#but that's a discussion for another day

[ladyminaofcamelot]

Reading these had my jaw dropping with the realization that to Gwen, Royce is a wish granting Santa Claus. (The second little snapshot is about Gru, by the way). Gwen hates injustice. She despises cruelty. And she wants to fight back. And Royce gives her that, he gives her the power to fight back by being her knife. Then we get to the part where she sees Stan's fate, and she's visibly shaking and obviously horrified, like, nearly physically ill horrified and it's like oh. Oh maybe he's not Santa Clause. Maybe he's a careful what you wish for genie. She tempted fate with her fury and now fate has come to collect. But then we get this gem:

Even I wouldn't wish this on you, BUT YOU DESERVE IT. I just, that is so insane to me. Gwen, who did want to bang his head against the floorboards once, is saying "I wouldn't wish this on you" because it is so brutal, but she's also just had a front row seat to his sins, and so that last line is so cold, so accepting, so grim. It reminds me of when people read the old testament and their initial, visceral reaction to God condemning the nations is horror, but then they look at the list of sins and realize it includes burning children alive and there's a grim realization that He is completely justified. Royce isn't a Santa Claus, he's not a careful what you wish for genie, he's the avenging hand of a god sent by someone she knows to be devine to meet out vengeance for all the hurt she had to suffer in waiting for him. Like, he is her reward for giving up so much and being so faithful, but here's what makes me even more crazy. She loved him before she knew this. She loved him without ever knowing his face, only knowing that he was coming, that he would need her help. She sacrificed herself because of her faith, yes, but she was also in essence sacrificing herself for him every single day, so that by the time he shows up she is so practiced in loving him that it comes naturally. And she didn't expect any reward, but what she got was compassion and protection and righteous fury that not only fulfilled her wishes, but inflicted devine justice upon her enemies, and that is so beautiful to me and also the reason this couple makes me insane.

[nyancrimew]

can you explain the ai thing to me as though I were a small child I am in fact very stupid and don't understand what the point being made was supposed to be

the point i am trying to make it that ai is fundamentally a labor issue (and just more broadly a capitalism issue) and should be treated as such, any attempts at trying to classify what makes something "not real art" is a slippery slope leading towards fascism and fundamentally irrelevant in the fight against unethical (uses of) AI. the same goes for any attempts at just making copyright laws more strict, this has never helped any independent artists and never will, at best it'll make any sort of derivative art (including fanart, remixes, collages, etc) basically impossible to do unless you're a massive corporation with an unlimited legal budget.

[danifandxm]

8 years??? are you shitting me??

sigh. cue noisemaker but it just deflates and gets sad.

happy 8 years. and here i am. alone.

just a sick reminder.

still. surprised I've survived this long, despite everything.

so yeah

[shifuaang]

Creating Maddie just to be hated by the audience and then die is extremely gross, especially in the context of her being queer. She existed for the sole reason of adding drama between Cait and Vi even though there were already chasms to be bridged in that relationship because of their origins and class difference and Cait's entire arc this season, none of which were really addressed in the end. Between this, the treatment of Isha's character, the misogynoir in both Mel and Sky's cases, the erasure of Sevika, and making Ambessa a one-dimensional villain, I'm so beyond disgusted with the writing this season.

What a disappointment, what a gut-punch, and how offensive. So much for continuing to write dynamic, fleshed-out female characters. So much for good representation.

[duncanor]

Legato twisted sacrifice might have been left unaknowledged by Knives but not by us it seems.

I wanna see something

[ruporas]

i’ll find you again in every universe. let us be a little more honest, let us have a little more time.

[qiu-yan]

if i'm recalling correctly, it was actually the jiang cheng stans who came up with the jiang cheng torture dungeon. the jiang cheng antis wrote paragraphs upon paragraphs about jiang cheng's torture....and the stans took that and appended "dungeon" to the end

[2isted-chocol8-art]

You will get to it, eventually. But there's no rush.

-> More Outer Wilds Art!

[bonebuckets]

you know what. I’m just gonna say it. now that I know I have support, The Silt Verses IS the best recent audio drama out there.

[sweetlullabyebye]

Charles' thing is that he wants to feel alive and that's part of the reason why he decided to never move on to the afterlife right? Meanwhile Edwin thinks Charles will move on and that he'll be alone again because 'he isn't good with people'.

But then when the Night Nurse shows up a second time Charles is ready to go wherever -including Hell- as long as Edwin shouldn't have to go back there, meanwhile Edwin refuses that they be split up, and both are okay with being sent together to the Lost and Found Department to be sorted out later as long as they're together-

[kathaynesart]

If Leo can defeat his enemies easily by using the 'Portal Chop' move, wouldn't that mean he'll actually be the #1 priority for the whole Krang to kill when they spotted him? Even more so motivated to use their abilities to remove his ninpo to get rid of a 'bump on the road'?

Hehehe I’m glad someone asked! Yes he and his brothers are on the Krang’s most wanted list. But here’s the thing: only a few Krang are actually capable of sealing off mystic energy/ninpo. Specifically Krang 1. This is because there are different types of Krang with very different abilities (details under the cut).

To answer your question plainly, since Krang 1 is one of the few that can seal off the Ninpo powers, that has left the two sides at a stale mate. The turtles are DANGEROUS, and could do some lethal damage to Krang 1, but if Krang 1 gets the drop on them it’s all over for the turtles. Both sides KNOW this. What’s more I’ve given Krang 1 a weakness that he can only use this ability every so often. So he’d need to get the brothers all together in one fell swoop otherwise it leaves him vulnerable. For this reason the brothers seldom fight as all full set when in close proximity to him (another reason why Donnie normally stays back at HQ).

So we’ll have to wait and see how that pans out. Hope that answered your question. For those interested in the Krang types you can check out my ramblings under the cut:

KRANG TYPES:

Sister Krang is a Brawler Type. She’s the most violent of the three, the strongest outside of her mech, and can keep going even after receiving a number of life threatening hits.

Brother Krang is an Infester Type. He can only speak through the people he’s infested, is physically weak, and goes down easily in battle. However he’s considered far more dangerous because of his ability to easily infest and transform prey to become part of the Krang hive mind. Infesters are also the tech crew and are best suited to drive the ships.

Krang 1 is a Prime Type, the rarest and most well rounded of the three. He has the brains and the brawn. Master tactician who can read the minds of his prey. He’s a powerful fighter (especially in his mech), and is able to use his connection to Empyrean to seal off mystic abilities such as Ninpo. While the Krang is considered a hive mind the Prime is the one in the driver seat as well as the “face man.” Normally there is only one or two Prime Types at a time.

From these three I’ve spawned several more types (including the Fighter type that end up killing Leo in the end) but I’ll save that for a proper Krang hierarchy post in the future.

If you’ve gotten this far thanks for reading my TED Talk.

[ashofalltime]

⚡️✨ATL FOREVER✨⚡️

[aroaceleovaldez]

one of the things that I found particularly interesting in Demigods of Olympus is that it finally gives the best direct comparison we've seen so far between Percy and another character's experiences in terms of academics and particularly ableist discrimination.

The way Zane describes his experiences and what we see in his POV is that, while he is similarly discriminated against for his "atypical" behavior and blame is placed on him, the only sorts of punishments he receives for this are relatively benign, such as an increase in counseling. (It is also notable that Zane is somewhat autistic-coded, such as having the "incorrect" scripts when speaking with adults and Sam explicitly reminding him to remember to make proper eye contact.) Percy, on the other hand, similarly experiences discrimination for "atypical" behavior, but whereas Zane is treated as "too smart for his own good" and given slaps on the wrist, Percy is automatically labeled as aggressive, destructive, and a trouble-maker based on preconceived assumptions about him and is more severely punished, such as being frequently expelled.

We rarely get this level of direct comparison between Percy's experiences and that of another character, particularly such similar experiences, so looking at the differences is really interesting to gauge what their different experiences with ableist discrimination is like - and how it could potentially tie into intersectionality and other forms of discrimination at play for them.

For instance, Zane's parents are generally heavily implied to be middle-class and/or generally financially secure, versus Percy who grew up poor, so it could be classism in combination with ableist discrimination. Alternatively, it could be intersectionality with racial discrimination, as neurodivergent behavior in people of color is significantly more likely to be punished more severely and labeled as aggressive or disruptive behavior due to racist preconceptions - particularly since we know Percy's experiences with ableist discrimination are also somewhat based on assumptions people make regarding his appearance. Both Zane and Percy are racially ambiguous - Zane's appearance essentially being completely unspecified, but Percy at least having some notable details such as having a deep tan complexion. If not racism, it could also be colorism, which in this context often has similar intersectionality. There's a lot of potential options.

It's just very interesting to me! I love having such a direct point of comparison to examine the experiences of two characters within.

[loudgaybug]

I think it's interesting parallels how both 4c and zam have fulfilled the role as builders on the server, but while zam rebuilds spawn and seeks to protect it, 4c is building re:spawn, a spawn that seeks to replace the previous one, one seeks to create alongside destruction, while the other seeks to preserve at any cost, opposing destruction, one is the cycle of preservation in response to destruction while the other seeks to break that cycle, I think its interesting how in lifesteal even building relates to conflict, a conflict of ideology that spills into violence and has a physical impact on the world as building itself becomes a statement

[chaoticallyfluffy]

Ok consider:

A new hero emerges and the Justice League watches him for a while who make sure he’s not a threat. They see this giant clumsy man who moves like he’s not used to his body, smiles goofily every time he saves someone, and is clearly inexperienced with his powers and they’re all just like. Ah. This is a child.

Except they don’t think he’s a ten year old or however old Billy is at the time, no no. Clearly this hero came into existence shortly before his first appearance, just a few months ago. They don’t know how or why but It’s not the weirdest thing they’ve seen so it’s pretty easy to believe.

But they can’t just leave this toddler with the powers of a god to stumble around and potentially hurt someone by accident, nor go down the wrong path and become a villain. So of course they decide to ‘subtly’ guide him without alerting him to the fact they’re onto him.

They introduce themselves but instead of inviting him to the league they pop by every once in a while to ‘subtly’ teach him about responsibility and power, but also about love and humanity. They try to teach him to enjoy life and that he doesn’t have to act like an adult around them, instead encouraging him to enjoy his childhood even if it’s not an ordinary one.

(Too bad the Justice League suck at subtlety.)

Billy is certain they somehow found out he’s a kid before they even met him, probably because of Batman’s freaky know-it-all powers, but he isn’t very worried as they seem nice and don’t treat him like he’s dumb or fragile. They respect him as a hero despite his age so he lets himself act like a kid around them after a while.

When he gets comfortable enough to detransform Billy thinks that’s his identity reveal. The league thinks that he magicked himself a body that’s more of a representation of his true self and fits his developmental age better, possibly as a way to blend in with humans and experience what it’s like to be a normal child. Good for him!

Basically Billy gets a bunch of super powered parents and the Justice League get a newborn man that they think they’re raising from scratch lol

[antaripirate]

maxim maresh, red london father of all time