#honestly i'm not sure if i SHOULD but listen.

[postcardsfromheapside]

No. I wasn't missing the point of most criticism. Literally, I saw post after post of people saying they wished the characters could be mean to each other. Some posts were more specific, like "I don't like Taash," (and I'm sure you can imagine what THAT'S about) and some were more ambigious but cited DA2 and how everyone was bitchy toward each other.

I honestly don't care where you work and what you do, because hopefully most of us after the age of 30 have experienced an adult job where we have to be reasonable with our coworkers, even if we strongly disagree, or outright dislike them. I had the suspicion that most people who think that there is "no conflict," or "low conflict" or "bad writing" in this game haven't experienced this kind of setting in any capacity. What I'm now hearing is that you might have, but you didn't absorb any of the dialogue, or switch out your party to listen to banter, which is an essential function for picking up information in any DA game.

I walked around Arlathan with Lucanis and Harding, and they have a whole ongoing conversation in which she threatens him with one of her special arrows. And he agrees that if Spite should take him over, she should do something about it. Harding isn't frightened, because Harding isn't a pushover, but she's not taking any shit either. Did you walk around with just the two of them right after recruiting Lucanis? Did you frequently visit the rest of the companions so that you could see just how much Lucanis and Davrin *didn't* get along? Neve mentions what sounded like a knock-down drag out fight.

**Just because this isn't explicitly mentioned to you doesn't make it bad writing - it means you haven't had the time we had with Inquisition to play the game over and over and switch out your party so you can see everyone's interactions with each other. You will actually have to play the game multiple times and switch your party out a fair amount in order to see these interactions. Or wait for people to post them to tumblr. You can complain about how unfair this is, or remember that Inquisition has 10 years on this game, and it's been out for just shy of a month.**

Why in the absolute fuck would Davrin manufacture conflict between himself and someone he could easily conjecture isn't pro-slavery based on the fact that within five minutes he could find out she's from Dock Town, she's a private investigator working with the Shadow Dragons, and LITERALLY WHEN YOU GET ONTO THE DOCK WITH HIM, her first priority as she's running back to Minrathous is to say "if the dragon wrecks havoc, the Venatori will take over." Davrin isn't an idiot, he could pretty well surmise that she's not "pro slavery" with only the barest of interactions and Rook saying "yeah Neve's cool."

Why would Neve yell at you? Why is it bad writing for the writers to give Neve a personality you don't agree with, because you're uncomfortable with how she reacts? Neve's an adult who is used to working on her own and people not showing up for her - she says this MULTIPLE TIMES - it's actually a large arc of bonding with her, as a friend and a lover. She's not going to scream at you, she's so far past the point of being loud about disappointment, she's on the other side, for one, and for another, she does in fact understand that the entire North of Thedas is on fire and blighting Treviso is pretty fucking bad when it has no major defenses. Rook doesn't endlessly apologize. She came back after a short pause and while I didn't have her healing abilities after that, it didn't take long for me to boost my bond with her back up and feel like we were friends again.

This honestly feels like you're having a personal reaction that you need to examine, and it's not something to do with the writing, since the game mechanics and the dialogue don't actually bear out what you're putting down here.

All of the companions who have conflict initially have to figure out how to trust each other and it sometimes takes most of the game for them to do that. If you didn't spend the time listening to their banter as they work their way through it, that's not Bioware's problem. That's you. And...I don't want to have repeated conversations where I go into Emmrich's (my romance) room and "vent"? I didn't do that with Cullen. I didn't do that with Anders. Why would it suddenly be a thing here? But if you listen in to people's conversations, they do express dismay and doubt and fear about the various quests they've been on. Again, it feels like you didn't spend the time eavesdropping or taking people out and listening to banter.

I have no idea what you're talking about with flirting. I flirted with every companion at first even though I knew I was running for Emmrich, and all of them responded according to their personality. I romanced Cullen in Inquisition, and he was pretty quiet initially, until you get to Skyhold, and similarly, most of the companions here retain a certain reticence until the game progresses. But if you're looking for people who get flustered - Lace and Bellara absolutely do! And Emmrich isn't flustered, but he's taken aback a few times before he collects himself and flirts back - though whether you'd actually recognize it for flirting, I'm starting to wonder. The fact that you can't tell with Neve is actually making me tilt my head at the screen, and I say this as a self-confessed disaster who is very very bad at knowing someone is interested. Even I can tell what's going on in DA romances.

This is probably a lost cause, but I urge you to either spend time playing the game again, or watch someone else who really loves DA (and is Veilguard positive) play so that you can watch without being in the thick of it, and hopefully experience more dialogue and different choices.

No, I'm not done yet, I'm house sitting and she left me snacks and soda and not even god could keep me from venting my spleen at this point.

"I wish the companions were meaner to each other in this game, like in DA2."

While I think there's a larger argument to be made discussing the similarities between DA2 and Veilguard, I need everyone to get so close to me right now about a glaring difference:

DA2 involved a ragtag group of assholes with their own agendas coalescing around Hawke's personality or exchange of favors. There was no larger "goal," except maybe Varric's expedition - everything else is encountered as circumstance. You wend your way through your companions' stories while a city winds ever tighter into itself, a spring about to literally explode.

There's zero reason for these people to be nice to each other. They have no point in being around each other except Hawke. They can bitch at each other all they like.

Rook becomes Varric's second in command (I've seen one post say it's about 6 months before the events of the game) with an explicit purpose: find and stop Solas. Harding and Neve are recruited as experts in their respective fields for this particular goal. When it all goes to shit, Neve recruits another expert, Lucanis, to deal with the fallout, and Harding finds Davrin, *also* an expert in his field (monster hunting). When Rook has to make a particularly consequence heavy decision, two more are added to the crew: Emmrich (Fade expert) and Taash (dragon expert). All of these people are extremely competent, and know from the jump that they have one particular goal in mind.

They join ready to work together on Day 1 because if they don't, there's simply no other alternative. It's lights out. Even when they mistrust each other, the direness of the situation is not lost on them. Infighting serves no purpose. That's why the struggle is directed inward: clean up your own house, so we can move as a single unit.

Honestly the fact that what people took away from this game was "I wish my friends were meaner to each other" and not "wow, I wish we all worked together to keep evil dictators from taking over" is fucking mindblowing when I sit back and reread this.

[melverie]

Last post on the entire date ticket thing and then I will forever shut up about it, but I feel like most people arguing in favor of the price tag are just….missing the point on why people are so angry about the date ticket being $30

I think the one thing we can all agree on right from the get go is that everyone in the staff deserve to and should be compensated fairly for their work. And that obviously includes certain features and items having to cost actual money considering the game itself is free

But the thing is, that $30 price tag doesn't just exist in a vacuum

First off, we can all agree that charging something like $3 would have made the ticket sell far better, right? Several people have already pointed out that they can buy a week's worth of groceries with $30 and depending on how much you earn, the date ticket isn't exactly something anyone can just buy on a whim. Again, $3 would have been far more affordable for most people, and I'm sure many more people (myself included) would have been far more willing to spend $3 just to see what the date ticket is like, and maybe also buy the tickets of multiple other characters. But $30 for a single date ticket is a luxury a lot of people just cannot afford, or would rather put into something else. Even if they lowered the price, they'd surely break even and make profit with how many players there are

And judging by its contents, I think it's fair to say that the date itself is not worth $30. And I feel like Solmare themselves know this because why else would they have bundled it with 300 DP? The only reason is to justify this price tag because "look at how much DP we're getting with it tho!!" when that's not the point. It doesn't matter whether the DP are included, because there is a lack of choice here. We have other options to earn and buy DP, but we don't have a choice when it comes to the date ticket itself. Either you pay $30, or you miss out on a feature that many of us have wanted for a while now. And since it's the DP raising the price tag,what you are essentially paying for is 300 DP with a date ticket as your purchase bonus, even though it should be the other way round

And honestly? Considering the price, the only two times it would make sense to buy this bundle is if you were already considering buying DP anyway, or if you are financially well enough off that the current price doesn't matter to you. You won't convince most casual spenders, and you most definitely will not convince a f2p player to pay for this feature

The other thing is that we had no idea what the date ticket actually entailed because we weren't given any information on it. Thanks to people in the community buying and reviewing this feature for others we now know that the date consists of one phone call, a ~10 minute long, partially voiced date story-line and a Majolish background. Except, those are things that Solmare themselves should have told us right as they announced this feature, ESPECIALLY considering the price point. If you don't, you can't complain if people are accusing your company of trying to rip its player base off and of being greedier than the Avatar of Greed himself. But also, that's the thing!

We shouldn't have people in the fandom be the ones to go out of their way to give us basic info on new features, or to even explain certain business decisions in the first place. That's the company's job. Yes, certain explanations should be a given (such as microtransactions existing so that the staff can be paid the money they obviously deserve), but there are other things that should have been explained by Solmare themselves

Open communication with the player base is the key phrase here, and imo Solmare has been doing worse and worse on that front as of late, resulting in several unexplained choices that just seem questionable at best and scummy at worst, as well as a player base that grows more and more disgruntled by the day. And that frustration within the player base shows in the amount of people dropping the game, as well as in the amount of money it's making

People are willing to put their time and money into something they deem a good, quality product with a justified price considering the content. If your player base isn't putting in the money you are expecting, then maybe you should listen to their feedback and re-examine your product instead of overcharging a feature because "look at this thing you're getting extra that no one asked to be included in the bundle in the first place"

Literally part of the reason LaDS has grown to be so successful in such a short amount of time is because they keep making adjustments based on player feedback, even on some minor things. I mean they literally pushed out an update to correct the color of one of the character's tongue in the newest card because people were complaining, like hello!! Imagine Solmare listening to complains as minor as this

Anyway, whether intentional or not, this entire thing just feels scummy, and that's the problem. The choice we have is either "pay 30 bucks per character or miss out on this feature entirely", the price is artificially inflated with the inclusion of DP that we have other ways of getting, romance is slowly fazed out of the story only to now be put behind a heft paywall, we weren't told what we are even paying for exactly in the first place, and there has been a severe lack of proper communication from Solmare that have soured the relationship to the game's fanbase and, most importantly in this context, their customers

No, companies aren't our friends. Yes, they need to make money. Yes, they should pay their employees fairly. And no, we as consumers shouldn't expect nor are we entitled to everything about the game being free because again, the people working on this game deserve to get paid fairly for all the work they put into it

However, people are still allowed to be critical of a company and its decisions, especially when they feel like they are getting ripped off. The 300 DP might soften the blow, but that doesn't stop everything that has happened before from being a slap in the face. That's why people are pissed right now, and honestly it's been a long time coming

[socksracoon10]

Hii!! This is in response to you asking what charles and carlos both did in the vegas gp!

I'm just gonna be completely fully objective here, bc rlly they didn't do anything wrong.

What happened was, a series of radio msgs between the team and Carlos occurred, in which they told him they were going to stay on Plan A (one pit-stop I think) instead of Plan C (2 pit-stops). Carlos argued back, saying they should be pitting and how he wanted to pit right now/ next lap. They said no.

At this point, Lewis is pressuring Carlos, and Charles is behind Lewis. I'm pretty sure george had already pit his second time and was still leading. Max and lando had also pitted a second time.

Anyway, the team finally listen and tell Carlos to come into the pits. However, they mess up and weren't ready and then tell him to stay out. Obv, Carlos is mad now. No matter, they pit him in the next lap.

4 laps later (or 2 I can't exactly recall) they pit Charles. The team tells Carlos not to pressure Charles. The team tells Charles that Carlos won't overtake him. You see where this is heading, don't you.

Charles comes out PARALLEL to Carlos (I think the team thought he'd come out ahead). Carlos' tyres ate 4 laps old. They're heated up. They're faster. Charles has absolutely new, dead, cold tyres. Carlos doesn't pressure him. He simply drives around.

The real dram started after the race when we all saw Charles' radio😭 Honestly, this is just a team problem not a driver problem.

Alot of ppl are saying they would've gotten better results if carlos let Charles ahead— they really wouldn't have. There was no way the ferraris would've caught up to those mercs.

ANYWAYY, there's my most objective views. Maybe, I'm.missing a few things but I'm negl the race was honestly so boring to ACTUALLY watch, like now there's drama but literally nothing was happening apart from this😭

Thank you for this! Cuz this was what I saw during the race and what I thought happened!

I find it frustrating that people are blaming Carlos when it wasn’t Carlos’s fault at all, and I also find it frustrating that people think Charles’s meltdown was wrong. I keep saying this in every post but its clear as day that this was a ferrari problem not the drivers!

Mercedes was on a different level this weekend, they sure as hell were going to be 1-2, no doubt about that. And I get that Charles was trying to get p2 in the driver standings, but… 3-4 for constructors is literally phenomenal? I don’t see how Carlos isn’t a team player when this was the best outcome that could’ve happened. Besides his did better in qualifying anyway.

And I hate people mentioning old races like oh well Carlos moaned about this once… forget the past races, only focus on this one. Ugh, ferrari screwing over their drivers isn’t new but god, as someone who loves Carlos and Charles, I really hate seeing the fans tear each other apart.

Once again, thank you for the explanation!

[ramblingautisticman]

Something I've been thinking about I should probably go around and ask some people.

If you were in the Marvel universe and had a mutation. What would it be?

I mean, technically I'm pretty sure I have a mutation anyway because I'm ginger, though that really isn't that cool of a mutation in the Marvel universe when you have people with laser eyes and claws in their hands.

In the Marvel universe though, as much as I'd love to have something epic like fire powers or telekinesis, I honestly believe I'd have something that is kind of random but helpful in ways others wouldn't think off.

Something akin to being able to make everything silent in a certain area?

Now, your probably thinking "that's so random, why?", well my dear friend(s), because how amazing would that be for an autistic person who can't handle outside world noises??

I mean, sure, I could use it to confuse enemies, make them unable to communicate their next moves, help the X-Men sneak into battle, but I could also help people when they are having a panic attack, make sure little kids or animals don't get scared at loud noises, and make sure I don't get overstimulated in public places.

I would 100% make everyone learn sign language or finger spelling so everyone can communicate in the bubble, and also because it's a really handy skill anyway? And there has to be at least one deaf person at the school anyway, so imma imagine they are teaching that as a class already.

Can you imagine how good making a bubble that shuts out the outside world be with a whole ass mansion filled with PTSD riddled people who have nightmares? How much better it would be when the kids are getting rowdy or there is a fight? I would be sat there in silence just enjoying my day.

Plus, it isn't something I think alot of other people would think to have as a power? It wouldn't help me fight better, it wouldn't help me heal faster or be faster or anything like that, but I think it would be a strangley helpful ability to have.

I also like the idea of how interacting with certain people would be.

Like, Scott, Jean, Ororo and Charles all huddling into this tiny ass bubble I can make everytime Wade comes over. And yeah, I'm purposely making the bubble small because I would 100% hate that they don't like Wade's crazy stories.

Also, can I just say, Wade and Logan are definitely the uncles of the mansion, right? Like, all the kids are huddling around them when they show up, listens to Wade talk about random shit and does whatever Logan tells them too.

Logan is getting overwhelmed with noises because he can hear basically fucking everything? Boom! I'm making him a lil bubble for him while he sits and calms down.

A few of the kids are scared of the fireworks for 4th of July? Some of the adults too? Easy, I'll make a huge bubble made so everyone gets to enjoy the night!

[talkorsomething]

I get to spin in the parade for realsies btw 🥰 only had one (1) minor breakdown at practice !

[quadrantadvisor]

Alright new Jason Todd headcanons in a dpxdc setting:

Danny is a "liminal" ghost, rather than a "half" ghost. He's alive and dead at the same time. (He's like Jesus Christ (in the church denomination I grew up in), fully ghost and fully human.) Danny, in human form, can go through a ghost shield, because he IS a living human.

Jason, however, is a reanimated corpse. He isn't a ghost, wouldn't have a ghost core, etc, he has a normal human system that runs ON ectoplasm. Jason CANNOT go through a ghost shield, because he is always an ectoplasmic entity. Danny can go through the Fenton Ghost Catcher and be split into a ghost and a human; if Jason went through the ghost catcher, he would straight up die.

(For my purposes I'm gonna say that Jason became an ectoplasmic entity upon his resurrection, but wasn't very stable. Dunking in the Lazarus pit stabilized his system but also poisoned his ectoplasm.)

I do think that Jason could learn certain ghost abilities if he learned to harness his ectoplasm, especially if they detoxed him off the Lazarus waters. He's probably already enhancing his stealth and strength in ways he hasn't really noticed. I think he's held back by the amount of physical matter he's lugging around, so maybe he couldn't fly, but I'm imagining temporary invisibility, or intagibility of like, a limb at a time. Maybe he can't walk through walls, but in a fight he can dodge by instinctively making the targeted part of his body intangible.

[giantkillerjack]

Me: I don't like when shows queerbait me.

Other Fans: Well then just watch other shows, dummy!!!!

Me: 👍👍👍 wow what a tidy way to dismiss and invalidate a legitimate reaction to homophobic story tropes! 👍👍👍

The "just leave then" response to people wanting more inclusivity from the stories they love is not just emotionally invalidating - it is also one of the things that keeps storytellers from feeling that they need to improve in the future by making fans feel stupid for demanding better representation in the first place.

This kind of response doesn't just make you sound like a conservative (since this is a VERY popular response that conservatives have when confronted with leftist media criticism), it also fundamentally ignores the fact that there may not BE an equivalent story with good rep to go to after leaving the queerbait-y one behind.

Delicious in Dungeon is special and unique; that's why I genuinely love it. It is that love that makes me want it to do better.

When I see that Shuro is allowed to openly express romantic love for Falin, but Marcille/Falin is relegated to mere implication, it makes me really sad. It may not be a romance manga, but there ARE straight couples, and hetero desire IS on display - which makes the lack of open queerness all the more noticeable.

So when people say "just go watch something else" in response to my genuine sadness and irritation that a beloved story is excluding people like me..... Are you telling me there's a nearly identical queer show - with a similarly active fandom - all about found family learning to cook beautiful foods in a dungeon? Is my favorite-guy-ever Senshi going to be there? Is there actually a place for me to go to??

OR is there only one Delicious in Dungeon, and that's what makes it great?

I think actually folks who respond this way just want me to leave, and they don't really care where I go, so long as their favorite thing doesn't have to stand up to criticism.

Because I don't want lesbian media elsewhere. I want it here, with my friend Marcille. Here, where the seeds of queer romance were purposely planted to hook my attention. What's so wrong with being disappointed if those seeds never grow to bear fruit??

We can like good art and still demand it does better. And we can validate people who are sad it isn't doing better without getting defensive. Critical analysis is healthy and important. It's how good and bad stories are fully understood, and it's how better stories get made.

And while I will try to enjoy the plentiful delicious crumbs I am being served (since it is more than most shows give me), just because I CAN squish a bunch of crumbs together into the approximate shape of a muffin, that doesn't mean I've been served a meal.

More on this topic because I love a good analogy

My original post about queerbaiting in Dungeon Meshi (that inspired this one with the replies I got from it)

[onehopefuldreamer]

So I think I just figured out the optimal order of events for Stray Gods Act II for me.

Thanks to some very kind people on the Stray Gods Discord I was made aware that if you don't immediately go to Aphrodite's party but visit the Reliquary and Medusa's lair first you get completely different information from Aphrodite and Eros than if you'd first gone there. By some stroke of luck I had just done The Ritual (because I'm pretty much always replaying this game...) so I went back and redid things. And my gosh, am I never going to do The Ritual first again!

It's not only the information Grace receives that is much better, but also the flow of events actually feels much more natural this way. Especially if you romance Persephone because this gives her extra time to get to know Grace a little before you trigger You and I and it just feels so right. This also gives Grace a chance to tell Apollo she's worried about the way her investigation is going when he checks in with her instead of lying and saying she's fine. I love that! But also - you get a slightly different conversation with Pan after visiting Medusa which I liked heaps better personally.

What I ended up loving the most was that if you'd been naughty like me and flirted with everyone but Apollo when you talk with him about suspecting Pan after The Ritual he actually tells Grace to give Pan the benefit of the doubt and is very supportive of her which is completely adorable. Then, because I had been flirting with Pan, Persephone made Grace choose between her and him which was also a really nice touch and had me giggling and kicking my feet. I had no idea I needed to hear Persephone say "And what of Pan? Is he also 'incredible'?" but it gave me so much joy, you have no idea. I also ended up testing the option where you choose Pan over Persephone and she was very understanding and supportive while also shutting down any flirting from that point onwards. The only thing that disappointed me was that Persepone didn't seem to care that my Grace was also flirting with Freddie. That wasn't mentioned at all.

And now I need to do yet another replay after I finish this one and go for Pan because man, the dude has charm in spades and I love him and I wish I could romance Persephone, Freddie and him all at once. I might even like him more than Freddie which probably makes me a bad lesbian but it is what it is. His song is my favourite romance song right after You and I too, it's so catchy and joyful. Damn, I really need to romance him soon, don't I?

Fun fact: because I stopped my replay right before doing The Ritual after going to the Reliquary and visiting Medusa last night I ended up dreaming of an alternate version of Persephone and Grace's talk leading to You and I which had Persephone more open and forthcoming about Calliope and Grace very supportive and understanding. Then I'm pretty sure I dreamed a whole alternate version of You and I where Grace and Persephone actually sang together. I'm pretty pissed I don't remember any details because damn... I wish that were real. And I wish I could have recorded it. It was so good.

[forcebookish]

top deepening his voice when talking to mew's moms... gun speaking higher when talking to cher's mom... i love these choices

[thresholdbb]

i'm trying to listen to/watch more media in Spanish so i would love any Spanish music recs. especially if it's Voyager flavored.

Ahaha, you've come to the right a place!

Alright, they are only Voyager flavored in my mind, but I can explain all of them if need be. My music tastes also sometimes leans pretty Chilean, which is a notoriously difficult Spanish dialect to understand. Also, sometimes it's just a line or two that I'll end up thinking about or it only corresponds to a certain scene.

Believe it or not, a non-exhaustive list:

Aleks Syntek - Historias de danzón y de arrabal

Arquero - Star trek (lol)

Bersuit Vergarabat - Mi caramelo

Calle 13 - La vuelta al mundo, Me vieron cruzar, La vida (respira el momento)

Carlos Vives - Cuando nos volvamos a encontrar

Elvira López - Loica valiente, Piel de pájaro, Distancia pactada,, Chueco, Norte

Fannu Lu - Fanfarrón

Fito Paez - A rodar mi vida

Fonseca - Te mando flores, Simples corazones

Gepe - Buena memoria, Un amor violento, Alfabeto

Jorge Drexler - Pongamos que hablo de Martínez

Julieta Venegas - Me voy, El presente

La Guacha - Amor platónico, Desaparecer, Corazón mezquino, Ay amor

Los Enanitos Verdes - Te ví en un tren

Los Rodríguez - Dulce condena

Los Totora - No hay mas nada

Los Vásquez - Miénteme una vez

María Isabel - Antes Muerta Que Sencilla (This is a meme song)

Mexican Institute of Sound ft. Lila Downs - Cariñito

Mon Laferte - Flaco, Vendaval, Mi buen amor, Si tú me quisieras, Pa' dónde se fue, Palomita, Por qué me fui a enamorar de ti, Cumbia para olvidar, Love, Se me va a quemar el corazón

Morat - Cuando nadie ve

Natalia LaFourcade - Nunca es suficiente

Paté de Fuá - No me platiques más, El extranjero

Pillanes - Loro (This is where my "el cerro es tan alto y yo soy tan pequeño tag comes from)

Riccardo Cocciante - Cuerpo sin alma

Rosalía - Bagdad

Schuster - Me enamoré

Silvio Rodríguez - Ojalá

Villa Cariño - Serenata cruel

Violeta Parra - Que pena siente el alma, La Jardinera (though I prefer a cover version by Juanafé)

Ok this got outta hand even after I made some cuts, my bad. I can also explain/translate/transcribe any of them (since some don't have lyrics online) and my Trek connections though

[deaderthandoubledead]

I find it hilarious that at first Jonny Sims' presence appears serious and somewhat intimidating and then you see/hear him on a stream and in turns out he gives off major cool&chill uncle vibes.

Alex J Newall on the other hand, at first glance, has that innocent puppy look but then you see/hear him on a stream and realise this one is the one you should be afraid of.

[seapasture]

I just had a spree doing 'Which Phantom Thief Are You?' quizzes pessimistically expecting an Akechi sweep but was pleasantly surprised with four Yusuke results (and three Akechi ones but shhh)

[watching-constellations]

I meant to go to bed early, but instead I fully accidentally ended up at a rave. This happened within twenty minutes of leaving my friend’s house. Phenomenal. I have several questions.

[neon-angels-system]

.

[citizensun]

Okay listen listen

I can respect Lula's attempt at putting Brazil on the diplomatic leadership of the global south countries.

My guy is known for talking out of his head at occasion, but I 100% believe this speech was planned beforehand. It's a rhetorical strategy. It's good for what it is: very impactful.

The post above contains a small mistranslation, though. Lula's original speech said something closer to "what is happening to Gaza and the Palestinians hasn't happened in any other historical moment. Except that it did - when Hitler decided to kill the Jews."

He's not only comparing the Gazan Genocide directly to the Holocaust. He's saying that what's happening in Gaza is literally only comparable to it.

But I'm really not comfortable at him comparing human suffering. Human suffering is not quantifiable.

Let's not talk about the historical veracity of this affirmation: what makes the Gazan Genocide (and isn't that important, a global leader calling it a genocide) and the Holocaust so similar to each other and so different from literally any other genocide that's happened in the past 100 years? Like I said, it's a rhetorical strategy. And I'm no historian.

Politically, though, what made this speech so controversial is that it put the Brazilian government at odds with the Israeli government's, and particularly Netanyahu's, characterization of the Holocaust as an unique and incomparable phenomenon - If Israel is a special State created due to special, unprecedented conditions, then it is more difficult to criticize. Like I said, I can respect the intention.

However. The Holocaust is unique because every genocide is unique in it's own way; which in this case can be characterized by some factors such as 1. the German bureaucratical-industrial machine, 2. the fact that it happened in Europe, as opposed to the Congo, Namibian, and other colonial genocides (even if not to whom would be necessarily considered white people at the time) (see also the public sympathy towards Ukrainians vs. Palestinians), 3. the fact that it was directly what caused the typification of Genocide under the UN Genocide Convention.

Similarly, what's happening in Gaza right now is also unique in it's own way. It's happening in a post-UN and UNHRC ethnic, colonial, western State. It might be getting unprecedented first-hand evidence in the form of social. media. posts. Who knows what kind of historical impact it will have.

There is a fact: Palestinians in Gaza are being wiped out of the map.

The fact that the same thing happened to the Jewish population 70 years ago is absolutely no excuse to the instrumentalization of the Holocaust by Netanyahu's government, but it's also absolutely no reason for it to be reduced to Lula's foreign policy discourse strategy.

You know what? What's happening in Gaza right now never happened before. It also happened many times over. (see what I'm doing here? It's rhetoric).

Every genocide in history has been unique. Congo was literally Leopold II's private property when the genocide happened. Rwanda was so bloody because it mostly happened at knife-point. The Irish and Indian famines. The Khmer Rouge and the Armenian Genocide.

Every genocide in history has been the same. People suffered. People died. People had the culture, their history, erased and for no other reason than being who they were.

We will not compare human suffering. We will not quantify human tragedy. Please.

[michaelmilligan]

Kind of fun, kind of puzzling to figure out what about Jon and Martin is 'word of god' (Jonny Sims) and what’s pure fanon.

Not that it MATTERS, ultimately, because I can just ignore whatever Jonny Sims says ever as I chew through his drywall, but also as an SPN fan, it’s kind of interesting to come across a 'fanon' that makes actual sense for the character and then discover that it’s. Actually something the literal writer came up with.