#environmental disaster scene

[feodortum]

[foldingfittedsheets]

My mom has this awful friend, Cynthia. My loathing goes deep enough that I’m not even going to change her name. If she ever finds this she knows what she did.

On multiple occasions my mom asked this horrible irresponsible chicken brained woman to watch after our animals while we were away. I don’t know why once wasn’t enough, because the first failure was so spectacular that anyone in their right mind would know she couldn’t be trusted with any level of responsibility or direction following.

You might be thinking to yourself, FFS, this level of antipathy is surely unwarranted! But you’d be wrong.

To set the scene, we were living in downstairs of our house when I was about fifteen. My mom has always wanted more animals than can reasonably be kept indoors which is how we ended up with three cats. When she wanted to kick them all outside I protested, and so all three cats lived in my bedroom with no access to the rest of the house.

That really wasn’t great, so in an attempt to give them options we made a window cutout with a cat door in it to give them access to the outdoors. Looking back on this as an environmentally conscious adult it’s wretched, cats should be indoor only, but at the time I was desperate to give them some freedom because one bedroom is too small for three cats.

So my parents and I went on a week long trip to visit family out of state. We told Cynthia to come feed and water the cats, and to scoop the litter box. Most importantly, don’t lock the handle of the door, because we only have the key to the deadbolt.

I’m sure you can see where this is going.

Cynthia locked us out. We arrived home after 12 hours on the road, desperate for the comfort of our own beds. We were met with an unyielding door. With a sigh I volunteered, “I can punch in the cat door and climb in the window.”

I slipped behind the bamboo outside my window and pushed in the cutout. A horrible insidious reek wafted out at me. I paused, prickling with foreboding. But I had a job to do, and by god I’d see it through. I hefted myself up into the window and my hand immediately landed in something wet.

Skin crawling, I pulled myself up and surveyed the darkened room as a miserable odor of decay and suffering poured out of the room around me. I could see dark shapes littering the carpet and it didn’t take a genius to guess that the cats had taken up hunting in a big way during my absence.

I pulled my hand out of the pile of vomit it had landed in and dropped into my onetime bedroom turned now into a hellpit of decomposing wretchedness. I turned on the light. I wished I had not turned on the light.

My eyes scanned across the floor, tallying as they went. Two dead birds, a dead baby rabbit, five dead mice, and one dead snake. I paused on my alarm clock, perplexed to see a stain of white on it. I stepped closer and saw a furtive movement.

The tally suddenly contained also: one live bird that had shit in several places, probably in pure terror to find itself trapped in a room littered with decomposing woodland creatures, which honestly, fair. I coaxed it out the window and finished the survey with five discrete piles of vomit.

I unlocked the door and let my parents in. They exclaimed in disgust at the horrible smell. We stood together in my doorway floored by the magnitude of neglect. The unscooped litter box was a subtle footnote in the tangible reek my living space. I disposed of the parade of ecological disaster, cleaned vomit, and scooped the box after a brutally long day on the road. The cats were fine, and happy to see me. They had a huge dish or food and water so Cynthia’s neglect at least hadn’t harmed them.

Then I slept on the couch while my bedroom aired out, the windows flung wide to dispel the uneasy ghosts of the hunted. I spent the whole night cursing Cynthia’s name for this evil she’d visited upon me. When my mom asked her, "Cynthia, didn't you see the dead animals?"

Cynthia responded, "Yes, they smelled so bad, I just ran in and out as fast as I could." I fully don't believe she did any caretaking, and I'm personally of the opinion that she locked herself out on the first day and never came back.

The next day my room had returned to a habitable level of smellscape and I gratefully crawled into my bed that night. I stretched out and froze as my foot brushed something cold and wet?

The final indignity: one last dead snake, inside my very sheets.

Fucking Cynthia.

[eliashirsch]

God Tier Top Gun Fanfictions. A Masterlist. (3/3)

Part three of my fanfic recommendation! This one's for the best fics!

Winner Categories:

1. Best of the Best Authors (1/3)

2. Best of the Best Series (2/3)

3. Best of the Best Fics (3/3)

REMINDER! READ THE AUTHORS' TAGS AND WARNINGS!!!

Best of the Best Fics

Fics that shine bright as the stars. Make sure to check the author’s other works too!

ICEMAV

Kings of the Air by FabulaRasa @fabula-unica

Fighting and fucking: two things he did extraordinarily well. How could he have known what the effect would be when you combined the two?

This and COMPACFLT’s work directly inspired one of my works:) The writing quality is absolutely amazing. My favorite fics are those that have Ice returning to Top Gun and joining Mav as an instructor and this one just takes the whole motherfucking crown.

Indian Ocean. Present Day. by Jay Tryfanstone (tryfanstone)

Isolated on an aircraft carrier in the middle of the Indian Ocean, cut off from any source of information about the global political and environmental disaster which has engulfed the planet, Maverick and Goose struggle to make sense of an increasingly claustrophobic command structure and failing resources on board. When a refugee helicopter is spotted approaching the carrier, its pilot could be the catalyst for an explosive re-evaluation....

This fic man. This fic. It made me fall in love with post-apocalyptic fics. The writing style, the plot, Ice and Mav and Goose. Goose, man… Oh my god. If you read this fic you know why I’m still thinking about these boys’ fates. 

Rhinestone Cowboy by omnidirectional

That’s Doctor Iceman to you! Maverick bangs himself up and gets rescued by someone he didn’t expect. A Missing Scene featuring contrived situations, questionable life choices, gratuitous product placement, and shirtlessness. You know, everything you love about canon.

And it is absolutely everything I love about canon! I always love missing scenes or canon divergent. Not to say that I don’t enjoy AUs, but I love vibes like this the most where the story works alongside canon and elevates it to a whole other level. Mav and Ice and Slider feels correct.

Sleepless Nights by demiclar @demiclar / @slidersimp

Five times Maverick wakes himself up with nightmares and one time he's woken by someone else.

Fics about Mav’s grief over Goose’s death will always wreck me. This one in particular shows itself as a physical manifestation. I love love love all the guys stepping up and taking care of Mav, never once judging his pain. I’m a sucker for portrayals of the ugly side of grief.

Mal de Mer by saurora_borealis

"I thought you said you didn't get seasick, you little liar," Slider snaps. Maverick doesn't answer, head bowed, but Ice can see him shaking from here. Of all the times for Maverick to be sick, did it have to be on a night that Ice is ill too? Or: the carrier experiences some ocean turbulence. Even the most seasoned aviators fall prey to it.

This one has sort of the same vibe as the fic above. I never get tired of seeing the flyboys take care of each other<3

be my soulmate (and i'll be yours) by ChexMix

Of course Maverick dreams about finding his soulmate. Who doesn't? But he'd never imagined the possibility that it could be the Iceman. So when he catches sight of Ice's soulmark, it suddenly becomes all he can think about.

Classic Icemav soulmate AU. This is like exactly my type of angst and happy ending. Sometimes the things you’re familiar with are still the best:)

To Build a Home by LadyLanera @k9effect

Eighteen years before Top Gun Maverick, there was a home being built from ashes and ruin. When the dust finally settled and dusk fell, the house of cards collapsed, shattering three lives forever. Is it possible to rebuild, reclaiming the past in the future...when they're all hurtling towards their worst nightmare?

Goddddd. I love Mav’s character flaw in this. I love Ice’s maturity born from grief and sickness. I love Bradley’s anger and abandonment issues. I love that these three have hurt each other more than anyone ever could, but their love is still starkly present. My thoughts when I was reading this was that LadyLanera wrote their flaws so beautifully, making them human, and by doing so I understood their motivations and their actions. Amazing characterization. 

all is fair (in love and war) by dulcetines (evecstasy)

oh, ice, maverick bisa merasakan hati kecilnya meringis, ice, sori banget— hollywood menyelak lagi, kali ini dengan suara impersonasi terbaiknya: “teruntuk kuncen TOPGUN, yang mana di sana kuyakin matahari belum juga terbit sebersamaan dengan ditulisnya surat ini. aku ingin saat ini juga kau bersyukur tidak mesti mendengarkan slider ngorok di sampingmu. tuhan jesus. pria ini sudah kuanggap saudara sendiri, tapi terkadang ada saja hal-hal yang dilakukannya yang membuatku ingin menggulingkannya ke laut. kau apa kabar di sana? sudah berapa pilot yang kauhabisi egonya? apapun itu. jangan mati kebosanan dulu. aku bisa bilang begini karena surat-suratmu selalu mengancam demikian. ingat kau masih hutang makan malam denganku. dan sepuluh dolar. sampaikan salamku ke bayi itik. bilang aku kangen padanya. dan,” hollywood memalsukan dehem, sambil ia melanjutkan, “padamu juga. setiap detikku. ice.” begitulah.

Hehehehehe. Now this is more for me LMAO because as you can see, it’s written in Indonesian. Finding this fic in my mother language is like finding GOLD. Again, I love love love Icemav in their Top Gun era. This is for all of you Indonesian Top Gun enthusiast *blows a kiss* 

a higher fidelity by basedchamp

“C’mon.” Tori nudges him with an elbow. “C’mon. He’s cute. You can admit that one thing but you can’t admit this?” Gritting his teeth, Ice thinks very carefully about his next words. “He’s…” he trails off. “Some would say that…Mitchell is not. Unpleasant. To look at.” (Alternatively: the one where Ice and Mav learn to park bad, eat good, and love even better.)

Ice’s family, man… It’s refreshing to see them so supportive and loving. I’m guilty of making Ice’s backstory so tragic>:) But this one is heartwarming! I love the style and flow of the writing. It’s something that I want to achieve in my own writing as well, so kudos to basedchamp!

Tunnel Vision by brainjuicey (anzietyfreak) @brainjuicey

Instead of Ice biting the air in the locker room, he antagonises Mav by biting his neck, unknowingly setting off dormant Omega genes and sending him into heat. Everyone involved is forced to remain secure on base until they’ve investigated. AKA. Five Alphas, a Beta, and an Omega in heat, walk into an Air Base prison. Ramifications ensue. Alternative title, "Locked in Sex Jail With The Boys"

This scratched that specific part in my brain, man. ABO with the original cast of Top Gun? Sign me up, baby. Steamy and perfect. 

The Five People You Can't Escape in Heaven by V_Evergreen

Maverick dies, but it doesn't end there. Alternately: [“Hey, kiddo, are you with me?” Maverick opened his eyes and found that he could see. He blinked in the sudden light as his surroundings came into focus. Quite literally came into focus, as though everything around him was resolving into itself as he looked, deciding to form a lawn, flowerbeds, the tree trunk that he had been leant against. The sun was blinding overhead, high noon. In the distance, hazy and indistinct, he could make out a house. It looked vague, like a half formed memory but it was familiar. Just like the man crouched in front of him. “Dad?” He croaked.]

I was reading the original book (The Five People You Meet in Heaven) and came across this fic. Which in turn made me want to write my own rendition from the same idea.  That last chapter, man. It’s unreal how creative it is. A punch to the gut for sure.

(Here’s my fic if you want to read about it :) >> Estrellita)

He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother by V_Evergreen

Five meetings between Thomas Kazansky and Ethan Hunt. Alternately: [Ethan heard the door click shut behind him and turned to ask after the papers when he was abruptly spun by a hand on his shoulder and pushed against the door. His first and immediate thought was that he was certainly being attacked. Kazansky had him pressed against the door, chest to chest, a hand around his wrist and then- oh. Oh no. He wasn’t being attacked at all, it was infinitely worse. He was being very thoroughly kissed. He pushed back against Kazansky’s chest and tried to think of something eloquent to say. “Um?”]

Another banger by V_Evergreen. Ice not knowing Mav has a twin and mistakenly kissing him is so funny. And the end is heartwarming as well. Love love love it.

Allies by Shearmouth

After getting shot down over a war-torn Iraq, Maverick makes some unlikely friends. They have something– a big something– in common. But all Mav really wants is Ice. Too bad he's half a world away, and even Mav can't run that on a shattered leg. Not with the infected chest wounds thrown in, at least.

Oh my goddddd. I keep being at a loss for words when describing these fics. It won’t do anyone good if all I wrote was goddd, oh mannn, it’s so goodddd. But it’s the truth. This one hits home so much. The risk and homophobia present when you’re in a place that punishes queer people for existing and being in love, how a single mistake will cost you your future. And it’s so heartwarming to see that even then, you’re not alone. Mav being helped to reunite with Ice and breaking down that since their relationship was private, Ice had to grief Mav alone. Man, oh man. 

There is a pain—so utter by CurSirrr

Pete Mitchell was fine. Completely fine. He didn’t feel dizzy with denial, or an utter trainwreck of hopelessness. He hadn’t shed a single tear or cried himself to sleep for the past week. His guts were twisting and turning, squeezing and cramping. His eyes were swollen and red, and his scalp hurt from his vicious hair tugs as he tried to understand the past week. OR Three times Bradley misses the chance to say goodbye before it is too late.

Just read the summary and prepare for a world of pain:) Ice’s canon death still haunts me. Good thing he’s sleeping away in his big house that he co-owns with Mav, regularly saves his husband’s ass, have barbeque Sunday with Bradley and Jake and the dagger squad, happy and healthy:))

keeping his cards close to his chest by Serie11 @oathkeeperoxas

It's not that Lucy wishes that her boss would be more open with her. It's that she quite literally knows nothing about the man, despite Admiral Kazansky being her CO for half a decade. Or: 5 times Ice successfully hid something from his staff, and 1 time Ice revealed his biggest secret

Love seeing Icemav seen through other people’s perspective. It adds so much to the universe. Ice and Mav being their usual old married couple while everyone around them suffers. Excellent.

'til I meet you there by adiduck (book_people) @adiduck

Maverick wakes up in the snow, helmet on, entire body aching intensely and parachute still attached. It takes him about half an hour of trekking through the snow to notice that there’s anything amiss. (Or: Maverick Mitchell is in the habit of talking to his ghosts. Usually, they don’t talk back.)

Mav’s journey through the underworld. This fic is just too creative😭Always a delight to see how loved Mav is. It’s so whimsical and confusing and so great.

the ships have come to carry you home by indigofudge

“Here it is,” Carole says, bringing Mav’s wheelchair to a stop. Mav’s mouth is dry. He aches for another cup of water. “Carole, tell me something, and don’t lie to me.” “Anything, Maverick.” “How bad does he look?” Carole is quiet for a while. Then she comes around and kneels in front of Mav, taking both of his hands in her own. Her eyes swim with tears. “If I didn’t know any better,” she says, voice breaking, “I’d think he was dead.” • Or, Goose is alive when they hit the water. That's enough.

Goose survives AU!!!! Huh? This isn’t canon? What are you talking about? Of course, Goose survives and the Bradshaw family is still whole and Mav still has his family and gets to have Ice too. What are you talking about??

Swallow by wildglitterwolf 

Ice is getting tired of Maverick's inability to be a team player. Maverick is annoyed by Ice's gum chewing. Ice is more than happy to get rid of it, he just needs a place to put it...

TT.TT Just… I didn’t know I like this dynamic so much…

HANGSTER

cruise control by res_judicata

Rooster’s plane goes down on a Tuesday.  Jake remembers that it’s a Tuesday because he had been out grabbing a quick bite for lunch with Javy and the little chalkboard on the wall of the cafe had proclaimed that Tuesday’s special was linguine in white wine with fresh mussels. (Jake deals with grief and love)

Made me cry a goddamn river. I’ve said this before, but Hangster is one of those ships that I had trouble getting into. When I first got into the fandom back in June 2022, I strictly read Icemav, never dipping my toes into Hangster’s relationship because I never felt the spark. But as time goes by I’m starting to warm up and have read more and more. This fic is one of those where it captured my attention instantly. I knew it was going to be angsty, but still holding out hope for a happy ending (just like Jake in this story). The grief that blanketed the whole writing only made the resolution more beautiful.

WHORES IN MY BED. by pornogirl

“Jake-” Bradley’s eyes have a wet glimmer to them, the kind of wet that looks like the beginnings of tears and Jake wants to kiss him so badly. “Jake, is it loaded?” Jake rolls his eyes at the question. “Open your fucking mouth.” (Author’s notes: it's really not as bad as the tags may suggest but like. read the fucking tags!)

I’m a freak and I’m not ashamed of it:) Basically, Jake's going on about how pretty Bradley is crying and scared. If this is your kink, definitely worth the read. I don’t know if it’s because I find it hot, but I don’t get the unsafe feeling as opposed to reading other works that have noncon elements. I don’t know it feels more like it’s both of their kinks or like something they’ve discussed before but Jake didn’t warn Bradley prior. Like CNC, I guess? Anyway it’s really hot and I have not looked at my retainers the same way;)

we're fools to make war by whimsicule @baroness-elsa

In a Walmart at three am, between beef jerky and tortilla chips, with the lights flickering above them like it’s the fucking twilight zone, Bradley wants him more than he’s ever wanted anyone. or: it's a hundred degrees in texas.

This is so Jake and Bradley I’m blown away by how right they feel. Seriously. I didn’t even notice this was 66k words. The vibes, the writing, Jake’s family. Oh hell. Definitely check out the author’s other works too! They’ve got a lot of other Hangster long fics:)

cinnamon and sugar by bottledyarn

Jake was slumped in the doorway, propped up against the wall beside the door. He was a strange, pale, near-gray against the dark backdrop of his apartment, and he looked—well… “You look like shit," Bradley said. – Bradley draws the short straw and has to take care of Jake when he's sick with a stomach flu. Jake doesn't want to be taken care of.

Sigh. Jake and Bradley, man. They’re the ship that you can shove as much angst as you want and it’ll fit right in with their dynamic. They’re just so stubborn!!!! The push and pull between them is magnetic, man. I think I get why people love them.

habits by rararatatouille

Jake and Bradley come together in a series of jagged stops and starts. They fall apart in the exact same way. In which habits are hard to break, even for the people we love most.

Mannnnn. Goddamnit. I think this fic converted me to like Hangster. I think this has become canon in my brain too. I can’t even. Just read it. Words aren’t enough to describe this fic. 

Days Like This by chase_acow @cowsalot

Jake's in Hawaii to lose himself after getting the Navy's first air-to-air kill in decades. Instead he finds a ramshackle diner, a cast of odd characters, and possibly the love of his life. Bradley goes to the Hard Deck to order waffles. He orders waffles. He goes to the Hard Deck to get some waffles. He goes to the Hard Deck, and who is this hot asshole acting like they know each other?

So good. A 50 First Dates AU. Jake just loves Bradley so much, man. And Bradley finally showing up in the end. Love really will make you walk miles across Earth for your special person<3

OTHERS

Other pairings, romantic and not.

Mr. Blue Sky by omnidirectional

Tragedy first brings Iceman into Bradley’s life, but he quickly becomes the steadiest presence of the boy’s childhood… until a betrayal tears their small family apart. After years of silence, can Bradley find the words to make up for lost time? Five times Ice sings to Bradley, and the one time Bradley sings to Ice.

Another one from omnidirectional. Ice and Bradley’s father and son relationship… Here’s one of the tags: Who Wants To Cry Today? If you’re up for emotional damage, click the link🫵

On Mighty Wings by PurpleArrowzandLeather @purplearrowzandleather-blog

Maverick raised geese over the years while Bradley was gone. Bradley does not know this until the flock comes home for the summer.

Short and sweet. Legend author as well. Love the geese preening Mav and Bradley sobbing while surrounded by honks. This is just too damn cute!!

Neglected by proprioception @mnstrfkr

"Do I look God-fearing to you, ma'am?" Maverick asked with a grin. "You most certainly do not," Carole said. "That's why I didn't marry you." "That and the mustache," Goose added.

Can’t forget about this GooseMavCarole fic of course! Hot and heartwarming. Absolutely amazing smut. This one sparked my brain to make a fanart of my favorite polycule. Their dynamic is just so fun!

Yearling by Fopperies , pohjanneito @pilvimarja

Alone in a cabin in the snowy mountains, Maverick is supposed to help Bradley on the path to presenting as an alpha soon. Bradley's body has other ideas.

Just gonna put this here… A different take on ABO’s biology, which I absolutely love. It’s so hot… Bradley, I feel you, honey…

Seeing a Trailer by daenabenjen42

In the aftermath of the Layton rescue, Merlin has questions.

Sighs for the millionth time. It’s so good. Again, I love the portrayal of Mav’s PTSD and grief here. And it’s not just him, but daenabenjen42 wrote about the other boys’ trauma too. I love it so much I must’ve reread this one about fifty million times. 

in between what's already done by crawsley

“We aren’t doing this,” Maverick says, firmly, and he’s tensing like he’s about to move, about to shove Rooster off of him, push him away like he pushed him away before, when all Rooster had wanted was some guidance, some help, some love and kindness and— Rooster bears him to the ground, right there on the rug in the entryway.

This is legitimately one of the first, if not the first fic I’ve read from RoosMav. I still remember clearly going home from watching TG:M in the cinema and KNOWING that there were definitely going to be people who ship Mav and Roo. I rushed to AO3 straight away:D Imagine my delight when finding this one!

shake my nerves and rattle my brain by BogBeast

This wasn’t supposed to be intimate. This was about punishment, humiliation, stubbornness and spite. Not this gentle crap that made him sigh, the hand in his hair making his stomach swoop with every tug, the heavy scent making his head feel foggy, the praises making his heart skip a beat. That shit is just weird. The horrifying realization that he’s hard in his flight suit has nothing to do with it.  - Mav's gotten them into a lot of weird situations, but giving blowjobs to their rivals because of a stupid bet has to be the weirdest one.

Icemav AND Sloose? SIGN ME UP, BABY!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That’s all of it! This is my list for now. Thank you all for reading through to the end! Let me know if you enjoyed any of these fics so we can gush about them together:) I hope you enjoyed my yapping:}

My works have always and will continue to take inspiration from others. So thank you for creating stories as beautiful and profound as these, dear beloved authors<3

If you want to see my bookmark collection of all of these fics, click here >> TOPGUN (Best of the Best) While you’re there, how about you read some of my fics too?>:) EliasHirsch

(PS!!! There will be a 4th part because there are definitely more good fics that people need to know about:))

[messrsrarchives]

there is nothing "natural" about the fires in LA right now. from 200 acres to 2000 in twenty minutes, on land that has never burnt before, in january.

no matter how much the media says it is, this is not a "natural disaster". this is a direct result of western politician's complicity in genocide and climate terrorism.

i have seen more videos in the last half an hour of this "natural disaster" than i have at all of the scenes in gaza over the christmas period. where medical workers were stripped and led out of the last 'functioning' hospital - a hospital that was subsequently bombed and set on fire. of the car with 5 journalists inside that was set on fire, 5 of countless people that have been burnt alive by israel. time and time again we have seen palestinians be led to a new "safe zone" only to then have bombs dropped on their tents and for them too to be burnt alive. over and over and over again.

and that's not to play the oppression olympics or to downplay the effect that this is having on individual lives, of course not, but it is to point of the irony and hypocrisy in this being framed as "natural" and in everybody (politicians, celebrities, online LA influencers) coming forward to share links.

this is not a "natural" disaster:

in the first 120 days after october 7th, the planet-warming emissions in gaza exceeded that of the ANNUAL emissions of the top 26 climate-vulnerable countries (individually).

the first 60 days of israel's genocidal actions was equivalent to burning at least 150,000 tonnes of coal.

by december 4th 2023, 133,000 tonnes of C02 was emitted just from the us cargo planes transporting military equipment to israel.

on october 11th, white phosphorus was used for the first time in gaza - this has a long-term environmental impact on the environment, human health, and agricultural land.

every 7 minutes, 1 ton of explosives is dropped on gaza.

by march 2024, nearly half of the tree cover and farmland in gaza had been destroyed.

in june 2024, gaza was declared an environmental wasteland that was insufficient to support human life.

it is estimated that the rebuilding of gaza's infrastructure will emit 30 million metric tonnes of greenhouse gases - every 4 minutes, 1 housing unit is bombed by israel.

in the middle east, temperatures are rising on average twice as fast as the rest of the world.

in the first two years of russia's war against ukraine, the emissions produced were greater than the annual emissions generated individually by 175 countries.

by june 2024, russia's attacks had generated a minimum of 175 metic tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (includes C02, nitrous oxide and sulphur hexafluoride) - see here: russia deliberately targetting energy infrastructure, generating about 14 metric tonnes as a result of the methane released.

and this is just a handful of never-ending statistics.

at COP28 there were no outcome documents that mentioned the contribution of military activities on climate change. not one. COP29 did not discuss this either.

the reporting of military emissions to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change is optional. most do not do this.

biden has approved another $8b in arms sales to israel.

the LAFD had $17.6m cut from their budget.

there's a saying that goes along the lines of "when you are born into a burning house, you think the rest of the world is on fire so you don't bother calling for help" and i've been thinking about that a lot today. thinking a lot about palestine, the middle east, ukraine, every genocide and war torn country that has been screaming to be saved from their burning homes, and now the same american politicians, celebrities, and online influencers that covered their ears are starting to get flamed too.

there is nothing natural about anything that is going on in the world right now. these are not natural wildfires, this is the result of complicity in genocide. it's literally climate terrorism.

[ganondoodle]

so, after this phase of depression, i am back at too many ideas at once and getting overwhelmed by all of it bc i cant do it all and dont know how to decide which one to focus on or which ones actually good and not just a brainfart

(so, some more botw2/totk rewritten ideas-

mostly text but i am unsure what to actually work on and draw or if its even any good, so id be very happy to hear your opinion on some of this qoq)

-was thinking about designing the sonau even though they might not show up physically, to keep their mystery alive, but i am playing with the idea of a dead one preserved in crystal in a larger cave, perhaps their last stronghold, i like the thought of them being rather small monkey like creatures with long tails that end in a light fern looking thing

--been also thinking more about the ancient queen zeldas and ganondorfs relationship bc i feel its compelling for them to have had a much more personal grudge agaisnt each other than i previously planned, gives more weight to everything-

though it is mostly background stuff that is not directly shown in the game, except for environmental storytelling -which botw was pretty good at- and diary entries you can discover (perhaps finding it and then telling riju and a gerudo researcher about it since it would be in ancient script zelda hadnt encountered before?), current thought was to have there be a secret lair that one of ganondorfs daughters used to live in after the sealing disaster sent both kingdoms into conflict, and with their mother dying in battle the eldest daughter would surrender and agree to whatever the princess of hyrule demanded, while the younger one would not bow down and those that followed her split off to live in the gerudo highlands, like another reoccuring theme with this being the prescursor to what happens with the shiekah and yiga later- of those are none left by this time (or should there?) and the diary of the younger daughter talks about her fathers secret hideout having being sealed shut as a sign of respect- it is inaccessible due to the structures beign damaged, but its serving as a hint there will be more; it will be made accessible after the mid game fight with ganondorf, in which you see the scene of the sealing, and he changes his position from hyrule castle that fell into the underground to the innards of the plateau- that being the final dungeon- in his room, might also be a part of his diary, at least from his younger days, and a bracelet of obviously hyrulian origin, which is meant to imply-

that the ancient queen zelda and him were in love once when they were both younger, though neither really acted on it (noble families pressures and conflictions yippie) until it was decided she would be married to a young knight of a noble hyrulian family, as it had been per tradition, after which they would not be able to visit each other anymore in the way they sued to as her father wanted her to prepare to take the throne and was way more strict than before, with one last meeting in that secret chamber and her leaving a bracelet there as a gift-

now heres the problem i ran into, that they had feelings for each other and used to be very close, as well as both having their own families later on is pretty solid and i want to keep all that but i also randomly thought about weaving the drama further (in that noble families kind of way especially, though again this would only be mentioned in his diary entry from the secret room you unlock, and since his younger daughter doesnt mention anything at all save for makign a point about not rummaging through her late fathers things out of her deep respect for him, its pretty clear she didnt know and neither did anyone else except for ganondorf himself and perhaps his mothers, this is all meant to make all of these characters have more depth even with getting little to literal no screentime, not to be a big focus)- so there was the stray idea of the ancient queen having a daughter 'just' after being married to that hyrulian knight.. and it being obviously not his, but gerudo, as gerudo traits are rather dominant(i think?) and the knight and ganondorf look nothing alike, so to avoid any sort of royal disaster that daughter would be secretly given to ganondorf to raise instead (which he would gladly do), and the official story being it was stillborn (the whole thing being worked out by a few maids sworn loyally to their queen .. im torn about the queen herself knowing or not tbh or if that even matters in the grand scheme of things (though i do like the idea of her knowing but acting like it is nothing to live up to being a wise and proud queen now thats shes under that pressure, she would change alot during her time of reign, going from that more typical unsure of herself but trying her best princess to a self confident cold and calculating queen, maybe he could even make a short remark about it), again this is still just vaguely implied background details most wouldnt even find out about, i just .. like to think about the background of things that make sense and give more weight to it all but arent what it revolves around and its neither essential to know, might as well be one of those things people would likely hear about in youtube videos)

i didnt find or dont know if theres any rule that princess zelda cant have siblings (i think she had a brother once but idk that may be different about sisters is the question) bc ganondorfs older daughter then not awakening any special (zelda reserved) powers could be simply bc she wasnt trained to do so (perhaps she would be able to hear things like zeldas often do but that too being only mentioned offhand) and him just not putting any focus on royal hyrulian traditions, it could be a secret rite too and honestly .. why would he try to train her to be the traditional princess of hyrule, awakening powers that are reserved for the hyrulian royals would make everything go haywire in terms of the secret about her mother, though im worried it would seem like her being gerudo is seen as 'tainted' instead, like she isnt a 'real' or 'pure' zelda and that being the reason, which somethign i do not like at all

either way that second part is purely an idea that i am 50/50 about using since its really not a big deal in the end and ultimately doesnt change much except make their relationship a bit more messier

---ahem, anyway, i also decided i wanted to model most sky islands after this one photo in my collection since it looks cool and would make sense to have these island be worn down by constant winds

---- i also want to flood the tabantha canyon with the forgotten temple and considered actually breaking of some pieces of landmass, like it is now a giant island, imagine akkala a kilometer away from the mainland for example, it wouldnt inherently change much about the structure but it would make it feel alot more different and provide good ground for different kinds of interactions since the people there would need to adjust to that, you can melt ice around the riot region easier than you can reattach a broken off giant piece of land after all

[imasradiantasthesun]

i was inspired by this post by @evessupersecrettumbler to create a comparison chart for my headcanons for the D12 gang’s heights :D

i accidentally put Peeta as 5’11 instead of 5’10 lol whoops but point still stands, he’s a lot taller than Katniss. in the first book, she has to stand on her tip toes in order to kiss him on the jaw after the tribute parade. when he's first introduced, Katniss also describes him as "Medium height, stocky build." average height for men in the US is about 5'9. historically, average height has increased over time, and the books take place far in the future, though how this may be affected by the droughts, floods, and other environmental disasters (that a) no doubt affected access to nourishing food, and b) canonically lowered the human population in North America) is unknown to me. so i erred on the side of caution and decided that Peeta's full height is about 5'10, 5'11ish (likely after growing a bit after the 74th Games due to being much more well-fed).

through others’ words about Katniss as well as her own descriptions of herself (including the example above), we know that she is definitely small. off the top of my head i can remember: almost all of the male tributes and at least half of the female tributes in the first book are bigger than her (she also says, "Though I may be smaller naturally […]" in the same scene); in the first book she's small enough to be swallowed up by her sleeping bag; and Peeta says that Katniss, "isn't that very big" in Mockingjay.

while height is primarily determined by genetics, it can also be affected by other factors like medical conditions and malnutrition. in my opinion, both of Katniss's parents were on the shorter side, so she would've been as well anyway, but i think the fact that she was malnourished during a critical period of her childhood (aka after her father died when she was 11) sort of secured it. the average height for a woman in the US is 5'4, though in general the average height range is about 5'0 to 5'7, so the girls' heights vary a lot more than the guys' here. so i put Katniss squarely at 5'3 (on a good day lol)

we know that Gale was taller than 6’0 by the time he was 14, so i imagine him as 6’4; both of his parents are probably quite tall, and he was pretty much done growing by the time he was most heavily hit by malnutrition anyway (again, after his dad died when he was 14). Madge’s father is described as a “tall, balding man”, so i think she would be tall like him as well. she is also the most well-nourished kid in the district, so that probably helped her grow too.

Thom, Bristel, Delly, and Leevy are all basically based off of vibes and my own imagination. we know that Delly was described as (relatively) overweight, but that doesn’t really say anything about her height, so i just put her as 5'5, which is in the middle/slightly higher end of women's average range. Thom and Bristel were able to carry Gale along with Peeta (and i think Haymitch as well?) after he was whipped, so we at least know they’re strong. also, considering the fact that Gale was lying on a board at the time, i think the three of them (Peeta, Thom, and Bristel) were all roughly around the same height so they wouldn’t be uneven when carrying Gale. i also headcanon Thom and Bristel as being first cousins (their fathers are brothers), so they both got their dads' good genetics in terms of height.

there is absolutely nothing to indicate Leevy's height other than the fact that she's from the Seam, so she's malnourished. i headcanon that Leevy and Gale are second cousins through their mothers (specifically, their mothers have the same paternal grandparents), so Leevy's mom could be on the taller end for women, or at least medium height, but i also imagine Leevy's father being pretty short for a man, hence why Leevy is 5'2. heights can vary a lot even between full siblings (for example, my older brother is 8 inches taller than me because the men on my dad's side are always >=6'0 while the women on both sides are average/short), so it's not a stretch at all to say that Gale is more than a foot taller than Leevy despite them being cousins

[gallusrostromegalus]

Does Hinamori get any standout scenes? Personally I thought she deserved a little bit more catharsis for the whole Aizen debacle, and to maybe go a little apeshit.

Excerpt from the outline:

---

-Here Comes The New Boss, Same As The Old Boss

>Shinji is re-promoted to captain of the 5th and has Momo and Hyori as co-lieutenants >None of them are sure about the other, but Momo’s giving it The Old College Try because no matter what happens, she always gets back up >Shinji *thinks* he remembers how to do this Job >Momo is VERY pleased! "-Of course, the division *has* expanded since you uh. Went on sabbatical. “Yeah there’s no way to describe getting shanked and framed for murder for 100 years. What’s new?” >Momo will show him whats new! >She will show him the entirety of the Rukongai Affairs paperwork System that Kaname and Sajin helped her design and all the open investigations into provincial fraud they have open and the new Agricultural And Environmental Advisory Board and the new cross-division patrol schedule and the 200 volumes that have been added to the rukongai tax law since the 40’s and I know it’s a lot sir but I promise this actually make it easier because we’re not randomly hand waving various provinces anymore and it’s really cut down on attempted warloarding- "Oh! Sorry, I’ll keep moving because you’ve got three meetings today- Fon-taicho will need to update you on the state of the Noble House Holdings Laws and Practices, Shu- Sorry, Hisagi-fukutaicho needs your input on the distribution and implementation of the modular education systems the Ninth Division is working on and you’ll probably have to actually wake up Zaraki-taicho to get him to give you the notes on the Disaster Relief notes and payroll but he’s usually not too stab-happy after 4PM- Are you alright sir?" “Yeah I’m fine will you excuse me and ignore any screaming noises you might hear from that utility closet?” “That’s an electrical closet now, if you need to cry, use the one two doors down on the left.” “...Thanks.” >Hyori, who loves seeing both Shinji in states of self-inflicted distress and people who are very good at their jobs, is thoroughly seduced. "Tell me more about this Advisory Board." She says, leaning across the table and twirling her hair in her fingers.

---

You can tell this fic is being written by someone in their 30's because there's a recurring theme of the sexiest thing someone can do is Their Job Well.

[aceofwhump]

Hi everyone! Welcome to my blog!

I decided to make a new pinned post with all the information that is available on my desktop site but that will be more accessible for mobile users. Plus a few extras 😉

So an introduction.

I'm Ace. I started this blog back in February 2018 after seeing a post that referenced the whump community. I had no idea there was such a large community here on tumblr! As soon as I saw that making a whump blog was an option I immediately made one. And I haven't regretted it since. I love this blog, I love this community, and I'm thrilled to be here three years later! 

Here on this blog you'll see lots of gifsets both reblogged from wonderful creators and gifs made by yours truly. I also write fanfics on occasion. You can check out my work on AO3 under the name "aceofwhump" or you can look under my tag "ace writes stuff". That tag will have some stuff not on AO3 too. I also do whump lists for certain characters, trope lists, video clips of good whump, and fanfic recs.

Click on the read more for even more information and important links to things like gifmaking tutorials, my trope tag list, my show/movie tag list, my fanfic masterlist, and more!!!

My favorite tropes are:

Emotional: panic attacks, nightmares, insecurities, feeling inadequate, fear, grief, flashbacks, flinching, emotional breakdowns full of sobbing, emotional outbursts, scar reveals, anxiety, self hatred

Environmental: accidents, natural disasters like earthquakes or storms, hit by a car, collapsed building, falling through ice, heat exhaustion, hypothermia, falls, burns, infected wounds from lack of medical equipment, sickness, being unable to breathe, drowning

Small moments: limping, feeling weak and seeking support, breathing through the pain, moving wrong in a way that aggravates the pain, and the sudden seizing of his body, shaking hands, pressing the heel of his hand against his temple because of a headache, taking a moment to close his eyes because he’s light headed/exhausted/has such a bad headache

Sci-fi: space illness, oxygen deprivation, isolation, being locked in the brig, hull of the ship getting damaged, alien attacks

Injuries: broken bones, gunshot wounds, hidden injuries, bruises, beaten, concussions, collapsed lung, slings, casts, crutches, knocked unconscious, blood loss

Torture/Captivity: Being strung up by their wrists from the ceiling, drugged, chained up, caged, tied to a chair, handcuffed to a pole, interrogated

Comfort/Caretaking: hugging, “Are you okay?”, “You’re safe now”, “I’ve got you”, hand holding, helping to walk, ice packs, covering someone with a blanket, a cool cloth on their forehead to help with a fever, a fever check, touching their face to offer comfort

Magic: magical healing that causes pain, draining of powers, powers that are painful to use, curses

Stoic or defiant whumpees

Team whump

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Long detailed look at how I make my gifs

Gifmaking tutorials:

Gifmaking for Begginers: my ginormous all you need to know tutorial

Another look at how I make a gif

Tips for beginners

Tips on brightening dark scenes

How to get into gifmaking

Photoset dimensions

How to make a layout gifset

Gif speeds

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Links from my desktop blog for mobile users:

My gifs

My whump videos

Ace writes stuff

My Writing Masterlist

Trope tag list

Show list

My Whumptober Masterlists

Fanfic Rec Lists

Blog Archive

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Introducing…

ACEOFWHUMP’S FANFIC MASTERLIST!!

This has been a massive, ongoing project of mine for a while now in which I am endeavoring to catalog and categorize every fanfiction I’ve ever bookmarked. I fear this project will never be complete as I'm always reading and bookmarking new fics but I’m going to share it anyway.

Inside, you will find links and summaries to the fanfictions I’ve read over the years on both AO3 and FF.net. Each fic is sorted by the specific whumpee that they center on. So there’s a page for Danny Williams, for Mike Warren, for Lucifer Morningstar, and many many more. The fics are 90% whump with a touch of fluffy ones thrown in too. This list is based on the fics I’ve read and bookmarked so it leans heavily on my favorite whumpees and my favorite tropes. 

I’ve been working on categorizing every fic by its tropes (so theoretically you could search for say seizure fics or sick fics) but that’s taking me a loooong time because I have to reread every fic in order to determine what kind of categories to make and to look for the specific tropes. So for now you’ll have to make do with the fic summaries and using the search function. When it’s done, each whumpee will have their specific trope categories so you won’t necessarily find the same tropes in each category but it should help narrow down the fics better once I’m done. This is an ongoing project for me.

The list gets updated all the time so check back in every now and then. There might be something new.

I do take suggestions of fics to add to this masterlist but please keep in mind that it may not end up on the list. It's nothing personal I promise. I just can't add every single fic in the world.

Here's the link (note that it opens best on desktop browser because it is large):

[dalesramblingsblog]

A Brief Look at Judge Dredd Novels, Part XVI: Swine Fever by Andrew Cartmel

This is, for our purposes, a book which is immediately fascinating just on the basis of author alone. There's been plenty of cross-pollination between Doctor Who and Judge Dredd in the past, with the likes of Dave Stone, David Bishop and Stephen Marley each allowing us to contemplate points of overlap between the respective franchises' novelistic offerings through the 1990s and early 2000s.

Still, this is a big one. Andrew Cartmel, script editor of the original iteration of Doctor Who in its final three seasons, and writer of the sprawling War trilogy across four years of the Virgin New Adventures, gets the chance to pen a full-length novel in the world of Judge Dredd.

As if to further hammer home the neat parallels at play here, Swine Fever is even the first such novel we've looked at to post-date the smash success of the 2005 revival; as far as I can tell from the publication date on the 2000 AD website, the book saw print roughly in the week between the airing of Father's Day and The Empty Child. The Eighth Doctor Adventures would wrap up with The Gallifrey Chronicles a mere two weeks later, while Cartmel himself would usher in the end of the Past Doctor Adventures with Atom Bomb Blues in December 2005, just in time for the arrival of David Tennant.

It would be nice to say, in light of all this, that the world of 2000 AD acquits itself just as well opposite two of the most acclaimed episodes of Doctor Who's first revival season, but... well, unfortunately Swine Fever is just a little too muddled and aimless for its own good.

That's not to say that there aren't good ideas here, because there are. They can, admittedly, kind of be boiled down to a slightly more farcical updating of themes of environmentalism and animal rights that Cartmel was playing with in books like Warhead and Warlock well over a decade ago at this point, with a mild update to focus on the issue of factory farming rather than animal experimentation.

This gets at the biggest issue with Swine Fever, though, which is that Cartmel's commentary never seems especially clear on what it's taking aim at, outside of the broadest possible statements like "factory farming is an inhumane, horrible way to treat animals." Which is definitely true, but as a central thematic statement it's not quite enough to hang a whole novel on.

Even here we should perhaps qualify things a tad. It's debatable, after all, whether Warlock really had a significantly more in-depth take on matters of animal experimentation, just as it's debatable whether a science fiction novel always needs to be some groundbreaking political treatise. But what Warlock did have was a sense of scarily focused, powerful anger that never left you in doubt as to what Cartmel was trying to say, even if it could simplistically be reduced to "Don't treat animals badly"; where Warlock gave Chick multiple point-of-view sequences that culminated in a bleak, harrowing euthanasia scene, Swine Fever treats audiences to an uncomfortably long depiction of pig sex built around a bad pun about "porking." And I mean, you know I love me some bad puns, and history repeats first as tragedy and then as comedy and all that, but all the same... pig sex?

The social consequences of Mega-City One's burgeoning obsession with pork are perhaps the prime example of this confusion in action. At times, it seems as if Cartmel is angling to portray the rivalry between fans of competing pork restaurant chains as akin to football hooliganism, while the Judges' overzealous and poorly-handled attempts at crowd control seems to evoke the Hillsborough disaster, hardly the most contemporary of references for a novel published in 2005 (though, of course, it fits perfectly with Cartmel's general status as a writer whose sensibilities were honed in the late Thatcher years).

Equally, however, Swine Fever seems to want to gesture at a "War on Pork" analogous not just to the War on Drugs - so, again, Warlock's shadow is hard to escape here - but to the War on Terror. The climax sees a group of mutant, intelligent pigs hijacking a shuttlecraft and seeking to collide it with a large, prominent structure in the midst of a bustling metropolitan area, as straightforward an evocation of 9/11 as is possible.

There is perhaps something barbed in this, especially in the closing revelation that the Council of Five's response to the crisis is to legalise the indiscriminate slaughter of the pigs, a clearly disproportionate reaction that will probably achieve very little besides widespread, pointless carnage. Porkditz's ultimate fate is probably the closest the book comes to recapturing that sense of anguish at Chick's death, but as it's quite literally in the last scene, it's very much a case of "too little, too late."

Even in the portrayal of the fast food craze spurred on by the legalisation of pork, Cartmel really doesn't have much to say beyond depicting the consumers of Mega-City as dumb, stupid fat oafs willing to ingest sub-par food without a care for its negative consequences for their health. There's little thought to the ways in which fast food companies fill the vacuums left by food deserts and poverty, even though it's a fundamental pillar of Judge Dredd continuity that Mega-City One is rife with unemployment.

Instead, witness the interminable "comedy" scenes of the flatulent, bumbling Judge Carver - and frankly by the end of the novel one can't help but wonder how he and Darrid haven't been kicked out of the Justice Department altogether for their stellar levels of incompetence, let alone why Dredd keeps bringing them along on crucial missions; frankly I also just found myself wishing the pigs would succeed in blowing up the Aquatomics complex, if only to get rid of the buffoons - and try your best not to think about how this is probably about the level of commentary on fast food we could expect from a book published just one year after the release of Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me.

Swine Fever ultimately feels like a missed opportunity all around. Instead of providing a compelling point of overlap between the worlds of Doctor Who and Judge Dredd at the precise point at which the former was beginning to claw its way back into the public's good graces, it instead only serves to make one long for Cartmel's past glories.

When you get right to the heart of the matter, there just isn't that much meat on the bones.

The Ranking So Far:

Dreddlocked

Deathmasques

Black Atlantic

Wetworks

The Final Cut

Kingdom of the Blind

Bad Moon Rising

Silencer

Eclipse

The Medusa Seed

Dread Dominion

Dredd vs Death

Cursed Earth Asylum

The Hundredfold Problem

Swine Fever

The Savage Amusement

[dailyanarchistposts]

A revolutionary “pessimistic” postscript in times of coronavirus

“The outbreak of the new strain of coronavirus (COVID-19), which has wrought havoc in China since the end of last year, has surged over borders and impacted the rest of the world, and with it, the imminent economic crisis has but further advanced. The world economy is in full-on crisis, the administrators of power are pending on immense financial relief, the bourgeoisie are beginning to close factories and lay off employees using the lucky pretext of the “quarantine” as excuse. The disaster is immanent. Nevertheless, it’s important to know that the monetary losses don’t signify the fall of the capitalist system. Capitalism will seek at every moment to restructure itself on the basis of austerity measures imposed on proletarians in order to palliate all the catastrophic consequences that it will bring along with it. And this is due to the fact that the “blows” that capitalism has been dealt due to these phenomena are simply losses in its rate of profit, but those losses don’t at all change its structure or its essence, meaning the social relations that allow it to remain standing: the commodity, value, the market, exploitation and wage labor. In fact, it’s in these structures that capitalism most reaffirms its necessities: sacrificing millions of human beings to the favor of economic interests, making the polarization between classes sharpen and revealing more forcefully in what position the dominant class is to be found, who will use all the efforts in their reach in order to preserve this state of things.

[…]

The ever-more contradictions heightened contradictions of this mode of production (crisis, war, pandemics, environmental destruction, pauperization, militarization), which exasperate our conditions of survival, won’t clear the way either mechanically or messianically for the end of capitalism. Or better said, such conditions, although they will be fundamental, won’t suffice. Because for capitalism to reach its end, it’s imperative for there to be a social force, antagonistic and revolutionary that manages to direct the destructive and subversive character towards something completely different from what we know and experience now.

If we want it or not, we can’t let a question as important as the revolution to drift aimlessly, to leave it to luck. It’s necessary to experience the resolution of this problem on the basis of the organization of tasks that can go on to present themselves, that’s to say, the grouping for the appropriation and defense of the most immediate necessities (not paying debts, rent, or taxes), but also, the rupture from all the dreams and mirages that carry us to manage the save miseries behind another facade.

[…]

It’s not necessary to wait for the dystopia or the hollywoodesque scenes of apocalypse, because these are already materially manifesting in different parts of the globe, and in fact they greatly surpass any attempt at representation by cinematic fiction.

The current pandemic of COVID-19 is one more stage in the degradation to which this society of commodity production brings us.

A stage before which it is reaffirmed that the true future only hangs from two strings:

Communist revolution or to perish in the twilight!”

Contra la Contra n.3 Collapse of the capitalist system? A few notes on current events. Mexico City March 2020

[atamascolily]

All Hail the Bug King

Today I want to talk about the Big Bad of Thunderbolt Fantasy, Huò Shì Míng Huáng (aka Kasei Meikō, Locust, and/or the Bug King, depending on what language you're using and how irreverent you're feeling at the moment) and what his deal is.

First of all, his name is written as 禍世螟蝗, which is usually translated as "Plague of Moths and Locusts". This is fine, but there are a couple nuances to appreciate here (caveat: not a native speaker, just an interested person with a dictionary):

禍 is the character for calamity, misfortune and disaster.

世 is the character for "world".

螟 does in fact mean "moth", but more specifically pyralid moths, which are very small and have notably large "snouts". I think they're cute, but this family includes numerous agricultural pests like wax moths, rice moths, flour moths, and various borer moths, and that's the sense in which it is being used here.

蝗 is the character for "locust", which is a generic term for any kind of grasshopper with a swarming phase. Under certain environmental conditions, normally solitary grasshoppers will form impressively large groups and devour everything in their path.

"Plague of Moths and Locusts" doesn't really get at the scale of this guy's ambitions, imo, but it's accurate and concise while still inculcating some existential dread and establishing the bug theme. However, I wanted to lead with the breakdown of his name because it's actually a very clever way of establishing his other theme, which is unleashing global calamity... or something, anyway.

Our first glimpse of the Bug King is in this weird liminal space where he conducts meetings with the members of the Order of the Divine Swarm ("Divine Locust Alliance"). It's basically a giant 3-D Zoom meeting where participants can either talk with their cameras off or pop in directly.

Each member of the group has their own distinct sigil; Locust's is a grasshopper with what appears to be an eye on its back, which is fitting given that he's just used his surveillance orb to spy on Shang Bu Huan from a distance.

In the beginning, we know two things about Locust: he wants the Sorcerous Sword Index, and he's powerful enough to make Shang Bu Huan start running. But it isn't until halfway through Season 3 that we finally see the man in the flesh, in a terrifying flashback where he kicks our heroes' asses.

(In classic Thunderbolt Fantasy tradition, cue the "oh, shit, he's hot!" moment.)

This scene is a lot to take in on first watch because there's so much going on, but became clearer to me after repeated viewings:

First of all, Locust's line, "Only a blade whose existence defies reality can hope to destroy me" screams of foreshadowing, and I fully expect him to meet his comeuppance through exactly this method, even though I don't know how or why it happens. It also reminds me of Lin smugly remarking that words are enough to take down foes that are immune to blades in S2, which I suspect is also relevant here--and I'd be very surprised if Lin is not at least partly responsible for Locust's ultimate downfall through some clever rules lawyering, just like he engineered Zhao Jun Lin's defeat in S3.

Two, Mu Tian Ming is specifically targeted because she tells Shang that the whole thing is a trap to make him use the Index. "[He] is a master of heretical magics! He's bound to be up to something!" Locust blinds her not just to bait Shang into reacting, but because she sees too much. The Index is the one weapon that Shang cannot use under any circumstances, because somehow Locust will turn it against him; somehow, it is the key to Locust's plans or else he wouldn't be making such of an effort to acquire it in the first place.

In the end, Locust's gambit backfires: maiming Tian Ming causes an infuriated Lang Wu Yao to gain an unexpected power-up and wallop the Bug King with a lightning bolt. It doesn't kill him, but it does cause him to retreat, allowing Shang to ultimately take Tian Ming's advice and flees the country.

In Season 3, we learn more about Locust's ultimate goal: although his agents believe they are fighting for the future of Xi You, he doesn't want to usurp the throne of Xi You at all. Using a scale as a metaphor, he tells Yi Piaomiao (actually Lin Xue Ya in disguise) that his ambition is not to choose between one side or the other, but to become the scale itself. In other words, all roads lead to the same end; all choice is an illusion, just like the ones the Bug King surrounds himself with, obscuring their true nature.

And in a final episode twist that made me scream obscenities at the screen, all of this is proven even more true with the reveal that Locust is also the Emperor of Xi You, who has been in seclusion since his ascension as part of a prophecy. In the end, there's no difference between the Order of the Divine Swarm and the Imperial army; for all of Wan Jun Po's agonizing over his perceived treachery, he served the same master the entire time without knowing it, right up to the moment of his death at said master's hands. Absolutely masterful writing there on so many levels.

But this brings me to my next point, which is What exactly does Locust want? He already has plenty of worldly power at his disposal and he's a master of heretical arts. What exactly does he need the Sorcerous Sword Index for, given what he's already capable of? (Okay, so technically at least one of the swords belonged to the Xi You royal family, but somehow I don't think that's what this is about.)

Here's my guess: Locust wants the Index not as an end in itself, but as the means to a larger end. His ambitions are cosmic in scope, and somehow the Index is key to unlocking or unleashing whatever it is he has in mind. Maybe, like Mie Tian Hai, he's fine with letting the demons destroy the world so he can be recognized as a savior, but I think Locust's plan is so much bigger than that.

There are so many dualities in Thunderbolt Fantasy--Dong Li and Xi You, Imperial government and the Order of the Divine Swarm, human and demon worlds, etc, etc. I think Locust wants to move beyond them all, to become a god--the "Divinity" in "Divine Swarm" is more than merely poetic.

When Locust says he wants to become the scale, I don't think it's a metaphor. I think he literally wants to fuse with the world somehow, so that he becomes the arbiter of fate itself, so that choice and free will either no longer exist or they become co-opted, to the point where they are merely illusions, and nothing happens that Locust himself does not personally will or desire. Rebellion would be impossible, especially since most people won't even notice what has happened in the first place!

(Oh, and if you want further proof, the name of his weapon is 諸業俱毀, "All Karmas Destroyed Together", which is, er, a little on the nose, don't you think?)

Fate is a key theme in Thunderbolt Fantasy, so it's not surprising to me that Locust's plan would center around becoming it. Shang makes no secret how important choice is to him--how even villains can actively choose to be better--and his refusal to let fate define him. Meanwhile, Lin Xue Ya is out there actively manipulating fate for his own ends--see the dolls he crafts specifically to take advantage of his connection with Shang.

The relationship between these three is going to be incredibly important going forward, but I want to specifically to talk about Lin vs. Locust, because that's the least examined and has some interesting points.

Both Lin and Locust are masters of illusion who manipulate others. For the first time, Lin is going up against someone with a similar skillset--someone who is almost certainly more powerful than he is. That doesn't mean Lin can't win, merely that Locust represents a different kind of challenge in scale and scope than his previous targets.

Both Lin and Locust are hiding things from each other. If Lin hasn't already figured out the implications of the scale speech, he will soon, thus knowing a secret Locust takes pain to keep hidden. What will he do with that knowledge? The real question for me is is, how long will it take Locust to figure out "Piaomiao" isn't who he seems--and what will he do with it? The stakes are incredibly high and neither side has a definite advantage at this point. How many twists and turns will this game of cat and mouse get to before the end?

Finally, those of you who are familiar with Puella Magi Madoka Magica (also written by Urobuchi) have probably noticed the parallels between Locust and Walpurgisnacht, the Witch of Calamities, a collective of fallen magical girls who appears as a storm and brings destruction in her wake. Walpurgisnacht is the Stage-Producing Witch, for whom the whole world is a stage, who manipulates the real world as if it is her labyrinth (as it may well be!) and for whom everyone is a character playing out their assigned parts. Walpurgisnacht's nature and true identity has yet to be revealed, but it's highly likely that as with Locust, she will be intimately connected to someone we already know, or think we know.

It's not that that Madoka Magica and Thunderbolt Fantasy are the same story--far from it--but they share the same author, and so it's only natural that their themes and motifs echo each other, turning up in different forms and different ways. Ultimately, in each case, the antagonist is a collective directed by a single intelligence that hides behind illusion, brings complete and total destruction in their wake, and represents fate itself--and who is challenged by heroes who believing in defying that fate to create a world where human choice still matters. In a way, it's weirdly fitting that the next installments in each of these two series will likely come out at around the same time, juxtaposing them even further.

[lord-squiggletits]

For your MegOP conundrum:

What are your thoughts on MegOP romance in forced truce situations eg. Quintessons attack, or everyone on the battle feild was taken by slavers type thing. Do your thoughts vary on continuity TFA vs Prime vs IDW, etc?

Hope this helps

Bookwyrm

I think Forced Truce as a trope is probably one of the easiest/most convenient ways to create an alliance/eventual reconciliation between the factions without just sidestepping the issue altogether. I think it's especially cool to have there be a temporary truce BUT the issues between the factions are still messing up communication, causing trust issues that make units work together less cohesively, etc. It's really great because it forces the factions/Megatron and Optimus to work together, EXCEPT if they fail to cooperate, it doesn't just mean a continuation of an endless, tedious war, but it could spell out the end of their species altogether. There's a ton of stakes inherent to it; if we're talking MegOP romance, then what's at stake isn't just the emotional pain of their bad relationship/breaking up because they can't make it work, but the physical consequences of them failing to defeat a greater foe. It lends the romance/truce particularly heavy symbolism-- that this temporary truce isn't merely a convenience, the blooming love isn't merely an emotion, but that both of these things could be the key to life itself. And I'm always a big sucker for that kind of theme where reconciliation/hope/cooperation/etc save the day.

I can really only comment on IDW since that's my bread and butter, but it's an interesting discussion because there's actually at least three times where Megatron and Optimus (and their factions by extension) did a forced truce where, obviously, it wasn't enough for them to reconcile afterwards:

Autocracy: Orion and Megatron team up to beat Zeta, ends with Megatron shooting Orion and the Autobots being imprisoned

Stormbringer: Mostly kept off screen, but the Bots and Cons have to keep up to try and defeat Thunderwing(?), who's basically a walking natural disaster created by all the environmental devastation of the war

Dark Cybertron: Teaming up to stop Shockwave from putting the whole universe in a singularity. Famously the series where Megatron became an Autobot. Has a really underrated/never talked about scene where Megatron and Optimus actually speak together in a quiet moment before going out to face everyone (and presumably Megatron is taken into custody in preparation for the trial).

Stormbringer is actually the most interesting one to me, because I love it when TF stories in general explore the environmental devastation of the war. I love it when Megatron and Optimus are punished for their war by the very planet dying, or in this case, creating a monster that both of them combined can barely stop. They disagreed on whether to basically bomb the whole planet to ash to stop Thunderwing (Megatron) or to keep the planet intact and hope to beat him some other way (Optimus), which I think if it were the focus of a story, is a really interesting example of what I mentioned above where differences in faction/philosophy don't vanish simply because they're temporarily working together.

One of the biggest reasons I love MegOP is because the two faction leaders are kind of like the King Arthur of their respective factions: whatever befalls the commander/king is a reflection of what happens to his army. So forced truce + unresolved tension (political, personal, romantic) is fucking fantastic because it means that whatever Megatron and Optimus do trying to deal with each other could fuck over their factions as well. And I really like the idea of MegOP struggling together in a relationship NOT because of personal differences or even emotional issues, but because they have some sort of obligation to their factions (fulfilling their goals, bringing their idea of justice) that means that coming together romantically would be betraying their factions.

Sorry for the rambling answer; hoped this had at least a few interesting ideas in it!

[joelletwo]

here's 10 minutes of ishida akira's insane scifi military lesbian character having dramatic ethical and tragic disabled backstory solidarity/beef with other women from the insane scifi military lesbian ova Project ICE

'wait what?' project ice is a 2007 three-episode OVA about a post-apocalyptic earth where the disaster was self-inflicted by humans in an irrelevant-time-travel-framing-device'd environmental/casual sex cautionary tale where only women survived and and the reproductive implications are explored through falling to societal ruin and lesbianism about it, produced as a promo for jpop group AKB48

'wait. what?' yeah it was created by the guy who produced AKB48 and it stars some of its members who have never voice acted a day in their lives next to ishida akira as a manipulative war veteran lesbian and minagawa junko (also featured here) having a maternal/flirty relationship with, and being bodyshared with the mother of, what looks like a kid

'what????' yeah visually and soundtrackily and character designily it rules. i skipped most of it looking for ishida scenes on my first watch and understood just as much as when i watched it fully two more times. it sucks so bad. i love it a lot and i think everyone should watch it

[teapotteringabout]

Stingray Ep 3 - Sea of Oil

Ironically, oil famously doesn’t mix well with water yet it makes quite a good Stingray episode. It’s not a name that’s aged particularly well, especially in a world of Just Stop Oil and Deepwater Horizon disasters. You’ll be glad to know that this is the first of my much shorter reviews as we’re starting to get into the general rhythm of Stingray. Underwater duo attack something, Stingray investigates, they tussle with duo. Today an oil rig is attacked and of course this is the worst thing to happen in the history of humanity ever. We do have to remember that this was made in the early 1960s when environmentalism wasn’t quite the thing it is today.

Now, the reason I rank this episode so highly is because of Atlanta, and certainly because of the dynamic between her, Troy and Marina. Bear with me here.

We open with a very satisfying scene of an oil rig getting destroyed (just because the effects are so well done). Stingray is deployed to investigate and Atlanta’s come along for the ride to establish a surface base. Troy seems a little awkward about this arrangement.

I like to think that it’s because it’s dangerous work and he doesn’t want her getting hurt. That might be me snorting cope. But you can see why it’s so easy to call Troy a two-timer. I do hate that for him, and I hate him for that.

Also isn't it interesting that Atlanta's here, so Marina has her arm on Phones. Intriguing hmmmm

So with that in mind, lets have a look at this wonderful exchange between Team Stingray and Team Oil Rig.

It’s actually canon and acknowledged that Troy and Atlanta are a couple and Troy knows he’s a lucky man for it. So a couple episodes later the character assassination is just tragic.

Anyway, Preston the Oil Rig man is a smooth talker.

1960s everyone. I think this is a good time to point out that the dur hur I love silent women joke isn’t actually that prevalent in the series. We’ll hear it a couple of times from Commander Shore, but that’s all, and he’s the older gent of the group who might be more prone to making outdated jokes. Troy and Phones certainly don’t make such jokes at any point in the series, and that knowledge really does make my heart swell.

We see what they’ve been deployed to do – Stingray guards the drill while it’s active and Atlanta relays instructions from the rig. The enemy craft of the week does get picked up on the hydrophones, but Phones quickly loses it and it’s assumed to be an echo from the drill. I like that this is included, showing that the enemy is always there and is observing, and their spotting Stingray dictates their next actions.

When the work is done for the day, the lads catch up with Preston the Oilman and it’s here that we’re introduced to Oink the seal.

Just as in previous Gerry Anderson productions (Bobby and Mitch in Supercar and Venus and Zoonie in Fireball XL5) we now get an animal companion duo in Marina and Oink. I can only imagine how many lozenges David Graham needed after voicing Oink, but not as many as Zoonie – because while Zoonie is there for the entire Fireball series, Oink will vanish about halfway through. And thank Cod for that. Oink looks cute, but I cannot stand his vocals and he adds nothing to the story. If anything, he makes things more confusing, which I’ll get to in a couple posts time. He would have been much better off making a one-off appearance in this episode because this is the best performance he gives – we’ll get to that soon.

For all my irritation at this character, I do love his puppetry. Look at this good boi.

Unbenownst to the gang, evil submarine hides underneath Stingray, and that night, an evil pair of evil green arms plant an evil stickerbomb on the hull. It's one of the rare occasions where the puppetry leaves a bit to be desired. I think a live-action close-up shot would have been better.

Troy and Phones have a nice little exchange about Marina sitting on the deck enjoying the ocean view. I love the implication that Phones is a chatty guy come bedtime and Troy, as we'll see often in the series, loooooves sleep.

Atlanta is sleeping aboard Stingray when she’s kidnapped by some wet footprints. Marina is sitting on the hull of Stingray’s nose at the time, and so witnesses the event. I can only assume someone got aboard Stingray without her knowing by using the aft hatch which someone left open? Because for security reasons I would assume random people can’t just open submarine hatches from the outside??

Anyway, we get our first proper shot of Marina swimming underwater and the effect is beautiful. In addition to being filmed through a thin fishtank like all the underwater shots, a fan is blown to simulate her hair and dress flowing through water.

In terms of Marina's actions, when I first watched this, I thought we’d still get that bitchy girl rivalry, and Marina would be like “oh what a shame, Atlanta’s gone, want me to keep you company, Troy?” and when Atlanta is inevitably rescued, the whole escapade is laughed off in an “aren’t these girls crazy over you, Troy?” kind of way. But, thank Teufel, no. Marina immediately sounds the alarm.

I just love that it’s Phones who’s straight into action and Troy “Action Man” Tempest is 14-year-old me at 11am.

Anyway, he’s all battle stations go when he learns that Atlanta’s been kidnapped. I love the urgency in his voice, how he’s demanding to know what happened and urging that they need to find her immediately.

They start submerging and the sticker bomb is triggered to explode when it does. Thankfully, Stingray’s instruments pick up a fault with the Surface Video Scanner or SVS (the periscope thingy) so the dive has to be aborted. Upon investigation, it’s because Oink is sat in front of the SVS lens, blocking its view. He’s also found the sticker bomb.

The Stingray crew manage to dive out of the way of the ensuing explosion and at first they assume Oink has been killed. I’m glad he wasn’t, as animal death is very dark for most Anderson shows, but I do wonder how a whole seal managed to get inside Stingray without anyone noticing. Anyway, as I said earlier, this is the one time Oink does anything substantial – he accidentally saves the Stingray from being blown up by a sticker bomb that Mr Wet Footprints had left on the hull.

Let’s get back to Atlanta, and for me the highlight of the episode. She reasons with her kidnappers – Nefir and Gerit – and we learn that it’s all a big misunderstanding. They thought the drilling was an attack on their home, not just a harmless oil rig. Whoever got hurt from an oil rig? In fact, they’ve got oil for miles in their home that they’d gladly share with the humans. Sweet!

Seriously though, look at the detail of the set when their craft is transported on a monorail over a whole lake of bubbling, steaming oil. I don’t think oil ought to be hot when drilled, but I digress. It’s even dripping down the walls of the cavern.

And look at the interior of their base. Like Titanica and several other bases we'll see, this new colour TV tech has made brightly coloured villain lairs the in-thing. I'd love to know why these guys have what a mural of a green-haired hollow-eyed tits-out lady. Presumably she's a deity. It's little tit-bits of worldbuilding that make many of these undersea races really come alive.

Nefir (bearded dude) and Gerit (clean-shaven dude), despite planting a bomb on Stingray, do turn out to be quite sweet dudes. They even appear to give Atlanta a shawl and apologise and comfort her when they hear the bomb explode, assuming Stingray has been blown up.

Also when the sticker bomb explodes, it’s heard down here too and Atlanta’s little devastated gasp of “Oh! Troy!” is so well-acted by Lois Maxwell. Like you can really hear the despair and shock in her voice. Lois Maxwell is a star and this won’t be the last time I simp over her.

It’s quickly established that Stingray has survived the explosion, and though Atlanta, Nefir and Gerit are overjoyed and relieved, they quickly realise they have a new problem – when Stingray finds the entrance to their cave door, Troy will try to rescue Atlanta via the Michael Bay Method of blowing shit up, and that’s not so great for a civilisation sitting on an oil well. Also, as Nefir states, the “mighty ocean will rush in”, which could indicate that this race of people can’t actually breathe underwater. Sure, water rushing in quickly could well crush any marine being, or smack them with debris. But we do actually meet other undersea races who can’t breathe underwater so I like to think this is one of them.

The underwater technology is so different to Terranean equipment that there is no way they can stop the attack or tell Troy that Atlanta is safe. As such, Atlanta bravely urges Gerit to take her on his ship and try and stop them. It’s a huge risk as without any way to communicate, they would be interpreted as an enemy and blown up, but the alternative is certain death when Stingray locates their city. It all makes Troy sound quite extreme actually. Shoot first, ask where Atlanta is later, especially on a craft that won’t be threatening them in any way, or you have no actual proof is involved.

In any case, Atlanta and Gerit go back out in their submarine to try and stop Stingray. There’s a wonderfully tense scene where Phones has picked up their echo and starts counting down to their firing distance. It’s then that Atlanta comes up with the genius idea that if she uses the motors to send a Morse Code message, Phones would hear it on the hydrophones. This is objectively brilliant. It’s using these two characters’ core skillset perfectly and it’s pretty much the only time that Troy is not the hero of the day. Enjoy it while it lasts.

There’s no music at all while Atlanta relays her message with the motors, and, heartbreakingly, it seems to be too late as Phones reaches zero and gives the command to fire.

THEN he hears the message through his hydrophones, and gives the urgent command to destroy the sting missile remotely.

I love that as well as the hydrophone 'pings', you can also hear Atlanta's message through Phones's headset.

All’s well that ends well, with Troy and co meeting Nefir and Gerit properly. Nefir also has an odd remark at the end: “especially when we nearly cost you your wives”. Now, after some confusion from Troy, it’s established that he meant ‘lives’. That’s fine, English is unlikely to be your first language when you’re a literal sub-seabed race. Firstly, I would say an apology is warranted on Troy’s side too, for nearly killing Atlanta and Gerit. Secondly, I can’t help but wonder if ‘wives’ was the word specifically chosen for the script because we’re still very much in Troy’s questionable triangle era.

Anyway, we wrap up the episode with a scene that made me spit out my tea when I first saw it.

Is that oil or are you pleased to see me?

As a while, this episode is a solid A for Atlanta. S for Star, because she is one. She’s calm and brave, risking her life to go in the submarine to try and contact Stingray, and clever to message them in an unconventional way. This is the first ‘Atlanta centric’ episode and believe me, they tend to be absolute bangers.

The show at this point continued to subvert my expectations with Marina going out of her way to kick-off Atlanta's rescue rather than maintain a bitchy rivalry. Oink, as annoying as he is, is cute and at his most useful to the plot in this episode. We also have our first glimpse of an underwater race that isn't Titan's lot or Pacificans, and though in fitire episodes these other races will be fully villains, it's lovely to see friendly ones who want to befriend the humans, and the Stingray crew acting as less a military force and more a PR link between sea and land.

Remember when I said this would be a shorter review?

[try-set-me-on-fire]

Tagged by @devirnis for WIP Wednesday! Here’s a whole scene from proposal fic because why not… (vomit content warning)

Bobby shows up on the doorstep before Buck's first PT appointment after being discharged and Buck is hit by sudden intense gratitude for the stupidest possible reason. Ah, he thinks, thank god Eddie isn't going to see what I'm like during one of these. And then What the fuck, Buckley? Eddie did see him after that first session, and it's not like his patheticisms start and end within a 45 minute time frame and the clean walls and persistent disinfectant smell of Dr. Shelley's office. He's spent the last two days in a shivering little lump on the man's bed, sleeping 16 hours out of 24. He's not really sparing him anything he hasn't already seen. What, then? Spread the different facets of exactly how fucked up he is around? Like if no one has to deal with too much they won't get tired of it? Here, Eddie, you can have helping me go to the bathroom because I can't stand up on my own. Maddie, you get me crying whenever I see you or even hear you on the phone because you're my big sister so I get to dump all my feelings on you, that's fair right? Bobby, you can hear me screaming in pain, is that ok with you? You were there last time, I'm sure you'll do fine. It's too much for any of them. It's too much for Buck.

"You ready, kid?" Bobby says, with the softest little smile. God. Buck is going to fall apart into tiny, gross little pieces. Eddie can mop the floor and be done with him.

“Ready,” is what he says, knowing it sounds like a lie.

They have him walking between the parallel bars today. He remembers them, from his leg. They don’t start there, most of the hour is more stretching (ow) and fine motor skills practice (frustrating). But they told him at the beginning they want to get him walking again as soon as they can to avoid any further muscle loss or atrophy, and they want to work with him to see if they can figure out how much of his dizziness is from brain injury and how much is from vestibular damage.

Well, he’s up on the bars now and he couldn’t fucking tell you. The whole world is just spinning around him at a sickening speed as the physical therapist and Bobby both mutter encouragement, tell him to keep taking one more step, he can do it. Buck tries, he really tries, he wants to take these five steps on his own and for the doctor to tell him he’s progressing fantastically and to be tired but happy on the drive home with Bobby, both of them smiling and cracking jokes. Instead he collapses three steps in and vomits on the soft plastic-y blue floor covering. His ear is ringing and he only has a split second to feel humiliated before there are arms around him.

“Sweetheart,” Bobby is saying over the background hum, “Sweetheart, I’ve got you.” There are hands in Buck’s hair and he chokes out a sob. He doesn’t really stop crying until they’re almost back at the Diaz house, how he got from the office to the car a mysterious blur. Bobby is holding his hand on the center console. When Buck squeezes a little tighter he hears him sigh in relief and it almost starts the tears up again. Bobby is out of the car as soon as he's parked, hurrying around to the passenger side to help Buck to the house. He’d protested, days ago, about the need to rent a wheelchair until he could carry a little more of his own weight, but now he guesses getting rolled to the door is more dignified than Bobby having to put him in a fireman's carry.

He’d do it. Buck knows he would, Bobby would pick him up and hold him in his arms and carry him as far as he needed to go. Bobby settles him on the couch, handling him as gently as he would a child at a disaster site, running to bring him mouthwash to get rid of the bitter taste of stomach acid, finding saltines in the kitchen, pouring ginger ale on ice and procuring as if by magic a bendy straw in old fashioned, environmentally unfriendly, single use plastic. He sits on the coffee table in front of him, at attention, ready to appease any want.

"Thanks, dad. Bobby! Thanks- thanks, Cap," Buck slams his eyes shut and drops his head onto the couch behind him. The indignities never fucking end, apparently. He's stopped from withering away entirely by the warm weight of a hand over his own where it lays on the armrest. Buck opens his eyes. Bobby is staring down at their hands, jaw working, breathing through his nose.

"It wasn't even-" Bobby frowns as his voice fails, and clears his throat to try again. "I kept wishing I could be mad at you. Being reckless again, running into danger, getting yourself hurt." He exhales heavily, breath stuttering into a sad little laugh. "But I watched you climb that ladder. I kept playing it over and over in my head. You had three points of contact the whole time. Could have filmed it for a goddamn safety manual. It could have been-" his voice catches again, and Buck turns his hand to grab onto Bobby's. "It could have been any of us. It could have been any of us up there. All the stupid stunts you pull that you walk away from, and it's-" Bobby's free hand waves wildly into the room. "It's a random fucking act of god that nearly-"

"Bobby-"

"That nearly takes you from me," he finishes, squeezing Buck's hand. He's crying, and Buck thinks he might be again, too.

"I'm so sorry-"

"Oh, kid," Bobby says, leaning forward, gathering Buck up in his arms. “Nothing to apologize for. You’re right here. You’re still breathing. That’s all I need.”

Buck weeps again, into Bobby’s shoulder, his captain or father or good friend’s hand rubbing up and down his spine. He is still breathing. He’s still breathing. Bobby’s soft flannel shirt smells like grill smoke and Eddie’s couch is familiar beneath him, and Buck hurts and feels sick and dizzy, and he exists. “Bobby-“

“It’s alright. It’s alright.”

Bobby’s face is wet when Buck pulls away after however long it takes for each breath to stop aching so bad as it rattles in and out of him. Buck wants to say all sorts of things, most of which amount to I love you, but what comes out is a nod towards the TV and “You wanna stay for the game?”

Buck doesn’t even know what sports, if any, are on today, but Bobby seems to hear some of the other words he meant to say because he smiles so kindly at him and says “Yeah, Buck. Anything.”

Tagging @iinryer @bigfootsmom @shortsighted-owl if you’ve got anything to share!

[opiatemasses]

Sport as escapism: Why are we trying to escape our reality?

In an increasingly turbulent world, sport can provide an escape from an often cruel and distressing reality. Sport can be an escape from the daily grind and the occasional global crisis (Segrave, 2000). However, whilst you’re playing your favourite game or travelling to watch your team lose away from home (again!), it can be all too easy to overlook more pressing issues. Or is sport a veil to make us do so?

From sportswashing to greenwashing, we can often be distracted by the beauty of sport. Sport plays a significant role in shaping public perception and has potentially far-reaching consequences for the people involved, and the planet itself.

Sport for many of us is an escape from reality. Still, unfortunately it perpetuates often harmful corporate practices and has a significant impact on our environment which we need to participate in sports.

Sport as escapism

Sport allows fans and participants to have a temporary escape. In turn this provides opportunities to join in with the collective sense of happiness and belonging (Reysen et al., 2010). Sport can also help lead us to individual growth and bring us a real sense of identity, which is why it is such an easy escape (Wankel et al., 1990).

Major global sporting events such as Wimbledon, the Olympics or the FIFA World Cup provide temporary relief from socio-political issues. These fixes are however only temporary and permanent action is needed if we want to continue playing and watching the sports we love so much. Can you imagine a world where Wimbledon is no longer played on grass courts because the temperatures soar too high for the grass to grow?

The Paradox of Sport

However, within these sporting events lies a paradox; whilst we are so busy focusing on the game, we are blind to the issues behind the scenes. For example, in preparation for the 2022 Qatar World Cup: “Between 2010 and 2013, more than 1,200 labour migrants working in Qatar’s construction sector died, with another 4,000 deaths projected by the start of the event” (Ganji, 2016 p.221). This distressing example shows that the excitement and hype around the event can often distract people from the issues surrounding it, or are we just voluntarily ignoring them?

Sportswashing and greenwashing

Sportswashing is a term which is used to describe the strategy of an organisation to use sport to divert attention away from political or ethical issues (Fruh et al., 2023). A clear example of sportswashing can be seen during the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. Japan was criticised for its controversial handling of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, as it did not support the affected communities and attempted to sweep the issue under the carpet (Boykoff et al., 2020). The Games still went ahead despite the world being in a pandemic, which raises a massive concern: what’s more important, sport or public health?

Greenwashing occurs when an organisation uses claims to support environmental sustainability whilst continuing to harm the planet and the environment in which we live (Dahl, 2010). A notable example of greenwashing can be seen in Formula One. The latter announced an ambitious sustainability plan to become Net Zero Carbon by 2030, and the sport has been busy implementing new measures such as biofuels and hybrid engines (Sturm et al., 2024). However, air travel, transportation of equipment, hosting large-scale races and the use of combustion engines all harm the environment and therefore are hardly sustainable practices (Sturm et al., 2024).

Hidden environmental impacts

Despite the ever-increasing awareness and prominence of ‘green’ initiatives in sports, the environmental impact more often than not is overlooked (Song, 2022). During the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the organisers opted to use artificial snow over natural snow: “It was estimated that 228.8 million litres of water were used to create this artificial snow” (Song, 2022). The creation of so much artificial snow would have been both energy and resource intensive and harmful to the environment (Song, 2022). Should the Winter Olympics ever be held somewhere without enough natural snowfall to support the event?

With the massive carbon footprint that these mega sporting events leave, it's clear that environmental impacts cannot be ignored, and organisations such as the IOC need to make greater efforts to improve their sustainability credentials (Collins et al., 2009).

The cost of enjoyment

Whilst sport offers a fun and immersive, temporary escape, it also, unfortunately, acts as a veil for organisations to use the good of sport to obscure and disguise the not-so-pretty reality. As we cheer on our favourite team, remember the games we love often come with a hidden cost and we are all accountable for blindsiding this important issue. The next time we tune in to watch or arrive to participate in a sporting event, let's remember to question the true cost of our entertainment.

So, how can we make a difference?

We need to take action for a more sustainable, ethical and sporting world. We need to act now, and here’s how:

Hold organisations to account

If large sporting organisations such as the IOC partner with harmful regimes, we should speak up, use our social media presence, sign petitions and demand more transparency.

Support real sustainability

Make conscious decisions when using brands, are they genuinely prioritising sustainability? Perhaps look for green flags such as B Corp certification or clear sustainability pledges.

Protect workers' rights

Support campaigns for better treatment of workers, who deserve fair wages and safe working conditions. As well as raising awareness by sharing this information.

Rethink your personal travel and carbon footprint

Consider public transport or car sharing to attend events and reduce your carbon footprint. Support events that minimise travel!

Support local, sustainable events

Mega events such as a Rugby World Cup or the Olympics take a huge toll on the environment and leave big costs. Consider smaller local events and support your local community, thus making a conscious decision to be more sustainable and reduce the need for excessive travel and infrastructure.

Our choice matters! We can help create a sporting world that benefits everyone and our planet.

See below to take action now.

Petitions:

Further readings:

Contact me:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/cameron-archibald-023716295