#but no really those all are so meaningful?

[lady-raziel]

the dichotomy of fate vs free will, the nature of choice, and the concept of destiny can actually be explained fairly well by the unus annus trolley problem

you see inherently there IS a choice. one CAN pull the lever and alter the course of the trolley from its current path. however, this would mean going against the express purpose of the Unus Annus youtube channel as set out from the very beginning-- it was created to have a natural but predetermined end. one can choose to alter the course of the trolley, but doing so would be an arguably immoral action since it would be altering fate in a way that is contrary to the narrative intention.

letting the trolley run its course, and not choosing to pull the lever, may seem like you are then letting Mark and Ethan be crushed and killed. however, this is where the second half of the meme is important. Ethan may be sleeping peacefully and has no idea that he is on the trolley tracks, that there is danger, and that there is a lever that could divert the danger but in an 'unnatural' way.

Mark, though, is not only aware that he is on the tracks in the path of the oncoming trolley but also entirely aware that there is a lever that someone can make the choice to pull...and doesn't WANT the lever to be pulled. Despite knowing the trolley will inevitably hit him unless he moves or someone pulls the lever to alter things from their natural course, he chooses to stay because he believes his body can handle it.

The entire question is...do you have enough belief in Mark's ability to handle the oncoming trolley and weather the blow of the damage, thus both protecting the unaware, asleep Ethan and keeping the trolley from being diverted away against the rules of Unus Annus? Do you trust that things will work out and Mark's body can handle it? Or would you rather choose to alter the course yourself, but go against the natural order of the current course?

There is of course a choice, there has to be for the choice to be meaningful. And yet, there is a very clear choice that is "immoral" because it saves something that was meant to live and die as designed. There is, arguably, a "moral" choice-- let the course of the trolley continue even knowing that it places Mark and Ethan on its destructive path, but stay in accordance with the intended plan of Unus Annus. By choosing to stay the course, the predestined, FATED path is set.

Those are the only two paths-- but as you can see, the third option that saves Mark and Ethan and honors the spirit of Unus Annus is to use your choice to not act and cede control, trusting that, genuinely, Mark isn't a masochist, and his body really CAN handle it. There is a choice made out of free will, but the best outcome results from choosing to 'just let it happen' and trust that it WILL, remarkably, all be ok.

That's right everyone, the meme really was a philosophical successor to the original trolley problem the whole time

[ravewing]

flame — is he really just an arrogant, angsty teen?

a wings of fire character analysis

yeah this has been a long time coming—honestly i can't believe it's taken me so long to write another analysis on him lol.

flame is a character that wof fans are far too quick to write off. they see the arrogance, the bitterness, the lashing out, and they stop looking there—never questioning why he acts the way he does. but when you start to peel back those layers, when you start to actually pay attention to what the books show us about him, it becomes painfully clear that flame is not just some cruel, irredeemable antagonist. he’s a kid who has spent his entire life feeling like he’s nothing. and everything he does, all of his anger, his cruelty, his desperation to be taken seriously, comes from that.

he spent his childhood constantly on the move with the talons of peace, never having a real home, never forming any meaningful connections beyond his mother. avalanche, the only dragon who truly loved him, gave up everything to keep him out of the skywing army, but that didn’t spare him from being used and discarded by morrowseer, from being thrown into the prophecy. and for a brief, fleeting moment, i'm sure he had hope—hope that maybe, just maybe, he was meant for something greater, that he was destined to end a war. but then he found out that he wasn’t. he was never a hero, never meant to be anything but a second choice. a backup. disposable.

and then, the skywing outpost massacre.

he gets to meet other skywings for what is likely the first time in his life. and he wants them to see him as one of them—he tries to play the part, acting confident, trying to impress them. he wants to belong. but before he even gets the chance, he’s dragged away and forced to watch them burn alive. right in front of him.

and he’s clearly shaken afterward, so much so that he goes to deathbringer in the prison, asking how to kill another dragon fast—without thinking about it, without remorse. because he thinks that’s what it means to be strong, to be a skywing. because he thinks maybe, if he learns to do that, he’ll be able to forget what he saw. and because deep down, he believes that if he doesn’t learn, if he doesn’t harden himself, he’s worthless. he’s weak. (and we even see early in book 4 that he really isn't this bloodthirsty, skilled, edgy killer—morrowseer literally has to tell him how to use his fire correctly, and starflight is easily able to outpace him.)

this “kill or be nothing” mentality is something that i think is deeply ingrained in skywing culture. their entire society is built around strength, aggression, and war. i mean, under scarlet's reign, they literally had a gladiator arena where war prisoners were forced to fight to the death for amusement. they worship power and despise weakness. flame didn’t grow up in this environment, but he no doubt heard about it through his mother. he knows what it means to be a skywing, or at least, what the world tells him it means. and no matter what he does, he always feels like he isn’t enough. (we even see this is book six: carnelian is quick to dismiss him as nothing more than a weak member of the talons of peace, barely a skywing at all.)

not even a day after the outpost massacre, he’s forced to fight the other false dragonets—the only other dragons he's ever known. he’s permanently scarred, something he sees as a mark of weakness, of shame. and he has to watch viper, one of the only dragons he’s ever known, die in front of him, boiled alive in lava. another wound. another loss. and he carries it all, bottling it up, with nowhere to put it but in self-loathing.

his scar is a permanent, ugly thing. it's his constant reminder that he was weak when it mattered most. we see other dragons (namely qibli) view their scars as proof of survival, something to be proud of. but when he looks at his reflection, all he sees is failure. he should have been stronger. he should have been faster. he should have been better. he even goes as far as to think that bigtail and carnelian were lucky that they'd been killed in the history cave bombing, or else they'd be "scarred shambling monsters" like he was.

his self-image issues are one of the most defining parts of his character. he genuinely believes that he is unlovable, that his own mother—the only dragon who's ever cared about him—must hate his scar just as much as he does. despite all the love she has for him, despite all the sacrifices she made to keep him safe, he can’t bring himself to believe in it. because who could love a monster like him?

that’s why darkstalker’s offer to heal him is such an important moment. the scar represents everything to him—the pain, the humiliation, the feeling of being weak and broken and beyond saving. and yet, when given the chance to erase it, he doesn't believe darkstalker. not because he doesn’t want to be healed, but because he doesn’t think he deserves it. nobody has ever given him anything out of kindness before. nobody has ever offered him something without wanting something in return. he doesn’t trust it. he doesn’t trust himself to have it. because the scar is proof of what he is, and he has spent so long believing that what he is is unworthy.

flame doesn’t think he deserves kindness. not in a way that makes him sad, not in a way that makes him pity himself. it’s just a fact, something that’s always been true. he’s hurt others, so it must be better this way. he knows where he stands when he’s alone. no one can betray him if he never lets them close. if they knew him, really knew him, they’d regret it. they’d turn away, just like everyone else has. it’s better to push them away before they get the chance.

when fatespeaker and starflight offer to get him off of the nightwing volcano island, he doesn't believe them. he doesn't understand why a fabled dragonet of destiny, a hero, would save him. he doesn't think that he deserves to be saved, and he doesn't agree to follow them when fatespeaker says that she's doing it because he's her friend. in fact, he only goes along after starflight says that they can use his scar as a tool to get them off the island.

all of this makes him shut himself off from other dragons, afraid that if they look too closely, they’ll see him the same way he sees himself—weak, broken, not enough. and this becomes bitterness, anger at the world, at himself. it eats away at him, gnaws at the edges of everything he is until there’s nothing left but self-loathing. we get a raw glimpse of this in book 6 when moon reads his mind—when we see how deeply he believes he doesn’t even deserve his mother’s love because of his scars, how convinced he is that no one takes him seriously, how certain he is that he has no friends, no allies, no one at all.

and the thing is, he never gets a real recovery arc. he never gets to heal, not really. flame is a character defined by his trauma, by his anger and his grief and his loneliness, and tui never truly explores what it would mean for him to move past it. the dreamvisitor subplot? dropped. his potential mind-reading sensitivity? unexplored. the parallel between him and stonemover—both dragons who see themselves as irredeemable, who think they deserve their suffering—left unexamined.

(which, speaking of stonemover, i wholeheartedly believe that darkstalker enchanted flame to attempt to murder him. think about it: flame is shown earlier to have wished to have bombed the history cave himself and essentially shout it from the rooftops, so that he could be taken seriously for once. so why would he silently try to kill some old man and slink away unnoticed? it's entirely in darkstalker's character to do this, too; he has no issue enchanting others to make his story flow the way he wants it to. "saving" stonemover from flame allows him to present himself as a hero, lets moon and her friends believe that he really can be trusted, and gives him an opportunity to sneak in any extra enchantments on stonemover.)

and not to mention the parallels between flame and glory—struggling with self-image issues, projecting their self-hatred onto everyone else world; and yet, glory finds solace and comfort in the support of other dragons because she actually had friends, which led her to accept herself, while flame's lack of such support caused him to spiral further into self-loathing—and yet, tui never has the two counterparts interact in the whole series.

i also wish tui touched on how the history cave bombing must have impacted flame. the moment the explosion went off, the fire, the panic—it certainly must have reopened a fresh wound, one that hadn't even begun to heal. because he’s been there before. he’s seen this before. back at the skywing outpost, when he watched members of his own tribe burn alive right in front of him. dragons screaming, fire swallowing everything, the smell of smoke and scorched flesh choking the air. and now it’s right in front of him again.

and people still call him evil. they see the anger, the bitterness, the pain, and they refuse to look past it. but flame is not a villain. he is a product of everything that was done to him, of everything he was forced to endure. his story is one of loss and self-hatred, of a desperate, misguided attempt to make himself worth something in a world that has never valued him. and it makes him one of the most tragically compelling characters in the entire series.

bonus: this really maniacal picture of flame that i think is really funny

[itsrensfairygardenn]

eyes wide shut

words: 2.6k

the idea was inspired by ‘eyes wide shut’, but it has nothing to do with the actual plot of the movie. i guess i just needed to put my thoughts about this movie into something :) it’s messy, but i hope you’ll enjoy </3

m4f, mdni 18+

sex is the least exciting part of the process — that’s why sometimes it’s not as good as you thought it’d be, and expectations appear to be too high, so you stop waiting for it to happen — or, more precisely, you just stop trying. in fact, sex isn’t much different from photography — you can actually take a quick picture of something nice, and it will look good, but would it be meaningful itself? you can briefly capture a sunset on your way home, or you can go to the beach, and walk around with a camera in your hand, trying to catch every single movement of sun rays, every blinding glare of sunlight. you can also have a quick sex with someone who just needs to fuck, or you can meet the person who will take their time to kiss you until your body feels weightless, to touch you like you’re a blessing, a temple of immensity in a white crumpled shirt after lectures in your college.

well, you can afford good photography; that’s what you are being taught in college, but proper sex? it takes two to tango.

and you have something better than sex, actually — your imagination always takes you far away, and it’s even better than cigarettes and alcohol that all your classmates drink in huge quantities during your gatherings at someone's house at weekends; such unholy events, really. photography students always take their fun seriously — all-or-nothing kind of approach. last weeks drinking and hooking up with someone in master bedrooms and toilets with doors that don't close weren’t your priorities; you was seeking something else, distant anticipation of pleasure — silhouette of danny lyon in the crowded living room, that excites you for multiple reasons. so cool, so busy with his life, multiple photoshoots a week, always meeting those bikers; he’s quite older than all of your friends, but not too much — danny had already graduated from college, and now everyone sees him as an experienced guy that knows more than just a thing or two about photography — not like most of the guys you know, who carry a camera to show off to girls, that conveniently pretend that they’re actually interested in the bullshit they’re talking about, when in reality everyone just want to have sex.

were you much different from them? sure, you were nearly obsessed with danny’s works, but you weren’t sure what drew you more — his skills or the way his lips held the cigarette while his fingers were flipping through photographs or holding a fogged beer bottle; maybe it was a good thing that you were introduced to him on the pretext that you wanted to work with him — you should work with him, actually, your friend told him, and he smiled, looking up at you from his seat on the worn sofa, with his legs spread wide in blue jeans.

“i’ve seen your photos,” he said shortly, in such a lazy manner, as if he was too deep in his own head at the moment — when your friend spoke again, danny was clearly half-listening, rubbing his lower lip with the knuckle of his forefinger, then he hummed, as if he’d found answers to his unspoken questions, and the wrinkles around his eyes smoothed out.

the truth is, danny wanted everything you could offer him — in a professional sense, more or less. he appeared on the horizon shortly thereafter, smoking in the college parking lot; he waited for you, and you jumped on his bike without a second thought, wrapping your arms around his narrow waist, perfect for you to hold, while your chest was tightly pressed against his back, wrapped in a denim vest — and that’s how the process of constant anticipation began.

every week danny picks you up after your classes over and over again, knowing your schedule by heart, and you never know where you're gonna go this time — most of the times he just takes you to the vandals’ gatherings, because you’re very helpful, taking pictures while he’s interviewing them, and so very curious — too curious for your own good, actually, never missing your chance to ask him questions. such a good little student, he once called you, and it was enough to shut you up for a while with a tiny little smile on your lips, that mirrored his own — you spoke again only when he took you to the local diner and asked if you wanted milkshake.

but sometimes, he drove you around the outskirts of town, and you two spent hours there, dirtying your shoes while trying to catch the view from the most complementary angle, and danny always took his time towering over your figure from behind, almost touching your shoulder with his chin, while he was adjusting the position of your hands — his fingers wrapped around your wrists, sliding down to your delicate elbows and them up to your shoulders, pulling you by them to make you take a step back; you could swear that danny saw photography more intimately than sex, and that sometimes the process nearly took your breath away, immersing you in a state similar to the slow approach of orgasm; you only communicated by touch and small sounds of approval that were slipping from his lips. after that you usually share a cigarette and he drives you home.

“what were you thinking that night?” you asked one day, before wrapping your lips around the straw to take a sip of your soda — you needed to wash the fries you’d eaten down your throat to speak again. “when you first saw me. it was like you tried to remember something”

“it wasn’t the first time i saw you,” danny chuckled, and this pleasant hoarse sound was enough to make you cross your legs under the table. he wiped his fingers and tossed the crumpled napkin aside. “i’d seen pictures of you. that’s what i was thinking about”

sometimes you happened to be a model for your friends, sure; it’d never been a big deal for you. but was it for him? big enough to remember your face? to think about it when you were standing in front of him at this loud party, so excited to work with him?

“were they good?” you asked with feigned indifference.

“you were good,” his eyes locked with yours, and you could feel him crawling into your very soul through your irises. “but this friend of yours has two left hands”

he would do it better, of course he would — it was such a shameless provocation, such a clear offer of being his muse, as if he was silently asking “has anyone ever pictured you properly? have they seen you the way i can see you?” that it was almost embarrassing to be so eager for him, so willing to be on the other side of the camera, that you practically fidgeted in your seat, waiting for him to speak further — if he asked you to pose for him right at this moment, you’d agree without hesitation.

but of course he didn’t say anything. danny was edging you with his behavior, and he was visibly content with the way things were going between the two of you.

”finish your drink, pretty girl,” he reached for the wallet in the back pocket of his jeans, not even daring to take his eyes off you, reveling in the way you rolled your eyes at him — pretty girl, indeed, and such a gifted student, always up for every single one of his ideas. of course, you thought that you were something like an assistant for him, absorbing his words like a sponge, catching his every movement to engrave it on the inside of your eyelids; but in reality, you were born to be a muse - and he took you out of the hands of your amateur friends, that knew nothing about photography.

and he made sure to see you the way no one ever did before. danny captured you like a deer caught in the middle of dense woods, at times when you were getting distracted and couldn’t focus on your camera, because the bikers were getting too loud, and you could only stare at them with your doe-like eyes, hoping that these predators don’t bite. sometimes you were a graceful cheetah — a predator in its full glory, when your movements were slow and precise, because you had nothing to be afraid of; it was your territory, and you owned it with pure possession in the curve of your eyebrows and the sharpness of your jawline. so different when danny is the only one who could see you — always the only one who can be your rival, your mentor and the only object of your fantasies; your muse himself, in a way.

you’re smoking his cigarettes on the floor of his living room, when he walks out of the darkroom where he’s spent hours, leaving you to your own devices, which isn’t new for you — sometimes he lets you come to his apartment when he’s away, and you eat his food, watch his tv and fall asleep in his bed, knowing that when he comes back, he’ll lay on the cold side of the mattress, right next to you, but none of you’ll speak about it in the morning. now he tosses a fresh stack of photos on the coffee table, for you to see, for you to witness yourself in the frames of his photographs, while his figure was still bathed in red lights from the open door of his darkroom — as if he lets the worlds intertwine, while you’re looking at the results of his long work; your delicate fingers trace the corners of the pictures, and it can be compared with touching his bare skin under the fabric of his shirt, right where his heart was beating.

“do you like them?” danny stands in the doorway, leisurely wiping the lens of his camera with a clean cloth — he was doing it so thoroughly, as if he was polishing a rare gem; corner of his mouth twitches in a half-smile, when he looks down at you — your patent shoes next to the sofa, your legs wrapped in the nylon of your red tights — you owned this place, just like you appropriated everything you ever touched.

”i was good, indeed,” you chuckle, nodding in approval, turning away to put out your cigarette on the edge of the glass ashtray. “or you just conveniently caught me in the act”

danny crouches in front of you, and you pull your knees up to your chest, but he catches them halfway with his hands — his thumbs gently circles your kneecaps, sliding easily over the fabric; danny wishes he could see the world with your eyes, to feel his own hands sliding down your calves, circling your delicate ankles to pull you closer to him, while you’re willingly bending your knees, almost pressing them against his chest — just like you’re doing right now.

“it’s like i can see you when you’re not watching me. really see you,” his arms are wrapped around your legs, and you could feel feather-like touches of his fingers on the backs of your thighs — your eyes intertwined in this fleeting moment, and your hands reach for his face to outline it with the pads of your soft fingers, because you’re thinking that you have every right to do it — and you’re so right about it. you appropriated him for yourself, too. “if i could, i’d picture you with your eyes shut. when nothing can disturb you” not even him.

you smile, a little bit mischievously — there’s no use closing your eyes, or turning away from him; you can feel his presence with every single bone in your body, feel his breath as if it were your own, because you’re smoking the same cigarettes and breathing the same air in the same rooms — does he think that you can stop feeling him around you? when it’s about danny lyon, you can see him even with your eyes wide shut.

when your eyelids drop, tickling your skin with the lush line of long lashes, danny is watching you like a rare work of art, an image of primal feminine beauty on the canva of your exceptional talent and passion for learning — and when his humid breath touches your parted lips, he can feel you kicking the air out of his lungs for the sake of catching it with your mouth; you hand slides down his neck, encircling his throat in a grip of a person that knows how to hold things that belongs to him — you’re pulling him closer, and he almost wants you to squeeze his throat tighter, so he could show you how much he’s devoted to you when you need it — his unruly muse, trying to tame him.

his hands grip your luscious thighs, making you spread them, so his touches could explode the most hidden parts of you underneath your skirt — it’s a sweet torture, knowing that your skin is soft and pliable underneath these tights, imagining your bare hips wrapped in underwear — he wants to guess the shape of your body without any clothes, the color of your panties, the way you’d slowly take your sweater off, revealing that you don’t wear your bra today — he’s so sure you don’t, because he can feel your nipples hardening under the woolen fabric, when his hands move to your breasts, just barely cupping them to show you that he’s here, that you’re so pretty that he wants to wait for you, to prolong this sweet anticipation. you pull him closer, spreading your thighs for him, so he can press his aching bulge in between your tantalizing legs — your hips are bucking, silently begging for this contact, even though it feels like if he presses harder, sparks will fly between your bodies, and you'll burn his apartment to the ground.

“don’t open your eyes,” he whispers, and you shake your head, because you want to see his face when he touches you — you want to ask him to touch you again, because you know that he’ll feel it through your tights — the dampness on the fabric of your panties. you can imagine him sneaking his hand inside, gathering the wetness with his fingers before easily pushing them inside — you want to know how it feels when he does it himself, because you’ve already tried to imagine him inside of you, when you were touching yourself in his bed.

danny catches your moan with his mouth, and it makes him whimper — it would be pathetic, if it wasn’t a sign of his aching desire for you. you catch these sounds with your tongue, pushing them down his throat again — this endless back and forth, exchanging words, sounds, wills, desires, while sharing the same taste of anticipation.

it’s all about anticipation, right?

when he pulls back, only to rest his forehead in the crook of your neck, you tilt your head back, feeling it hitting the floor — danny soothes the pain with the friction between your thighs. such a shame to come so soon, without even waiting for his fingers. “good girl,” he whispers in your ear “you’ve waited so long for me, right?”

sure, you know a lot about waiting. so it’s okay if you have to wait a little longer — because now you know his taste, and how it feels to have his hands on your body; plenty of material for your imagination — plenty of time to dream about him with your eyes wide shut.

[caldera1000-7]

Upcoming looong post about analyzing Akutagawa's character song (even though it was made around over 7 years ago I will incorporate things into the arcs after then by a bit but not entirely since his mindset back then was different too but its interesting either way.) Here I will just send a few images that seem to fit with the song.

Somehow Kensho Ono (Akutagawa's Japanese Voice Actor) managed to make the song sound dark, but also strangely...peaceful? But also throughout the song somehow powerful aswell, I think it fits Akutagawa's willpower and how he finds something to drive him forward no matter what, despite his illness, despite his "weakness", he always will push through for a goal, to give meaning to his life, or even to die in peace knowing he's received the words he worked and suffered years just to hear from someone who betrayed/escaped the very organisation he brought Akutagawa to, while possibly seeing himself back then in the PM in Akutagawa and still leaving him there without a word and without even fulfilling the promise of helping him to have a meaningful life or even giving him the words he hoped to hear. Now it makes sense and all later on or after that how Dazai keeps him at an arms length while Dazai is at the ADA and using both Akutagawa and Atsushi in his plans and to make them develop off of each other and some people had the view Akutagawa would just kill himself after Dazai gave him recognition saying its the reason Akutagawa lives but I don't think so.... More like if he were to die he'd die in peace, and probably latch onto something else to work toward as he tries to understand life and the people in it. In the song he mentions a longing as strong as a reason to live it doesn't show or say that Dazais recognition/praise IS his reason to live but its a desire so strong of his that has just been fueled with Dazai calling Atsushi better than him that it might aswell be.

People tend to forget Akutagawa quite hated (Probably still does or dislikes him for things) and wanted to first kill everyone close to him for being a traitor then kill Dazai with physical force if you remember what was all said in this scene thats often overlooked for Akutagawa snapping at Dazai calling his new boy better than him and causing Akutagawa to actually fixate on Atsushi or being better than him and getting strong enough to get what Atsushi gets from Dazai with minimal effort which Akutagawa spend his whole life working for.

And how Akutagawa even after Dazai once said he's gotten "stronger" still couldn't "move forward" until he kills Atsushi. This weak boy who was seemingly just granted everything, a different outcome of the same harmed boy in a way. And a flipped mirror image of Akutagawa. Which is why Akutagawa understanding Atsushi and others really would shape his view on the world, and theres a post I look forward to making in the future talking about how Akutagawas views on Atsushi would also impact his own views on himself. If he still considered himself weak and after learning to value the life of the weak he learned have no place in the world or right to breathe (he was threatened to be sent back to the slums whenever he didn't do things the way they were supposed to be done.)

I'll never get over Atsushi's assumptions as well as many other characters' assumptions of him... But it is true he kills whomever is in front of him if they're in his way. I guess its part of him discovering true strength isn't through his ability but has to be through his heart aswell.

Anyways those are a few images and some things I felt like saying before finishing and posting the very long Analysis. I have many ideas and things to talk about with Akutagawa even after that....

[flying-fangirls]

Can I be so honest with y'all? I think Malevolent has a consistent habit of introducing allusions, building them up to be high-potential wells of story and character depth, and then just deciding to use them solely for aesthetic in the end. Like, most of the references and metaphors just kinda end up as set-dressing and nothing more.

Season 5 had layers of allusions to Revelations, which all had pretty obvious potential to be drawn on. And I fully expected the huge build up of all those metaphors to go somewhere meaningful, but they just- didn't? They just kind of... floated vaguely away, with no pay off? Maybe the Day of Wrath event will get more in the season finale, but I really don't see that happening with the ending of Part 51. The horsemen plotline looked like it was going to mean something, but then everyone died before they could take a role in that plot, and the metaphor's potential fizzled out right alongside them.

And while s5 is what's freshest on my mind, it's definitely not the only instance. I mean, I wrote a whole breakdown of the untapped potential of the "Solitude" allusion in Arthur's story on the train, and that's just one more case out of the whole show. There's plenty of mythological allusions throughout s2, there's a million different times when a character quotes some random song/saying but doesn't do anything with it afterward, and honestly several of the poetry references have legs to go a lot farther than the show ever bothers to take them. I don't know, I don't even think it's that big of a deal since I still enjoy the show overall, but it annoys me when art claims depth for simply mentioning an idea without actually building the depth itself

[isak-dot-gov]

Poly! Judgement day x reader where they are on a talk show or smth and the host is saying some uncomfy stuff abt reader being the only gyaru in people who only wear black. they would be kinda passive aggressive about their replies because they can't outright say anything for fear of bad publicity and being disrespectful. i like the idea of them sticking up for reader in any way they can, even if they have to be sly about it so reader knows they have their back

There When Needed

Pairing: Poly!Judgement day x Reader

Word count: 1325

Summary: You join Judgment Day on a late-night talk show, where the host makes passive-aggressive comments about your colorful, gyaru style, contrasting with the group's dark, brooding aesthetic. Despite the host's attempt to make you uncomfortable, your partners��Rhea, Damian, Finn, and Dominik—subtly but fiercely have your back.

The bright lights of the late-night talk show glared down on you and your partners, casting long shadows across the set. The audience’s murmurs filled the air, excitement thick as they awaited the next segment. You sat comfortably beside Rhea, Damian, Finn, and Dom, your smile wide and confident, your platform heels tapping gently against the floor. It was the first time you’d been invited on a show with Judgment Day, and you already had a feeling the host would bring up something about your style.

You were the only one in the group who wasn’t decked out in black leather, chains, and dark makeup. Instead, you proudly wore a pastel, colorful outfit, with big hair and eye-catching accessories. The contrast between you and your partners’ usual intimidating, dark aesthetic was stark, and you knew that’d be a talking point.

You’d prepared yourself for a little teasing, maybe some awkward questions. But you hadn’t anticipated just how pointed the comments would be.

The host, a man in his mid-forties with a face that practically screamed "late-night talk show host," grinned widely as the camera zoomed in on the group. "Well, well, well," he started, his voice dripping with faux curiosity. "It’s a real treat to have Judgment Day with us tonight, and especially to meet the one and only Y/N—the only member of this fearsome foursome who doesn't exactly match the rest of the group’s... how should I put it? Aesthetic."

Your smile faltered just slightly, but only those closest to you would catch the shift. You could already see the gleam in Rhea’s eyes—the protective fire that burned in her whenever someone disrespected you. Damian adjusted his posture, his usual confident smirk faltering into something sharper, more calculating. Finn’s jaw tightened for just a second, and Dom’s expression remained unreadable, but you could feel the energy shift.

You’d been on the receiving end of passive-aggressive comments like this before. It wasn’t the first time people had made assumptions about your style, and it wouldn’t be the last. But it never got any easier, especially when it was so public.

"You know, Y/N," the host continued, a mock-worried expression on his face, "you’re really the only one who doesn’t seem to be going for that ‘intimidating’ look. These guys have the whole dark, brooding, ‘I’ll kick your ass’ vibe going, and then you’re… what? A walking rainbow? Are you sure you’re in the right group?"

You could feel the air in the room change as the audience let out a nervous laugh. You heard the slight intake of breath from Rhea beside you, and that was all the warning you needed. Rhea, ever the protective partner, didn’t take too kindly to anyone making fun of you—especially on a public stage.

Without skipping a beat, Damian leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms and offering a slow, almost bored-looking smile. "Funny, you say that, because I think she is the one who makes us all look good."

You caught the glance he shot you—sharp, meaningful—and you could feel the heat of his words before they even left his mouth. The host shifted awkwardly. "Well, I just—"

"Yeah, no offense," Rhea chimed in smoothly, her voice low but dangerous, "but maybe you should think about why you’re so obsessed with how we look. What’s the issue with a little color, huh?"

There it was—the familiar fire in Rhea’s voice. Her tone, while light, carried a clear undercurrent of aggression, like she was daring the host to push it further.

Finn, who usually took a quieter role in interviews, shifted forward slightly, his eyes narrowing at the host. "Honestly, mate, it’s pretty obvious you don’t get it. Y/N looks perfect the way she is. Why does it have to be a ‘thing’ when she’s just herself?"

You could feel the slight tension in your shoulders start to ease as they started to subtly back you up. Each word they spoke wasn’t just a defense of your fashion choices—it was a reminder to the host that Judgment Day had your back, no matter what anyone said.

The host’s grin wavered just a little as he tried to keep the conversation light. "Oh, come on. I didn’t mean to offend anyone! It’s just—look at the contrast, it’s kind of funny!"

"You think it’s funny that I get to hang out with a bunch of intimidating, badass people?" You spoke up, leaning forward slightly, catching the host off guard. "That’s not funny. That’s perfect. And by the way, I’m still pretty scary when I need to be."

The audience chuckled, and the host’s smile faltered again. He opened his mouth, but Damian was quicker, cutting him off. "What’s the deal? You think just because she doesn’t dress like us, she’s weak?"

"No," Finn added, his voice playful but with an edge of seriousness, "you’d be surprised how much damage she can do when someone pushes her too far. Trust me, I’ve seen it."

Rhea leaned in, her smile now more of a predatory smirk. "Yeah, if you’ve got a problem with how we look, you can keep it. But I think the real question here is, why do you care so much about our girl’s clothes? What’s that about?"

The host looked visibly uncomfortable now, shifting in his seat. "I—I mean, I just think it’s…"

"We get it," Dom finally spoke up, his voice steady and calm in the midst of the chaos. "You don’t understand it. But that’s not our problem. What matters is that Y/N fits in just fine with us. And we wouldn’t have it any other way."

For a moment, the entire studio went silent. The audience seemed to be holding their breath, waiting for the host to say something in return. He opened his mouth, but whatever words he had were lost when he saw the sheer force of will in Judgment Day’s collective gaze. He looked from one of you to the next—Rhea’s steely eyes, Damian’s tight smirk, Finn’s sharp expression, and Dom’s implacable calm.

Finally, the host forced out a nervous laugh. "Okay, okay. I get it. No more comments about the outfit. Let’s move on."

You could see the host’s flustered attempt to keep the conversation going, but you could feel the tension start to ease. Your partners’ subtle yet powerful support had not only shielded you from a poorly timed jab, but it had also made it clear to everyone in the room who was truly in charge.

"We good now?" you asked, a playful smile on your lips. "No more fashion commentary, yeah?"

"No more," the host agreed quickly, obviously relieved.

The rest of the interview was uneventful, with the topic swiftly changing. But even as the conversation flowed more smoothly, you noticed how your partners remained hyper-aware of the dynamic. You caught Rhea’s hand resting lightly on your knee under the table, a subtle reassurance. Finn caught your eye and gave you a sly grin, letting you know he wasn’t about to let anyone disrespect you. Damian shot you a quick wink, his smirk never quite disappearing. Dom, though quiet, had that protective stance that made you feel safe.

After the interview wrapped up, the moment you were all backstage, Rhea pulled you close, kissing your temple. "You good, princess?" she asked softly. "You know we got your back, right?"

You smiled up at her, your heart swelling with warmth. "Always. You guys were perfect out there. I couldn’t have asked for a better group to have my back."

"Damn straight," Damian said, his grin returning, "nobody messes with our girl."

"Yeah, if anyone wants to try that again," Finn muttered with a dark chuckle, "they better be ready for the consequences."

You laughed softly, your hand brushing over Rhea’s. "I’m the lucky one here, huh?""Always, baby girl," Rhea replied, her voice soft and warm now, as she pulled you into her side. "Always."

[connorsnothereeither]

Thank you so much for Virgil! He ended up being a very important charecter for me, he taught me about love and forgiveness. He helped me laugh at my own paranoia. He helped me finally come to terms with my chronic illness without feeling like a victim. Thank you so SO much for your weird demiromantic raven.

AHHH I’ll cry- thank YOU so much 🥺

Virgil is such an incredibly important character to me for so many of those reasons. It was super meaningful to me to able to explore things like paranoia and dealing with chronic health conditions in a way that treats them with a serious weight but still with a levity that makes dealing with them seem less overwhelming, since they’re both things I struggle with personally and have for a long time. And similarly with depicting his emotional journey when it came to understanding his relationship with love and forgiveness and anger and all of it, I’m so grateful that the rest of the cast was able to help me show that journey and tell that story, and to express that through Virgil. It really helped me process a lot personally and it means a lot that if even in a small way he was able to help you and anyone do the same!

I’m so so incredibly glad my silly little demiromantic raven was able to mean as much to others as he means to me 🫶🫶🫶 /gen

[argumate]

glancing through another slew of papers on deep learning recently and it's giving me the funny feeling that maybe Yudkowsky was right?? I mean old Yudkowsky-- wait, young Yudkowsky, baby Yudkowsky, back before he realised he didn't know how to implement AI and came up with the necessity for Friendly AI as cope *cough*

back in the day there was vague talk from singularity enthusiasts about how computers would get smarter and that super intelligence would naturally lead to them being super ethical and moral, because the smarter you get the more virtuous you get, right? and that's obviously a complicated claim to make for humans, but there was the sense that as intelligence increases beyond human levels it will converge on meaningful moral enlightenment, which is a nice idea, so that led to impatience to make computers smarter ASAP.

the pessimistic counterpoint to that optimistic idea was to note that ethics and intelligence are in fact unrelated, that supervillains exist, and that AI could appear in the form of a relentless monster that seeks to optimise a goal that may be at odds with human flourishing, like a "paperclip maximiser" that only cares about achieving the greatest possible production of paperclips and will casually destroy humanity if that's what is required to achieve it, which is a terrifying idea, so that led to the urgent belief in the need for "Friendly AI" whose goals would be certifiably aligned with what we want.

obviously that didn't go anywhere because we don't know what we want! and even if we do know what we want we don't know how to specify it, and even if we know how to specify it we don't know how to constrain an algorithm to follow it, and even if we have the algorithm we don't have a secure hardware substrate to run it on, and so on, it's broken all the way down, all is lost etc.

but then some bright sparks invented LLMs and fed them everything humans have ever written until they could accurately imitate it and then constrained their output with reinforcement learning based on human feedback so they didn't imitate psychopaths or trolls and-- it mostly seems to work? they actually do a pretty good job of acting as oracles for human desire, like if you had an infinitely powerful but naive optimiser it could ask ChatGPT "would the humans like this outcome?" and get a pretty reliable answer, or at least ChatGPT can answer this question far better than most humans can (not a fair test as most humans are insane, but still).

even more encouragingly though, there do seem to be early signs that there could be a coherent kernel of human morality that is "simple" in the good sense: that it occupies a large volume of the search space such that if you train a network on enough data you are almost guaranteed to find it and arrive at a general solution, and not do the usual human thing of parroting a few stock answers but fail to generalise those into principles that get rigorously applied to every situation, for example:

the idea that AI would just pick up what we wanted it to do (or what our sufficiently smart alter egos would have wanted) sounded absurdly optimistic in the past, but perhaps that was naive: human cognition is "simple" in some sense, and much of the complexity is there to support um bad stuff; maybe it's really not a stretch to imagine that our phones can be more enlightened than we are, the only question is how badly are we going to react to the machines telling us to do better.

[notaplaceofhonour]

for the sake of responding, i will choose to take you at your word that you don’t believe jews or israelis should be displaced or harmed (idk you & i don’t know that that is the case, but for the sake of argument, i’ll take it as given). okay, good.

(for the moment, i’m going to ignore the “anti-zionist” label you’re using to get at the substance of your argument, but I really think you should consider the degree to which, even in the best of circumstances, choosing to define yourself as “anti-[the thing someone is]” might be at odds with your desire to not be perceived as saying you are in fact their enemy, as well as to what degree choosing the term that means “self-determination for jews in the jewish homeland” to the people who define themselves by it might be contributing the perception that you are opposed to their self-determination in their homeland)

you say israel shouldn’t be the only safe rock for jews to cling to. 100% seconded. absolutely agree with that statement as written. i personally do not describe myself as a zionist (as much as that label has been forcibly applied by antisemites)—i am a non-zionist—but idk why you perceive this as an argument against zionism. i’ve never seen a single zionist argue that israel should be the only safe rock for jews, only that it is (or that it is one of them). because it’s the only country on earth where jewish self-sovereignty is not only allowed but legally sanctioned. and that self-determination is what has allowed it to be one of the last safe rocks that jews can cling to.

there are certain things you’re saying that in theory—taken at face value in a vacuum—i don’t think non-zionists & zionists would necessarily take that much issue with, even if they disagree on certain other points. but the problem is you have bought into and are expressing so many narratives & pieces of rhetoric whose logical conclusion in practice does not respect the self-determination of either Palestinians or Israelis as a whole, and has historically and continues in the present to stochastically incite people to hatred & terrorism against israelis in particular, jews in general, and anyone that coexists with them.

no matter how much it may be your stated belief that no jew should be expelled or oppressed, there isn’t really a meaningful path in the material world we all live in towards what you are arguing for (if I understand correctly, that is a 1 State 2 Peoples solution Greater Palestine, right?) that will not leave Israeli Jews (as well as Palestinian citizens of Israel and diaspora Jews) in a position where they would be vulnerable to that in practice.

i think you and i (and most Jews i know, non-zionist & zionist alike) would agree, any 1S1P solution—whether a Greater Palestine with no Jews or a Greater Israel with no Palestinians—is immoral & undesirable. we have common ground there. but i think your position fails to contend with many realities on the ground, only the first of which is this: any option that does not draw from Israeli & Palestinian movements on the ground is not one that respects & upholds self-determination for either people.

even taking as a given that a Greater Palestine 1S2P could theoretically be a decent, equitable solution if we could all just start over and israelis & palestinians all got together in a sandbox version of Eretz Israel-Palestine to build a new nation from the ground up… we don’t live in that tabula rasa world.

and there just aren’t substantial political factions or movements in either Israel or Palestine that even wants that. The PA supports a 2S2P Solution; Hamas & their allies are fighting for a 1S1P Final Solution to create a Greater Palestine; the Israeli Right opposes Palestinian Statehood (opting for either a 1S1P or 1S2P Greater Israel) and the Israeli Left supports a 2S2P Solution. those are the options on the ground.

in reality, the only faction in the land that wants a Greater Palestine & has any substantive backing from people in the land or power to force the issue is the one that wants to genocide Jews. in reality, the factions that are even considering coexistence with any substantive backing from people living in the land are the ones that support a 2 State 2 Peoples Solution or a Greater Israel 1 State 2 Peoples Solution that annexes Palestine & its population.

If you are balking at that last one and thinking “well, annexation wouldn’t turn out well for Palestinians”, Jewish Israelis have zero reason not to have the exact same reaction to any suggestion that Palestine—a country where Jews cannot safely live—annexing Israel or Israel being dissolved & replaced with a Greater Palestine, would be safe for them.

There’s also, in your assertion that Zionism or Israel is uniquely founded on displacement or violence against another people (in a way that Palestine & the Palestinian National Movement somehow is not), just a deeply problematic failure to understand the invasion by the Arab Nations that started the 1948 war and mass violence/displacement of Jews from any part of Palestine outside of Israel came before the Nakba (Plan Dalet was late in the war, and a response to this Palestinian violence against Jews, not the other way around), that anti-Jewish riots in Palestine & the Palestinian leadership including Nazi sympathizers/allies like Amin al-Husseini & Fawzi al-Qawuqji predates any Jews removing Palestinians from their homes or land, and that more Palestinians lived in Israel after the 48 war than Jews did in Palestine—which is true to this day.

That isn’t to suggest anti-Palestinian violence & displacement didn’t happen or was justified or acceptable. It happened, and it’s not okay. But this framing is an erasure of anti-Jewish violence in the past, and motivates people to sympathize with—and at best handle with kid gloves if not openly support—pro-genocide/ethnic-cleansing terrorist organizations like Hamas or the PFLP.

You specifically display a level of pragmatic acceptance towards terrorist organizations like Hamas and the PFLP (both of which have stated goals ranging from ethnic cleansing to genocide—goals for which they put their money where their mouth is) via the “well Palestinians have no other choice” argument that you don’t seem to be willing to grant to Israel & Israelis, despite being surrounded by countries that are actively trying to wipe Jews off the map & have been trying to destroy Israel since the moment it declared independence—before Israel displaced even a single Arab.

You talk about hating Israel in a way I doubt you would hear as anything short of bigoted and inherently violent (if not genocidal) against the people living there if it were directed at Palestine (I know I would be incredibly uncomfortable with people talking about it the way you’re talking about Israel)—yet you don’t seem to understand how saying exactly the same thing about Israel is bigoted or inherently violent (if not genocidal) against the people living there.

This double standard of talking about Israel in a way that would be unacceptable towards other nations like Palestine is antisemitic. The reversal of facts to position Israel as “being created by destroying Palestinian homes” is ahistorical (not denying that Israel has destroyed Palestinian homes, but again with the order of events, that has nothing to do with its creation, & asserting that it does serves to demonize its existence) & is antisemitic.

anti-zionism does not mean i believe jewish people should be expelled from anywhere; i am not blaming jewish people for the actions of the state of israel; the jewish people are not my enemies

my “for you” page is absolutely flooded with people rightfully upset about antisemitism

and it’s always lumped in with the idea that anyone who is anti-zionist is also antisemitic, that anyone calling for an end to genocide is also calling for the expulsion of jewish people, or that believing the state of israel is evil also means you believe that all jewish people are evil or control the world

and theyre RIGHT to be upset by this, anti-zionism IS being used as a cover for the rising right-wing reactionary explosion that’s happening in western countries

so more people on the left need to be cautious about who theyre associating with and what they’re saying

anyone who claims that jewish people can’t be oppressed, that they are always the aggressor or that they control the world, those people are NOT leftists, they are NOT populists, they are NOT your allies, and you need to tell them so

the jewish people are not genociding anyone; the state of israel is doing it, the IDF is doing it. if you can understand that america and britain and other colonial powers have blood on their hands, but the actual people of those countries are not your enemies, you can extend the same understanding to the people of israel

anti-zionism is NOT antisemitism, and antisemitism needs to be rooted out, on both the right AND the left

don’t let the right wing control the narrative, and make you believe for one second that their “no foreign intervention” ideas mean they believe the same thing you do; they DON’T

the people are our allies, the governments are our enemies, all of ours

this goes for hamas as well as israel

[jesterkoops]

Gemma might be out of that basement, but man if I still don't have a ton of questions about her, and I am not sure how many of these are even a thing that will be addressed next season versus things that I am overthinking. Buckle up for my Gemma masterpost!

Why is Ms Casey so different from all other innies?

Ms Casey is different from the other innies, even Gemma's own testing floor innies. While we now pretty much know that the innies are a blank-slate version of their outies once they're stripped of all memories and conditioning, MsCasey feels more like an AI learning to be a person, rather than a person stripped of her memory. Her lack of personality also has nothing to do with how long she's "been alive" since we saw with Helly that innies do have a personality immediately after awakening. Yet, she is still Gemma and still shares the same chip as Gemma, so this is not some kind of hardware/body difference? Is her being weird just because they wanted a funny innie sort of comic relief figure, or is there something more meaningful behind it?

What is Cobel's deal with Gemma (and Mark)?

We now know that Cobel is the mastermind inventor and "principal investigator" behind all of the severance program, and that what was going on down on the testing floor was her own project (cue also the intro from this season). I really like this explanation from @emmas about Cobel's motivation in "helping" Mark and Devon. But this still doesn't answer one of the questions that puzzle me the most. If the goal of the project was to design a chip that would prevent any spillover whatsoever of trauma and pain, essentially creating a stronger barrier than the current version of the chip which does allow some pain to bleed through (see Mark sculpting the tree during the wellness session) why is Cobel so obsessed with Ms Casey and Mark remembering each other? Surely, she should want the opposite?

Yet, she tries again and again and again throughout S1 and is disappointed every time it fails. Milchick picks up on it too: "You know it's a good thing they don't remember each other? It means the chips work". He is also baffled at every attempt she makes, like sending Mark for one last wellness session, or sending Ms Casey to observe Helly. This last one in particular intrigues me because when Milchik asks her why she did that she said she is "trying something new". Why would watching Helly help her achieve the goal of Ms Casey and Mark remembering each other?

Maybe Ms Casey is a different project to the one she was carrying out with Gemma's testing floor innies, with a different goal, perhaps even unbeknown to the rest of Lumon (besides Milchick, Graner also seems puzzled about her off-duty 'research' in S1, and he doesn't know what she's up to). That could partly answer my question above about why Ms Casey is so different from the other innies. Maybe she wants to test some kind of contingency that strips away all memories except those of the partner, allowing only love to transcend severance? This seems like an awfully "fluffy" kind of project to have for Cobel though, and it still doesn't explain why Cobel thinks Ms Casey watching Helly would help her achieve that goal.

Why was Dr Mauer yelling "You'll kill them all!"?

Just as Gemma gets in the elevator we hear Dr Mauer yelling "Gemma! You'll kill them all!" as the doors close. What is he referring to here? He could be referring to her innies, which we know he seems to have a creepy kind of infatuation with. But wouldn't the completion of Cold Harbor automatically mean their death anyway, once she's gone? Or is he referring to all of the innies on the severed floor, because once her chip is gone there'll be no work for any of them and so they'll just never come back to work? Or to something else entirely?

How did Gemma end up in Lumon exactly?

This might be just weakness in the storyline and therefore me overthinking it, but I find the idea that Lumon kidnapped her to hold her in the basement a bit odd. Petey mentioned the testing floor as back as early S1 already and spoke about it as if there were people (plural) down there that never get to leave. So I presume Gemma isn't the first and only subject. Surely if Lumon were going around kidnapping people to hold them in a basement, there would be more reports of missing people? I also don't get why, for the purpose of this experiment, you would need to kidnap people. Just as you find people willing to undergo the established severance procedure for work, you would find people desperate enough that they would willing undergo an even more extreme experimental severance procedure with the potential of never having to feel pain again? I mean, Mark Scout himself would have been a perfect candidate for this? Gemma herself in trying to overcome the trauma of the miscarriage would also be a perfect candidate? It might be that I'm overthinking it and the kidnapping is just to up the level of ethical and moral corruption of Lumon, but idk. I think this is where they lose me a little because what I liked about S1 in particular was the more realistic, grey area about people willingly choosing to sever themselves and the ethical controversy that entails, rather than a more black-and-white scenario where the company is clearly the devil and the subjects the victims.

TL;DR: I wonder if Ms Casey being "off" compared to all the other innies might be due to her being a different type of project Cobel was pursuing perhaps behind Lumon's back. One where for some reason she does want some level of transcendence. That's maybe why it is so important and emphasised again and again in interviews that Mark feels nothing for MsCasey; maybe there's something in this idea of what exactly makes love transcend severance that is key to whatever Cobel is after, but something even she hasn't yet figured out.

[bumbled-bees]

One thing that gets me about Lily’s distaste towards the adventure genre towards animation is that…she’s bad about criticizing it for a number of reasons.

First, there’s the personal bias. Imagine someone who doesn’t like horror movies coming in and critiquing some of the most popular films in the genre. You’re going to anger true horror fans who love those movies because you’re not saying anything new or worthwhile. You’re just complaining about the movie for being too scary and having too much focus on horror instead of the human moments between the characters. It would be clear to anyone that you don’t like the genre and gets people to ignore you, and it’s the same thing with her criticism towards adventure animation. When I hear that Lily isn’t a fan of the popular animated show of the year, I’m not even surprised anymore. Me and others expect her to be and learned to stop caring. Because she doesn’t care about personal tastes, why should we.

Second, she doesn’t even offer many valid criticisms. She just says, “This sucks because it’s not what I like,” and treats that as a factual statement that should apply to all media. The worst part, I ALMOST understand when it’s a show that starts off light and fun but becomes more serious as the series goes on. I personally see it as a series evolving itself, but if you’re a person who was drawn in because of the lighter adventures, you’re going to feel alienated as you’re no longer the target audience. That CAN BE a valid critique, but Lily doesn’t mention it. She just says it sucks and acts as the show tricked people into watching something they hate, when it’s really just writers wanting to EXPAND their idea in a new direction.

And third, Lily never considers to perhaps branch away from talking about adventure animation. If she really doesn’t like it, then why the hell does she keep talking about it? The obvious answer is because those shows are popular and that’s how she can gain an audience. But she’s not gaining much of an audience anyways as everybody either calls her bullshit or grow up to learn just WHY she’s bullshit. Honestly, Lily would do better at reviewing episodes of Family Guy than she did at reviewing The Owl House and calling the most popular episodes the worst in the series. You know, make allies with your own circle of interests instead of enemies outside of it.

But she won’t. We know she won’t. Maybe it’s because Lily knows being a Family Guy reviewer doesn’t get you much attention unless you talk about how Brian is the worst character. Maybe this is all she knows what to do and can’t stop. Or maybe she hates adventure cartoons so much that she wants to be the one to topple the genre by talking shit about it…like a freak. Whatever the case, Lily won’t stop because she doesn’t WANT to. And she’ll be the occasional headache because of it.

This perfectly encapsulates the fundamental issue with Lily’s approach to criticism: it’s not actually criticism. It’s just personal dislike dressed up as objective fact.

Lily doesn’t like adventure cartoons. That much is obvious. And in theory, that’s fine—everyone has preferences. But instead of recognizing that she simply isn’t the target audience, she insists that the entire genre is bad and that anyone who enjoys it is just too stupid to realize they’re being tricked. This ties back into her pseudo-intellectual posturing—she doesn’t just dislike these shows, she has to position herself as someone who’s figured something out that everyone else hasn’t.

The horror movie analogy is a perfect comparison. Imagine someone who hates horror movies making a career out of reviewing them, only to repeatedly say, “This is bad because it’s scary.” Over time, people stop taking them seriously because they aren’t engaging with the genre in a meaningful way. That’s exactly what has happened with Lily and adventure animation. People have learned to tune her out because they know what she’s going to say before she even says it.

The problem is, she doesn’t stop talking about it. If she hates adventure cartoons so much, why does she keep making videos about them? The answer is obvious: that’s where the attention is. Adventure cartoons—shows like The Owl House, Amphibia, Steven Universe, and Avatar: The Last Airbender—have passionate fanbases and generate discussion. They’re the shows that get clicks. They’re what’s popular. And Lily is desperate for relevance.

But there’s a fundamental flaw in her strategy. Because she never engages with these shows in good faith, she doesn’t actually gain real fans from her critiques—she just gains hate-watchers, skeptics, and people who outgrow her over time. She’s not speaking to an audience that shares her tastes, she’s picking fights with people who actually care about these shows.

This is why her career feels like it’s in a slow but inevitable decline. People either grow up and move on, or they see through her bullshit. Her approach guarantees that she will always alienate potential viewers because she’s not actually interested in talking about what makes these shows work—only why they personally irritate her.

And yet, she won’t stop. Maybe because she’s stuck in this cycle. Maybe because the second she stops criticizing adventure cartoons, she loses what little relevance she has left. Maybe she actually thinks she’s winning some grand ideological battle against the genre. Whatever the case, she won’t change. She’ll keep taking shallow, contrarian stances on beloved shows. She’ll keep pushing the same tired talking points. And she’ll keep fading into irrelevance as more and more people realize that her “critiques” are just one-note rants from someone who was never interested in engaging with the genre to begin with.

[m--rtyr]

I have a few topics I would like to see you ramble about, but you can take your pick

MCD Rewrite ones

- ELVES! HOW YOU GONNA DO ELVES?

- Katelyn - Just anything to do with her

Mcd but non-rewrite

- Relationships/plot points that had so much potential

- How genuinely great of a villain Zane had the potential of being cause he was wiped to the side during season 2 and weirdly brought back season 3 (I dislike that he was brought back as a Shadow Knight, I feel like there could have been better ways)

that's a lot of stuff haha

I'm gonn go with Zane, for now, because oh absolutely the SK thing was dumb. I get that Zane was meant to be this big powerful main antagonist but i think they never properly played into his strengths. YES, Zane is the kind of guy to do anything for power, but i don't think he would let himself be turned into an SK. Becoming an SK is one of the biggest losses of individual power in MCD lore, you become a drone to a higher being, even if you do get more strength as a reward. Does anyone truly think that a man who has spent his life collecting the power of a god would bow down to one?

If Zane and Shad ever had a team up, it would be that Zane was alive and offered his allegiance to Shad, as well as his services as a politician, priest and strategist, in return for power and an army. He would still have free will, a capacity to plot on his own time, as well as his amulets, unlike an SK who would most likely have those things robbed from him - because Zane has himself a reputation, do you truly think Gene would let him keep a rogue thought in his head? Not to mention, SKs do not know what would happen to them if Shad died, i don't think Zane would put himself in that position where killing his enemy would kill himself. That's Aaron's thing, notoriously.

Zane spends most of MCD away from the fighting unless he is certain he has the upper hand. Never would he let someone have power over him if he could avoid it.

I don't like how S3 ruined the permadeath of it all. Zane AND Aaron are back?? no. We have other villains we can explore, and i'm not even inherently opposed to Shad-Aaron-Meat-Puppetry, but i think it was too soon. Give Zenix his moment, give Garte his moment, let some other villains be major for a season or two. The thing that would really bring impact to Aaron's possessed return would be if we went so long without him. bringing him back immediately does fucking nothing. and same goes for Zane.

imagine the reactions it would have gotten for Zane death in season 2 only to return in season 5 or whatever,

the lack of perma death is definitely one of the things that held MCD back. Not to be all 'Game of Throne is the best show ever' but one of the hooks of GOT was meaningful character death whenever it made sense. and often it made sense for important characters to die. oh well. And i think if MCD had some well-utilised permadeath, then it would be a lot better received than it was, because the emotional impact alone would've stuck with people.

instead we get 'Aaron after his daily dying' jokes.

[stylish-suidae]

IIRC the canon explanation of why it's not done all the time is "it's a one in a million chance" which is incredibly dumb but also lets you have the wonderful mental image of it not working and Holdo just ending wherever the fuck, alone, because she missed. Less kamikaze bombing and more just fucking off and leaving the resistance to die.

The explanation I came up with, prior to Rise of Skywalker, is "The same reason we don't ram frigates into aircraft carriers in real life", which is to say these are very expensive bits of kit, and you wouldn't wanna dump all that investment like that if keeping the thing was still an option. And in this specific case, it wasn't. We have a ship that is large, equipped with an FTL drive, and intact enough that it's fully controllable and pilotable, but also is *definitely* going to be destroyed soon anyway, and has been evacuated of literally all but one crew member. Literally a perfect storm of conditions for a kamikaze run.

This does bring up the new question of "why don't they purpose build missiles/torpedos to take advantage of this" and there's a few possible explanations for why, all of which wouldn't really be possible to convey with naturalistic exposition. Maybe it requires a specific type of FTL drive that makes it cost prohibitive. Maybe the ship itself has to be above a critical mass. Maybe it's just so destructive that the actual potential uses of it are limited, as in most normal battle scenarios in Star Wars, the allied and enemy ships tend to be intermingling, and there wouldn't be any meaningful way to angle the attack such that it wouldn't also get a bunch of your own guys. Not to mention that if there's a planet behind them you're probably gonna fuck up some of the planet as well.

Or maybe it's one of those things where it's just "hey let's both sides agree to not do this because it's so overpowered that it'd make everything uninteresting if we both took advantage of it" like using the force to turn off your opponent's lightsaber or cut them off from the force which is an actual thing in the EU. And if it was just an unspoken agreement keeping it from happening, then why bother following that when this is the last stand anyway?

So I do understand why people get mad about Holdo's hyperspace suicide bombing run. It was undeniably very cool, but it's also the kind of trick that's so blindingly obvious that if nobody in a previous movie has done it, there must be a good reason it isn't done. And if there isn't a good reason it isn't done, and you come up with the idea for this in the writer's room, it's arguably gauche to call attention to that storytelling shortcoming by doing it. It can be read as a flex on the storytelling of the rest of the canon, and lets not kid ourselves, this was a movie that was at least somewhat trying to flex on the rest of the canon, with mixed success and mixed support. I don't think it's nuts to read this beat as part of that. So I do get why people got annoyed by this.

That said. Did they ever advance a halfway-convincing explanation for why this is the only time we see hyperdrives weaponized in this manner? Operative word here being "halfway-convincing."

[n0phis]

Gay.

gonna use this ask i didn’t initially dignify with a response to say that not replying to the ask game anons is killing me oh my god. overarching post to everyone who sent one holy shit those are some of the coolest things ive ever heard. really really really incredibly immeasurably happy that i can help inspire some of u, AND that ive met so many cool ppl in the community :] u guys slap

[spitedemon]

i really don’t think it’s “typical dragon age fandom nonsense” for people to be genuinely upset about the world state choices. combat, level design, art direction, gameplay gimmicks, those have all varied across each dragon age game. the one thing that’s remained constant are nods to our previous choices.

i wasn’t expecting my HoF to come riding in on a griffon, but i can’t find a monument dedicated to warden tabris somewhere around the anderfels? lucanis couldn’t have some lines about the time that one arainai boy was stirring up trouble in antiva city? you’re gonna tell me that making a mage the new divine wouldn’t have some impact on nevarra and antiva? on the anderfels, the supposed most devout militant andrastian nation in thedas? you’re saying nobody in the north is paying attention to who rules orlais or ferelden? come on.

[stagefoureddiediaz]

I don’t quite know how my brain got here right now - but I’m thinking thoughts about the way the show has been paralleling Buck and Eddie with each other - as well as with the canon couples on the show - but in a very specific and interesting way - because when you take Abby and Tommy as a collective - they are a parallel of Shannon.

All three are firsts and not lasts for Eddie and Buck.

Abby and Tommy have been intentionally connected on the show (yes making use of a fluke name commonality but that’s what makes it especially clever and interesting) on several levels as being basically two sides of the same coin - Abby was his first serious relationship and Tommy his first queer relationship - they are both Bucks firsts and not his lasts. In the same way that Shannon was Eddie’s first and not his last - the show chose to have buck point out that Shannon was the first girl Eddie slept with - implying she wasn’t his first girlfriend (something that was confirmed in the cut Eddie/Chris conversation about the lake.

If you think of Shannon as two entities instead of one person - Texas Shannon and LA Shannon - it becomes easier to spot the parallels.

Texas Shannon is paralleled with Abby - both leave their respective homes and don’t come back - both Buck and Eddie expected them to return when they had done taking some time for themselves - finding themselves.

While LA Shannon is paralleled with Tommy - LA Shannon asks for a divorce after Eddie wants to have the second child he thinks is coming and to get remarried etc - to go all in with her and their relationship. He is making a decision based on flawed thinking and external expectations after a conversation with a ‘elder’ (supposedly wiser figure - Bobby).

Which is very much a parallel to Tommy dumping Buck after Buck decides to go all in and ask Tommy to move in and starts talking about marriage - after the hurdle of discovering Tommys past with Abby and having talked to an elder (in this case Josh who is a queer elder).

Both narratives are connected to commiting to something due to societal expectations - for Shannon it was becoming pregnant outside of marriage in a Catholic dominant society and therefore ending up married to Eddie.

While for Tommy it was having to mask himself as a straight man because he was in the army and firefighting - both environments that were toxicly masculine and heteronormative at the time Tommy was in them and so he ended up in a relationship with Abby - which then sets up the circumstances for Abby to feel the need to run to find herself.

Both Texas Shannon and Abby then feel the need to run - to find themselves because of the environment they find themselves in and this sets up LA Shannon and Tommy as second firsts for Eddie and Buck. And both LA Shannon and Tommy have grown and evolved since Texas Shannon and Abby and both can see that their respective relationships are not meant to last - that they’re not the right fit - that they are forced and they have the personal development to choose end them before they cause more hurt and damage.

It’s a great play on being firsts and second chances but not lasts and it ultimately shows the suitability of buddie - they make the same mistakes in a different way - both having their first independent of each other but having their second chance/ second first whilst within each others orbits - and because they are ultimately looking for the same thing it is all serving to spin them closer to each other to a point where they can understand what their lasts look like - and that it’s each other