#but I prioritized my interests

[misterxsamsa]

I think the JTHM universe's versions of heaven and hell are very interesting. They're evidently not based on mortality persay, not even just an objective measure of intelligence. It's very nuanced, and specific, and the introduction of it acts a good narrative conclusion to Johnny's character progression.

We're introduced to heaven first, and an evidently very flawed God. He's portrayed as all grotesque, and lazy, and funny-looking — not answering any of Johnny's questions, or doing anything about the the world's suffering. However, in relation to heaven's inhabitants, the concept of "content" is stressed above morality. There's nothing enriching in the enviorment, just chairs to "bliss" in, but they're all completely at peace and given immense power alongside that.

We're not given incredible amounts of insight into the people residing there. However, it seems some of them were likely quite unpleasant in character, like the crabby old woman. Through all this, the notion of morality not being the determining factor of where you reside in the afterlife is established. So, if it's not morality, subjective or otherwise, then what is it? Well, it's not any one thing, and the answer to that question is left somewhat open-ended and subjective.

When catching a glimpse of hell, the characters of its residents are just as mixed as heaven's — some nice, some mean. The shared trait between all of them though is a preoccupation with the inane. They're cartoonishly reactive to the smallest of inconveniences, materialistic, superficial, or lacking in attention span. We're told many of them are driven to neuroticism by an eye in the sky that they all simultaneously believe to be watching them specifically. To me, this is a barely symbolic representation of an obsession with appearences: the judgements, opinions, praises of others.

Personally, I interpret the determining factors for the fate of your eternal soul in JTHM to be that of priorities and perspective. To be specific, what you allow to consume your thoughts — the things you value and pursue during your life. By choosing [or rather prioritizing] contentment, the residents of heaven decided that it was more worthwhile than wasting mental energy on fleeting negative emotions, or other base things. It's not that their souls are being judged from some detached perspective outside of themselves. They're determining the course of their own afterlife, and hell is effectively just a self-imposed state of mind.

That's all intriguing from a lore perspective, but this system is a backdrop meant to emphasize the themes of Johnny's narrative journey. The idea that "heaven" and "hell" are states actively sought rather than assigned is meant to highlight Johnny's agency in his own deterioration. He's chosen to prioritize his misanthropy, and homicidal tendencies, over his art and relationships. By seeing himself in the residents of hell through their shared flaws, he's forced to internally take accountability. That's what ultimately drives him towards a pursuit of contentment in Issue #7.

What's interesting though is that the notion of what exactly "contentment" entails is left purposefully vague. Why wouldn't it be? The concept of "contentment" is subjective and self-determined. That's why Johnny continues to kill, and overall be very morally dubious even after his change in perspective. He's choosing to make it about his own amusement and enrichment rather than centering it in exhaustive hate. Hey, everybody finds happiness a little differently, I suppose, it's still tangible progress nonetheless.

There's an interesting dichotomy to be found between God and Senor Diablo. Upon a first glance, I've seen many take their portrayal [and differences] as a cynical, but straightforward poke at organized religion. That's probably the case, but I see more to it than just that. In JTHM, the systems of heaven and hell are meant to reflect and support Johnny's character progression. As such, I'd make the argument God and Senor Diablo could be symbolic of the judgements Johnny would normally make on others.

Senor Diablo is very distinguished, intelligent, and he loves the word "DOOM". He's seemingly well-off compared to the God of this world, and Johnny respects him significantly more [relatively speaking] as a result. However, he's unhappy with the people he rules over, and exhausted by their repetitively short-sighted tendencies. In some respects, you could view him as Johnny's parallel, both are cynical enjoyers of suffering looking down on idiots who they view as beneath them. Perhaps, by a subjective character evaluation, and on aesthetics, you could say he's above his heavenly counterpart. Still, that judgement would bring him no joy.

It's emblematic of the lessons Johnny has to learn about himself and others. He's not better than humanity for constantly engulfing himself in the sufferings and injustices of the world, ones he only pretends to truly care about. His intellect is only valuable for as much as he can properly utilize it to better his own circumstances. With God, he's greasy and ignorant, but he's completely happy, or content. He's a representation of all the traits that motivates Johnny's hatred of others — he's all fleshy-like, and completely unconcerned with his sorroundings in any deep sense. It makes sense for humans to be apparently made in his image, since he's a fucked up interpretation of the quintessential human.

Still, by the end of the comics, Johnny learns to appreciate his love of content, rather than fixating upon his numerous detestable traits. In life, you'll encounter many people you'll find to be as disgusting as that lumpy God-dude in his chair. Regardless, it's in your best interests to only allow their bad qualities to occupy your thoughts to a limited degree. By learning to internalize to philosophies of people different from him, or particularly flawed, Johnny's learned to become a more well-rounded person. Again, relatively speaking by the standards of a homicidal maniac. Rome wasn't built in a day!

[dariusaurs]

i think dinostar is such an interesting ship right now even if i've kind of turned away from it after this season. the problem is that it's complicated, and fandoms historically don't like nuanced situations or takes. i don't think it's fair to say darius is putting brooklynn on a pedestal, since from his perspective, she hasn't done anything wrong, and kenji has been framed as this unfair partner to her. it does feel like his feelings are very immature and more of an infatuation right now ("if he loved you half as much.."/"unless?"), especially when you compare them to kenji's own feelings for brooklynn - his girlfriend who he's loved for 6 years - but that isn't a horrible thing, it's just different. i do completely understand if people dislike the ship right now, and even criticize darius' way of handling the accidental confession, but i just think people have been way too harsh on all three of them without being willing to see that all of their perspectives are different

[ablazenqueen]

The most upsetting part of this scene (and probably the whole ep) are these two looks:

Because the look on Jeff’s face? It’s hopeful and trusting. He has just the slightest ghost of a smile when he looks at Alan, he looks like he has full confidence that Alan is going to back him up, continue backing him up like he does at the start of this confrontation.

But the look on Alan’s face? It’s doubt. He looks at Jeff and he thinks maybe and he breaks eye contact, looks away just slightly, drops his gaze, because he wants to trust Jeff and he can see the hope in those eyes, but he’s unsure. And even if he chooses to trust Jeff, he’s team leader, how can he not side with his boys? How can he not support the majority, the boys he’s known the longest, the boys who’ve proven their loyalty to him and each other over years, and offer the resolution that most benefits the most amount of people?

How can he not choose the rational resolution, even if it requires squashing that hard-earned trust?

[gayvecchio]

due South - 1.20 Victoria's Secret pt. 1 || 4.12 Call of the Wild pt. 1

[gutfaced]

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐁𝐋𝐄𝐌 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐓 𝟏𝟏; 𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐑𝐄𝐂𝐓 𝐏𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐘𝐀𝐋 𝐎𝐅 𝐀 𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐘

hi! this post has been on my mind for a very long time, and with a possible hunger games resurgence underway, i want to address the not-so savoury and digestable bits about collin's writing, including her characterizations of black individuals within the trilogy.

first of all; district 11 is described as a large district, with its population mainly being black, or at least people of color. this is shown in the movie adaptations, and the several characters we meet throughout the series.

(rue, chaff and seeder's descriptions, but thresh, too.)

(depiction of district 11's population in the movie adaptation of catching fire.)

𝐬𝐨, 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦?

genuinely? the characterization of these individuals, such as chaff and thresh (both black males specifically.) the portrayal of both characters being a threat in size and combat, which is also often a microaggressive stereotype tied to black men.

(effie's reaction to the 75th's reaping & her snide comment against chaff, catching fire + thresh killing clove/sparing katniss, the hunger games.)

of course, i won't downplay thresh's kindness in his sacrifice of sparing katniss, but the display of his brutality paired with his decent & race does not look good (considering that the hunger games is written by a white woman!) and to me, will always come across as uncomfortable. even his speech makes him seem uneducated, more brawn than any brain, and that's also a heavy misconception when it comes to black men/boys/etc. i can see where suzanne tried to balance it out, but it doesn't work well in the slightest.

furthermore, we have to talk about the state of district 11 as a whole.

agriculture/farming as the role for one of the largest districts if not THE largest, seems innocent by itself. but then you have the treatment of its citizens, the way the population is worked, and the overall uneasiness of it.

(rue's experience in 11, the hunger games + katniss’ description of the district, catching fire.)

public whippings, senseless cruelty towards again, a WIDELY black populated district and their continual work on fields/in harvests all speak to remnants of slavery and pastimes taken place within the era of slavery. if suzanne collins was trying to make a point, or mock the treatment of this minority through a portrayal in her book as a white woman, she missed the mark POORLY. having the BLACK citizens, including women, children and men all working out in the fields? disgusting. beyond incomprehensible.

hoarding a minority in one district is crazy work too, because we barely hear about any other black characters minus paylor, beetee, and potentially cinna. and the fact that in katniss' eyes, 11 is treated perhaps the worst? says a lot.

𝐰𝐡𝐲 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐚 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐢𝐭?

truthfully, i'm bringing awareness to my discomfort as a black teen/general black individual because this isn't just something you should brush past. you should see the treatment of these characters and condemn it. i see next to no posts about the blatant racism towards black people/poc in the hunger games and also within the fandom. this has been swept under the rug over and over and blatantly, I'm tired.

collins perpetuates the suffering of district 11 in historical and supposedly educational ways, but that doesn't make it okay for her to do so. as a white woman, collins abuses the usage of racial stereotypes with examples of district 11 men, the culture, their work, but also a wider environment than just 11, such as district 12 too (with the perpetuation of gale.)

[simgerale]

me after attempting to get back into sims and realizing i had a lot more to do than play the game

[i-eat-deodorant]

i'm sure you know this already but:

COTL ISN’T DELETING THEIR GAME.

1) in terms profit they'd pretty much shoot themselves in the foot with that decision, and as protest it's not very effective to make unity listen.

2) if they were, there would've been a much bigger announcement than a twitter tweet.

3) they confirmed they're not in both the discord and the twitter. after the deletion tweet went viral. which...ok.

4) it's probably a scare tactic to take advantage of the unity news to get more people to buy their game.

5) it probably worked.

so many people are focused on the unity issue that i don't think it's often talked about how much of a shitty pr stunt that was by the social media manager. people are fearmongering, sure, but the initial seeds were planted by that twitter post that really should've gone through some extra foresight.

hope they enjoy their extra revenue.

[tallest-tiptoes]

as far as finals go, this one wasn’t half bad. the action parts were done pretty well. it’s nice that we got to see carina delivering one last baby on the show (in a firefighter suit no less). the joy that was radiating from her whenever she thought about being pregnant and her sharing this happiness with maya after she told her the news was everything after all they’ve been through these past two/three years.

personally, i prefer tv shows to end without substantial flash forwards as i find it gives a certain finality to the ending that i’d rather not have and it more often than not feels unearned. so, to me, everything that happened in the timeline after vic and travis had left is only a suggestion. (also the haircuts were so incredibly bad that it can’t possibly be real)

my feelings towards this show are weird and complex. i love it but i also hate it. i’ll miss it but i also won’t. it all comes down to station 19 having many high highs but just as many low lows. and yet, there was always something that had me coming back to the show, and i’m glad i did.

so long, 19.

[futuristichedge]

The Silver all quotes/lines document has been updated! There are now filters and a drop-down that colors based on what you're interested in (to avoid visual color clutter). The filter and drop-down should be usable if you make a copy, since this link is to the most up to date document and I don't want it to be edited/messed with ^^;;

If you'd like to mess around with filters, here's a link that prompts you to make your own copy! You can then click buttons to see the colors change :)

I will continue to add text from all the games first since that is... easier than digging into each issue of Archie and IDW...

[venussaidso]

Wait. I can barely find Hong Haein appreciation posts that focus solely on her as a character and her journey and her relationships with her family outside of her love story. What I'll find in the tags are posts about her love for Hyunwoo or just... Hyunwoo. And yet she's the one with the terminal illness. She's the one who's been through so much and was the most enjoyably complex character in the drama. Like where are those lengthy appreciation essay posts that center Hong Haein? I'm obsessed with her yet I feel isolated about it womp womp.

Edit: There needs to be Hyunwoo slander actually.

[parisbytaylorswift]

The how couples meet in the U.S. graph going around is really sad, yes, but I think even more depressing for anyone looking for friendship instead.

Dating apps suck. Yes.

But there are no “meet a friend to potentially hang out with in person” apps equivalent to that. There is just no way to make friends easily anymore.

[freakinator]

i kmew todays stream would be interesting but damn it seems Really interesting from what i can tell from the liveblogs

[altschmerzes]

out there doing the lord’s work (headcanoning characters as aromantic and Not interested in romantic relationships at all actually, alienating one fandom at a time but having a fantastic blast with it all the while, which is really all that matters)

[cabeswaterdrowned]

two part poll where I ask for help prioritizing what fic to write next

second part will be not yet posted concepts and not all of those are trc although a lot are

[adorabledaylilly]

I think the reason people separate Machine!Connor and Deviant!Connor so much as characters is because they don’t actually understand his motivations in the story. They don’t separate Violent!Marcus and Pacifist!Marcus because his motivation doesn’t change, his means do. Same with Kara. But Connors motivation isn’t as clear as theirs is so people default to the difference being caring about the mission or not, when the mission isn’t his motivation. His motivation is self preservation. The desire to be needed and useful; to live. The only difference really being if he is selfish about his self preservation or empathetic. Every defining moment for Connor is rooted in empathy or apathy, does he prioritize his own survival or does he lend empathy to others understanding that they want to live too?

[bedtimegiraffe]

Fun Things Blades Characters Can Do Based on Their TTRPG Classes

Not restricting myself to the skills listed on the sheets, because that's boring. Also, assuming they're DnD characters, because that's sure what it looks like.

Aerin

Perfectly match anyone's accent after talking to them for 1 minute ('Master of Intrigue' under Rogue: Mastermind)

Insult people into being less competent ('Cutting Words' under Bard: College of Lore)

Make an experimental elixir every morning that will have one of six random effects on the person who drinks it (which could be flight!) ('Experimental Elixir' under Artificer: Alchemist)

Cherta

Telepathically spy using her spellbook ('Manifest Mind' under Wizard: Order of Scribes)

Make boots that you can use to teleport up to 15 feet away ('Boots of the Winding Path' under Artificer)

Imtura

Literally can't be scared while raging (basically getting really in the zone in combat) ('Mindless Rage' from Barbarian: Path of the Berserker)

Kade

Be at least middling when persuading someone at all times ('Silver Tongue' under Bard: Class of Eloquence)

Make himself magically understood by anyone, even if they don't speak the same language ('Universal Speech' under Bard: College of Eloquence)

Mal

Attack faster because he's charming ('Rakish Audacity' under Rogue: Swashbuckler)

Make others doubt themselves with sass ('Unsettling Words' under Bard: Class of Eloquence)

Nia

Cause magical damage by punching people ('Hand of Harm' under Monk: Way of Mercy)

While in Shadow form, summon a screaming shadow wolf ('Hound of Ill Omen' under Sorcerer: Shadow Magic)

Tyril

Magically create a quill that doesn't need ink ('Wizardly Quill' under Wizard: Order of Scribes)

Create an area where it's really hard to lie to him ('Zone of Truth' under Paladin: Oath of Crown)

Willow

Summon a bear, hawk, or unicorn (!) spirit to support the group in combat ('Spirit Totem' under Druid: Circle of Shepherd)