#but we don't have the stuff to record this......

[skaruresonic]

...For Romance languages, sure. But our language has always assumed she/her is the default gender unless specified.

In Skaruręʔkyéha·ʔ, the gender-neutral form is the feminine singular, reflecting our matrilineal society.

For example, if you asked, "Who knows?" you’d say it as "[Who] [she knows]?" because "she/her" isn't strictly "she/her." It also means someone.

We have stories of colonists mistakenly recording "ę̀·ruh" (she, someone) as "man" (raʔníha·) because the answer they received to "Who is that man over there?" was ę̀·ruh, in the sense of "that person." They didn't realize ę̀·ruh is the default gender pronoun.

In fact, the man who compiled our dictionary, Dr. Blair Rudes, later regretted using "he/him" as the gender-neutral example to conjugate our verbs because it contradicts how our language operates and imposes an Anglicized perspective on it.

It also makes conjugating based on the dictionary difficult because, unlike "she/her/someone," the male prefix won't always tell you whether a verb is an A-stem or a C-stem.

Every verb example the dictionary provides uses "he/him" as the gender neutral because Rudes spoke English as a first language and naively assumed this would transfer to our language. This is a mistake he later expressed contrition for in a note he added to the dictionary.

If Rudes had stuck to "she/her/someone" prefixes, we'd be able to tell whether a verb is C-stem or A-stem more easily:

raʔnęríhshęh = he rests (A-stem); we can't tell if this verb is an A-stem off the bat because ra- is the male prefix for both C-stem and A-stem verbs yęʔnęríhshęh = she rests (A-stem); we know this is A-stem because of the use of nasal Ę rakwáhsθeh = he likes it (C-stem); again, can't tell at a glance whether this verb is A- or C-stem if we were just looking at he/him conjugations yekwáhsθeh = she likes it (C-stem); we can tell this verb is C-stem because of the regular E

---

I mean... Our culture has always extended personhood to women, to the point where "she/her" is considered the default unless otherwise specified.

Just because you don't see it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

We even have a special form of conjugation reserved just for women. We don't really need to grant women their personhood again if we never stopped doing that to begin with.

Linguistic imperialism is more of a problem than our language's approach to gender. The colonists mistranslated "man" based on their understanding of our language, not ours. Rudes assumed an English-speaking perspective would transfer to Skaruręʔkyéha·ʔ without problems when it really doesn't. Like, at all.

...We're not hardasses about pronouns, either. If someone wants to be referred to with certain pronouns, we roll with it. It's just basic decency.

So.

It's not exactly the same thing as "French referring to every 100-women-1-man group as masculine," but every Haudenosaunee language handles group gender a little differently.

For instance, Kanyęʔkyéha·ʔ (Mohawk) is concerned with the gender makeup of groups, which IIRC does take a ratio of men and women into account.

We, on the other hand, don't really care about gender configuration so much as the number of people involved. "Someone to someone," "them to them," "someone to you," and "us to them" take the same pronouns regardless of gender.

The only real time gender becomes a factor is when you're specifying "he to me" or "she to me." But even then, based on the way our language works, if you're saying something like "someone asked me a question," you'd still use the feminine singular.

No, for us the real hairsplitty stuff comes from accounting for the number of people on all three sides of the conversation (agent, subject, audience). You have to figure out who you're addressing, the number of people you're addressing, and your relation to the audience and/or the people you're talking about.

---

Another linguistic concept we might have difficulty explaining to non-indigenous people is the femininezoic form, since:

A.) It sounds dehumanizing, even though it's just an alternate way of expressing "she."

B.) We don't fully understand what it's used for ourselves, what the nuances are.

The following screenshot shows us the Thwahrù·nęʔ (Oneida) perspective on what the femininezoic is and what it might be used for; due to paucity of information, I have to assume Skarù·ręʔ (Tuscarora) usage is similar.

Basically, the femininezoic replaces "she" pronouns with "it" pronouns in "state-of-being" verbs (emotions, health, etc.):

yakuʔčhęnę́·tih = she is happy (feminine-indefinite) kaʔčhęnę́·tih = "it is happy" (she is happy, femininezoic)

The way this was explained to me is that the femininezoic is done this way because women are closer to the Earth, which is also an "it" but which can be personified as a woman.

My personal understanding, then, is that the femininezoic carries connotations of respect. We see this form used more often in older stories as well.

well you see this masculine term is "gender neutral" because for the longest time, men were the only people considered human beings, hope this helps!

[spidybaby]

Holiday Vlog 🎄✨️

Barca Boys x Youtuber!Reader

Summary: You do your yearly Holiday Vlog, but this time you have a special guest.

Warnings: cursing, christmas celebration (for those who don't celebrate)

Pedri

"Okay, so the set is not the usual." You say, stating the obvious. "We are in my car, and we are going to my boyfriend's house to prepare some Christmas dishes." You explain.

You check if you have everything for the dishes you promised Pedri to do with Fer and him. You were going to make cookies, banana bread, Rosy's recipe of a canarian dessert, and more.

"So I have everything we need, I'll just need willingness from my boyfriend to be able to cook four Christmas dishes." You chuckle.

You talk about your adventure buying everything. Basically doing a voice-over because you'll place some clips over the voice.

You call Pedri as you are outside his house. He and Fer walk out to help you bring the ingredients inside and to the kitchen.

"Ven aquí." Pedri says, leaving the things in the counter and then turning to you to give you a hug. "Ready to spend the best christmas ever?"

You nod, giving him a kiss. "Are you ready to be my vlog partner?" You ask, separating and pointing at him with the camera. "Some words, pepi?"

He thinks for a while. "We are going to make banana bread, and we are going to kiss under the mistletoe." He smiles, giving a thumbs up.

You chuckle, putting the camera down and giving him a kiss. "Te amo."

"Yo más." He smiles and goes back to your lips. "Let's make some yummy dishes."

You organize the ingredients in his kitchen. Fer printed out some steps on what to do, you'll edit the clips to make them look aesthetic.

"Do we need to not mention something or what?" He asks, looking at you while you positipn the camera.

"You can say all you want, I'll edit it out." You smile. "Ready?"

He nods, positioning next to you on the frame. "Do I have to say something?"

"Want to say hi and tell what we are doing?" You ask, pressing recording.

He blushes lightly. "Vamo' a hacer pan de platano, unas galletas y vamos a hacer un postre canario que los va a dejar niquelaos." (We are going to make banana bread, cookies, and a canarian dessert that is going to make your brain blow)

You smile. "We are going to begin with the banana bread." You smile. "Thankfully, Pedri's brother Fer printed us the recipes with very detailed steps."

"Perfecto!" He says. "And we have the famous platanos de Canarias." He shows them. "I got them for free." He laughs.

You giggle. You start to read the instructions, following the steps with him. Pedri was so enthusiastic about it.

You two make all the recipes, taking a good time but being happy about being able to make it together and to be spending quality time together.

"We are going to load the dishwasher and wait for everything to cool." You smile. "Thank you, guys. I love you all. Pedri and I wish you a happy holiday and to those who celebrate a merry christmas."

You turn the camera off, taking the break time to charge the battery. You help Pedri load the dishwasher and place some clean dishes in their respective areas.

You feel two cold hands and a kiss on your neck. "Do you want to order some food and maybe watch something while we wait?" He asks, giving you more kisses.

You say yes to him. He grabs your hands and walks with you to his room. His parents are in Tenerife, and Fer is busy playing.

You order something and cuddle with him in bed. The movie and food were good. "Thank you for doing this vlog with me." You whisper, kissing his nose.

"Don't thank me." He giggles. "I love doing this stuff with you. Te amo."

"Te amo, Pepi."

Ferran

"Hola, Ferran here." He says into the camera. "And this is Y/n." He points at you.

You wave to the camera, hugging him by the neck and giving him a kiss. "Hi, guys."

"Today, we are going to buy some last-minute presents." He explains. "This happened because someone lost the gif-"

"He did." You interrupted him. "But we are not going to point fingers to anyone." You smile.

He scuffs. "Okay, so we are going to the mall, but before this is our outfit of the day." He smiles, placing the camera and getting a full picture of your outfits. "Go." He instructed you.

You smile at him, looking at him with lovey eyes. "I'm wearing a The North West jacket, I have Ferran's t-shirt under." You open your jacket a little, showing the t-shirt. "I have a pair of thermal leggings, some fuzzy socks from primark, and my boots are from ugg." You finish.

"My jacket is from Off White." Ferran says. "My polo shirt, same as my baby." He smiles to you. "Some cargos from I don't know and my jordans. I also will be wearing this over my mouth because I don't want to be recognized."

He grabs the camera, grabbing your hand and walking. He was loving taking over the vlogs, he loves being able to share more than he does in social media.

"We are going to get his sister and mother something and also we are getting a Christmas outfit for him." You say.

You two began your adventure with Ferran explaining everything you are doing. He likes taking the chance to make your channel his own.

"Pick this or that." He says.

You focus on the options. "That."

He makes a face. "Okay, this." He smiles, placing the item into the basket.

You move the camera to focus on yourself. "This is why I have trust issues." You pout.

You two move from buying the gifts to get his outfit. You explain to the camera that Ferran is someone who's very simple with his outfits, so this time, he allowed you to be the one to dress him.

"This is a, what is it called?" He asks you. "Impress dress." He says.

"Dress to impress, my love." You giggle. "Okay, so pick a store."

He thinks for a few moments, grabbing your hand and walking over to this store where you can get an ugly Christmas sweater.

"Do you want this?" You point to the sweaters. "Ferran, amor." You laugh.

"We can match ugly sweaters."

You nod, not wanting to end his happy grin. You search with him, he then sees something he likes.

"If I find your size, we are wearing this for Christmas night." He smiles.

You look at the ugliest sweater you have ever seen, but the way your boyfriend is smiling. You turn the recording back on, sighing.

"Guys, it seems like Ferran and I have our christmas outfits ready!" You say with a happy voice.

Gavi

"Do I look good?" He asks, checking himself in the small screen. "Is my hair alright?"

You smirk, h used to be so shy at the sight of the camera, and now he's used to it.

"You look good." You smile at him, fixing a string of hair that's looking weird. "I love the way your outfit looks, Pablito."

"We are matching." He giggles, hugging you by the waist. "What are we talking about in this vlog?"

"Just giving a small recap of our day, maybe a clip of us opening the gifts, and that's that." You explain. "Is that okay?"

He nods, understanding that you cut your vlog short because of him. Since you started dating, you changed your vlogging style. Trying to keep him out of it for the most part.

Pablo is not someone who likes cameras, even when his life revolves around cameras that picture hik from every angle while he plays.

He's not mad at the pictures you ask, and you keep to yourself or the memories you capture in video but never show to anybody.

He sometimes gets uncomfortable with the overexposure that people put him through, and he rejects the small moments you try to show him.

After some time, he got used to the idea of you being a vlogger. He likes the idea, actually. It was fun to see a recap of your day when he was away.

"Okay, my pumpkins," you say to the camera. "I'm over at my boyfriend's home. We are spending this Christmas together, and we have quite a tight schedule."

"Very tight." He remarks.

You chuckle at that. "And we are going to have dinner with his family, we will play some Christmas games and then open the gifts."

"Let's go eat," He shouts excitedly. "Vamoooos"

You show a very happy Gavi. You cut to the camera, walking with him to the kitchen. You charge the camera while eating with his family.

You have a nice talk with his parents and sister. You love them so much. Aurora and you planned on doing a small battle of building gingerbread houses.

You get everything set up. It was between Pablo Sr, Belen, Aurora, and you. Aurora's boyfriend, Pablo's grandma, and Pablo were the judges.

"Amor, come here." Gavi calls you. You see him with your camera on his hands. "We need to film this."

You smile at him, never thinking he would be the one starting the camera. "Pumpkins, we are doing this competition of building gingerbread houses." You explain. "Gavi, here. He's going to be the judge, and believe me when I tell you that he's not going to favor me."

He shakes his head no at your statement. "I'm a fair judge." He says, very serious tone.

You show the gingerbread building boxes, showing that each of them has a name. Gavi shows his family and asked them in a scale of 1 to 10 how confident they felt.

The competition began, you were never the best at building things, so obviously it was kind of messy.

Aurora, on the other hand, looked like an expert. Doing everything flawlessly. Your house was kind of tilted, and you can tell that it was not made with love.

After a fun, frustrating, but very full of love experience. It was time to judge. Gavi took the time to film the house and ask for an explanation.

"Y/n," He sighs. "Explain to us your very interesting architecture." He laughs.

"It's a modern and very revolutionary way of construction. Not for rockies." You joke.

The time of judging began, Gavi took the camera with him and filmed the audio of him and the judges picking the winner.

Obviously, it was not your almost destroyed house, you laugh when he offered you a peppermint candy as a consolation prize.

"If it makes you feel better, I voted for you." He smiles, hugging your waist.

"It actually makes it all better." You say, kissing him.

Fermin

Fermin is someone kind of shy. I think describing him is easy because he's not someone who's overly a sharer, but he's also not the shy and low profile guy.

When you explain to him that you were a youtuber and that you have a very successful vlogmas, that involved you doing different things during Christmas as decorations, gift shopping, outfits, different dishes.

He was confused because he didn't really got it. It was after that date that he ran home and searched your name in the YouTube search bar.

Your videos were very popular. It was a yearly series where you shared how you planned to decorate, how you were going to wrap your gifts, the usual.

He fell in love with how much you enjoyed doing these vlogs. At the same time, it was funny when he was away for games to see your vlogs and feel like he never left.

"This is the third time we tried to film this video, guys." You laugh. "The first time, Fermin lay down on the couch and fell asleep while I was getting the gifts."

"I love that couch." He says.

"The second time, we lost all the scissors. Turns out they were under the couch." You say, pointing at the different scissors.

"So, welcome to our vlog. Today, Fermin and I are going to wrap all the gifts we got for our family and friends."

"And before you say <oh, but what if they see it?> we got it covered, don't worry." He explains.

You love how he's now a vlog master, always taking over you when you needed the help.

"Okay, we have a dilema because my proposal was using the red wrapping for family and the green for friends."

"And I think that it's better if we do a white wrapping for family, green for close friends and red for other friends."

You two think for a while, you let him have his way and take his idea for wrapping. "We have two different wrapping paper of each color, so pick one."

"I want this for mom, this for dad and this for my brother." He says, picking one that is not even on the pile.

"That's not even an option." You say, pouting.

"Well, it is now." He smirks. Placing the wrapping out of your reach. "Pick yours." He says.

You do, picking the wrapping and selecting the gifts. You placed a lawyer of newspaper so the boxes weren't see-through, and you could show how you are wrapping the gifts.

You explained to Fermin how to do it since he had never wrapped anything before. It was a small tutorial for him.

Fermin was talking about a story of him and his family during the holidays. He was concentrated but also doing his storytelling job.

You were so happy to see him being so lost into the camera. He loved being with you at your daily vlogs, and he was from now on your new vlog buddy.

After a few tries and some not very cute wrappings, he grabs a small box, trying to be sneaky about it.

"Need help?" You ask him.

"No, no. Go back to your gifts." He says quickly, hiding the box. "No peaking." He says, pushing you to your side of the station.

You laugh at him, watching him being all secretive with what is obvious your gift. You let him do himself and finish his wrapping.

"Look, this one looks good." He says, proud of his very rough wrapped gift.

You clap your hands, happy for him. It was a hard-working wrapping, and you were not going to discourage it.

"Me encanta, Fer." You smile, grabbing his cheeks and kissing him.

🏷: @gadriezmannsgirl 💛

[mavcancees]

Coldified about the Feinberg stuff:

I wanted to talk about Feinberg, because I was on that Dream video. This is my opinion: it's fucking insane. This whole thing is insane. I don't like Feinberg that much, to be clear. But we recorded that video together that Dream invited us to, and look at how his community is reacting. [ reads Feinberg's messages in a sarcastic tone ] And Feinberg never complained before this, he hadn't talked about the event, he never raised an issue, nothing. And if his chat had never said anything, he would have never said he wasn't going to record with the DTeam again. If nobody had said anything, he'd have made more videos with them. 100%. [ chatter as a joke says "he's just like you" ] No dude, I don't spend streams shitting on Dream (* THIS IS NEWS TO ME *), just to turn around and go to his events 3 minutes later, and then have my leash pulled by my community and submitting to them. And the craziest part is that he didn't even win. That's the most insane part. He sold out his morals. And he didn't even sell himself out for 1k. He sold himself out for the CHANCE of getting 1k. It's fucking insane. Sold yourself for the 1 in 20 chance of getting 1k.

[rei-ismyname]

Merry X-Men Holiday Special Highlights

Happy holidays, everyone! It's been about a year since I started posting about the X-Men on Tumblr and if it wasn't for all the lovely folks who engage and discuss it wouldn't be so enriching. I'm super anti-capitalist and anti cultural Christianity so it's less 'Happy Christmas' and more 'I wish y'all the best.' ❤️💚

I wonder if Lockheed speaks Hebrew

Here's Kitty Pryde celebrating Chanukah in Genosha and remembering her father. Leading the special with an explicitly Jewish character observing a Jewish holiday is great, but the notion of saving the world by becoming president of the USA is a dubious one. The USA is an imperialist entity built on deep seated systemic inequality and worse. Even the most progressive of presidents is beholden to that. It doesn't mean we shouldn't try, but Kitty is kidding herself about 'saving the world the right way.'

Nature Girl hates Christmas, and it's hard to argue with her reasons. The parts about warmth are weird to me because I live in Australia where Christmas is always hot AF. One of the few days I hope for rain, tbh.

I'm not sure if Bobby quite understood what 'eschewing capitalism' means but this looks pretty fun. That tie dye X-Men tee slaps and I want one. I wonder what Kubark thinks of this human holiday.

This story with Magneto coming around on the pointlessness of lighting menorahs does the rounds every now and then, though not as much as I'd expect. The kids are particularly plucky and eloquent, and the one who emphatically tells Magneto he's wrong is a legend. I'm fond of any story where Magneto rethinks his beliefs, and this is a nice one.

It took me a while to notice that this is written by Charlamagne tha God, possibly because it's kinda funny to imagine Ororo knowing who that is. Idk why, I've just never seen any stories indicating that she's into Hip Hop culture. I like that it's a rejection of turning the other cheek where bigoted assholes are concerned. You can't reach some people, and there's no obligation to exhaust yourself trying. Fuck em. The Michelle Obama mention is a bit on the nose.

Old man Logan is cutting firewood and being gruff, as he does. Kurt gives him a picture of himself, which is a baller move. I was under the impression that this Logan was an alternate reality Logan, and doesn't have a particularly close relationship with these X-Men. Nothing about Logans makes sense, sometimes you just have to accept it as cute and cool.

Glob does stuff! Is that meant to be mistletoe? We don't have it down here. He nails up some plant matter and then chills by himself. Little bit depressing, but I can't talk.

Bobby Drake has a party! Interestingly neither Jewish nor Christian, but a pagan holiday that's become a bit more popular (like Christmas and Easter.) Hope is watching Cable do... something, in a recorded message from when she was the universe's most unpopular baby.

Some kids are sharing the rumour that Magneto merked Santa, which is hilarious. It's obviously untrue, not least because Santa is Mags' mutant brother. Kurt lectures them.

Jubilee beats up Arcade (yay!) and quotes Home Alone, rescuing Shogo (who's spending this Christmas as a dragon in Otherworld.) I really don't like Arcade, though he has done two excellent things. Torturing Sinister and creating the Proletarian - worker's hero of the Soviet Union.

Nightcrawler and Storm show up and Christmas is really just a backdrop for a light anti-capitalist tale. Cool! I'd expect Cyclops to be in this book, but no. It's Chuck-less as well.

[mllemaenad]

I'm ... assuming whoever wrote this doesn't care much for the idea that those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

There's so much that's odd here. The Tevinter empire already had its day, and it already had slavery and blood sacrifice. It also picked up its magic from the elven empire, in a time much closer to the fall of Elvhenan. So honestly it feels like "the Venatori" probably already have access to a lot of this stuff. Orlais, as the new empire, also has slavery and the only reason it isn't using a lot of old elven magic is because it specifically hates and fears magic (and even then, it's doing more dubious magical stuff than it will readily admit). No empire needs this specific compendium of knowledge to figure out how to oppress people.

But honestly, they've probably got a lot of it. The elves don't have access to a lot of this information because their civilisation fell twice. Their records were stolen or destroyed and they were forced into poverty and servitude. Even the Dalish, the self-appointed keepers of elven culture, only have whatever they could haul out of the Dales on their backs. Elven texts still exist – I still remember Kirkwall's Band of Three – they're just largely not accessible to the elves.

This could be a way for the elves to reclaim some of that information.

There will be stuff in here that was genuinely lost, though, because neither conquering civilisation had use for it – history, literature, religion, art – all things that would be valuable to the elves. Things that Tevinter and Orlais discarded because the elven civilisation was considered inferior to their own. The big, bad secret, that the elves once had an empire of their own ... well, that's already out.

On top of that ... this bizarre idea about the superiority of "ancient" knowledge. Look, ancient people were not stupid – at least no more stupid than we are – and they came up with clever ways of doing things. But we have largely built on their efforts to find even better ways. And even if some skill is genuinely lost, it can be rediscovered. It is not doomed forever unless you find the Secret Ancient Texts. This feels ... uncomfortably along the lines of "the people of Atlantis were real, were magic and were responsible for all civilisation!"

And there's this weird idea that knowledge could somehow corrupt the elves.

The story they've given the elves is deeply disquieting in several ways, but ... well, since this is what we have, we've got to live with it. But if the elven people got things "wrong", it was through a lack of knowledge. If the evanuris were "incorrectly" worshipped as gods, it was because the elves lost their history. Ignorance isn't some magic safeguard against error.

I know I've been making jokes about the "chatbot" but ... behind the chatbot is an encyclopaedia. Why on earth would you destroy that?

[eclecticopposition]

we neeeed a podfic. we need a podfic stat. we need to be able to listen to it. you understand.

[egophiliac]

I have never been more concerned for a JP update from your art than I am seeing a Cheka knowing the context of Leona’s dream.

My bois ok right?????? My sweet nephews ok right??????

well

uhhhh

I'm sure the real one is fine :)

[gingermintpepper]

In my Zeus bag today so I'm just gonna put it out there that exactly none of the great Ancient Greek warrior-heroes stayed loyal and faithful and completely monogamous and yet none of them have their greatness questioned nor do we question why they had the cultural prominence that they did and still do.

Jason, the brilliant leader of the Argo, got cold feet when it came to Medea - already put off by some of her magic and then exiled from his birthland because of her political ploys, he took Creusa to bed and fully intended on marrying her despite not properly dissolving things with Medea.

Theseus was a fierce warrior and an incredibly talented king but he had a horrible temper and was almost fatally weak to women. This is the man who got imprisoned in the Underworld for trying to get a friend laid, the man who started the whole Attic War because he couldn't keep his legs closed.

And we cannot at all forget Heracles for whom a not inconsiderable amount of his joy in life was loving people then losing the people around him that he loved. Wives, children, serving boys, mentors, Heracles had a list of lovers - male and female - long enough to rival some gods and even after completing his labours and coming down to the end of his life, he did not have one wife but three.

And y'know what, just because he's a cultural darling, I'll put Achilles up here too because that man was a Theseus type where he was fantastic at the thing he was born to do (that is, fight whereas Theseus' was to rule) but that was not enough to eclipse his horrid temper and his weakness to young pretty things. This is the man that killed two of Apollo's sons because they wouldn't let him hit - Tenes because he refused to let Achilles have his sister and Troilus who refused Achilles so vehemently that he ran into Apollo's temple to avoid him and still couldn't escape.

All four of these men are still celebrated as great heroes and men. All four of these men are given the dignity of nuance, of having their flaws treated as just that, flaws which enrich their character and can be used to discuss the wider cultural point of what truly makes a hero heroic. All four of these men still have their legacies respected.

Why can that same mindset not be applied to Zeus? Zeus, who was a warrior-king raised in seclusion apart from his family. Zeus who must have learned to embrace the violence of thunder for every time he cried as a babe, the Corybantes would bang their shields to hide the sound. Zeus learned to be great because being good would not see the universe's affairs in its order.

The wonderful thing about sympathy is that we never run out of it. There's no rule stopping us from being sympathetic to multiple plights at once, there's no law that necessitate things always exist on the good-evil binary. Yes, Zeus sentenced Prometheus to sufferation in Tartarus for what (to us) seems like a cruel reason. Prometheus only wanted to help humans! But when you think about Prometheus' actions from a king's perspective, the narrative is completely different: Prometheus stole divine knowledge and gifted it to humans after Zeus explicitly told him not to. And this was after Prometheus cheated all the gods out of a huge portion of wealth by having humans keep the best part of a sacrifice's meat while the gods must delight themselves with bones, fat and skin. Yes, Zeus gave Persephone away to Hades without consulting Demeter but what king consults a woman who is not his wife about the arrangement of his daughter's marriage to another king? Yes, Zeus breaks the marriage vows he set with Hera despite his love of her but what is the Master of Fate if not its staunchest slave?

The nuance is there. Even in his most bizarre actions, the nuance and logic and reason is there. The Ancient Greeks weren't a daft people, they worshipped Zeus as their primary god for a reason and they did not associate him with half the vices modern audiences take issue with. Zeus was a father, a visitor, a protector, a fair judge of character, a guide for the lost, the arbiter of revenge for those that had been wronged, a pillar of strength for those who needed it and a shield to protect those who made their home among the biting snakes. His children were reflections of him, extensions of his will who acted both as his mercy and as his retribution, his brothers and sisters deferred to him because he was wise as well as powerful. Zeus didn't become king by accident and it is a damn shame he does not get more respect.

[scoriarose]

She came up with a new activity

[sunderwight]

Thinking about the weird camaraderie that exists between demons but not angels in GO.

Have we ever seen two angels who are actually friends? Or even friendly to one another? We have met angels with a capacity to be friendly in general, but I think the closest we've come to two angels actually getting along would be Gabriel making a point to laugh at Sandalphon's terrible "can't have a war without War" line in S1.

Most scenes between the angels actually seem to have an undercurrent of absolute hostility. Teeth-clenched teamwork. No wonder it took them so long to notice that Aziraphale wasn't on the same page as the rest of them! The rest of them are barely on the same page as one another, either! When Gabriel goes against the majority vote, no one bats an eye at demoting him and wiping his memory. Michael and Uriel immediately begin vying for his job. The only times we've seen angels team up is when they're working together to bully someone else, like when they're trying to intimidate Aziraphale in S1 or going to the aftermath of the bookshop raid in S2.

Saraqael's overall neutrality towards Muriel is the closest we get to two angels in Heaven getting along, and it's more a lack of hostility than any kind of friendliness. At least until Gabriel loses his memories and Muriel shows up to spy on Aziraphale, and Aziraphale decides to be kind to both of them.

Demons, on the other hand, actually seem to form alliances and even friendships among one another. Hastur and Ligur are awful, but Hastur seems genuinely distraught over Ligur's death, not just fearful of suffering the same fate. Shax and Furfur conspire together and even though the 1940's investigation into Crowley's fraternizing doesn't work out for Furfur, it's not due to any double-crossing on Shax's part. Unlike the angels, who stick almost exclusively to making threats until the Metatron decides to try dangling a carrot at the end of the season, demons actually offer rewards to other demons when trying to work together. Beelzebub offers Crowley a promotion if he can bring them Gabriel, Furfur offers to back Shax up politically if she goes for the Duke position opening, and Crowley successfully stalls Hastur in S1 by pretending everything was a test and he's going to be put in charge of a legion as a reward for passing. They're still not great at socializing, but they're significantly ahead of the angels.

Of course, it's a fact that demons are awful to one another (Eric's treatment is really bad, they throw that random demon into holy water just to test it, "it'd be a funny world if demons went around trusting one another", etc) but they still seem more capable of forming friendships than the angels do.

I think that's because Hell cramps and crowds everyone together to try and increase their suffering and hostility, whereas Heaven isolates angels to decrease the odds of questioning or rebellion. Hell's methods are unpleasant, but it still ends up putting demons together, and some of those demons inevitably forge alliances and make friendships. Because as Crowley and Beelzebub demonstrate, demons are still social creatures with the capacity for love and affection, even if it's strongly discouraged and buried under nine million layers of trauma and a cultural mandate against kindness.

Angels are the same, but isolation makes is harder to form connections than overcrowding. Muriel and Jimbriel are both so eager to make friends, but Muriel's spent the past millennia shut in an empty office, and Gabriel has been distanced from his peers both through his position and also through Heaven's culture of fear and surveillance. He only breaks away from it when he finds something that's stronger than "choosing sides" (stronger than the fear of being rejected by Heaven and Falling, in fact strong enough that Falling seems worth it if he gets to be with someone he loves). Both Muriel and Gabriel are only able to start forming connections when they're away from Heaven.

I just think it's interesting that demons, despite being supposedly devoid of love, have an advantage in forming relationships compared to angels. Angels are supposed to love, but have far fewer opportunities to actually do so. Demons aren't supposed to love, but they make connections anyway.

[fortes-fortuna-iogurtum]

I've been reading Exodus lately and I've just gotten to the portions where God gives the first commands to the people via Moses (twice), and then goes on to give detailed instructions about the tabernacle and how it should be built, and I'm just... we think art is unimportant?? we think things only mean as much as their functionality?? we so easily fall into the trap of believing that beauty means nothing, that it's cheap and only worth whatever mindless distraction it brings, that it's barely more than a cheap sensual thrill, that buildings should just be practical and plain and cheap, that everything should be functional but ultimately disposable, that paintings and dresses and mugs and curtains and carpets are just pretty but have no real value, that beauty is fleeting and vain and therefore shouldn't be thought about too much, if even looked for at all... we fall into these traps so easily, and we forget that there are chapters upon chapters of painstakingly detailed plans to build one portable worship tent, and those plans have been handed down through thousands of years of human history, because beauty and art and skill in craft is important

[nikolas-ghostbusters-fixation]

Something I've been thinking a lot about lately is how everyone thought Egon had gone insane. What Happened that made them think that. They've fought a gigantic Stay Puft Marshmellow Man TWICE (counting the 2009 video game because iirc it's canon? Correct me if I'm wrong), fought an interdimensional god, fought a blood thirsty ruler that killed thousands and was hated by all that was trapped in a painting (and managed to get in to beat him by making THE STATUE OF LIBERTY start walking down the street with slime that reacted purely based on vibes), found an underground abandoned transit system full of the moodslime, had a bathtub try to eat Dana and her baby, fought a giant murderous black widow lady, fought the fisherman ghost who turned an entire hotel floor into the bottom of a ocean, and that's not even mentioning them getting trapped on an island that randomly raised up from underwater that had been abandoned for decades created by Ivor Shandor who worshipped Gozer. So what did he do or say that made everyone else think he'd gone insane?? All I can think is maybe he was acting strange / eratic before, but he's always been like that to some degree.

I don't know. It's something that I've been thinking about. The correct answer is 'it's not that deep and they needed a reason that the others weren't together anymore and weren't aware of Egons death or know what was going on,' but also. What Was He Saying that prompted everyone, including Ray, to think he lost his mind when he'd been right almost every time before that.

I'm genuinely so curious as to what he was up to before this. What was he doing. What insane idea was working on prior to this or was he even working on anything at all??

Also want to clarify this post isn't negative 😭 I really love the newer movies and their lore / the newer storyline / characters, I just like thinking about small stupid things like this. Gives me something to think about / speculate about / figure out an answer to.

[speedofsoundsketches]

Oh, it turns out Ian flynn worked on the Shadow animated shorts, he did a pretty good job consider he doesn't always get Shadow right in idw

I'm aware. With the amount of #knowingsmiles posted during the initial announcements, it's hard to not know he was involved.

He also wrote the Knuckles short in Frontiers which I also really liked but I attribute that being thanks mostly for having to work under Tyson Hesse's direction.

Shadow being ok in these shorts happened thanks to Sonic Team giving a LOT more direction and scrutiny on the scripts since it's held to a much higher standard as part of the games than Flynn was for IDW. (which still didn't stop him from inserting some of his fanfiction sourced flynnisms but what it do)

One hopes that this closer work relationship with Sonic Team will teach him how to properly write these characters and internalize the art of writing Sonic Stories in the future. I have my doubts tho since some of the writing in the shorts IS still pretty contrived (wouldn't be on brand for him if it wasn't) and ignores established lore to make the plot make sense like Shadow not warping directly into the Space Ark as he's done before. But nope, we gotta have big fight sequences so let's raid a base for a shuttle he doesn't need!

And I say this as someone who enjoyed it overall and thought the fight scenes were hype. But I'd like fight scenes to have thought behind the spectacle, not without.

[thefirstknife]

Hi Bel,

I keep seeing comments about people complaining about the quality of destiny’s writing and story in the last few weeks. I haven’t really engaged with destiny since season of defiance, what’s currently gotten everyone so riled up? I thought that people were enjoying Season of the Deep/Witch in terms of narrative, why is Season of the Wish causing people to deride the destiny writing staff again?

I don't know!

Deep and Witch have been absolute bangers in every aspect to me. I've been enjoying all interactions and lore tabs we've received. A lot of them are stuff that we've never had before, a lot of reunions and closures, a lot of development and interactions between characters who you wouldn't really think would have much in common.

Sloane's return and healing from what she's been through has been fantastic, Drifter opening up with her to help her because he also got help from others was fantastic, Sloane reuniting with Aisha and Shayura brought me to tears (Shayura's descent into madness was triggered by immense trauma of Sloane staying on Titan and Titan disappearing), everything with Sloane and Zavala...

Witch was just incredible in every single way; the focus on Eris, the amount of Eris and Ikora content!!!!! Everything about Xivu and Savathun and their interactions together!! Eris finally fulfilling her goal she promised Savathun YEARS ago, getting that closure.

Wish so far has been equally great to me. All the new stuff about Ahamkara is amazing, finally giving us proof for long-standing speculation about Ahamkara and how they aren't universally evil creatures and expanding on them as a species. I love all interactions we've had so far; finally we have Petra back, Mara's singleminded focus on figuring out how to defeat the Witness and her continuous work to improve as a person, ALL SJUR MENTIONS!!!!! I won't talk about the "leak" because we have no context for it so I will wait for the full story to be revealed before I can pass judgment; something that I think should be a lesson to learn from this entire year. Maybe wait for the story to finish before judging the story.

Literally everything this past year that involves Osiris, but especially this season now that he's back in his element with the Vex. And of course every little detail we get of him and Saint. Osiris honestly shaped this year for me with everything that he's done to uncover the biggest mysteries. I think a big reason is that a lot of people just don't like Osiris, which I consider a massive skill issue.

Other than that, I don't know what are the issues people have besides just not being interested in any of these storylines and attributing it to a nebulous "bad writing" claim. I also genuinely believe that way too many people get wrapped up too much in fandom, imagine storylines they want to see and then get disappointed when the actual story doesn't go there. Almost like people forget that this isn't their story and these aren't their characters. A lot of it is also fandom completely warping characters into not what they actually are and then feeling like the canon story is the one that's wrong.

Whatever is the reason, I guess everyone is entitled to their perspective of the story and everyone is free to explore the story in different ways through fanfics and AUs and whatever. I do that too!

But I would definitely ask people to be normal with how they engage in criticism, especially in the current state of affairs. Writers are developers; they experience a ton of harassment and negativity from the community and also from inside the company. And they are online: they can see what we're saying. It's been documented that community commentary has been used to harass writers:

Imprint this into your brain and never forget what these people had to go through. Let's not forget also the way people treated Seth Dickinson on social media when he was active with Destiny fans. "Fans" were actively arguing with him about his own work (telling him that HE is wrong) and were utterly disgusting towards him when he tried explaining what he wrote. His works are now hailed as the best writing in Destiny and people want him back. If I were him, I wouldn't want to come back ngl, not with how he was treated and not with how fans are still treating writers (and hey, Seth wrote LF Collector's Edition! So he was back, technically, this year!). Let's not forget that a lot of writers are members of various marginalised groups. And I'd definitely not want to go back with zero support from leadership.

Which is also an important aspect for all developers, including writers: sometimes they have orders they may not like, but can't argue against. They do the best they can with what they're given, the time they have and directions they receive. And with that in mind, I am enjoying everything we've gotten this year, obviously with some specific complaints about things I didn't particularly enjoy (like the universally mid reception of Defiance; I've spoken about my gripes with it before, a big one being the shafting of Suraya who should've at least been mentioned in a lore tab).

I can tell that there is passion in their work, even if maybe they would prefer to do more with it, but can't. Maybe even if they want to take different routes, but can't. But from what we got, I can feel that they care about this world and these characters. I can tell that someone lovingly wrote about Sloane and her friendships with two grieving women. I can tell that they deeply cared about Sloane's friendship with Zavala and that they loved showing us Saint and Drifter caring about a fellow trauma survivor.

I can tell that the writers are immensely careful and loving towards Eris; everything she went through was crafted with love and passion from both writers and her VA. Eris' story is such a fundamental aspect of Destiny and I can tell that this was important to the writing team and that they gave her everything they could to do justice to her character and her arc and her healing and her release from the cycle she was trapped in for so long.

I can tell that there are writers who care a lot about Osiris and Saint and their relationship. I can tell that someone cared a lot about expanding on Ahamkara and giving them more personalities. I can tell that someone cared DEEPLY about Sjur and Mara and that her repeated mentions are the passionate work of writers who want us to remember her.

I could go on. And I know that not everyone sees it this way, which is fine; we all have different ways of perceiving stories. I enjoy discussing things we in the fandom disagree on and I enjoy hearing different perspectives! Unfortunately, this has recently become rarer and rarer. And for the love of god, please try and treat writers with some respect, especially now, especially those who are still working and doing their best with the shitty situation they're in. None of the cries of "poor devs" ring true to me unless the same is given to writers, instead of treating them like punching bags.

[dayssinceabrandcrossedmarkiplier]

Well it looks like we've got a reset on our hands again. Mark mentioned in the latest episode of Distractible that a company called OWC (Other World Computing) misled him with the information provided with their usb products and as a result is making editing Iron Lung more complicated than it should be.

I feel like that's more than enough ground to classify them as a brand that crossed Markiplier.

[uncanny-tranny]

Is this community safe for non-passing or non-transitioning (socially/medically) trans people, even if they had the means to transition?

Why would it be? If someone can easily/safely transition and choose not to, I would question if they were trans. I’ve lived through people invading my trans student union bc they wanted to be special, I’m not going to do it again

Because being trans is an identity, not an action. You can transition, yes, but that doesn't mean you are "more trans." If somebody can safely transition but they choose not to, that is their decision, and it isn't your right nor responsibility to tell them what you think about it, frankly.

As somebody who is transitioning, I can understand if you don't understand why somebody isn't transitioning. However, you don't have to "get it" to respect them. I'm sorry, but I don't feel much sympathy for people who say, "if you don't transition, you just want to feel special, and you aren't trans"

Again: being trans is an identity. The same way as being cis - cis people do not have to "prove" they are cis, why do trans people? Why must we constantly have to appease everybody around us? I transitioned for me, I take testosterone for me, I changed my name for me, I dress masc for me - none of that involves anybody else, and I reckon it is similar to people who are not transitioning medically or socially.