#but I am spreading my old man propaganda

[radishearts]

Still fleshing out the fintan design but i inch closer every day 🗣️🗣️

My (second) favourite old man who gardens 🫶

[despairforme]

[zephyrrhiesfyrian]

How old does Hisui think Ingo and Emmet are? How old are they actually?

Ingo: *acts like an old man*

Emmet: bitch we're 38

Akari: but he's an old man

Ingo: I'm young?

Emmet: yes! We're twins (has no idea why Ingo think's he's old)

KAJSDFHGK "BITCH WE'RE THIRTY EIGHT" EMMET DON'T SWEAR IN FRONT OF THE BABY-

Hisui probably assumes Ingo is in his fifties or sixties? Yet another reason everybody is both startled and lowkey alarmed when Ingo straight up scales a wall no problem

Ingo has always kinda acted like an old man though, Emmet is not surprised by this. He is only surprised by the slouching.

To my knowledge there's two years between B/W 1 and B/W 2, so they would've at least been forty by the time Ingo gets yoinked to Hisui, and then I imagine Ingo's been there for at least a few years, so the twins are probably forty-three or so?

again hello, i am zephyr and i am spreading my middle aged submas propaganda :D

[starleska]

Omg I've been wanting to ask you if you've seen Heretic! I became obsessed as soon as I saw it, recommending it to all my friends like a missionary 😅 I've seen it twice and it gives you so much to think about; the three main performances are brilliant, the story is unpredictable and the psychological horror is so well done! Sister Paxton is also one of my new favourite characters from anything; I just think she's wonderful. I have so many thoughts I should probably make my own post b/c I could go on and on 😅

On a more superficial note, I must ask... Do you have a crush on Mr Reed? (Should I be embarrassed to admit that it's the first time I've ever found Hugh Grant hot, after a lifetime of having no opinion on him and barely registering his presence in films? I feel like I've finally awoken)

hell YEAHHHH all the love for Heretic, i was completely blown away!!!! what a masterpiece of a movie, holy shit - i couldn't agree with you more. Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher AND Chloe East all gave such tremendous performances - those first thirty minutes were some of the most tense and uncomfortable exchanges i've ever seen!!! so tightly written and had as many twists and turns as Mr Reed's fortress-like home...you keep on recommending this movie to everyone, i certainly will be too 🙈💖 BEFORE I GO INTO SPOILERS AND HEAVY RELIGIOUS/ATHEISTIC/PERSONAL DISCUSSION UNDER THE CUT: although i am not presently blorboing Mr Reed, my partner is down so astronomically bad i thought they were going to explode in the theatre 😂💖 i totally understand where y'all are coming from, and if spreading the 'gorgeous old man Hugh Grant appeals to your religious trauma and daddy kinks at the same time' propaganda, then so be it!!! here, hot grandpa be upon ye!! (come back to me in 3-5 business days, maybe my opinion will have evolved 😉)

so for context: when i was a child, like. ages 7-14, i was a militant atheist. i was raised in a very lax Christian household, but i fell down the rabbit hole of Richard Dawkins-esque 'reasonable' takes on religion via books and online circles that i equated with being intellectually superior. in retrospect i'm horrified by what a nasty, ignorant person it made me, and am very lucky to have had good religious figures in my life to gently ease me out of that (ironically) cult-like mentality. i'd argue that atheism, theism, theological debates and scientific ideas about the nature of reality constituted a special interest for me for a good chunk of my life...so this movie really scratched a long-forgotten itch 🙈🙈🙈 the thing about Heretic was how equal its messaging was. going in, you'd assume Mr Reed could've been some spurned apostate punishing missionaries for daring to have unshaken, unproven faith. but instead, we see something else: Mr Reed, Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton battling and even collaborating in trying to discover the truth of their respective (including lack of) faiths. that final scene with Sister Paxton hallucinating the butterfly rammed it home: does it really matter whether religion is correct or not? isn't it enough that faith provides comfort and meaning, even if we're wrong when we leave this mortal coil? i think as an ex-militant atheist i find Mr Reed horribly relatable. the way he made himself into this self-styled god by deeming 'control' to be the structure of all religion and using it to act on his own selfish desires reminds me so much of the figureheads of the atheism movement...i know that Heretic was in part inspired by Contact (1997), based on the book by Carl Sagan, which explores the implications for humanity if we made contact with extraterrestial life. the scientific language which people in the atheism community used to dress up intolerance and personal biases is just as flawed as the religion they were criticising. Mr Reed dazzles as an "intellectual", but he's no more informed than either of the Sisters. the way this movie skilfully portrays all parties as reasonable, informed, relatable people all trying to seek meaning is magnificent. it would have been so easy to make either side into a scapegoat: to make an anti-religious movie, or an anti-atheism movie, or even to turn around and call us all idiots for thinking about religion, but it doesn't. it leaves us with this off-kilter but honest message: we don't know, and that's okay, as long as it matters to you. that's why i agree with you on Sister Paxton being such an amazing character: regardless of Mr Reed's theories (or hypotheses 😉) he was unable to subjugate her. what a fucking champ

[synchodai]

On Targaryen Exceptionalism

What I need people who read my HOTD and ASOIAF posts to understand is that when I say "Targaryen Exceptionalism," I am invoking the in-universe Doctrine of Exceptionalism promulgated by Jaehaerys I during his reign. This was an actual political and religious movement in Fire and Blood, and the people who subscribe to it were indeed known as Exceptionalists.

Whenever I mention Targaryen Exceptionalism (with a capital "E"), it is not me saying that the Targaryens practiced a family-exclusive form of American exceptionalism or white supremacy, because Exceptionalism is built on a very specific tenent that neither real-world ideologies have — incest.

exceptionalism is jaehaerys propaganda

The laws of the Seven, as laid down in sacred text and taught by the septas and septons in obedience to the Father of the Faithful, decreed that brother might not lie with sister, nor father with daughter, nor mother with son, that the fruits of such unions were abominations, loathsome in the eyes of the gods. All this the Exceptionalists affirmed, but with this caveat: the Targaryens were different. Their roots were not in Andalos, but in Valyria of old, where different laws and traditions held sway. A man had only to look at them to know that they were not like other men; their eyes, their hair, their very bearing, all proclaimed their differences. And they flew dragons. - Fire and Blood, A Time of Testing: The Realm Remade

In short, Exceptionalism states that because Targaryens have Valyrian heritage, they are above conventional morality of the Andal faith and thus allowed them (and only them) consanguine marriages. To be clear, this is not a "common sense" truth that every Westerosi accepted that was codified into a doctrine. F&B makes it clear that this is specifically propaganda crafted by Jaehaerys I, spread through preachers doing his bidding so that his marriage with his sister Alysanne doesn't lead to their ruin like it did their predecessors.

“Words are wind,” [Jaehaerys] told his council, “but wind can fan a fire. My father and my uncle fought words with steel and flame. We shall fight words with words, and put out the fires before they start.” And so saying, His Grace sent forth not knights and men-at-arms, but preachers. - Fire and Blood, A Time of Testing: The Realm Remade

Jaehaerys I even goes so far as to have under-the-table dealings with Lord Donnel Hightower to tamper with the selection of the High Septon. Many prominent figures in the Faith are (former) Hightowers, so Lord Donnel Hightower provided Jaehaerys I avenue to influence his cousins, uncles, and younger brothers and make them more amenable to Exceptionalism and Exceptionalist leadership.

However, even after all of the king's subterfuge, the radical Exceptionalist High Septon is only elected with a small margin of victory.

JOn the fourth ballot, the Most Devout broke tradition, choosing a man who was not one of their own number. The laurel fell to the Septon Alfyn, who had crossed the Reach a dozen times in his litter on behalf of Jaehaerys and his queen. The Seven Kingdoms had no fiercer champion of Exceptionalism than Alfyn, but he was the oldest of the Seven Speakers, and legless besides; it seemed likely the Stranger would seek him out sooner rather than later. When that befell, his own successor would be a Hightower, the king assured Lord Donnel, provided his kin aligned themselves firmly with the Exceptionalists during Septon Alfyn's reign. - Fire and Blood, Birth, Death, and Betrayal Under King Jaehaerys I

Jaehaerys doesn't seem to be simply an influential person campaigning for their preferred candidate. Our source, Septon Barth, talks about it as outright election interference and calls it "corruption" that shows how easily the Devout are manipulated. Barth's account, along with how difficult it was to eke out a win for their candidate, indicates that Exceptionalism was a fringe ideology that only overtook "mainstream" thought through external intervention from powerful outsiders. It's not a grassroots movement that was organically enshrined into the Faith because it already had a significant following. It is, by all accounts, a coordinated propaganda campaign that started from the top and that they forced down so that the minor nobility and smallfolk won't rise up like they did before.

alysanne: the face of exceptionalist propaganda

I would like to briefly mention how Alysanne was instrumental to Jaehaerys's rise and reclaimation of power, not because she herself spearheaded the doctrine that legitimized his rule, but because she was an extremely convincing face for it. It's no coincedence that when Jaehaerys ordered his preachers to spread Exceptionalism to the realm, they did so by emphasizing Alysanne's virtues.

“Tell every man you meet of Alysanne’s kindness, her sweet and gentle nature, and her love for all the people of our kingdom, great and small,” the king charged them. - Fire and Blood, A Time of Testing: The Realm Remade

I am not saying Alysanne wasn't kind, gentle, or loving of her people. In fact, her being all that just makes the campaign all the more effective.

However, I do point this out because Alysanne becomes simultaneously lauded and scapegoated here. This could have very well been done with Alysanne's consent and cooperation, but it doesn't change the fact that this mirrors how women are utilized in propaganda campaigns. They are symbols put up on a podium — pure and kind to elicit sympathy. To criticize Exceptionalism is to criticize Alysanne, and why would anyone badmouth Good Queen Alysanne? However, this also makes Alysanne the shield that takes the brunt of the inevitable backlash. When the people push back on the preachers, it's Alysanne's virtues they are impugning, not Jaehaerys's.

I guess what I'm trying to say, sure, criticize the woman who's selling us fascist rhetoric, but also remember who's in charge enacting those fascist policies in the first place.

but is targaryen exceptionalism fascist? (not really)

I used "fascist" previously as a segueway, but I really don't think it's a productive word to use when it comes analyzing ASOIAF and its related works (1). I will admit that the Game of Thrones TV show invoked imagery that called back to fascist regimes, but to use the term to talk about Dany and the Targaryens reduces fascism to its aesthetics. The Targaryens did not implement policy that would be considered especially ultranationalist or authoritarian in terms of Westerosi nobility. Aegon I implementing the King's Peace was proof that he did not believe in the glory of perpetual war, and scorched-earth wartime tactics are done by governments of all ideological leanings, even the so-called "enlightened" and "progressive" societies.

Propaganda is not exclusive to fascist, authoritarian, or even nationalist regimes. Propaganda is a neutral term that means communication campaigns made to influence its target audience. Advertising is propaganda. PSAs are propaganda. The Doctrine of Exceptionalism isn't bad because it's propaganda.

No, it's bad because it justifies Targaryens being above the law. Notice how it's not the Mother, Maiden, or Crone that prohibits sibling and parent-child incest, but the Father. This is because that sort of relationship is an abuse of authority in a way marriage between cousins is often not.

incest is about power and control

So what's so bad about Jaehaerys wanting the church to get off his case about marrying his sister? What's wrong with Jaehaerys and Maegor exercising their religious freedom by not following the teachings of the Faith? Jaehaerys and Alysanne are in love, and they aren't harming anyone by getting married. Why is the Faith of the Seven even against incest anyway?

A common answer would be to prevent inbreeding and congenital disease, but that would be overestimating the reliance of humanity on rationality when it comes to establishing social taboo. After all, the pseudo-medieval septons weren't teaching smallfolk about inbreeding coefficients to warn them about the dangers of boinking your sister.

While many people in our times might think that the basis of the prohibition of incest is the high probability of negative genetic effects, this approach is a twentieth-century one. Moreover, since science alone does not determine morality anyway, the definitions of incest in many countries and regions are still influenced by non-scientific authorities. Among them, religious ones play important roles in determining incest, or prohibited degrees (i.e. the list of people whom one is prohibited to marry). Especially in Abrahamic religions, it was religious institutions which defined marital ethics on the basis of their understanding of their scriptures. - Intellectual History and the Problem of Incest by Hannah Dongsun Lee

If Westeros's problem with incest was solely on a biological basis, avunculate (cousin) marriages would have been discouraged as well, but they were relatively common among the highborn. Additionally, a purely anti-inbreeding reasoning implies that incestuous relationships are permissible as long as the couple does not produce offspring — which clearly isn't the case both in Westeros and in real life. The relationship is the violation, not the baby.

However, while religion plays a huge part in establishing social norms, "because the church said so" is rarely a sufficient reason why people consider incest immoral. Plenty of non-religious people in our real world see incest as taboo. They likely don't see incestuous couples as cursed or damned, but there remains a feeling of visceral disgust when considering parent-child and sibling relations. Why is that (2)?

Of course, the reasons vary depending on the individual, but for our purposes, let's stick with Westeros and the Faith of the Seven. I've already mentioned how the Faith's anti-incest stance is associated with the Father and how this is because it is an abuse of authority — perhaps due to the fact that a person cannot meaningfully consent to a sexual/romantic relationship to a person they are so fully and inextricably dependent on.

The power structure, the structure of dependency, is such that the propositioned daughter is put in an unfair position. (This way of putting it assumes that the father makes the initial overt move, even if in response to a seductively active daughter. But the point holds in any case.) Too much is at stake. The situation maybe compared to that of the boss who insists on sexual relations with his secretary. She may fear for her job. Her refusal is not a simple refusal of sexual relations, for she remains involved and dependent in other ways. The situation is even more extreme in the case of the father who propositions his daughter. - What is Wrong with Incest by Jerome Neu

This power dynamic is also a reason why some may eroticize incest. One can easily romanticize dependence, vulnerability, and defying established societal roles. However, because such a power dynamic exists, such relationships are heavily prone to abuse. Should the relationship "succeed" and both parties be happy and fulfilled, they often will become isolated from others outside the family circle. Even if this world didn't ostracize incestuous couples, the couple will still be cloistered within family, for they will never find the need to socialize outside of it. But if the relationship "fails," it ruins family units, robbing children and siblings of their foundational support systems (3).

It's about maintaining control and power. Through consanguine marriage, not only does it keep dragonriders within the main Targaryen line, it is a way for the Targaryen patriarch to ensure the singular allegiance of his children. This is why incest is as inextricable from the Targaryen legacy as dragons — because incestuous marriages was how they maintained their power.

conclusion: exceptionalism is false and harmful

So, why shouldn't Targaryens be the exception and be allowed practice parent-child/sibling incest? Why not make them exceptions to the rule to respect their Valyrian culture and heritage? Well, the answer is the same reason why they probably shouldn't have nukes — heck, why anyone shouldn't have nukes. Because such things are all but guaranteed to lead to violence and abuse. Even if a Targaryen is the most well-intentioned, benevolent, and wisest (and F&B proved that they are just as a fallible as any other human being), no one should have that much power. Dragons allowed them complete control over the realm, while incestuous marriage maintained control over their children.

Despite my yapping, I don't think Targaryens are born inherently corrupt or immoral, at least not any more than any other highborn Westerosi. Give anyone dragons controlled by genetics and most of them would probably resort to the same methods of control. Neither do I believe that Jaehaerys I was even an especially evil or conniving person. The Doctrine of Exceptionalism and him enshrining Targaryen incest into the Faith was a sound decision, as it did bring in the Faithful as allies through peaceful means. And honestly, I wouldn't want other Houses getting dragonriders either. I wouldn't want my daughters marrying into other families and raising children who would stake a claim on the Iron Throne in the name of their father's House. If I have to force my son to marry my daughter to keep the peace and mitigate danger, then so be it.

The dramatic irony here is despite all of Jaehaerys's efforts to keep it in the family, what he feared still came to pass. The practice of incest continues to haunt and curse this family, exacting the price of power. It hurts their daughters who are forced to become unhappy childbrides to their brothers and their destructive sons who live in constant paranoia towards outsiders.

At the risk of oversimplification, the Targaryens' dysfunctional relationships with one another and their insularity are what led to their biggest failures — from the Blackfyre Rebellions to the Dance of the Dragons. One can even argue it was because of the Doctrine of Exceptionalism that the Dance happened and lost them their dragons. After all, didn't Viserys think he was an exception to the rule after being elected over his cousin Rhaenys? Didn't he bypass Andal tradition like Jaehaerys and believe his daughter could do the same?

I guess the moral here is the moral for all ASOIAF characters. All of us are beholden to oaths, obligations, and social contracts that make it so we can't just do whatever our heart pleases without consequence. No exception.

footnotes/tangents

In fact, I share Orwell's beef with how fascism is used discourse in general.

To say why would take too long, but basically it is because it is impossible to define Fascism satisfactorily without making admissions which neither the Fascists themselves, nor the Conservatives, nor Socialists of any colour, are willing to make. All one can do for the moment is to use the word with a certain amount of circumspection and not, as is usually done, degrade it to the level of a swearword. - What is Fascism? by George Orwell

(60 years later and people are still having arguments on what "fascist" means lol)

2. Some might cite the Westermarck Effect as proof that aversion to sibling/parent incest is "hard wired" into us because of "reverse sexual imprinting" during childhood, but I don't really buy that — at least I find it incomplete. It offers a "window" to condition children to be incest-averse, which just doesn't apply to real life? If a person didn't grow up with their parents, they'd still feel disgust at the idea of having romantic relationships with them. Similarly, several cultures have cousins living and growing up together and having no aversion to eventually marrying their cousins. It ignores cultural, societal, and individual conditioning, preferring to explain incest aversion with "evolutionary psychology."

3. Is it any wonder that the most well-adjusted Targaryen families came from parents who weren't incest couples (Daeron II & Myriah Martell, Aegon V & Betha Blackwood, etc.)? We see incest lead to insularity in the family even outside the Targaryens with Jaime and Cersei — even Tywin and Joanna to some extent.

[saintsenara]

rare pair tag game

thanks for the tag, @said-snape-softly :)

i'm pretty sure everyone has done this by now, but if you'd like to, please consider this a blanket tag.

apart from all the tomarry and the odd dabble in remadora, i am a rare-pair enthusiast, so i am delighted to spread some propaganda here... the criterion i've used for a rare-pair is less than 2500 works on ao3.

pairs, little metas, fic recommendations, and some suggestions for authors to follow under the cut.

sirius black/severus snape

why i ship it:

this one can just about claim to be a rare-pair.

sirius and severus are narrative mirrors, whose complicated relationship to themselves and to each other is crucial for driving several of the most important arcs in the series.

in particular, sirius - constantly haunted by guilt and grief over his role in the death of the man he loved [you can decide if his love for james is platonic or not, but i definitely think the text thinks it isn't...], trapped in his childhood home, unable to have his real loyalties acknowledged before his death by the fact he's on the run - leads harry through his journey in hero-worshipping, then being disappointed in, then forgiving james. and then promptly dies.

this is one of harry's most significant areas of personal growth - it begins to chip away at his rather black-and-white morality, which is finally destroyed by his ability to confront the complexity of dumbledore in deathly hallows - but it is also key narratively: harry coming to understand james starts to hint to the reader that it is lily - otherwise absent from her son's conception of himself - who is the key to the mystery...

which brings us to severus - constantly haunted by guilt and grief over his role in the death of the woman he loved, trapped in his childhood home, unable to have his real loyalties acknowledged before his death by the fact he's a spy - who gives harry, and us, the final piece of the puzzle. and then promptly dies.

put them together, though? well, you get the delicious tension of two fundamentally broken people - who cannot comprehend the possibility of their own redemption - bound to each other. can they forgive each other and themselves? is it a disaster? the story can go either way.

and even in fluff there is so much potential for d r a m a between sirius' recklessness and severus' cunning, sirius' emotional control and severus' temper, the fact that sirius is canonically hot and severus is canonically not, how they react to harry and draco [i don't usually accept the fanon that severus is his godfather, except when it means snack can be fighting about it], and so on.

and i'm a sucker for two bitter old men getting a happy ending. sue me.

want to give it a read?

if you trust nothing else i say in my life [and why should you] you can trust this - second life by nwhiker and cassandra7 is one of the greatest pieces of writing i have ever seen, not only in this pairing but in this fandom full stop. it's a profound and solemn meditation on loving and grieving, choice and chance, and the great pain caused by the divide between the magical and the muggle worlds.

then, for gorgeous angst with a happy ending - two boys kissing by @writcraft and the merit in trying by brightened

albus dumbledore/tom riddle | voldemort

why i ship it:

the facetious answer is because they wouldn't be so obsessed with each other if there wasn't some sexual tension underneath it.

the facetious and nsfw answer is because it appeals to the part of me whose favourite book aged 11 was lolita

the serious answer is that they should be horrifying together: they're both liars; both incredibly self-righteous; both living behind masks which conceal their true emotions and motivations; dumbledore took one look at tom as an eleven-year-old, said "he reminds me of gellert", and then did nothing about it; tom thinks dumbledore's a hypocrite and is right, although not for the reasons he thinks; there is a colossal age gap; there is virtually no scenario in any timeline where they could be openly in a relationship unless one of them is concealing his identity; and - really, this seems quite minor in the grand scheme of things - they are constantly trying to destroy each other.

but.

intellectually, they are the only two characters in the series who could be the other's equal - i'm sure that violent arguments about the twelve uses of dragon's blood trigger the majority of their sexual encounters, and a man who's passionate about your research is hot.

if either of them ever fancy being honest - so, no - there is a shared cavernous [although, in tom's case, unacknowledged] grief in their lives which has shaped their not-as-divergent-as-the-text-thinks-they-are views on death, love, duty and so on. their active refusal to understand each other [i.e. dumbledore entirely misreading voldemort's motivations in the job interview scene] and commitment to constantly underestimating each other [i.e. voldemort bouncing around like an idiot in the chamber of secrets instead of using his brain and remembering what a phoenix is] could, in time, lead to something almost resembling acceptance. i mean, just imagine the hurt/comfort sex which happens when voldemort finds out about grindledore.

the way dumbledore describes the young riddle - "self-sufficient, secretive, and, apparently, friendless" - is also an exact description of him. that each sees himself in the other canonically drives their hatred of each other, but it could also appeal to two very vain men in a much racier way. after all, who doesn't want to bang their narrative mirror?

and being an orphan probably doesn't seem so bad when you realise your boyfriend's family is aberforth.

want to give it a read?

i can't recommend concordance by @laeveteinn enough, particularly for one of the best-written dumbledores i've ever seen. i find dumbledore is often written either as far more whimsical than i'd like, or far more fiery and radical [when one of his most interesting personality traits in canon is his tendency towards inaction], but this dumbledore is the perfect balance of contradictions, while tom is his canonical feral self, longing to perceived, rather than the emotionless sociopath of so many other stories.

i also recommend as an entire ocean in a drop by eldritcher, which really leans into just how similar these two are underneath all the artifice.

albus dumbledore/severus snape

why i ship it:

well, we've had dumbledore with one lost boy, let's have him with another [i haven't been brave enough to venture into dumbledore/harry yet, but i'll take recommendations...]

as with riddledore, we have the potential for horror here: a vast power imbalance; enormous age gap; the fact dumbledore sends snape out to potentially die every time he goes off to voldemort; and - this is the crucial one - the fact that dumbledore's recognition of himself in snape is pure self-loathing ["you disgust me"] manifested in punishment [allowing snape to be humiliated in front of fudge, not stopping the presumed-to-be-real moody searching his office, making him give harry occlumency lessons, not letting him teach defence against the dark arts].

but then this stops, when snape does the tremendously brave thing of agreeing to kill dumbledore, and their dynamic equalises, as dumbledore recognises that snape is courageous, steadfast, and redeemed. i'm always struck in half-blood prince by the fact that dumbledore has it with harry's sniping about snape and straight-up tells him to shut up, as well as by the fact that he very nearly gives the game away and confesses why snape switched sides [the thing he promised not to do] when harry finds out it was snape who gave voldemort the prophecy.

and within this equalised dynamic - so this hot geriatric sex is happening in the afterlife, i guess - we have two men who are intellectual close-to-equals, who understand grief and guilt, whose aesthetic senses are charmingly mismatched, who are rarely honest but might be for each other, and who have lots of profound similarities which might lead somewhere...

want to give it a read?

cheerfully disregarding everything i've just said about how snumbledore could work, i highly recommend in infinite remorse of soul by @perverse-idyll, which is a chilling look at how dumbledore uses the power imbalance between the two to assuage his own guilt through snape's humiliation.

for something much more wholesome, i'm a big fan of byzantium by eldritcher

petunia dursley/severus snape

why i ship it:

because vernon is a dick.

i'm fond of petunia, who i think is one of the most interesting characters in the series because of how full of contradictions she is, and who i think is also a victim in fandom spaces of how the adult cast was aged up for the films [in canon, she's only in her early twenties when lily dies, and the implication is that vernon is a good deal older than her)] which makes her inadequacies, such as her inability to truly care for either child in the household, seem much more nuanced than they do if she's pictured as a middle-aged woman with considerable life experience.

like snape, she teeters on a knife edge between various chasms: she is a working-class girl from the midlands made good in middle-class surrey, he is a working-class half-blood boy who spends most of his life in pureblood circles; she ends up with her whole life wrapped up in a square little house when she's barely out of her teens, he ends up with his whole life wrapped up in spying at the same age; she hates the wizarding world and yet covets it, he hates the muggle world and yet cannot escape it; she loves lily and she hates her and she loathes her for dying, he... well, you know the rest.

want to give it a read?

i was first convinced by this pairing by the lovely regretfully yours by @maria-de-salinas, which takes both snape and petunia's awkwardness and bitterness and moulds it into something really tender.

i also highly recommend barking at the moon by rinsbane, the summary of which speaks for itself.

merope gaunt/tom riddle sr.

why i ship it:

our first canon pairing, and probably the most problematic of the canon relationships, since the series never acknowledges that tom sr. is a rape victim.

but i have found myself recently in my merope era and, in particular, in an attempt to give her more nuance than she gets in canon. as i've said to anyone who'll listen in the three broomsticks discord server, i loathe the implication in canon that merope dies because she just cba to live [since it directly justifies voldemort's belief that her death was shameful] and prefer to see her as someone who was desperate to escape a truly horrifying life [the fact she's going to be forced into an incestuous relationship with morfin is right there in canon...] and so did something she didn't have the capacity to understand the implications of [this is not a woman who's ever heard of consent] because she thought it would give her the first chance to be happy in her life, watched it all crash and burn around her, and would have very much liked to have lived to raise her son.

i doubt there was anything real or tender in her relationship with tom sr., of course, and his escape - while merely a brief stay of execution from his son's perspective - is tremendously brave. it's impossible to write tom/merope fluff [although i respect you if you're inclined to try] but fanfiction gives a space to explore the intricacies of their relationship which canon doesn't allow, and i'm obsessed.

want to give it a read?

i'm recommending myself here, and assuring you that you will enjoy: enchanter's nightshade, which explores how merope's attempts to keep her husband enslaved fail; the snow child, which treats the relationship as folk-horror; and the shack at the end of the lane, in which there is redemption, in the end.

the best exploration of tom sr. dealing with the fallout of the relationship is @phantomato's exquisite ganymede, which feels so truly embodied that you can't pull yourself away from the page.

bellatrix lestrange/tom riddle | voldemort

why i ship it:

our second canon pairing, i am obsessed with these two and the tragedy and - to some extent - tenderness bound up in their relationship [which can be proven to be there because noted softy @whinlatter loves them].

i've written before about my conviction - in contrast to a lot of bellatrix fans - that her relationship with rodolphus is utterly miserable, and that voldemort is the only man in her life who can understand her desire to make a life for herself which is not constrained by the gendered expectations of her social class.

obviously, lord voldemort is not a shining paragon of a boyfriend [and he is an awful choice as a baby daddy, bella, get it together], but i think the enormous power imbalance is perhaps slightly less enormous than is sometimes assumed - certainly, she tells him to his face in half-blood prince that he's wrong to trust snape [she's a clever woman], voldemort never physically punishes her for anything [rip to lucius malfoy, who seems to get picked for this in her stead], and voldemort tolerates a surprising amount of nonsense from her which shatters his mystique.

all of which is to say... the scream when she dies isn't just because he's losing the war.

want to give it a read?

tee hee, i'm recommending myself again, and encouraging you to take a look at: atramentum, bellamort's last afternoon together before voldemort goes to the potters; nor all that glisters gold, bellatrix's life - including her relationship with voldemort - through sirius' eyes; and death (eaters) in paradise, because murderous psychopaths deserve crack fics too.

draco malfoy/tom riddle | voldemort

why i ship it:

because the ship name is taco.

these two are a pairing which i enjoy with my tongue firmly in my cheek [and tom's tongue firmly in draco's], as i do with most other things in which draco is a main character [do i want to read drarry angst? no! do i want to chuckle? absolutely!], although this should not be taken as saying that many of taco's fabulous authors don't manage to make the pairing entirely plausible.

in fact, consensual taco [non-con is, of course, its own beast] often has some of the best characterisation of both tom [fretful, mercurial, stubborn, and nowhere near as charming as he thinks he is] and draco [prissy, a very good judge of character, someone who likes being taken care of, and much braver than he appears if he absolutely has to be] i've seen in the fandom, largely because - unlike other voldemort-centric ships [especially tomarry, but also voldemort + any of the adult death eaters] - there's no sense of inevitability there. these two aren't connected by a shared bit of soul, or a prophecy, or having gone to school together, or having been hooked in by voldemort in the first war when he was unassailable.

they have to choose each other. or, more accurately, draco has to choose tom, and tom has to get chosen.

and the results have me entertained.

want to give it a read?

then you will want to have a look at the travelling cabinet by @the-paper-monkey [and its sequel, bluebeard], truly the gold standard of taco content with an absolutely brilliant draco, whose sheer capacity to cling on and make himself an irremovable part of tom's life may just end up changing the course of history.

narcissa malfoy/severus snape

why i ship it:

because i am in deep with the conspiracy theory that it's canon. i am absolutely certain that narcissa is the person that voldemort is referring to at the end of deathly hallows - "he desired her, that was all, but when she had gone, he agreed that there were other women, and of purer blood, worthier of him". it seems highly unlikely to me that the canonical voldemort would give a shit about snape fancying any random pureblood [although the snapemort version is, naturally, hugely jealous], but snape having had some sort of liaison with narcissa, and the ability knowing this gives voldemort to humiliate snape, narcissa, the memory of lily, bellatrix, lucius, and draco is definitely information he would go out of his way to remember...

plus, how do you know where he lives, babe? v suspicious.

want to give it a read?

if you want some fluff, you will very much enjoy the incredibly sweet the reformed man by gingertart50, which features narcissa nursing snape back to health post-nagini and is a favourite re-read for me when i'm drunk and it's christmas.

if you want some very-much-not-fluff, other women and of purer blood by yours truly will scratch the itch...

minerva mcgonagall/severus snape

why i ship it:

because i'm an equal-opportunity age-gap fan, and there is far too little older woman/younger man in the fandom.

and look, i'll admit it, i'm a fan of the fanon that snape and mcgonagall are friends prior to dumbledore's death - i'm not sure it's canonically plausible, but this sign can't stop me because i can't read - and i like the idea of that blossoming into something more, especially in fics where snape survives the second war. after all, he is a man who definitely needs to be treated quite strictly [and i don't just mean in the staff room], there is a shared loneliness and grief to them both, they're intellectual equals despite the age gap, and bickering about quidditch is absolutely fine as a method of foreplay.

plus, you can't tell me dumbledore's portrait doesn't ship it.

want to give it a read?

for a fic which shows minerva at her acerbic - and yet still sensual - best, always but not necessarily forever by gingertart50 is an old, fluffy, and very funny, favourite.

for something much more bittersweet, that good night by kelly_chambliss has my heart.

severus snape/tom riddle | voldemort

why i ship it:

because voldemort is canonically down bad for it - there is no need to believe snape's ridiculous cover story for not attending his resurrection, to try and spare lily as a treat for his man, and to give him a nice, painful death which allows the narrative to move on and harry to defeat him if the dark lord isn't firmly in his simp era.

more seriously, they obviously have an enormous amount in common, particularly in terms of their backgrounds [harry draws a connection between all three of them, but actually the fact that harry is rich in the wizarding world, not a slytherin, and with a muggle mother, therefore giving him a pureblood name, means he can't relate to the post-childhood experience of both halves of snapemort].

as a result, i think snape is the death eater who comes the closest to understanding voldemort's motivations - above all, the fact that he's not seeking an oligarchy, which the malfoys etc. obviously believe - while voldemort is someone snape feels understands his intellectual interests and his creativity.

want to give it a read?

boy, are you in luck, because i myself have a snapemort wip - scylla and charybdis. it is not wholesome.

tom riddle/myrtle warren

why i ship it:

because it started as crack and now i love them.

in particular, i just have so much respect for being incredibly annoying as a method of seduction, and i think myrtle's commitment to just following tom around chattering at him - and, therefore, without her realising it, preventing him from committing all sorts of crimes - is iconic.

want to give it a read?

then my unhinged rom-com - bookbinding - shall provide.

tom riddle | voldemort/ginny weasley

why i ship it:

because i enjoy seeing my dear friends who ship hinny shake and cry.

but also because ginny and tom have an enormous number of similarities, right down to the fact that they both have yew wands [if you're sick of people saying harry has an oedipus complex, you'll be delighted to be confronted with the mountain of evidence ginny reminds him of the villain who keeps trying to kill him instead].

they are both very good liars, quick thinking, remarkably resistant to shame, possessed of nerves of steel, predisposed to violence, brown-eyed, so hot they have harry gagged, and the profound enemy of someone whose surname is smith.

despite what he claims, tom was absolutely not just sat politely in that diary gritting his teeth while ginny complained about having second hand robes and idiot brothers. as he says, he opted "to start feeding [her] a few of my secrets", and i think it's justifiable from canon that they were at the very least half-truths [for example, i would not be shocked to discover he tells her he's a half-blood orphan brought up against his will in the muggle world - there's no other reason, i think, for him to successfully make her tell him these things about harry without it], which means that ginny has lots of lovely emotional leverage over him.

plus, as with tomarry, you have the element of "this is kind of inevitable" in the relationship, and the mysteries of fate are always sexy.

want to give it a read?

this is a tommary/hinny/tominny triad, but it has had me in a chokehold since the first time i read it - shameful company by merrivale, which, truly iconically, manages to be epilogue compliant.

[gryficowa]

Boycott!

Ok, I wrote a lot in the post, but the drama that made me roll my eyes was the drama about the Olympics and the fact that "They insult the Christian image" (Even though the painting was not "The Last Supper", but "The Feast of the Gods"), this drama simply distracted attention from the fact that Israel was allowed to take part in the Olympics…

There are two paintings with a similar title, but I'm somewhat sure this painting was parodied by a drag queen

Yes, the images are similar, but not the same

And yes, the Internet mainly parodied "The Last Supper", but the drag queens chose a similar image, so you see… This drama made no sense and distracted attention from the fact that Israel was allowed… Which is depressing on many levels

Now that I have your attention:

---------------------------------

There are simply many dramas that distract from what is happening in the world, yes, there are dramas that I support and understand (like this drama with this man who spread pro-Putin propaganda), but many dramas are just so… Trivial

Don't forget about the collections at the top!

[silvcrignis]

Claude Frollo Out of Context Sentence Starters || Part I/?

I have a divine mission to spread the Our Claude > Canon Frollo propaganda. What better way to do so than by making various quotes of his a sentence meme?

Clowning

 “What the FUCK is Bible Study & Chill?!”

 “Do you lot think the Booberry ghost is blue because he died by strangulation???

“I was absolutely high as shit last night. The Warwick Davis leprechaun himself could have started playing knick knack on my lung & I likely would not have noticed.”

 “HOW MANY OF YOU FUCKERS SAW ME EVERYDAY & KNEW I WAS GAY & DID NOT FUCKING SAY ANYTHING?!”

 “MA’M/SIR THAT IS FOUR MILLION DOLLAR MERCHANDISE DO NOT BREAK WHAT YOU CANNOT BUY!” 

 “...Why do you smell like Nesquik Strawberry Milk?” 

“The asshole you are trying to reach is not available. Please disconnect the call & do not try again.”

“Also the day you catch me living in a shack is the day to lock me up because that would mean I finally went clinical, pal."

“Quit talking about shoving things in my ass, you perverted old man/woman!” 

 “Well. You are BORING me right now. I cannot relate to your poor person problems.”

“If I could physically meet myself I would beat the shit out of him.” 

“…I am not sweet, __. Slander me again & I will take legal action.” 

“Her vagina could probably host a fucking bounce house for all of them.”

“Na fam. Delete it right now.”

“Nearly every single time you speak you bring this family great dishonour.”

 “There is only so much suffering I can endure.”

 “I FOUND A CAT!

 “You would end up being spilt worse than my firewood.

“You cannot do coke, that is illegal!

 “Down to fucking kill myself.”

 “If you are so insistent on sucking my cock this often you ought get some knee pads.”

“I like snow. It is a good way to hit your enemies with glass shards before they realise what is happening.”

 “Do you want bullshit or the truth?”

 “I am seconds away from a brain aneurysm, son.”

 “You would be a wonderful addition to someone’s mantle. In an urn!”

 “Shut the fuck up, old man!”

 “I do not use Faebook. Faebook is for losers & old people.”

 *sarcastically* “I went out to the woods. Pretended to be a forest nymph for a few hours.”

“That is… Not my problem.”

 “Did the vibrating make it better or worse, son?”

“New Jersey’s state fruit is blueberry, you fucking crackhead.”

“No no. Continue squabbling, bottoms.”

“Like what the fuck like I can say hoe if I want to! I am a hoe, I have the pass!” 

“I want no part in your cockles, __.”

“That is too many babies, Miss/Mister.”

“Ugh no.”

“Pull up then, Fuckboy.”

“Actually I was thinking about that one medieval meme about the leggings.” 

“You cannot cancel me. I am a bad bitch.” 

Being Fucking For Real

“… Unless… Oh fuck… I must be having another psychotic break.

“Would not be the first goddamn time I had a hallucination…”

“Those were the last words I ever said to my own son’s face… Then I never saw him again.”

“... Tell me you love me again? Please?”

“What the hell was I supposed to say to you that would not sound fucking weird & desperate?”

“You know, wills to read & a little brother to parent…”

“… It was always you but… You deserve someone normal.”

“I will be perfectly fine alone, the way I always am.”

*wryly* “Ah yes, because everyone keeps their promises, __.”

“I am going to beat his ass. The next time. I see him.”

“God, I know I do not deserve it but I love you so fucking much.”

[shiyorin]

I just want to know what mommy Kether will say about primarchs, and what primarchs will say about Kether!!! 🙏

Bruh, you found my oc fics? Right?

But if you curious, then here we are.

Lion El'Johnson: Edgy loner, very original. Try socializing sometime.

Fulgrim: For one so obsessed with perfection and beauty, you sure make ugly decisions.

Perturabo: All that angst and bitterness will give you wrinkles. Oh wait...

Jaghatai Khan: Gotta go fast! Wise enough to stay out of your brother's squabbles.

Leman Russ: You'd be the lovable yet stupid sidekick in any story. Woof woof.

Rogal Dorn: Rules were meant to be followed, not taken so literally. Lighten up!

Konrad Curze: Creepy goth freak hiding behind "justice." Get some sunshine!

Sanguinius: Looks like an angel but hides devil horns under that halo of hair.

Ferrus Manus: Ah yes, hands man, very creative name. I bet you have awesome handshake skills.

Angron: All that rage will give you an aneurysm. Oh wait...

Roboute Guilliman: Mister Perfect falls for every propaganda leaflet. So gullible!

Mortarion: All that gloom and bitterness will spread like a plague. Oh wait...

Magnus: Your huge ego has blinded you to common sense. Literally!

Horus Lupercal: Traitor, hope you enjoy the hell you deserve.

Lorgar Aurelian: Spend your entire life searching for the right god to tell you what to think. Why am I not surprised.

Vulkan: Too nice for your own good. The universe will take advantage.

Corvus Corax: Your excuses for hiding in your room are getting old. Get a life!

Alpharius/Omegon: Who are you again? Doesn't matter, you're irrelevant.

Malcador: I thought you raised me better.

The Emperor: The absentee dad who somehow spawned this bunch.

***

Lion El'Jonson: Even the Dark Angels have more warmth.

Fulgrim: Beauty is wasted on her.

Perturabo: Studies philosophy just to have something to criticize.

Jaghatai Khan: When life gives her knives, she stabs life.

Leman Russ: The only thing sharper than her tongue is her combat blade.

Rogal Dorn: Always seeks to upset the order and tranquility I establish.

Konrad Curze: Her heart is blacker than a night on Nostramo.

Sanguinius: Beauty often hides a cruel heart.

Ferrus Manus: My hands build, hers only destroy.

Angron: Another kindred rebel, who chose a different path.

Roboute Guilliman: Criticizes everything, yet never offers a better solution.

Mortarion: Sneers so often it's become a permanent facial expression.

Magnus: Acts like she's better than everyone when she's just as flawed.

Horus Lupercal: Takes joy in needling others just to make herself feel superior.

Lorgar Aurelian: Seeks meaning and purpose, yet denies the truth right before her eyes.

Vulkan: Could lighten up a little? Life's too short to be so grim.

Corvus Corax: Flits in the shadows laughing at others' misfortune.

Alpharius: The book she's writing is titled '1001 Ways to Annoy People.

Omegon: I told you, I'm Alpharius.

Malcador: I thought I raised you better.

The Emperor: I thought Malcador raised you better.

[johnmanciniwrites]

Attention: This Essay Will Take Approx. 5 Minutes to Read

An Introduction to Critical Thinking

We're fast approaching that hypothetical future point when robots will take over the hard jobs like making toast and folding laundry. The machines are closing the gap, and when we finally reach the "singularity," as it's called, the most immediately recognizable result will be unemployment. Not to worry. You’ll have all the legal pot you could want. Smoking it might make you paranoid about the likelihood you're under surveillance (which of course you are), but at least you won’t have to worry about remembering passwords or calculating tips. Maybe you can even get some reading done.

Whatever you do to prepare yourself for this dystopian inevitability, there are some basic human skills you might want to remember. Good old fashioned street smarts, for one. And other OG stuff like, say, critical thinking—you know, the ability to reason things out for yourself using logic and common sense. Having your own opinion may be your last vestige of liberty in this brave new world. So how might the industrious citizen go about forming an independent thought in today’s commercial landscape?

Step one: kill your television. At least, that was the simple advice offered in the eighties when this bumper sticker adorned the backs Civics and Escorts and Astro vans. Apparently, we used to have a healthy distrust of the establishment in this country. From the Vietnam War through 9/11, most Americans under thirty were skeptical of the Man. You know, "Don't trust anyone over thirty," as those free-speech-loving Berkeley students once said.

Now that I am over thirty and have spent more than a few years teaching writing to undergrads, I sometimes take a survey because I want to know what the kids read (not much, apparently). We compare screentime averages. After several semesters I learned that college students spend roughly six hours a day on their phones, not counting the other screens that crowd the remaining waking hours. The average adult spends only about fifteen minutes a day reading anything--and most of their time within view of a screen.

Don't get me wrong--I like my phone, but I try to remember that what's on the screen is not reality--not exactly. It's a curated representation of reality, a simulation or simulacrum as Baudrillard called it. The algorithm determines our desires and fears with increasing specificity and provides us with symbols to which we can relate--i.e. optimized and monetized content! When it comes to social media, we just happen to be the content they monetize.

Ever notice the way those memes leave an impression after you close your eyes? They return while you're lying in your bed unable to sleep, like a film on the underside of your eyelids, a vague blur that spreads like some drug from a Phillip K. Dick novel--the visual equivalent of earworms. Melodies and lyrics can do that. Or slogans, or words on a page. Images and language seep into our minds and spread like contagion, making contact, rewiring synapses. When we read or watch or listen for extended periods of time, an osmosis occurs.

People with short attention spans are easy to control. They don’t remember the last time they were lied to. Like Charlie Brown, they keep trying to kick that football and Lucy keeps pulling it away at the last second. We fall for the same trick again and again. Propaganda and revisionist history, fear and psychological manipulation, the exploitation of ignorance--Orwell illuminated all of these in both Animal Farm and 1984—two prophetic novels worth rereading (if you have more than fifteen minutes to spare).

So, quality control: Instead of doomscrolling through headlines and social media posts made to order by the almighty algorithm, one thing you might do to improve your critical thinking is read a book from beginning to end—in that order.

Reading is valuable in and of itself—we need not read for content alone. The sound, rhythm, and word order of well composed syntax is nourishment to the mind that thinks with language, that in fact uses language to illuminate the world outside and within. As we read, the brain looks for patterns--identifying the independent clause, retaining the subject and verb as the eyes track through multiple parallels, projecting the direct object or compliment, not to mention grasping the dramatic throughline, the structure and meaning. As W.B. Yeats noted: “As I altered my syntax, I altered my intellect.”

After all, how does one come to understand what a compound, complex thought looks and sounds like without reading one first? Our ability to follow a train of thought is enhanced by the ability to comprehend in parallel subordinate clauses.

Consider the following poem:

“I.M.E.M.” by Anthony Hecht

To spare his brother from having to endure Another agonizing bedside vigil With sterile pads, syringes but no hope, He settled all his accounts, distributed Among a few friends his most valued books, Weighed all in mind and heart and then performed The final, generous, extraordinary act Available to a solitary man, Abandoning his translation of Boileau, Dressing himself in a dark, well-pressed suit, Turning the lights out, lying on his bed, Having requested neighbors to wake him early When, as intended, they would find him dead.

This is one long sentence. The independent clause has four verbs. He settled (accounts), distributed (books), weighed (all) and performed (act). Then that “final, generous, extraordinary act” he performed gets modified by parallel clauses all beginning with their own verbs--abandoning, dressing, turning, lying--the last of which includes an additional adverbial clause (when...).

The first time you encounter this poem you may have some difficulty finding the independent clause (having to wade through a long left-branching introduction has this effect). But by doing so you achieve something similar to what Yeats was after. You alter your intellect.

We know the internet is a collection of stupid facts and sublime fictions, a carnival of conspiracies, a virtual reality curated by a host of companies for whom it would be more profitable to replace our views with their views. And there are oh so many ways to capture our attention-- say, for instance, through the clever means of wrapping a watermelon in rubber bands (as reporters from Buzzfeed did in 2016).

What will happen next? This question guides most content creation: it is a marketing principle known as the curiosity gap. When something surprising creates a gap in our expectations we feel a need to stay tuned, scroll down, click through or swipe. We anticipate more than we inquire.

When was the last time you read a user agreement on your phone? Like everyone else, you probably scrolled to the bottom and clicked accept. Who besides a lawyer can read the bloviated syntax and obfuscating lexicon of contract law and understand it?

Groucho: It's all right. That's in every contract. That's what they call a sanity clause.

Chico: Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! You can't fool me. There ain't no Sanity Clause! 

“Attention is life,” as the poet Mary Oliver said. In other words, when it's over, that which you paid attention to will have been your life. Spoiler: we are each allotted about four thousand weeks in which to figure this out. Which is not to say that you have to kill your television or take a hammer to your phone or stop playing video games, only to recognize, as John Lennon did, that we’re “doped with religion and sex and TV,” and develop an ability to discriminate between that which rots and that which enhances.

Solution: Learn a new routine. Read a new book. Life is full of distractions—some of which actually require our attention--like, say, an oncoming car (or a technological singularity). Unfortunately, Chico was right. There is no Sanity Clause.

[thirdandabooknerd]

The Holy Ghost Speakeasy and Revival

Author: Terry Roberts

Genre: Historical Fiction

Pages: 321

Release Date: 2018

Rating: 4.5/5

First off, I know this isn't a "Booktok" book, or a popular one that gets noted on this site. However, I encourage you to reach out beyond what is popular to find a hidden gem like this book. I could not put this book down!

Jedidiah Robbins is a preacher traveling along the Appalachian region of Western North Carolina during the prohibition era. His mission is to spread the good word in various cities and towns in an exhilarating outdoor revival. In addition to this, he is a con-man (debatable) bootlegger. With his team of ex-carnival workers turned speakeasy, Jedidiah, his daughter Bridget, and his new love interest, Cassandra, travel by train to make sure the country folk repent their sins of drinking alcohol that was sold to them the night before.

It is so difficult to review this book without reciting the whole thing. These characters are complex and multi-surfaced. Jedidiah comes across as a con man but then really begins to wholeheartedly believe what he is preaching. He is a man of God, who just so happens to behave in a way that is human as well. He drinks, he helps to commit adultery, and he has contributed to the death of a few characters. It is interesting to see Jedidiah go back and forth between his almost alter egos.

Though this book mentions religion, it is not preachy. This point of this book is not to convert you to Christianity (I am still not). I believe the point of this book is to tackle human desires - alcohol, money, sex, all while managing your own moral complex and need to survive. This book is also about the deep-rooted culture in Appalachia. There are experiences with the KKK, racism, out-of-wedlock children, the old railroad, deadly floods, and just country folk who live a different life than most.

I am biased, as I picked up this book not realizing that I was born and raised where the setting was. That is what initially got me hooked into this book. Then, meeting characters such as Boss Strong, Bridget and Gabe, and Fingers swept me away into 1920's Appalachia.

My Pros and Cons:

+ Accurate representation of culture

+ Jedidiah is not seen as, "Holy than thou". He is a "sinner", or at least, a man who could make improvements in his moral decisions.

+This book can make you laugh and cry within the same paragraph.

+ Language is written in a relevant way that is similar to how us Appalachian people speak.

Cons:

-- We read chapters about Jedidiah visiting Festus and what is presumed to be God. This is not negative, as these are metaphorical dreams for Jedidiah. However, I originally did not initially grasp that these were supernatural dreams. This may have been a reader error, and I did enjoy unpacking these chapters with Festus following Jedidiah or "God" working in a barn.

Overall, I beg you to read this book. It had me reflecting a lot about my beliefs, how I was raised, and who I will continue to be. This is NOT a book that is a "Christian" book. Christianity is a theme, but not the genre. This book also does have a couple vivid sex scenes. This is just a warning to anyone who thinks this book is propaganda. This book is a journey.

[genderlessjacky]

Hello I am here to spread my dungeon meshi propaganda

In dungeon meshi we have:

lesbians (bird)

Grumpy old man (who is short and bisexual)

Autism

Girldad

The other girldad

So many queers

Cat girl (she's aroace)

you have successfully shared it , I will be adding to my "TV shows to binge-watch after my exams" list

[tacticalhimbo]

Rainbow Six

OOH yea babey time for me to spread some dudebro propaganda

[send me a fandom]

The first character I first fell in love with: jäger. he just had some vibes and what do ya know, it comes out years later he is, in fact, canonically autistic. and i love that for him <3

The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: osa. nothing against her but i kinda was just like "ok" with her character. but i've been researching more of her lore for... something. that y'all will see later this month. but!! i really do love her now i hate that she's nighthaven's right hand (so to speak) but i do really love her and how she's grown out of the things she's been through.

The character everyone else loves that I don’t: there isn't one! afaik the most popular characters are glaz, kapkan, the gsg9 crew, and doc. and i do enjoy them all so!

The character I love that everyone else hates: again, don't think there is one? if i had to pic... maybe sledge??? i don't see a lot of stuff for him so i don't think people hate him as much as they're like. indifferent to that bald man. unfortunately for everyone in proximity to me i am abnormal about bald men—

The character I used to love but don’t any longer: like many of my answers, don't not love her but also not obsessed with her. ela. love her vibes but i am just. normal. about her. her sister however—

The character I would totally smooch: the entirety of gsg-9. jäger? smooching the visor of his aviation helmet. bandit? smooching his tattoos forever. iq? smooching her forehead. blitz? making out sloppy style i mean smooching his cheek

The character I’d want to be like: hmmm thatcher. part of it is absolutely stemming from the fact i headcanon him as transmasc pesonally but. besides that. i just fuck with his vibes. he's old and cranky and honestly has good vibes despite it all. hates having people rely on him but is a paternal figure for his brother and for mute and for dokkaebi like. ok i see you <3

The character I’d slap: i had to think for a hot second but i don't think i'd slap any of the operators. actually. they made deimos an operator. him. i will take him 1v1 in a cage fight and get my shit rocked. all i need is one hit. 👊

A pairing that I love: iq/blitz. i have seen exactly one (1) fanart of it and that was what got me in on it it forever changed my psyche and i have not been able to stop thinking about it.

A pairing that I despise: i don't think i have any besides like. zofia/ela (which i have seen. y'all are fucking weird they are sisters)

[someone-you-do-not-know]

You know what. As a self proclaimed Pathologic girlie, I am going to argue my boy's demise. Daniil propaganda, HERE WE GO!

Daniil Dankovsky, a man who has made it his life mission to end the very concept of death, has been threatened to have his life work destroyed unless he brings some proof. By the (un)luckiest coincidence, his old friend who lives in a backwater town in the middle of absolutely nowhere has written to him about an immortal man! What a coincidence! Surely, he must go, this is the proof that could give him the freedom to continue his research! So he finds himself in The Town near the Gorkhon river. Mind you, he doesn't arrive in town or steps foot in town. He's already there. Because he was already doomed the moment you opened up the game. The immortal man he was supposed to meet? His friend who wrote to him? They're both dead. He's not even allowed to see the body of the immortal man, because of traditions. He went all this way for nothing. Even worse, he realises there's a plague in town, and he's a doctor – so this is his problem, since the local doctor died. One of his colleagues in the capital writes to inform him that it's a setup and their school of thought is once again being persecuted. This is Day One.

On Day Two, Daniil might as well start digging his own grave. After a bunch of hard work to make the ruling houses of The Town realise they have to do SOMETHING to prevent the spread of disease, those very same measures he approved and installed is what prevents him from leaving. At every turn throughout the game, people lie to him, manipulate him, and on Day Six, halfway through the game, he has to come up with a culprit, a carrier, a solution – OR ELSE. It's not as if he doesn't have a number of people to choose between. But Daniil can't just blame who or whatever, so he goes through all the options scientifically. Only to find that the infection is caused by NONE of it. None of the suspected women, not the weird steppe creature, not the so-called Harbinger. He fails. The next day, the inquisitor arrives, and not only does she tell him that his efforts were in vain: "However, I am absolutely positive that there is not and could not be a human carrier of the disease." and even worse, his life's project is in RUINS. Because he left. To get proof of his theories. Not only is Daniil told that, the woman who informs him deceives him through the rest of the game, pretending to be his friend while plotting against him. The destruction of his life's work is the one thing she doesn't lie about.

Daniil loses sight of everything as the situation around him deteriorates. Everything he does seems to be for naught. He tries to instill safe areas, but the plague knows no bounds, he tries to get the means for a vaccine, accidentally causing the premature death of a young girl (who was going to die from the plague either way), when he gets permission to enter the abattoir, he is brutally beaten by the butchers there, and only rescued by the military. Do note that an inquisitor and the military has been sent to this backwater town to stop a plague, but not a single doctor, nurse, or any other medical or scientific personnel is there. That's because The Town was doomed from the moment you started the game too. The Powers That Be don't care to preserve Daniil or The Town, it's a game of everyone dying slowly. So Daniil puts his hope, faith, and dreams in the last thing that isn't dying around him – the giant construction named The Polyhedron. And he's willing to die for that construction to still be standing. Because we actually don't know if he survives his own ending – if we can even call it that. His ending is not his vision or his dreams coming true, it's those of one of the ruling houses. Daniil was just there, unwittingly helping it along. It's been twelve days, and if you kill yourself, you get an achievement.

You might say, "that sounds pretty bad, he's certainly in a bad spot and has no way of escape, but in universe, he's not that doomed." Well, here comes the spoilers – in universe, there's nothing outside of The Town. It's a sandbox plague within a sandbox town, and Daniil is just a doll forced to play by cruel children – so is everyone else around him. On the last day, he can even be told so to his doll face. Get his own lack of being human thrown at him in the worst ways: "And if you keep being naughty, I'll take you with me next time and leave among the wreathes so that you know better!", "We never liked you all that much anyway... You've always been the scary doll. Playing with you was no fun." and "You're a doll -- ask anyone! Your name is Bachelor. You're the scary clown. You're always the evil guy when we're playing." Every person he has met and interacted with are the throwaways, the unwanted dolls from the bottom of the barrel. He is the evil guy, and the Haruspex (another protagonist from the game) is the bad guy. There's no good guys, only the dolls the two kids don't care for.

Throughout the entire game, even Daniil's quest log taunts him, reminding him of his original purpose of speaking to the immortal man, who is now dead. First after everything has been revealed to be a game does it change. Reminding Daniil and the player of the futility of his plight:

[T]he hero has been bitterly deceived! All this time, the hero took himself to be a living man who was trying to rescue his fellow human beings. Beyond doubt, this belief has filled him with fervour; helped him to reach the finale, and even be somewhat triumphant. In vain, it was all in vain. The hero was but a puppet, striving to help the imaginary population of a town that was nothing more than a drawing. Strangely, there is still not a word to be heard from the Powers That Be. Perhaps they became bored of it all... or were called back home for supper.

When he speaks of his revelation to his fellow healers, one makes it into a joke, while the other knew all along (since Day Nine, at least). Daniil knows at this point there's no winning, only losing, because their gods are unloving children who decided to play a game of epidemic: "You lose. They don't love us, by the way. They're fed up with us. That's why we're stuck here... they've stuck us here." and "You're having fun... Somehow I fail to join in." The only two dialogue choices when asked what he would have done if he knew beforehand are "I would have acted more confidently." and "I would have shot myself." There's nothing for this man to live for, and he was never truly alive in the first place. In the Changeling path, the creators of the game themselves describes Daniil as "A tempted destroyer. He could have accomplished a feat of moral heroism. The strongest, the most straightforward, he was too strongly tempted by vengeance and destruction for his not going through with it to be anything less than... miracle, or something close to one." In this path too, he realises he is a toy, but The People Who Executed The Whole Thing are unconcerned: "his trajectory is so designed as to make it difficult for him to abandon his arrangement. Except by a lapse of judgement-but we're not concerned with that." He is so doomed that even when he gains sentience, there's no reason to worry that he'll undoom himself.

Because they "[planned] beforehand which decision will be free and which won't be? There's no escaping from this loop! So long as you're here, this will last forever."

Vote Daniil Dankovsky!

Doomed by the Narrative: FINALS

If I see ANY of you being rude to the other contestant or getting unreasonably upset at whatever the results are, you are being blocked on sight. Be kind, and bring up your OWN guy without tearing down the OTHER guy.

[gryficowa]

Boycott!

Don't let anyone tell you that Putin is a good man, he attacked Ukraine, Putin is using support for Gaza to spread propaganda that he is the good guy, Putin is a bad man who has a lot of blood on his hands, do not praise this man, I am begging you

Now that I have your attention:

[pesterloglog]

Vriska Serket, John Egbert, Gamzee Makara

Candy, page 31

VRISKA: John, I need to see!

VRISKA: How do I get 8ack!?

JOHN: um.

JOHN: i don’t think you *can* go back.

JOHN: i have no idea what the exact scientific mechanism behind falling out of the sky is, but so far it’s proven to be a one way trip.

VRISKA: Noooooooo!

JOHN: welcome to earth c, ha ha.

JOHN: it fucking sucks!

VRISKA: Oh my god!

VRISKA: This is the worst thing that could h8ve possibly h8ppened to me.

JOHN: are you sure about that?

VRISKA: Yes, I am a8solutely... w8.

VRISKA: Why are you so... so????????

VRISKA: John, are you old?

JOHN: um. a little, i guess.

JOHN: i mean, i’m going to live forever apparently, so in that respect i’m still pretty young.

JOHN: but compared to the average human lifespan, i’m like... about three eighths of the way dead?

VRISKA: I can’t 8e here.

JOHN: vriska...

JOHN: wait, actually, i guess i shouldn’t call you that?

JOHN: it might get confusing.

VRISKA: Wh8t?

JOHN: well, see...

JOHN: rose and kanaya’s daughter is also named vriska.

VRISKA: WH8T????????

JOHN: and since you didn’t come to earth c with us, that means technically she was here first.

JOHN: so that would make you...

JOHN: (vriska)?

(VRISKA): That’s fucking un8ccepta8le!

JOHN: sorry. but i think that’s probably just how it has to be.

(VRISKA): John, you accused me of talking nonsense, 8ut you’re the one not m8king any d8mn sense.

(VRISKA): Where AM I?

(VRISKA): Why are you OLD?

(VRISKA): Why do Rose and Kanaya h8ve a DAUGHTER n8med after ME!?

JOHN: oh, it’s because they thought you sacrificed your life heroically defeating lord english.

JOHN: so they found a baby clone of you and named her in your honor.

JOHN: personally, i thought the whole thing sounded like bullshit?

JOHN: but, you know. whatever makes them happy.

(VRISKA): ...

(VRISKA): ...

(VRISKA): That’s...

(VRISKA): Th8t’s the........

(VRISKA): Stupidest *F8CKING* thing I’ve ever heard!

JOHN: yeah, i know! i tried to tell them.

JOHN: man, it’s been a while since we’ve agreed on something, hasn’t it?

JOHN: so, um.

JOHN: not to be nosy, but...

JOHN: DID you defeat lord english?

(VRISKA): Of course not!

(VRISKA): Why do you think I’m so desperate to go 8ACK!?

(VRISKA): The 8attle was hitting its clim8x when I got hit in the head with... with...

(VRISKA): Wh8tever the fuck it was that hit me in the head!

JOHN: do you wanna see a doctor for that or something?

(VRISKA): No!!!!!!!!

(VRISKA): I w8nt to know what the fuck is GOING ON!!!!!!!!

JOHN: ok, sure.

JOHN: so about fifteen years ago, jane started spreading all this xenophobic propaganda about trolls.

JOHN: and eventually she and her corporation became so entrenched in financial dealings with basically every societal institution with power on earth c that she became this unstoppable lobbying monolith that can more or less tell the government what to do.

JOHN: so now she may as well be writing all of these xenophobic policies into law directly.

JOHN: oh, jane’s a huge xenophobe, by the way?

JOHN: i probably should have started out with that fact.

(VRISKA): John, this story fucking sucks.

JOHN: oh, and then karkat had this really catastrophic breakup with jade and dave, so he ran off to spearhead a troll rebellion against the xenophobic government.

JOHN: to be honest, the rebellion was pretty lame in the beginning, but then, um... meenah?

(VRISKA): Meenah?!

JOHN: yeah! meenah. she fell out of the sky, like you just did, and helped him actually get good at revolutionary stuff.

JOHN: so now both sides are all maxed out with space ships and weapons and stuff, and are on the brink of war.

(VRISKA): Holy shit. That’s even dumber than Rose and Kanaya naming their shitty kid after me.

JOHN: oh man, their kid IS shitty. you have NO idea.

(VRISKA): How the hell did you all fuck this up so much????????

JOHN: oh.

JOHN: that’s my bad.

(VRISKA): YOUR 8ad?

JOHN: yeah. i made the wrong decision and totally blew it.

(VRISKA): HOW?

JOHN: i was supposed to go fight lord english, but i didn’t. so now we’ve gone beyond, like, the event horizon of canon.

(VRISKA): What the fuck does that even MEAN????????

JOHN: i don’t know, really.

JOHN: rose explained it all to me once, but i pretty much forgot what she said. i didn’t actually think it was that important at the time.

JOHN: all i know is that all of this is my fault.

JOHN: it’s been turning around in my head like this for a while. i thought...

JOHN: why does everything here fucking SUCK so much?

JOHN: how the hell did we even make it from point A to point festering clusterfuck?

JOHN: it doesn’t follow any kind of logic i understand, or any sort of basic sense i have about who we are as people...

JOHN: and why? why have we all ended up so unhappy and... twisted up?

JOHN: i got everything i wanted. everyone got what they—

JOHN: what i thought they wanted.

JOHN: and that’s just it, isn’t it?

JOHN: the more i think about it, i’m the only factor that matters to anything.

JOHN: whatever i did, or didn’t do, just... destroyed reality’s ability to, like, substantiate itself, or whatever.

JOHN: like there’s a bug in the operating system of whatever force in this world that regulates cause and effect.

JOHN: everything’s been unraveling. nothing that happens makes sense anymore.

JOHN: and now i’m the only person out here who’s even real at all!

JOHN: hahahaha.

(VRISKA): Hahahahahahahaha... Wow, I’ve never seen a guy get his 8ulge all the way down his own swallow chute 8efore!

JOHN: wait, what?

(VRISKA): Good fuck. Do you actually think reality gives that much of a shit a8out you?

(VRISKA): Get real, Eg8ert.

(VRISKA): It’s not like you’re me.

JOHN: ok, well.

JOHN: that’s fair i guess.

JOHN: but whatever it was that caused this, it’s pretty obvious that all of this is just kind of dumb and fake.

JOHN: so don’t worry about it.

(VRISKA): I kind of H8VE to worry a8out, it considering you just expl8ined to me that I’m TR8PPED here!

JOHN: nah, it’s fine. it’ll all work out.

JOHN: or it won’t. it doesn’t really matter either way.

JOHN: um, so we should probably get out of here soon.

JOHN: or not. we’re both god tier, so as long as we don’t do anything cool or evil, i guess we’ll be fine and not permanently die.

JOHN: hehe... it’s almost like the god tier rules were designed to reward us for being useless pieces of shit?

JOHN: heheheheh. i think i get it now.

JOHN: it’s a pretty good joke actually. nice.

(VRISKA): FFFFFFFFUCK!!!!!!!!

JOHN: oh, hey. that reminds me.

JOHN: did you ever see terezi out there?

(VRISKA): No????????

(VRISKA): Why would I h8ve seen Terezi? Didn’t she go with the Striders to fight six hundred versions of J8ck or something?

JOHN: well, yeah. but then later, she went back out there to find you.

JOHN: (vriska), she searched for you for YEARS!

JOHN: i mean, years from my perspective at least. i dunno about hers.

JOHN: but, we used to talk sometimes. it was fucked up how sad she was without you.

JOHN: i don’t even know what happened to her. the last time i talked to her she... she thought she was about to die.

JOHN: for a long time i liked to pretend that maybe you two found each other after all. but if you’re here now, and she isn’t, that means...

JOHN: ugh, who knows what it means.

(VRISKA): Wow. John, you sound pretty 8roken up a8out this! Were you in love with her or something?!

JOHN: well... i don’t know.

JOHN: what does it even matter!

JOHN: like everything else, it was just some more stupid crap that happened, which technically wasn’t even “canon.”

(VRISKA): Oh my fucking god.

(VRISKA): I CAN’T T8KE THIS ANYM8RE!

(VRISKA): I don’t c8re a8out wh8tever the FUCK “c8non” is supposed to 8e!

(VRISKA): I don’t a8out your dum8, unrequited crush on Terezi!

(VRISKA): I don’t C8RE a8out this stupid, pointless w8r!!!!!!!!

(VRISKA): Someone get me the hell out of this fucking NIGHMT8RE 8efore I re8lly L8SE MY SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GAMZEE: WoAh, HeY, lEt’S aLl CaLm ThE mOtHeRfUcK dOwN.

GAMZEE: VrIsKa My MaIn BiTcH, lOnG tImE nO sEe.

GAMZEE: YoU SeEm aLl dIsCoMbObUlAtEd tHeRe, SiStEr. JuSt fUcKiN BeSeT WiTh tHe pOoRlY ReGuLaTeD EmOtIoNs tHaT CaUsE a MoThErFuCkEr nOtHiNg bUt pAiN.

GAMZEE: NoW WhY DoN’T LeT’S CaLm tHe fUcK DoWn, TaKe rIpS OfF ThIs dOpE BoTtLe oF FrEsH AsS TiTtYdAiRy, ThEn sHoOt ThE WiCkEd sHiT AbOuT ThE GoOd wOrD.

(VRISKA): The... the “Good Word”?

GAMZEE: It bE CaLlEd rEdEmPtIoN, mOtHeRfUcKeR!

GAMZEE: AnD YoU GoTtA GeT ThAt sHiT LoCkEd aLl tIgHt iN WhErE YoUr hEaRt’s aT, tO GeT YoUr mOrAl cOmPrOmIsAtIoNs tO ChIlL ThE FuCk uP.

GAMZEE: CaUsE I CaN’T ThInK Of a sInGlE NoThEr mOtHeRfUcKeR WhO CoUlD UsE A RiGhTeOuS DoSe oF ThAt sWeEt, SwEeT ReDeMpTiOn rIgHt dOwN ThE ShAmE HaTcH MoRe tHaN (vRiSkA) mOtHeRfUcKiNg (SeRkEt). :o)

(VRISKA): ...

(VRISKA): ...

(VRISKA): ...

(VRISKA): Wh8t the F8CK did you just s8y to me?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!