#how can you say this shit when you’re a flat earther

[legstheoctomobster]

Where do dads get this audacity from??? /rhe

[writebackatya]

And cause no one asked. Here are the pros and cons of getting high with this group

Della Duck:

Pros: Always provides the most rocking tunes to listen to, if you’re freaking out she’ll calm you down (she’s been through it before), has the most insane stories to share with the group, always has a lighter, can do cool smoke tricks, rolls the best joints and blunts, and if she comes across any good shit on an adventure she will share with the group

Cons: Her turns tend to be slightly longer than everyone else’s, will often get lost in a train of thought, rarely changes the bong water, and there’s a good chance her mind might go to a dark place unintentionally making it everyone’s problem and have them contemplate their own deaths…

Gandra Dee:

Pros: Can always get her hands on the good shit, always has a vape on hand which she’s cool with letting you take a few hits from, is a high functioning stoner, has a playlist filled with the chillest tunes when Della’s is too much, makes great edibles, THREE WORDS: Access to Gizmocloud (it’s still in its beta form but still, early access)

Cons: Will call you a “pussy” if you can’t handle it, doesn’t always pay her portion on time, will put on her headphones just to ignore you without saying a word which I get it but that can be pretty rude, might go on rants/tirades about corporations, capitalisms, the patriarch, right wing bullshit, creationists, flat earthers, etc. which yes Gandra I agree that all those things are awful stuff but damn I’m just trying to have a chill high here. Also I’m pretty sure she stole my lighter

Launchpad McQuack:

Pros: He’s the chillest dude while sober and that doesn’t change when he’s high, will comfort you when you’re freaking out, always has a lighter, owns every episode of Darkwing Duck on VHS (Twin Beaks is already a trip while sober it’s even better high!), always let’s people smoke at his place and will let you crash at his place if you need to, and always has snacks on hand

Cons: He ALWAYS wants to watch Darkwing Duck, which yeah it’s a good show and all LP but come on man, also: that’s ALL he ever talks about (I’m exaggerating but it’s true), I’m pretty sure he’s never brought his own weed once (does he even know how to get his hands on this stuff anyway?), can get weirdly philosophical at times but it’s at a level that no one is prepared for, and when he crashes HE CRASHES

Panchito:

Pros: Always down for whatever, has a guitar which he can use to create a chill atmosphere, can be kinda flirty when high, isn’t picky about the weed because it’s all the same for him…

Cons: …which is a problem when he brings the stuff (damn it Panchito! I can’t function if this is an Indica!!), can be kinda flirty when high, will be up here ^ when you need him right here _

Dream Blunt Rotation

[isagisyoichi]

i love your posts 😩😩 can u do a part 2 of the icks (srry if my english is bad)

SWIMMING FOOL!

SYNPOSIS: icks again

CHARACTERS INCLUDED: isagi, bachira, nagi, reo, chigiri, kunigami, naruhaya, niko, rin, imamura, nanase, ryusei, tabito, yuki, eita, hiori

WARNINGS: swearing, also all in good fun, nothing is meant to be taken seriously!!!

A/N: these are always so fun to write LOL. keeping men humble is my favorite thing to do. also don't worry anon, your english was perfectly fine!!! no need to apologize <3 thank u for liking my work :,) also yes this is also me clearing my drafts

isagi: when you came to one of his games for the first time, isagi told you “you’re my lucky charm!” and then he lost LMFAOOO. then isagi proceeded to tell you, “it was your fault, you made me nervous!” like bro what?! were you on the field with him?! once someone tried to dap isagi up but isagi shook their hand instead and it haunts him to this day 😭 thinks he's immune to being ashy so he doesn't use lotion, but you could literally light a match on that boy's legs.

bachira: has no sense of boundaries, uses the bathroom while you’re in the shower LIKE CAN YOU WAIT? drools when he sleeps (isn't this canon idk). genuine flat earther. has not read a book for outside of school since like he was 12. not technically an ick but i just know he used to steal from the book fair 💀

kunigami: i feel like he’s a momma’s boy and not in the good way idk that’s just the vibe i get 😭 is a ginger. glares at you in class if he hears you trying to cheat. always has chapped lips.

chigiri: one of those people who plans to come to school mad and then one of his friends makes him laugh. does not like children at all. the type to glare at babies in public 💀 also canon that he has mood swings, so take that as you will.

imamura: sends you shit like “listened to lil uzi vs the world today… i remember when it was you and me against the world. i was scott and i should’ve made you my ramona 😕 you don’t have to respond. i hope you’re doing good. tell your mom i said hi.” (i came up with that on the spot i’m a genius). says stuff like “but you’re too pretty too be depressed lol what?” and he's dead serious too 💀 snapchat is his main form of communication but he gets annoyed when you start saving the chats. what are you hiding HMMM 🧐

naruhaya: enters instagram giveaways BYE. stop tagging me in mr.beast’s posts, you are not getting that tesla. chews gum really loud. acts up when there’s a sub for some reason. has a playlist of tiktok songs. still has snapchat streaks and sends everyone in his friends list “new streaks🤪?” NO WE ARE GROWN 😒 wipes his hands on the decorative towels. follows those drama pages for his school 😭

nagi: is genuinely surprised when he finds girls that listen to artists like mf doom, kanye, cudi, and etc. says “you’re a little different from everyone ik lol,” he’s so embarrassing PLEASE. says “damn, that’s tough,” when people vent to him 😐 doesn’t have a backpack just a drawstring with like one pencil and a bunch of papers. canon that he thinks taking baths is “troublesome,” so do what you want with that information 🤗

raichi: one of those mfs that says “sheesh,” “caught you in 4k,” and “sus,” all the time because of tiktok SHUT HIM UP PLEASEEE. once tried to shoot a piece of paper across the room, said "kobe!" and everything and then missed. his teacher made him pick it up and throw away the paper while everyone in the class stared at him in silence. puts his back against the wall and slides down dramatically as he cries when he’s “heartbroken” 💀 smells so strongly of axe 😭

rin: thinks astrology is stupid. calls girls "females," (not in a misogynistic way, it’s just how he talks but still DKOSKDSOK). takes forever to text back. only writes in blue or black pen. also refuses to give you one if you need it because "you should have been prepared" 😑 every so often, rin will bring up how “emotionless” he is. go to therapy rin, please 🙏 knows how inflation works #nerd inflate my nuts

reo: does that stupid shit on instagram where he’s like “posting in 20 minutes” on his story. no one gives a fuck reo 😐 (that’s a lie many people do give a fuck that he posts but IT’S JUST STUPID). uses this 🥺 emoji all the time and he’s so serious with it, too. fell for a girl during hot girl summer after he insisted that he wouldn't catch feelings. his iphone does that annoying shit where it flashes whenever he gets a notification. also sucks literal ass at tipping BOOOOOOO!

niko: one of those smart people who always falls for deez nuts jokes LMAO. it’s ‘cause it’s not his sense of humor so he doesn’t expect it, but you would think niko would learn after the first ten times. refuses to consume media that isn’t objectively of "good quality." good luck trying to have a movie night with him. refuses to share his homework with other people. has one of those phone cases that open and close like a book 😭😭

nanase: takes gen z discourse seriously. would definitely get scammed LMAOO. flexes he’s friends with upperclassmen all the time like anyone cares. would say he loves you in the talking stage. listens to today's top hits on spotify. seriously keeps up with tiktok drama.

hiori: gets sick really easily in the winter and so he always has like a little bit of snot in his nose during then. drinks REALLY loudly, like slurping noises and everything. sometimes he'll like, repeat jokes 'cause he thinks no one heard them and that's why no one laughed but it's actually because the joke itself wasn't funny 😭

ryusei: thinks calling you bad at imessage games counts as flirting. tried to make his own nickname, but absolutely NO ONE called him it LMFAOO 💀💀 was the absolute worst person to be around when “i like your cut g,” was popular 😭 is so annoying to have in class when he has an away game. “yeah, i’m not gonna do my work, i’m about to leave soon, so it doesn’t matter,” whole time it's only third period 💀

yukimiya: idk he gives me fake nice vibes sometimes 😭 like he indirects people on his finsta and when the person it’s about asks if it’s about them, he’s like “noooo lol dw its not u😂" even though it’s so obvious it is 💀 has so many of the “bff 🤩” “this isn't the caption i picked☹��” comments on his instagram from girls. i feel like if he wasn't a model and all, he'd be the type to put his snap in his instagram bio 😭

tabito: argues with teachers. deletes dms when girls don't respond back LMFAOOO💀 babe we already saw the notification, you're not slick. his favorite movie is the godfather. has a “saturdays are for the boys” flag. one of those mfs that’s always talking about how much they like milfs shaddup!!!! and they’re not even milfs half the time, it’s just some woman in her late twenties 😐

otoya: ghosts people all the time by "accident." you can decide if this an ick or not but, he really likes drain gang. considers himself to be a drainer 😭 refuses to watch “mainstream” anime but when you ask what his favorite is he says, “evangelion, idk if u’ll know it though" 😐

[arctichotch]

"was this in response to me being unwilling to believe what some random lawtuber said?" No, not directly. It's a response to how you do appear to be in an echo chamber. You've mistaken "person who disagrees with my belief" for "someone who's not credible and has nothing at all correct/of value to say." You said you do watch at least one lawtuber who happens to agree with your view. That's fine, but only listening to those who agree with us puts us at a disadvantage for truly understanding why someone on the other side of an argument believes what they do. If both sides refuse to even try to understand the other, neither can come to an understanding.

"i’m not in an “echo chamber” because i refuse to support an abuser, or hear from people who support him." Correct on the first part, incorrect on the second part. When we refuse to even try to genuinely listen to people with opposing views that's how we actually make the divide bigger.

Thing is, everything Amber supporters say about Depp supporters, Depp supporters say about Amber supporters in return. Both sides genuinely believe the other is wrong and evil, when in reality one side is just mislead, and not because they're purposely stupid or want to support an abuser. Regardless of side, each saw reasons why they believed one over the other, and both sides hold onto their beliefs strongly and won't listen to anything the other says with an open mind, which in turn also makes the other even less likely to listen to anything. You'll never get a flat earther to believe the earth is round by calling them stupid and evil for their belief, especially when they, in turn, believe you to be the stupid and evil one. I shouldn't have to tell you I don't support Depp and that I support Amber for you to not just automatically assume I'm some kinda die hard Depp stan and throw everything I say away. That fact that I do have to say it now kinda proves what I'm saying. (And just in case I need to throw this one in too for my prior example: I believe the Earth is round) I follow you for the Stranger Things content, I mostly try to stay out of the Amber and Depp discourse anymore, but from what I've noticed going around I thought I'd put my two cents in.

If you want to try and change anyone's mind and get them to see reason, you have to listen with an open mind, hear them out, and go from there. Explain your side without telling them they're stupid and evil for what they believe, because that will only make them cling on harder out of spite, and that's true of anyone, even if they're on the "right" side of an argument. (This is literally something I've seen you say too, which is also what encouraged me to send this)

Don't look at it as "considering their evidence," in the sense of looking for some magic clue that will sway your judgement or seeing how much of their argument you can shoot down. Just look at their evidence and try to see why they came to that conclusion and where they might have gone wrong/right and explain your view on the same thing and how you got there in turn. That holds a better chance of getting someone to see reason than telling them "omg how can you be this stupid to believe that! you must have brainworms and love abusers!" It's not very constructive and it's why it seems like a lot of us just can't get anywhere with trying to get other people to see our points. (Again, this goes for everyone, regardless of who or what you support.)

but they do have nothing credible to say?? like i get what you’re saying, but i have considered the other side. hell there was a good while where i was on no side. where i had a fully objective view and let my opinions form from there. even when i’ve been on ambers side i have spent god knows how long talking to depp supporters, discussing our views and seeing things from their perspective in a civil manner.

also i don’t watch any lawtubers because i think they’re all full of shit and trying to cash in on something that is at its core super fucking depressing. i have watched like 3 videos from someone looking at case evidence, but they’re not a lawyer afaik and i don’t take anything they say at face value. yeah, im unwilling to listen to the other sides arguments in terms of watching youtubers/media who are pro-depp because it genuinely infuriates me. because i’ve seen so much that is just straight up lies, and people just believe it. i feel like it’d rot my brain watching those “lawyers” or “psychologists” call amber evil online and have 100k+ people agree with them while simply believing this persons word because they’re “qualified”

and i don’t believe any depp supporters are evil. and i only think some of them are stupid. i can’t go around thinking one side is “misled” when they’re telling me to kill myself every day in my inbox. or making cutesy memes of depp saying they don’t know what amber was complaining about when she was recounting her rape. or saying amber isn’t a “real victim.” because that’s not being misled. that’s being purposely fucking blind and disregard any and all care for victims out there, which they so often claim to care about. that’s stupid (amongst other things) to me.

but once again, i have spent a long time speaking to depp supporters. some civil some not. and how they come at me is what determines how the rest of the discussion will go. if someone’s being an absolute demon to me, i’m not going to be all nice back. but if someone is being civil making actual plausible points to me, i’m going to consider it and get back to them civilly.

like just prior to you saying you’re not a depp supporter, i didn’t assume you were. and i wasn’t going to be a dick back. because you’re being civil and engaging in a genuine discussion, raising solid points.

also, i don’t want to change anyones mind about this. because i know it’s useless because i’m set in my ways, just like they are. if anyone is going to change their mind, it’s not going to be from my weird long rambly ass it’ll be from actual media, or evidence, or some other better account or whatever lmao. i’ve never tried to change any one’s mind because i don’t think i am capable of that.

if someone is believing that 2+2= 6 then yeah, i’m going to say they have brain worms but if someone comes at me with a 2+2= 6 argument, that is genuine and i can see how they’ve formed that conclusion and are also being nice? then i won’t say they have brain worms and will look at what they’ve said and consider their pov. but unfortunately the latter is a rare occurrence.

anyway, i don’t want to be the person who makes someone see reason. i’m not out here trying to convince anyone of anything. i don’t spend my days searching for depp supporters to harass with my views.

my main point ig is that: i have listened to depp supporters. and will continue to if they are civil and can present something that actually makes sense rather than, for example, “big UK judges have a vendetta against depp !!! it’s a conspiracy!!” because i’m not going to waste my time even thinking about that, especially when they can’t provide me any proof besides the word of some youtube lawyer

[vvanini]

whats your favorite obscure hc about each of the losers?

Fucking perfect thank you

1- Mike he reads books or articles like “how to understand woman”, “why women like jerks”, not because he wants to woo woman or is a nice guy or anything but just because he thinks it’s interesting

I don’t think he’d date anyone

Gives great dating advice tho

Reads manga Likes Junji Ito

“The manga/book was better” kind of guy

I don’t know why but I feel like he’d be this ENTP-ish dude who likes to gather information about a lot of useless things and likes to debate He likes film and game theories Watches MatPat for sure

Also he likes The Walking Dead and… zombies in general

Also I’m sorry but he likes Quentin Tarantino and Wes Anderson

He likes grindhouse movies and appreciates the gory details but is chill about it Likes cinematography in general

Watches video essays about movies

2- Richie

Unlike Mike, Richie isn’t chill about gory details and whenever someone gags while watching a movie he goes “You think that’s disgusting??? Lmaoooo that’s nothing.”

He’d be the type of guy who brags about being immune to disturbing shit

Google searches include “top ten disturbing movies of all time” “scariest movies ever” “movies worse than a serbian film”

Still likes pink guy and thinks Joji is a genius

Unironically loves the song “I Love Sex” by Pink Guy and listens to it at least once everyday

Uses Discord a lot

Always starts studying on the last day

I think he’d like history

Not like Mike tho, he just likes textbook history and world wars etc

Plays Hearts of Iron and League of Legends

Also :) he likes to code

he is a Linux >>>>>>>>>> Windows kinda guy

Likes breaking bad

And Rick and Morty

Understands politics really well

His music taste is… anime opening songs

Evangelion especially

Likes science fiction books

Pretends to be a flat-earther/conservative/anti-vax for the meme

3- Ben

LIKES BACKSTREET BOYS

and boy bands in general

he is old school and still carries an mp3 around

Doesn’t use spotify, he illegally downloads songs like a champ :D

Likes story rich games

Especially RPG’s. He really likes Planescape Torment and Baldur’s Gate

Kinda lame about women, like he hears Jordan Peterson say something like “the eternal image of the divine feminine” or some shit like that and he goes “wow poetic. agreed”

Doesn’t read “How to woo women” books like Mike but thinks about it a lot that’s for sure

Likes Audrey Hepburn

And Steinbeck

Saves different versions of the same song to his mp3. “The Less I Know The Better but you’re crying in a bathroom” “The Less I Know The Better Slowed & Reverb Listen With Headphones” “The Less I Know The Better Nightcore”

Shares playlists with Eddie

ALWAYS. ALWAYS waits for the person who’s tying their shoes

He notices if someone is walking behind the group alone and walks back to accompany them

If no one laughs at your joke, he does

Bleached his hair once and regretted it immediately Writes poetry in his free time and makes Stan proofread it

Into psychology

Hands always in pockets

Probably owned lots of lego sets as a kid

People go to him for dating advice because he is seen as this “romantic guy”, I mean he is but he gives terrible dating advice

4-Stan

He likes geography

Literally knows all the flags in the world and all the capitals

Blindfold him and give him a country name, he can show you exactly where it is on the map

Also he plays those google earth games where you get a random location and try to find out which country you’re in/ or try to find the nearest airport

Also I feel like he’d like planes a lot

Idk he just likes things that fly lol. Birds, planes etc.

Likes to read classics

LOVES H. P. Lovecraft

carries little poetry books with him everywhere and reads them he’s so cute

Dark academia is his aesthetic

Can play the piano

Likes to read Ben’s poetry :D

Dark humor

His ringtone is Le Festin :)

Has an instagram account but never posts, just watches people’s stories

Very photogenic tho.

He’s a man of culture. He likes visiting aquariums and museums

Hates zoos tho, thinks it’s evil to cage animals

Also I don’t know how to explain it but… He just likes to decorate his place? Like to the clubhouse he’ll bring stuff he likes and just quietly claims a corner as his own and make it as comfortable as he can

Has...beautiful hands

you know how some people cut the cothing labels because it irritates the back of their neck? Stan does that with everything he buys

5- Eddie

Likes Backstreet Boys because of Ben

Replies to texts immediately. Communication and social interaction gives him serotonin

I have no idea why but I feel like he’d have an obsession with Tekken and his favourite character is Ling Xiayou

Big fan of classic playstation games. Loves Spyro, Crash Bandicoot and Ratchet and Clank

He likes wearing long sleeves under t shirts

Listens to emo music, stares out the window and imagines scenarios matching the song he’s listening to

He considers MCR to be emo btw. Loves G note memes

Likes astrology

Can’t watch horror movies, and gets teased by Richie about it

However he likes media that is presented as funky/funny/happy but is actually depressing/disturbing

He likes courtroom dramas

Wears sunglasses indoors for no reason

Probably likes fallout and metro games

Has a collection of finger skateboards

#weirdcore #oddcore #nostalgia #grunge

buys and wears random college sweatshirts

Hates and loves study groups, hates it in the sense that he can’t focus on anything and just wants to hang out and talk, loves it in the sense that he CAN hang out with his friends and talk

Romanticizes everything

6- Bill

Has lots of taurus energy and is sleepy all the time

Has major Leonardo DiCaprio in The Basketball Diaries vibes

Dresses effortlessly

And likes basketball lol.

He just has… boy energy. If that makes sense. Boy next door

Likes to draw his friends

posts his drawings on Instagram

Has lots of OC’s but doesn’t know they’re called OC’s, just refers to them as “this character I created”

He likes being praised a lot ngl

His taste in memes is very similar to Richie’s

You know how they put a random word on top of a random image and it doesn’t make sense at all. He laughs at things like that. Like Richie sends him something like this:

ME WHEN I WHEN

[image of monkey]

BOTTOM TEXT

and he thinks it’s funny and loses his shit im sorry

Like someone sends a picture of Keanu Reeves to the groupchat and texts “g” and he thinks it’s funny???? He sees a picture of a cow in the backrooms and starts choking

He memorized every line in Boneless Pizza and can quote it wihtout stuttering. Like he would be sitting alone talking to himself saying shit like “ya pizza. Watchu want. 2 liter machine broke we got one liter tho. fuck you mean B.”

Never answers calls? Doesn’t like talking on the phone. He just has “Don’t fucking call me when you can text!!” energy

phone is always on silent mode

doesn’t do anything but attracts people anyway

7- Bev

Likes musicals

Theatre kid

Chews gum a lot

And swallows them :(

Likes cottagecore

Buys notebooks with cute covers but can never fill them so she just gives them to bill who turns them into sketchbooks

I think she’d give advice or reaussure people in a way that sounds kinda rude but isn’t really? Like she tells it like it is. Blunt

Likes Avatar The Last Airbender

Sense of humor is:

[Picutre of the fox from Zootopia]

why is he hot help 😭😭😭

wears baggy clothing + long skirts

[hawksky]

The Conspiracy Theories JJK Characters Believe

A/N: I stand by every single one of these. banner gif courtesy of gifcities.org love the internet archive long time.

CW: slandering america ? please fill my askbox to yell about it

Gojo - Flat Earther 

It’s a tried and true conspiracy, massive following, in the moment

he really does it more to fuck with people than actually believing it

he insists he’s basically a god so he would know

he tries to bond with bb megumi by talking about it

megumi get’s a sour look on his face and walks away from his dinner (he won’t eat anything gojo gives him for a week)

no one ever notices, but Shoko eggs him on for her own entertainment

he slowly starts to believe it

Yuji - Avril Lavigne has died & been replaced

he watched a youtube video about it and honestly they made some good points

because her late career really wasn’t adding up for him

please don’t bring this up around him, he’s actually genuinely upset about she was his first celebrity crush (the complicated video really did it for him)

when it does come up it says it with sincerity as if it’s accepted fact that everyone believes in

will not listen to anyone who tries to correct him, assumes they just hadn’t heard the news

sidenote he knows all the words to girlfriend

Megumi - JFK assassinated by the CIA / MLK assassinated by the FBI

at first he doesn’t believe in any conspiracy theories and thinks you’re uneducated if you do

spent years bullying gojo for his shit mfer can basically fly and says its flat

he gets into reading cold war history books, especially ones on newly declassified files

learns about US interventions in other countries for the slightest issues

and honestly? is it that far fetched? the US has done worse on less grounds

he doesn’t discuss this with anyone because he has a reputation to uphold and knows how crazy he’d look

but they just don’t understand, they don’t know what he knows these brutes don’t fucking read

Geto - Area 51

ok boomer

it’s not that he believes in literal aliens but he does believe something strange is going on

he chalks it up to there being an out sized amount of curses in the area

his understanding of the conditions in america, and especially nevada ? yeah he imagines people are pretty miserable causing a lot of cursed energy

middle of the desert and selling your body to the military on top of that? oof

debates visiting himself to check it out and collect some of the curses

gojo grumbles about how boring it is that he dismissed aliens

Inumaki - Big Foot

it’s not that he believes its real

more that he wishes it was real (same vibes as all of us cdns with house hippos)

he can say things and make them happen, maybe if he thinks hard enough it will ~ manifest ~

NO ONE is aware he thinks this

honestly he’s kinda hurt that when other people talk about their theories they don’t ask about his :\

Kamo - Mount Rushmore isn’t real

ik this isn’t an accepted conspiracy theory but i’m always shocked to remember this is a real thing that exists ??? even more fucked those hills are sacred to indigenous people

literally just thinks its disgusting people would desecrate nature for patriotism

he’s so disgusted by it he refuses to believe anyone actually did that

this leads him to refuse to consume any american based media

Yuta - Japan is the only country with four seasons

he was taught it in school

who is he to argue with a teacher ???

went to morocco, definitely only summer, confirmed

he’s the only one of the jujutsu tech kids that has travelled and he’s so believable so it’s never questioned

Nanami - No.

he doesn’t believe in any. even the craziest things he can talk about are all backed by three different sources

it’s not his fault no one else has heard of these things

don’t test him he will pull receipts

fuck around and find out

@sandyscastle @nokkusu​  @megumifushi

[howtofightwrite]

Q&A: Effective Use of Torture

I am disappointed by how often you excuse and promote misinformation about torture just because “experts” use it. You have stated it doesn’t harm torturers much (not true) and it can convince people not to oppose your organization (not true). You also have many posts against police brutality and many about the price of violence and I wish you would apply that to your torture apology. You can start by believing victims and prioritizing their accounts instead of un-critically believing torturers.

I don’t do this often, but this deserves to be broken down into individual pieces and examined in depth.

However, it’s been a little over a year, so I guess we were due to get another one of these tantrums from someone with poor reading comprehension. So, let’s take this shit show apart… again.

I am disappointed by how often you excuse and promote misinformation about torture just because “experts” use it.

Even if we ignore the leading tone, we don’t talk about torture very often. From a writing perspective, it’s a somewhat dull subject, and there’s not really that much to say about it. I checked, the last post on torture was in 2019, and the one before that was in 2018. Yeah, I wasn’t joking about this gradually turning into an annual thing.

From an ethical perspective, it’s not much more nuanced. We could spend six paragraphs going over how it’s bad and wrong, but anyone with three functioning brain cells could have told you that, and dedicating 2k words to the subject would be a waste of everyone’s time.

Well, I thought it would be, but every year someone wanders through who doesn’t understand that, and throws a tantrum. So, here we are.

However, I do love this attack on experts. No, wait, that’s the wrong word, I actively hate this kind of willful ignorance. It’s the same thought process that fuels anti-vaxers and flat earthers. “I read it on the internet, I’m an expert now,” used to be a joke, however we live in a world where someone believes they are better suited to discuss torture than people who have actually studied the subject in a professional capacity.

Now, in fairness, I’m coming from reading primary and secondary sources, not from actually torturing people. But, I’ve also got an academic background in history and politics. Short version? This really is my field.

This kind of anti-intellectualism can be harmless in some situations, however when it comes to torture, this simple surface read allows people to sign off on torture. It’s not enough to understand that torture is a bad thing, it’s important to understand what it can and cannot do, because real people in the real world employ torture to further their goals. If you believe torture serves no purpose, you will poorly equipped to understand what they’re doing, and the results they achieve.

You have stated it doesn’t harm torturers much (not true)…

First, I don’t remember saying that. We’ve cited Tony Lagouranis in the past, including his his book Fear Up Harsh. So, if we didn’t talk about the psychological consequences to the torturer, that would be somewhat surprising.

Torturers do suffer some psychological damage. I’m sure we’ve mentioned that before. If it seems like I don’t put a lot of emphasis on it, it’s because, frankly, I don’t really have much sympathy for them.

Second, it’s important to understand that concepts like morality and ethics are heavily based on our cultural backgrounds. The idea that these are universal is an excellent route into xenophobia. However, one thing, I hope most of us can get behind is the idea that torturing someone is evil.

So, the only reason you’d want to really dwell on the psychological damage is because you’re trying to woobify the torturer. Which is fucking repugnant.

You want us to feel sorry for them? You want us to empathize with them? Go fuck yourself.

And before you drag out the, “I was only following orders,” excuse, no. A soldier has a legal obligation to disobey any illegal orders they receive. If someone tells you to break the law and you do it, that was your decision as much as theirs. You are a part of that crime now. The argument wasn’t convincing at the Nuremberg trials, and it’s not convincing now.

…and it can convince people not to oppose your organization (not true).

This one is entirely true. Ultimately, it’s one of the two things that torture does very well. Obviously, if you’re getting tied down to a chair, and having your hands amputated a bone at a time, it’s not going to convince you that you made a mistake. However, it will convince others that, maybe getting involved is a bad idea.

Now, it’s not 100% effective. Not much in life is. But arguing, “torture isn’t effective because it doesn’t convince everyone,” is a bit like arguing that “because seat belts don’t have a 100% survival rate, we shouldn’t wear them.”

The systematic use of torture has severe chilling effects on political activity in a nation. There are significant diminishing returns. As torture becomes more widespread the unrest it causes will eventually start to outweigh the chilling effects.

This dynamic isn’t unique to torture, and most forms of political suppression will foment varying degrees of unrest. This is a problem that most totalitarian regimes face. The more coercive force they exercise, the more the population will become restless. Also worth knowing that this does scale based on the population’s size, so, a massive nation can apply significantly more coercive influence to it’s population without things boiling over.

However, it does suppress politic activity. Which was the entire point of this exercise. Torture as a tool of political oppression is not about the torturer or the victim, it’s about how that threat affects the population’s activities at large. So, yes, being told that if you express your political beliefs you and your family will be disappeared by the state is a huge disincentive to political activity. It works.

In case this is somehow confusing to you, yes, suppressing political speech is a bad thing. It may shock you to realize, some people don’t give a shit. They really do not care about being seen as a good person, and are willing to do things you would find unpalatable. Explaining what they’re doing is not the same as endorsing their actions.

It may be comforting to shove your head in the sand, insist that none of this is real, and angrily lash out at anyone who threatens that fantasy; but this is real, and trying to ignore it empowers those who would use these methods.

You also have many posts against police brutality and many about the price of violence and I wish you would apply that to your torture apology.

So, this might confuse you, but police brutality is torture. It doesn’t matter if it’s a cop repeatedly tazing a victim, sodomizing them with a broom handle in a Manhattan precinct house, choking them, or just beating the ever living shit out of them. It’s torture.

But, according to you, we should feel sorry for the cops and the emotional trauma that they suffer, because they got to live out their deranged, fascist fantasies, and it wasn’t as much fun as they expected? No, fuck that.

Ironically, you can actually see the efficacy and limitations of torture as a political deterrent through police brutality. When you see people standing at the sidelines as the cops choke someone to death, that’s the deterrent in full swing. They won’t get involved, they won’t express their opposition, because they know that if they do, they’re next.

So, bystanders pull out their cameras, and the police threaten them with violence. Hell, in some cases, the police outright shoot them, claiming they mistook the camera was a weapon. Camera phones are the line they can’t fully cross. The political activity of witnessing the event and sharing it with the internet allows spreading the unrest generated in the moment to the population at large. It is the point where the use of torture is causing more unrest than the torture is suppressing. As torturers, the police understand that this undermines what they’re doing, but those videos escape beyond their grasp.

You can start by believing victims and prioritizing their accounts instead of un-critically believing torturers.

Ironically, uncritically believing torture victims is one of the amateur mistakes that helps perpetuate the practice. The average person is far too willing to trust statements extracted under duress.

I’ve seen actual academics who willingly accepted confessions extracted under torture by the goddamn Spanish Inquisition at face value. Far too many people are willing to accept statements from torture victims without question.

So, what do you expect to learn from a torture victim? That torture is bad? No shit. You don’t need a living torture victim to realize the practice is vile.

Accepting the statements of a torture victim perpetuate one of the greatest lies about torture: That torture can be used to collect intelligence. It’s a lie told by regimes that that torture serves an intelligence gathering role. It cannot.

However, if you believe that torture serves no purpose, that it has no effect, and that you should accept the statements of torture victims at face value, you have primed yourself to accept false confessions. After all, if torture doesn’t work, “why would they lie about those things they did?”

Transparent lies, like, the ones associated with torture are truly insidious. If you accept the lie that you can collect accurate information from torture, then you will accept information collected via torture. If you believe that torture does nothing, then confessions extracted under torture are still accepted because the torture, “did nothing.”

When someone is torturing you, you will do anything in your power to get them to stop. Torturers, torture victims, and the experts all agree on this. When someone is torturing you, you will say what they tell you to in order to make it stop. This happens without regard for what will come next.

The real apologists here are the ones who say, “torture gets usable intelligence,” and (ironically), the ones who say, “torture does nothing.” The former perpetuate the lie, the latter legitimize the results.

Torture isn’t about getting information, it’s about using force to put words in the victim’s mouth. Saying that it doesn’t achieve that is denying those victims, and ignoring the real evil.

-Starke

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Q&A: Effective Use of Torture was originally published on How to Fight Write.

[laserbobcat]

Another AU! We (reguri friendos) made it into a romcom without a hint of hesitation. I was just like HEY let’s draw fantasy shit again and let’s say Blue is a princess in this one. Nobody cares about why he has to pretend he’s a goddamn girl and stay in the castle, we’re just here for comedy bullshit and fun drawings.

So here he is, a little gremlin bored as shit, and he really wants to go out and try stuff like, roaming around, maybe getting drunk, for sure trying pokemon battles because it seems so fun but he never got permission to do it.

Enters Red, fresh young knight, very strong but somewhat of a pushover. Which Blue uses at his advantage to convince him to come out with him and cover him. So they end up outside, Blue dressed up as a guy and Red anxiously following him, because if something happens to the princess he can say goodbye to his head. Also the princess is a prince? His brain hurts.

Blue gets to try pokemon battling with his Eevee, who is quite strong for a papmpered little diva, and bullies Red into being a trainer too, because he needs a rival to git gud who is easily accessible even if he can’t get out of the castle.

And well, a lot of bullshit happens, including Sylveon being disguised as a nightlamp once when Granpa visits, Daisy picking up on all of this and helping when she can, an arcanine trying to eat a few disrespectful suitors, Red preventing Blue to strip in a tavern where he had too much beer, some rumors about a duo of mysterious pokemon trainers who beat the shit out of everyone, that one time an assassin tried to kill the younger princess but ended half crushed under a grumpy blastoise, also the assasin was just doing this because someone kidnapped his sister, and hey Blue decides to drag Red into a quest to help them, and ho the kingdom isn’t doing that well because of this dark organisation messing up everywhere, How could I know? I was rotting in that damn castle.

HO and romance. Obviously. Because Red gets used to being dragged into whatever Blue’s up to this time, he ends up knowing him probably better than anyone, despite never really getting if he’s a girl or a guy, and in the end he doesn’t really care because he’s fun and lively and clever and pretty whatever he wears- but that stays in his head because, royalty you know. He’s a very composed guy. When nobody is threatening Blue anyway. Red can be terrifying, Silver still has nightmares where he’s staring at him after moving the blastoise off of him, toying with a dagger.

While Blue is being too dense to realize he’s in head over heels for the knight - I mean it’s normal to think about your best friend all the time, right? And being happy to spend as much time as possible with him? And using that one memory of him hugging you that one time he saved you, to put yourself to sleep sometimes? Right? I wonder why Daisy is looking at me strangely these days. Ho and there was that joke by @naturestormz: -ok but if Blue is pretending to be a girl bc of the princess AU then does that mean Red is a flat earther -Since Blue is his whole world Go home stormz you’re drunk EDIT- Ho and he ended up with long hair because, at first I was going for, cut your hair and go on a long journey, but friendos said double life in castle was funnier! So we had to keep the hair for the princess part? I mean, having this guy hanging with a giant braid bun in the streets is kinda strange but again, who care about logic, priority to pretty dawings  \o/

[hime-memes]

This long list of starters comes from the youtube content creator: Daz Games ! In particular, the video: ‘ Daz Watches Strangest Animations ‘ ! ( If you choose to watch the video trigger warnings for spiders, disturbing imagery, violence, loud noises, nudity and a weird birthing scene. ) 

Trigger Warnings: Spider Mention, Religion Mention, Violence, Death & Swearing.

As always: feel free to change anything within these starters that you see fit to make it work for your muse & the receiver’s muse !

( Some sentences have been modified for length, understanding, or to give fuller context. )

“ Is that a spider on my curtain ? YEP YEP YEP ! :( “ “ Fuck ! I’m not playing ! If you saw ... if you saw --- hold on ! “  “ What if it moves ? Or runs ? and then I lose it ? “  “ Oh god, it’s ugly ... an ugly ass spider. “  “ Wait a second --- * throws Captain America’s shield across the room * Did I hit the spider ? “ “ It didn’t even move ?! “   “ Ahhh ! Fuck, fuck, fuck ! DIE ! “  “ He’s dead and he smells great. “  “ Animation --- weird shit. “  “ When both are combined, you get something that’s either scary or fantastic. “  “ They have some weird animations on here I’m not sure we’re ready for. “  “ New house, same bullshit. “  “ Oh god ... OH WHAT ?! “  “ 12 seconds in and already I wanna run. “  “ He stabbed him in the toe ... and soup came out ? “  “ I think Gordon Ramsey would have something to say about that. “  “ What in the shit is that ?! “  “ What’s that in the corner there ?! What’s that ?! ”  “ I have too many questions. “ “ HE’S STABBING A LITTLE MAN ! OH GOD ! “  “ I hate that at parties when they do that shit. I don’t like it. “ “ I’ve never let anyone do it - if they go wrong ? You lose a finger ! “  “ It’s not worth it - is it ? “  “ Come up with another party trick ! “  “ I felt the need to check my stomach. “  “ I don’t know what to say about that. “ “ I’m never eating soup again, that’s for sure ! “ “ Why is this both disturbing and aesthetically pleasing ? “  “ Is he wearing crocs ?! “ “ The little devil man is wearing crocs ! “  “ It’s a little plant ... that’s not normal, is it ? “  “ SIDE RANT ! “  “ I wanna talk about how a Q-tio in the ear is probably one of the best feelings in the world, it is better than sex, better than chocolate, dare I say it: might be better than drinking tea. “  “ ... Okay, he just ate it. “ “ Alright, I didn’t see that bit coming. “  “ ____________ ? Did we want to sleep tonight ? “  “ We didn’t ? Okay, just checking. “  “ Figure out that ending and you can have my ______________. “ “ I can’t apply logic to it ! “  “ I’m trying to see the hidden meaning behind it and I can’t. “  “ I’m sorry ! That’s funny ! “  “ It’s like if Tim Burton directed Teletubbies ! “  “ Oh, wait and that’s the earth ? Well, there you have it flat earthers - you weren’t even close were you ? We’re balanced on top of a mutated teletubbie’s head. “  “ Oh shit, he’s coming over. “  “ OH ?! WHAT THE SHIT ?! “  “ ... it’s adorable ... uh, what are they pumping into it ? “  “ Wherever that was going, I didn’t expect it to go there ! “ “ Me. Literally, me. I”m not even joking. “  “ So ... that’s how earth was created ? I knew the Bible was a bit off ... but, I didn’t know it was that off ! “ “ Who makes these ? I wonder if there’s some sort of meaning behind it ? “   “ Okay, moose --- there was a moose. “  “ There was a Taco Bell ? “ “ That was the best brand deal I’ve ever seen. EVER. “  “ WOT THE SHIT ? Is that a baby ?! OH JESUS ! “  “ Sully from Monster’s Inc. is delivering it ! “  “ Kill ‘em both now ! Burn ‘em  ! ” “ Oh for fuck’s sake. “  “ It goes from scary-weird to hilarious in 2 seconds. “  “ If a bitch did that in class, just turned her head all the way round - I’d spray her with holy water and jump out the window. “  “ Well, that’s the most accurate description of how I want to spend my old age. It’s that right there. “  “ Future wife, if you’re watching this: that is us. “  “ Don’t go back in the Vagooter ! “  “ NO ! DON’T ! “  “ Oh god, that makes me feel some sort of way. “  “ I’m done. I can’t. It’s too early for this shit. “ 

[rainbowtransform]

Why those 6 streams? Because they were all he did. He got his 19:24 after like, 5 days of streaming 1.16 attempts. "We" as in the speedrunning community. And frankly, the shit you just linked that convinced you means.. well, shit. Why did it take 2 months? Because people have lives outside of minecraft and a ton of work went into Geosquare's video. Strandedcrow is straight up lying about the contents of the report and data because Dream stans will believe anything in favour of their Lord. (1/x)

Dream's run, when submitted, would have been 5th place in the world in a highly competitive category. Re: about the mods not telling him - Dream has known about this since October. Hard proof? Read the fucking document or watch the video good lord man there's multiple easily accessible sources of easily digestible information and you just handwave it because it contradicts your God and this is why I compare you people to flat earthers. (2/x)

and Dream got caught because he got so impatient and felt so entitled to his good run that he inflated his Pearl trade chances and Blaze Rod drop chances to ridiculous values. And despite cheating his run was only 5th (at the time) instead of 1st because his luck everywhere else was mediocre to average and his execution was sub-par. He doesn't even know how to fast portal! Frankly I feel like if y'all stans understood the run even on a basic level you wouldn't be going flat earth mode lmao (3/3)

============================================================

Okay, anon. Let’s talk, for a really long time. 

No, they weren’t all that he’d done actually. He’d done plenty of other speedruns with the same type of Minecraft. And think about what you’re saying? Five days, where he’d done almost five/six hours of trying to speedrun. You’d get lucky eventually, wouldn’t you? Or just failing over and over and never actually getting it done is awesome! Cool! Go ahead, and go do that for me anon.

And, two months for that video? For a video that literally brought up different statistics that I don’t understand? Not to mention that someone actually asked their father, who studied statistics, and said that it’s a horrible study and let’s just say this: if a person who got their degree studying statistics said “oh hey this study sucks what the fuck” then I believe the person who went to college and studied it more than I believe a person who keeps insulting Dream, his fans, and the proof that I’ve shown you.

“Because people have lives outside of minecraft,” dude we’re in quarantine. Like, what??? Their job literally depends on seeing the Runs, recognizing when someone’s cheating and when they’re not. I don’t know, a lot of work could go into a video and they could actually still be wrong, or maybe a lot of work went into it because they want people to just swallow it and be done. They don’t want to actually fight it, which is fine. Great, but guess what? We’re not six, ten, or even sixteen. Some of us are adults here, and with how many people are actually explaining and helping me understand what the mods are doing, and how they might be wrong. 

No, he didn’t know. They should have told him first, before putting the video out. And if a lot of work went into the video, that means that the mods would have already had a verdict and have known about the final say weeks ago. So, again why’d they wait until his MCC and his Streamies?

I’m not five, so I’m not going to try and change your mind about what you think about Dream’s fans because honestly? I don’t care enough to try and contradict you. The document is flawed, I don’t “handwave” anything, but you’re literally not explaining anything to me.

Maybe it’s just me, but like. Why would he only increase that part? It makes no sense to me, because if you don’t get to the Nether fast enough, don’t get to the Stronghold, don’t kill the dragon fast enough you don’t get a placement. Right? Am I wrong with that? It’s not just pearl drops/blaze rod drops. Because if it’s just those ones, ooo there better be some anti-software on the people who do their runs offline, and there better be some criticisms on them as well. 

Maybe it’s something weird to me, but um, Dream does know how to fast portal? Like have you watched his Manhunts? Maybe he doesn’t do it the way you want him to do it, but he does do it.

Also, I’d really appreciate it if you stopped comparing stans and saying that Dream’s our “god/lord.” I don’t like that, and neither do the people in the fandom. I don’t think that, and neither do most of the people in his fandom, but he supports us and we support him. If it comes out that he did cheat, hey okay. I’d lose a lot of respect for him, but again it’s a block game.

I’m trying to be as nice as I can be, but you’re kinda trying my patience right now. I’ve already said my pieces, I’ve given my evidence, and you’ve said that my evidence is shit so, whatever. If you’re not going to listen and would rather just try and argue with me, please don’t come into my inbox again.

Until you want to have an actual conversation (with words, and helpful explanations and not calling my evidence shit), then we’re done. I won’t reply to another one of your asks, anon, I will delete them.

That’s all. 

[tartagliaxx]

BRUH I COULDN'T GET AWAY EVEN IF I TRIED. THE MF GREMLIN WOULDN'T GET OUT OF MY HEAD OR MY YT FEED AJDJDHDJS

But aAAA YES. The children have grown up so fast 🥺 and the shell-in-a-bottle tradition, coupled with the fact you filled like,,, four bottles? Perfect. I can even imagine you both keep the bottles somewhere in your new home together and keep up the tradition, plopping another shell inside when the two of you have your first child or any other firsts as a married couple, honestly. aSJDGEHDB THE REDDITOR PART THO I'M--I have a feeling that whenever he does get some interesting stories he ends up sharing them with you, to which you end up teasing him on becoming one of reddit's romance counselors. (You're actually invested in the flat-earther bad boy's story, though, so from time to time you ask Childe about any updates. It's hilariously cute, in its own strange way.) Okay okay, but? The apprentices babbling about all the things you need to remember when it comes to their boss is?? Really endearing?? Just, the fact that they both hold him in such high regard and wish the best for him is very sweet, despite any bits of embarrassment he may feel (especially when they said the sock part out loud. Like, guys, seriously--no need to add more fuel for your classmates ajsbsbs--). AND THE CLASSMATES. H E C K . If they somehow found out about your first first kiss too and included it in the ppt? And talk about it in front of everyone? You can hella bet you're both gonna get some side-eyes 👀👀 that, and you'll start to be convinced that they've somehow found a way to be omniscient and gosh knows how updated they'll be by the time you have a school reunion--

Heck ye it is 😌😌 I'm keeping this sweater in a special place in my closet and treasuring it for all time, especially because of how much fluff it has! Also yo, where's the other Childe Simpificaters(tm) a t ? 👀👀

No. N o . Is that why he wouldn't leave me alone while I was hibernating?? Gosh dANGIT--I DO NOT NEED HIM DUKING IT OUT WITH MY WHITE BLOOD CELLS.

-🌻

f for 🌻 anon who can no longer escape childe’s clutches...

it makes for a good conversation starter too! like you’ll have a visitor over and they’ll point to the bottles and they’re like oooh what’s that? big mistake. childe proceeds to go on a thirty-minute long tangent about everything you’ve been through. also,, THIS IS EVERYTHING I WANTED TO SAY BUT LIKE IN A COMPREHENSIBLE WAY. you could bet and win that you’re still the topic of gossip in school reunions even after so many years. once THE school couple, always THE school couple.

AHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA YOUR WBC SEE HIS SHIT ASS FACE AND THEY’RE ALL ‘OH NO. HAH. NOT DEALING W THAT PIECE OF SHIT.’ guess you just have to live with the germs now 🤷‍♀️

[wearevillaneve]

Killing Eve S3, E5: “Are You From Pinner?“ should  really  be called “Killing Oksana.”

With “Are You From Pinner?” in the books, we are past the halfway mark of the Suzanne Heathcote era of Killing Eve and in some circles of the fandom, the hope is this wet firecracker of a season will blow up in the final three episodes.

Based upon what’ has come before, this may be a tad optimistic.   As erratic and disjointed as the preceding four episodes, E5 introduced something entirely new and different to Killing Eve.  A standalone showcase for Jodie Comer’s Villanelle without Eve or Dasha or Konstantin or any of the other regular cast to block the spotlight. Can you see the fatal error in all this?

Typically when something is dubbed a “shitshow” it’s meant metaphorically, but as one of the set pieces was Villanelle literally throwing shit, it becomes an accurate description.

Before we got to this point, the six-month time jump from the end of last season looked like a combination of a tactical error and a missed opportunity.   Instead of Villanelle returning to Russia to drop in on the home folks, there were a many more unanswered questions from “You’re Mine” in dire need of an explanation.

1.  Who rescued Eve found and transported her to the hospital?  The “lucky some tourists found you” one-liner by the late Kenny Stowton seems pretty flimsy.   Didn’t the Rome police have any questions about this Asian woman with amazing hair ended up in Hadrian’s Villa lying facedown in a pool of blood?  Was it a robbery?  Okay, so then did Eve have any money, passport or ID to get back to England once she healed sufficiently?  Did she receive any rehabilitative aftercare?   Is she on any pain-killing medicines?  What was her mental state after being shot by V?  What was her emotional and psychological state after slaughtering Raymond to save V?

2.  How did Niko get out of the storage locker?  Eve didn’t know where he was and neither did MI6.  Even if he was found by someone else, how did he explain away the small matter of Gemma’s rotting corpse? Niko griped to Eve that MI6 intervened to make it look like Gemma committed suicide to cover up the fact that not only can’t a spy agency catch an international assassin who kills British citizens at will, they later hired her to work on an off-the-book mission where a technocratic billionaire got his throat slit.  

Why would MI6 go through all that fuss and bother to cover up a murder of a civilian when it could easily be laid at Niko’s feet? His only defense is Gemma was killed by a beautiful blonde psychopath with a crush on his estranged wife.  Carolyn told Eve she was on her own after Rome.   What changed, because something must have for MI6 to ride to Niko’s rescue. 3. Isn’t The Twelve presented as this immense, almighty, sprawling international diabolical entity of murder, violence, and sowing chaos and espionage against nations with their dirty little fingers apparently manipulating every intelligence agency on the planet?  It also deploys assassins and goons too fucking stupid to look under a bed to find an unarmed MI6 agent hiding there quaking in fear OR recognize said agent when a thug asks her out for a sushi dinner.   Well, okay then. Killing Eve logic explains it all.  Returning back to this sluggish solo flight, Villanelle’s family in Mother Russia are a bunch of dopey dunces with anger management issues, poor self-control, and flat-earthers who break out in spontaneous dance routines while the prodigal trouble child, Oksana, looking like the Whitest White Girl Ever who tried to shake her moneymaker, but couldn’t because both of her feet were super-glued to the floor, stands by bewildered probably thinking, “Who the hell are you people?”

A few weeks ago rumors from not-very reliable sources were floating around that executive producer Sally Woodward Gentle had mused it might be conceivable Killing Eve could conceivably go on without one of the two leads.  Perhaps Woodward Gentle is hedging her bets should Comer or Oh not return after the fourth season. “Are You From Pinner” is proof that’s not true.  The show is called Killing Eve, not Killing Villanelle.  Though she has become the sun to Eve’s moon, there’s a reason for Eve Polastri to inhabit a central place in Villanelle’s life.   She is the other half which makes Villanelle whole.  Whether together or apart, what keeps the audience coming back is the strange relationship between Eve and Villanelle. Without Eve to humanize Villanelle, she become just another attractive, charismatic killer with a sad back story.   Yet Villanelle is not a Marvel super villain and many fans were perfectly fine with not knowing what it was in her past that made her who she is now.

Heathcote subverted expectations of another meeting between the central characters in episode 5 as her showrunner predecessors Emerald Fennell and Phoebe Waller-Bridge had done previously, but she went further by removing Eve completely.  Eve was not referenced a single time by Villanelle and weirdly, Sandra Oh and all the other cast members names were removed from the credits.  Heathcote’s erred by that omission as it reinforced the notion some KE fans have held that she and Fennell tilted the balance in favor of Comer’s character as Oh’s is diminished.  That may not have been the newest showrunner’s intention, but it certainly feeds the impression that it was. The conclusion of Villanelle killing her mother and burning down the house was a wrenching, powerful moment, but taken in totality of the entire show, not nearly enough to compensate for the lackluster and pointless set-up scenes.

What we learned from Oksana's origin story is you really can't go home again.  Fine, but why did that require an Eve-less episode to know that.  This all could have unfolded in the six-month jump after Rome as a sub-plot playing out over the first four episodes.   It didn’t justify a standalone showcase for Villanelle. 

All it did was blunt the equally affecting impact of Eve witnessing Niko’s death.  A better and much fairer approach would have been devote the first half to Eve grieving for her murdered husband and the second to Villanelle less-than-warm welcome home. Minus Eve,  and without Konstantin and no Dasha to exercise some guidance over the nuclear missile that is Villanelle, what you get is an unleashed assassin alternatively being childish, being a smart-ass, being mysterious, being fashionable, before inevitably turning murderous.

Most of the time it works and we forgive Villanelle her many trespasses  This time it face-planted despite a sensational closing sequence between Oksana and her mother.  Unfortunately, ten riveting minutes do not make up for the uninteresting 32 minutes which preceded it. 

Villanelle has become unstoppable in her homicidal tendencies.   She has morphed into a female Terminator who occasionally imitates human traits.  Nothing can stop her or barely slow her down.  She commits mayhem and slaughter like most of us breathe and suffers zero consequence for it.  The fact she took out her own mother should neither shock nor surprise. 

“Are You From Pinner?” demonstrates Villanelle’s complex charms shine most brightly in her interactions with Eve, Konstantin and Dasha. Remove them from the equation and even Comer’s wealth of talents are not enough to rise above flat, lifeless characters, muddled motivations and a plot which wavers between the comedic for too long and the tragic too late to register.    A friend said she didn’t much like “Are You From Pinner” but hoped it would be better after a second or third viewing.  I told sometimes a first impression is a right impression and that it was doubtful a third watch would help much.  How much subtlety and nuance is there to be found from a turd tossing contest? I can say with all confidence, I can't see myself watching this episode again.   Like ever.  If you got something out of this misfire and it touched your heart and made you squirt a tear for Oksana, more power to you.   All I got out of it was confirmation why the show is called Killing Eve and not Villanelle and Her Wacky Russian Family.   Come for the comedy.  Stay for the kills.  In a new interview for her Elle Canada cover story, Oh spoke of how she had reached a point in her life where she was not looking for the next big blockbuster movie, but interested in roles where her Korean American identity can be explored.  “I decided that I’m only going to play characters that are essential to the plot, that conduct the narrative and therefore can’t be cut out.” Eve is an essential character who conducts the narrative, and was cut out of the latest installment of the program that bears her name.   And that bothers me.   It bothers me a lot more than just a mediocre Killing Eve story.  I will never watch another Killing Eve which erases one of the female leads to elevate the other.    That is not how women empower women. 

FINAL GRADE: C 

[tartareus]

Do you condone/ship incest? I was reading your rules and got confused about your sentence where you said if people are uncomfortable with fictional consensual incest this isn’t the blog for you. Except Incest is incest regardless of if it’s fiction

hi there, friend, how do you do?

while i'm not particularly fond of anons (nex time you'd like to discuss something regarding my rules and/or character portrayal, i strongly encourage you to do so via ims - i don't bite, and if our points of view don't quite match? that's alright, i promise i'll leave you in peace :) ) for various reasons, i'm so glad you've read my rules (that probably makes you one of the few who follow me - at least i presume you do, idk - who has done so, so thank you so much!), i cannot stress enough how important they are to me. if i happen to follow you, rest assured that i have read yours (unless, ofc, i couldn't find one in your blog - in any case, if i happen to accidentally break one of yours, just hmu or gimme a nudge).

considering that you've asked more than one question, i'll answer to you in separate sections - needless to say that while i break it down your questions, the answer might become a little longer than usual (again, i'm sorry). i'll keep this tagged, in case any of my followers don't feel like reading about this. without further ado, let’s dive in.´

“do you condone/ship incest?”

short answer? nope. but that is not a black or white question i’m afraid. no, i – nox, the human behind this blog of fictional characters – personally do not condone incest , never have and never will, and  don’t ship it. i do, however, ship consanguinamory on rare occasions, and when i do happen to write it i never do it in a good light.

for those who are not familiar with the term, here’s a little bit of info about it x && x. in short, the key difference between them is: incest is usually linked abuse (a fictional example that can be used, taking in consideration one of my very own muses, in this case is margot verger – who was sadly abused by her brother in the hannibal books) while consanguinamory (the lannisters, for example, or even the sharpe siblings from crimson peak are examples of consanguineous relationships) is the consensual romantic and/or sexual relationship between members of the same family who are of consenting age.

[ personally, i find both of them gross as fuuck irl but when it comes to fictional works i may get over this first disgust and ponder more on that && take in consideration the characters arch, plot, thoughts and the whole world they are set in. ]

i suppose the turning point here is the consent. i never, never, condone any sort of abuse – not in fiction and neither in real life – and while it’s a subject that bothers me to no end in real life, when it comes to fiction i am less inclined to project into them. i may write dark and toxic relationships, but i obviously do not condone them. that’s the point here – people on this hellsite usually mix the two together (condoning something and shipping/writing it, that is) when in fact they shouldn’t even be in the same box to begin with.

let’s say you write a fictional serial killer – norman bates, tate langdon, hannibal lecter, catherine tramell (that chick from basic instinct), patrick bateman, mrs lovett and sweeney todd, kai anderson, bellatrix, grindelwald and voldemort (the list of plausible examples could go on forever…) – here and ship with them; does it mean that you, the writer, condone every single action and choice your muse does? if writing something purely fictional equals to condoning it in real life, well… the world is even more fucked up than i first thought.

you see, in this little exercise in imagination, you could’ve easily picked a good guy or gal to write, the hero; the goody two shoes. why didn’t you? well, it’s complicated to pin point why some are drawn to darker works of fiction and characters while others are not, i suppose each individual has their own reasons && i can only speak for myself when i say that i am drawn to these sort of fictional works because they the safest way to explore dark topics that pertain to human society. on my side, it’s nothing but raw curiosity.

there’s also the issue of how different cultures see these relationships. in case you haven’t noticed, i am not from the states but actually from brazil. especially in the rural area, it’s not uncommon for second cousins to date or even marry (ew, i know, pretty gross). that’s something that is luckily falling out of practice, but you can easily find it, more so in the poor rural areas that are really far from the cities.

you may have noticed that most of the sources for the terms come from a blog that advocates real life consanguinamory – but make no mistake, i don’t support it. these were the only places i’ve found as sources in a quick look online. i don’t support it irl, but whatever consenting adults are doing amongst themselves is no concern of mine – i have no say on the matter and all in all, i don’t give a damn. i just don’t like it. everything i’ve discussed here is related to fiction, consent and is only ever related to people of consenting age.

“i was reading your rules and got confused about your sentence where you said if people are uncomfortable with fictional consensual incest this isn’t the blog for you. except incest is incest regardless of if it’s fiction”

to be honest with you, anon, i couldn’t possibly see how you’ve got confused with this. i thought i was pretty clear with that, but perhaps not. sorry, my english is not perfect. however, with the risk of sounding like a meme, i said what i said. if you personally feel uncomfortable or even triggered with fictional consensual incest otherwise known as consanguinamory, maybe my blog isn’t for you. not because i – as the mun –  condone it, but because i might mention it or even allude to it when i write certain characters. again, consent is the main thing here – you won’t ever see me writing that awful part of margot’s past, but i might mention it on some threads as it is part of her trauma but i will write jaime’s feelings regarding cersei and joanna’s love for tywin – and that should not be overlooked.

“except incest is incest regardless of if it’s fiction” 

so far so good, am i to assume that you also believe that “murder is murder, regardless of if it is fiction or not”? should we call the police on, idk, george rr martin for killing....hell knows how many characters...at this point i’m sure not even he knows. leaving my petty comment aside (it’s the arthritis, i’m always annoyed when in pain), i see where you’re coming from; fair enough.  but you missed a big point here – consensual. i do not write abuse, even to the muses who – in the canon source material – have done so    ( like jaime lannister himself – who’s in a consanguinamorous [therefore, falling under the category of fictional consensual incest] relationship with cersei – who abused his sister next to their son’s dead body [ yeah, jaime apologists, i’m out to get y’all...jokes aside, i do not acknowledge people claiming that cersei manipulated him into going to bed with her, while they are both shitty and toxic as fuck people, their relationship is mutually messed up – gag if you must but jaime lannister is far from innocent angel ] )     in the past. i. don’t. write. it. but i do write jaime’s feelings for cersei because they are canon and are also a big part of the character he became.

all of that, of course, has to do with my own position on the “war” between the people who believe fiction has a great power and influence over reality vs the ones who do not believe in that. personally, i find it hard to believe that fiction is a brainwashing tool rewiring people’s brains  - i find the idea itself ludicrous, the ones who strongly stand for that aren’t that different from flat-earthers and people who believe in reverse racism tbh – but i do acknowledge the influence media has on society. its not nearly enough to turn someone to the “dark side” alone by itself – those who claim that videogames, for example, made them violent most likely already had something different and perhaps wrong with them before the games triggered something. i don’t believe that media creates things on people, but brings buried things (fears, feelings, emotions, hopes) back to the surface. it’s all about the stimulus.

if you wanna be scared, watch an horror movie; if you wanna be happy, a comedy video.  wanna feel warm inside and live unrealistic romantic expectations vicariously through fictional characters? read a 50.000 words slow burn fluffy happy fanfic of your otp at 3 am even though you gotta wake up early in the following morning....

point is, they are not creating things, they are bringing forth responses from you that were already there in your brain (everybody has laughed before and felt fear, it’s part of human development). and how you react to certain content is entirely to you and your past. say, if you drowned as a kid on the sea - and had trauma from that - the idea of watching titanic is not so fun, is it?

it’s not my place to decide what you should do, that is entirely your own choice to make, just be aware that, as i’ve stated before countless times, i may write dark topics that may or may not be triggering to some.  i do so because it is my blog, and i don’t react so harshly to this content (in fact, i love horror, thriller and dark fictional stuff – meanwhile i dread the thought of rom coms, hell knows why??) for i am lucky to be able to separate fiction from reality. basically, whilst writing a villain, i myself do not become one in real life – that part remains in fiction only and doesn’t affect me.

that is not a constant, sure. i don’t just write dark shady stuff – there’s plenty of fluffy shit on my blog, but i like to warn people beforehand to make sure we are all on the same page. it’s for your own comfort, i suppose, because i may not understand certain points of view on fiction but i will always defend your right to be comfortable and safe.

so yes, if you aren’t feeling well at that notion, please unfollow and block me if you must – i never wish to cause any discomfort to anyone – however, before you do so (that is, if you do so) i beg you to just send me an im warning me beforehand, please? that way i can block you – and your other blogs as well – so the chances of me running into you again and causing you discomfort will be minimal. that way we’ll both be on own respective lanes and happy about it. i mass follow very often and don’t usually know which blogs belong to whom (uh, did that make sense? my latina ass is not used to using whom in a sentence....), i may follow another blog (or the revamped blog) of someone who has blocked me and never even realise it – that’s not me following you around and stalking like a total creep, that’s probably me not even remembering who you are. again, sorry – i don’t mean for this to come off rude or anything but???? its the truth? you know the drill, big following list, big followers list (well, big for me tbh, i cannot remember the name or alias of 600 people for the life of me, excuse me if my memory doesn’t serve me right), hard to keep track. there will be no witch hunts, at least on my part, because i deem them to be childish and way too dramatic for my taste. if you’d like to speak in private, adult to adult, i’m always game – i dread vague posting, i personally see it as a pathetic and weak trait. 

as long as you’re civil, so am i.

either way, do whatever makes you feel comfortable and safe on your blog – your  mental health is far more important (to me, and hopefully to you as well) than a hobby, than tumblr, rp or whatever fictional stuff someone’s writing or reading; you are responsible for your own online experience, and i am responsible for mine. that’s an empowering thing that should be reminded more often.

i truly hope i’ve managed to answer whatever doubts or questions you had in mind, if not my ims are always open and so is my discord. once again, thank you for reading my rules and stay safe!

edit; my dumb ass forgot to drop my disco handle, since i change often. it currently is   DOCTOR BITCHCRAFT !!! | 𝒏𝒐𝒙#1398

[sagamemes]

disastrio’s 'the pin list’ text starters.   below and under the cut, you can find ~100 messages dug up from the pins of the cursed group chat of three international friends. slightly edited for roleplay purposes. spelling errors opted to keep in tact to maintain the Energy(tm). edit as you please. tw: nsfw, mention of abuse.

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   u should know by now i'm not as much a complete person as i am several sitcom tropes stacked in an anxiety blanket

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   things that should not be present in making spaghetti and meatballs: sparks   [ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   things that were present when i was making spaghetti and meatballs two minutes ago: sparks

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   give it a good deep fry and it'll make reddit front page

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   you piece of fuck

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   i'm not making this up it's a real post

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   i just really don't like the look of american hollywood boys apparently

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   quit trying to post porn [name]

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   what's deeper than emotional? are you going to /fuck/ the house?

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   i genuinely don't know what i expected googling that thing but that was not it

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   i legitimately don't know how you're expecting me to reply to this

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   i'm setting up my bfu episode

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   u might finally be free of "[full name] fucks."

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   plural of jerry's is jerry'ses

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   you're sharing so there's a trail in case someone ( maybe yourself ) goes missing when ur backs are turned

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   i have yet to whip out dicks young lady

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   lizard brayo

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   fuck the fuck off tunglr

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   what are Christmas goblins if not depression goblins with prettier aesthetics

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   we're just two bitches trying to watch [actor] and then go to bed

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   maybe complaining is what gets it off.

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   well yeah, it's hard to knock on a door that doesn't exist

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   murdered by demons is our go-to

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   we sound like the casting calls for the leads of the same gay cowboy movie

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   any blanket is a weighted blanket when u carry the weight of ur sins

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   We have some Amazing 🌈Bottoms🌈

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   [name] i am confiscating ur thumbstacks

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   YOUR HUBRIS BECAME YOUR DOWNFALL

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   what can i say i'm a sexual deviant and i can't be stopped

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   the stars neglected me. they haven't assigned me a fetish

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   i'm pretty sure 'you are going to be the death of me' was like. the disclaimer of this entire squad

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   swipe right if you dare!

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   but it tracks for the pachycephalosaurus

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   I SWEAR TO JESUS FUCKING CHRIST

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   this chat is going to give me an aneurysm

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   "fully automated luxury gay space communism" is the best tag i've ever seen

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   why don't you have a stockpile of mothman memes

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   i really do owe my life to the aesthetic

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   u coax the worst things out of my mouth and then [screenshot/save/pin] them to record my mistakes

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   ur not allowed to die its just the rules

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   you two are going to be the death of me

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   why are you paying for microsoft office in 2019

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   it's nearly [zodiac] season, bitches

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   i see your "will make content for rarepairs" and i raise you "will make content for pairs literally no one has ever considered and probably for a good reason"

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   i was DOOMED and thus so are all of u

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   i am going to snap your fingernails vertically in half

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   own that garbage

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   oh fuck that suck

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   we were building a desert set which was less exciting and more construct-y but it did lead to the following conversation:   [ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   guy walking in: chickenwire, huh. what's gonna come out of that?   [ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   me: quicksand

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   viva la resistance motherfuckers

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   well the ass and the face are the most disturbing part

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   it was still very much about the shape of his teeth

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   a real whoosy boi

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   if i suffer y'all suffer that's the rules

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   also icb ur liveblogging your crime

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   granted i do still want the [body part(s)] to be attached to the person and not just laying around somewhere

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   i'm gonna go with "have repressed all memories of this by tomorrow and even looking at this conversation for context isn't going to provide us with information"

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   ... Well if u ever commit a crime and need to change ur hair ur all set

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   oh god i'd completely forgotten about the teeth conversation

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   something about that ass Haunts me

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   [name]'s teeth are,,,,,,, h*t

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   ur not late, any time is a good time to hate capitalism

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   oh shit [name]s pulling out the big guns

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   listen as far as the things you could come back to go i think this is a good one

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   Amateur theatre energy is alarmingly similar to redneck ingenuity energy

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   threat acknowledged

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   i take it back i don't want any more information

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   what do we say to the god of baby germs

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   and then Goth happened

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   turn everything into a photishooot

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   but u also would have got pictures of me depositing the tiger in the cow shed

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   i feel like you constantly forget that i'm always full of Good Points

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   you want to punish urself by seeking unhealthy relationships. also the stars say u may want to have ur feet fucked

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   "white orc sex slave" is not a phrase i thought i'd hear today

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   yeah raw sexual energy

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   [name] perks up at the mention of lying to the fbi lmao

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   yall are dumb and i love u

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   HOW CRYPTID IS THE COWBOY IF U CAN TELL HE'S INDIFFERENT

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   [image file saying 'mothman respects your position but must express his dissent. also you're going to die.]

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   ...do i need to make the vampire joke

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   ur amazing and so good and so important and lowkey i'm crying abt how much i love u and u deserve every good thing i love u thanks for coming to my ted talk

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   look me in the eyes and tell me steve wouldn't crawl up thanos's butthole to save the world and get bucky back

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   [name] i am going to choke you

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   my brain was immediately with "she took the shirt off to wipe away the blood of someone, possibly someone she murdered, and then had to put the shirt back on

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   i literally never know what i'm going to come back to when i open this chat

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   i make no excuses for who i am as a person

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   i am going to jump off the edge of the earth.   [ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   and that's not me saying flat earthers are right that's me saying i will flatten it myself and then jump off

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   i'm trying to show sympathy you fuck

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   what can i say, i'm an escapist bitch

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   i never want to see dick and clown in the same sentence ever again

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   oh fuck off. i don't know what they've done but it's [name] so it's gonna be bad.

[ 𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃 ]   icb we have a test run on new year's eve

[sunflowers-in-moonlight]

Reasons why my ass will never fit in anywhere:

I HATE EXTREMES

I like both liberal and conservative beliefs, but I also hate both liberal and conservative beliefs. Anyone who is on one extreme or the other, I most likely will not get along with.

I consider myself Christian. But ya know what, I dislike a lot of Christians. Oh boy do I love my god! But sometimes Christian's can be such a-holes.

Oh, and I may believe in god, but I love learning about other beliefs. Especially witchcraft. Magic gets them nips hard 😆

Oh yeah and I have a very non Christian sense of humor.

Humor is very important to me. It's the only way I can cope with this fucked up life.

I'm a gun loving vegan who is pro life and, yes go ahead and send me hateful messages about how stupid I am, I am kind of anti feminist as well. Do I believe in equality? yes. I am all for equality. Do I believe feminists now days believe in equality? Sorry but not really. Will I hate you if you call yourself a feminist? Nah, that would be stupid. But if you hate me for not calling myself a feminist, we won't get along. And if you're a guy who makes fun of women, we also won't get along.

I am pro gun because I believe we should be able to defend ourselves. But I don't believe that we should use them for hunting. I understand hunting for survival. But if you hunt for sport and find it fun, you either don't know any better because you grew up in a home where that was normalized (I've been there) or you're a fucking psychopath.

If you laugh at or get offended by people having compassion for children or animals, we can't be friends.

Am I a crazy person who believes in conspiracy theories? Sometimes. One thing I know for sure is I'm not a flat earther. But I do think it's crazy if you don't believe in the possibility of aliens. I MEAN COME ON THERE'S SO MANY PLANETS OUT THERE AND YOU'RE TELLING ME THAT EARTH IS THE ONLY ONE WITH LIFE ON IT??

Doubt it.

I'm all for body positivity. If you can love yourself for who you are, that is absolutely great and I love that. But don't go around talking shit and bashing people who want to wear makeup, get plastic surgery or promote getting healthy. People can do whatever makes them happy as long as they aren't physically harming someone. The idea that someone getting surgery or talking about health will hurt some insecure person's feelings so we shouldn't do it is just ridiculous. Someone who is insecure will most likely be hurt by a lot of things. It's no reason to attack someone. So basically positivity isn't just for those who are anti makeup or anti surgery. Guys, let's stop bashing people for wearing makeup or getting a nose job. Its getting really annoying and its turning into bullying. Instead of bashing, let's lift each other up and be encouraging.

I am bisexual. Because equality haha but that's really not something that is accepted by Christians. So I don't really go to church. I don't really feel welcome.

I love deep conversations. I'm okay with small talk. But I'm not really interested in a friendship where that's all there is to it. Sure I'll pick up the phone and ask how your day is going and ask what you've been up to. But I also love when someone goes "so I've been thinking a lot lately about past lives and shit" or talk about your likes/dislikes. Let's talk about fears or places you'd like to travel. Would you rather questions and jokes that make zero sense but they make you laugh so hard it hurts. What dreams have you had this week and do you think they mean anything? Just deep shit mixed in with some casual "I just found something new at the store and i love it" whether that's a new vegan product, paintbrushes, a crystal.. idc I just love hearing about beliefs and things that make you happy.

Also if you like going shooting and want a buddy to tag along, I'll totally go. I'll also go shopping. Just because I like guns and getting my hands dirty doesn't mean I don't want to go to the mall and find cute shit.

On the negative side, sometimes I get angry at those that lack compassion and empathy. Narcissists really get my blood boiling. But I also really hate when people who are just looking to get angry over every little thing call themselves empaths. You aren't an empath, you just like complaining about everything and talking crap about others to feel better about yourself. A lot of these "empaths" have very narcissistic traits.

Oh yeah, I grew up with covert narcissistic siblings. So you could say I'm very fucked up emotionally and probably have some toxic traits because of my childhood. But you know what, it's also made me very understanding and less judgmental of some people. It's made me realize that you can't always trust anyone and that sometimes the people that you think are bad, are really just the victim.

Also, I may sound very narcissistic right now writing all this shit about myself, but you know what? I actually never really talk about myself that much. I never open up and I never tell people who I really am because I'm always scared that people will think I only care about myself. But thats not the case. I really hope that someday I can find someone who can know all of this about me be like "hey me too" and actually understand what its like. I love my husband so much. He's always been supportive of me and the least judgmental out of everyone in my life. But sometimes it gets so lonely because it feels like no one fully understands. Almost everyone hates me for not taking sides. Someone will hate me for being shy because i don't ever text or call or start a conversation. It's not because I don't like you, its because I don't want to bother you. And no matter how much you tell me that I'm not bothering you, I will always still feel like I'm bothering you. One of my toxic traits lol And others will hate me for opening up and telling them my beliefs because I'm either dumb for caring about animals or I'm dumb for being pro life or I'm a sinner because I don't fit and this perfect little box that Christians want me to fit into blah blah blah.

So far it feels like I'm screwed either way.

If anyone sees this and goes "dude me too" tell me about it. I want to find my tribe. Even if my vibe is a little all over the place lol I hope to find those like me. People who love balance, deep conversations, and don't mind going a while without talking but pick right back where we left off because grudges suck and real friends don't have to talk 24/7 to be real friends 😁

Hopefully I don't sound too much like a bitch. Lol

[fae-fucker]

Zenith: Chapter 45-48

Chapter 45

Nor is floating in a super sci-fi space carriage over the last remaining “wealthy” city on Xen Ptera, which is apparently so garbage only a few people have roofs over their heads. She thinks about how much she loves her people and how she’s doing this for them, except she purposefully floats just out of reach of their poor-people hands and throws food and “med kits” at them so they’ll follow. 

Darai is very confused by this, because Shinsay desperately need Nor to seem complex and intelligent. She compares her people to an [incidental space animal] she got from her father as a child.

“I fed it,” she explained. “Give a pet food, Darai, and it will do anything to stay by your side. Starve it or beat it, and it will begin to fear your very existence, only coming out of hiding in the moments when you have something to give and it to take.” 

“I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

[...]

“The people of Xen Ptera are my responsibility now. But more than that, they are my soldiers, and I wish for them to follow me always. No matter how dark the path I choose to walk upon.”

Yes, this makes so much sense. First you let your people starve and get radiation poisoning, but then you throw scraps at their feet and obviously peasants are food-motivated like kittens and will absolutely do as you say. 

Except this doesn’t make any fucking sense for many, many reasons. 

1) Darai complains about the fact that these rations are used for scientists and soldiers. Which he’s right about. If Nor has an army and scientists, those people tend to be far more useful in, say, a war, than a bunch of mutated and starving peasants. 

2) I dunno if Shinsay have read any history ever, but when large masses of people get hungry, they don’t just sit there, they turn on the few people in power who still have food and resources. These peasants would turn on Nor the moment someone else provided better food. I’m just saying that Nor’s neck accessory wouldn’t be a spiked collar but a guillotine.

3) Don’t you have that Zenith stuff? The stuff that can make people into brainwashed robots with a single drop? Release that shit into the atmosphere and save your food and “med kits” for the few actually crucial people who need it.

3.5) If you’re only going to use it on enemies to convert them, why bother with your people in the first place? Despite what Nor is claiming, her “love” for her people is token at best and her priority lies in revenge, not recovery.

4) Also it’s so transparent that they only wrote this to make Nor look smart, because they purposefully made Darai into an idiot who doesn’t understand basic concepts when he previously was written as an older, intelligent advisor.

Nor arrives at the old palace ruins and it’s all very sad and angsty, complete with special Backstory Flowers that used to Bloom but Don’t Anymore because the Environment got Too Tragic, and flashbacks to that time her hand and also her dad were crushed under rubble. We find out that the crowd gathered here are just “thousands” of people, and Nor refers to them as her “army.” Okay. 

Nor gets stage fright when the crowd is silent and doesn’t instantly love her because she has the confidence of a highschooler asking someone out to prom, and decides to snap her golden hand off to prove to her people that she’s “their equal,” which works for some reason even though the narration acknowledges it as a lie. 

Obviously starving people seeing this LITERALLY GOLDEN woman who just shat out a bunch of free food from her floating carriage will definitely 100% swallow her little speech about how they have to take revenge. Even the mothers holding up their starving infants! We all know people who are starving want revenge before a sandwich. The blood of my enemies? I call it vengeance ketchup.

She shows Zenith to the crowd which they totally understand what it is right away from afar and how it works and what it has to do with literally anything.

“Remember, Xen Pterrans, and never forget, that even the stars can bleed!”

The royal entourage pack up and Nor says she wants a crown forged for herself because “every queen needs one” and: 

“I want to wear it while we feast on the galaxy’s bones.”

Cool. 

Chapter 46

We’re in Lira’s POV while she’s doing what she does best: moping off on her own. I guess she’s not very special in that regard. She’s thinking about how she loves to fly because the sky has no limits and the ground is confusing. Aight.

The gang seems to have gotten off without any punishment for crashing into a village and are now staying at the very center of power of Adhira, this mountain palace called Rhymore. It’s very pretty and yadda yadda, I skipped 90% of the description because literally whomst careth. 

One important detail to keep in mind is that we find out varillium, the glass-like substance that the Marauder is made of is, like M. Night Shyamalan’s movie starring Bruce Willis, unbreakable. You know, which is why they need those metal shields around the damn thing. Thanks guys, this makes total sense.

Lira looks into an “eyeglass” and sees literally all of Adhira like a tiny map. Either Shinsay are confused about what a telescope does, or they’re flat-earthers. And yeah, she literally sees cities, waterfalls, rainforests, deserts ... This is after we’ve established she’s in a mountainous area.

All the descriptions read like screensavers and are just as relevant to the story so I’ll just skip them. 

Lira is ambushed by her twin brother Lon, who is the owner of that sarcastic soul we’ve heard so much about. 

He was at least a head taller than her now, his pale blue arms rippling with muscle, spreading up into a thick neck and strong shoulders.

This description bothers me and I don’t know why. 

The conversation quickly turns all mopey and Lon says Lira has abandoned her people and himself, to which she replies she was only protecting him from WHAT SHE’S BECOME (wake me up inside). We then get a random infodump about how the Adhiran queen is super great and loving and a perfect leader. Not perfect enough to abdicate the throne but I don’t think Shinsay thought that far. Monarchy good if monarchs good, obviously.

Lon is all “ur still my sister until the mountain falls uwu” and Lira is like “omg stop guilt-tripping meee” and we’re informed there’s gonna be a “peace festival” soon that celebrates the end of the war against Xen Ptera. How convenient that their ship would randomly malfunction right before this event. :)

Lira says she wants to tell him only the good stuff of what’s happened while she was away and says that she’s been using Moon Chew, which is Bad for Reasons, and she knows Lon uses it too but keeps it a secret from the queen aka their aunt. Lon asks about what “led” Lira to using it and I’m just baffled by the fact that we still don’t know what the fuck Moon Chew is or what it does, and why, if it’s something so terrible that one must be “led” to using it, they’re talking about it like it’s some unhealthy fast food their aunt frowns upon and not, say, a drug? 

Anyway, Lira tells him of their adventures and it sounds way more interesting than anything we’ve read so far. Then we get this:

Lon always knew that Lira harbored a darkness in her soul. A little tug, a tiny whisper at the back of her mind, that led her to go above and beyond the pranks that Lon had always pulled while they were growing up here. 

She’d fallen, not for a lover, but for the skies. For adventure. 

She’d found a ship full of girls with their own affinity for darkness to mirror her own.

So I recently found out that there’s supposedly an “asexual” alien in the crew of the Marauder, and that member is apparently Lira. I think this idea is reinforced by the “fallen but not for a lover” line.

Framing her wanting to explore the world on her own and go her own way, comparing it to falling in love but not with another person but with a concept, as a darkness in her soul? 

Not a good look.

Anyway, Lon decides after all this time that apparently Lira was always meant to fly and tells her that her aunt wants to see her.

This is plot?

Chapter 47

We’re in Valen’s POV. He wakes up and is in pain but not enough to avoid noticing that he’s in a fluffy bed and outside there is [insert generic description of pretty place here] and it’s so pretty he could never paint it, because he’s a painter and he can’t relate anything in his life to anything but painting.

The Adhiran queen is there and she’s very pretty. She asks him about the last thing he remembers, which is Nor, and it sends him into a ... flashback? Basically he starts freaking out that this isn’t real and they sedate him again and the last thing he sees is

[...] Androma Racella leaning forward from the shadows across the room, half of her face aglow as sunlight spilled across her skin like paint.

You know, because he’s a painter!

Chapter 48

We’re back with Lira, who starts the second chapter like she started the previous one, complaining about how being planetside is the worst. Yep, we get it. It’s the worst. Cuz she’s a pilot. 

Painters be painting. Pilots be piloting. If your characters don’t constantly refer back to their one defining characteristic, how will be able to tell them apart? 

Anywho, Lira finally gets to the queen.

Alara was beautiful in every sense of the word, inside and out. She had a lithe frame, perfectly proportioned, and no scales on her skin.

PERFECTLY PROPORTIONED

What in the everloving fuck does that even mean? :’) Probably just means she’s skinny.

And of course she has no scales, only evil people and/or “morally grey” people can have imperfections. How do we know someone is good unless they have flawless skin?

Lira had always admired Alara’s beauty, but it paled in comparison to the woman’s intelligence.

Shinsay, slapping us all with a big purple dildo: THIS IS FEMINISM. 

“She’s absolutely good and perfect and INTELLIGENT because women don’t have to be pretty to be smart and we totes value things other than beauty, but let us constantly describe how absolutely fucking DICK-OUT-HOT this Generic Good Queen is, in case you ever doubted it.”

👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌

And, yeah, Nor is also described as hot, but like, evil hot. Sexualized and sexual and dangerous and GASP OMG SHE HAS A GOLD HAND. GGQ straight up glows, that’s how good she is.

Generic Good Queen addresses Lira as “Lirana” which, yeah, ok, and we get this:

“I’ve just had a rather unfortunate conversation with Valen Cortas, the poor, tortured soul, so spare me whatever dramatic greeting you must have prepared.”

You know what? Maybe Generic Good Queen ain’t so bad after all. 

YOU TELL HER, GGQ.