#but the execution of everything is FUCKED

[hellstobetsy]

Bush was a bloodthirsty neoconservative warhawk and a bumbling incoherent buffoon, and these two aspects of his personality reinforced each other. A big part of why he invaded Iraq is that he got high on his own propaganda that'd be a quick in-and-out 20 minute adventure, and a big part of why it was such a disaster was that it was so executed so incompetently. You don't need to be smart to fuck everything up, you just need to believe in yourself apparently.

the fact that George "let's murder everyone in the middle east" bush Jr is getting rehabilitated in the public mind as just a bumbling incoherent buffoon and not the bloodthirsty neoconservative warhawk he was and still is is proof that Trump is only like two future presidencies away from being seen in pop culture as a wacky jokester

[hopelesslygaysstuff]

The amount of things I had to process today while watching Trump get inaugurated into office again is insane like… everything is awful and America is a fucking joke right now and millions of people are probably going to lose rights including myself and it’s just so much

- America is an Oligarchy and seems to be sliding toward a facist leadership/government

- Elon Musk doing a fucking nazi salute TWICE on live national tv

- Renaming the Gulf of Mexico… why is that a priority right now

- Trump saying that the US Government will only recognize two genders (jokes on u my passport says I’m nonbinary and that shit doesn’t expire for another 9 years)

- Mass deportations beginning tomorrow in major cities in blue states

- Trump basically confirming he’s gonna pardon the January 6th rioters

- The whole TikTok ban bullshit being the most obvious propaganda/ass kissing I’ve ever witnessed

- Trumps administration shutting down reproductiverights.gov

Like the list could go on for a while but he signed something like 200 or more Executive Orders today and it literally doesn’t feel like reality

[theloganator101]

Etradio: Yeah, the Heaven/Hell conflict felt like it should’ve been stretched out through the seasons if that’s what they wanted. Although that viewpoint kinda nullifies the original premise of the show. “Can a sinner be redeemed and go to Heaven?” “Well, Heaven is actually super corrupt— so why go there?” It just feels like everything about the original goal was for nothing. Rather than address anything about the question of the show, they say the question doesn’t matter. I think since the series was in production for so long, and had a fanbase following it that knew the premise- the writers might’ve been worried that the show would be too ‘predictable’ and boring if they stuck to the original premise. So they felt the need to escalate to try to go beyond the expectations of the fans, but it resulted in a… I’m not sure how to describe it, but the plot is just doing whatever it wants. It’s hard to articulate my thoughts on this, but I hope that makes sense.

... Oh my fucking god.

This person literally highlighted the main problem with this show and why I've been feeling like the original premise was second fiddle.

And I think I know what their trying to say. It resulted in an entirely different show than what was promised to us, so in their efforts to not be predictable, they literally changed everything. Which that could also explain the rushed pacing, the rushed storylines...

It was not what was promised to us.

And the thing is unpredictability does not always equal good, what matters most is the journey getting to it and how it's executed. Even if a plot is predictable it can still tell a good story if the characters are likable and the world they live in is engaging enough for the viewers to get into it.

Hazbin Hotel does not have that sadly, as they think subverting expectations would be more than enough to keep viewers invested and wanting more even if it doesn't make sense or fit in the story.

[emblemxeno]

Meetcha half way: Miklan and Xander are both awful, terrible people.

You're allowed to think that way, I genuinely think whatever floats your boat is good, anon.

I don't share that opinion. Forgive me for the rant ahead.

Fates, IMO, made it clear what nuance it was going for. Aside from the little sisters and non-story important characters, there weren't purely good people. However, there were always clear hate sinks that the player was meant to despise.

War makes good people do bad things; evil people start or take advantage of war to benefit themselves; good people are taken out of the equation early on or don't get involved as often. Bam, that's it.

3H on the other hand, tries to justify every fucking action an antagonist takes. It tries to make everything an "I can see where you're coming from" situation, even when it falls on its face. For example, Lonato. No, actually, I don't feel bad for the guy trying to assassinate the archbishop in a plot of revenge for the execution of his son who was caught trying to assassinate that person already, especially when he's mowing town resistance in the process while knowing he could potentially harm or kill his other son in the process.

For fairness, Xander also does bad things and has no qualms harming a former sibling. But that was a fact established as soon as chapter 2, early in the story to intentionally give the audience a lasting impression. Yes he cares for his family, but his fear of his father outweighs that. The next logical step in analysis would be to discover why.

Lonato doesn't get that. He gets praised, shows that he's actually a douche, yet gets off the hook in various directions, excused by the Western Church (undeniably horrible group, but he himself shouldn't be exempt), the Central Church (should Ashe be on Crimson Flower because most of the cast isn't allowed to have a rigid backbone since they must be allowed to steamroll their own homes on Byleth's word), and even in Ashe's support with Catherine.

Miklan is no different, where they shift blame from the individual's actions to being about Crests, something that's contradictory to ingame information. He was disinherited well fucking after Sylvain was born, so it stands to reason that it's because he was an irresponsible, jealous, violent creep, and not because of Crests. But the game wants us to feel bad! He doesn't get a nuanced death because whining about Crests takes priority in the game's writing. Three Hopes cemented this by making him a fucking ally, highlighting that "oh he's actually a good leader even without a Crest!!1!" Yeah, I'm sure all the women he kidnapped, villagers he robbed, and families he tore apart will just be hunky dory with knowing that.

Xander meanwhile dies like a little bitch, taking himself out by letting Corrin stick a sword through him. That's thematically poignant, because he was the most common antagonist and a plot consistent hurdle that Corrin had been preparing to face ever since he made the choice to side with Hoshido. It's supposed to hit that it was really fucking easy, that Xander wasn't taken out through raw strength, but the weight of his own actions. That's exponentially more ingame acknowledgement of the wrong that Xander did, than any one character in 3H can manage to say about anyone they're fighting against besides maybe the Slithers.

[alpaca-clouds]

232 Years Ago King Louis XVI got beheaded - and here is why!

Okay, I kinda wanted to make this one later, but then a friend said that it would be dumb, because today is the darn anniversary of this event. Which is correct.

So, in Castlevania Nocturne we see the execution of King Louis XVI, which evokes three emotions of the characters watching it.

Annette goes: "Good riddance." Richter goes: "Well, but is this right?" Alucard goes: "Well, this will make things go bad."

But here is the thing. Most of us have suffered through very bad history classes, in which we kinda learned about the French Revolution, but probably did not REALLY learn anything about it. I tried it with my friends. Nobody could tell me either why Louis was executed, nor could anyone tell me why the Revolution actually failed. People were fairly sure that it failed, but that was about all they could tell me.

So, let me go a bit into Louis and the Revolution.

Louis was one of those kings who were really bad with the one thing that kings are supposed to make: decisions. When the people started to rise up, and get into a bit of a revolutionary mood, Louis was very, very indecisive on what to do. A lot of people at the time made jokes about how Marie Antoinette was the actual person who was doing all those decisions and what not, because Louis was so bad with his indecision.

When the people got angry, he kinda hesitantly agreed to allow an elected government, as long as he could veto everything. And the elected government was basically made up 25% of nobles, and 25% of clergy (despite clergy and nobles only making up about 3% of the population) and only 50% supposed peasants. And then they wanted to make it, that the nobles and clergy members would not meet with the peasants.

However, some of the nobles did rise up against this (mainly nobles that themselves were marginalized through queerness or disability) and basically the National Assembly formed, there was a declaration of the rights of men, and the constitution was written. And what France at the time were aiming for was a Constitutional Monarchy - the same way that England was having it.

It was especially Lafayette who pushed for this and was doing his best to a) protect the king, and b) stopped the violence from escalating. Historians to this day are kinda discussing whether he wanted to increase his own influence, or whether he really just saw the writing on the wall of how much the violence were going to escalate.

And generally at the time the people were still quite benevolent towards the king. It was like: "Yay, we are all a big French family, and the king is out father! Fraternity!"

Either way: Louis and his family were made to live in Paris, being guarded by Lafayette and the National Guard. Until one day in 1791 Louis and family suddenly were gone. The official narration was: "Oh, the king got kidnapped." But a lot of people at the time were like:

Pretty much nobody fell for it.

Louis and his family have of course fled and tried to flee the country. Their flight was kinda dumb. They dressed as peasants, but also had the fanciest fucking carriage that you could imagine. And after a while Louis started to talk with the people, despite everyone knowing what he looked like (mainly because he had a very distinctive nose). And at some point someone was like: "Yeah, no, this is the supposedly kidnapped king. I am gonna alarm someone." And then Louis was dragged back to Paris, just shortly because he managed to reach the Belgian border.

He was dragged back to Paris, and it was then that the discussions really started of what was supposed to happen with him. Mainly, too, because at this point some of the surrounding kings started to be a bit nervous about the entire thing. Originally they were happy that France was less of a danger to them, but then they were like: "Oh, shit, if the people get ideas from this, they might dispose us, too." So they started to think about a) saving Louis and his family, and b) getting rid of this darn revolution.

And of course Louis, now stopped from fleeing, tried to communicate and collaborate with those other kings. And came out.

Now, the Revolutionaries originally declared war at the other kings - and Louis even agreed. The Revolutionaries agreed, because they knew they could not cower before the kings and show weakness. Louis agreed, because he hoped it would mean he would get saved. And so France went to war with a variety of neighboring regions.

And it was in this situation that people were starting to look at Louis and think: "Maybe he needs to die. Maybe we need to make a point out of killing him."

The national assembly voted on it, and by a margin of JUST ONE SINGLE VOTE they eventually decided to execute him. Mainly to make a point about their Revolution. And Louis was then very quickly executed within just two days on the morning of January 21st.

[charlotteandthechocolatefactory]

Elon did a fucking nazi salute! Wow! How are people still calling people anti-Semitic for supporting Palestine (including me, a literal Jew) when this is happening at the presidential inauguration??

I'm Latine. I'm queer. I'm female. I'm Jewish. I live in a red state. I'm scared. I've been trying to be hopeful, but I'm scared. My government is actively ignoring our climate crisis.

In the past 24 hours of his presidency, Trump has removed funding from Hispanic-serving institutions, repealed LGBTQ rights granted by the Bostock v. Clayton County case, withdrawn my country from the World Health Organization,

chat, i hate it here.

i have links for everything I mentioned below the cut! always check your sources, and don't believe everything you read on tumblr :3

elon musk nazi salute: https://www.politico.eu/article/elon-musk-salute-sparks-fury-from-europe-left-wing/

withdrawing from the WHO: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/withdrawing-the-united-states-from-the-worldhealth-organization/

lgbtq stuff: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/defending-women-from-gender-ideology-extremism-and-restoring-biological-truth-to-the-federal-government/

recissions on old executive orders: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/initial-rescissions-of-harmful-executive-orders-and-actions/

[thekeithmeister]

Hopeless In Georgia

I'm a trans man in Georgia and it feels completely hopeless. I've fought my whole life to defend who I am, my love for my wife, our marriage, our existence. The first time around with Trump was hard enough. But this 2nd time is proving impossible. The entire United States government and the President of the United States have made it very clear that they hate and want to eradicate trans people. How am I supposed to fight against the authority figures of the most powerful country in the world? I was ready to fight once again. Fight to defend my wife and our marriage. Fight to defend our home and our friends, regardless of how impossible it seemed. But I recently found out my father-in-law, not only voted for Trump but is completely unconcerned about this most recent anti-trans executive order that was just passed. The one saying that all federal documentation will have your birth sex on it. The one saying trans people cannot use federal facilities aligned with their gender. That there IS no more gender. Only two sexes: male and female. When my wife text'd my father-in-law telling him how scared we were, his response was to say that the "extreme left is fear-mongering" and blowing things completely out of proportion and that although he knows we'll have "hardships" it's not going to be nearly as bad as we're saying. What the ever loving fuck? The President of the United States, the United States government just said I am not a man and must identify as a woman and use women's facilities and that I, as a human being, am illegal. But we're "extreme left?" We have a document in black and white but this is "fear-mongering?" I can only come to the conclusion that my father-in-law never saw me as a man and never saw me as his equal. After having transitioned over 7 years ago and completely passing, it doesn't matter. To even a person who knows me and I THOUGHT cared about me, I am still less than. I am still not fully a human being. He sees no problem with me being arrested if I use a men's room, or if my documents that I worked YEARS to change and spent THOUSANDS of dollars on, might now be reversed and have a big fat F on them. It was one thing to gear up for a fight against a faceless enemy, no matter how gigantic or powerful, like the United States government, but it is something else entirely to have your own family tell you that you are less than human. Not worthy of respect or the same rights as everyone else. The blow has hit me so hard. And I can't stop thinking that if people who KNOW me can't love and support me, how the hell am I ever to expect strangers to think of me as a person who deserves the same treatment as everyone else? How am I EVER supposed to be accepted in society? This is only day 3 of the Trump regime. I can't even fathom how on earth I'm going to survive 4 years of this. Especially knowing there is far worse to come. I don't know what to do. I can't fight the United States government. I can't fight against more than half of the American population who seem to think I'm not a human being. I can't do this. I don't want to suffer for the next 4 years. I don't want to even think about losing my house, my home, my friends, my family, and a job I love to up and move to a new state or even a new country. I don't want to do that! What would my wife and I do? Start over in a homeless shelter? We don't have the money to do something so crazy! To move to a place where we don't know anybody! Everything I love is here in Georgia! I can't do it! I can't just sacrifice everything and move away from everything I care about! I don't know what to do. All I know is I don't want to endure it. And every time I think "I can't do this," scary thoughts about an easy way out start to crop up. And I could NEVER do that to my wife and my friends. So all that is left... is to just sit here and suffer for years to come.

[emilyyouredrivingmecrazy]

Living and being on social media is starting to feel like that scene in the second hunger games where Plutarch is telling Snow that their media strategy should be wedding content mixed with public executions day in and day out. Except it's like "Jake Gyllenhal signs onto sundance film" "Trump has now made it illegal to be transgender" "Everything you need to know about Blake Lively's lawsuit" "All former birthright citizens will be rounded up and kicked out of the only country they've ever known" "Will Poulter's new role-" just kill me. Just fucking kill me.

[knaveumineko]

Welcome to Rokkenjima!

I have recently begun reading through Umineko for the first time. At the time of writing, I have read all of Episode 1, unlocking the "Tea Party" in the main menu, although I have not clicked on it yet. This blog exists for the purposes of recording my thoughts on the story, and my attempts to solve the mysteries therein. I hope that by posting this publically, fans of the series may amuse themselves with my ignorance.

I have little previous interest in or experience with the mystery genre, so I was quite surprised at how compelling a work Umineko turned out to be, especially after those awful opening hours. I soon found myself taking notes on any clues or oddities I noticed, which is a first for me. I have always been "along for the ride" when it comes to mystries in stories.

I can't imagine how the story is even going to continue after the endscroll in Episode 1. The author could easily have published Episode 1 as a completely standalone work. It's so easy to be enraptured its presentation of magic as a social phenomenon, perfectly reflected in its surprising and ambiguous ending. It's not exactly breaking new ground by juxtaposing opulence with great violence, but there's something to be said about executing a cliché well. I think I was at least somewhat intruiged by every character. I find myself quite liking most of them. It's so much fun to watch them bounce off of eachother once things get going.

Since I've read through the first episode in its entirety already, I'm afraid you're deprived of my moment-to-moment reactions to the tale, but needless to say Ryukishi skilfully lead me by the nose the whole time, emotionally speaking. If you want to imagine what my posts reacting to each of the murders, as well as the ending, would have been like, simply imagine a series of progressively longer posts consisting of the words "what the fuck" repeated dozens of times over.

It is premature to speculate on the future of this blog, which may be abandoned quite quickly, but I will say I don't have much interest in a proper liveblog (which won't stop me from shamelessly abusing the tag anyway). I feel it would bog me down as I attempt to read through this very, very long work. However, in future I could see myself making posts after each session or major chunk of the story, before finally summarising everything at the end of the episode. We'll see.

For now, my posts will focus on the mystery itself.

[lady-raziel]

because there is nothing to lose the people saying biden should resign now so kamala can still be the first female president are absolutely right but why stop there? inauguration day is 70 days away let's make "president for a day" a real thing. say "fuck it we ARE going to do the arbitrary quota DEI bullshit you accuse us of" and speedrun first [category] presidents. revolving door type thing.

first female president. first openly gay president. first transgender president. first president who has been to space. first president gamer president. first mime president. just play president bingo and hit as many categories as possible while we still can. make all of trump's #47 merch unusable by forcing him to be the 115th president instead. who cares anymore let's peacefully transition power but do it in the most chaotic hot-potato way possible

[mohntilyet]

i read the wigmaker job recently and there’s an idea that really stuck with me, which may well have been discussed before, but it’s really been itching at me. it came from this exchange near the end –

“i don't want to quit.” / illario sat back. the distance between them suddenly felt much wider than a table. / “even if it kills you,” illario whispered. / “death is my calling,” lucanis stated, matter-of-fact. “just as yours is to become first talon.”

(the bits before and after this give important context, too, but these specific lines are what gnaw at me)

i. really wonder if this conversation – and the long-standing beliefs held by both of them that it’s indicative of – contributed to giving lucanis to zara.

like, illario coming to terms with the fact that lucanis really just will. not. stop. for ANYTHING. his cousin WILL get himself killed doing this and lucanis won’t have any regrets. he’ll leave illario to go this alone. (no one to follow after anymore.) combined with the envy of knowing that lucanis is and always will be caterina’s favorite, and she will likely pick lucanis to be first talon even tho lucanis does not want this At All…

i wonder if he thought that, well, if lucanis is going to die anyway… maybe it’s better to have it happen sooner, rather than later. why put off the inevitable? especially if this is the one thing that could shift caterina’s gaze to illario and give him what he’s wanted – what he’s earned.

lucanis wouldn’t be happy as first talon anyway (honestly, illario seems to see that what lucanis is NOW isn’t so much ‘happy’ as it is ‘obedient and content to accept the scraps that gives him’), and he’s GOING to get himself killed doing this, anyway… and sure, they COULD wait it out. wait for lucanis to do something foolish enough that he can't just walk away from it. maybe he’ll even last long enough to be made first talon (if caterina can ever bear to loosen her grip from the title) and be miserable for a while. years even, maybe. before he, again, does something he can’t walk away from.

OR. or. or illario could cut through all the pointless waiting and get right to the point. go straight to where this was always going to end up.

(and maybe part of it is an extension of anticipated grief, too – the loss will be agony. if illario controls when and how it happens, he can control his grief. …except he hasn’t accepted the inevitability of lucanis’ death quite as well as he’d thought and when he gets sloshed at the wake, real grief seeps through the cracks)

i dunno. something about both of them viewing lucanis’ death as a foregone conclusion and how illario Might have had that shape his decisions.

YEAH . YEAHHHHH. i do also think the “to reason” exchange is what solidifies it in illario’s mind. lucanis is like 'this has been a productive if tense talk with my cousin. surely he sees sense now.' and illario is like ‘what the fuck. i think he wants to die’ <- okay im exaggerating a bit but i do absolutely see the end of wigmaker’s job as the start of lucanis-illario’s downward spiral. there’s a reason that it’s something lucanis is stuck on during inner demons, and the exchange that you have very nicely broken down is what he hears echoes of, this is where he knows it started to go wrong

probably the worst part is lucanis WOULD have worked himself to death and it takes the series of events in veilguard for lucanis to see other options for his life, and still he ends up being shoehorned into first talon by the end of the quest. i thought his quest would parallel iron bull’s, in that rook shows them that living outside and away from crow influence is possible, and that he is much more than the weapon they turned him into, but it ofc doesn’t go through like that. it’s genuinely a bit heartbreaking that lucanis finally has support and like. FRIENDS. but with the way the game ends he’s pulled back into the crows and to a life that will be about protecting a cousin that the organisation he runs hates, and for as long as caterina lives, unable to say no to her. and meanwhile after lucanis has made connections outside of the crows, illario has absolutely nothing left (prison of his own making i get it but i still want to get his ass out of there. 😭) so the codependency that they used to share is gone as well. maybe lucanis has a foot out the door but i genuinely have no idea how illario goes on after this

[lotus-pear]

guys idk about you but i am NOT ready to delve into uncharted waters as we move into new content with bsd in the upcoming chapter.

this new chapter could include anywhere from ada reunion and a return back to yokohama OR to a new horrible twist after fyodor’s death, ensuring that if he lost then dazai would too. taking dazai down with him.

not to mention if we return back to yokohama that’s a whole other gut wrenching story as one ada member is selected to go to the port mafia. i am not ready to see the futile and tragic looks on the other agency members as they grit their teeth and watch one of their own step into the world of darkness. the tragedy of letting someone go after they have all reconciled. being separated again, but for good this time

[gmbeowulf]

You come from a flawed premise that in order from a show to be a "good" show, it must be 100% consistent, and that "usually" being good or "most of the time" being great is insufficient.

There is SO FUCKING MUCH Star Trek. Most series had 26 episodes per season, or in more straightforward terms, from TOS to ENT, there were over 700 episodes of the shows, and also ten movies and hundreds of novels and comic books. (Then 150+ episodes of new series and three Kelvin movies in the more recent decades.) And all of that was written by dozens of different writers, interpreted by dozens of directors, and helmed by a series of producers and executives. When you have that much material and still can pick out "Oh, this episode was really bad. Oh, this season was a little clunky." instead of just "Yeah, only these three years in the early 90s were worth anyone's time," you have an amazing show.

Of course there are clunkers, there are inconsistencies, and there are problematic, systematic choices. Of course there are flaws, because literally everything ever made by humans has flaws. But as an overall series goes, when you get as much good stuff as Star Trek has managed, in that great a percentage of so much material? You cannot, in good faith, claim it's a "bad" series.

I love Star Trek, but It’s one of those shows that to truly love it, you have to realise that it is a BAD show

Don’t get me wrong it’s such a great show in terms of characters and storytelling MOST OF THE TIME!!! but if anybody comes to me and tells me that “Sub Rosa is a secret classic” or “a night in sickbay is so misunderstood” I will throw them so far that astronauts will get whiplash

Not only that but there are so many episodes where I just wish they could’ve done the characters more justice…example, not underusing women characters, especially in TNG, or not randomly switching up someone’s personality because you really want to tell a specific plot that would need them to act like that.

And the more you learn about the behind the scenes of Star Trek, the more I want to go back in time and rip the Star Trek franchise straight out of Gene Rodennberry’s hands and claim it as my own, because some of the stuff that happened off camera is actually horrible! (Go look up the things that he and so many people who worked on the show did)

I mean in the end Star Trek is a usually fun franchise! But it is a FLAWED franchise, and to love Star Trek is to question the choices of Star Trek or something

[rubberduckyrye]

I cannot stress to you how important it is to me as a viewer of DR stuff that an execution isn't just tied to the talent of a student, but more so to what causes them the most despair.

One Fan Execution that I really like (though it remains unfinished) is this Rantaro Execution called "12 Strikes to Midnight." The execution might not be as polished as, say, an execution like "Deep Fried Teruteru" but the fundamental aspect of personalized despair is what makes the unfinished, unpolished fan execution far more interesting to watch.

The Rantaro Fan Execution plays witht he aspect of Time and how Time is Running Out for Rantaro to find and save his sisters. Each minute, each hour, one of them dies a painful and horrible death, until Rantaro is finally killed after he witnesses all of his sisters die. His deepest regret involves his sisters going missing, which encouraged him to become an adventurer--and the aspect of the clock is used incredibly well here.

Compare that to Teruteru's execution now--he gets caked up in egg and flour and deep fried in a volcano. Sure, that's a horrible way to die, but... what does it say about Teruteru's deepest despair? Does he hate fried food for some reason? That doesn't seem like a very solid despair to use to bring about the worst kind of emotional agony in a blackened during their execution.

Despite Teruteru's execution being better animated and polished, I find myself far more interested in the fanmade Rantaro Execution, because all in all, if your Executions are at least a little bit of a character study, you're probably doing it wrong.

[clegfly]

Hey guys would it be cool if I killed myself right fucking now

[waterghostype]

i have so much to say about them not in a good way not in a bad way but a secret third thing way.