#ethnicity would be laughable

[rebellum]

Full on saying "sex based oppression isn't real, that's a radfem talking point" seems like way too much to me. Like, it IS real. Every single person who was assigned female at birth, or who is considered to be female bodied in any way (so, including eg trans fems who may be considered female bodied due to surgery, intersex people who were maybe assigned as female later on in life), is oppressed because of that. That's an inarguable fact.

But that doesn't mean every single person who was assigned male at birth oppresses every single person assigned female at birth through the axis of sex. Like, obviously trans people who were amab don't have more social privilege as a group than cis gender conforming women.

Both things can be true at once.

[olderthannetfic]

You can discus and argue about the ethics of fake claiming people until you turn blue.

But to completely and utterly deny the concept of people faking being neurodivergent for whatever reason is just stupid.

People have and will forever fake having a certain life reality, as long as they can gain something from it. Be that social credit, attention, money or even just attention positive or negative.

The idea that people would stop at faking being neurodivergent is laughable, considering how many people have been exposed at faking other life realities: faking their race, their sexuality, their ethnicity, their gender, even faking physical health problems like cancer or HIV. Some people literally fake being victims of physical, sexual and mental violence, or living in areas of war, not just to scam money, but even to just gain some followers on social media sites and get clout, and nothing else.

And you legit think people would stop at lying about having autism? ADHD? DID? BPD? Really? And yet people still try to pretend like nobody claiming to be neurodivergent would ever lie about it. Like every person who claims to be neurodivergent does it with the best of intentions and just trying to and a community and understand themselves. Like none of them are just doing it to gain something or get their hustle on.

It doesn't matter if the neurodivergent people at large are marginalized and treated like shit. People with privilege aren't gonna be stopped just because parts of the healthcare system is abusive and toxic. People of privilege have race faked being black in systems where actually being black puts you on the lowest social step of the sociallader, so the idea of being marginalized clearly isn't a turnoff and might even be an incentive to do so, as long as they get something from it.

If people notice a certain reality of life can be commodified, someone will be there and try to reap the benefits, while not actually having to experience all the aspects, especially the negatives, of that life.

--

Oh, people are for sure going to fake.

The real question is whether it's appropriate to bring this up in a given context. Often, we just end up making it harder for the non-fakers and/or treating the fakers as though they're fine when the faking is a symptom of being not fine some other way.

[strawberrypoundtown]

Introducting: Bruce Soli

What's their name?

His real name is Brucie Fernando Giordano-Soli, but the name he goes by in public and on stage is Bruce Soli

What's their age?

25

What's their birthday?

April 1st

What do they look like?

This guy is a mountain of a dude. Even by minotaur standards, he's huge. He's a whopping 9' tall with large, sharp horns that curve upwards towards the ceiling. He is pretty ripped aside from a bit of pudge on his belly that he's put on over the years of being on the road. He has green eyes and thick, short black fur covers his body whole body, all the way down until his cloven feet. He has a tail, but only about 1 foot of it is still there. The rest was amputated due to an infection.

What's their species?

He's a minotaur!

What's their ethnicity and nationality?

He has mostly Italian ancestry, but doesn't really know much beyond that. However, he was born in New York, so he has a bit of a Brooklyn accent because of his Nonna when he gets really pissed off.

What's their personality like?

He's a giant walking landmine. One wrong step, and he could get set off and blow your head off. His temper is unmatched and absolutely terrifying due to his size. He hides a lot behind his rage, and not much is known about his early life other than the many scars that litter his body. He is usually pretty chill most of the time nowadays since he started smoking weed, but he's also just a very loud dude in general, so it can only do so much.

What's some fun facts about them?

1. His only family member that he has contact with is his Nonna. She is the only person he won't swear in front of and will say "I love you" to, and his bandmates annoy him about it constantly.

2. He learned to play the guitar from his Nonna when he was little. He has an electric guitar he named "Killer" that he mainly uses on stage, but he has a secret acoustic guitar his nonna gave him that he keeps in his closet that he named "Lover" upon her request.

3. He has a huge soft spot for the band, but would never admit it. He may say he finds them insufferable and wants to get away from them, but he would kill for them in a heartbeat. There have been too many times when he almost did and sent himself into a very public scandal.

4. Although he does enjoy the company of men and women, he's never been with someone for more than one night. It has earned him the reputation of a playboy, but he always gets uncomfortable when people bring it up for some reason...

5. Due to his size, he hates being inside most buildings. Even in a world where there's a lot built for large monsters like him, he struggles inside most buildings to get around without causing damages. The amount of times he's gotten his horns stuck in the ceiling when standing up too quickly or the amount of doorways he's gotten stuck in that hadn't been made bigger yet is laughable, and is a huge trigger for his temper.

(Credit to @the-witches-creatures for her introduction template! And please go check out her OC's, especially Teyo and Oscar!)

(I hope you guys liked getting to know a little bit about Bruce! He's the main guitarist for "Monster Town" and I have the first part of his story in the works, as well as Claytons introduction! I hope you all enjoy! Any requests or ideas are always welcome btw! Thank you so much for your support!)

[wylanslcve]

So if you've been following me on Instagram you would have seen me say recently that I've decided to take a step back from posting/sharing/creating Grishaverse content due to what Leigh Bardugo said (or rather what she didn't say) about the situation in Palestine. For context, during the press tour for The Familiar, an audience member asked Leigh about the justification for non-BIPOC authors profiting off BIPOC stories yet not advocating for real-life BIPOC people (since Leigh has been silent on Palestine since October, despite having expressed solidarity with Palestine in the past).

The video (which you can watch here) has been circulating the internet for a while, and I've already spoken about this on Instagram. I just forgot I had Tumblr for a second there, hence why I'm only addressing this now despite having already spoken about this. However, as someone who has an entire online presence dedicated to Leigh's work, it would be wrong and rather hypocritical of me to not address this.

Disclaimer: This is not a conversation about whether or not white/white-passing authors should be allowed to write BIPOC stories, as many people both in the comments of the original video and online generally have taken it. The issue isn't that Leigh is writing BIPOC stories - it's that she's writing them and choosing not to advocate for real BIPOC people.

The audience member asked a confronting but necessary question, and isn't harassing Leigh as many people online have interpreted it. Holding your favourite people accountable isn't "harassment", especially when that person is a successful author profiting off stories that reflect issues in the real world. Art is inherently political whether or not you want to acknowledge it. This also isn't about specifically asking Leigh this question because she's Jewish - it's because she profits off these stories and yet when these exact same issues are prevalent in the real world, suddenly they're "too political" for her to speak up about despite having expressed solidarity in the past. It has nothing to do with her being Jewish.

However, what's going on in Palestine isn't a political issue. It's basic human rights. It's about humanity, and acting as if posting about this issue is "performative" is ridiculous. I don't know what she's doing behind the scenes, so I'm not going to act as if she isn't doing anything outside of social media because I simply don't know, but when you have an online presence as big as Leigh's you should be using that platform to raise awareness and express solidarity. I understand that it's very easy to come across as "performing activism", especially on social media, but Palestinians have asked us time and time again to use our platforms to help raise awareness and amplify their voices. When you're someone like Leigh who profits off stories of the trials and tribulations of BIPOC people, the very least you can do is talk about the atrocities being committed against BIPOC people in real life.

No one is expecting you to be an expert on what's going on. If you've previously posted misinformation, why not learn from it and actually educate yourself and do better? You're literally an author who profits off stories of colonialism, oppression, dissemination, apartheid, segregation and genocide and suddenly that happening in real life is "too political"? And the amount of privilege you have to not want to get involved in talking about a real-life genocide because you "stopped being political on Instagram" is laughable. Just feeling sad about it isn't going to do anything. It doesn't erase the fact that an entire people are being ethnically cleansed in a genocide you refuse to talk about.

The Grishaverse means so much to me, it's gotten me through some extremely tough periods of my life, but I cannot in good conscience continue to support an author who chooses silence over her own humanity. All she had to say in response to that question was "free Palestine", but she instead said something akin to "I know about what's going on and I know silence and feeling sad about it probably isn't enough, but I'm just not going to do anything about it". Again, I know she's advocated for Palestine in the past, but why not continue doing so? No one is stopping her - she's actively chosen to stop.

As for my accounts? I'm still deciding what to do with them. I won't be deleting them, I'm not going anywhere, but I won't be posting edits or sharing analyses or general posts about the Grishaverse until Leigh decides to do better. This blog will probably turn into a multifandom blog, but who knows at this point. All I know is that I won't be promoting Leigh's work.

[remusjohnslupin]

@elerrinacrownedwithstars: Your responses are very interesting, and responding to them under another post (with a character limit) is difficult, so I thought I would make a separate post about it to convey my thoughts more thoroughly. I hope you don't mind ❤️ Please don't feel like you have to answer or anything. Following up on your previous message:

Of course, it’s possible I’m wrong, as this is only the impression I’ve gathered from some posts. And yeah, the writers of this show are laughably bad at their job but it doesn’t dismiss the idea that this is their attempt of ‘nuance’. Tolkien is fairly clear about how orcs are his idea of “what if Satan made people”, but even so, it’s notable - and he seemed to realise this too - that it had some problems within his cosmogony. In my bubble, I see discourse about how describing an entire race evil is problematic and I can’t say that I don’t see where they come from. But on the other hand, you’re right to point out that Tolkien wasn’t writing an allegory, and fantasy worlds are allowed to work differently than real worlds. After all, Tolkien is also clear that his Elves and Men can be at the different points of the spectrum of good and evil, whether they are Valinorean or Númenorean etc.

If I can backtrack a little to our previous messages, everything you said earlier about J.R.R Tolkien's observations about war and human nature are 100% accurate. I hope it did not seem like I brushed off your point. However, I would like to underline that just because he uses the word 'orc' or 'orcish' to describe the horrors of war, does not mean that he is directly referencing Orcs™ in his books.

I genuinely think if people are insisting Orcs™ have to be nuanced, otherwise it's racist... that's WILD. Because the point is, orcs are, as you so creatively put in, 'What if Satan made people.' They are not of any particular race like we understand. Any differential groups they might have between them is based on who 'bred' them, so to speak, and where. Unlike humans, they have no cultural and historical differences as we understand it. To copy/paste my previous point directly:

"Tolkien famously HATED allegory and never assigned any of his races to real-life ones. I mean, if there are people out there who think portraying orcs as purely evil is racist, then THEY must have a real-life race/ethnicity in mind when they think of orcs. Which says a lot about THEM, not Tolkien himself or those of us who rightly point out the butchering of the lore and poor writing in the show."

So no, I will never, ever see or agree with the idea that the discourse about orcs and race have validity. Like, no. If I start writing my story and create this bright green, goo-like race of blobs who are all evil and their entire agenda is to latch on to humans and feed on them.... and someone just came out and said that was also problematic and racist... how does it make sense?

You know what, this is Tumblr, so someone actually WOULD say that. Nevermind.

But that's what Orcs™ are. They are an extension of the evil (Morgoth) that marred the world even when it was first formed. Nothing more, nothing less.

In your last point, I think you inadvertently addressed part of the problem. This whole discourse about how pure fantasy evil existing is somehow offensive stems from the strange need to make everything relatable. I sincerely believe that people who think this way (including the writers of the Rings of Power) actually have a disdain for the fantasy genre, whether they recognise it or not.

"What if orcs were misunderstood?" ... "What if Galadriel was a cut-out cliche warrior?" .... "What if elven rings were also actually evil because power corrupts anyway even if they are wielded by super wise beings and those Rings were untouched by Sauron?"

They think they are being sophisticated doing these things. And I have no doubt there is some unnecessary political pandering there, too. But instead of elevating the characters and the show, they are hollowing out all the meaning behind Tolkien's themes.

Making orcs misunderstood essentially destroys how Tolkien showed the Marring of the World was permanent and would not be Healed until Dagor Dagorath.

Making Galadriel a copy-paste generic warrior who goes on adventures cheapened her character so much, I can't even. Sauron (when he was Annatar) did not go near Galadriel's kingdom because he was 92837647289% sure that she would recognise him on sight. Because she is probably THE most perceptive elf. She is also described as one of the kindest people alive, sooner moved to pity than anger. But they made her a vengeful asshole on a quest to find Sauron when he was THREE FEET AWAY from her face. But that's empowering because sHE hAS A SworD nOW!

I could go on, and on, and on...

The whole 'sympathetic orcs' debacle, along with the entirety of the Rings of Power, is what you get when you put a few idiots together, have them read Tolkiengateway, and ask 'Okay, so how would YOU write the story?'

As opposed to:

"We made a promise to ourselves at the beginning of the process that we weren’t going to put any of our own politics, our own messages or our own themes into these movies. What we were trying to do was to analyze what was important to Tolkien and to try to honor that. In a way, we were trying to make these films for him, not for ourselves.” — Peter Jackson

[justzawe]

Zawe Ashton on resilience, tackling complex roles and the fight for on-screen representation

The actress took to the stage at the 2023 Bazaar Summit

When Zawe Ashton looks back at her career so far, she’s a little surprised: not at her own success, but at how she’s managed to navigate a notoriously tough industry so well. “When I talk about what I’ve been through, I think, why have I kept going?” the actress and writer told the audience at the 2023 Bazaar At Work Summit, at which she was a headline speaker. “I wonder if, to even become an actor, there needs to be something inside you that is already a little bit fractured. I think there’s something within me that somehow knows this level of crazy. When it gets really hard is when I feel my strongest or most determined.”

Anyone who has watched and loved the cult favourite TV show Fresh Meat will be very thankful indeed that Ashton did keep going. Her character – the straight-talking, drug-taking, chain-smoking and anti-establishment Vod Nordstrom – was a highlight of Jesse Armstrong’s hit series. The popularity of the sitcom-style show (and particularly of Vod) made Ashton a household name and, to this day, it’s a role she’s proud of playing. “Vod was very left-field, free-thinking and probably, I would say, a queer character without that being made explicit,” she said. “Fresh Meat was 11 years ago now, but there’s still a whole new wave of people who come up to me – lots of young actresses, of every ethnicity – who say thank you to me for being smelly, unlikeable, strange and punky, because there aren’t a wealth of women who are doing that on screen.”

Ashton clearly feels passionate about portraying real women in her work. In 2019, she published a fictionalised memoir, Character Breakdown, the title of which refers to the couple of lines an actor will receive with a script, which describe who the character is – for women, these mini biographies are often laughably simplistic and purely aesthetic. “They go from one extreme to another,” Ashton sighed with disbelief. “Where do we draw the line? If you’re not seeing women’s humanity, if you’re not seeing a full human life when you’re thinking about the ways in which you’re putting these descriptions together, then you’re not valuing women. And that’s a much bigger conversation than my industry.”

Throughout her career, Ashton has fought to play complex roles and has always emphasised the importance of making multi-faceted women of every ethnicity visible on screen. When she took the role of Vod, “growing up as a young, biracial girl in Hackney,” she was “willing to do whatever it took to make that character as edgy and authentic as I felt she could be, so that it would invite anyone not seeing that kind of representation to feel really seen”. In 2022, Ashton scored a role in the period drama Mr Malcom’s List, which was a seminal moment for her – and one which she credits to the success of Bridgerton's diverse casting. “I had never seen any actor who looked like me invited to the table to perform [something like that],” she said. “I hadn’t known necessarily that I was hurting so much, until I saw that representation happen and the success of it take everyone by storm.”

Since then, Ashton has continued to push the envelope. This year, she played villain Dar-Benn – a role traditionally written as male – in The Marvels, opposite Brie Larson as Carol Danvers. “The process of learning stunts and fighting is probably one of the most empowering things I’ve done!” she laughed. “But when I thought the film was finished, I got pregnant and had my baby. And then they told me to come back and reshoot basically the whole movie. That has been the biggest journey for me: my physical wellness, my ability to endure, to mentally switch back into that place postpartum and come back to kick some ass again.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, a boundary-breaking superhero feels like Ashton’s best-suited role to date. (x)

[fandomsandfeminism]

So...as a white American, obviously this is an outsider perspective, and there are way way more nuanced conversations about this happening within Latino communities. As someone who grew up in a very Latino community in Texas, it is a very interesting conversation to me though, and given that Hispanic Heritage Month is wrapping up, and Native American Heritage month is around the corner, I'd love to hear other people, especially Latino/Hispanic people's thoughts on it.

Why do we, overall, not think of Latino people as being *indigenous*?

Like, if I were to talk to someone here in the US who was Pueblo or Lipan Apache or Cheyenne, and I was told that they grew up speaking English- that doesn't make them not indigenous. If they told me that they feel their culture and way of life has been deeply influenced by colonialism, that doesn't make them not indigenous. If they told me they had a grandparent or great grand parent or great great great grand parent who was white- that wouldn't make them not indigenous. If they had a "white" sounding name- that wouldn't make them not indigenous. Right?

So. *gestures to Latin America*

Especially here in Texas, if you described a Tejano or Mexican-American person as "native American" or indigenous, most people would be...confused by that.

And I just wonder why that difference exists.

Is it a history of anti-indigenous racism/colorism/classism? Is it because it would fundamentally challenge the white supremacist myth that Native Americans have all but died out? Is it a way to frame the Mexican Revolution so it doesn't feel like a story of indigenous people successfully repelling a colonizing empire and successfully self governing?

Is it because it would too obviously challenge the white supremacist "pan-Indian" way of lumping indigenous American groups together? Is it, from a US standpoint, a way of mentally distancing Mexico and the rest of Latin America from being "American" in any way? Is it because, at least in the southern US, our perception of Latino people as "immigrants" outweighs their possible identity as indigenous? (Which, God, is already so laughable in Texas where for so many of these communities, they didn't cross the border- the border crossed them)

Is it a combination of all these things? Is it something else?

There are still communities within Latin America that speak traditional languages and have more traditional cultural practices, who are still very much identified as indigenous. But does their existence inherently negate the indigenous-status of other Latino people? (Obviously, that's not something I can decide or define, but a personal and community conversation for those people. )

As I said at the beginning, I've seen this discussion popping up more in Latino communities in recent years, and I just find the whole question, especially within Texas and Tejano culture, to raise some interesting thoughts and ideas.

Some of the very cool articles I've read that made me think these thoughts:

I'd honestly love to hear from any Latino/Hispanic followers I have about yalls thoughts on this. :)

[callmeshin]

I've always found it fascinating that, like the overall species for humans, they tend to lowercase all of the Mass Effect races (asari, prothean, krogan, quarian, salarian, turian, etc.). We also know that the species name for humans is Homo sapien. With all of that being said ... does anybody else ever wonder what the scientific/species name for the other races would be?? And are there subgroups (nationalities, ethnicities, etc.) like how there are with humans (Africans, Spaniards, Chinese, Hawaiians, Mexicans, etc.)??

I just can't help to wonder this because I don't recall them ever really talking about this in the mainstream games and my knowledge on the books are a bit foggy and laughable. Not only that but this is something that's always bothered me tbh. Because while I do absolutely love and adore that they've added so many space races, I'd like to know about various subspecies, subgroups, nationalities, ethnicities, etc. In other words?? It's lazy writing to just do it with humans.

Now we do have the Ardat-Yakshi which would have uppercased letters, that's about all we have. I don't entirely want to count purebloods because that's considered an insult. In fact, I would think that using the term pureblood would probably be similar to saying the N-word. It's one thing if one pure blood says it to another pure blood because they've earned the right to but if anyone else says it then it's uncalled for. But that's just my own little headcanon at this point, I guess.

With all of that being said ... has anyone else thought about any of these or do I just think too much??

[hubblebubblehub]

A large and messy rant about mha

the most frustrating part of mha and it's laughable ending it how horikoshi presented such an interesting and nuanced society and then.... took the most cop out basic shonen ending.

What initially made me like mha is how they showed how hero society failed people, aptly through the league of villains. Spinner had a mutant quirk that caused him to be the target of discrimination in more backwater settings. This was expanded upon with tentacole guy where he said in rural areas people will literally try to do ethnic cleansing.

Toga had a quirk that was deemed 'not normal' and underwent 'quirk counselling' which only suppressed her quirk and didn't solve anything. And yet at the end, a bunch of the UA heroes, uraraka, momo, tsuyu and iida are now doing a 'quirk counselling' expansion project??? The fuck is the 'quirk counselling' they're advocating for??

Twice was also a prime example of how hero society failed him. Heroes failed to save his parents, making him an orphan. Nobody helped him when he lost his job. He turned to a life of crime to survive not only with being homeless and living a life of poverty, but being lonely too. He literally had a mental illness resulting from the trauma of his quirk and barely got treatment for it.

Mha honestly suffers from exploring and adequately dealing with the psychology of its characters. To be honest, I'm not 100% surprised because the author is some obvious sexist who really is there for the action and the shonen, which is a real danger shame. I think it would have been so interesting to end on a note of despair because the ending only proved Stain's message - there are only fake heroes.

You're telling me that Bakugo, who only cared about being a winner, became a hero? He is literally the epitome of a guy who should NOT be a hero! He doesn't give a fuck about saving lives and being compassionate unless it would boost his ratings and make him the top hero. I'm literally still not convinced of his redemption because even though he apologised to Deku he still is what is wrong with hero society - people who are born with strong quirks and just want to he a hero to fuel their ego.

Also....what the fuck was the point of the Todoroki family. I'm still mad Rei didn't just divorce Enji and he kind of got a cop out ending 'ill just atone for the rest of my life' my man you need to go to JAIL

What the fuck is the point of having a society where heroes have too much time on their hands? We literally just saw what that was like at the beginning of the series and how much damage it did to people who didn't fit the mould.

Tldr this ending was shit bc I just don't understand how such an interesting world and society just falls back on shitty shonen tropes

[pseudowho]

wowwww youre part scottish and scandinavian!! i am too along with irish!! i dont know much of my heritage since i grew up in america not hearing about it but my dads side is scottish and my moms side is irish! but theres also some german and scandinavian mixed in there too!

I'll be honest, the only reason I mentioned my ethnicity is because I was directly asked.

In the UK, people don't tend to identify as all the little patchwork origins of their ancestors, recent and less recent, like people from the US seem to.

For instance, people who were born and raised in America who say "I'm Scottish and Irish!" make the Brits go ???

In this same way, most people of varying ethnic backgrounds in the UK, would say "I'm British", and everyone goes "yeah, we know. Your point?"

People in the UK are more likely to say "oh, I'm British" and if pressed, say "my parents/grandparents are from Bangladesh/Scotland/Vietnam/Azerbaijan/etc".

In short: most people from the UK do sometimes find other cultures' hyperfocus on ethnic heritage strange or laughable.

We're not rejecting anyone's ethnic heritage. More like...people don't see it as as important? Not in the celebrating it way. We're all good with celebration. Just...yeah. Hope that makes sense.

Love,

-- Haitch xxx

[goodbyeapathy8]

Departure letter

As mentioned in this post, that outlines why I needed to let this be my last message in the Kindergarten Mafia Discord server... here is the Scathing Letter™. ------------------------

It is time for me to go. 

I absolutely loathe having to do a departure announcement because this is not an airport and I’m sure not a lot of people care. 

But as someone who has spent 10+ years of their life actively decolonizing and liberating my viewpoints, it would be absolutely remiss for me to not leave final remarks here expressing my utter disappointment and feelings of not being safe in this space. Not just as POC but someone chronically ill and autistic. Y’all have not made it kind for someone who has any sort of marginalized identity, as evidenced by the public dogpiling in this thread as well as the now deleted messages in clarifications.

I’m not going to address the majority of the drama except for what started it all : someone refusing a Native person’s (well-deserved) call out for a culturally appropriative phrase. 

It is devastatingly clear to me that a large portion of folks in this server have a poorly curated personal life extremely lacking in diversity. 

The defensiveness and elitism (really? Dictionary definitions?). Refusal to actively listen and instead attack others about lacking critical thinking. Self-claimed expertise. I could go on. 

So I revise what I had posted previously. Everyone is a little racist and this server is full of white supremacy tenets. 

https://rrapp.hks.harvard.edu/the-culture-of-white-supremacy-in-organizations/

This is my last attempt at educating some of you, which will go poorly, I’m sure. 

I spent an inordinate amount of time/energy/spoons to provide coherent context the last time but to find the entire thread deleted with no respect for the effort I spent there, has been one of the final straws. 

Frequently mentioning your volunteer status is frankly laughable. I have volunteered for quite a few places, including mutual aid organizations, and across multiple timezones and never have I seen so many excuses to say that y’all do not care about POC. (1/2)

I don’t care how old anyone is, what their job IRL is, what works you’ve posted with how many kudos, etc. I *do* care about the fact that multiple people, when speaking up, are treated with callousness and hurtfulness. That is a larger indication of your mental age and capacity than any other words you can type. 

That I felt safe enough to be so vulnerable in this space for a while was an illusion. There are continued indicators that POC words are ignored, especially calling out that I know both Jynx and William have requested their labor be deleted in the server but have not been. 

Last, but not least, I’m sure people will read this and think oh it’s Phoenix banding together with their friends. I say this with as much passion I can muster : I would have the same amount of disdain for the actions seen in this server without any personal friendship ties and emotions. That is how the social justice aspect of my autism works. 

You all have so much work to do when it comes to respecting other human beings that have different experiences than you. If I weren’t so consumed with the feelings of my actual divorce, recent termination, and the continued trauma of world events like that in Falasteen, I’d feel bad for you. 

As it stands, I believe my energy is precious and I simply cannot spare any more in spaces where I (and others) am not welcome or given respect to. Let it be noted that I’ve actually gone viral on social media before and I still have not left THOSE spaces and yet am choosing to leave this one. The troll comments I received on Tiktok can be ignored because they are from complete strangers that I do not give a single fuck about. The ones here, purportedly from those who claim it’s “safe”, are even more insidious in nature. 

Whatever race or ethnicity you are, to take people who have shown you their vulnerabilities and turn around to show your entire behinds in the least sexiest way ever, is not a good look. Ever. 

Leave the ass scenes to KinnPorsche. 

[myriadeyed]

See the thing about all the misanthropy stuff is. I've always related to computers, monsters and aliens more than human characters in sci-fi stories. But specifically i've always related to computers, monsters and aliens who like and love humans. Who admire humans and who have hope for them and who take inspiration from them.

Sci-fi likes to do a certain trope a lot where they have the nonhuman robot/computer or alien or Etc. character hate humans, find them repulsive or pathetic or crude or etc. etc. I'm not even talking about stories where nonhuman characters lash out in response to mistreatment by humans. I won't lie and say i never relate to those characters too. Because i do, because i get it. But ones where they look down on humans for being human? Robots or AI who find humans laughable because they can't do things as quickly or because they bleed when they're hurt. Aliens, somehow always overly logical geniuses, who patronize human characters for not being an "advanced society" or for being prone to frivolous emotions. Werewolves who feel condescending disgust at humans simply because they aren't as physically strong; vampires or elves smugly laughing at the pitiful lifespan; dare I even start on tropes of angels and demons.

At the point you feel superior for the sole reason that they are human and you aren't— why is this better, how is this radical? These tropes involve the same feelings that a lot of humans have toward other beings, projected ideas of how every sapient thing would probably feel if they were in some way physically or intellectually superior... feelings about the very idea of superiority and inferiority that have been used to hurt me, in actual real life, when my disabilities or ethnicity or sexuality designate me inferior. I am not going to feel "superior" to anybody after growing up as a queer autistic Jew—and the Jewish part of all this is essential here, I think, considering everybody reading this is probably queer and autistic—knowing that superior and inferior are not things that even exist, especially when applied to people. They can't be and shouldn't be.

IDK where i'm going with this. You can feel whichever way you want. I'd rather misanthropy be rampant in the community than for everybody to feel like they're required to have or voice some sort of saccharine optimist-approved hopepunk "faith in humanity." G-d knows i'm not an optimist, let alone faithful. This is all just stream of consciousness now but i guess i'm saying in a way not only do I relate to fictional nonhumans who care about humanity, that's just kind of what I literally am. I'm not human and i admire humans for what they are. Not just that. I recognize what they are; a completely neutral type of being without inherent moral or ontological significance, just like everything else. I don't think i would go as far as to wish I was human like narratives for these characters often do, but I just can't vibe with misanthropy. Humans started naming all the animals they saw. Humans came up with music and tea and made bananas really good. Humans wrote down all the things that happened to them so the future could know about it. Humans wrote stories where computers and animals and aliens are their friends just so they could feel less alone. How in the universe could you ever decline the offer?

[robotnik-mun]

And since I am in a particular Zim-tastic mood, and I'm probably never going to use this for anything anyway, I'mma share with you... my theories/headcanon for why Irkens are the way they are, as well as the TRUE purpose of the Invaders.

More under the 'Read More' because this is gonna be a long one!

Anyway... our story begins a long time ago, in a planet far, far away. This planet is largely dry and rocky world with sparse vegetation, which the locals call 'Irk'.

And said locals? Are a people known as the 'Noyng'.

(For those of you not in the know- during Invader Zim's development, the Irkens were originally known as the Noyng!

Annoying. Irken. Gotta love how whatever the name, they’re basically being called a bunch of irritating little shits, heh.)

Anyway, back to the Noyng!

The Noyng are a diminutive, large-eyed species of what could best be described as pseudo-insects, though they defy any categorization that would be recognized on Earth. The Noyng first evolved within the maze-like tunnels that naturally developed under the surface of Irk, until eventually the Noyng emerged from said caverns to spread out on the surface, where they subsequently multiplied and thrived as they evolved.

As a species, the Noyng weren't all that different from humans- they were divided into multiple cultures with unique ethnicities and languages, had families, nation-states, religions, etc. For thousands of years the Noyng progressed as you might expect any species would, harnessing fire and then developming metal and gunpowder and the like, eventually reaching the stage when they could begin serious space exploration. All-in-all, very standard stuff on the cosmic scene.

Then, one day, something Irk-shattering happened- the PAK was invented.

The original Paks were in fact mechanical backpacks that were worn by the Noyng, with the earliest having cumbersome metal headbands connected to the PAK itself to act as mental interface, before the improvements to the technology eliminated the need for this. The PAK was originally a tool, and a very handy tool for any Noyng to have given the sheer amount of things it could do. Within a generation, Paks were so standardized that the thought of a Noyng NOT having a Pak was laughable.

Then, someone got a brilliant idea- given how useful the Paks were, why ever take them off? Why not simply graft them onto a Noyng body so that the aforementioned Noyng would never be inconvenienced by having to take it on and off, over and over. At first, this was simply an individual choice- some Noyng went for it, others didn't. As time went on though, the Noyng who got the Paks grafted grew more and more numerous, and Noyng were being subjected to having the Paks at younger and younger ages.

It is the latter practice that starts to cause controversy. The Noyng nations become split between those who feel the Pak should simply remain a tool, and those who think it should be a literal part of the Noyng. Eventually a conflict erupts, and the Pro-Cybernetics factions win, and essentially control the planet in the aftermath. Initially things are not so bad for the Un-Pak'd Noyng as they are allowed to still live as they choose... but in subsequent generations, this changes.

The cavaliar attitude of the Pro-Pak Noyng towards cybernetic augmentation leads them to consider other ways that they could improve the Noyng species, and that includes new, radical forms of government. One of the Noyng nations embarks on an ambitious new project- the creation of a new kind of Noyng, one designed for brain power and computation, further advanced through cybernetic grafting. These beings, essentially bio-mechanical computers, are eventually brought into being- The Control Brains, designed to figure out the problems of Noyng civilization and how to handle them.

The first Control Brain proves to be a massive success for its nation, leading to a more ordered and well run civilization. This leads the other Pro-Pak Irken Nations to begin building their own Control Brains, a veritible arms race ensuing to make bigger, better and more efficient Control Brains... and then, things officially hit the fan when the Control Brains, without their makers knowledge, begin to get into contact with one another. Though each Control Brain is programmed to serve its own nation, the Control Brains have a lot of leeway when it comes to interpreting how to do that... and eventually, the Control Brains conclude that the only logical thing for them to do is to MERGE the nations of Irk into one.

One world. One goal. One people.

A conspiracy is hatched, and over the course of centuries the Control Brains exert more and more control over the nations of Irk. The Noyng under their control begin to become more and more obsessed with altering themselves in order to be more 'efficient'- eventually leading them to phase out traditional means of reproduction in favor of artificial incubation and growth. Their influence spreads to those nations that initially rejected the Pak grafts, and those 'natural' Noyng who remain are increasingly discriminated against and disenfranchised.

Over the course of this plan, Irk begins to change drastically as it becomes more and more high tech and the Control Brains begin to exert more overt control. Individual governments are abolished, as are the religions of Irk. To satisfy Noyng need to belong to a higher cause, the state of Irk itself essentially becomes the secular religion of the planet. With the most widespread Nyong religion already honoring Irk itself as divine, this transition is easy. The planet becomes intertwined with the state- Irk is planetary government. The planetary government is Irk.

As they do this, the Noyng begin to insert an iron-clad form of hierarchy into the Noyng. For a civilization to thrive, there must be hierarchy, reason the Control Brains- those who command, those who serve. For hierarchy to function, there must be traits that are considered desireable, representatitive of why those who rule are worthy to rule. It does not matter what this trait is- for all intents and purposes, the Control Brains simply pull a quality out of a hat and decide to run with it. That quality? Height.

And thus the first Almighty Tallest is placed into power over the global government of Irk. A figurehead ruler, to whom all the Noyng can admire, aspire-to, and use as the focus of their worshipful devotion to the state. The Almighty Tallest is ultimately a figurehead ruler- though able to make and enact laws and given command over the forces of Irk, the Control Brains are the true authority. The Almighty Tallest is the face. The Control Brains are the brains.

In the final, horrible phase of the plan, the Control Brains then set the Noyng under their control to conquer the parts of the planet that don't already submit. To prevent division, Noyng cultures are eliminated and buried, and the non-compliant Noyng are either forcibly brought into the fold or exterminated outright. By the end of it, the Noyng are no more- in their place is the new, improved Irken race.

Irk is the state. The state is Irk. There are no nations. No cultures. Only Irkens. One world. One goal. One people. Thus is born the Irken Empire, the non-divine ‘God’ of the Irken people, and its prophet the Almighty Tallest.

The civilization that emerges from the ashes of the Noyng is a nightmare. It is the worst parts of Brave New World and 1984 put into a blender and pureed. There are no Irken civilians- every apparatus of the Irken state ultimate revolves around its military. Every Irken is a cog in a great and terrible machine, from the Almighty Tallest to the lowest of service drones. Even ventures such as fast food franchises are ultimately a branch of the Empire- there are no corporations or anything within the Irken Empire that can express any kind of independence from the government. Everything about the Empire is artificial in one way or the next, including the economy- there is no real need for money, but it is kept by the control brains as just one more thing to distract the Irkens and keep them compliant and under control. There must be those who rule and those who serve. There must be haves and have-nots. The system exists for no other reason than to perpetuate itself for all eternity. The Irken race will be unified either through perpetual conflict with the rest of creation, or through the final victory that will come when ALL of creation is Irk.

The Irkens themselves are vastly different from their Noyng forebears... they are streamlined and standardized, so to speak, and are engineered wholly to be grown in Smeeteries while being engineered for maximum compatability with a Pak. By the time of the present, even the sexes of the Irkens are ultimately just cosmetic, as all meaningful dimorphism that once existed within the Noyng is removed along with other 'redundancies'. A species born purely from tubes has no need for sex organs. The retention of these superficial differences is simply due to the nature of the Control Brains' programming requiring them to keep the Irkens as ‘Noyng’ under very strict definitions… and given the creativity of the Noyng, the day may come when even this ceases. With things going the way they are, there may come a day when the organic portion of an Irken is little more than a fleshy ball of redundant organs serving as little more than a wetware CPU for a wholly mechanical frame.

(Depending on how you interpret Zim's water allergy, it might also be such that Irkens are also EXTREMELY intolerant of pollutants due to the hyper anti-sceptic nature of their existence. Just as a human raised in a bubble never develops the immune system to fight off even minor illness, Irkens are so unused to even minor chemical exposure that they respond badly to direct pollutants, though the Pak mitigates things).

The newly minted Irken Empire thus surges outward and in all directions, conquering all in sight. While the Irkens are initially capable of co-operating and collaborating with other, alien cultures, this is ultimately just a long con on the part of the Control Brains. The famous partnership between the Vortians and the Irkens was probably meant only to last as long as the Vortians remained useful to the Irkens. Tallest Miyuki's freak accident and death were likely used as a pretext to justify the enslavement of the Vortians in Operation Impending Doom II, but the simple truth is that they signed their death warrants the moment they entered into a partnership with the Irkens.

The Irkens are not IN-Capable of co-existence with other species... but only when it is on their own terms. For most, that means subordination at best. Leeway might be granted to those that are deemed useful- the Hobos of Hobo-13 retain a good deal of relative independence, while the natives of the Conveyer Belt Planet have been incorporated as a labor force. Races that are either too stupid to be useful or are too dangerous to Irkens, on the other hand, are flat out eliminated. The Slaughtering Rat People of Blorch are one such example, being both violently aggressive and extremely dangerous to Irkens, and as such are unsuited for anything the Irkens might need. As far as we know, only the Planet Jackers exist on any kind of equal footing with the Irkens, if the treaty is indicative of anything.

By the present time, the Control Brains have things pretty firmly in hand. However, even they know that nothing is absolute, even their control over Irken civilization... there will always be Irkens who have the capacity to question things. And then of course there is the self-inflicted problem of the Irken Empire's over-engineered nature, namely that in order for an empire to thrive there need to be subjects with ambition, vision and the willpower to see those ambitions through... and the way the empire operates, those are in short supply, given that Irkens are quite literally engineered to be slaves to the machine.

But the Control Brains, ever logical and creative, figure out a way to kill two birds with one stone- the Invaders.

Invaders are a special class of Irken. They are Irkens who demonstrate the most independent thinking and the greatest capacity to work on their own without direct oversight, as well as possessing the imagination needed to blend in among aliens and infiltrate their societies while planning on ways to destroy them to make their eventual conquest easy.

In short? Invaders are Irkens who are most likely to exhibit the kind of free will that the Control Brains deem defective. The purpose of the Invaders is not simply to provide an unconventional military asset for the Empire, but to also keep track of and corral Irkens who could potentially start asking the wrong kind of questions about why the Empire works the way it does. In fairness, given the lifelong indoctrination every Irken undergoes, most Invaders don't go defective... but there is always a chance. And IF an Irken Invader begins to exhibit cultural contamination or starts asking the wrong kind of questions? Then there's a SIR unit, ready and waiting to take matters into its own hands and take care of the problem. Tragic thing really, when SIRs malfunction and kill their masters... simply TRAGIC.

And that's the story of the Irkens and the Invaders, and the terrible tragedy of the Noyng people.

[alatismeni-theitsa]

Not the American with Italian ancestry actually calling themselves Italian - then using that as a full blown basis for disrespecting an entire country’s history and mythology. 😭

I’m American, it’s my understanding that when Americans who are far removed from their ancestry in Europe claim to be directly from there are kind of a laughingstock over in Europe? Is there some truth to this? Like I have Irish ancestry and I’d never even imagine to tell an actual Irish person “woah I’m Irish too! How cool!” Let alone following that up with something like “it’s in my history as an Irish person to hate the British. I am immune from criticism.”

Oh yes, it's happened again! 😂

You are right, it's laughable to us and this is not only in Europe but in all other continents as well. The "Old World" in general doesn't place the same gravity on such old ancestry as the countries that are 90% immigrants (I mean except the original Americans, the First Nations/Natives).

And it's not that we don't recognize the history of families. It's totally fine if someone states "I have Italian ancestors/My ancestors came from Spain two centuries ago". We just believe that if a person isn't in contact with the culture, or they know just 1% of it, their DNA/blood whatever doesn't make them part of this nation.

You can always engage with any open culture across the world but to claim to speak for it because of a great-grandparent feels soo out of place. As I always say in this blog; blood =/= culture. Of course in many countries there's a great overlap between ancestry and culture but we don't create a rule out of it because in our vast history our borders and nations have shifted a lot. If blood = culture logic was true, then that would deny immigrants/refugees/other people around the world the chance to partake in any other culture apart from their own.

A few ethnic groups - mainly New World Native ones - do count blood quantum, but in the Old World that's rarely the case. It's in fact, racist, to equate blood with culture here. For Greeks specifically, NW Europeans and Americans were and are very prepared to claim we are not "actually Greeks" because our people have mixed with other nations throughout the years. (As if any nation in the world is "pure" in blood, and as if one has to be "pure in blood" to know the teachings of their culture....)

Following that logic, do you know how many countries which I know very little about I can claim as my own because of great-grandparent ancestry? ooooo 😂

[punisheddonjuan]

Not to be a guy who asks "are the zionists okay" but I scrolled through the blog of one who I used to know in irl and he's??? Reblogging from troll accounts that are disguising fucking blood libel as pro-Zionist between actual legitimate Zionist posts completely uncritically?????

Honestly anon? No I don't think that they are okay. The longer this drags on and the more that the images and videos from out of Gaza (or the West Bank for that matter) run completely counter to the U.S./Israeli propaganda narrative, the greater the cognitive dissonance that is necessary to claim the usual liberal Zionist talking points like "Israel is only acting in self-defense" (then why have they killed hundreds in the West Bank where Hamas is not in power), that "things would be better if the Palestinians just embraced non-violence" (they have on multiple occasions, the Israelis keep fucking killing them), or how the "IDF is the most moral army in the world" (then why is there mass looting of Palestinian homes by IDF soldiers). The collapse of these narratives has been so swift and so complete with every new things we learn about what happened on October 7th and afterwards that I think it's really short-circuited a few people's brains. There's been the revelation that many civilian deaths were the result of IDF following orders to institute the Hannibal directive, the forty beheaded babies story being a lie dreamt up by a fanatic, to the collapse of the NYT story on mass rapes (turns out the lead journalist was former Israeli intelligence), the story that Al-Shifa Hospital was some sort of terrorist base, and the lie which has had the most consequence: that UNRWA workers were directly involved in Oct. 7th the evidence for which is so flimsy as to be laughable if the consequences hadn't been so dire.

The speed at which these narratives have collapsed and how quickly Israel has run through any goodwill following Oct. 7th is honestly astounding. It took the Americans around two years give-or-take following 9/11 to exhaust the world's goodwill, Israel managed to speed-run this in less than two months. When boomer left-libs like my parents are starting to say things like "I don't know what's wrong with the Israelis" that's a new thing. I'm a little older than many of my followers so I remember things like the 2006 Lebanon War and watching it thinking "this seems excessive, what aren't they telling us?" It took years before the existence of the Dahiya Doctrine became known. And the images from Operation Cast Lead in 2008 (the conflict which was impetus for me to really dig into researching the conflict) weren't coming this fast or this graphic. This has got to do numbers on your psyche if you're a typically "progressive" person but also supporting the Israeli cause. It's like that Eli Valley cartoon riffing on the Incredible Hulk. I think the way some of them are coping is by telling bigger and bigger lies, becoming more extreme, retreating into more closed off bubbles. It's fear, fear of being wrong.

If you ever want to read some truly delusional posts I recommend checking out the "jumblr" tag (there are also some very brave and very intelligent anti-Zionist Jews also posting in that tag who have my admiration and respect for fighting the good fight, I've followed several of them in the past weeks) where you can find Zionists making such convincing arguments as "what Israel is doing to the Palestinians isn't genocide because a genocide requires intent and incitement, and Israel hasn't expressed intent, besides the word genocide has lost all meaning anyway because of leftist anti-Semitism, it's really more like ethnic cleansing which can be voluntary". An assertion contradicted by the words and actions of Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant, senior Israeli military officials, members of the Knesset including the deputy speaker, Minister for National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, an open Kahanist, the Hebrew language media, Israeli civilians, Israeli artists, active duty personnel in the IDF, Mossad run Telegram channels, President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They also like bringing up the existence of Arab Israeli citizens "oh they have equal rights!" (an easily disprovable claim) as a shield against the charge of genocide. It gets ugly too, I came across a post the other day of some American Zionist claiming that Hind Rajab could not possibly have been killed by the IDF because there would be no benefit in it to them, she must have been killed by Hamas who then blamed it on the IDF.

And because it's Tumblr it's all so frequently delivered in either that cutesy and twee cry bully tone of "oooh but I'm just a small little guy =uwu= and everyone is being mean to me!" or in the voice of the condescending gifted child "I am much smarter than you and this is why". It's frequently paired with a picrew avatar and queer identity flag. A few of them have "leftist" or "BLM" or "antifa" in their bio without a whiff of self awareness (no guesses as to the political ideology undergirding one of the groups from which the ruling Likud party claims descent). I'm not as hostile to identity politics as some leftists are, I think they can be a valuable tool to agitate for the needs of specific groups, but I can't help but see it as a damning indictment of the shallowness of the sort of "progressive" identity politics popular on here. It was developing a politics rooted in material analysis that lead me into criticism of Israel and if you don't have that, well, shallow identity politics aren't going to save you from being on the wrong side of history.

[revoevokukil]

What's ur pov on the burning of birka and why this single elf burned the whole village after getting rejection from a single human women.At last I didn't know that any male elves find human women pretty enough for dating.

Ah, but it's a bit of question mark whether male elves are, indeed, averse to human women, isn't it? The incredibly high rate of mixing between Aen Seidhe and humans by the 1200s would not hold up otherwise.

I believe we hear about this topic for the first time in the Last Wish. In Geralt's view, pure-blooded elves are not known for admiring human women for their beauty; i.e. the reader is led to infer that male elves don't find human women attractive enough to have sex with, much less to pursue a romantic relationship with.

But Geralt is already, how to put it, compromised. He has met Yennefer. He is wont to wishful thinking, including dismissing any signals of Chireadan harbouring romantic feelings toward Yen. Geralt is likely looking for rationalisations to deny this possibility (besides, he likes Chireadan). Alas, Chireadan - a male elf - is very much infatuated with Yennefer of Vengeberg - a human sorceress.

Okay, but doesn't Yennefer have elven ancestry? Probably.

I wouldn't put too much faith in the words of any man who pulls any variation of the "tainted womb" argument with the woman they slept with, but then again this is the Witcher & I am partial to an elf who exploded the cousin of that line of argumentation onto the level of foreign and domestic policy, so whatever. It's always the women who are at fault anyway, am I right? Yennefer is born a hunchback; an elven changeling if there ever was one to dear pa, Janka. And it's only because of her vague and distant elven ancestry (and sorceresses' enchantments) that Chireadan could be taken with Yen in the first place, surely. What would that make elven males then? Bloodhounds? Because it's the elven women, who were blood traitors, surely, not elven men.

Ah. Well.

'Unbridled lust never leaves you, sex totally governs you; it’s a drive more powerful even than the survival instinct. To die? Why not, if one can fuck around beforehand. That is your entire philosophy.’ Geralt didn’t interrupt or comment, although he felt a strong desire to. ‘And what suddenly happens?’ Avallac’h continued. ‘Elves, bored by she-elves, court the always-willing human females. Bored she-elves give themselves, out of perverse curiosity, to human males, always full of vigour and verve.' - Avallac'h Tower of the Swallow

Avallac'h is pretty unambiguous - humans are easy and elves are ever so often looking for something that would keep them from turning into their precious Amell marble statues.

The entire discourse is an ethnic conflict classic in how it treats women's bodies, to be honest, but that's a longer story; I recently wrote about the political underpinnings of elven sexual relations. The realism of Sapkowski's fantastical races desires is sufficiently proven though, I think, in the very nature of the problems they are made to face. And not only long-lived elven women crave novelty (or intensity of emotion), and not only elven women should get the blame for it.

(Obvs blame game here is inherently fucked up in the first place, and a symptom.)

Male elves are not somehow biologically coded not to desire human women. Their contribution to the shared human-elf gene pool had to be pretty significant for it to have become hard at present day to find any human who would not have a dash of Seidhe Ichaer in their veins. In fact, the view Geralt parrots in the 1200s - when the Aen Seidhe have become a de facto ethnic minority - is probably more reflective of elven nationalist views adopted AFTER the experiment with coexistence and cooperation took a turn for the usual - ideological poisoning and resurgence of Them vs Us, persecution, cleansing & genocide.

Okay, sure. But what if it's just sex then? Romance is still laughable. Because did you read Auberon's & Ciri's interactions??? I did. One too many times, trust me.

But I don't think Aen Elle give definite proof. The reasons for all three rejecting Ciri 'the woman' on various levels - even while trying to get her with child as a matter of course - are pretty complex; not to forget that Ciri is not a grown woman yet and that this is - overall - her nightmarish becoming-of-age story, the loss of innocence, etc.

(For Auberon, romance is likely out of the question since Ciri's eyes remind him of his dead daughter - Lara - but sex might be achievable due to equal resemblance to Shiadhal, Lara's mother; and ends justify the means. There is also the deep-seated hatred for humanity as a whole, for humans cost Auberon his daughter's life & his ambitions which were installed within that life.

For Avallac'h, romantic notions are very much present in his idealization of the Swallow, Lara's daughter, but at the time Ciri offers herself to him, sex is still unacceptable; the humiliation too evident, the anger too deeply entrenched in ennobled suffering (even against the temptation of taking petty revenge), and the threat ever-present - of having the source of the projection of his romantic notions be over-written and erased in the course of the act, resulting in total loss of control over the narrative-Lara and narrative-Crevan Avallac'h has never let go of in his thoughts and forever-loving heart; like a true necromancer.

For Eredin, the notion of a storybook-worthy romance is veilled in a kind of wistful melancholy, irony, and indifference; because ultimately the notion is Ciri's projection, which he sees through and uses to further the elves' ends. They are both tools in the greater scheme of things - which orders them about - and while sex is not unacceptable, it is just unnecessary given the parts they presently have to play and, insofar, remains uninteresting. Ciri is Death and Eredin a corpse; a corpse can create nothing but itself through communion with Death. And that's not in the Plan of things.)

Elves are, by nature, a "not so rational" species; soundbite courtesy of Ida Emean. "Neither our race nor our power draws its strength from rationality. In spite of that it has endured for tens of thousands of years." Fey folk can be famously mercurial and temperamental, and, as we have learned, value beauty, novelty, and memory of life's particularity.

Bringing us to what happened at Birka, or the later Flaming Jealousy.

First of all - an elven farmer. Elves don't farm. So you have a mature elf who has tried to integrate, or a young elf who has been born into the current world order where elves are either giving up or losing their culture, magic (connected to land, which integrates them), and position in the society. Definitely not elven elite here, and we have already seen what elven elite can get involved in. However, upbringing matters in regulating expressed behaviour and in this instance we probably have an elf who is trying to go with the flow despite the difficulties; indeed, why not even entertain him a supporter of the co-existence and co-operation - khm, commingling, khm - ideals? In fact, would not pursuing a miller's daughter advance our elven farmer in the new social structure better than remaining isolationist along with his fellow elves? To then have this denied to you in the aforedescribed fashion is like the entire human society spitting in your face.

Secondly, nobody likes having their feelings mocked, especially if said feelings are deep and true.

Thirdly, it is said the elf exploded somewhat untypically for his race. That's what humans think due to elven haughtiness. Yet, if we take another explosion - Avallac'h at Ciri - then I cannot help but wonder how "untypical" it really was; if deeply personal matters are concerned (matters which give way for foundational memories in a long-lived species)? Especially given that jealousy and dramatic outcomes accompanied the Crevan-Lara-Cregennan triangle as well, and who knows how blind was Crevan's love or what was Lara's attitude to everything.

There is also the option that the story blames the miller's daughter. A culprit is needed, after all; a village was burned down! It better be that the cause for such tragedy is sufficiently dramatic and understandably horrible. A woman who slept around - with her relatives even! - just to spite an elf could serve as a solid wicked witch; co-existence advocates can blame her, while humans can blame the hotheaded, unreliable elf. Win-win. Given that we are given this information in Tower of the Swallow - the same book that provides a scene where Avallac'h says something eerily similar in effect about Lara's choices and their tragic consequences - the possibility of historical revisionism remains.

So I think the burning down of Birka can serve as great insight into how deeply and strongly elves - those cool and distant-seeming creatures - can feel, and how partial they can become once they have made their mind up about something or someone, especially if spurred on by a strong emotion. (Consider how elves, who value life inherently, genocided and subjected humans to servitude in their new homeworld; how it all could have happened after Lara's death or as a result of developments between Aen Seidhe and humanity.) But I also think it can show us how unexpectedly drastic can be the results of male jealousy, and how retroactively told stories can always find a reason and an ultimate culprit.

Personal feelings drive most of the Witcher's tragedy - beneath all the great Plans and machinations - and so, too, here.