- either father. They were raised and educated to be true, good princes of the realm.

Rhaenyra fought like hell for her children. She was an incredible mother. Yall just believe everything the Green faction says without looking at it critically, and that's unfortunate as hell.

[fipindustries]

Leí en una pregunta que aprendiste a animar de forma autodidacta. Yo quiero aprender también y quiero saber cómo fue tu experiencia. ¿Que libros recomiendas? ¿Que herramientas usadas cuando aprendías?

im going to respond in english because this might help others too. also i should let you know, i can only give you tips for doing hand drawn, frame by frame, 2d animation. i really dont have the faintest clue how to do puppet rigging, interpolation, or 3d modelling at all. that is just not the branch of the skill tree i chose to specialize in.

my history

i started animating when i was 6 by reading a children's magazine that promised me to teach me how to do cartoons "like the ones you see on tv". it taught me how to make small animations with just power point and ms paint. (it also taught me to never ever trust something that sounds too good to be true and is sold to everyone for cheap).

much much later, when i was around 15, after i got a proper tablet to draw digitally, i figured how to use photoshop to animate mainly by fucking around with the program and checking some tutorials on the internet.

then when i was 19 i actually bought a simple book called "the animator's handbook" by tony white, where i was able to learn the basics of ease in and out, curves, overlapping animation, follow through, anticipation, line of action, etc. that is when i started properly learning how to animate the correct way.

i tried to learn how to animate on flash by following the video tutorial series by harry partridge, and that gave me a few basic pointers but at the time i had a really really really shitty genius tablet that kept breaking all the fucking time and also the drawing tools in flash were extremely limited and i didnt like how it vectorized your lines, making it so that you never had full control of how the final drawing was going to look, so i ditchad that rather quickly.

for the longest time i kept using photoshop to animate, it wasnt until i was 26 that i moved on to clip studio paint, got a simple wacom intuos and started using "the animator's survival kit" by richard williams as a guide.

begginer's advice

before we get deeply into it i would suggest you get some passing skill at drawing. many people say that you dont need to be a good artist to be an animator and while its true that you dont have to be the greatest artist that ever lived or have a super developed style or anything, having some basic training will be a powerful multiplier to your animation skills. although in fact you dont need to be that great an illustrator, what you really want to be is a draftsman. that is to say someone with the pulse, the muscle memory and the eye to replicate a drawing, do straight lines and clean curves. esentially is more important that you can do the exact same drawing a thousand times and rotate it and move it around the page keeping proportions than you need to draw beautifully. also you NEED to know anatomy. in order to be good at depicting the human body moving you have to have a good understanding of how the body is put together in the first place.

so yeah, get the animator's survival guide by richard williams, that is step one. im not being any kind of radical by suggesting that, is like recomending the human figure for all its worth by andrew loomis. you gt that book and its going to explain to you all of the most basic rules, mechanisms and techniques to get to animating. there is going to be a lot of outdated advice there about animating on paper with the old tools of the trade on an animation studio. a lot of it is superfluous now with digital tools tbh, but the fundamentals of actually creating sequential images are still rock solid.

i would also recomend walt disney's "the illusion of life" which is centered more on the overall general rules for good appealing animated character without getting too bogged down into the actual intricacies of animation.

and as always, you have the entire accumulated knowledge of generations upon generations of humans called "the internet". there are a million guides and tutorials online that are eager to teach you all the good fndamentals and techniques you need to get started, dont be afraid to consult time and tme again for any doubt, i still do that myself!

now as for the tools.

you want a tablet, any basic nice tablet will do. you dont need the latest cintq or whatever in order to do this, im doing well enough with my little black intuos. you could also do it on an ipad or you could even do it on your phone.

then for software, there are a million options, opentoons, toonboom, procreate, flash, etc. again, i use clip studio paint. its basic but its powerful, it has really good illustrating capacity and its a good introductory tool. each software has its own use peculiarities but once again there are a thousand tutorials online explaining each one.

i have all this, now what?

start small. the books i suggested will throw a million bouncing balls and sacs of flour and rotating cubes and people walking and you should do all of those, for sure. but also you are doing this because here are things you want to express! you want to draw the fun shit! the anime girls and the sexy furries!

start with a single character you like turning their head. that is a good begginers exercise. or maybe try a simple idle animation for a videogame sprite, just someone bouncing in place. after that you can start tackling more ambitious stuff

jesus there is so much more i could explain right now, how to plan for a project, how to manage your workspace, how to set up a pipeline, going from script to thumbnails to storyboard to keying to inbetweening to editing and etc. camera framing, composition, timing, writing and so much more! but i think this is a good place to stop at

dont hesitate to come back to me if you have any more questions

[listen-to-the-inner-walrus]

okay so as suggested by @fromkenari (big thank btw), ive decided to make a post about one of my idols who happens to be a part of queer history i dont hear people talk about much.

and said icon is james whale.

he was an english director working in early hollywood, as well directing theatre and acting. his most well known films are probably the invisible man (1933), frankenstein (1931) and bride of frankenstein (1935).

(you might also know him from the road back (1937) if films about ww1 are your thing)

and while part of why i idolise him is those films and making horror art, i bring up the dates specifically because james whale was openly queer throughout his entire hollywood career.

said career began in the 1920s and continued up to 1950. he was pressured to step into the closet but he never did, and its likely a big factor as to why his career ended.

a lot of his films are packed with queer subtext, particularly bride of frankenstein. that film has so much camp packed into it and pretorius is so damn queer coded. theres a lot of queer readings of it you can explore, its fucking incredible.

and mind you, the hays code went into effect in 1934.

the hays code also happened to massively effect frankenstein in retrospect due to scene-cuts in re-releases, and bear with me on this one:

see the original cut had a scene where the monster meets a young girl named maria who asks him to play a game with her. in the game, they sit together and throw flowers onto a lake where they float. when the monster runs out of flowers, he throws his new friend, maria, in, assuming that she would float like the flowers. she doesnt; rather she drowns.

and this scene was specifically created by james whale in reaction to a then moral panic in america basically about the creepy man in the shadows who lures your child away and molests them. this deviant shadowy figure was essentially synonymised with gay men, who were falsely arrested on sodomy charges or died at the hands of mob "justice".

the flower scene challenges that idea because the monster isnt, well, a monster. in 1931, the monster was almost unilaterally perceived as this perverted evil thing that would steal your children; he was practically the same as these "predatory gay men", and then the monster wasnt a monster.

he was misjudged, he wasnt inherently evil, and he was unjustly punished. and if that applies to the monster, surely it applies to whale and all the other openly queer men.

as a scene in 1930s hollywood , it was so divisive because it portrayed the "villain" in a more morally grey area, and essentially said "hey, maybe this queer witch hunt is misguided"

unsurprisingly, producers at universal wanted to end the scene before the drowning. ending the scene there would leave it to the imagination as to what the monster did to maria, and given the sex offender moral panic sweeping the nation, the implication would be that he raped her.

but james whale fought for the scene to be kept and he won. specific states still forced the studios to censor parts of the film, but his film was intact.

BUT when this film was re-released in 1938, they entirely cut out this scene. and this fundamentally changed the character of the monster and the film itself.

by some fucking miracle, the scene was found in the british national film atchive in the 1980s, and modern cuts of the film now include. unfortunately, whale himself would not live to see that as he committed suicide in 1957.

what james whale did with frankenstein in 1931 was revolutionary in the same way that tod brownings freaks (1932) was. both men created films that portrayed the people society called monsters as real, complex beings who are not pure evil, and both faced censorship hell for it.

(go watch freaks btw, its so good)

and, you know, i get emotional talking about james whale. both because i have so much admiration for him as a queer person who refused to lock his queerness away, and because his name is never one i hear in discussions of queer history, and also because hes from the same area as me.

(im yet to find any clips of him speaking so i dont know if he has our accent or not. i like to think he did. he was the sixth out of a seven child working class family and first worked as a cobbler so its as likely as it could be.)

i would like for more queer folks to know about him because i think he deserves more of a legacy.

ian mckellen plays him in gods and monster (1998), and if youre ever in england with spare time, he does have a memorial sculpture. its in dudley which is where he was born, and if you know it, its right at castlegate.

but yeah no, this is my ramble post about a lesser known queer icon. originally i wrote an abridged version in the tags of a different post but @fromkenari was right, it deserves its own post.

[alexbkrieger13]

A bit long but:

Israel pulled out of the Gaza Strip in 2005 after the Oslo agreements and gave it to the Palestinians.

In 2007, Hamas were elected democratically by the Palestinian people and since then Israel started to suffer rockets flaying into Israeli towns and terror tunnels under Israeli towns. Qatar been funding Hamas with Billion for years and instead of taking care of the Palestinian people Hamas uses it for terror. Hamas is another proxy of Iran, so Israel knows if she won’t keep an eye of air\sea shipments weapons can come to the hand of Hamas. Before the 7th of October a lot of Palestinians worked in Israel (but of course Israelis can’t work in Gaza) 

I feel like people memory is short but the Hamas atrocities were something that was never seen, attacking people in their homes, in their beds, burning people and so on and so on, on a holly jewish holiday, the media obviously haven’t shown the harsh pictures cause it’s too much but Hamas spokesman said openly they will do it again and again + took 240 hostages ( from the age of 8 months to 90 year old) and there are still 136 hostages there. 

If Hamas were to surrender on the 8th of October and released the hostages Israel wouldn’t attack them and that’s the point .Israel does not target civilians only Hamas people, but when Hamas uses it’s own people as human shields and hides among them or hides in hospitals it’s hard. They don’t care about their own people, they want the civilian casualties because they want those protests.

 After 9/11 the US attacked in Afgenishtan and killed 400K and did way less about civilians causalities. people didn’t think “oh this is a genocide” because they knew they have to eliminate “al qaeda” 

In a wild world I feel like if a terror organization would take over Sweden and they would attack Norway and take it’s own people , and then Norway would fight back no one would tell them anything, there’s just different standards to Israel. 

If Hamas still in power it will happen again for Israel because that’s their goal and there will be never chance for peace. For me, most of the people don’t know what they are protecting about and just chanting catchy songs. 

I think that if the world would’ve taken all this energy and put a pressure on Hamas to release the hostages and to surrender than you can start talking about peace and compromises but you can't make peace with terror organization who says in it’s charter they want jews dead. 

And the antisemitism in Europe doesn’t help. 

I value every human life Palestinian and Israeli, and everyone deserve the chance for a better life and a chance for peace, but it feels like people using this to their own cause, don’t fully understand and ignoring the fact that there still young girls, men, kids that are hostages in tunnels, without food, possibly being raped and Hamas refuses to give them any medicine and people call this resistance, there was a ceasfiire on October 6th.

Also, the UN has always been against Israel because it’s comfortable but where were all those people when Asad, Syria president killed it’s own people since 2011 using chemical weapon against children? The world is pretty hypocrite place.

I suggests everyone to think how they would expect their country to react when a terror organization comes into your home, kills your parents, take you siblings as hostages as says they will do it again and again. Would you feel safe to live there if the terror oraganization still a few kms from you?

So my advice would be not to read headlines on the news or people short tweets but go behind that..

https://www.tumblr.com/alexbkrieger13/750202937720094720/i-truly-dont-understand-all-this-no-one-was?source=share

Oh yea you really have to go look at the history and the players involved. There's a lot of good books about was going on there and why we're in the position that we are now but it is incredibly complicated

[zenosanalytic]

agree with @random-thought-depository here about the modern dynamic but also, like, this stuff isn't really ahistorical it's basically what most societies, historically, have been aiming to provide since Forever.

I think we really need to be careful about projecting our ideas of "work" and "free" back into the past. Like: in most north american native societies(MOST not all) around the time of colonization, there wasn't anybody around to tell you what to do. Sure, most people fit themselves into particular roles defined and disseminated socially, but there wasn't a strict, institutional hierarchy saying THAT person gets to tell you what to do, when, and has the right to physically assault you or deprive you of resources if you dont do it. Parents largely didn't even yell at or hit their kids(historians and anthropologists are actl in agreement that THIS is most likely where the more laid back USians and Pre-Usian Colonial attitudes towards parenting and children come from, which would later spread to Europe during the Victorian period). And at the same time these societies considered allowing a member of your community to starve to death deeply shameful. Like: they criticized European society for this all the time; they thought it was the most insane and ammoral thing they'd ever heard of. It'd be wrong to talk about these societies as having "social support" in the way we understand it or comments like this are suggesting, but at the same time, as a practical matter, if you were unable to work or wanted to dedicate your time and energy to "nonproductive" activities, you would ABSOLUTELY have been taken care of by these societies which, by European standards then and now, were considered "poor" and "uncivilized". Sure, given the circumstances, you might have been given some serious shit over it, but nobody would have tried to force you to do particular work, threatened you for not doing it, or killed you for "being a drain on society". When we say the idea of getting your necessities "for free" and "without work" is ahistorical, what we're really doing is projecting the way our current society conceives of these ideas back into the past; effectively defining out of "society" every one which doesn't work the way this one does.

And you see sort of the same thing in early Mesopotamia cities. Of course the situation's MUCH different there, and slavery plays a MUCH larger and more horrific role in them too(particularly in later periods where they bscl became expansionary commercial-agrarian slave-states, fighting each other over arable land and to take war-hostages to bolster ag workforces made mostly of debt-slaves), but the evidence is clear that a huge role of temples, which the cities were literally built around, was providing for those in need such as orphans, widows, and the injured, and that again: this function dates back to their foundings. Kingship in Mesopotamia, too, seems to have developed largely out of this sort of hospitality, associated with the temples; bscl it wasn't control of resources itself that made ppl "Big Men"(the word we translate from these sources as 'king' legit means this) but their willingness to take care of others with the resources they had, and to participate in/fund public works organized through the temples.

Similar arguments can be made for allot of other societies throughout time, including even the village and demesne of Medieval Europe, with various provisos about the levels and sorts of compulsion they allowed(ngl: Med Europe was pretty gruesome in that regard). Our current society is actually really historically unique in not just allowing but ENCOURAGING the levels of public poverty, deprivation, and intentional "corrective" suffering that it does. Beggars on the street regularly got leaders killed in most human societies, in most of human history, because people just wouldn't stand for it; it took the invention of modern propaganda in the industrial period to redirect that anger AT the poor themselves and thereby justify letting them suffer.

A good source for this stuff is Graeber's last book, The Dawn of Everything, that's where Im pulling most of these examples from, but also it's just nebulous Stuff accumulated over a lifetime of reading history books.

This stuff is really popular. It's fine I guess, fine to be aspirational? It's just so ahistorical! It weirds me out that people dont seem to associate these goals with hubris. I mean its literally so aspirational that if you were remotely successful in your goals you would be so surprised, historically.

Like I'd be happier seeing these memes around, and I'm not even gonna call them economically illiterate or anything, if the people propagating them seemed to have an appreciation for how wild it is historically speaking that they can even conceive of this in secular terms.

I guess, moreover, these sorts of memes very often implicitly encode the "elites have a magic button" hypothesis, the one where you're mad that the elites wont press the button. And this hypothesis I think is strict immaturity and lack of thinking, sorry.

I also think in the case of the screenshotted sentence, "should" := "someone else's job", so I associate it with people who complain but dont wanna do anything themselves

[ashesandhackles]

The Hogwarts Express scene in Prince's Tale: A Sirius and Snape analysis

I really, really enjoy Sirius and Snape as characters and their respective narrative functions in story. But what gets me most about them is how much Rowling hints about their backgrounds and so much of it makes sense with regard to who they are as adults. So I am going to be breaking down a very small scene from Prince Tale and getting into long winded hypothesis about their respective childhoods.

So, let's start with Snape. The scene begins with Snape rushing to find Lily, already in his Hogwarts clothes. Harry notes he must have been eager to get out of his clothes - ones that look like he borrowed from his mother, as Petunia spitefully pointed out. This has always been a very interesting detail to me - first off, it indicates how poor Snape's family is. Second, this indicates his tiny rebellion from his father - he refuses to wear clothes of the abusive man, and prefers his mother's. I admit, I am partial to the reading that Snape refuses to associate with his father in tiny ways, rather than Tobias refusing to hand his son clothes.

(I have seen readings which say that it is also a sign of neglect - perhaps his parents bought clothes that simply don't fit him, but I am more inclined to think it's a hand me down, simply because Harry identifies so strongly with it. Because Harry knows what it is like to wear a hand me down that don't quite fit, that are too big for you, or the ones that make you look ridiculous.)

Lily and Petunia's relationship is fraught with Petunia's jealousy. And young Lily is upset over it when Snape meets her. "I am not talking to you. Tuney hates me" she tells him. "Because we saw the letter from Dumbledore". Young Lily shows signs of being extremely emotionally reactive and this scene is one of them. It's easier for her to deal with Petunia's rejection of her by telling Snape she doesn't want to talk to him. It's a childish displacement of her hurt over her sister's rejection. (I am genuinely baffled by interpretations that Lily and Hermione are similar. Hermione is very cognitive person, Lily, as we have been shown repeatedly in memories, is not).

Snape, however, with his bad history with Petunia and his inability/ poor social skills to understand why this matters to her, goes: "So what?"

Lily, who throws him a look of deep dislike, says "So she's my sister". This seed is important because this is what develops into "he doesn't get me" feeling she later displays in her teenage scenes with him. Interestingly, most of Lily's personal relationships have deeply interwined love and dislike - Petunia (whose rejection bothers her but she cheerfully informs Sirius that Harry nearly broke a vase her sister sent - which means there is resentment on her end too), James - who she was attracted to even before 7th year but also disliked at one point, and Snape - again, a contentious friendship filled with love and distance.

"She's only a -" we dont get to hear what Snape intended to say. And given his own acrimony with Petunia, it could be anything. However, I read it as "She's only a Muggle" because it ties into his feelings about his father. Snape, who is proud of being half a Prince, emphasizing his magical lineage from his mother's side, his refuge in a violent, neglectful home. (Barty Crouch Jr and Snape with their disappointing fathers - I imagine Voldemort is supremely attractive leader to people with broken homes like this)

Snape, by all accounts, shows a disorganised attachment style. His caregiver, his mother - and perhaps the only parent he seems to have regard for, is too preoccupied by her own abuse to be there for her son - we see this in glimpses Harry sees in OOTP: " woman cowering" where a man shouts at her, and a young, neglected Snape cries in the corner. Children born in homes like this have trouble regulating their emotions, simultaneously displaying tendencies to aggressively lash out or show disassociative symptoms. Both of which Snape displays. Statistically, this is also seen more in low income households where economic instability and resulting domestic instability creates an unsafe environment for the kids to safely form ideas of their identity, or express emotions in healthy ways, modelling instead out of behaviour seen at home.

Then, Snape reminds her that they are going to Hogwarts. He is already in his Hogwarts clothes - now, Snape gets to be the impressive figure. The one who told her about magic, who theorised about how Muggles get letters from magical people, the one who told her about Dementors and Azkaban. He has already left behind the Spinner's End version of him, he wants to bigger than that, and is keen to be in place of magical learning and to join Slytherin. Essentially, he shows signs of unstable identity, insecurity - all prime for grooming into a cult.

And here comes along James Potter, who looks around at the mention of Slytherin. James's comment uses Snape's line and directs it to Sirius instead and it becomes a conversation between them, as a way to bond more with a fellow "rowdy boy" Sirius. Effectively ignoring the other two.

Sirius as we see here, "does not smile" when James talks about Slytherin. He essentially says something that can be construed as a way to nip that conversation in bud: "My whole family has been in. Slytherin". This suggests to me that there is some loyalty to his family there and his disillusionment with them isn't entirely fixed yet. After all, Sirius's intense loyalty to his friends, more specifically James, did not come out of thin air. It is reasonable to suggest that he felt some loyalty to his family at some point and the intensity with which he regards his friends is a reaction to burned off and being a "displaced person without a family" as Rowling put it.

Interestingly, while his reaction to his mother and Bellatrix are obviously sore spots, his response to Regulus is comparatively quite soft. ("Stupid, idiot" - something he calls James later on in the same book, OOTP). I imagine Sirius has quite complicated feelings about his brother and he is capable of nuance (when the person isn't Snape, where his dislike seems to be borne of an intense projection): "The world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters". As someone who is grown up among them, Sirius would understand that.

His framing of Regulus's need to please his parents also further highlights what exactly is the source of disillusionment. He calls Regulus "soft enough to believe them" - which means he is crediting his own intelligence to see through his parents bigoted world view. Clearly, bigotry is not something the Blacks explained in a way that Sirius, eldest of their male line and their heir, bought it. It also probably didn't help the Blacks case that Grimmauld Place is in a Muggle neighborhood and that their eldest son is a bit of a wild boy with interest in pushing boundaries. His intellectual disconnect leads to the righteous rage he later feels but it began there. (Boy, it must suck to discover that everything you have been taught to value in the world and in yourself as the heir is essentially rubbish). Since his differences with his family began with seeds of intellectual disconnect rather than on intense empathy with downtrodden, it makes him, as a pureblooded privileged boy, unable to truly understand Lupin's fears regarding his lycanthropy. Hence, the Werewolf prank (I am not getting to the Snape bit, just the Lupin bit). To James' credit, he does understand what that means for Lupin and saves all three of them from different set of consequences.

Anyway, back to the scene. James, who has made an ass of himself in front of his new friend, who he was getting along with fine until now, then goes "Blimey, I thought you seemed alright". (Btw, I find James wildly large ego kind of hilarious here, especially in light of Snape's comment about him to Sirius in OOTP: "You will know he is so arrogant that criticism simply bounces off him"). Sirius, who I believe has been raised like "royalty" as Blacks would, has good enough social skills to defuse a situation. He grins and says: "Maybe I will break the tradition".

This line is an indication of Sirius's desire for independence, an identity seperate from his family. The use of the word "tradition" is interesting. It sounds like Sirius is expected to behave in a certain way, the heir of Black family whose parents thought being a Black "made you practically royal". Adult Sirius is contemptuous of this, or their "valuable contribution to Ministry" which means they just gave gold - it tells me that any and all conditions put on him by his family were to fulfill tradition that is either worthless or holds no meaning in his eyes. The root of the emotional abuse Sirius suffers from his family is this - realising his parents love for him is conditional on him being a certain way. (In fact, you can read Regulus desire to emphasise his connection to the family as a reaction to what he sees with Sirius - Sirius does not behave, Mum and Dad don't love him). As a child with unconscious knowledge of lack of love, Sirius then acts out, they react, rinse and repeat "until he has had enough". Sirius chafes against boundaries well into adulthood and doesn't react well to people enforcing it on him, even if it is out of love for him. Cue the fire scene with Harry where he behaves as if Harry is rejecting him instead of protecting him.

Sirius asks James about where he wants to go, and Snape, who is incensed about James being insulting about a House he put stock in, which he made part of new identity (so that he is no longer that Snape boy from Spinner's End) and was in general trying to be impressive about in front of Lily, "makes a disparaging noise" once James talks of Gryffindor. Snape's response to James' : "Got a problem with that?" is interesting. He says: "If you'd rather be brawny, rather than brainy-"

This is an important value for Snape. He knows he is clever and values it. He spends his spare time inventing hexes, making great shortcuts to Potions. He has genuine thirst for learning and he hones it. In SWM, we see that he has written far more longer answers than anyone else, he is poring over his paper after exams. He even mocks Hermione's lack of inventive answers: "Answer copied word to word from the textbook, but correct in essentials". He values originality. It may be me stretching this, but I am partial to the reading: this is his way of rejecting his father once again, who is implied to be a violent man. (in other words, someone who is hypermasculine - "brawny". In fact, Snape's rejection of hypermasculinity is a huge post on it's own - Potions (brewing, cauldrons - coded as feminine arts), the doe Patronus, his proficiency in Occlumency and Legliemency (intuitive mind arts, again seen archetypically feminine) etc).

"Where are you hoping to go, seeing as you are neither?" - Sirius is quick with emotionally cutting insults. Snape hasn't even finished his sentence, but Sirius is already on his case. Which suggests growing up in a household with sharp tongues. It's a fair assumption, given Mrs Black's half mad portrait. It also tallies with Sirius's talking about his mother: "My mother didn't have a heart Kreacher, she kept herself alive out of pure spite" . The wounds are fresh enough on this. (Another interesting way Snape and Sirius act as inverse mirrors - Snape rejects his father, Sirius rejects his mother. Sirius acts as proxy for James for Harry while Snape takes on Lily's role of protecting him). However, you know who else is spiteful? Sirius.

While James is the physical bully (the tripping Snape, doing most of the bullying in SWM), Sirius attacks emotionally. ( Sample the one about Snape's appearance - "I was watching him, his nose was touching the parchment, there will be great grease marks all over it, they won't be able to read a word" or even the carelessly vicious- "Put that away, before Wormtail wets himself in excitement"). Curiously, with all that talk of how his mother being spiteful, it's her room he spends time in when he is depressed. (Again, in inverse mirror way, we can talk of how Snape looks for a father figure in Dumbledore - craves his validation and is proud of Dumbledore's trust in him). We could argue it's also because Buckbeak is there, and perhaps it's the largest room in the house, but it's very telling that's where Sirius spends time when he is "in a fit of sullens". Sirius's sense of abandonment from his family, makes him look for family connections with friends - a trait he shares with Harry. Interestingly, the first time he glimpses Harry in Privet Drive, Harry is also running away from home - just like he did. Anyway, I could go on.

[vividaway]

I know it doesn't have any relation to the trial now, but was JD really racist? Or homophobic or transphobic? I'm totally on his side and knowing this won't change my stance but I'm curious. I can't find anything that suggests this. I just wanted to ask because you seemed to know. I hope this doesn't come off as disingenuous, I just wanted to get it clarified. Sorry to bother you, have a good day!

(will be reblogging to address the other claims, this one got long because i'm very passionate about educating)

hi, i'd like to try to answer this with as much proof as i can, as i do feel the statements made are NOT ACCURATE to reality.

i first want to start off by saying you arent a bother AT ALL. this is a very good question, and its one that is a bit more complicated than that.

theres the accusation that Depp threatened black peoples lives. this is unfathomably untrue, and i cant believe that i got AS TWISTED AS IT DID. i've linked an explanation before, as it couldnt have be explained more clearly.

Depp was drinking. the "shot" is a shot of alcohol. its very blatant once you know the context.

now, lets talk about the native american claim. as someone who is indigenous, its something i think we SHOULD talk about.

in the past, johnny has claimed to be (i am ASSUMING, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE CORRECT ME IF I AM WRONG) a mixed cherokee, and i only assume this based on how the media portrayed his claims.

this is a hill i will DIE ON as a cherokee. MIXED CHEROKEE'S EXIST. my families has tries to the blackfoot cherokee specifically, AND THIS IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE-- THEY ARE NOT A TRIBE.

a LOT of indigenous people were subject to the cruelest tortures well after we "gained our rights" in america. we were subject to forced sterilization at late at the early 80's, and native children were taken off of their tribes by the government and adopted out to white families.

Now, this is very VERY TRICKY. because you are actively apart of a white family. this lead to a TON OF WHITE PEOPLE claiming "they were apart of the blackfoot-cherokee tribe" and this lead to the demonization of the term.

due to this, a LOT and i mean A. LOT. of native people grew up not knowing they were native. this lead to a whole generation of people who do not know their native heritage because they didnt grow up in it. some of my cousins identify as blackfoot cherokee, (my great grandfather was blackfoot) and thats the sole reason WHY blackfoot-cherokee exists. as a label for those who DO know their heritage.

personally, i dont see myself as blackfoot cherokee. i TECHNICALLY am, but i actively realize that if i were to join a tribe, i would have to "pick a side". this leads to a ton of confusion for people who GENUINELY GREW UP WITH THEIR PARENTS FROM TWO DIFFERENT TRIBES.

these people grew up WITH BOTH CULTURES. they grew up hearing stories from BOTH tribes. they grew up actively participating in their heritage, and this is all seen as "a waste" because they identify as blackfoot-cherokee. there are actually MANY MANY conferences that people who GENIUNELY learned from both tribes due to their parents AND grandparents, and speak out to spread awareness that blackfoot-cherokee isnt a tribe, but a mixed culture. its simply when two different people meet, and create a kid.

now, all of this explanation IS IMPORTANT. because not only has depp claimed to be cherokee or creek, he was fucking 'adopted' by the comanche nation chairmen in new mexico. (im not sure the legitimacy of said adoption but i still find it very cool)

either way, he IS an honorary member of the comanche nation tribe. not just that, but his explanation OF his native american history matches the timeline of those whom were forcefully kidnapped from their homes and adopted out and those who were forcefully kidnapped from their homes and put into "boarding schools" (where they taught native that their culture and heritage was BAD, and that they were to act like white people.) i UNDERSTAND why it is so controversial for him to mention him being mixed tribe, especially without proper certification. but he of all people would know his history.

he even has a tattoo for his great grandmother, whom he was very proud of.

people quote a blog that has no validity, has broken links, and most of the links they DO have are to other blogs with no validity to them in an attempt to "disprove" that he's cherokee. they link people who arent related to johnny, and its all a big stretch to try to prove he's "lying".

WHY IS THIS RELEVANT?

because johnny depp has been accused of misappropriating native american culture, time and time again.

so with all of this, do YOU think johnny was racist?

[tweedfrog]

im sorry, but reading ur last couple posts it kinda sounds like you think Ned should have been more overtly racist and bc he wasn’t grrm is racist, but on the flip side giving arya prejudice thoughts also makes grrm a racist and a bad writer? like grrm for sure has dodgy bits but you’re giving him a bit of a no win scenario here. if he had made the targs black like originally planned do you think that would have been better or worse? (1/2)

ok im going to address this point by point because there is a lot of reaching and misunderstanding here

1. I am not here to present a ‘win’ scenario for GRRMs writing. I am discussing the shortcomings of the way he writes racism and yet uses racist tropes. A lot of these are as you state ‘no win’ scenarios because he decided to craft a world where racism exists while having extremely few characters of colour in important positions, AND while using racist tropes. There are many no win scenarios simply because of this tension.

2. I dont want Ned to be a more vocally racist character? And please point out where I said that Grrm was racist because Ned wasnt portrayed as having overt anti-dornish sentiment? I stated that because GRRM created a world where racism exists everything now has to be analysed bearing that in mind. It’s the same as stating that because misogyny exists in universe male characters are possibly (and likely) somewhat misogynistic and their interactions with with women and the way they treat female characters must be analysed in such a way.

Me stating that anti-dornish racism could have been a possible reason why Ned reacted less vehemently to the deaths of Elia and her children is me analysing it within the frame-work that GRRM set up. I’m using this to point out that when white authors add fantasy racism into a story they dont see the raicst implications of what they are writing because they dont understand the way racism impacts almost everything in real life.

For example in our world when non-white children or women go missing or are murdered their deaths are much less publicized than when white women or children get murdered or go missing. So yes racism affects the way that people are treated in such scenarios and when you decide to include fantasy racism in your story you have now included all of this extra stuff and need to do work to make sure that what you are writing does not perpetuate or enforce racism.

3. I literally never said arya having racist thoughts made GRRM a racist and bad writer. I have no clue where you got that. I used Aryas remark to highlight how anti-dornish sentiment clearly exists in the North because 9 year old children dont develop racist ideas in a vaccuum.

4. Where did I ever state that everything that happens to the martells was a micro aggression? I’m also confused as to where you got the word “micro” from??? Because idk about you but things like characters not really caring about the rape and death of a non-white woman and the deaths of her biracial children, a child being shunned because they “smelled dornish” and dornish women being hypersexualised in the narrative are some pretty macro aggressions.

5. Finally you deciding to ‘not discuss the essoss stuff’ is missing one of the main points of what I am trying to say. GRRM’s writing isnt racist because sometimes bad things happen to the Martells. The combination of his writing of the dothraki as savages with no introspection when compared to the free folk, the brutal killing of many martells for shock value, the contrast between the way he portrays Lyanna and the way he portrays Elia, the exotic/erotic trope he uses when writing dornish women, the fact that he hasnt named the princess of dorne while all her male counterparts have recieved names AND backstories and the fact that he made a white character the centre of the essoss plotline and a whole host of other decisions combine to make his writing....kinda racist. If it happened one time it may be a coincidence. If it happens about 10 times its a pattern.

Would it be racist if the Starks were written as inuit and then split up? Probably - given the history of murder and brutal seperation indigenous families have faced! Would making the more visibly indigenous stark children plainer while making the more white passing stark children better looking be racist? Probably - considering the way that eurocentric beauty standards are still upheld! With GRRM his issue is that he doesn't use 1 or 2 racist tropes in isolation. That could be a mistake. He uses several in succession.

Regarding the Targaryens being Black I think that if he wrote them in exactly the same manner (unlikely given how he treats other characters of colour) it likely wouldnt be racist but that the fandom probably would take it as an excuse to be racist.

So now that weve gotten through all of that straw-man criticism about my “take” I’m actually going to suggest some ways that he could have still written about fantasy racism without accidentally perpetuating it

1. If he is going to brutally kill off Elia he needs to AT LEAST have more discussions surrounding her death. Who Elia was as a person (dont just make her a sad cardboard cut out - I want to see some background on who she was outside of being an abandoned wife and mother). One story about Elia by Oberyn isnt enough. I also want to see more societal shock about Elias death because theres a weirdly small amount. The rape and murder of the crown princess shouldve been an extremely huge scandal and should have horrified many more people.

2. Theres no real way to kill off two non white children and have their white sibling be a prophetic hero without dicey implications so Aegon needs to survive and be the actual Aegon and not a secret blackfyre. We dont know if he is a secret blackfyre or not so this may just be a case of the fandom taking an excuse to be racist and running with it

3. Have more Dornish characters that dont die brutally for shock value (Elia, Oberyn, Quentyn). Furthermore when you only have 2 povs of dornish characters,,,,and you kill one of them off, yes that is not a great look

4. Dont introduce the only WoC pov in the whole damn book nipple first and as a blatant play on the brown seductress when she has legitimate political concerns and greivances

And thats only the dornish characters! With the dothraki and most of essoss just.....anything aside from what he’s done would be better. But of course im sure none of this is actually racist writing decisions. No its simply complex characterisation of course!!1!

[realcatalina]

have you ever made a post on maria of habsburg? i think she is an underrated figure in the renaissance and very impressive as queen of hungary and governess of the netherlands. wikipedia is telling me she was considered ugly/unfeminine but i don't agree lol, i think she (and isabel) looked the most like her mother of her siblings. also, sorry if you get this ask twice! i think tumblr ate my first one but not sure. love your blog <3 <3 <3

I never made separate post about Mary of Austria, Queen of Bohemia and Hungary, also called Mary Habsburg or Mary of Castile.

But she is mentioned in several:

Habsburg women in Netherlandish fashion (1-7)

Hair colours of children of Juana of Castile

IHS brooch-What is its origin?

I wanted to do all of Catherine's nieces, but after Eleanor of Austria I tried to do Isabella and realised what is assumed to be Danish fashion is actually Netherlandish and hence majority of the portraits of Habsburg women in such fashion were misidentified. It ended up being 7 separate post safter which I really needed a break. Then I simply forgot. It isn’t only thing I forgot, to this day i didn’t do depictions of Ferdinand of Aragon, which I planned on week 1.

Mary is very overlooked figure(but imo Isabella of Austria, Queen of Demark even more so) and not just in English sources. I am from Czechia-which historically was called Bohemia. She was our Queen. Her name wasn’t even mentioned in history class. Ever. Jagellonians and their Queens are truly overlooked dynasty, which is crazy given how much of territory of Europe they had in 1500.

It seems Mary is unfortunate victim of propaganda against her, which make her into somehow responsible for anything bad which happened during her husband’s reign. They accuse her of making sure she’d not get pregnant for example-which at the time would be serious accusation, because main purpose of marriage was to have children.But to be fair, she and her husband didn’t live as man and wife together for long time, and her only fault was that she didn’t conceive fast enough.

It’s common trend with Queens. If they produce heir-they are praised as saint, as ideal example of Queenship, even if they were Queens for merely short time and didn’t do anything of importance.

If they didn’t produce heir, then somehow they were the most evil, ambitious and vile of women.

And imo that is why Mary, a childless widow gets negative labels by past authors.

ANd no, she wasn’t ugly or unfeminine. It’s just narrative they try to make using portraits by Maller which have serious issue-pigment instability of skin, which somehow made all the natural shadows of face disappear.

This then causes her features to look weird. But tbh, some painters are able to make even great beauties and handsome men look ugly. It’s sometimes just painter’s style.

Maller has probably been also involved in portrait with thistle lining, which has same issues as his paintings. 

But Maller is not only painter who created her likeness, and I think this one shows she wasn’t ugly at all:

She didn’t have as prominent shape of jaw or too large or weirdly shaped nose as some of her less fortunate siblings, and instead gathered best features.

Nose between her mother’s and grandmother’s(not bad at all), very plump lips(but not as much to be found inatractive), very fine eyes and brows, and as Maller’s portraits suggest dark golden strawberry blond hair-period ideal. 

So actually, among princesses of her lifetime and definitely among her sisters, Mary would be considered very pretty, if not beautiful.

I will try to do post about her depictions soon, but i have several lined up, so it might take a while. 

And I’d like to find more about her life, but i dont know when i will have time for it, probably not until next year as end of this year will be very busy time for me.

[stardustpinkart]

Encanto Fanfic Reccomendations!

I’d like to reccomend some really well written fanfics on Encanto :) I mean theres probably loads out there but, finding them can be hard and I dunno I just feel like, I wanna share these two with people.

Extended Family is Still Family

First one I like becuase, what IF Mirabel started to become withdrawn and quiet, instead of her usual cheer and being brave? Only so much a person can take Like what if “Dont draw attention to yourself, best to stay aside, for the family.”

But people also notice and dont want history to reapeat itself? A lot of fics really DEMONIZE the Madrigal family. I cnat imagine they would truly be so openly cruel? Abuela certainly can be mean and Isabela but I doubt her entire family would just ignore her? Her parents alone seem very loving people to all there daughters. And why would Antonio suddenly turn on her after getting his gift when its clear he loves her so much?

Spiolers ahead, I like in this one we get diffrent interpretations. Like Pepa not talking about her brother is more painful than being mad? Maybe its easier NOT to say anything thinking it wont hurt? Which is usually incorrect, sometimes talking helps and, pretending things are okay dont?

How the kids band together later on in chapters in nice seeing them all interact together. Getting a little look inside all there heads, how her Tia Pepa is determined, and Camilo come to think of it, that Mirabel not feel she hasta hide away or there better off without her.

I feel like canonly, Abeula would always keep a certain distance from Mirabel? The thing is, shes not very kind to her but its not exaclty obvious? Its like tolerating a stray puppy. She doesent shout or hit her but, she “politley” puts her down? Or acts like shes just waiting for her to mess up. Its a more subtle passive agressive thing? And, ANYONE could fall under it, if they step out of line or suddenly prove to be useless(Bruno falls under this).

Its easy to dislike Isabela but Im glad for her character non the less? Siblings often dont get on and can be mean to each other like that, talking from experience here. Just cuz your born into a family doesent mean you’ll get along?

And can also understand a bit WHY she is the way she is. I think its partly not wanting to get rejected too, jealousy her little sister has so much freedom(I mean if Mirabel messes up no big deal, if Isa does wont people come down on her WAY harder cuz shes supposed to be PERFECT?), and a little of conditioning. Isa was still a little girl growing up when Mira lost her gift. Being Abuelas favourite and seeing how she treated Mira, she probabaly felt like it was okay? To do so, because she wasent “special”. Following by example

But the mean spioled princess doesent seem to be the real Isabela either, thats another plus. We only see a little in the film but it suggests the REAL Isa is someone a lil more wild, happy.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/36291331/chapters/90472465

Two Butterflies: Gone with the Wind

Second fave is WHAT if Mirabel was taken away and prevented from growing up in this toxic enviroment? This is Bruno, knowing of course first hand expereince what thats like. She grows up instead a happy, vibrant girl. Honeslty not too diffrent from her canon self but she doesent have that sense thats shes worthless or hasta try to hard, and because she didnet grow up scared of Abeula, shes not scared to speak her mind?

Its always easier to see problems from the outside and, to stand up to people if your not conditioned to be afraid of them? I get why its hard for anyone in the family to stand up to Abuela, most of them were children themseleves with her hardnosed ways.

BUT again we also get to look into peoples heads, including Abuelas, and understand WHY they do the things they do? Its not like there trying to be cruel they just dont quite see what there doing? Heck we all do this, especially when we dont know all the facts. Have you ever decided you hate someone but then later on discover some things that make you see it ina diffrent light, realise yoru wrong? And other times even with it, it still doesnet mean you can forgive them.

Its well written without being overly anylitcial like a textbook? People dont talk so seriously and they dont just suddenly work out becuase you say so? Often its butting heads and arguments. So this feels like yeah this is REAL people and difficult emotions?

https://archiveofourown.org/works/36060313

[kdramachitchat]

Episode 7 - Shows how our past experiences shapes up the person we become today. A look back on Ms. Jung and Gaon’s backstory.

The episode starts right back from the previous episode wherein Yohan exposes the SRF and the people around it involved in a scandal for the Dream Home project.

War against false accusations

To whoever gives them a tip Yohan will compensate all the money to them. All the members except Ms. Jung are in shock. She was in a calm state manner as if she expected this to happen. Ms Jung reminded them to calm down as it’s all groundless accusations. 

The Blue House holds a press conference and they are carefully looking into it. The President breaks into the press room and tells the reporters himself that the accusations are all false. The President is also fired up and told the press different kinds of reports he found about Yohan. He also copies Yohan and if anyone gave the President tip he will provide the tipper a significant reward.

Gaon and Yohan talks about how Yohan is basically against a entire country. Yohan pointed out on where they spend the rest of the money and they used it through advertisement. They use it to the different kinds of media outlets to advertise and exaggerate noblesse oblige. They create a wealthy image of the social responsibility. They use it as a weapon to take over. The Dream Home project is just a front of creating a large asylum by using the citizen’s money to put the homeless, poor and social discontent all in 1 area and out of sight. Once they set aside those people, they will advertise a widespread redevelopment of the city.

Gaon decides to help him under a few conditions. Subornation of perjury, abduction, blackmail and making a fool with his lies to the citizens is not something he’ll abide on. He’s not a shady law-maker. Not infront of his parents who died because of a conman and Soohyun. Yohan’s next step is to create division against the people.

Yohan visits the Minbo group. He then gets a call from the Chairman of People Media Group Mr. Park to meet up, same with Mr. Min of Minbo Group.

Yohan also visits the President’s office and does a impromptu livestream. Yohan tells President Heo that he will look into the foundation’s corruption. Yohan diverted the public and tells them that the President invited him to the Blue House to give a joint statement.

After Yohan’s visit at the Blue House, he went home and found out that GaOn has found a weak spot. They spend too much on PR. They release articles saying that the foundation has donated 10-20m dollars to the Dream Home project. Gaon comments that the money is too big for the donations to be solely from the public. GaOn suggested that they need the foundation’s financial date. The date from Park and Min are fake so it looks like the others embezzled money. They also havent been receiving proper tip offs although Yohan still wants to pay them. To Yohan it doesnt matter if they dont get the content what matters is the number. He wants the number of tip offs to be known to the public. Yohan says that they need to fool people by having confidence. GaOn commented that he sounded like a experienced con artist. Hmm. Yohan although mentions that this is a bit different because he’s spending his own money and he clearly knows that GaOn has been effected by a con artist in the past. This surely hits home. GaOn at night starts having nightmares about his parents.

Social Responsibility Foundation Healing Mentor Lecture

A proper introduction about Ms. Jung from Ms. Jung herself. She talks about the meaning of her name and how her mother thought she would grow up to be a ordinary and good person. She talks about her childhood, how her mother used to beat her up everytime she’s drunk. Seeing the children brings her back memories and one of the visitors shared their similar stories. Ms. Jung as a child got into fights and got in trouble. Everyone around her insulted, teased and beated her so she had no choice. She was hungry too. When she was 12, she worked for a wealthy family with nice children. They were nice and never swore. If she’d be good as them her mom probably wouldn't beat her. 

To become a good child, she advice that you have to be rich. You can only be nice if you were able to meet ends. The world is a jungle, when you have a prey you have to survive by all means. Bite back if they bite hard, steal something if you have to. She also gives them a reality check that the world is tougher especially for lonely girls like them. Beasts are everywhere no matter how educated and respected they are. If they are surrounded by scumbags they should take advantage of it. The law is never on their side and they must secure evidence. Record the evidence if they must. To end her statement, they should torment that person until the day they die. Threaten them and destroy everything they have along the way until the person becomes tame as a dog. A female guest ask if Ms. Jung’s mother love her now, she mentions that her mother passed away when she was 12. She was drunk and fell down the stairs at their neighborhood.

The head of the lecturer complimented about her speech and tells her to come back. Ms. Jung suddenly pushes her down the stairs with one of the guest witnessing her. I guess her mother wasn’t exactly drunk? Maybe Ms. Jung was the one who pushed her own mother down the stairs. The female guest wasn’t shocked but was happy after Ms. Jung winked back at her.

Ga On’s past

GaOn’s parents passed away when he was 16. He told Elijah that his parents were conned by a horrible con artist. His father took his own life and the mother collapsed from shock. Elijah says that it’s something that he won’t be able to forget easily. They both compared their past and how difficult it is for them to forget. He talked about how he hated being alone and so he slept, hung out with anyone anywhere. He compared himself to a stray dog. Ga On complimented Elijah how she’s a strong and incredible person. How she used to deal with being lonely in the house. Both seem to get along well now.

Yohan starts reading books on how to handle talking to a teenager like Elijah. He prepares himself before entering Elijah’s room. Even to the point on having to memorize the things he’d learn. He starts to ask awkward questions which made the scene funny. Elijah shut the door but then eventually asked about Ga On’s parents to Yohan. Yohan with a smile explained to Elijah that his parents were conned of hundreds of millions of dollars through a pyramid scheme. The result leaded to 10 victims who committed suicide from it.

Live show

During the live show, Yohan shows a recording of him meeting with Mr Park and Min handing over a envelope. Yohan revealed that they gave a subcontract to a company run by a family member. They bought a site for their future business venture in advance. The documents had opposing details that will be looked on. He also revealed the status of the donations. Yohan puts a spotlight on GaOn and adds his previous comment that the donations didnt add up. If they dont embezzle the money, then they never donated from the beginning. Yohan then exposes GaOn’s family history to the pubic. GaOn looked shocked and mad, Yohan certainly didnt ask for consent to reveal it and now the reporters are flocking him for a statement. They will reveal the contents of the tip off they receive next week. After the show Yohan and GaOn argued once again about GaOn’s principles.

Visiting Doh Youngchoon

Yohan and GaOn arrives at the correction facility center to visit Doh Youngchoon without GaOn knowing. They arrive and the police mentions how they support the 2 judges. GaOn couldnt believe his eyes, he is shocked by Doh’s appearance. The police officer incharge of the visitation mentioned that he received extra charges and was sentenced to 17 years. GaOn was floored and is completely emotional on the system works.

Ms. Jung as the new SRF Chairwoman

Ms. Jung is psychotic as hell too. She forgives Mr. Seo then stabs him at the end. They released a statement that he committed suicide due to the embezzlement scandal and have destroyed all the evidence. They announced Ms. Jung Sunah as the new chairwoman of the SRF.

[benjiwyatt]

do you have any ben/leslie headcanons! i love your posts abt them so much it's great to see someone get as emotional abt them as i am asjdkajhjd

i got this message and i was like "god, i dont really know if i have any headcanons" and then i opened my notes app and started typing and didn't stop for over an hour

i'm literally putting this under a break and organizing it into categories bc it's absurdly long

here it is

A COLLECTION OF BEN AND LESLIE HEADCANONS

PRE-RELATIONSHIP/S3

basically canon but leslie definitely had a crush on a young benji wyatt and followed the story religiously for the first couple months before she started college

ben is only slightly jealous leslie had ann go out with chris to try and get more money for the parks budget rather than leslie asking him out with the same goal. he knows it’s insane, unethical, and illogical but he’s still excited that he gets to spend the night with her on a date plus two other people even if it is to accuse her of bribery.

ann realizes early on that leslie was attracted to ben and teases her mercilessly about it. she thinks it’s absolutely hilarious that leslie wants to make out with "mean ben.” after april and andy’s wedding, she realizes it's more than just attraction and she lays off.

before ben can even think rationally about what he’s doing, he’s in line at bed, bath, and beyond with a crock pot in his arms, calling stephanie to ask her to send him their family’s chicken soup recipe

ann knew ben liked her from the beginning and was totally positive when she ran into him in the hospital asking for leslie’s room number while holding jj’s waffles and a tub of homemade soup.

ben realizes he’s falling in love with leslie when he is at city hall with her until 3am one night trying to budget for the amount of cotton candy machines she wants for the harvest festival. in his exhaustion, he naively believes her when she tells him she’ll go home in a bit so he leaves. he never gets a text from saying she made it home so he stops at jj’s the next morning and brings a takeout container of waffles and a coffee complete with an outlandish amount of whipped cream and sugar to the parks department. he finds her asleep in the conference room. he starts trying to convince sweetums to donate more cotton candy machines that afternoon.

chris had to have known ben liked leslie. he’s not an idiot. in the deleted scene from their wedding, they read out emails from their “tumultuous first week in pawnee” and chris writes to ben saying, “why are you so focused on leslie knope?” ben replies saying, “i’m not. whatever. shut up.” there’s no way chris is this oblivious. ben takes her out for a beer. ben pays out of pocket for a children’s performer to help her out. ben shows up on chris and ann’s date just because he thinks leslie might be there. chris can’t be this dumb. but when they take the city manager jobs in pawnee, he knows it can’t happen so he cuts ben off when he starts to ask about dating someone in city hall. he cracks down on the rule in front of leslie after the tom incident to hammer it in. he starts setting ben up on a bunch of dates to try and head it off. he sends them to indianapolis for the little league pitch because, realistically, he knows they’re the best bet for success but makes sure to interrupt their dinner and invites them to his apartment to continue to run interference the rest of the night. after their fights in 4.06-4.08, he hopes he won’t have to worry anymore. the next work day, they come into his office looking nervous and happy and he knows he’s about to lose the partner and best friend that’s been by his side for the past decade.

april and andy knew they were secretly dating. it went unspoken aside from a few implicit teasing remarks from april and a few suggestive attempted high fives from andy but leslie assured ben they wouldn’t tell anyone despite their ostensible behavior.

BREAK UP

ben had commissioned the li’l sebastian plush for leslie after he had died but the toy shop didn’t finish it until after they broke up. he felt bad not going to pick it up so he did despite not being able to give it to her. he kept it for all those months and sometimes thought about getting rid of it but could never bring himself to do it.

when leslie made personalized copies her books for her friends with individualized annotations and notes in the bylines, she had two copies for ben. there was one that she gave him during their breakup that was very simplified and watered down where the note basically just said “i’m really glad you decided to stay in pawnee.” then there was a second copy that she kept while they were split up that was totally covered in notes and random thoughts she couldn’t say during their time apart. she gives him that copy when they get back together and it may or may not be the best gift he’s ever received.

april was much less abrasive with them during the break up because she’s a sweetheart and wants her friends to be happy.

the first time leslie admitted she was in love with him was during a long night of drinking and crying at ann’s house

ben craved the taste of sugar during their breakup because he got used to tasting the sweetness when he kissed her

ben found himself unable to sleep at night without the sound of leslie talking in her sleep to comfort him

april texted leslie the night of the halloween party to let her know that ben and andy were at the hospital after a fight and everything was fine and she didn’t need to worry. leslie was mad at andy for a few days after and he couldn’t figure out why.

the only photo in ben’s bedroom was of himself, leslie, and li’l sebastian at the harvest festival. if he got caught staring at it and crying, he would just say he missed li’l sebastian so much.

april and andy started having star wars and star trek movie nights to try and cheer ben up

DOMESTIC

ben and leslie got in the habit of having weekly game nights with april and andy during the campaign since they were all basically living together. it became a tradition that kept going as often as they could make it happen, even after the kids were born. they try to have game night at least once a month. april pretends to hate it.

one of my absolute favorite ideas about them is that she sleeps much better when he’s around to keep her grounded. after they get together for good, she starts getting closer to 5 hours of sleep a night.

another favorite involving leslie’s sleeping: ben is typically accustomed to tuning out incoherent nonsense that she babbles in her sleep but she also has some of her best ideas when she’s not busy trying to focus on a million different things. when he hears her coming up with legitimately good ideas or making speeches or having solid debate arguments, he takes out the notebook he keeps in his nightstand to record her thoughts and quotes. he revisits and revises the notes to strengthen her statements and make them more professional and less rambling but makes sure to keep her distinct voice apparent in them.

ben prefers pancakes to waffles but he will go to the grave with that secret

this isn’t a headcanon because nbc posted it but one of ben’s holidays on leslie’s calendar is watch synchronization day which is the day they celebrate syncing their watches to, as leslie puts it, “always be in harmony, like our hearts” which is just one of the sweetest fucking things in the world

leslie makes ben read and watch all the harry potters because he didn’t get into them when he first tried. ben is much more of a success than ann. she buys him a ravenclaw scarf for christmas.

their first fight as a couple was a historical debate gone awry

since ben clearly has some affinity for custom stuffed animals, he has some made for the triplets.

they’re both dog people but they adopt a cat because sonia and stephen beg for one and it does fit their busy lifestyle much better. they love the cat. they get a dog when the kids are older and life is slightly less hectic.

they both love striped shirts and sweaters so much that they have to make a conscious effort to avoid wearing them on the same day and matching

leslie makes sweets and bakes desserts while ben typically handles cooking the actual meals

BASED ON EPISODES, QUOTES, AND THROWAWAY LINES

i always loved the ann/ben dynamic in bus tour because there’s been such an obvious shift in ann’s attitude towards him in this episode. maybe it’s because she and tom just broke up and she just turned chris down again and she’s frustrated with relationships but i think it’s her realizing ben isn’t going anywhere. since the campaign is winding down, she realizes that things aren’t gonna go back to the way they were because ben is now part of this and he’s clearly in it for the long haul. ann’s definitely jealous that ben is just as important to leslie as she is and she now knows she’s never gonna get that full attention back. ann sits ben down to have a real “don’t you dare hurt her” speech after this ep and before win, lose, or draw. this is when he tells ann he wants to marry her.

they discover they both adore the princess bride after ben says “as you wish” to her one night and after that it becomes their movie.

the wildflower mural becomes a thing between them when ben says he considered that to be their first date, prompting leslie to tell him what the mural means to her.

ben puts banjo boogie bonanza on one of the mix cds he gives leslie at the beginning of their relationship

harrison ford movie nights start after they both reveal they had a crush on him as a kid. ben was obsessed with han solo and leslie was into indiana jones’ whole history teacher vibe.

they basically hate each other’s taste in music and stop exchanging mix cds once that becomes apparent that they aren’t gonna find much common ground. they both love tom petty, al green, and etta james and music in that vein though.

ben makes leslie watch game of thrones just to try to explain why he’s called her khaleesi. she gets into it, not so much because of the show itself, but because of how passionate her boyfriend is about it.

they start learning basic french during the s4 campaign because they think it will be useful to have a basic multilingual vocabulary for their political careers and because leslie confesses she has always dreamed of seeing paris. they study spanish next.

ben makes leslie watch the star wars prequels just so he can complain to her during them. he doesn’t think she’s paying attention and then he reads about midichlorians in the paper.

ann is also in on ben’s plan to sneak vegetables into leslie’s waffles.

they will sometimes jokingly refer to themselves as the “dream team” or “dynamic duo” because, despite chris’s absurdity, it’s true

i’m open to literally any origin of this because no matter what it’s perfect but i like to think that “i love you and i like you” started at some point in season 4 when, at some point, leslie went “i like you” and ben replied “you like me?” “mhm” “hm just like me?” “yes i like you. i love you and i like you. both.” “mmm i love you and i like you too”

i barely even register some of these things as headcanons since they just live so solidly in my brain

this might be my favorite ask ever thank you for loving benslie enough to ask me this and be genuinely interested

if anyone read all of this, i love you

[nightcoremoon]

weird opinion but christians aren't religious.

ok so like, jews generally follow god's rules, muslims follow allah's rules, hindus probably follow their gods rules, so on and so forth. and overall they do it out of faith; they do it because they want to honor the deity who loves them rather than because society forces them to.

granted the zionists and the radical extremists and the zealots do exist but as loud minorities and thus are statistical outliers & don't matter.

christians are... a different breed.

"if you aren't x branch and dont obey y rules you'll go to hell so we'll fucking murder you" is pretty much the main driving force behind a significant portion of christianity in history. the catholics, the protestants, the orthodoxy, all are built on a foundation of fear, anger, and hatred. it's shaped the way society developed; in the 4 nations that did the most genocidal imperialist colonialism- England, France, Spain, and Italy- a combination of convenient coastal locations, naval prowess, military tendency, christianity, and ultranationalism lead them down a path of missionaries, holding bibles in one hand and bloodstained knives in the other. the religion is inseparable from the culture and inseparable from the horrible things done in the name of their god, and the resulting cancers of society we feel today from the campaigns of slaughter. xenophobia. capitalism. savage barbarism via sensationalized capitol punishment. misogyny. queerphobia. gender fascism. classism. racism. all of these issues in the "civilized world" stem predominantly from those four nations and the disease ridden pestilent filth some call pilgrims.

here's something interesting:

there are less than 1 million rastafari in the world.

there are less than 5 million shinto in the world.

there are less than 25 million jews in the world.

there are less than 30 million sikhs in the world.

there are roughly 100 million african cultural religious adherents in the world.

there are less than 400 million chinese cultural religious adherents in the world.

there are about 500 million buddhists in the world.

there are about 1.1 billion hindus in the world.

there are about 1.2 billion nonreligious people in the world.

there are 1.6 billion muslims in the world.

and one final statistic

there are over 2.1 billion christians in the world.

the jewish count is a highball, rounded up, and includes several different definitions of jewish including people who are only one quarter. so for every single person who is even remotely jewish, there are more than 8 christians. for every hindu, there are 4 christians. for every atheist, agnostic, or "other", 2 christians. this frightening statistic should set off warning bells for everyone who is involved in a discussion about religion. and anyone who knows BASIC world history and can correlate data at all can probably piece together what I'm putting down.

now, I may be slightly biased here considering my eclectic religious beliefs. now, I personally believe that there is some primary force of energy that may or may not manifest itself as a humanoid being, that engineered the most basic laws of physics in the universe: atomic magnetism. as can be inferred by planck's constant and its implications, our universe is digital, written in binary. an electron either moves or doesn't move. there are no other options. so I genuinely believe in some form of intelligent design; whether it's a bearded guy on a cloud, some dude with six arms and an elephant for a face, just a big swirling pool of ectoplasm, or a big ol' plate of spaghetti and meatballs, something is out there that we are physically incapable of contacting from our plane of existence, just as a drawing on a piece of paper cannot reach out to interact with the world: a gif will move on its own but it will never acknowledge our existence, even if it could think by itself. and all the different mythologies of the world- egyptian, greek, norse, shinto, whatever- very well could be the agents of that unknown "god". perhaps anubis, ra, and bastet are just angels with animal heads that all of the peoples of ancient egypt saw and were like oh I guess this must be a god. maybe zeus and loki were the same person with a magic dick who fucked a bunch of animals in both greece and the scandinavian countries and spawned all of the horrible half-animal monstrosities that, idk, made vishnu think "well I have to kill that" and caused the biblical flood or something. maybe the jewish god gifted wisdom to siddhartha for sitting under a fig tree for 6 years through the angel pomona [roman goddess of fruit, had to google that one], so buddha gets his wisdom from demeter and is in nirvana right now right a step up from hades on yggdrasil the world tree keeping an eye on his charge persephone. any theory could theoretically be true but we ants of humans will never fucking know because we can't just point a telescope at the magellanic clouds and say "look, there's amaterasu with russell's teapot, and she's having tea with... *rubs eyes* lemmy kilmister??? wow I guess gods are real after all!" it's impossible to know the secrets of our universe because of the very restrictive nature of the universe itself. is it a circle? is it a donut? WE DONT FUCKIN KNOW.

we cannot know what religion is truthful.

""anyone who says that any one religion is more or less true than any other is a fucking moron, and if they're suggesting that White Western European Colonial Imperialist Protestantism is the one true faith, they're probably a fucking racist colonizer who beats his wife/sister and burns gays at the stake. and considering how that exact demographic is typically the one that murdered people for not converting to their religion, I don't think they have the intellectual non-deranged ability to make those logical connections.

again, I'm not saying that there AREN'T a lot of people of every religion who are evil assholes who contributed to mass genocide. israelites killed palestinians. shiites killed sunnis. hutus killed tutsis. danes killed geats. turks killed armenians. the ottoman empire has as much blood on its hands as the holy roman empire. germans who called themselves aryans but weren't actually aryan killed jews. but all of these tragedies were isolated incidents rather than repeated patterns over the course of two thousand years. not like christianity was and is.

just look at the United States, Canada, Mexico, Hong Kong, South Africa, Australia, & India's British Raj. Britain, France, Spain, and Italy, by extension Protestantism and Catholicism, are the shared factor between the long and bloody history fraught with massacring indigenous populations who wouldn't convert religions. native americans, indigenous canadians, latin americans but predominantly mexicans, the eastern chinese, coastal africans, aborigine aussies, indians- coastal coastal coastal. true the western chinese and the mongols/hunnu and xinjiang muslims haven't exactly been on civil terms and the silk road has always been a battleground and the middle east was already tenuous before murrica bombed them for oil but those happened in such a spread out area among asia which is FUCKING HUGE, MIND YOU! but also that's three high traffic places with massive diversity, it's human nature to have conflict, but not nearly to the same level as all of the shit christianity has done to the world. it's impossible to separate the religion from the cultures; victorian england without protestantism is just dirty people who die at 15 from having their 3rd child. italy without the catholicism is just grass and cheese. france and spain without religion are just kingdoms that fought wars with england for forever and now just make food that's one part delicious and three parts horrifying. religion is directly responsible for a significant portion of the evils those countries committed. one religion in particular.

they don't practice religion the same way as the rest do. they aren't faithful to their god. they don't follow his rules out of love but out of fear. they execute dissenters without a second thought, heresy they cry. they execute women and little girls for being free thinking or having sickness associated with mercury poisoning in the water, witch they cry. they slaughter men women and kids alike in the name of cramming their beliefs down the natives throats, we're chasing out the snakes they cry, we're bringing god to your godless people they cry, we're just civilizing you they cry. they shit in the streets and proudly display rotting corpses and leave the impoverished disabled and starving to die alone and whip their slaves and rape teenage girls and scrap in the streets while sopping wet with spilled ale over insignificant insults and stab people to death in the night and never even fucking BATHE, and they have the nerve to say the natives were uncivilized. the nerve. because hey. they read a magic book they stole from a culture who stole from another culture who stole from another culture, mistranslating each time from hebrew to greek to italian to english, and they think they're better because their skin is white.

christians never evolved. their mentalities have stayed the same. all thatms advanced has been technology. that's it. they're still the same evil disgusting degenerate bastards they always were. they just have the money they stole to buy stained glass windows, rosary beads, giant tacky metal statues, bigass robes, leather, and printing presses. and as time passed they used the money they continued to steal to buy cars and websites and radio stations and commit felony tax evasion and secretly molest children and line the pockets of the politicians.

all of their holidays are stolen from pagans anyway.

so fuck christmas. fuck easter. fuck lent. fuck the golden calf christian holidays that the tiny minded fragile snowflake conservatives lose their collective shit over because the pandemic response common sense stipulations won't let them buy the shit they can't afford with money they shouldn't have for people they don't even LIKE, all in the name of tradition, tradition! the rituals that worship something so much worse than satan or baphomet or pan or whatever: the dollar. they buy all the new shiny shit they can, at the expense of the chinese kids that the corporate pigs outsource to, buy the pine trees and the coca cola vunderbar and the fake mint corn syrup Js and watch the same shitty cookie cutter white supremacist hallmark fash movies and stuff their kids full of enough sugar to go into a goddamn coma when the african slaves who pick the cocoa beans will never get to know what actually being a kid will ever feel like because they're gonna die from falling into a combine harvester and be eternally forgotten to history and no christian will ever give a shit because they don't fucking care about what they don't see on their safe space news or hear on their safe space radio or read on their safe space social media. they think their worst sin is eating cheeseburgers so instead they'll go eat a mcchicken or chick fil a or an arby's chicken sandwich instead but not at popeyes because "that place is sketchy" and by that they mean they don't wanna eat where black people eat, that's why cracker barrel was so popular for so many white christians for so long because it had racially segregated seating until barely 20 years ago.

they don't love jesus. they love a paper doll they shove into their back pockets until every other sunday where they go to a fucking mall with a baptism waterslide and raise their hands like a bunch of dumbass weirdos and away to adult contemporary indie schlock with the word jesus pasted into a boring-ass hetero romance song, pat themselves on the back, then go to starbucks to scream slurs and misgenderings at 14 year old starbucks baristas who give them a cappamochalattechino instead of a fucking carmamochalattechino because you mumbled under the mask you didn't even fucking cover your nose with because you don't give a shit about the virus beyond how it inconveniences you.

they are horrible people who pretend to be good. until you suggest the slightest infinitely small inconvenience to them that would alter their holiday plans even the littlest smidge. then they would kill you if not for the police. don't get me started on them because you know by now what I'd say about those fuckers. but they'll gladly wear shirts about how they'll kill you. how they'll go back 200 years. how they'll murder you and watch you slowly suffer because their primate brains shoot a million endorphins when they watch things die by their hands because they never evolved a sense of empathy, compassion, or morality beyond how wearing a cross necklace will remove any of the consequences they will face in their afterlife.

they are horrible people who pretend to be good. unless you're gay or black or trans or Not Christian™ or mexican or disagree with them about politics economics sociology science technology music or movies. assimilate or die. assimilate or die. assimilate or die.

they don't deserve special treatment for their false idols.

they aren't better than jews or muslims.

they're worse.

so much worse.

and they should be stopped.""

-Nightingale Quietioca

save as draft arch draft bookmark draft where did I put my keys contra code kontra kode I need to remember this and copy it buzzwords keywords find it later please god tumblr don't bork on me this is good stream of consciousness repackage repackage change the words this is a great character study if I do say so myself thanks 3am me you're welcome 3am me

[godsporncollection]

Saturday GC Sessions Summary

Topics, quotes, and summaries of the talks given in the Saturday sessions of the fall 2020 General Conference (with occasional commentary in parenthesis)

*This is (mostly) written from a TBM pov, so I’ve glossed over many... unsavory things. That said, if you’re gonna quote this, definitely proofread it first because I occasionally switch to exmo pov. 

Sunday Sessions (long version)

Sunday Sessions (shorter version)

Russel M Nelson

Hopeful, holy bullshit/look at all the spiritually awesome stuff we're doing/gonna do. (idk, there didn't really seem to be much of a talk there)

David A Bednar

Tests in school are as important as the tests of us living on earth. 

"Prove, examine, and try."  

"If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear." 

Susan and I looked over our food storage and learned that we did well in most areas, but found some expired things we were afraid would unleash another global pandemic. 

Remember, when loved ones die, and you don't know why, god does. It's a lesson in faith. 

Scott D Whiting

How to be more like christ. 

Wife and I were in Japan, hiking up a mountain; it was hard because altitude. 

One step at a time is how we become more like christ. 

Honesty is important, honesty with ourselves.

You can ask others how they view you, but god is a better person to ask, with his perfect view of us. 

REPENT! to be the best version of ourselves. Change your heart and mind to be like christ. 

Choose one attribute to focus on at a time. Constantly ask god for help, but don't be selfish. 

"Be the tide that raises all boats in the harbor." 

Recognize that desired attribute in others. Put in a lot of effort. 

Caution- don't feel guilty, unworthy, or unloved; that is not what life is about. 

You are good enough and loved, but that doesn't mean you're a perfect version of yourself.

Michelle D Craig

Story of Elijah for allegory of struggling to see how god is in your life. 

Wait and trust in god. Pray for the lord to open your eyes. Understand how god sees you. 

Ask yourself: what am I doing that I should stop and what should I be doing? 

Stop looking at your phone. I think it's a good time to multitask, but the spirit told me to stop and the next day, while in line at the grocery store, I looked at the people around me instead. I saw old man and struck up a conversation with him based on what was in his cart (cat food). He said it was his birthday so I wished him a happy birthday. This guy needed me to see him. 

A story of a friend who separated from her husband and hoped nobody would talk to her at church. A young woman kept looking back at her and came up to her after sacrament meeting. The young woman told her she loved her and they became friends and it helped her because she felt noticed and cared about. 

Ask god to help you see others and act to affirm their lives. This is how we identify our own purpose.

Quentin L Cook

Righteousness. Female followers of brigham young found career opportunites in Utah and friends in the native americans. (Gave a whole bullshit Utah thanksgiving story, complete with rewriting history so white people can feel better about themselves for feeding the natives). There is unity in respect. Historically, we have not been perfect, but that is the goal. We don't need to have all the blessings of god to be righteous. Love god and fellow man to live in eternal peace and happiness with god. "Historical record" in 1 nephi shows there were no happier people because of righteousness. But then that society was destroyed so much that mormon asked how they would avoid punishment. We live in that latter time, not unity. Our challenge is to lift and bless society as a whole. Demonstrated by ethnic harmony and an all inclusive doctrine. Unity and diversity are not opposites. All races and colors are children of god. Laws written in god's chosen land (US) were written by imperfect men, but inspired by god for equal treatment of all men. Remember that we were onced very opressed because we wanted to share jesus' love. If you are not united, you are not god's children. Gosple culture is greater than regional cultures. We honor pioneers because of their struggles.

Ronald A Rasband

Supplying the world with temples is a holy duty. 

Sacred ordinaces lead to exaltation. 

"Temples rise above the ways of the world. Every temple... stand as testaments to our faith and eternal life and the joy of spending it with our families and heavenly father. They increase understanding of the godhead and the everlasting gospel and commitment to live and teach truth and our willingness to follow the example of jesus." 

I learned an important lesson while visiting my father in law as he was dying; that temple recommends are important, even while dying. 

The worthiness interview "is not about do's and dont's. It is about finding your worthiness and to testify of your devotion to the gospel teachings." 

(I stopped paying attention for a while.) 

Hunter said his biggest desire was to have every member hold a temple recommend. 

Come get yo rec's! "Whether you have access to a temple or not, it is still important to remain and prove your worthiness." 

(I'm really struggling to pay attention to this guy and holy shit he stressed "be patient" while I was typing that.)

Dallin H Oaks

"The lord's teachings are for eternity and for all of god's children." 

My examples will be US-centric, but I'm sure that the issues the US face are universal, right? 

Destrucitve behavior in political statements are not good. 

Remember that JC said to love your enemies. Contention is of the devil, not JC. It isn't easy. Seek and ye shall find the strength to love. 

Follow the laws of man. 

Nobody can make us angry, it is our choice to be angry. 

(Reference to The King and I-) learn about other people's culture. 

Don't participate in rioting. 

Wait, he's supporting the first ammendement- oh, the stress here is on the word "peaceful". We must do better to end racism. But remember to be peaceful! No violence. Anarchy is evil. Lincoln said "there is no greivance that is a fit object of redress by mob law". It undermines individual rights, not protects. 

The US was started by diverse people! We're inherintly diverse! Here's a diverse (british) example!

AFTERNOON SESSION

D Todd Christofferson

There's a 2030 sustainable development agreement thingy. It's got 17 goals including- no poverty, no hunger, quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, and decent work. It is interesting and important. 

More important is a sustainable society. 

Two biblical examples: 1. The city of enoch. They were of one heart and one mind. 2. The 1st generations of nephites an lamanites. No envies nor strifes. No murders or lying. No happier people than them. Love thy neighbor. Every man seeking the interests of his neighbor. Virtues uphold these societies. 

Then they became exceedingly wicked and millions died in wars amongst themselves. 

"When people turn from a sense of accountability to god and begin to trust instead in the arm of flesh (?)", disaster lurks. 

A good life is more important than a long life. 

I'm so fucking blessed, so this really isn't a good topic for me, but here we are. 

The light of christ is what uneducated people call a consience. 

"When one has no higher god than himself, and seeks no greater good than satisfying his own appetites and preferences, the effects will be manifest in due course. A society, for example, in which individual consent is the only constraint on sexual activity is a society in decay. Adultery, promiscuity, elective abortion and out of wedlock births are but some of the bitter fruit that grow out of the immorality sanctioned by the sexual revolution." This leads to poverty and fatherless families, sometimes in multiple generations, and deficient education and mental destruction. 

"Our joyous message is that there is a better way through god... (the core truths of this message are) god lives, he is the heavenly father of our spirits, that as a manifestation of his love, he's given us commandments that lead to a fullnes of joy with him, that JC is the son of god and our redeemer, that he suffered and died to atone for sins on condition of our repentance, that he rose from the dead, bringing to pass the resurrection of human kind, and that we will all stand before him to be judged."

Steven J Lund

My son had cancer. It was hard. He was in lots of pain, but still wanted to go to church even when his mom suggested he stay home. He knew he inspired others when they saw him there, representing the savior by willingly suffering to serve. 

All youth programs are there to help them be more like JC. 

They are surrounded by things that keep helping them do that, but they're still making mistakes, so parents and leaders need to step up (potterheads grab your wands).

Gerrit W Gong

Family of 10 is hated by neighbors, nobody likes them until their house burns down. Then they were showed kindness, hope, and understanding by their neighbors helping them. 

"Our 2020 bicentenniel proclamation begins with the profoundly inclusive promise that god loves his children in every nation of the world. Each of us in every nation... god promises covenants, and invites us to come partake of his abundant joy and goodness. God's love for all people is affirmed throughout scripture that love encompasses the abrahamic covenent, gathering his scattered children, and his plan of happiness. In the house of faith, there are to be no strangers, no foreigners, no rich and poor, no outside others. As fellow citizens with the saints, we're invited to help the world for the better, from inside out; one person, one family, one neighborhood at a time. This happens when we share the gospel." 

Church materials are available in many regions and languages. We're gonna focus on that for a while. (And I stopped paying attention again. This dude is boring af. And I have a high threshold for boring right now) 

Talking about how members do charity work.

W Christopher Waddell

Some kid said it was the greatest day of his life to meet this guy who talks to the profit a couple of times a week. The story is given with the obvious topic of "we thank thee oh god for a prophet". 

Prophets tell us to prepare for crisis. 

We understand your struggles and want to express that there are better days ahead. Church leaders can help you. 

The lord loves effort. 

Have stores of food and money, but don't go to extremes in your efforts to establish those things. 

We have a brochure on finances with quotes from people about how god will provide. 

Remember Joseph in Egypt. 

"All things are spiritual to the lord and not at any time has he given us a law which is temporal." 

Manage your finances and have food storage.

Matthew S Holland

The feeling of Alma remembering his sins are as painful as passing a kidney stone (?!). 

Repentance will bring us relief. 

We have no idea how bad our suffering will be if we don't repent. 

"Medical science, professional counseling or legal rectification can help alleviate such suffering but note, all good gifts including these, come from the savior. Regardless [of] the causes of our worst hurt or heartaches, the ultimate source of relief is the same: JC. He alone holds the full power and healing balm to correct every mistake, right every wrong, adjust every imperfection, mend every wound, and deliver every delayed blessing." 

When you feel like nobody could understand your suffering, remember that jesus can. 

"Suffering in righteousness helps qualify your for, rather than distinguishes you from, god's elect."

William K Jackson

An Indian dude didn't want to turn his back on his culture in order to convert with the rest of his family. But JC was able to open his eyes to a different viewpoint. 

Our original culture is the culture of Adam and Enoch. It is the greatest of all cultures. There is no "us v them" mentality in the greatest of all cultures. 

"We believe that we are responsible and accountable for ourselves, each other, the church, and our world. Faith in JC is the first principle of our culture, and obedience to his teachings and commandments is the outcome.” 

“It is a culture of covenants and ordinances, high moral standards, sacrifice, forgiveness, repentance, and caring for the temple of our bodies. It is a culture of the preisthood, the authority to act in god's name, the power of god to bless his children. It edifies and enables individuals to be better people, leaders, mothers, fathers, and companions- and it sanctifies the home. In the culture of christ, women are elevated to their proper and eternal status. They are not subservient to men, as in many cultures in today's world, but full and equal partners here and in the world to come.” 

“The family is the basic unit of eternity. The perfection of the family is worth any sacrifice" because, as has been taught, "no other success can compensate for failure in the home." 

This culture is concerned with things of lasting worth. 

It is inclusive, not exclusive. 

"Because this culture results from the application of our savior's teachings, it helps provide a healing balm of which our world (cue crying) is in such desperate need. What a blessing it is to be a part of this grand and (voice wavering) *noble* way of life. The church is hardly a western society or an american cultural phenomenon. it is an international church, as it was always meant to be. New members from around the world bring richness, diversity, and excitement into our ever-growing family!" (hallelujah!) 

Indian dude joined the church, of course. 

"What a marvelous heritage (quiet sob) we all share!"

Dieter F Uchtdorf

Because of a threat from the US military, the SLC temple was buried during constrution. When the threat had passed, they excavated it and found that many stones in the foundation had cracked and were replaced. "Finally, the saints could sing How Firm a Foundation and know their holy temple was built on a foundation that would last for generations.” 

“This story can teach us how god uses adversity to bring about his purposes." Which is an appropriate topic these days.

We mourn with those who have lost loved ones to covid. 

"My message today is that even though this pandemic is not what we wanted or expected, god has prepared his children and his church for this time." 

We will do more than survive, we will move forward and we will be better as a result. 

We are like seeds that must be buried before they can sprout. "The love of god and blessing of the restored gospel of JC will bring something unimaginable to spring forth." 

Hardships strengthen our character. 

"What we learn from biblical examples? 1. The righteous are not given a free pass that allows them to avoid the valleys of shadow... 2. Our heavenly father knows that we suffer, and because we are his children, he will not abandon us..." 

"Our best days are ahead of us, not behind us. This is why god gives us modern revelation." 

(I stopped paying attention during an aviation allegory.) 

Stories of new/potential converts going to appointments early because of excitement. "Our missionaries are busier than ever."

WOMEN'S SESSION

Sharon Eubank

Story of a kid rewarded with his favorite pie for doing chores. He was selfish when his sister asked if she and her friend could have some because they didn't earn it, but changed his mind later. This showed that he was willing to change and show kindness to those who didn't deserve it. 

"By union of feeling, we obtain power with god." 

I don't like this world. It sucks and I want to make it better and sometimes I feel powerless, but I have done lots of soul searching and have three suggestions. 

1. Have mercy. Jacob 2:17, but replace the word "substance" with the word "mercy". We need more mercy in our ministering. "If you would have god have mercy on you, have mercy on each other." 

2. Make your boat swing. Rowing definition: "swing" is when all are rowing in such perfect unison that not a single action is out of sync. Somehow, individuality is crucial to this; clones couldn't do it. "Differences can be turned to advantage instead of disadvantage." This makes you go fast and they won because of that. 

3. Clear away the bad as fast as the good can grow. Jacob 5: good tree is planted in good ground but was corrupted. A servant asks that the tree be given another chance and then the tree grows good fruit. JC is like the owner of the vinyard, and gives us mercy, if we can give it to each other. 

"I believe the change we seek in ourselves and in the groups we belong to will come less by activism and more by actively trying every day to understand one another" because we're building zion. 

As women, we have broad influence to remove prejudice and build unity. "I offer this invitation: be part of a collective force that changes the world for good." We're supposed to help others. "The women of this church have the potential to change society."

Rebecca M Craven

(I... I can't focus on this woman long enough to piece together what the fuck she's saying. Sorry.) 

I think the overall topic is changing yourself to atone/repent.

Cristina B Franco

This year has given us many surprises that have left us broken. 

Personal story about getting a piano. One of the delivery guys slipped and broke it. The delivery guys went back to arrange the delivery of a new piano, but her husband asked if it could just be repaired instead. The manager said "the wood is broken, and once the wood is broken, it can never sound the same." 

We are like the broken piano, feeling broken and that we'll never be the same again. "However, as we come unto JC by exercising faith in him, repenting, and making and keeping covenants, our brokenness, whatever it's cause, can be healed [by the savior's healing power to make us better than we were.]." Faith in god heals us. 

Story of Alma where god promised to ease their burdens. 

(Really long quote  from Alma that she doesn't source). 

The savior is a refuge from the storm. 

(Is there a rule that women can't have more than 20% original content in their talks? What is with all the quotes from other people, with barely anything to make them relate to each other?)

THAT'S MY HIGH SCHOOL CHOIR TEACHER DIRECTING THE SEPT 2014 CHOIR!!!

Bonnie H Cordon

JC is the light and the life of the world; the light that shines in the darkness. 

Shit's been hard these last few months, but we see you praying and working hard to seek out JC.

Video

Gloomy shit and then "inspiring/soothing" pics of JC, then those same gloomy people are shown being happy while doing normal, everyday stuff. Lots of black people to show diversity and even a deaf woman signing in a video chat on her phone. (It's driving me crazy that i can't remember the song that's playing.) Then back to a pic of JC.

Henry B Eyring

"Every day we are approaching closer to the glorious moment when the savior JC will come to earth again." 

"As the beloved daughters of heavenly father, and as the daughters of the lord JC in his kingdom, you will play a crucial part in the grand times ahead." 

Prepare to live as the people in the city of enoch did. 

Another unsourced quote of "what will happen in this last dispensation of the fulness of times": (was that wording really necessary?) dark skies, earthquakes, etc, but chosen people will be fine. They'll all be gathered into one place (that we could... maybee.... do something to? jk. unless...?). 

Women will be at the heart of creating that society. 

Quotes about the importance of women and the relief society. 

Quotes about how pure and faithful the city of Enoch was. 

"My experience has taught me that heavenly father's daughters have a gift to allay contention and to promote righteousness with their love of god and with the love of god they engender in those they serve." (fuck you) 

Seeing a household without a preisthood member gave me glimpse of zion because the women were supportive and loving.

Why is it Oaks again?

"In the world, ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, i have overcome the world." 

Today, "we are also troubled on every side, and we also need that same message not to despair, but to be of good cheer." 

JC knows your wants and fears. 

"Be of good cheer." 

"Be of good cheer." 

"Be of good cheer." 

Opposition is essential (anyone know of that musical 'my turn on earth' or am i just old? I've got 'opposition' stuck in my head). 

Shit sucks right now. Covid and election shit, the election shit is bad "the most severe many of the oldest of us can ever remember." People are dealing with "the many adversities of mortality: poverty, racism, sickness, job loss, wayward children, bad/no marriages, and the effects of sin" but "be of good cheer." (broken record much?) 

Poor JS had lots of adversities! But he still managed to "maintain his native cheery temperament and the love and loyalty of his people." The pioneers had it hard, too, but they still "were of hope and good cheer." 

(If I heard this right) The orignal missionaries were sent out for up to 7 years. 

The presidency loves you and cares about you and we pray for you (y'all should look up 'ill pray for you' by Jaron Lowenstein, btw. i promise it's hilarious). 

"There is boundless power in the doctrine of the restored gospel of JC. Our unshakeable faith in that doctrine guides our steps and gives us joy. It enlightens our minds and gives strength and confidence to our actions. This guidance and enlightenment and power are promised gifts we have recieved from our heavenly father. By understanding and conforming our lives to that doctrine, including the divine gift of repentance, we can be of good cheer as we keep ourselves on the path of eternal destiny, reunion, and exaltation with our loving heavenly parents." (sidenote- I typed that quote really fast with very few mistakes and I'm very proud of myself. I'm sure I've never typed that fast and correctly in my life.)

Russel M Nelson

Shit's been hard and different than normal. 

We greive with the women who have experienced loss. 

Social media is evil for young women, but "many of you have found ways to encourage others and share our savior's light." 

The future gonna be lit, yo. 

"If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear." 

"Moroni prepared his people in three essential ways:”

“1. He helped them create areas where they would be safe; places of security, he called them.” "Create a home that is a place of security." 

“2. He prepared the minds of the people to be faithful unto the lord.”  "Each time we have the faith to be obedient to god's laws, even when popular opinions belittle us, or each time we resist entertainment or ideaologies that celebrate covenant breaking, we are exercising our faith, which in turn increases our faith." "Life without god is a life filled with fear. Life with god is a life filled with peace." 

“3. He never stopped preparing his people; physically or spiritually." "The adversary never stops attacking, so we can never stop preparing. The more self-reliant we are, temporally, emotionally, and spiritually, the more prepared we are to thwart satan's relentless assualts." 

"We have so much to look forward to. The lord placed you here, now, because he knew you had the capacity to negotiate the complexities of the latter part of these latter days. He knew you would grasp the grandeur of his work and be eager to help bring it to pass. I am not saying that the days ahead will be easy, but I promise you that the future will be glorious for those who are prepared, and those who continue to prepare to be instruments in the lord's hands." 

"Embrace the future with faith."

[gay-country-fangames]

please lets not be shitty

tws for talk of racism, eugen/cs, n*zis, slavery, genocide, etc. read at your own risk but please be aware this message is important. so this isnt specifically related to hetagames but its related to hetalia and i think its important that everyone hear it again just to be sure. im going to shelve my rabid persona for a minute because this is super important and a super serious thing.

making hetalia OCs or 2ps or personifying characters based off of problematic time periods from their history is not okay.

some examples include: -n*zi germany this is so wrong for so many obvious reasons everyone should know by now but for the sake of the post im gonna go into detail a lilbit. so many people were killed and both physically and mentally tortured during this time period, a large group being jewish people. during this time period german schools taught eugen/cs to their children which was a  h i g l y  racist concept. n*zis basically hated everyone that wasnt a blonde blue eyed ‘pure blood’ german. everyone else deserved to die according to them, and thats just.... not something that you make an anime boy about? like no. please. -civil war era america/the confederacy/the confederate states of america this one some people seem to think is okay for??? some goddamn reason??? no??? okay i know a lot of non-americans might not understand what exactly the civil war was so here we go heres a very watered down explanation. once upon a time there was slavery in america. we all know that. but at one point the public opinion shifted to thinking ‘hmm, maybe slavery is actually really fukin gross and bad? hey lets pass a law to ban slavery.’ and the southern states went ‘wait no we like slavery.’ and they went and said ‘this law would violate our constitutional right to states rights. we should be able to choose whether or not each state has laws against slavery!’ which is bs by the way they just wanted to keep owning slaves but they called it a violation of states rights so they could start a war over this shit. so then the south decided to form the confederacy and then they declared war on the north to try and break away n have their ‘right’ to own slaves. by the way this wasnt just a buncha racists fighting for their right to own people a lot of them also made their slaves fight in the war. so black people were being forced to fight for their own enslavement. lovely. spoiler alert they lost hella bad and the emancipation proclamation was signed which helped pave the way for black people to be free. the confederacy through its entire short life stood for nothing but slavery and racism and that is  n o t  something that its okay to make an anime boy out of okay please stop this.

-Communist Russia okay look. look. stop what youre going to say and read this. okay? okay. yes i know himaruya kind of wrote about this already. no that does not make it okay. hes human just like anyone else and hes realized his problems and faults and doesnt write that shit anymore. and even if he hadnt thats no excuse. even if he had kept making it that wouldnt make it okay. creators arent perfect and everything they do isnt automatically moral. popular people do stupid insensitive shit all the time and they have to be held accountable for it. anyway if you really need to be told why communist russia isnt good ‘uwu anime boy’ fodder then you really need to read a history book. but in short; genocide. mass starvation of their own people. imperialism. etc. bad shit. lets not.

-Mafia AU Romano okay this isnt really a time period perse but it felt like it belonged on the list so i put it on. its my list i can add what i want. so anyway ive seen southern italian people express blatant discomfort with this before, and from what i remember it stems from both racism and classism to a certain extend and thats just.... uncomfy. i get the appeal of a mafia au ok some people find crime hot but if its blatantly making people uncomfortable then id suggest you stop. other peoples comfort is more important than your fanfic. just make some generic crime lord au or summ instead idk it dont have to be the mafia all the time an it dont have to be romano all the time. if anyone who has a better feel for this wants to expand on it be my guest.

anyway im sure theres many more but these are the things i see the most. feel free to rb and add your own “please dont”s to the list. an before anyone gets on me about “why is this stuff bad but things like ancient rome arent” look ancient rome did about as much bad shit as england did but we dont all cancel mister arthur monster brows do we? the difference is these examples are narrowing a character down to one specific problematic period of their history (or in the case of the mafia thing one single small problematic part of the countrys history) and ancient rome represents the entirety of the countrys existance which did more than just imperialism and murder and shit. ok mun lei out now.