#he’s ALWAYS BEEN AN ALLY

[blurglesmurfklaine]

hmmmm buddie fic based on that Reddit post of that guy worried he’s being homophobic to his roommate when he actually just has a crush on his is that anything?

[laughingcatwrites]

As a reminder that good exists out there, a coworker recently confessed to me that he found out his child is questioning their identity (kid's gender redacted for this post). The kid is keeping it from him, so he can't say anything to them or show that he knows, but he's doing his best to get mentally prepared and educated so that he'll be ready whenever his kid does feel comfortable enough come to him.

For context, this guy is a big, bulky middle aged dude who loves sports and typical outdoor "manly" activities. As his coworker and friend, I know he's a kind and sweet teddy bear of a person, but his kid probably views him as a stern, authoritarian figure, the way most teenagers view their parents. His family lives in a conservative area, so I'm sure between that, their dad's looks and interests, and the fact that their dad is a Figure of Authority, the kid is worried that they won't be accepted.

But you know what? When he found out about his kid, the first thing he did was reach out to his closest queer friend and ask for resources for parents of questioning children. His biggest fears are that his kid will be bullied or discriminated against and won't feel comfortable enough to be themself. His second action was to find himself a mentor in another parent who went the same situation (kid coming out in a conservative town). The other person is preparing him for some of the struggles his kid may face and the fights he may need to take on as a parent to make sure his kid is safe and treated well.

Something I want to emphasize for people focused on language as the primary method of allyship is that when we spoke, he used some outdated terms and thoughts about gender and sexuality. That does not make him bad. These were the terms and thinking used about questioning teenagers when he was growing up and he never needed to learn more current ones. But now that he does have that need, he's throwing himself in head first because that's his kid and he's darn well going to make sure that his kid feels welcomed and has a safe place to be themselves even if they never come out to him.

[tubbytarchia]

I swear to god 99% of people watching WL forgot who won SL. Put some respect on his name

[holy--milk]

so here's a fun little PIDW AU idea.

after finally dying at the ripe old age of 200+, former demon emperor LBG wakes up in the body of his 12 year old self, on the day where he joined the cang qiong mountain sect in his previous life. he's understandably angry and bitter about having to face the misery of his youth all over again, but ultimately decides to take advantage of this unexpected second chance at life and be less of a downtrodden naive little lamb this time around.

the disciple selection goes just the way it did in his first life (LBG ends up going to the CQM sect again because, well, it's not like he can think of a better option at this point in his life), but when LBG meets SQQ in person for the "first" time and mentally prepares himself to be doused in tea once again, nothing happens. SQQ just drinks the tea he brewed and orders MF to show him around and get him settled before leaving.

and then the expected bullying never comes. his seniors (with the exception of NYY) may not be the friendliest bunch but they mostly leave him alone, and while the SQQ of this new life is still cold and distant, he isn't constantly looking for excuses to punish his most junior disciple. and whenever LBG acts out to purposefully test him, SQQ's punishments seem to be unexpectedly lenient.

which leads to LBG having a full-blown crisis. it took him so much time and mental effort in his first life to come to accept that it was the world around him that was inherently evil and cruel, and not him that was inherently unlikeable and unloveable, and now his new life turned all that upside down? apparently, it was indeed him that's been the problem this whole time, and all it took for other people to be just a bit nicer to him was changing his behaviour (even though he's not quite sure what exactly led to this monumental change).

unbeknownst to him, the SQQ of this new life also transmigrated into his younger fully intact body on the same day that LBG did. and he's working on salvaging his reputation in the cultivation world in order to be able to expose LBH's demonic heritage in the future.

[winepresswrath]

[shedontlovehuhself]

Every now and then I remember this.

[decepti-geek]

tbh an important part of my take on the 'don't be like Sentinel' question is that hours earlier D16 had very decidedly assumed leadership of the High Guard, after which any attempt at resolving his very understandable personal trauma via murder was also, on a wider affects-everyone/your-new-power-means-something scale, inherently going to count as a military coup.

yknow. the thing Sentinel did to assume power/hand it over to the quintessons in the first place

[morsking]

[the-flowercrown-prince]

but man. man. i can't stop thinking about joel

if joel had taken bdubs out, if he had gone for it after accidentally shooting him, he would've easily won against scott. the only reason scott was able to kill him is the hearts he got from killing bdubs

and isn't that cruel? isn't that twisted?

of course, the idea hadn't even gone through his head

because it's joel

[lord-squiggletits]

Thinking about IDW Optimus again and the fandom's aversion to even acknowledging he exists bc he's a cop or whatever and like. Most of the time people literally just replace him in fic with some white bread knockoff archivist/librarian, not even bothering to keep in IDW OP's personality (which just bolsters my theory that the problem isn't him being a cop the problem is that he's too multifaceted but I digress).

And it's annoying because you could totally write IDW Optimus as not a cop while still keeping his canon personality. You just have to realize that the reason IDW OP became a cop in the first place is because his formative experiences when he was young shaped him to basically have two priorities: 1. To help people and 2. To do it by being on the ground actively doing something about the bad things happening to people.

IDW OP would not be a fucking librarian or archivist because even though those are noble pursuits that can help people and change the world, and Optimus is educated/smart enough for the profession, he wouldn't be satisfied just teaching people or spreading information about activism or social-historical studies or whatever. He's a mech of action: he needs to be doing things right now, in front of him, to people he sees/interacts with in his own eyes, improving society with concrete actions rather than indirect action or abstract inspiration.

So basically the alternate job ideas I can think of for IDW Optimus are something like being a firefighter (or any first responder really) or even whatever the equivalent would be to international charity organizations, those ones that send volunteers across the world to do stuff like build housing/infrastructure or distribute food or whatnot. I mean I can't imagine that the equivalents to these things would be exactly the same in IDW Cybertron, so you'd have to get a little creative with it, but these are just some ideas of jobs that would fit IDW Optimus' personality while still filling the niche of "not a cop" for people who are just that opposed to it.

Though I think the revulsion against coptimus is annoying in general tbh because IDW is already a continuity that rejects the idea of easily defined good/evil people or groups. It feels like people really want Optimus to be a good person in a very sanitized and academically approved way, so he has to be nice and squeaky clean but also like, a perfect leftist who knows theory and holds the most progressive opinions on every single issue....

There is no room for the idea that good people join bad institutions, there's no room for the idea that the reason people think cops are good guys who help people is bc of the government propaganda everything is saturated with. Hell there's even later issues of the Optimus Prime series by John Barber where Optimus like, MULTIPLE FUCKING TIMES, is shown in flashbacks grappling with the fact that he as a cop/Zeta's regime that he works for might not actually be improving society like they say they are, and dealing with the fact that he feels more like a lesser evil compared to the Decepticons (perhaps not "lesser" at all).

It's like there's this idea in fandom of like, fictional media and opinions on media having to strictly adhere to progressive ideals at all times. So people just go "cops bad, this character is a cop, therefore they suck" without being willing to engage with the idea of like. IDW OP is born wanting to fight injustice and protect people -> a good way to protect people is to fight the people who are hurting them and committing crimes -> surely following the law is a reliable moral code to guide him in this -> becomes a cop because he's been indoctrinated into a society (much like our own) where he was told that the state/the law exist to protect the people and being a cop means you get to fight bad guys that hurt people. There's really so many interesting concepts there that could be (and CANONICALLY IS) explored about how good, well-intentioned people can be led to harmful actions simply because they have been fed the idea that the things they're doing are good/helpful/noble. Which is especially important for a character like Optimus, I think, who has a cultural icon status as The Irrefutable and Perfect Good, so it's really important actually to use IDW Optimus as an example of how even the most noble people you know have held problematic beliefs or done bad things at some point in their life. You know, because no one is born perfect and ideologically pure, and in fact society is constructed in exactly a manner to make people drink the kool-aid and believe that the systems designed to hurt them/others are just a normal, if flawed, society.

I mean the writing in IDW literally has Optimus deal directly and indirectly with the harm he's done as a cop and how people don't/didn't trust him because of that. I don't know what the fuck else this fandom wants if the source material literally saying "OP realizes that cops suck and he hurt people and earned their disdain by doing the things he did" doesn't stop them from going EW cop bastard sucks and is the worst Optimus. Like the narrative barely stops short of outright saying ACAB and Optimus himself would agree with this sentiment.

At that point, the collective fandom beef with IDW OP isn't because he's a cop and the narrative didn't do enough to condemn that. The problem is literally just that people don't read and don't care

TLDR: Consider the fact that good people can do bad things sometimes especially when living from birth in a corrupt society that thoroughly disguises its vices/oppressive structures as completely normal parts of existence

[cheezyharu]

Spitefully redesigned Pupa in a single day cause I can do that now I guess.

[danwhobrowses]

So Callowmoores am I alone in thinking it was cute that Fearne helped carry Ashton to the city? Like there's the parallel also with Ashton carrying her into the Bloody Bridge as well

[freakinator]

just realized the appeal of clownwook to me is that it really just feels like that thing where if youve known someone for long enough you can just beat the shit out of each other one moment (most moments) and then hang out to eat ice cream together the next (precious few but forever treasured)

[weedle-testaburger]

not to post about heartstopper again but tao is one of the most characters ever. it's like alice oseman said 'right so i've got this one guy who's cishet so as compensation i'm gonna make him just the best'

[the-wayside]

Hearing that Mew and Tul are engaged is so lovely. They seem so happy together so may that continue forever for them.

I love seeing us win.

[primordial0riginator]

Me, the only Ares and Nyx shipper on planet earth: 😏