#because this is a continuation of the previous campaign

[thelongestway]

How to Spot Electoral Fraud From Poll Dynamics: An Introduction

Quick edit: I see the screenshots didn't copy right from my drafts - give me a moment, I'll get them back up momentarily. This mostly concerns p. 2-3.

Edit 2: Should be fixed now. Enjoy the read; use it well.

All right, everyone. Now that the polls are over and done, I would like to use this little situation as an object lesson in a very important thing in our current political climate of right-wing takeovers.

I want to teach the several thousand of you reading this how to spot electoral fraud from the dynamics of a poll, and specifically how to tell the difference between the result of a successful campaign and ballot dumping, because both happened during this game.

Buckle up, this is going to be long.

As you do that, I want to make three things perfectly clear:

1) What the @queereads-bracket administration does with this information isn’t my concern. To me, a poll between books on tumblr is ultimately just a game, and its actual outcome doesn’t matter.

2) What does matter to me, though, is that someone decided to commit voter fraud in Ursula K. Le Guin’s name in the semifinals of this bracket.

It matters to me because I have a) been on-and-off involved in volunteering for watching against electoral fraud for many years now, b) always loved that there was an author out there who wrote with a wonderfully anthropological voice. So even though I was campaigning for the other side in this specific poll, the thing that really pushed me towards doing the write up rather than letting it lie is that I was particularly sad to see this happen on Le Guin’s poll and in Le Guin’s name. She would have hated this.

3) I think Le Guin would have liked for these results to be turned into an object lesson, so I’m doing this. Go forth, queers, and use the knowledge that voter fraud is often detectable in your actual activism.

With that out of the way, I will start with a short summary:

Last week’s poll between Ursula K. Le Guin’s book The Left Hand of Darkness (LHOD) and Derin Edala’s Time to Orbit: Unknown (TTOU) had been spoofed in favor of LHOD by either one person with a bot, or two-four people manually creating accounts for the last 90 minutes of the poll.

How I know this: Le Guin’s previous maximums on the @queereads-bracket poll was approximately 1450-1476 people, reaching these numbers in previous polls against other top runners such as The Locked Tomb and The Murderbot Diaries series, and going no higher even in their biggest races. In the case of the TTOU/LHOD poll, the final maximum was 1658. Which, in itself, would not have been suspicious: these are the semifinals, and the audience for the @queereads-bracket polls has been growing.

However, vote acquisition for Le Guin has been slowing down for the entire last day of the vote, hit its previous maximum of 1480 people about 2,5 hours before the poll was due to end, after which it stopped almost completely for an hour. Then, approximately 90 minutes before the poll end, the voting in Le Guin’s favor picked up again and quickly reached a remarkably steady 2 votes-per-minute velocity. This increase in votes happened without much visible promotion, advertising, breaking Tumblr containment (i.e. spreading to other platforms such as Reddit), or engaging a popular internet personality in support (as far as it is known to me). The voting continued that way until the polls closed, resulting in approximately 150 new votes in favor of Le Guin submitted in rapid succession (a full 4% of the total vote) and a narrow win by 2 (sic!) votes.

Theoretically, it might have been possible for someone to quietly organize 150 completely new people away from the main voting platform, then have these 150 people hold off from voting until the last minute so that the other party does not have time to organize back, and then have their silent friends press buttons for 90 minutes at an exact pace with no detectable dips and stops. But while theoretically possible, it can be confidently said that such a feat of organization is both extremely difficult and highly unlikely. It is, however, a lot easier to have either one person use a bot and give it a steady pace of votes, or have 2-3 committed people sit down and create burner accounts for the last 90 minutes of a vote, giving their opponents no chance to rally.

If whoever was behind that last push actually did community organizing—my hat is off to you, and I want to pick your brain, because you’ve achieved something I consider to be nigh impossible. But I don’t think you did. And I want you to know that I see you, and that I hope a lot of queer people learn from what you did and use it in defense of their rights in the future.

Now, for those who want full details and numbers, this write-up has several parts:

Part 1: Theory and vocabulary behind polling predictions and fraud watch – this is a brief layman’s summary of key aspects of poll watching and how online polling differs from IRL polling.

Part 2: What actually happened? Poll event timeline and voting dynamic – this is a walkthrough, using my real-time commentary to a group of friends on the LHOD/TTOU poll above to show how forecasts are done, how they change in real time as a poll progresses, and how they can be used to uncover voter fraud in process or soon after the votes are counted.

Here, I want to note that I was involved in the poll on the TTOU side and the walkthrough reflects that—you may even have seen the propaganda I submitted. So you get this analysis from the point of view of an observing participant. It is my hope that this is not detrimental, but in itself valuable—after all, in real life, everyone is a subject of the political process.

Part 3: Possible remarks on and objections to this analysis – these are the possible limitations/additional information that didn’t fit into the analysis proper.

Final words – self-evident.

WINNER: Queer Fiction Free-for-All Book Bracket

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

A groundbreaking work of science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness tells the story of a lone human emissary to Winter, an alien world whose inhabitants spend most of their time without a gender. His goal is to facilitate Winter's inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the completely dissimilar culture that he encounters.

Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of intellectual science fiction.

Science fiction, classics, speculative fiction, anthropological science fiction, distant future, adult

Runners-up:

🥈 The Murderbot Diaries series by Martha Wells 🥉 Time to Orbit: Unknown series by Derin Edala 🥉 Nimona by ND Stevenson

View the spreadsheet of all books from this bracket here

View the full seeded matchup here

This is Left Hand of Darkness's second win, after previously winning the Queer Adult SFF Books Bracket!

[satan-in-a-box]

So I’m running a D&D campaign

It takes place in the Beastlands, which is, in effect, the afterlife of all animals

so, in an effort to both Fascinate and Confound my players, I need to compile a list of the absolute most bat-shit insane animals that could possibly make an appearance in said campaign

So! Please gift me with knowledge of your very best and favorite Absolutely Stupid Animals That Are In Fact Very Real

[targaryenluvs]

DELICATE

pairings: dark!coriolanus snow x innocent!wife!reader

warnings: erm we’re back at it with another dark corio! possessiveness, literal murder, threats, vulgarity, nc touching -dumbification/babying, emotional manipulation and vulnerability, sexual undertones and thoughts, ownership?? NOT PROOFREAD

summary: coriolanus had to marry. lucky for him one of the most eligible girls of the capitol was up for grabs. only problem? he hoped his cold exterior would keep her away but nothing broke her sweet spirit. what happens when he finds himself being drawn to her light? and how far was he willing to go to keep it untainted and all to himself?

word count: 2.09k words

a/n: i swear i can only think of dark ideas for him because he is practically crayz - i loved this concept tho so enjoyyyy - annoyed i can’t find any post-lucy gifs snd i’ve already used the other one help me plz

taglist: @sleepydang @aspieundercover @darktrashsoulbear @3lliesrifle @rafeysbafey @zejjef @themorriganisamonster @cryfordemie @winterblu2 @earthangel-111 @taylarxse @alexameliamg @katastrophic04 @jjggdfvvy @joshwifeyslaymamaballs @10ava01 @kis9na @princessdaella @princessloveweird @prettybiching @justacaliforniandreamer @bxtchopolis @witchafterz @har-rison-s

PART TWO

coriolanus wanted nothing more than a relaxing night. he’d been at a campaign meeting for about four hours and he’d gotten absolutely nothing out of it.

he was in the right mind to fire them all and work it himself but he knew he couldn’t. all he wanted was to go home, have a bath drawn for him, eat dinner with you and go to sleep.

coriolanus had seen a number of weird things in his life but nothing was weirder than seeing you, hanging up the laundry to dry. you’d stopped him in his tracks but hadn’t yet noticed his presence as you hummed to yourself and went about your business. after staring in confusion for a few minutes he cleared his throat, “y/n. what are you doing?” you turned towards him with a smile, “it’s christmas! so i sent the staff home for the rest of the day so they could be with their families. don’t worry i had them prepare your bath, dinner and everything else. there were some things left to do so i thought, why not do them myself? i cleaned my room and yours, ironed the previous batch of laundry and placed them away, dusted the library and i was hanging up the laundry until you showed!” you beamed as you continued to hang the clothing.

coriolanus took a seat on one of the lawn chairs as you continued. he decided to watch you, to make sure you were okay. because who on earth wants to do laundry? that was the very reason you had so many servants. but here you were.

“you can head inside corio, no need to wait for me!” you said sweetly. coriolanus was a strong man, always rational. but god when you spoke so sweetly to him- no. “there’s no need, i’ll wait till you’re done.”

the sun was hanging low as the last rays illuminated the dining room. you’d set out candles, flowers and other pieces on the table. back home you loved setting the table, until your father would reprimand you for doing something you didn’t need to. what will people say if my daughter is acting as a servant?

but right now you felt at ease.

you had a good life. good friends which were rare to find in the capitol. good family and a good husband. he was proper, took care of you in every way, even if he didn’t love you, you were grateful to be married to someone you liked. admired. you’d heard whispers of corio’s childhood, his depleted resources and poor upbringing. but you couldn’t care less. he was more of a man than anyone you knew. and he was extremely pretty, your parents would’ve probably married you off to whomever they thought would help with social standings so this match? a lifeline.

coriolanus kept himself in check. he was up for presidency, his name and wealth restored and he was respected and feared. you were a diamond in the rough. whilst all the other girls in the capitol were, special, to say the least, you weren’t like them. first of all, he could tolerate you. like you even. you were exceptionally smart, well-read and spoken, respectful of those worthy but even those beneath you. you were kind, not the fake kind of the capitol. kind to everyone, helping everyone however you could.

and to him it was more than perfect. someone kind would be easy to have, easy to be married to. he knew from the second he saw you as marriage material that you’d never endanger those around you. you cared, enough to put your happiness to the back of the line. you’d be easy to control. after the wedding he expected you to be clingy, desperate for his love and affection. as any girl would from their husband, but you kept your distance. you didn’t push yourself on him, you did your duty. you did what was required and more. but you always listened, listened to him.

so he assumed you’d be easy to be married to, but he was always in awe of you. your sweet smiles every time you passed eachother in the halls, in the morning at breakfast and at night for dinner. always catering to him.

“what should i wear?” “you can choose.” “you tell me.” “it’s your choice.” and god did it inflate his ego. you were always asking about him, how his day was, what he did, who he saw etc. but it wasn’t just small talk, you were always listening. absorbing his words like a sponge, wide eyes, head nodding along dumbly. he loved it. and over the year he found himself, caring, on the inside at least.

every time you’d go out there were hungry eyes consuming you. your face, body everything. and he wanted to personally pluck out each eyeball and feed it to their families. so again, overtime, he’d shield you, protect you. his sweet wife who knew nothing of what the others wanted to do to her. a hand on your back, an arm around your waist, a peck on your forehead and his large red coat around you. all for show right?

he wanted to puke.

the smell of cabbage wafted to his nose and he was oh so close to putting this fist through the wall. who on earth-

you were humming, again. “corio!” your voice was music to his ears, corio, no one said it to him anymore. not even tigris. but he only liked, only wanted it to come from you. “dinner is served, some of your favourites are here. i asked tigris what you use to eat as a kid. ooh, you never told me you liked cabbage, me too! guess that’s another thing we have in common.” you beamed as you walked over with a bottle of wine, “tell me when to stop.”

he eyed you up the entire time. trying to catch a fleck of disgust whilst you ate, andddd, nothing. you weren’t lying, you actually liked it. he swallowed his own fear and began to eat.

“mm, i was wondering what you wanted me to wear tonight? i’d like to match corio, if that’s okay with you.” corio smiled slightly, “i would like to match. i have something i would like you to wear tonight sweetheart.” your eyes darted forwards as the word fell, sweetheart.

you couldn’t help the smile that came to your face, he only used terms like that in public. and based on his reaction afterwards, of which there was none, it meant that he probably didn’t even realise. or he did, you could never read him.

the red dress did things to coriolanus. the idea of you in it has his head spinning, but to actually see you in it? he wanted to throw you onto his bed and never let you out.

but to you it looked as if he was studying the dress rather than looking at you in it. “you look good.” you grinned, “thank you corio! i love your suit, you look very handsome.” you straightened his suit as he looked over your shoulder, your back was bare. “do you have a throw?” you quickly nodded and picked it up from the dresser. “good.” you already got a million stares in ordinary clothing, tonight was going to test his patience and anger.

the gala was gorgeous. for once there wasn’t ugly statues and weird color matches. a clean and pristine white hall, chandeliers, gold accents.

your heels clicked on the floor as coriolanus held his arm for you. “your hand please.” corio stared, waiting for your further explanation. “when we link arms your arm is too high for me. i end up with my arm at my neck.” you laughed as he lent his hand, which you gladly took.

stares and compliments at every corner of the room, everyone was looking at you two. the future president and first lady of panem. a match made in the capitol. you and coriolanus made the rounds, talking to present sponsors, potential sponsors and other candidates, much to coriolanus’s distaste. after a while you realised you were sort of just standing there, so you excused yourself for a drink and a closer view of the band.

“you look, ravishing.” charles operman. a sight which no one wanted to see, but to you he was just an ex-peer of the academy. “charles! thank you, corio picked it out for me.” you’d missed the way his jaw clenched at the mention of your husband, but you were to engrossed by the angelic singer and band. “you know, i always thought we’d end up together.”

the abruptness of his sentence had you choking on your drink, “excuse me, i’m married charles. i’m sorry if you thought that we would be together, i see you as a friend. i’d hate to lose a friend.” you smiled as he got uncomfortably closer and leaned into your ear, hand on your bare back.

coriolanus’s grip on his cup was tightening as he listened to lucky drone on and on. he wanted to see the life leave charles’s eyes, maybe his head would make as a nice present for you. “excuse me.” he nodded his head as he placed his cup on a passing waiters tray. you were helpless, and he was here to help you.

his breath was hot in your ear and you could smell the liquor on him as he was grabbed from you. “coriolanus, sir.” charles mocked salute as coriolanus stared at him, maybe he thought if he stared long enough hed burn into the floor. coriolanus rarely smiled, but this one was unsettling to say the least.

“if you ever put your hands on my wife, look at her, speak to her. it will be the last time you do so. i might just call in a favor with dr gaul, i hear your fond of snakes?” charles’s eyes widened, he hated snakes. he couldn’t even watch the 10th hunger games, the second he saw the snakes he ran to the bathroom and hurled.

“when i become president, you better keep yourself in line. it’d be horrible to see your family in the games no?” charles took a step back, “you can’t do that, i’m capitol.” coriolanus drew back,

“you won’t be for long.”

you couldn’t believe your eyes, of course he’d protect you but, threatening? he’d never do it right? the shutters of cameras had you reaching for corio, “can we leave my love?” coriolanus turned to you, “of course sweetheart.”

he’d stayed up for a long time. a smile came to his face when he remembered the sound of charles’s neck snapping. the door creaking open revealed a disheveled you, “corio? are you awake?” he sat up as you released a breath.

“what is it y/n?” you took a shy step forward, “i uhm, i can’t stop thinking about charles. he scared me, i didn’t know what to do corio. i-” you couldn’t stop the tears from falling as coriolanus swiftly got out of bed, helping you into his bed. “i- can i sleep here tonight? please?”

this was definitely not how he first expected to have you in his bed, but how could he say no to you? your hair in its braid, messy and lose, puffy eyes and tear stained face. he wished he’d first seen you cry underneath him but he’d take what he could get. what he didn’t expect was for him to like this, the scene of you crying, needing him. he was the one who could help you, console you, coddle you.

coriolanus nodded as he moved back to the bed, tucking himself and you in softy, caressing your hair and kissing your forehead. god he’d held out for so long, denied himself and his feelings but having you in his arms was all he could ever want, but the idea of being in you flooded his head.

would you cry like this? would you shout and scream? did you like it soft and sweet? he couldn’t be soft and sweet, he’d savour the moment but he loved the idea of unravelling you, he’d be the only one to see you like this, him being the only one to make it happen.

you curled into his chest, like a baby. your soft cries and whimpers went straight to his crotch and soon enough you were asleep.

his sweetheart, his delicate little wife.

corios hand slipped downwards and into your pants, he promised himself he just wanted to feel but god you made it difficult. he saved you tonight, didn’t he deserve a reward? didn’t matter if you detested he had you where he liked. so he slowly rolled over and placed you on the bed.

your eyes fluttered at the change of placement but he couldn’t care less. he was done waiting.

you squirmed underneath him in your sleep but his worries faded away.

[fairuzfan]

MARCH 4TH-MARCH 10TH NORTH GAZA DONATION DRIVE!

Thank you so much everyone for your continued support these past few weeks. Because the situation in the North is incredibly dire and your support has been so generous, we decided to open a North Gaza specific drive from March 4th-March 10th where 100% of the donations made during this time will be sent to families in North Gaza so that they may buy food and other necessary supplies!

Hussam has a special video he narrates where you can see the level of destruction caused to the North of Gaza these past few months. This video was taken just two days ago exclusively for this campaign.

If you can't donate, please consider spreading the word far and wide across multiple different platforms!

More Info about Help Gaza Children located here.

Please, please, please consider donating today! This will help so many families who are literally starving! No amount is too little!!

Note: due to technical difficulties we aren't able to continue Help North Gaza campaign separately at this time. We will update you with information regarding the previous campaign I published as soon as we receive it.

ID: the video is of the decimation caused to North Gaza both in aerial view and walking through the streets.

[fading-event-608]

You may have seen my previous post [here] where I lament about daily donation decreases while getting large amounts of reblogs.

I still update Falastin's campaign daily, hanging on every donation. The trend of notes far outweighing donations has not only continued - it is getting worse. Despite Falastin’s campaign being vetted both here on tumblr and on Instagram, Instagram nets no donations, and Tumblr nets so few in spite of the campaign receiving constant updates and attention. 

In the last 24 hours she received only 55 dollars. This campaign needs to provide for 24 people - the rate donations are currently coming in is far below the necessary minimum for their survival. Prices in Gaza are astronomically high, but even if they were similar to prices in the US, and even if we take a better day like yesterday, $200 in donations - approximately $8.33 per family member - would not be enough to survive on. Would YOU be able to survive on that money? This must buy food, water, medicine, and all other supplies, including tents. Half of the family is currently sleeping on the street, and what little shelter they have access to will not keep winter off their backs. 

They have been displaced more than twenty times. With each displacement, they lose a great deal, because the time they have to evacuate is not enough for them to pack up their belongings. This is only getting worse for them. Meanwhile, people who have the luxury of turning away seem to do so more and more. Falastin doesn’t have that luxury - these are her loved ones in danger. So many of her family members have been martyred already. She cannot lose anyone else.

You stand at a point in history, and in many years you will look back on yourself now and see either action or inaction. You know which one you will regret more. This is why people are angry at those posts, why they scream of scams - because it's much better for your consciousness to have excuses for inaction.

An action does not need to be some grand noticeable gesture - small actions are just as meaningful, if done at a pace that allows them to add up. If you act alongside everyone, they may add up still more. 

Please don’t just reblog this. Find some other small way that you can help, and take that action. Maybe send this campaign to a friend or a family member, or link it in a groupchat. Even if you can’t personally donate, there’s a chance that someone you know would like to.

Please check today's rates before donating:

10$ = 102 SEK

25$ = 257 SEK

50$ = 514 SEK

100$ = 1,029 SEK

Vetting info: #282 in El-Shab-Hussein and Nabulsi's spreadsheet [here], #957 in the Butterfly Project spreadsheet [here]

Falastin's account: [link]

[ilions-end]

it's wild to me to learn that we have ancient commentaries (T scholiast) pointing out the significance of diomedes deliberately not naming his father when he lists his genealogy in book 14 of the iliad

wild because in all editions i know, diomedes DOES name tydeus in that scene, and the respectful way he talks about him informs a lot of how i view diomedes as a character. but already in ancient times there were apparently variants of the iliad in circulation where diomedes' speech about his forefathers DIDN'T have a line going--

I declare that I am by birth from a noble father, Tydeus, whom the heaped earth has covered in Thebes.

(how quickly and unprompted he brings up his father's nobility and proper burial! it's like he wants to get ahead of anyone who might point out that tydeus died in a cursed campaign after he completely dishonoured himself through cannibalism, and the king of thebes famously denied the soldiers burial, at least for some time)

excising that line makes the rest of his speech more careful and precise. imagine this is the beginning of his speech instead of the continuation of the previous line:

There were three blameless sons born to Portheus, and they lived in Pleuron and steep Calydon: Agrios and Melas, and the third, Oeneus the horseman, the father of my father. In manliness he surpassed them.

(tydeus is unnamed and uncharacterized, only there as a practical biological link between tydeus and his blameless grandfather)

i'm so fascinated by an iliadic diomedes who is eager to paint his father as a noble hero, and i am equally fascinated by an iliadic diomedes who self-consciously skips his father when talking about his family tree. both of those versions have so much, and different, texture! another one of those moments of pondering the countless variants that have existed of the iliad through the millennia, even if it's frustrating that we can't ever know some One True Version

[rebirthgarments]

TW: Chemical w-rfare, Ab-rtion

Urgent Ask to evacuate Nara, a 🍉 disabled woman with MS who also has pancreatic cancer due to chemical w-rfare.

Support by financially contributing to her @FedUp4Palestine vetted funhnd-raizer (that I personally vetted): givebutter.com/NaraMedicalAid

+ resharing/ reposting this post!

I, Sky Cubacub- a Fed up 4 Palestine team member, have been in direct contact with Nara to get to know her and her story more over the past few days. We have become fast friends due to so many overlapping symptoms of our disabilities. Nara’s story caught my eye because I have post-viral ME/CFS which many times is a precursor to MS. I really want my disability community to show up for her to get this campaign funded that is so close to my heart so that she can continue medical treatment.

We have chatted extensively! During our chats, I found out from Nara that she had not previously had health issues until she was exposed in the white phosphorus attack in 2008. The long lasting damage and effects of phosphorus continue to compound and become more and more disabling to this day, even after 16 years.

Here is her story in her own words (edited for clarity):

“Hi I'm Nara,

I'm a cancer and multiple sclerosis patient. I need treatment, examinations, and follow-up on a regular basis, but the hospitals in which I used to follow up were bombed and the other one was turned into military barracks. All I need now is to leave Gaza for treatment, preserve my life, and live with my family in peace.

We're a family of 4, including my 12 and 7 year old children.

I had been diagnosed with a tumor in the pancreas as a result of inhaling phosphorus in a previous war. A couple years after being exposed to phosphorus, I became pregnant, and the fetus was pressing on the tumor, which drew the doctor’s attention to the cancer. My fetus was emergency aborted, and the spleen, 80% of the pancreas, and part of the small intestine were removed. I complained every now and then of a lot of pain as a result of the removal of part of the pancreas. I was having follow up care in the Turkish Friendship Hospital for hematology and tumors. But since the beginning of October, I have not been able to follow up because the hospital has turned into a military barracks.

The remaining part is talking about multiple sclerosis:

In 2018, I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. I had many complications, such as inflammation of the seventh nerve in the eye, the inability to walk with balance, movement with difficulty, and many symptoms. I was then required to take 12 injections every month and many medications and vitamins. I was following up at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis, but unfortunately the hospital was out of service due to the war. So for a long time I have not received any injections. MS is truly difficult and it controls my life completely, and the attacks occur in many and varied ways.”

A note about her breathing apparatus:

Because people in displacement have to wait in long queues and pay to use the bathroom, Nara had started to restrict her water intake because of a UTI she never has been able to heal from. This has created a problem with raised levels of potassium, so doctors have placed her on oxygen for fear of the potassium affecting her heart.

Goals

she needs at least $15,000 to evacuate

2 adults at $5,000 each

2 children at $2,500 each

this price is subject to increase due to the cost of registration for evacuation continuing to go up

The other money will go to the cost of treatment and living costs.

Nara chooses to stay anonymous because she has had to mask her disabilities so much that only her family knows about her MS and Cancer, so we have not linked her instagram, but we are in direct contact with her and can verify that she is who she says she is! Because of this, she cannot promote her own fundraiser, so it is our job to collectively do it for her!

[Image Description: a digital illustration by @k8deciccio of Nara, a Pal-eh-stienian woman wearing a black hijab/outfit with purple highlights. She has a breathing apparatus that is bulbous that goes in her nose. Text Reads: Help Narawith Cancer and MS Treatment, She Must Evacuate with her family of 4. $30k goal givebutter.com/NaraMedicalAid . There is a QR code in the bottom right corner that goes to her support link. The @FedUp4Palestine logo is in the top left corner.]

[essektheylyss]

I love that Caleb does not ever seem to take opportunities to take any kind of "this might be the last moment I have" actions. No matter what, when everyone else is going around and making their desperate moves, Caleb doesn't. Even after he recommends otherwise to others, it is notable that he among the group doesn't do so, and this is consistent with his previous behavior.

I like to think that stems from the moment he opted against trying to work with Trent—which I think, at its core, was an attempt at such an action. If Caleb had died fighting the Somnovem, he had every reason to believe that Trent would continue in his actions. Though Astrid and Eadwulf were willing to subtly undermine him, they had made it clear that they were not willing to challenge him outright. Caleb tells the Nein, when they are discussing their last wishes at the Blooming Grove before returning to Eiselcross, that he would appreciate Trent being eliminated in the event of his death. I have to believe that there was a fear or regret that his dearest motivations would not come to fruition which spurred his interest in using an alliance with him in Aeor to trap and kill him.

I've mentioned elsewhere that I believe Essek's willingness to disagree with him was one of the factors in Caleb being able to trust him and his judgment, but I would also argue it was a wake-up call for Caleb—about letting himself be distracted; about not focusing in on the mission at hand; about, potentially, expecting failure in this goal, especially after he has watched his friends say their goodbyes as if they too expect to die. "Stay on task, Widogast," is a mantra he uses in Vergessen, but he does get caught up, to an extent, in enacting as much damage as he can to the place in the process, and regardless of whether this ruthless assault slowed or sped their discovery, Trent did catch up to them, and very nearly caught Veth and Jester as well as himself. Given Caleb's fears throughout the campaign that he will draw the danger that dogs him onto his newfound friends, and his later apology to Essek in the same conversation for drawing Trent's attention to him, it is not a stretch to argue that this is yet another guilt he shoulders.

It isn't lost on me that Caleb almost died before the Nein even met, he was perpetually aware of his fragility among the group, and he was the last member of the Nein to go down and need to be revived. So I just think it's very fun if he, who so often seemed to be on the verge of death, who in fact planned to step back in history and in the process erase the person he had become, found himself at some point determined to live, and firmly confident in his ability to do so.

He does not wrap up his affairs, he does not say goodbyes, and while he may acknowledge the stakes for the group, he does not entertain the idea that he personally will not make it out alive—because, as Dorian notes, he has a lot to live for. He has to get back home to his partner and his well-maintained garden; he has to make sure the Cerberus Assembly's nefarious schemes do not continue in Ludinus's absence, perhaps even in the absence of the Assembly itself, depending on what its members do in its wake; he probably has to go egg on his godson's shenanigans as payback for Veth threatening to shoot him out of the sky.

Caleb Widogast is an absolute cockroach of a wizard, and, in true Mighty Nein form, he is at all times thriving on unfinished business.

[wardensantoineandevka]

There's been a lot of talk about feeling like Campaign 3 fails to carry through consequences, and that is often met with criticisms framing this talk as just wanting Bells Hells or other characters to die or be punished. In return, the response to that is that "consequences" is not necessarily negative — it simply means a narrative follow through and events positive, neutral, or yes even negative happening as a consequence of what came prior.

I posted prior about what I and many meant by consequences, but generally, "a lack of consequence" means that it feels like events happen without clear connective tissue to previous events or it feels like things happen and don't feel like they're feeding properly into what comes next, that following events aren't properly carrying that weight of consequence.

But, just to further illustrate the discussion, the following is a non-exhaustive list of things I personally wish had consequences (that I could be probably better articulating):

Prism, Deanna, and FRIDA going off to do research at the Cobalt Soul, explicitly intending to try to help Bells Hells. This yielded nothing. Even a written letter to the Hells giving any information would have been great to have as a nod to that decision being made and the effort put into cultivating those friendships. (Given the reveal in the Fireside Chat that a Luxon beacon could've destroyed Predathos should research have been done, this feels even more of a missed follow through.)

The Unseelie Court not reinforcing the Malleus Key having clearer consequences. Obviously, there was a benefit to this, but it's hard to FEEL the consequences of disrupting that message because it is not clear what exactly the Unseelie Court would have provided.

Liliana chose not to broadcast the Downfall memory and what that meant to the sociopolitical scale. There is a clear consequence for her on a personal level, but this information being potentially broadcast was set up as a big looming threat, but it was difficult to really feel what would have happened, like, meaningfully, in terms of the material narrative as it affects Bells Hells, if it was broadcast, so as a result it's difficult to feel that stopping the broadcast was meaningful on a broader level.

Talking about Liliana, it feels strange that she exists within Vasselheim as a top leader of the Ruby Vanguard for, like, days without any comment. There is more (and properly delivered) tension over Opal's presence in the city. I don't think Liliana necessarily should've been arrested, I felt something like a small beat that may have required Imogen vouching for her was missing. The consequences of Liliana's position among the antagonists felt absent.

Ashton getting Shady Sally to agree to get the Nobodies back together to help save Exandria, then they'd all be free of Ashton for good. Nothing comes of this! An appearance at the forward camp in the Hellcatch when they came back from Ruidus or in Vasselheim, after the camp is evacuated there, with another opportunity to settle it with the others in the group would have been a nice consequence.

The Grim Verity, especially outside of Ryn, continued to meaningfully exist and the theft of the texts from Vasselheim mattered past the Predathos, Vordo, and Ethedok reveal exposition. It was a team of three people who stole the texts, and one of them, Arnold, was captured and presumed still held at the Platinum Sanctuary and another, Janina, was keeping tabs on the excavation site in the Hellcatch to keep everyone updated on what the Vanguard was doing. It would have been nice to see the Grim Verity more involved in this campaign, because they're the initial hook into the campaign itself! Learning about them and making contact with them stopped yielding any sort of narrative results. (The thing about research in the first point applies here too.)

Judicators. They are introduced, and then nothing is done with them at all. They factor in so minutely, and we understand so little about them, that it's hard to even talk about them as thematic pieces without engaging in a lot of speculative thinking.

I am known to be frustrated with Ashton philosophically, but I am baffled that the conversation they had in their vision in the earth titan in 110 did not come up again at all in any of their subsequent argumentations about the world changing. I am certain that it would've driven me nuts, but I have liked to see that carried forward. It would've contributed a lot to feeling like perspectives were being built upon as a consequence of interactions.

Generally, the Titans are barely mentioned after that episode, btw. There was a lot of time spent on pursuing the idea of the Titans, even sometimes outright brushing past NPCs who repeatedly said that the Titans were dead, only for it to get dropped so suddenly. It feels especially strange when one of the major points of contention Ashton and Laudna brought up was the war against the Titans. Not even a final note about what this means in the tapestry of history or an acknowledgement that they indeed cannot be restored as they were or what? We spent a lot of time on this discussion, but fail to carry it through into the final thematic and philosophical decisions.

On that note, it's established that there is a destiny in which Ashton is to bestow the spark onto another, and there is a sense of fate then for Fearne in it. Since they both struggle with being locked into a path, I did feel missing an exploration of what it then MEANT for them to pursue this. As soon as these abilities are unlocked, there isn't a meaningfully thorough exploration of what they mean as narrative devices and their implications for Fearne and Ashton, at a personally transformative level.

The anti-resurrection toxin and its antidote. I know that it is used against Keyleth and there is a payoff in that the Hells successfully help her, but I don't understand why this toxin didn't continue to be used, especially given the campaign was supposed to be deadlier. Why wouldn't the Ruby Vanguard, but especially someone as vicious and ruthless as Otohan, continue to use it? It had such a prominent presence in the campaign and then vanished from it. We don't even have a sense of how it locked away divine magic and what connection it has to Ruidians or Predathos, which have similar divine dampening ability. Having it continue to be used in the campaign would've also made it continually rewarding that Bells Hells did that work to help Keyleth because the Air Ashari would have available antidote.

Stopping there not because I ran out of examples, but because this list is getting incredibly long — thought I reserve the right to add more later should I think of really good ones. But this is just some of the plot points and threads and conversations that I wish I felt led somewhere or had consequences, and you can see that not all of them are about punishing characters at all, just a desire for things to feel like they were going somewhere and were properly tied off.

[virovac]

VETTED and URGENT: FUNDRAISING FOR @hell-bent-in-a-fever-dream's BREAST CANCER Surgey! (cw: heavy necrosis) .

Update april 23! "STILL AT $56/$1400. PLEASE DONATE. WE NEED TO GATHER ENOUGH FUNDS BEFORE THE DAY ENDS. PLEASE"

be warned of medical images in source Some sort of necrosis

The hospital did not do the amputation surgery discussed in previous post due to lack of funds.

As of today they have only $105.

"

Donate here!!! (some pictures of blackened hand)

NOTE:

I just learned that gogetfunding is not mobile optimized, or maybe not even possible to use on some mobile? If this is the case for you, please bookmark until you get to a desktop and set a reminder alarm on your phone or some other way to remind yourself.

Hell-bent is a very nice person reblogging other people's campaigns around the world, and so her brother taking over her account while she is hospitalized has continued that kindness. And now she needs our help. Her breast cancer has spread to her arm leading to nasty blood clotting and necrosis. She has been hospitalized for a while with a family member taking over her blog. She needs money money for surgery, and also to keep her treatment from being cut off

Vetting posts

@kyra45 the scam buster For anyone wondering, this is the original post... someone made a fake campaign stealing pictures from hell-bent, and Kyra45 tracked down the stolen pictures to original source.

@c-u-c-koo-4-40k on Tumblr(23) vetting and explanation why not using Gofundme You may know c-u-c-koo-4-40k for their good work boosting various Gazan campaigns. Hell-bent cannot use gofundme as the country they reside is not one that has access to it. Hence why they are using the site. (it used to be 3.8 rating last week)

Donate here!!! (some pictures of blackened hand)

from converation with friend danandfuckingjonlmao

Excerpt from Jan 13 instragram

I've known Alex for going on three months, but if that isn't enough for people to trust the legitimacy, her fundraiser has been vetted by multiple Tumblr accounts with blogs dedicated to vetting fundraisers. I have also seen the current photos of her arm, which cannot be posted on Instagram or 1 will get my account restricted (or taken down) for posting 'gore’. The photos in the fundraiser are from August. I cannot overemphasise how much worse it's gotten. She is going to need it amputated. She had surgery a couple days after Christmas and has not fully woken up since. She gave her account to her little brother, Vin, who I have been in contact with ever since. Vin just turned 18 and is currently in charge of securing things for his mom and younger sister while his older sister is in the hospital. Alex and Vin lost their dad around the same time my brother and I lost ours, and that's one of the first things Alex and I connected over. I've been doing everything I can to support Alex, and now Vin, but ultimately, because of the world we live in, there is no replacement for money.

other conversations

i haven’t heard from vin in a few days but i can confidently say they need at least $1k more i just realised i never updated you—the hospital wouldn’t even go through with the operation because of lack of funds. i don’t know her condition currently but she just needs to hang on a little bit longer until we can get vin the funds. i can’t believe someone donated $1k though. thank you infinitely for your help viro. i’ll update you with any relevant info that i get from vin. Mar 12 10:47 PM

Dec 27, 2024

alex can’t post the pictures of what their arm looks like now because it will get their account taken down. that’s how bad things are. but i’ve seen the pictures and i can vouch for how dire their situation is. they need life saving surgery and their go get funding is barely crawling up. please. reblogging is always helpful, but PLEASE, if you have anything to spare, please donate. this is so fucking urgent i’m begging you.please help my friend.

Message from her brother:

we still need $1,900 immediately. Hopefully before the 24th so we wouldn't have to wait for another distant yet available date some time in April or June. We cannot wait that much longer. Not with this lack of funds and her health deteriorating.

Someone donated $1k a week ago, and all of it was spent on medication that needed to be purchased outside of the hospital because the in-house pharmacy doesn't have them at the mean time. We have a lot of meds/fees that piled on since the 25th of February.

All I have now is $105 here but this wouldn't last for a week. We have been rejected in all our loan applications.

But thank you for helping us all the time. It is difficult since it is rare to find someone willing to help, but I see your continuous efforts and it makes me feel not that alone. Thank you.

[maiwadi1]

Hello again, I am Mai Falah Wadi from Gaza, I live in war, fear and destruction, we have been living for almost a year now and we do not know how long, we have been displaced from our home more than 7 times,

Every time I was displaced to another place I wished this was the last, but then came the idea of forcibly going out to seek safety where there is no safety, we felt very tired and our bodies were exhausted, we no longer have the energy to continue, and we lived hunger, thirst, cold and all the difficult conditions that humans cannot imagine

I never imagined that one day we would live all this, I lost my friends and my childhood home, I was left alone!! With my mother and my little brothers, the youngest of whom is only one year old, I am looking for salvation from death, I fear death and fear it and I am afraid of losing my father, the idea is terrifying to leave your dreams, ambitions and the life you have planned and stay away from this world, we do not deny death but we do not want to live it now,

I lived a beautiful life, suddenly I don’t know how I lost my life, we live in a tent that can only accommodate 9 people, made of nylon that no human can stand, just standing in it for more than two minutes during the day is enough to melt you, in addition to insects, diseases and lack of privacy, imagine all this!! Can you live?

In addition, my father suffers from a very serious illness, and he was suffering from cancer, liver disease and other things I lost, my father needs care because of chronic diseases and lack of treatment, and his condition is getting worse, and I am the only one who takes care of it, so I am really afraid of losing and I do not want to lose, because I lost a large part of my home and my studies in my entire previous life.

Look at my father’s condition 💔 Our life is so painful I’m afraid of losing my father and living alone

We wake up every day to the smell of death, I’ve been surrounded by tanks and helicopters every time I don’t know how to stay alive? It seems that my destiny did not come 💔

Please help me save my life and get out of here, life is hell

Your donation will save my life and my father’s life, it’s the only way, together by side we can achieve the goal please

My father faced death and surgeries due to diseases he committed. Please I can’t live without my father. Please donate to me so that I can meet my father’s needs so that he can stay by my side. 🙏🏻

You won’t be the cause of my father’s death or anything bad happening. Please donate to save my parents. If everyone who donates, he will help me provide for my father’s needs and provide him with the necessary medicines.

Thanks to everyone who will help 🫶🏻

Please donate💔

Campaign verified @90-ghost

[shorthaltsjester]

obsessed with the fact that bell's hells won that fight explicitly because of their reliance on the gods. imogen and laudna both vocally saying 'thank you matron' at the beginnings of that combat as they use new skills or spells they've refreshed, orym wielding his sword, braius wielding his divine power, the entire party instilled with a hero's feast prepared by a cleric of the wildmother, imogen using power granted by the arch heart to bring down predathos -- an entity that has been described as welcoming her home, offering a womb she has longed to return to, her as its kin -- in imagery evoking the moment where the gods too decided to turn their backs on their home when faced with the monstrosity they were tied to, that they'd help bring about (something something, the arch heart gave mortals magic and imogen gave predathos its vessel). and the fact that bell's hells has slowly grown more reliant on the idea that predathos does not hunger for mortals -- something they in fact scoffed at when it came from liliana and ludinus' mouths -- predathos took several of them in his maw and tried to consume them.

viewing the story as one of a group of people predominantly blinded to the reality of their situations by the fog of their traumatized feelings -- as i've chosen to do for the sake of my sanity listening to them go on and on about gods that never gave them a lick in the same breath that they complain that the gods have too much power -- it is so extremely poetic that orym cut down ludinus with a sword blessed by the wild mother only for bell's hells to retread the path ludinus set up for himself. it is extremely ironic for a group of people who have implicitly raised complaints about the inherent manipulation that comes with the god's existence to come up with a plan that is explicit manipulation, demanding the gods become mortal or die [which to be clear, extremely interesting plan with interesting consequences that would be compelling to see! absolutely dogshit reasoning skills and moral assessment. but it is continually ASTOUNDING to me that a campaign that gets treated by some as the height of critical role's sociopolitical philosophical exploration features so many PCs who struggle (and not in the fruitful, developmental way but in the head-in-hands, can this student talk to the prof during office hours so I don't have to feel the second hand embarrassment of them making it obvious they haven't ever attended a previous lecture or done the class readings way) with ideas found in any first year philosophy course].

and to be clear this is not me devaluing the role of bell's hells in actually fighting the fight -- but all they've done is the same thing the gods were already doing, keeping predathos sealed, except now its in a volatile-at-best mortal who is on borrowed time re: being lost once again to its power. the only suggestion the hells have that this might be a justified and right course of action is the support of two gods -- one who has proven themself to be okay with the idea of death until it actually arrives before and the other one who is the only being on record who actually chose to be a deity -- out of a much larger pantheon, and their personal inclinations to agree with the ideology of a man who they have claimed to ardently disagree with but it turns out that was just because of his methods, I guess. scattershotting catalysts for change and hoping that change results in a Better World just. on its own (almost like. idk. fate) that you haven't even suggested practical (I'd even take theoretical ones atp) methods to achieve beyond Get Rid of a bunch of beings who are involved in actually extreme amounts of metaphysical and magical infrastructure isn't actually a course of action, its a course of chaos, and that is in fact worse than things staying the way they are if 'the way things are' that you keep referring to has only been shown to, currently, be that you and your friends feel sad and a little miffed that the gods you haven't offered anything to are only willing to do things for you when you serve them. unlike you, a group notorious for the way you do things for people you don't know without asking anything in return (this is sarcasm, if that wasn't clear).

anyway, I will continue to be frustrated by the lack of grounding for either (a) bell's hells having actually incisive and contextualized criticisms of the gods (either their own or from the actual mouths of the 'little guys' they are allegedly fighting for) or (b) more engagement with the fact that bell's hells as a party are not interested in making the morally right choice, they are at Best looking for a morally neutral choice. that said, if I ignore the actual story c3 has portrayed, the last few episodes have been a great wrap-up to a story about how singleminded trauma can make you and how that can lead you to place where there's no longer any Good choices to make, only potentially satisfying ones, where the question of who to satisfy takes the reigns over what is best.

[lonniemachin]

Sujood has reached out to me to boost she and Sanaa’s fundraiser. They’re urgently trying to evacuate their family from Gaza and seek asylum in Belgium. Their previous campaign was suspended, so they have started a new GFM and currently have £1,642 out of their £50,000 goal! Please share if you can’t donate!

From their GFM page:

Dear friends,

We are reaching out to you with a heartfelt plea for help. Our names are Sanaa and Sujood, and we find ourselves in an incredibly challenging and dangerous situation.

Unfortunately, our previous attempt to receive donations was unsuccessful due to restrictions on transactions to Gaza. However, the urgency of our circumstances compels us to reach out again, this time with new procedures in place to ensure the secure delivery of your generous contributions. We are launching a new campaign because we cannot afford to wait for a long time for the restrictions on the bank account to be lifted it’s already being two months now. We are unsure if we will be able to access the funds or if they will be returned to the donors. In any case, here in Gaza, we are fighting against time. Every day poses a threat to our safety, and we cannot afford to wait. If, after some time, we are able to retrieve the previous amount, we will use it to rebuild our lives and continue the education of my siblings.

The situation in Gaza has become increasingly unbearable, and we have been left with no choice but to seek assistance from compassionate individuals like you. Your donations can make a significant difference in our lives and help us escape the dire circumstances we currently face.

This is ours story:

I hope this message finds you in good health and spirits.

My name is Sanaa Odeh, currently in Gaza, occupied Palestine. I am writing this as a plea for survival, for a future for my family and myself.

Our lives are in immediate danger, with non stop explosions everyday and every night, tanks and guns all around us, and fear as a constant companion. It is a non-stop nightmare, every minute of every day, for 6 months. Everyday is a struggle for survival. Lack of food and clean water creating a crisis of death by starvation and dehydration.

Despite the endless nightmare, we are a resilient and strong family. My beautiful parents gave everything to raise us as successful daughters and we are so proud of what we have achieved.

I work as a graphic designer and my sisters: a nurse/educator, small business owner, a medical student, and a field coordinator. Despite being on the path to rich and promising futures, it can all be taken away in any moment. We have already lost several family members, including my uncles and their entire family. There is little hope that the situation will end soon, all of us waiting for our turn next.

We are looking to seek asylum in Belgium. This campaign will help support us in covering the costs to do so, specifically in covering the evacuation costs per person. Your donation will provide us with the chance to escape the endless horror we’ve been facing for the last 6 months and give us a chance to return to a safe, normal life again, where we can once again contribute positively to society.

I understand that this is a challenging time for everyone right now, but please do not underestimate what even £5 can contribute to especially when it all adds up. It really does make a huge difference. No matter how small the contribution it can still change our entire lives.

Thank you for taking the time to read our story, your support means the world to us. Whether it is simply sharing our campaign or donating, it makes all the difference in the world to us. Your act of kindness can bring light to our darkest days and help us build a better future.

Thank you once again for all your support and kindness

With heartfelt gratitude,

Sanaa and Sujood

[comrademango]

HIGHLIGHTING THESE CAMPAIGNS

A ceasefire is only the beginning and the struggle for a free Palestine continues. Please continue supporting the campaigns and mutual aid efforts that you come across on this and on other social media sites.

These are the campaign posts I am currently updating that are very low on funds and very slowly progressing:

post for Ahmed @ahmednaserfamily - GFM - vetted by gaza-evacuation-funds and gazavetters (#37)

post for Ibrahim @aburakhiaibrahim - GFM - #336 on the vetted fundraisers list by el-shab-hussein and nabulsi

post for Abdulrahman @3bdulra7manosama - GFM - vetted by gaza-evacuation-funds (#4)

post for Hazem @albardawillhazem95 - GFM - vetted by el-shab-hussein

Additional posts/campaigns:

post for @zinaanqar and @anqarfamily - GFM - #264 on the vetted fundraisers list by el-shab-hussein and nabulsi

post for Amal @amalashuor - GFM - #175 on the vetted fundraisers list by el-shab-hussein and nabulsi

post for Noor @nourayman and Mostafa @mostafaayman3 - Noor's GFM; Mostafa's GFM - #305 and 340 on this vetted fundraisers list -> Noor got injured in a blast and underwent surgery from which she is still recovering.

Yousef @youseffamily3 - Chuffed - vetted by @/90-ghost, promoted by @/northgazaupdates

And also:

from the fb page of anakbayan (not my org)

[Askbox closed at the moment because I could not keep up. Apologies for that. Other campaigns under the cut.]

Other campaigns I have previously highlighted:

post for Heba - GFM - #294 on the verified campaigns list by The ButterflyEffect Project

post for Mona - GFM - #87 on the verified campaigns list by gazavetters

post for Belal - GFM - vetted by 90-ghost

post for Waleed - GFM - #107 0n the vetted list by gazavetters

post for Mahrah - GFM - vetted by 90-ghost

post for Noor - PayPal - vetted by 90-ghost and by association

post for Sami - GFM - vetted by gazavetters (#21) and 90-ghost

post for Mohammed - GFM - vetted by gazavetters (#236) and 90-ghost

Previous pinned posts with lists of campaigns: A, B

[samerpal]

🚨⚠️ Warning ⛔️ ‼️

Dear friends, I want to inform you that I have closed the previous fundraising campaign due to difficulties with the old account and its Swedish currency. 💵

I decided to halt my previous fundraising campaign due to the immense effort it required, unfortunately without the desired effectiveness. This was largely because of the challenges related to the currency exchange process

My friends, I am now turning to you, in need of your support in this new campaign. Your unwavering dedication, endless encouragement, and heartfelt care for me and my family mean the world. Thank you deeply for standing by us.”

I have now created a new, 🆕 more accessible account to help us continue gathering the support we desperately need.

I kindly ask for your help in spreading the word about our new 🆕 campaign, supporting me and my family in reaching a place of safety.

♥️Thank you from the bottom of my heart.♥️

♥️🍉🇵🇸🍓♥️🌹🍉🇵🇸🍓♥️🌹🇵🇸🍓♥️🌹🍉🇵🇸

🌹“My friends, I need your help updating the link to my new fundraising campaign. I would be grateful for your support.”🌹

@dlxxv-vetted-donations @a-shade-of-blue @aces-and-angels @nabulsi @90-ghost @tamamita @heritageposts @heritage-post @riding-with-the-wild-hunt @aria-ashryver @punkitt-is-here @jezior0 @ibtisams @sar-soor @sayruq @soon-palestine @i-am-aprl @palestine-button-reminder @appsa @mangocheesecakes @feluka @palipunk @plomegranate @commissions4aid-international @mysharona1987 @myceliacrochet

[glitter-stained]

A fun, happy dc story for a change

Look I can be very critical of Winick's writing because I'm so ambivalent about it but damn if it isn't, on a meta level, a really satisfying spite story.

At the core of this story, there is Jim Starlin. Now Starlin's writing has many flaws, not least of all the blatant racism and sexism. And if there's one thing Jim hates, it's Robin. He wants to kill that little boy so bad, oh how he hates that bright coloured child in tights that's just holding Batman back from reaching his true potential as an absolute badass... And hey, good news! Dc, in trying to bring a second Robin after the first got a new identity, has dropped the ball, and the new boy is unpopular amongst the fans who miss the previous iteration! This is his opportunity to kill Robin, definitely!

But how? People may not have voted him dead yet, but Jim is already planning, setting up plots and trying his damndest to get him killed. And the thing about Jim- the thing that makes him a good writer, you see, the thing that separates him from those losers who fail to see Batman's true potential, is that his writing is gritty. He's not afraid to write a true dark knight facing the grimdark horrors of a town laden with crime, to shy away from the real dark, gritty topic that are mature and dark like rape. And uh, sexual violence against women. And uh, serial raping and killing women. (I'm kidding, of course, I didn't forget the native american cult leader who bathes in blood to prolongate his life. Or about the kgb agent Batman straight-up kills after he tries to kill Reagan. Or about the suicides, god I haven't forgotten about that. Don't worry.) But anyway, sexual abuse in general is a big theme for Jim. It shows how serious and dark and gritty he can be. So he has an idea: why not make Robin a child sexual abuse victim and give him AIDS? That way that's a justification to write Robin unlikeable (by making him emotional when exposed to situations of sexual abuse, unable to restrain his anger when defending a prostitute...) and at the same time it's the perfect way to kill Robin! DC has been considering giving a character AIDS, it's perfect! It will show everyone how dark and gritty Jim's writing is, he can make Robin even more unlikeable on top of how people are upset about the transition between Robins, and then he can finally kill Robin! It's perfect! Jim is a genius!!!

Now, of course, we know that plan failed: first because dc rejected Starlin's idea for Jason to die of AIDS, and second because as soon as Jason (as a character, which is what DC apparently had a problem with) died, they fired Starlin as a Batman writer and introduced a new Robin, making Starlin's vehement campaign against a fictional fifteen years old completely vain.

So that's it, right? Crisis avoided, we almost had some even worst writing that what already was, everyone sigh in relief and go home?

Enter Judd Winick stage left.

Now, remember how DC wanted to give a character AIDS? In 2003, Green Arrow #43 reveals that Mia Dearden, Oliver Queen's ward and a csa survivor of underage prostitution, is HIV positive, and in #45, she takes on the mantle of the second Speedy, becoming, according to Wikipedia, the most prominent HIV-positive superhero to star in an ongoing comic book. (And also one of my favourite comics characters, but that's unrelated.) An important thing about Winick, who wrote those issues, is that he is personally invested in education about AIDS, continuing his friend Pedro Zamora's educational work after his death of AIDS-related progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy. (He also wrote a graphic novel about it, called Pedro and Me: Friendship, Loss and What I've Learned). So kudos! We finally got someone who has done research and actually holds respect for HIV+ people writing HIV+ characters. And Mia is so cool, man- but not only is she a really interesting character, she is, first and foremost, a survivor. That's how she characterizes herself, sees what happened to her: she did what she had to do to survive, and now she's a fucking superhero and she's here to help others and you know what she's not gonna do? Die "of AIDS."

Yeah, I haven't forgotten Starlin's terrible writing. And, if Winick's writing is any identification, it seems like he hasn't either. The idea of making the second Speedy a parallel with the second Robin isn't groundbreaking, but it's cool that it's there (and also, incidentally, a reminder that parallels are interesting and fun and backstories are not a finite resource characters can run out of or steal from eachother.) Anyway, this includes Winick altering Mia's backstory and making her a street kid to make it more similar to Jason's, as well as Mia's on-screen murder offering a nice parallel to Jason's ambiguous murder in Starlin's Diplomat Son (a parallel I can't help but regard with vindicative snark, because that's how you handle a teenager who has just caused, directly or not, a man's death out of hopelessness in a situation that felt impossible. A little snark of See? Now this is how it's done. Yeah, Starlin's Bruce isn't winning any parenting against Winick's Ollie, that's for sure.) So there it is! Our fun spite story, Winick taking on Starlin's terrible ideas, a teen vigilante and survivor taking on a hero identity to mirror a teen vigilant's loss and death, a good old fashioned schooling. Cool? Cool!

And then, in 2005, Winick buries Starlin's last remaining impact on DC by bringing back Jason Todd, in a move so audacious in the back-then landscape it would be kinda akin to bringing Ben Parker back to life in Spiderman's life as a villain (please don't tell me this happens in the comics I don't read Marvel and if someone wrote that I would honestly prefer not to know). Now, of course, the impact of Jason's death on the narrative can't and shouldn't be undone by that move, but that's not important, because that's not what Starlin wanted when killing Jason - he wanted to kill Jason/Robin, not give everyone grief-induced hallucinations where Jason/Robin had an incredibly salient place in the narrative, so he didn't get what he wanted anyway.

Personally, my view on Winick's writing of Jason is contrasted (and the fact that there are some elements of Starlin's characterization of Jason that I prefer to Winick's deeply amazes me, incredibly ironic situation. Which only serves to point that even Starlin' goal of making us hate his version of robin failed drastically, as me and my jaybin fan mutuals can attest. Sucks to suck!). But as much as some of the decisions frustrate me, do you understand how much of a power move it is to take this child, this victim who has been victim-blamed for years, and bring him back to life with a vengeance and a demand that his life mattered, that his death was a bad thing that shouldn't be tolerated? Do you know how good that story feels, especially to victims when reading it and see that indignation validated, that rebellion against the status quo and victim-blaming, how good it feels to see a "bad victim" that refuses to stay down ? And in the context of Starlin's intent to write Jason a CSA victim, Winick writing Mia, the HIV+ plot for them both- do you understand the genuine and violent glee I feel, that it's Winick that wrote Jason coming back to life and hunting down the narrative with a machine gun?

So yeah. This is the context in which I talk about acknowledging the csa subtext in Green Arrow: Seeing Red, but this post isn't about lecturing you to accept it as canon or imply that you're bad for not sharing that interpretation. It's about spite -towards Jim Starlin specifically. And it's about that interpretation, but the context in which it was written in general, is not just a victory against Starlin, that guy lost long ago, but the narrative equivalent of that Green Arrow meme about taking a funny selfie over a gravestone. In Seeing Red (specifically in the line that's discussed when questioning the csa headcanon), Jason tells Mia they are similar because of what they had to do to survive, framing the sexual trauma on Mia's part (and thus allegedly also on Jason's) again firmly on the side of survival rather than victimhood. Whether it's by becoming a villain or a hero, there's this rebellion against being an object to the violence, which is at the core of Starlin's treatment of sexual violence. This is fun. We're having fun. I'm repeating myself, but do you understand how satisfying, electrifying it is? I'm filled with unreasonable amounts of glee. You don't always need the context in which a story was written to enjoy it but in this case, doesn't this make it so much more enjoyable? (And on top of that, kudos to Winick for killing Captain Nazi, I hope it was as satisfying to write as it looked.) Anyway, Mia Dearden and Jason Todd, the characters that you are. I love them so much.