#but if it's only in this specific context

[humanityinahandbag]

I'd like to tell you all a story about my grandmother.

My grandparents raised their children, four girls (one of them my mother), to be fighters. My aunts marched in Washington for women's rights with babies strapped to their chests and like to joke that all of the grandchildren who came from that line (including myself) were born with picket signs in their hands.

But it started with my grandparents. They fought hard for what they believed in. They marched against Vietnam. They marched for Martin Luther King. They marched for women's rights. They marched for a better future.

But let's talk specifically about my grandmother for a moment.

My grandmother unfortunately passed away in 2016. She had to watch the first Trump election and did so knowing that it would probably be the last election she'd ever see. And there is some argument there that she could have given in to fear and defeatism. She could have decided none of it was worth it, and she could have decided that fascism had won and the world was over.

But she did something else instead.

To give some context, my grandparents had friends who were Republicans. I say were, because they shifted from the normal Republican towards the MAGA Republican we see today. And despite a very clear message from my family about how we felt, they were more than ready to still come to the funeral as if everything was normal. Like their beliefs were normal. Like they were welcome to celebrate someone who had fought so hard for the rights of other people.

These were people who would have absolutely used their rhetoric to scream and shout if they were left out or disinvited.

And so my grandmother, even past her final moments, pulled the most brilliant, petty move I've ever seen.

She'd decided ahead of time that everyone who had known her was more than welcome to attend but that she wanted everyone attending the funeral to donate money. That was the requirement to be invited. And so everyone did just that. There was no talk about what the donations were for, just that they were appreciated. I want to say that the assumption was the money would help pay for funeral expenses and give the family some support while we grieved.

Except that wasn't the case.

Because in those final moments of the funeral, the rabbi stepped forward to thank everyone, and then very cheerfully announced;

"Arlene was so happy to know just how many people were coming to join us here today. She couldn't have been more proud of her family. And I'm sure she would have been elated to see just how much money you all gave today to Planned Parenthood."

When I say that the faces of those people are enshrined in my memory, I mean it. The anger, the devastation, the rage, the betrayal. It was an absolutely gorgeous display of true defeat at the hands of a boss ass old lady who literally fought with her last breath and threw up both middle fingers all the way out the door.

What I'm saying is this.

It is very easy to feel defeated. It is very easy to think that everything is over, and there's nothing left for us to do. It's very easy to say that fascism won, that fear won, that hate won.

But that's only true if you let it be true.

There is always more that we can do. There is a future that is still worth fighting for. And it's more than possible, even when it doesn't seem like it.

And fighting is going to look different every time.

Some days it will look like picket signs in our hands.

Some days it will look like spending time with friends and family and people you love and knowing that you have a community that supports you and your vision of a brighter future.

And some days, it's pulling absolute natural level 20 petty trickster shit even after you've left the world.

Because you can always make an impact and you can always add a little brightness to life, and if that means tricking a group of MAGA idiots into throwing their money behind Planned Parenthood in the middle of your own goddamn funeral then that's what it means.

Keep fighting. People have done it before you. People will continue to do it after you.

And enjoy the little victories.

(Even the petty ones)

[billiewena]

FOUR YEARS SINCE NOV 5TH, 2020, as summed up by Supernatural

past recaps: year one / year two / year three / year four

full context and sources below:

various explanations + resources/sources/extra reading on this year's recap:

balls deep: misha collins says the quiet part out loud at Cross Roads 8 Supernatural Convention, saying "if the CW wasn't so homophobic dean and cas would've been balls deep for sure" at a con (x) (x) (x)

garthbenny canon: supernatural actors DJ Qualls (who played hunter-turned-werewolf Garth Fitzgerald) and Ty Olsson (who played the vampire Benny Lafitte) reveal they're married, delighting crack shippers like myself everywhere (x)

spn spooky picture book: official supernatural children's picture book is released, retconning things like john winchester as a happy father figure and castiel being their cowardly childhood friend who sorta hangs around (x) (x)

boop button: tumblr introduces a feature people enjoy for once for april fool's day and halloween and allows users to boop each other, spn bloggers re-awake like sleeper agents to use it in full force (x) (x)

bedlund speaks on destiel: former spn writer ben edlund goes on a tweet fest replying to fans, talking about destiel multiple times including this profound tweet (x)

clear text, not subtext: jensen speaks out again on the confession at Purcon 8, this time taking a more open stance on how the relationship was textual, his take on dean's feelings about cas's feelings, and how the scene with cas deserved a resolution (x)

bury your gays: famed author chuck tingle (known for his plethora of highly specific and delightfully inclusive, if strange, indie erotica novels) publishes his second mainstream horror novel, inspired by TV network studios' infamous history of censoring LGBT relationships and openly killing off queer characters. In a non-subtle nod to supernatural fans, the main character is named misha. (sidenote: did end up reading this and this book is actually really good commentary on the industry in general and really good, 10/10 recommend) (x) also someone got the book signed by misha, to further break the fourth wall (x)

tracker: jensen ackles begins starring in a CBS show where he is basically csoplaying dean winchester, with the show featuring many non-subtle spn references (i.e. him pretending to almost get in an impala before going to his truck, characters wearing spn necklaces, etc.) (x) (x) (x) (special shout-out to clarice @youre-only-gay-once for expertly tracking the tracker show and these easter eggs, highly recommend their tag for their show)

cw's walker cancelled: fans rejoiced upon hearing the cancellation news for jared's post-supernatural show, walker, a remake of "walker texas ranger." in addition to generally being a copaganda show for the notoriously racist texas rangers, jared's inspiration for the show's direction caused much concern. the actor himself said the show was inspired by the US border crisis, not by the immigrant families affected by the separation and internment, but instead wanting exploring the POV of the law enforcement agents working at the border and the moral dilemmas they had to face (x)

pro-destiel Wonder Woman: Lynda Carter (aka the iconic and beloved original actress for Wonder Woman, not the z*onist one) says she could "go for some Destiel" when promoting #GeeksandNerdsforHarrisWalz and Misha's involvement (x) the rest of the spn cast and original Showrunner Kripke were also a big part of this event

chili's backfire: the chain restaurant chili's drags destiel while interacting with 9-1-1 bucktommy shippers on twitter, immediately gets backfire. notably, their stock takes a dip the next day. coincidence? maybe so, maybe not (x) (x)

samgirl voting fraud: "who is the gayest spn character" tumblr poll surprisingly gets heated, with a blogger straight-up admitting they used a bot on the "castiel vs. sam" poll to rig the poll in sam's favor, which they apparently also did for w*ncest in another poll in the past, and posting a guide on how anyone could do the same. luckily democracy wins in this one instance and castiel prevails anyways, leading to an also contested "castiel vs. charlie bradbury" round (x) (x)

pink pony jarpad: jared is spotted at lesbian pop star chappell roan's set at a festival, un-likely place for him to be (x) also may have been one of the "boring" people called out by chappell? (x)

pro-kamala castiel: in a last-ditch effort to get out the vote, misha uses the power of castiel photo ops to campaign for harris-walz and even shouts-out destiel. I feel depressed writing this sentence, if you've made it this long in your read and you're in the states I hope you're doing alright! maybe by the time I wake up things will be a little different though. (x)

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Why does Leona call MC an herbivore, what does herbivore mean to Leona

I have previously spoken about this topic (among other characters’ ways of referring to Yuu) here. You can also read this post, where I discuss herbivores more in-depth. Please give those a read! But to summarize the relevant details for Leona:

“Herbivore” is NOT a nickname he uses exclusively for Yuu. There are multiple instances in which he uses the term to refer to groups of people (typically including humans) or other individuals that are NOT Yuu.

It’s a common misconception within the fandom that “herbivore” is Leona’s special nickname for Yuu simply because of how often the term is used in fandom works to refer to them. This same misconception also happens with Malleus’s use of “child of man”.

Leona does have nicknames for people, but not for Yuu. For example, he calls Malleus "lizard" and Idia "daikon radish sprout".

The meaning of “herbivore” is NOT meant to be taken by its traditional dictionary definition (“a creature that eats only plants”) or even the slang definition (“a man who expresses little to no interest in marriage and/or is not assertive in romantic relationships”). Neither definition makes sense in context.

The most likely definition of herbivore can be inferred by how Leona acts and uses the term. He’s often using “herbivore” when he’s annoyed or talking down to others. From this, we can glean that he’s using the term in a derogatory way to imply he is “above” others in rank or strength. Recall that Leona himself is a lion/carnivore and therefore he is “above” herbivores in the food chain. It’s not meant to be a cute or endearing nickname, it’s a subtle way to insult others and to assert his own dominance over them.

Leona has also been noted to use “omnivore”; he refers to Fellow Honest with this term and has yet to use it for anyone else. The reasoning Leona gives for giving Fellow that label is because of Fellow’s opportunistic behavior. He’ll suck up to whoever he has to in order to get whatever “food” (benefits) he can and get ahead.

Interestingly, Leona has occasionally mentioned carnivores (such as in his voice line about Fellow being an omnivore), but has yet to call anyone specific a carnivore. Maybe this is because he has yet to face anyone he deems to be on “his” level.

[zeravmeta]

i think a particularly fascinating wrinkle to post amnesia doctor and civilight eterna theresa's dynamic is that for all intents and purposes, the original doctor did die.

because who else is truly left to continue the legacy of their original civilization? doctor explicitly says kal'tsit doesn't even have the full context on the creation of originum, and even if she did kal'tsit has already long chosen terra over their original civilization. pre amnesia doctor was complicit in theresas murder specifically because they were the last one left, they were burdened by the guilt of duty in ensuring that the thousands of years and billions of lives worth of effort didn't go up in smoke. And yet it did. It will.

it was theresa's revenge, after all. her little terrible trick, a final small revenge against the person who wished it didn't have to end this way. the doctor took her life, so she took theirs. 'fate' should not exist, after all. it was her fate to bear the suffering of the sarkaz, and it was the doctors fate to bear the mission of their original civilization. So, she freed them, and destroyed their fate.

Just in the same way the doctor once again freed theresa from her 'fate', able to finally pass on with the countless sarkaz before her, no longer trapped by originum. post amnesia doctor doesnt really know theresa except for the first and last conversation they had in the assimilated originum universe, but in their encounter it's incredibly clear that theresa, even though she so clearly missed them, also knows that post amnesia doctor... isnt the same person.

The original doctor already said goodbye. They faced theresa in that room where she was assassinated, filled with something far too heavy to be called guilt, and stood before her waiting to die. And even though theresa didn't physically kill them, she fractured their mind and took their memories, she took away the burden of their fate as the last survivor of their kind. She banished the evil spirit haunted by the eons of experience and sacrifice and left behind only a purified soul, nothing but a trustworthy fool who fights for the people they love.

memories can be what endures long after a person is gone, but it is the experiences themselves which shape the individual. doctor has no memories, and civilight eterna theresa only inherited all of hers. neither of them had the experiences which shaped their past selves, neither of them are really the same person as those whom everyone around them looked towards, because they can only really grow as people from there.

Their original selves died a long time ago, holding each others hands in that faraway field, and all that's left are the shadows of themselves who can grow into something new. babel's voyage had long ended, but rhodes island will continue. The Evil Spirit of Babel and The King of Sarkaz are long gone, but the Doctor and Civilight Eterna are still here.

the me who is not me and the you who is not you... it didn't work out for our original selves, but even if we are not those people, we are products of their love. it is not by 'fate' that we are here, it is love.

[yakutarts]

Nightmare and Dream but feral, non-skeletal body!

For the love of god PLEASE click on the image for better quality + close ups and clothed version under the cut!!

Would you kiss them?

Video process:

I made these using a specific context

A while ages ago I drew and posted a drawing of Nightmare and Dream on their light ball form but with some alterations/personal headcanons.

On the post, I expressed my desire to draw the twins in a universe were Nim didn’t need to give them bodies, and just let them grow naturally. And specifically give them an animalistic appearance, instead of a humanoid one like most artist do.

You can see on the process video that it took me 1000 sketches to make something that looked good and I was happy with, the video is obviously sped up, the total time it took me to make this was 28 hours and 15 minutes.

Now explaining some things:

Why are they so big?

I read on a post made by Joku that Nim, before giving them skeleton bodies, tried to make them human ones, but the pure amount of magic and power the twins had made the human bodies explode or some shit. So she picked skeletons since the magic could flow freely through the bones without being confined by muscle and flesh. That made me think if their power had physical forms, it would be gigantic. So I gave them gigantic forms to better represent their status of strength and power, beings made from raw magic to serve as guardians of all emotions throughout the multiverse, of course I needed to make them big and intimidating!

Why the horns?

Artistic design choice, I gave them little horns and a chubby tail in their light ball form to purposefully make them more animalistic, wanted to keep it while making these. Also just giving them a smooth head with nothing much going on looked weird and boring.

Why the draconian look?

Dragons had been created and depicted as symbols of pure power above humanity and worshipped as deities throughout several cultures around the world, different depictions of dragons has been one of the only things present among almost all cultures, like a default folklore creature. While I tried to incorporate other mythical creatures in the design, the draconic body plan felt more right due to the influence of dragons on human beliefs, and their representation as magical and powerful beings beyond human comprehension. Plus I just really love drawing dragons.

Why the clothing choice? Also why is Dream half naked while Nightmare has everything covered?

While designing the clothes for Nightmare, I used as reference clothing that usually royalty would wear, Nightmare has a really big ego and sees himself as a king, so he uses fancy, expensive clothing and jewelry, adapted and designed for his anatomy. Not practical for battle, but his corruption can go through the fabric without damaging it, and most people and monsters just run when they see him, so he doesn’t worry about it getting dirty or tearing, Nightmare just expects every soul to instantly submit when they see him, so he never worries about getting into a battle and getting dirty he has that big of an ego.

Dream is the opposite, his style of clothing much more practical for running, jumping, flying, fighting and general exercise. He has 4 bags in total, 2 on each side, inside them he keeps several items, be it healing food, magical artifacts, first aid kit, gifts he receives, stuff he buys or random things he finds and wants to take home with him. Dream’s crown is now a colar couldn’t figure out how to make it work with the head shape and horns, his cape is from his official design, but changed to white, was planning to make it yellow but when I looked at it my eyes hurt because there was too much yellow everywhere. I made Dream’s clothes with the intent to match his official design, I didn’t to the same for nightmare because a turtle neck with a hoodie on a dragon would make him more huggable than intimidating. Plus I like to think that the leg warmers was a gift from Blue, and the ring on his horn a gift from Ink. Didn’t add more stuff on him because I couldn’t think of something that would look good and match Dream’s vibe, the rest of his clothes on his official design didn’t translate well here. Oh, while I was drawing this, I drew the colar and the leg warmers first, without the cape, Dream looked like a twink with a pet play kink.

Side note; neither Nightmare or Dream see the use of clothes as a necessity or as decency. For them clothes are nothing but pure decoration and to show off status for Nightmare, they can wear full body suits, partial clothing, just jewelry, or nothing at all, which is what they usually go for when at home, wearing or not wearing stuff doesn’t make that much of a difference to them at all.

Do they act as animals or do they have human intelligence?

Despite me using the word “feral” all the time to describe them, they do not actually act as animals. I’m only using “feral” to describe their body/anatomy, Nightmare and Dream are fully sentient and have human level intelligence/awareness. They are capable of speech and have opposable thumbs on their front paws, they can grab, write, hold… do anything a human can do with their hands with dexterity. But they do have to use only hand one at a time, and balance themselves with the other. To use both hands, they have to be sitting, or be supported by something, they can balance themselves on their wings if they have to.

And now contradicting what I just said, they have some animalistic behaviors. The twins can growl, purr and roar. Despite Nightmare being able to use his tentacles and Dream being able to shoot magic arrows out of his wings, they to also scratch and bite while fighting. Since they are big and heavy, they can easily crush bone under their weight and their bite force is strong enough to split someone in half. If you need a reference, just use Smaug from The Hobbit, he has more or less the balance of animal behavior and human intelligence I’m looking for.

Expanding more on this, the twins stretch just like felines, and often sleep in positions usually cats sleep in (they don’t actually need to sleep but do anyway). Dream likes to go fishing, and by fishing I mean jumping in a lake and chasing the fish underwater. He finds it more fun than sitting around and waiting for the fish to come to you instead.

I guess you count their lack of necessity to wear clothes as animal logic too?

_________________

If you have any more questions about them, I will be happy to answer!

And yes, I do plan on making more drawings of Nightmare and Dream on this form!

Dreamtale belongs to @jokublog

Feral concept/design by @yakutarts (me)

[hasufin]

So I don't know where the thing about lesbian sheep originated, but I first encountered it in a Charles Stross novel as a *metaphor* for people in intel circles trying to talk. It wasn't meant as being informative about sheep husbandry.

See, some people think you get Top Secret clearance and so you can read the Top Secret Daily and all the Top Secret books and reports (you do not actually want to do that, 99.999% is terrifyingly dull and the only reason it's Top Secret is that you don't want a threat actor knowing the layout of your SCIF; but it's still just an office floor plan)

In reality you get TS clearance and you can be *assigned* to work on specific TS stuff. And you only see the TS stuff relevant to that.

And the first rule of clearance is, YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT CLEARANCE. You do not talk about the clearance you have. You do not talk about the projects you were on. You do not discuss the things you did. You only talk about those things within their tiny little silo.

So if you used to work on Project Pale Horse, and now you're on Green Husky, but you realize stuff you did in Pale Horse might be useful for Green Husky... you have a problem. Because you don't know if the person you're working with knows about Pale Horse, and you can't talk about Pale Horse to anyone except while you're working on Pale Horse. So you don't have any way to find out if the other person knows about Pale Horse and you can discuss it with them.

(In fact I think Stross was wrong - there's no point where you get to discuss another project with someone outside of its specific context. There's no "Okay, we all know about Pale Horse so let's see if we can apply it here" . But in the novel it made sense. Still wasn't animal husbandry, though.)

two sheep. standing still

[itslilacokay]

AAAAaand thats it! ChosenWeek has finally come to a close!

I'd like to thank everyone who participated in this mini event, to those that missed it... don't worry! I've been thinking of it making a comeback next year at around the same time ...if that's okay

I'm really surprised at the amount of posts there are relating to the event, to be honest I was expecting only a few haha

I really love everyone's arts/writing about the event I'm being completely honest, the interpretations and ideas you put in them are so good i love all of themso so so much

The angst arts (specifically referring to tco in this context) may be free to roam the streets again, but at least we had this week to highlight the wholesomeness!

And also at least we had a little wholesomeness before AvA 11 comes and this fandom will be set ablaze again with (possibly) even MORE angst material

Anyway, I think that's all from me! Again, thank you and...

[ot3]

pretty long meandering post here just talking through some thoughts about the late game arizona progressive endorsement for kamala

i find it really fascinatingly racist the way certain people took the letter from local arab/muslim leaders in arizona endorsing kamala's campaign and decided that mean they now had 'palestinians want you to vote for kamala' as a hammer they could deploy in a world full of nails. to be clear i don't think this endorsement was meaningless at all and the opinions of these people are certainly worth considering. especially for swing state voters, who were the target audience here.

but i saw people responding to fucking bisan's on-the-ground video of people in gaza saying the election results made no difference to them with sentiment along the lines of 'don't believe this video,, its disinformation, palestinians want you to vote for harris' and i can only assume it's because none of them actually read the letter. they just saw headlines like this one and decided that absolved them of any need to own their own decisionmaking at this time

now clearly the palestinian people are not a monolith, and palestinians currently living in gaza and suffering through a genocide vs those living in the US in a swing state are going to have different priorities vis a vis this election. i don't think acknowledging that in any way diminishes the validity of either group's opinion, and it's absolutely not my place to critique the way these various communities are choosing to respond to kamala's stance on israel. so it really disgusts me to watch mainly white liberals act like this specific group of people discussing the specific political context they currently exist in represents the complete and collective will of the palestinian people, just because doing so happens to support their political goals. i don't know man i think the second you start talking about an entire nationality of people as if they have the same political opinions you've already lost!

the reason i say i don't think most of these people read the letter, beyond the fact that i've yet to see anyone discuss the specifics of it, is because the letter does go out of its way to acknowledge potential strategic benefits of 3rd party votes in the 43 other states that aren't going to be the deciding factor. i know this is not sentiment that the average voteblue liberal agrees with.

anyway. there's not really a conclusion to be had here other than i think we're going to see a lot of vitriol directed towards third party votes in the immediate future. we saw similar sentiment after the 2016 election; people were INCREDIBLY quick to say that the reason donald trump won was because not enough people showed up for hillary. people are still saying that, as a matter of fact.

as i and many other people have been pointing out for the past eight years, hillary won the popular vote by a margin of several million, and still lost. at that scale you simply can not blame things on voter turnout. i don't really know what to say at that point. trump's 2016 victory really just pitch perfectly illustrated in a way too blatant to ignore that the US presidential election does not represent the will of the public. but people will do literally anything to keep viewing the state of US politics as a result of people Voting Wrong and Being Too Stupid To Understand What's At Stake

as always, we are not allowed to hold the democrats accountable for delivering nothing to their constituents, but we can hold the constituents responsible for not showing up like loyal dogs to beg for whatever table scraps harris's campaign vaguely pretended to offer us. surely this strategy will work in 2028! see you all then.

[korya-elana]

Your doctor isn't always right.

This'll be a long one. No tl;dr

I see a lot of rhetoric about "doctor shopping" and "your doctor is obviously right, quit trying to claim an illness that isn't yours" and other such nonsense. So I'm here to tell you why these guys suck and why they're wrong.

I'd like everyone to keep in mind that I am studying brain science, I readily admit that, due to my health issues, I could have died without my doctors. I am firmly pro-science and pro-medicine. However.

I was actually going to type up this post a few weeks back and then the universe smacked me with a relevant situation. For some context, I recently moved back to Ohio. I had lived in NY for the past few years due to traumatic circumstances and had not received any care for my disabilities at the time. Considering one of my issues is Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (my joints and connective tissue are loosey-goosey and don't work right) and EDS causes me severe pain from constant rib dislocations/subluxations, I went to go get pain management from a specialist as soon as I was back.

This "specialist" (literally the head of the relevant department) told me there was no way that I had EDS despite my relevant testing and family history, started testing me for the WRONG illness (Marfan's, which you can tell by looking at me I do not have) and then, despite his admittance he doesn't know much about EDS, proclaimed I don't have it and it wasn't worth seeking any help. And he obviously did shit for my pain. He also said this about my proven autoimmunity.

Fast forward to two weeks ago. At the ripe old age of 30 and relatively good health despite my disabilities, I had a real stroke. Not only is this highly unusual for my age and health, it was a very, very specific type of stroke that is highly indicative of a much more dangerous type of EDS than my previous specialists had ever thought. And now I need extremely expensive and hard-to-get approved genetic testing. I have therapies several times a week and in a month I see a neurologist. Specifically, a stroke specialist where I will likely be the youngest person in the waiting room by at least 20 years.

This doctor could have killed me. He could have permanently crippled me beyond repair due to his advice. I legitimately thought I was dying. I have lost parts of my life and activities vital to my sense of self that I will never get back and I am very early on a very long road to recovery. Because my doctor was wrong. And I'll sure as shit be suing him.

So if you think your doctor is wrong, I want you to ignore every single asshole tumblerite telling you that your doctor knows best and knows better than you do. Seek that second opinion. Or your third! Or your fourth! I went through five doctors before I found one that actually knew what he was talking about and could help my dysautonomia symptoms for real. There is merit to talking about diagnosis hunting and being more sure than you should be. But doctors are not perfect. Malpractice kills people. Follow your gut feeling and find someone who knows how to talk about it. Shutting up and ignoring that feeling could get you hurt.

[avese23]

I read this three times and still can barely see how you missed the point so terribly and normally I would correct you kindly but this is not an academic space and this is about the honor of lesbians so claws open, friend.

OP didn’t mention sex. OP mentioned women. I didn’t mention sex. I mentioned lesbians.

Only you brought up sex. You saw the word lesbian and your mind jumped to sex. Put your angry typing thumbs down and examine that.

Now either you’ve blocked me, tuned me out, or maybe you’re still reading. Comprehension, that’s sexy of you. We can work with that.

OP from reasonable assumption, was discussing the phenomenon of people who primarily drift toward male characters but have internalized misandry beating them out of shape cuz how could anything masculine be positive? We need to feminize him. Here warps the misandry into misogyny as you see tumblr users turning “post your favorite female character” posts into “well, he’s a woman to me.” Hence frustration, especially because often times character traits seen as charitable and tropable in male characters are received with annoyance or hatred when seen in female characters. If you’re still paying attention, what’s your favorite color? Hence OPs point.

I, picking up on this context, could see where OP is coming from. The internet do be misogynistic. The internet also struggles with shame around liking men. A lot of spaces are one skip away from transmisogynist rhetoric, it’s concerning. Anywho, as someone who rarely sees this problem off the internet I offered a positive to the vent.

A little tongue in cheek but also great fucking advice. Because if you’re sick of people putting male characters on a pedestal there’s nothing like a lesbian to reinstate your faith in feminist approaches to media. Not because they have “temporary desires” (also what are you smoking?? cuz I get that I’m demi but you’re the first person aside from cis men named Brad I’ve heard call any feeling toward a woman a temporary desire.) but because however sick the average person might be of the gender gap in media, lesbians are more sick of it. Google “heteronormativity,” talk to anyone about the exhaustion of having men thrown at you when you’ve dedicated yourself to a lifestyle based on who you are as a person that specifically centers women. As people. Cuz lesbians are people. Repeat that for me if you’re listening.

Regarding the quotation you’ve put…(which, no clue where you got that from? Like genuinely did you reblog from the wrong post by mistake? If so feel free to delete this and block me cuz this would be very funny content if the dignity of my fellow dykes. Like I was upsetty for a second but this is the second most amusing tumblr mix up I’ve gotten so no hard feelings) you seem to be under the assumption that I don’t like lesbians?? Or that people who lesbians aren’t attracted to cant like lesbians?? Which is weird cuz lesbians are objectively cool af. And my ace gf is a lesbian who I’m very attracted to so…again I don’t know where you’re drawing your sparks from.

Tbh I don’t blame you if you haven’t gotten this far. My brain is on tired mode and your response was so off target that this is less even about responding to you and more my adhd hyperfixating on close reading your text in some futile attempt to see what straws you were grasping. I haven’t had time to get to my sociology tbr and I don’t have an essay due till next week so this was genuinely engaging for my brain. I can’t solve the puzzle of what mistake you made but maybe you have so rejoice to that. OP sorry this is on your post I do not know where they came from but I think I’ve shooed them off lol.

Anywho. Why are you still reading. Despite my greatest efforts I am not a lesbian. I’m an equally sexy dyke but not the same kind. Now go befriend a lesbian! This person is stalling for some reason but you don’t have to. Go talk about how Kylo Ren would have been more engaging if he was written as a woman. Go talk about how Faith Lehane deserved better. Go talk about how Harrowhark is trying her very best and needs a hug but please ask before touching.

And remember the three tenants:

1. Be respectful to lesbians. Implying they’re only about women for the sex is a harmful homophobic stereotype. Also if it were true my besties would be dating but we have a bookclub group chat where they perform literary analysis over fictional instead of flirting. Maybe this poster shouldn’t talk to them if you’re gonna be offensive. They’re busy reading.

2. If you want a meaningful relationship with anyone using terms like “temporary desires” is not a way to do it. “Oh but I don’t do that romance or sex stuff” ok but you can try doing the empathy and common sense stuff. Other people won’t find your dismissal of their sexuality “a flex.” It will make finding friends hard

3. If you’re having trouble explaining a point…maybe the point isn’t ready to be out yet. Don’t embarrass yourself by butting into a conversation that’s nothing to do with the frustration in your head. If you don’t like explaining things, or drawing off of actual sources, go to twitter. This might not be the site for you. There are a lot of lesbians here (ooo espooky) and women who know how to read (eee scary) and like to befriend each other (le gasppp) it can be a lot 😔 <- this is irony btw

"he's like a woman to me!!!" not true because if he was a woman to you you wouldn't give a fuck about him

[laura1633]

Oh wow i have a serious problem i just went over what i wrote to you and i probably should have stopped at the first two sentences but it gets me upset the abuse lando faces i dont even like the guy i perfer oscar, max, charles and carlos but even i know that sending death threats to someone is not okay, and it upsets me that people almost always take his words out of context like when did lando say he actually had a chance at winning the wdc this year? I've seen people bash on him for the latest race where max raced incredibly, but what they dont seem to understand is that the race's terrible race conditions could have actually seriously injured him, we all seem to forget that the guy is younger then max, less experienced, and has huge problems with self-worth that actively seem to affect the way he race's. the fact that max won in the rust bucket that barely seemed to work in favor of the guy is incredable, but bashing on another driver for seemingly not wanting to take a chance with the awfull race conditions (*please note that this is what it looked like to me on what lando was doing that race where he did make mistakes but the weather wasnt helping ether* also note that that franco, oliver and others commented ether on the weather being dangerous, their cars 'Presumably the cars not agreeing with the weather ether', or the fact they couldnt see for shit and out right stated that someone should have a talk with the fia *i couldnt watch the whole race but ive seen snippets of driver radio's and the like, so i cant say with 100% certainty that this is correct*)

So yeah i think that, if i as someone who doesnt like lando, its really concerning what some people say about the guy and as a side note none of the other drivers seem to notice the hate from what ive seen but this last part might just be me. What are your thoughts on the hate lando's been getting seeming to increase anytime he seems to actually want to enjoy racing with the other more popular (equally popular?) Drivers?

🍑anon

Hi anon, 

That’s okay, I will respond to this ask rather than the previous one (but just for context for anyone else the previous ask was about fan fiction so wan’t anything mean). This ended up being a really lengthy answer because I have lots of thoughts!!! 

I’ll put the answer under the cut and tag as anti Lando despite this really just being my opinion and I personally don’t think I am being particularly harsh here but maybe people will disagree.

Firstly hopefully to most people it goes without saying that sending death threats is not okay, that goes for any of the drivers (and various other individuals that I have seen targeted over the past few years). I also have never understood people specifically going to an individual’s social media page just to spout negativity or abuse at them, if you don’t like someone you don’t need to follow them. 

However, I am surprised that people seem to be shocked that Lando is receiving hate online as this is absolutely nothing new and, if I am being honest, I have seen worse (not that this is a competition!).

I will speak from the perspective of being a Max supporter and say that the abuse he has received both online and at track has been appalling over the years. After Silverstone 2021 there were plenty of comments from people saying he ‘deserved’ such an awful crash or that they wished it had been worse. Even this year there were memes going around saying that maybe we needed a repeat of Silverstone 21 (a meme liked by Lando’s dad no less, not that I think we should be blaming children for their parent’s actions!). Not only that but there is rarely a week that goes by that I don’t see jokes online about how Jos is the only one that ‘can beat Max’ or people posting memes about Max being left at a gas station when he does badly. Max needed a bodyguard in Mexico last year because there were concerns over death threats, he’s been booed up on the podium, had people chanting cheat at him in the fan zone, every comment section on his social media includes comments telling him he is a cheat or that his achievements mean nothing. The British media are like vultures any time there is even a hint of controversy. I don’t know why everyone is suddenly up in arms about Lando receiving hate, perhaps its a case of only caring when it happens to ‘their’ driver. 

It doesn’t just happen to Max either. I don’t follow Lewis on social media but I still know the type or racist abuse he has faced over the years. Other drivers also receive abuse - Lance for example has vile things said about him, Nicholas Latifi was sent death threats after 2021. I am sure most if not every driver has experienced some level of hate. Social media can be extremely toxic. 

Do I think any of the drivers should have to deal with such toxicity? No, but Lando is nowhere near the only one to receive hate and I don’t think someone like Max who appears ‘strong’ should have to put up with things because people get the impression it doesn’t bother him.

Whether the other drivers notice, well probably they do but its not happening just to Lando. Did Lando realise how much toxicity was being thrown at Max after Austria or Mexico? Did he try and calm things with the media or did he double down and make things worse for Max? 

As for taking Lando’s words out of context. That definitely happens from time to time, the same as with any driver. Media goes for clickbait headlines and run with them. The problem is that Lando has also said things that haven’t been taken out of context and that people still find distasteful. The comments about it not being talent and being luck did not come across well. I was tempted to give him the benefit on that one and assume he was referring to himself and saying it was not him being untalented but unlucky but then he doubled down by saying nobody deserved to win the race more than George - how can I take that any other way other than the fact he was saying Max didn’t ‘deserve’ to win the race. 

As for Lando saying he thought he could win the WDC, if he didn’t think he could win it this year then to me that would be more of a concern. He has a championship winning car and has done for most the season, if he can’t win it now then when?! He should have been confident that he could win or at least put up a good fight. I would have had no problem with him openly saying he is going for the championship. Look at Charles who is not afraid to say that whilst it is still possible he is still fighting. I think part of the problem here lies with Mclaren because they should have been fully backing Lando and hyping him up but seemed to flip flop back and forth about whether they thought he was truly in the fight. It’s hardly going to give Lando confidence when his team don’t seem to be backing him as strongly as they could be. 

As for Brazil, Lando didn’t have a great race. George got past him at the start. He made too many errors. Charles finished in front of him despite starting behind him. Max, Esteban and Pierre took a risk staying out on those worn inters, they gambled on the fact the race would be red flagged but also on their abilities and confidence to keep the car on track under those conditions. They all did extremely well and deserved their podium spots. The most important thing though is that all the drivers came away without serious injuries because over the course of that weekend there were numerous occasions where entertainment was put over safety. If a driver felt they had to pit for safety reasons then I am glad they took that step.

Lando is younger than Max but I don’t think we need to baby him in terms of his racing or in terms of giving him a free pass with what he says in the media. He is 24 years old, the same age Max was when Max won his first championship under very intense pressure. 

I think you are correct about confidence or self worth affecting him. Whilst I wouldn't like to comment to much on his mentality, to me (and I don’t tend to watch too many of his interviews so I could be wrong) he seems to flop back and forth between being overly critical of himself and then also not taking accountability and saying someone else just had the fastest car or were lucky. I think it would be really good for him to be able to look as objectively as possible about where he has actually made mistakes and can improve but also being able to pick out the things he has done well and be proud of those things. 

Overall I don’t think any drivers should have to put up with the amount of hate that they have to put up with but Lando is not the only one to receive hate and, dare I say it, I don’t even think it has been as vicious as some of the things I have seen over the years. Social media is toxic and people should be more mindful and realise these are real people - all of them!! 

Also, once again lets be thankful that nobody was seriously hurt over the weekend and lets hope the Fia take steps to act more swiftly when safety cars and red flags are needed and that they put safety above other concerns.

[thydungeongal]

It bears repeating how much of an anomaly the WotC D&D occupation with providing "balanced" encounters to the extent where every edge characters can gain over their opposition needs to be somehow accounted for in game balance. D&D is multiple different games, but the most stark internal division is between the TSR and WotC eras, where the previous one was not built around the expectation of encounters that need to be overcome in a specific way to "progress" and characters and their opposition were never really thought to be balanced.

Encounter balance only really became a goal with WotC D&D and even though it was at first and still is pretty much all over the place, there very much is an underlying philosophy of designing encounters to account for the party's capabilities and, on a character level, every possible edge characters might gain being accounted for. This was the clearest in 4e (a game explicitly built around these assumptions), but it very clearly informs the design of 3e and 5e: characters can't just go and make friends with a wolf, man. You gotta spend character-building resources on your character so that they may gain the Animal Companion feature and thus have permission to have a wolf. The wolf animal companion is placed on the same level as an extra sneak attack dice or a bonus feat or a new daily allotment of spells, and by this point you should see what I mean by the balance being kind of all over the place.

And as stated, that type of approach to game design is actually anomalous when you consider it within the context of RPGs as a whole. Sure, D&D has a disproportionate effect on perceptions of RPGs, and since there are many new designers coming in with expectations created by WotC D&D that type of design is becoming more and more common. And D&D's biggest competitor, Pathfinder, also very much subscribes to that philosophy of game design.

In Mythras a character can just join a Shamanic cult and learn the skills necessary to practice Shamanism and bind a predator spirit they have befriended into a wolf to thus gain a spirit companion who now has a corporeal form, and none of that requires the expenditure of character resources that need to be somehow balanced on a budget, nor does it somehow affect considerations of encounter balance. It's an edge that the character gained because they did the thing in the fiction. The only expenditure required was for the character to do it, and the time and resources it took for them to do it.

And most trad RPGs are balanced more along the lines of Mythras than they are of D&D.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

I remember in the game, like during Riddle's flashback, Mama Roseheart says that a food was full of something that would make him smarter. But that kinda sounds like something from a factoid. Do we know if she's actually a qualified doctor?

Mrs. Rosehearts is a licensed medical mage. We have no reason to believe she isn’t, especially not when Riddle cites her occupation as a reason for her being well-respected in their community. Why would Riddle and their entire hometown perpetuate a lie and revere a woman if she’s not in such a powerful position?

I don’t think the scene you brought up is as much of a “gotcha” as it may seem to be. It might give the impression that Mrs. Rosehearts is one of those pseudoscience peddlers, but only if you take her dialogue at face-value and consider no other context.

Firstly, it’s important to note that Mrs. Rosehearts claiming the birthday cake has lecithin-rich ingredients, which will “make [you] smarter” occurs in the Japanese text.

The localization is more specific and has Mrs. Rosehearts instead claiming that the lecithin will “improve cerebral function”. Between JP and EN, EN actually provides the more nuanced wording this time.

The reason she says this is because lecithin DOES play an important role in cognitive function. It is necessary to make choline, an essential nutrient to then make acetylcholine. Acetylcholine, as it happens, is a neurotransmitter that conveys messages between the neurons and all cells in the body. In the simplest terms, lecithin is vital in brain function and memory development. If Riddle doesn’t get enough lecithin, it could legitimately impede with his studies, since the brain wouldn’t have what it needs to support optimal learning.

It isn’t pseudoscience, it’s real science and you will find numerous studies that back this up. The only reason it comes off as “fake” is because Mrs. Rosehearts grossly oversimplifies the explanation in her dialogue. This most likely happened because 1) adults tend to talk to children this way, especially to make less desirable food sound more appealing (which is the case for Riddle’s mom) and 2) the Twst writers know that most of their general audience don’t want to sit through a long lecture about how lecithin is converted to other substances to support the brain.

Mrs Rosehearts doesn’t actually mean that she believes Riddle will magically become smarter if he eats food with lots of lecithin in it. She most likely means she wants him to eat ultra healthy in general because the alternative, junk food, won’t give him the nutrients he needs for the high amount of studying he does.

[jakeperalta]

didn't expect my throwaway vent post to get so many notes so to add some more context to my thoughts: I'm thinking more of why people choose to vote for trump than why they refuse to vote for harris (although no doubt her being a women, specifically a black woman, comes in to play). knowing that the people voting for him either a- share his views or b- are willing to overlook him being abusive, violently and loudly misogynistic and actively stripping women of their rights because they think he's better for the economy or whatever bullshit.

but it's also specifically results like this ⬇️ in the youngest demographic that make me feel sad and scared for the future. I want to feel like things are changing and young men today are growing up to know better, but it's incredibly disheartening to see the discrepancy of 64% of young women voting harris vs only 47% of young men.

the thing is I already know that men and society at large hate women. I know that young men in particular increasingly skew right and towards misogyny (I've read the articles, although all I really need to do is spend any time on any part of the internet to see the evidence). but then every so often something like this happens where it still somehow surprises me. like my god.. they really hate us this much.

[shin--soukoku]

i've seen a lot of debates and arguments about the recent asagiri interview, specifically in regards to skk — so i just wanted to quickly make a post saying that no, asagiri is not trying to get a "one up" on shippers, or discourage people from shipping skk.

the quote being called into question in particular is this one:

here's the thing, however.

this is not meant to be about soukoku.

the focus is about, well, how they're not the focus.

asagiri is expressing frustration over being made to focus more and more on skk rather than kunikida and dazai. they are not the focus.

the point of this is that it is not up to asagiri to elaborate and focus on the skk dynamic, as they are not the focus, nor who he wants to focus on.

he even encourages fan works! a lot of this quote is being taken very out of context!! just before this quote, asagiri says this:

dazai's feelings are not simple and easy to understand. obviously saying that he only hates chuuya and nothing else is an exaggeration. asagiri does not want to focus on them, but is being pressured into doing so by his producer. that's the reason behind the frustration.

in fact, asagiri says at another point during this interview that he wants to leave his work up to fan interpretation!

asagiri's words are not the end all be all. he is not anti-skk or against shippers. you are free to continue shipping skk (as i myself will continue to do!!!), there is nothing wrong with that.

bsd as a story is not a love story. romance is not the focus. skk is not the focus. but it's okay if your fanworks are. that is the point of fanworks. have fun with it!!! this interview is not the end of the world.

even so, death of the author is a thing — whilst authorial intent is important to understand and recognize, you should not kill your own interpretation of the media in question just because the author told you to do so.

i'd encourage you to read the post for yourself, in fact, and make your own conclusions:

[ai-the-broccoli]

sudden talk about narumitsu (vs lawlight)

I think, lawlight and narumitsu being like opposites (in a certain sense) is kind of remarkable for its implications for narumitsu honestly. because being the opposite of lawlight in this case also means it is similar to lawlight in a way, and isn't that kind of interesting

like. lawlight was founded on L's persistent disbelief in Light's innocence even when everyone else (including Light himself) believed in it, while narumitsu was founded on Phoenix's persistent belief in Edgeworth's innocence even when everyone else (including Edgeworth himself) didn't believe in it.

now L's distrust of Light's innocence is narratively justified, because we as the audience know that Light is Kira. and Phoenix's trust in Edgeworth's innocence is also narratively justified, because we find out that it turns out Edgeworth was innocent of the murders he was suspected for. so they're both right!

the thing is, however, what if that wasn't the case? like, even though he turned out to be right, Phoenix had no real, substantiated reason whatsoever at first to believe that Edgeworth was innocent (it would've been an accidental killing, like even if one trusted fully that Edgeworth would never murder anyone on purpose due to their knowledge of his character, it still doesn't exempt him from possibly having committed unintentional manslaughter), yet he did, out of his sentimental trust of him based on his childhood experience, and -- very notably -- his desire to always see Edgeworth as that definitely-innocent man he has believed him to be. because that's the way he wants to view Edgeworth, and that's what validates his past experience and his choice to choose this path to follow Edgeworth into law to "save" him, because after all, to Phoenix, he is "the only one who knows the real Edgeworth", and "the only one who can save him". Phoenix's goal to "save him", in the specifically sense that Phoenix conceives of it, is currently specifically a goal that is only applicable and valid if his image of Edgeworth is true to real life, therefore it HAS to be true or this doesn't make sense. there is a certain... is "possessive" the right word? I'm not sure but yeah there's a certain implication there that Phoenix essentially "insists" that Edgeworth be the version of him that fits Phoenix's idealized image of him etc., even when Edgeworth genuinely disagrees. however, well, on the matter of his innocence, Phoenix does turn out to be correct, therefore the narrative essentially validates him on count of this.

on that note,

.... yeah.

so. very interesting contrast imo, because here we have Yotsuba arc Light who genuinely doesn't know he is not innocent, versus Edgeworth in Turnabout Goodbyes where he genuinely doesn't know he is innocent about the elevator murder. but L / Phoenix insists hard on the opposite case being true, because they are not satisfied unless their ideas about who Light / Edgeworth is are correct. and well in context it happens to be true, but still. it's interesting. something like that etc