#i dont think any of my answers are coherent but thats ok <3< /div> Explore tagged Tumblr posts

[mythalism]

more me verbally processing my feelings on this game and it's story that i sent in discord but i know reading these things can be helpful to others processing so im sharing them here <3

even though i think i personally am able to find coherent meaning in solas's ending, specifically the status of the veil, and i do think its good and i like it, i really have to work to do it. the way its written is kind of confusing because the message is like ok. let go of your regrets. but you also have to atone for your mistakes. but solas believes he is atoning by taking the veil back down and bringing immortality back and making sure more spirits are not turned into demons? but the story tells us that version of atonement is Wrong, but why is it wrong? because people will die? but people also die because of the veil? mages are mass incarcerated and lobotimized bc of the veil, elves have been enslaved for millenia, PEOPLE AGE AND DIE, BECAUSE OF THE VEIL? so he isnt supposed to atone for that mistake by fixing it he's just supposed to accept it and let go? so are we supposed to atone for our mistakes or not? what determines whether or not we need to atone? he has to atone for what he did to the titans but not what he did by accident to his own people i guess? and he is going to atone by maintaining the status quo that he created because people have gotten used to it?

i think the answer based on the regret prison scene with rook escaping with varric's help and that banger line of varric's is to take accountability and own up to your choices, they are yours and no one can take them from you. rook says something to one of the regret statues (for me it was harding) thats like "i made a choice and so did you and you knew the risks" or something so i think that is the key. solas cannot accept his choices and so he is desperate to undo them no matter what kind of harm it may do. he is trapped in regret and the past to the point that he cant accept them and move forward, and varric is the perfect contrast of this with how readily he accepts his death as a consequence of his love and hope for his friend. even mythal accepts her own choices when she tells solas that she turned him from his purpose. and she doesnt apologize or even express regret at all, partly because shes a crazy bitch (affectionate) but partly because i think her quiet, cold acceptance is part of the lesson solas needs to learn in that moment. solas is constantly saying, "im sorry, but", "ir abelas, vhenan, but i cannot". mythal just states her actions plainly; i forced you to take a body, i brought you into war, these burdens are ours to bear together, i release you. no apology, no rumination, she is at peace with her decision even though it is wrong. i think this works wonderfully on a personal individual level of personal regrets. it is a good lesson; regret does not serve any purpose other than to hurt you. it brings no one back, it helps nothing, it does not make the world a better place. solas has to let go of his regrets so that he can become the hero that varric sees deep down in him. it is an essential part of his personal journey as a character... but it gets stickier when we are talking about systemic change. obvi a lot of dragon age's modern, young audience is very much in favor of "tear it all down!!" and i am too but i think with solas they are trying to tell a very personal and individual story of a man and his regrets rather than make a social commentary on radical change, but they also dont make that clear enough, so the two get muddied together when it comes to the question of the veil in a way that feels like they are advocating for maintaining the status quo, which i dont think was their intention.

i think this is so muddied because inquisition very much makes clear commentary on systems and institutions with the chantry, the orlesian empire, ferelden monarchy, mages and templars, and the inquisition itself being all vulnerable to corruption, and solas has a lot to say about all of this and he is very much presented as being right (like when he tells you about the corruption in your own ranks in trespasser and how hes spying on you lol) and then veilguard does not do this AT ALL, all of the issues are very personal ones of people and their identity, people and their family, people and their regrets etc. so i think a lot of us are in this mindset from inquisition of like.... yeah disrupt the status quo install a puppetmaster elf to rule an imperialist empire, make leliana pope and radicalize the chantry even if its bloody, dissolve the inquisition, abolish the circles etc. etc. and the question of the veil is very much an extension of these philosophical questions about systems and organizations. and for those of us who leaned towards dissolution of all of those corrupt structures, dissolution of the veil is the logical conclusion to a story thats sending us that message. but then veilguard just. does not even engage with these topics at all. like its not even a question. it takes the question of the veil and translates it into a personal issue of solas's psyche (which is super interesting, just different) and connects it to his past actions, his relationship with mythal, and his perception of himself, rather than a macro-level question of what is best for the world when pursuing change, and the answer for solas on a personal level ends up being different from the answer that inquisition was asking us, but it feels disjointed as a result.

so the veil staying up was the right decision because it forced solas to let go of his regrets and the game is about him. so it was an exercise in his therapy session with his two ex-gfs and some annoying kid who wont leave him alone. but the problem is it doesn't answer or engage with the greater questions and themes about systemic change that the series has been building up to.

veilguard is interesting because it wants to be dragon age 2 so bad while simultaneously being terrified of dragon age 2. solas bringing down the veil would have been the answer to the question that anders blowing up the chantry asked, but veilguard decided to ask a completely different question instead. and i think it did a good job in that specific goal, but it doesnt satisfy 15 years of build up and instead just throws it out the window in favor of something else.

[pup-pee]

HAIIII :3 SPINS U!!!! HOW DO U MAKE UR BUTTONSSS, THEYRE SO NEAT ^_^

HAWOO!!! SPINS BACK @ U TYSM AA （＾∀＾●）ﾉｼ

NGL MY PROCESS IS SO MESSY(as in IM MEsSY & CANT EXPLAIN COHERENTLY) BUT ILL TRY 2 EXPLAIN IT!

((this got unnecessarily long bc i like 2 ramble so im doing this))

so-SO 1st is that all i was just handed a cookie hold on ok cookie ate i 4got what i was OH RIGHT OK SO ALL OF MY DRAWINGS R 1000 x 1000 pixals! or most @ least, so i have a consistent size 4 each of my buttons

HERES THE TIMBER BUTTON IM MAKING!! i dont use bigger canvus bc my phone will explode in not the silly way but i also like how it turns out!

i draw everything in ibis then like copy + paste it in2 google docs where i can size them! i usually make them a bit bigger than whats listed, 4 example 2.5 inch buttons r printed in 2.55/2.6 inches if that makes any sense (￣▽￣)"

i also select break text bc i tetris them around

then i print them out & use a cookie cutter thing 2 cut them out! i have a button pressing machine(all manual bc im not that rich) so its all about sandwiching from there

i could fill the whole page w/that pink background to give me a "cleaner" result but honestly i dont think it changes anything? as long as u dont see the white on the front. but it IS easier 2 cut it out if the border is thicker(which is y i add a border in the 1st place plus it looks neat!)

((this 1 got messed up in printing but since im not selling it i rly dont care LOOK @ THE CUTIES!)

sometimes the machine cramps up or i will 4get the film ontop so i have 2 redo the entire process again but i like repeated activities!

ISTG THEY LOOK SO MUHC BETTER IRL MY CAMERAS JUST SHIT & I HAVE NO LIGHT LSKAHFKD BUT YEAH!!!

did this make any goddamn sense? i hope so. btw my button machines name is huey :3

this coouldve been more of an ask on how i draw my buttons but ong thats even mroe boring so- dsakjdghj cause it literally jsut consists of me listening 2 wtnv dramatically & drawing @ like 1 am 4 4 hrs straight

KHFSKAG ANYWAYS I HOPE THIS ANSWERED SOMETHING!! SRRY 4 THE LONG(GER) POST TY 4 HTE ASK AGAIN! q(≧▽≦q)

[seijch]

11, 13, and 15!

ask me some mildly intrusive questions !!

11. what are your ambitions?

ummmmm .... if you asked me this in middle school i think i wouldve had an answer for you :/// back then i rlly thot i was Destined for Greatness yk ... i was like yooo im going to brown for college n itll be nice 😐 but then reality hit and i ended up not even applying bc theres no way i wouldve gotten in LMAO so i guess my answer is uh . i dont know? part of the reason i didnt just outright declare myself a stem major (it would prob be smth like biotechnology bc i have some experience in that field) was because i wanted to kinda broaden my horizons and see if there was anything else out there for me !!!

13. what is one thing you’ll never do again?

HOOOO lmao ok i mention it sometimes but my first boyfriend was clingy as all hell and isolated me from my friends (!!!!!) and this all kinda culminated in the worst point of my life to date so ... im never going to date someone like that ever again LMAO

15. what is your favorite memory?

i actually have quite a few! the one that comes to mind is from sept 2019 or so aka the beginning of my senior year nd actually doesnt involve any of my main friends at all (snfkjdsfs oops) but in my ap physics class, six of us had formed a study group (i was super for it bc even tho i hated physics i liked one of the ppl in the group at the time LMDSKDHJS) and wed just finished our first (and tbh only :/ turns out its hard to coordinate the schedules of 6 ppl who are actively involved in clubs and work and have other obligations) study session ...

four of the ppl in the group (myself included) were also a part of our senior hoco float committee n one of them was like ok im going to leave early bc he was super involved w it which left the three of us like .... ngl we kinda dont want to go LMAO so after the rest of the study group disbanded the three of us just kinda ... skipped for hours NSKJDFSDK we went to go get lunch and then rlly just drove around before realizing we should prob pick up supplies to still look useful nksdfsndk which led us to going to walmart and home depot and later 7-11 for drinks before we got back ........... it was rlly fun and i talked to one of the ppl involved after n we both agreed it was very like . out of a coming of age movie 🥺 which was rlly important for us because both of us have pretty strict parents so we didnt rlly get to just Be Teenagers like that yk? its one of my favorite memories (and the parts of senior year that i did get are very much That Vibe ... even tho i didnt get to FINISH my senior year properly due to covid im glad to have gotten what i did!)

[animalinvestigator]

Hi anonymous, i’m answering this question in a weird way because I don’t want people to be searching a name and finding me talking about media, it’s a rule i typically stick to. for context this ask is about the allusions to a real world abuse case in pscop. Im putting it under the cut because it’s heavy & i dont know what to tag it so be careful reading it if the stiuation is upsetting to you too ok fellow users on tumblr

obviously it’s something i’ve always been horrified by -- not necessarily surprised by, roping real-world tragedies into unfiction and args has kind of chronically been an issue (And it still happens to this day), but it’s still EXTREMELY upsetting to me and has been since i was a kid coming across it for the first time, and the instace in petscop is particularly egregious. the only reason i have ever been comfortable continuing to engage with it in spite of the allusions is because they were completely dropped ~1/3 of the way through the series and an apology was issued (albeit a pretty wimpy one) , but it definitely upsets me like, a lot, and the negative impacts associated w/ those first few episodes are not lost on me. Even though there was an attempt at a reversal, in a lot of ways, the damage was already done, and you can still see it continuing to be done in some places online. i think anyone who’s having anything but an incredibly negative response to it has their head in a hole about it and is being very irresponsible. it’s genuinely baffling to me that it was ever considered an okay thing to do. the only thing worse than it being included in the first place was the way “theory” youtubers & the general public reacted to it, it was an unbelievably horrible situation that never should have happened & i do hold a lot of disdain towards the guy who made petscop because of it still. even after seeing this person taking action to undo some of the harm, its hard to feel anything but “mostly negative” about someone who makes a decision like that, even if his art is really influential to me.

ultimately if someone can’t reconcile with that, i think that’s more than reasonable , & i think people should be mad about it, & anyone trying to apologize for it is being negligent. if you’re conflcited about it, i think you should be. i’m conflicted too. ive spent a lot of time thinking about it. its a given that if you’re going to choose to engage with it, you have a responsibility to be mindful of this, even though it doesn’t have much bearing on the literal story. “being critical of your interests” as it were. which is why you will see me not using specific words that appear in the early series. and i encourage everyone else to consider doing the same. the harm can’t be undone and the art can’t be removed from the world now that it’s in it, so i’ve always considered the best course of action to be trying to remove the association between the art and those early allusions as much as possible, so that someday the real person’s life won’t ever be associated with the webseries again. which means removing words from your vocabulary. does that make any sense?

anyway it’s upsetting to me, and hard for me to talk about, but important for me to talk about , i’ve talked about it in the past but i honestly ought to talk about it more because thats my responsibility as someone who’s introduced a lot of people to the artwork (Although i don’t necessarily intend to). hope that was coherent and makes sense. if you’d like to talk to me more about it please do feel free to send further asks. hope you have a good day too

[smallestclowninthecircus]

Season 3 notes popping off

due to my desire to not completely fail all my classes this year i made myself slow down significantly while listening to this season, and the fact that the other person i'm listening along with had to catch up. We've managed to convert several other people to start listening and its pretty great.

ep 81: what does it even mean to be chosen by one of them? And if he was chosen by the eye. we know Gertrude wasnt? Because she cut the eyes out of the magazines?

ep 82: elias lmao. I understand why people like him so much bahshdhdk i thought he was gonna snitch on Jon but he didnt so he's fine. Ok but how do we think he knew all that stuff. Idk probably just institute connections. I love the fact that the recorder just wants to record stuff randomly bjahsjdhd. Elias feels a lot like Michael in the sense that he knows more than he should and talks in a way that implies he just wants to wait and see how things play out for his own benefit. I understand him knowing the things that happened but his description of her emotions implies something paranormal. Maybe he's connected to one of the entities. Which one I cannot guess.

ep 83: did a file get delivered randomly to the place he's staying at? Probably elias lmao. He thinks the mannequin is related to the stranger. Idk I would believe it.

ep 84: worms? I know he says earth worms but idk. Again? Is she making gordon golems out of trash? Martin popping off. You can tell the statements get to him more that they get to Jon. How come martin is so mad about it? I want to assume he just doesnt want her to get stuck there but idk. Jude Perry. The calliope organ. Jon heard a circus in one of the last episodes

ep 89: he's talking to perry? Like jude Perry? He says ... God? Is that what it is? Lmao. The Desolation. Jon is tired of ppl being vague and not telling him stuff lmao. Oh God Jon is so confused. Compel her? Is she assuming he has some kind of power? Does he have powers? Hmm. im agreeing with jon here please jesus christ why does everyone have to be so cryptic. Just say what you mean. "maybe you get an itchy eye" bahasjkdfklsjdf girl what. Agnes saved her? Oh this is the girl from the cafe story? So theres the Cult of the Lightless Flame? They worship whatever entity this is? The Desolation? Why do they all seem like they sorta worship her then? Is Gretchen gonna die oh god. fuckin michael. a different michael aaah. i see. dont do it shes gonna burn you. sir. please. sir dont you dare do- WHAT DID I SAY what did you think was gonna happen hhh.

ep 90: try to make it less obvious you're trying to get fired big T. Elias that doesnt sound like the most healthy thing to do. oh dear is this gonna be triggering for me. uuuuuh. uuuuuuuuuh. doesnt seem like it ok gonna keep listening. Jared. hmmmmm. Ok we've seen Keay and hotner or whatever his name was.

ep 91: Michael Crew. Oh is this the lightning scar guy. Mister jon sir did you just die. No? God everyone is so fuckin cryptic. Say normal things please. They all just like to go on about pain and agony and j e s u s c h r i s t we get it you got hurted by whatever thing. So theyre avatars? question mark? Jude Perry is an avatar of The Desolation? hhhh fractals. thats a spiral thing innit. Yup. messing with your perceptions. God they all talk about feeding their god and feeding that which feeds them and. hh what does that meann. Leave big J. please. uh oh. is it daisy? how come he has the web lighter still? the tape recorder just turns on sometimes you know how it is. So he can compel people? not that he knows it obviously but. a bit wack. powers go brr i guess? If the eye just wants knowledge i guess he feeds it by getting the statements? b/c i doubt it wants him to murder ppl or whatever.

ep 92: elias you all knowing fuck what do you know. (i guess all given what i just said) Lukas. Heard of them before. Mordecai Lukas. Loneliness. The lonely even. Jonah Magnus. Elias ur sounding like a bit of a dickhead rn. lmao jon's just like "i dont care" elias what is ur deal. Why does he want to tie her in. ohh i see. lmao theyre all just like "elias why" The Unknowing lol seems very much like something the eye wouldnt like. lol elias is gettin all philosophical. what does it really mean to be human. this still doesnt answer why gertrude wanted to destroy the archives tho.

ep 93: bahsjdfh he seems so dead inside rip. awww admiral. i love him already. ghh breacon and hope. purple mold. doesnt sound like anything we've seen so far. I think the funniest explanation for breacon and hope is that they dont actually serve the stranger they just kinda happen to be a random neutral party that cart around random spooky entity related stuff. ooooh. when we hear the slight static of the tape recorder it's cuz he's compelling ppl.

ep 94: the end! listen man they were all just grayed up for 4/13.

ep 95: the end also? death but also savagery/ animalistic shit. aww martin. lmao becerra. she's just been chillin in the corner.

ep 96: return to sender. haha minecraft go brr. prediction: breacon and hope? yup there we go. jon why is there an echo. are you in a stairwell? is he gonna eat it- yup. how did i call it. unsure abt what theyre talking about but ok. they kidnapped someone? Sarah Baldwin. ooooh that guy.

ok im just putting this here so i have notes for when nicholas gets to this part. It seems like (from jon's conversation with jude perry) that the desolation and the eye are kinda at odds with eachother? like i guess not directly but it seems like they dont really vibe? so how could be with both. Cuz if he has the heat powers and shit then we know he's an avatar of the desolation. but then why does he have so much eye imagery. also he got burned intentionally? like jude did when she went on her monologue about the feeling of burning? but then why did he wear the eye pendant. it stops him from being burned all the way which seems like he's not fully accepting the fire or whatever.

Nooooo I lost like a bunch of my notes rip. I keep forgetting to save.

Ep 104: tim gives a coherent statement without jon even being there. Ugh. Fucking robert smirk. Dont like him. Joey. Dont recognize the name. The show must go on. Clown. The spooky circus?

ep 105: total war... shogun 2? jon is just understanding languages again. "if i understood mandarin or cantonese" are you sure you dont big man?

ep 106: havent we heard this one already? mans in space? oh no this is just another episode in space. fairchild... uuuh. cant remember. oh! this is related to that! this is one of the ppl from the other side. sounds like a Vast thing. oh he's the one that the dude saw? but that guy didnt have a face... she's sorta like jon. wanting to dismiss the statements. lmao i love the workplace gossip. ace jon for the win! oh cmon elias dont be a dick. sunny meadows or whatever. thats the place we heard about.

ep 107: oh great is it jude perry again. Third Degree. bahahsdkfj she was arrested. sorry but imagining this old british lady getting arrested is funny. she was trying to resurrect him. using the skin book. he's not feeling well. jon take a nap. i wonder if this is what happens when he uses his powers too much. He gets into The Zone when he reads statements lol. didn't we have a burning train car in anothre statement? is it julia fairchild? bahahahs "kidnapped. Again." poor jon honestly. julia... about her dad. daughter of the murder shed guy? hunting like your dad liked to hunt or normal people hunting. oh hunting vampires!

ep 108: melanie has been suffering. poor martin peter lukas why do you have to be like this. can he not just use the front door? does he have to bother the ppl doing statements?

ep 109: how come he cut her off? kinda rude tbh. its either jon's influence or there was smth he didnt want her saying. is it gerard on the table? this sounds kinda like smth from one of the university episodes. is it the closed eye on the hand? yup. he's like one of the students! if the thing listening in is elias then... he can do that without the tape recorder yknow. plus who's to say it wont just turn itself on again

110: who wants to bet its a leitner?

111: Lukas related to The Lonely. I used to not like Gerard that much but i like him more now. but i thought there were 15? ohhh thats right isnt flesh newer? gerry for the win honestly. finally telling jon things.

112: lol "again" no one ever tells any of these ppl anything. tim and basira are just out of the loop constantly. music, like the war episodes. The hunt or the slaughter? probably the hunt. so Daisy is related to the hunt right? basira likes the reading, she's doing fine at the institute. daisy's getting worried...

113: it just turned on randomly. what is it lol. explossives! oh boy. why do they always assume he turned it on intentionally. melanie youre not making me like you that much. which entity is this about i cant tell. lol he was disappointed it was just the end. The title Breathing Room made me think it was gonna be about the buried but i guess not. So many of these entities deal with death but the end is one that deals in just death. it has no need for fancy deaths, just death is enough

114: more hilltop road statements? the tree. oh boy. ok the tree has 8 arms obviously theres the spider parallels. was she taken into an alternate universe? oh no. jon tries to phrase things so he's not asking questions. thats honestly good. "sometimes i was kidnapped" oh dear. they got gertrude. daisy ur so odd lmao. who wants to bet they dont know the tape recorder's running?

115: silaca? or whatever? antique man? meat grinder... related to the meat is meat episode? oh wow. they buy antiques from him. maybe dont antagonize this creature which can kill you?

116: lol theyre all just so done with elias. music? is it like the one band that if you hear them you die or wtvr. oh its chess? i am very much confused. mmm stranger go brr. gorilla skin? oh shit the dance. woah. this is so good. this is so gender. the words are wonderful. "you can just say tim" lmao trying to fool elias never feels like a good idea.

117: except elias lmaoo. oh shit. leitner getting some use for once idk. bruuh poor melanie she has been thru so much shit. martin you can just say youre worried about jon. lol he's so accurate in his jon impression. lol who was that. was that daisy? lmaoo. oop hi tim. oh god i hope tim doesnt die. i feel like i wouldve heard about that? but im not sure. destroying the source of knowledge is gonna be hard for jon. yay jon! you did a good thing. let him rest.

118: go off martin lmao. awww poor martin. oh god the tape gets that squealy quality and its awful.

119: woah. lots of things happening. uhh. POP OFF TIM!!

120: lmao elias giving a statement about jon's dreams lol. damn jon doesnt even get his own dreams? has to stay Watching even when he's asleep? f in the chat this man goes thru so much shit. oh boy its peter. lol martin my beloved. idk i dont trust peter.

[idk-my-aesthetic]

a concept

U know how in the comics Aang starts rebuilding the air nation with ppl who are basically converts to their religion? By like teaching them about the air nomad’s ways and stuff?

What if he gave some of them air bending using energy bending? And they could start re-building the air nation and it’s culture by teaching them everything!! They could even start moving back into the temples now that they could fly and rebuilding

They’d even have the bison!! According to the wiki aang found a living herd after the war !!

Idk just. As a Jewish person genocide stories are really really personal to me. And the thought of being the last of my people is terrifying

I just really want the air nation to have a chance to rebuild in a natural way. And I think that like letting ppl choose to convert and gifting them with air bending would probably be the best way

Ik aang’s kids and grandkids have air bending but trying to rebuild an entire nation from one bloodline is.... not the best idea

And I also know that in lok a bunch of ppl are given air bending, but that whole story really rubs me the wrong way (no hate to lok though!! There are parts I like!!)

Under the cut is basically an explanation as to why I take issue w/ it and find it mildly offensive/an essay about cultural appropriation in general lol. but i don’t wanna kill ppl’s dashes so if you wanna see the explanation check there 

but i really think that aang like.... allowing ppl to convert, and teaching them, and gifting them w/ airbending in the most natural/best way for that story to go and i wanted to share that!! :) 

anyway time for a whole essay because i.... apparently need to explain and justify every single one of my opinions. i’ma blame the adhd. 

I have 2 main issues w/ the new air bender plot. a) the air Nomad religion/culture is pretty explicitly seen as a closed one and b) it’s sort of a cop-out.....

so... first:

 Air bending is pretty explicitly a huge part of the air nomad culture and religion and is extremely spiritual. bc of how religious and spiritual it is the idea of ppl just.... randomly being given it really rubs me the wrong way.

It’s really really hard for me to explain this or come up with an irl example, bc these ppl didn’t ask for air bending, or try to gain it in anyway. So it’s not really their fault. But to me it feels almost like accidental cultural appropriation? If that makes sense

Which like. cultural appropriation is obviously bad. Even in the comic I originally referenced (the promise) Aang is initally really really offended by the people practicing the air Nomad religion when he first finds out!!! Which he should be!!!

There’s a difference between cultural appropriation, culture appreciation, and sharing culture. The first is bad, and the second 2 are good when done correctly.

Ima use an irl example w/ Judaism just bc using this personal experiences is apparently the only way my brain knows how to explain things

Scenario 1: Amanda (who is xtian) decides to research the Jewish holiday of Passover and the traditions behind it just bc she’s interested in it

This is cultural appreciation! She’s just learning about smthn she finds interesting. This is generally ok! although in some cultures there is knowledge that you are not supposed to know or discuss if you are not part of that culture and you should 100% respect that if it is the case 

Scenario 2: Amanda learns about the Passover seder and decides to throw one herself

Dont fucking do this omfg. This is cultural appropriation. Passover is a super important and religions holiday! It’s one of the high holy days and celebrating it on her own isn’t ok! 

Scenario 3: Amanda asks her Jewish freind Alex if she can come to his Passover seder

This is cultural appreciation and cultural sharing!! It’s totally valid!! She respectfully asks to join in and be included! 

it’s diffrent from cultural apropriation for one huge reason. she is joining in, rather than celebrating it on her own with no jewish ppl present 

Scenario 4: Amanda eats gefitlefish just bc she likes it 

this is appreciation! even though there are no jewish ppl involved! bc gefiltefish isn’t a holy/religious/spiritual thing. 

different aspects of different cultures have different levels of importance. as a general rule, if smthn is holy/religious, you should not do anything with it, unless invited by someone of that culture. if it’s not then you can generally do it on ur own (though there is some grey area there. ie, moccasins are smthn that aren’t religious to native americans, but if ur not native you shouldn’t be producing and selling them. if you want moccasins by them from actual natives) 

scenario 5: amanda contacts a rabbi and starts the conversion process 

this is...... just conversion lol. when she is finished with the process (which can take months/years) she’ll no longer be xtian and be jewish!! just as much as anyone who was born into judiasm. she’ll be able to host her own seders and any of her children will be jewish as well :) 

sorry for the really long thing!!  but i felt it was necessary to show the difference between some concepts that seem similar but are actually vastly different!! 

anyway, i hope y’all understand the difference between cultural appropriation/appreciation/sharing. if ur asking urself “ok why does it matter tho” friendly reminder that alot of irl ppl have been murdered for trying to peacefully observe their cultures/religions :) 

including the air nomads! (hey segway...) 

they are literally hunted to extension because they are part of one culture/religion. you could argue it’s a racism thing (which it is) but race, culture, ethnicity and religion are all inherently tied. see: almost every non-xtian religion worldwide 

SO. when you consider that a) the nomads were killed for their religion b) airbending was incredibly significant part of that religion, isn’t it weird that random people who have 0 connection or interest in that religion suddenly have airbending?? 

again it becomes like accidental cultural appropriation. which you can’t really blame the characters for in-world

but, these aren’t real ppl. they’re characters in a situation that was written by real ppl, real ppl who can and should be criticized 

not that i’m trying to call the creators bigoted in anyway! this dosn’t seem like anything that was meant to be offensive. and it’s not really that offensive unless you think about it. to me it just seems like a plot point that wasn’t fully thought through. i don’t bring it up to shame the creators, just as a way to show others why it’s smthn not to be repeated 

and, to show a better way to do a similar story 

the reason i went so in depth w/ the explanation of cultural appropriation vs appreciation vs conversion is bc i wanna show why a different way of approaching a similar story would have been better

the reason i think my whole idea (of ppl basically contacting aang or the air nomads, converting to the religion, and then being gifted air bending through energy bending) is better than ppl being randomly gifted it is bc conversion takes work 

to convert to any culture or religion you a) need a connection to someone in that culture (usually made by reaching out to a religious leader) and b) need to actually be accepted by that group in order to be considered one of them. it takes work and dedication. it’s a literal transfer of culture!! it’s just... ack i’m not good at explaining it 

but dosn’t it make so much more sense that ppl who actually worked to integrate themselves into the culture and become one of them are givin airbending? not because it’s a privilege but bc they need to first become part of the culture in order to have any right or claim to it 

but by just giving it to random non-benders it’s basically the reverse!! yes they later learn the culture and religon, but???? thats not how that works??? wtf??? 

i feel like i’ve been talking in circles and i’m sorry if i’ve bored everyone to death but i hope u understand my point. 

anyway! next thing! (i swear this part will be way shorter) 

by just making a bunch of random ppl airbenders it basically retcons one of the longlasting effects of the 100 yr war and almost just... erases the impact of the air nomad’s genocide 

which. is gross and uncomfortable. genocide stories are touchy subjects and smthn that need to be treated with respect 

just giving random ppl airbending it’s almost like the genocide didn’t matter at all. which i take a huge fucking issue w/ ok and i don’t feel like i need to explain why 

instead of a natural rebuilding of the air nomads it’s just fixed with spirit magic. it’s just... an insult to the really compelling and well written genocide story that was in atla and an insult to the irl ppl who related to that story 

so. yeah.... again i’m not trying to call out the creators, i again think this plotline was more accidentally insulting than purposefully 

i already propsed a better way to do it by allowing converts to gain the ability to airbend. (hell it dosn’t even need to come from energy bending or aang. the air nomads were incredibly spiritual, maybe a spirit gifted it to the ppl who earned it instead of random fucking ppl) 

but the other reason that converts instead of just.... random ppl gaining the ability is better is bc there aren’t gonna be that many ppl to convert!! there’s not gonna be some sudden boom in the airbending population!! theres would still be a story of the nation slowly healing and rebuilfing itself instead of the insulting sudden magic fix

oof. sorry for the long freaking thing. i literally went into this just wanting to share an idea and instead spent over an hour analyzing this stuff lol.... 

i hope this was coherent but if anyone’s got questions about anything i said feel free to @ me or shoot me an ask :) as long as ur polite and stuff i’ll answer to the best of my ability 

[goatyellsateverything]

Ok. To try and string together the movie lore from a series that I dont think was intended to go this way when they started.

Note: Spoilers if you havn’t seen The Conjuring 1&2 and the Nun.

So, back in Templar times, a mad Count performed a ritual to bring the demon Valak to earth. He was interrupted by the Knights Templar who stormed his castle, killed the Count, and used the Blood of Christ to seal the portal he’d created. From that day on, it became an abby where particularly devout nuns kept a constant stream of prayer going in order to ensure the portal could not be opened.

For years the nun’s constant prayers kept the portal closed until WW2 and the carpet bombings. They aren’t clear in the movie if it was the physical breaking of the stone barrier (they show a flashback of the bombings and the floor where the portal was cracked) or if the bombings interrupted the constant vigil and prayer, breaking the spiritual barrier; but in any case, thats when Valak was released. It then went on to torment the nuns, trying to get a vessel to leave the abby because it could not step out on the holy sanctified ground. Why Valak could walk inside the literal HOUSE OF THE LORD is a major criticism I have.

The nuns went to get the Blood of Christ, still housed in the abby but were thwarted and murdered by Valak. The last surviving nun committed suicide by hanging herself out the window in order to keep Valak from gaining a vessel and being released on the world.

Father Burke and Sister Irene are sent to investigate the death and to find out if the ground was still holy. Irene, Burke, and Maurice face the demon in order to close the portal. I know I’m skipping the entire movie here but its really not relevant to the point here. ^^; I really do recommend seeing it if you’re into this sorta stuff. ANYWAY. The 3 face Valak in the catacombs. Valak nearly drowns Irene; but shes playing dead; and the demon grabs for the orb that had the Blood of Christ. However, Irene had broken the orb, took the Blood into her mouth, and when Valak lifted her out of the water, Irene spat it on the demon with, well, obvious results.

BUT. Unbeknownst to anyone, Valak had possessed Maurice with part of its demon essence, giving it the vessel it needed to leave the abby. Years later, Maurice encounters the Warrens and Valak, I dont know, took a liking to Lorraine? This is where it starts to get confusing. (I know right? THIS is where it gets confusing?)

[Side note: Maurice’s exorcism was considered a success, however shortly after he seemed to “relapse” and tried to kill his wife before turning the gun on himself. Its an important note to make because its relevant to my theory at the end of all this.]

First, ignore literally everything in the first movie except the lecture they have with the video of Maurice. Beyond that, the entire movie is a self contained story. Well, at least until we get the new Conjuring/Annabel movie sometime next year but that doesn’t seem like it has anything to do with the Nun so we’re skipping it for now.

So we move onto the second Conjuring movie and a ritual that the Warren’s are doing to try and see if the Amityville horror case was an actual demonic possession, or if the human man responsible was just, well, evil in his own right. They dont really give a clear answer to that one. Maybe they are trying to save it for another movie? In any case, after Vera’s spectacular (not sarcastic. it really was genuinely good acting) pantomime of the murders while in the shoes of the killer, she seems to come out of the killing trance but it isn’t clear if it was Lorraine coming out of the trance or if it was Ronald himself being released from possession to witness what he’d done. The scene moves on with Ed trying to pull Lorraine from her trance but Lorraine follows the sounds of children laughing to the basement of the home where she finds 3, I think boys (they were kind of ambiguous and only on screen for a few seconds), with black eyes. They turn and stair to the side and Lorraine is faced with the Nun, Valak, for the second time, (the first being Maurice’s exorcism) and it shows her a vision of Ed’s death.

Yes that was all necessary to explain. Moving on.

The Warren’s are asked by the church to investigate the haunting in Enfield. The original real life story was about a girl who was being haunted by the ghost of an old man who lived and died in the house. In the movie, its still the old man, however HE is being used as a pawn by Valak who wont let him move on.

QUESTION

How did Valak orchestrate this haunting in England when was attached to Lorraine in America? This is a major plot hole. I cant find any way to justify Valak being both in England AND America at the same time. Maybe there was another partial transfer like when it posses Maurice? Its something that really needs to be explained or shown if thats the case. Maybe The Nun 2 will be about Maurice’s case and it’ll show a similar partial transfer?

Moving on. (We’ll just have to accept it for now)

So Valak uses the old man to posses the english girl. Then it forces her to try and throw herself out the window, onto a tree thats been struck by lighting and (SOMEHOW cuse this is how physics works) and sharpened into a spear. Ed catches her as she falls but nearly falls himself until Lorraine, having found the demons name, was able to cast it back to hell, releasing the girl and her family from its torment and, presumably, allowing Bill to move on as well.

Thus ending the story of Valak. Maybe.

Now whats my theory?

Valak never gained its true full power while on earth. Valak is the defiler. It perverts the Lord and His creations. I think it needed to first pervert the soul of its chosen host, turn them away from their most sacred and holy mission. Once thats done, it needs to have its host commit suicide; one of the most egregious sins against God; in order to take possession of the human soul and fully manifest on earth.

With the nun at the abby, it probably planned to have her perform some vile act (possibly murder someone in the town nearby or even just destroying the glass orb with the Blood in it) before having her kill herself. She took her life before Valak could posses her.

With Maurice, it tried to make him kill his wife to whom he was deeply dedicated to and loved dearly. He managed to wrestle back control, managing to wound but not kill his wife, and then killed himself. Valak hadn’t managed to force Maurice to kill the woman he loved and, like the nun before him, he may have been absolved of the sin of suicide because he was sacrificing himself both for his wife and to keep Valak from its vessel.

With Janet, Valak almost had what it wanted. A lot of factors worked against the girl. She was greatly depressed because her father had left and her mother was constantly worried about the kids, money, everything. She had a friend at school that convinced her to mess around with a Ouija board (which we know from other examples is NEVER A GOOD IDEA) and got her into other trouble. She was the middle child in a broken home so not quite babied like her little brother but not given the same benefit of maturity as her older sister. These things weakened Janet’s spirit and allowed Valak to slip through a crack and begin tormenting her.

But what “holy mission” could a little girl have that Valak could corrupt? Her little brother and her love for her family. Her little brother had a speech impediment that made him the target of bullying and she’d appointed herself his guardian (pretty normal for an older sibling). As Valak dug into her, she began tormenting her little brother using the Crooked Man vision and in the end almost took and killed him. It was actually Bill, the old man, who managed to keep her from harming her brother outright. But the damage was done, at least enough to satisfy Valak, and all it had to do was make her fall from that window.

At least, thats my theory anyway.

Its kind of a cobbled mess because the movies didn’t really have the intent from the beginning. Unless you are writing a slice of life, no stakes, everything is encapsulated into each individual story; you have to have an ending in mind. It doesn’t have to be 100% fully fleshed out, but you’ve got to have something. Thats why series shows that are arbitrarily pushed past their intended ending because its popular end up stagnating or just being bad because there is no end now. Nothing connects up and when you try to go back and make a coherent story, it ends up badly confused and often screws up the rules you laid out in the beginning.

Anyway.

Thats my way too long “I’m seriously over thinking this bullshit” rant on the Conjuring Series.

See you next time when I rip into the Annabelle movies because god damn THAT is some confusing shit. >.<

[nenastrology]

I rly wanna get into jj if only for the sheer amount of content but I tried and idk why I just can't seem to like I went and watched the first one where dio got originally introduced like with that mask think but after a couple of episodes I just couldn't care anymore and I know the basic premise of jj, even tho I could just skip stuff I like coherency so I'd still watch it in order, do you think it's ok to just skip stuff in the first part? or is it integral to the others

genuinely anon u are like literally me a few months ago i would really recommend watching with friends part 1 was like insanely boring to me watching alone its really walking this weird line of like almost serious but so dramatic its like a joke but like dio doesnt really matter in the greater story unless you are gonna watch part 3 which i really wouldnt recommend starting with if part 1 really didnt compel you like i made it through part 1 and part 2 and 3 both really hit me right in the face with sheer boredom and like anger at some of the freaky stuff i think your best bet would be to start with part 4 its like pretty self contained you  might be a little lost on stands but they always have a bit of a different vibe depending on the part and they are like pretty clear and fun in part 4 and like jotaro the protag of part 3 plays a decently important role in part 4 but like hes a very different character and i enjoyed him a lot even without having the context of part 3 behind me perhaps even more cuz he drove me craaaaazy in the three episodes of part 3 we watched part 4 has a bit of a slow start like it kinda jerks you around as to where the story is exactly going and its very episodic like monster of the weekish i didnt really anticipate just how battle heavy it would be which i think ive hit battle fatigue in every part ive watched/read at some point but its like a fun slice of life mystery thing with a lot of fun comedy and also some crazy intense stuff and has by far the most satisfying ending of any part ive seen and if like youre still into jojo but part 4 hasnt really grabbed you at all but idk part 5 looks good i think its definitely the one that starts off the best and it has almost no outside context with the rest of jojo u need to know except that giorno is dios son but like idk if you cant deal with the stuff dios in like whatever i think you can get a sense of the character if you know literally anything about jojo buuuut i think stands are really really confusing in part 5 and like i think u should at least check out part 4 before you go to that so you have some kind of knowledge base to build off of like i think the characters are really the best part of part 5 and like its absolutely peak character writing for all of jojo probably the only downside is ur gonna have to pick up the manga eventually or wait a few months and idk if like ur at the commitment level where you would want to download the very pretty color manga scans to ur computer like for something ur still not sure you like god this is a super long answer sorry but like thats my very lengthy jojo guide where i say fuck the fanboys skip part 2 and 3 and u can skip part 1 if its boring but like genuinely my best bet for u is to watch with friends it makes it soooo much more enjoyable and genuinely just do a lot of research like idk read summaries of the parts figure out what the vibe of each one is and like take it in whatever order you feel like and just look up a character in the wiki if ur confused who they are and u know they are from soemthing u didnt read but like u will probably get spoiled for a million things i just am a person who likes spoilers so that doesnt bother me feel free to ask me a bunch of other stuff but its sooo funny like the beginning of my jojo tag is me talking about how i think its boring and i dont get the appeal and now look at me

[wiener-blut]

i was tagged (again) by @babypaulchen bc i have no other friends lmao kidding, thank u for tagging me bb i appreciate it 💕

so, this is a 11 questions meme, where u receive 11 questions, answer them and then think of 11 new questions. let’s see if i’ll have enough energy to actually come up with 11 new ones at the end of this

1. Who is your favorite Rammstein member, and why? mhmmhmmm... i don’t know..... who could it be.... maybe..... mhmhmhmmm.... Christoph Schneider? YES I THINK SO because hear me out, peeps, he’s a perfect angel, he’s polite and smart and pretty and witty and sassy and sexhey and humorous and charming and beautiful and hAVE U SEEN HIS FUCKING HANDS

2. Favorite and least favorite Rammstein song? yo this?? is so fucking hard?? but i guess... my favourite song still is Tier which actually is surprising to me bc at the beginning my fav song used to change like every week but Tier somehow stuck with me. least favourite i guess is Zwitter, i just dont like the background “Zwitter, Zwitter” idk it kinda annoys me

3. What is your favorite Rammstein music video, and why? i guess it’s a tie between Haifisch and Mein Herz Brennt (also because there are two versions of it). i just love MVs that tell a little story and those two definitely do that. also i like Haifisch so much because it picks up on other MVs

4. One pet peeve regarding the Rammstein community/fandom, if any? people who sell their opinions as facts. like, u are free to share ur thoughts and theories and i love to read every single one of them but please mark it as ur idea and not as something that actually happened if u can’t provide proof.

5. Have you had any Rammstein dreams? If so, describe one or two! yes, there is one i had. and im not gonna tell that because it was... well, let’s just say that straight out loud - it was nsfw. i will tell u until the point it suddenly turned 18+ tho so i was on a Rammstein aftershow party with my gf and i remember stepping outside with her and Richard so we could all have a cigarette and we talked a bit but then all of a sudden both of them were gone and i was like ok lets go back in, maybe theyre there. but the interior completely changed to some kind of colourful and cheesy christmas party (i should add i had this dream around christmas so that kinda made sense at least) and everyone threw on santa costumes which made them look ridiculous tbh. then i saw Till sitting on a throne-like seat and beckoning me over. since i couldnt spot either Richard or my gf i just shrugged and went over to him. he, too, was dressed in a santa costume, even with a fucking long white beard and a thick red robe with pure white fur and honestly, he looked absurd. that’s it. i’ll stop here, i’m sorry, it was too strange lmao

6. What is your favorite picture of your favorite band member, if you have one? now thats physically impossible. i cant decide on one, so here u have three instead bc im good at cheating aka ignoring the rules

hes.....so fucking cute here..... i literally cant.....

i love him with his greyish scruff okay it makes him look beyond handsome

still my fav look on him honestly. i would kill for him to sport his mohawk again and this list wouldnt be complete without a pic of it

7. What is one Rammstein song you want a music video for? Any video ideas for that particular song? i’d actually love one for Reise, Reise. im imagining a dark, stormy sea, some mist hanging low on the strong waves crashing noisily against the bow of an already wrecked ship or boat, spume shooting up and over the railing...

8. Favorite Rammstein era? Why? possibly Mutter era. their look was so unique and badass back then i absolutely adore it.

9. If you could ask your favorite Rammstein member a question, what would it be? i contemplated a lot about this question, really. and ignoring the fact that i probably wouldnt be able to produce any sort of coherent sentence i would ask Schneider how he experienced East Berlin personally and if he had any sort of moment where it hit him that they’re an internationally successful band now (again, im cheating bc practically these are two questions but idgaf let me ask my questions p l e a s e)

10. What are your favorite lyrics from Rammstein, if you have any? Feuer und Wasser kommt nicht zusammen Fire and Water never meet Kann man nicht binden sind nicht verwandt Can’t be bonded, aren’t related In Funken versunken steh ich in Flammen Sunken in sparks I am aflame Und bin im Wasser verbrannt And burned in Water

11. If you had to get one (or another) Rammstein inspired tattoo, what would it be? oh god, this questions haunts me for months now lmao im just so bad at deciding, like i really want that Sehnsucht lettering bc it’s rad af and it’s my second fav album but im also eager for the heart that says Liebe Ist Für Alle Da bc it would have a double meaning which id absolutely DIG (like its my fav album AND it would have some kind of political statement “love who u want” and stuff, yknow) but then i dont like the harsh edges and;;;; yea idk i also want something lyrics inspired but im not sure which lyrics  to use yet

and now im gonna hit bed. im tired af, im sorry my brain is too empty to even think of one (1) question lmao g’night folks

[clumsyclifford]

right? i'm also partial to all variations of earl grey but english breakfast is like 11/10 always 😍 oh yeah no we don't have a/c at all.. i have a fan in my room but that really does fuck all to help and i have to say the thought that you just causally have a/c in your home is so weird to me and also makes me incredibly jealous you can't imagine 😅 i really don't deal well with heat so these past few weeks have been so fucking stressful especially bc they took tea from me (1/7)

(2/7) oh yes agreed if those lines really saved i found a girl for me and also it just sounds fun 🙈 yes it is the dog one honestly i love these kind of videos 😅 and i watched false confidence now and. perhaps i really love him. and maybe that video made me cry just a little. honestly thank you so much for introducing me to noah kahan i just love his music so much. & right? she has so many like overly specific and honest things in her songs that just make so much sense and just hit differently

(3/7) do you know anxiety by her? bc that's also one of those songs for me too 🙈 i'll definitely listen to more thomas rhett bc i really love his style of writing about adoring his wife 😅 and i have a playlist for all your recs so it's okay that you keep going i'm just gonna add it all and work my way through depending on my mood. really interested to hear more!!

(4/7) whaaaat. okay did not realise that was alex and now i feel bad. i have to admit trash pop is a pretty good description for that sound but it is still a very nice sound 😅 oh love!! you did rec me dear winter and turning out before 🙈 i love them and ajr! i just don't like this one song (i've been listening to sober up, weak, karma and i'm not famous sooooo much and technically bang as well but i somehow forgot to download it so i haven't actively heard it in a bit)

(5/7) that's okay 🙈 & alright thank you will listen to these recs first i think bc i really liked fletcher's vibe and it's the only one i haven't heard a complete song of. also very sorry you can't see her anymore it sounds like a great lineup :/ okay so listen i tried to make this as coherent as possible i hope i managed: i adore music so much. honestly can't put my love for music into words so i completely understand what you mean when you describe sharing music as intimate.

(6/7) bc well it can be just about liking the sound of sth but it can also be hey look at this song that ripped my heart out (maybe this is a iydk reference we might never know) and then people go and ignore it or say sth mean and it just fucking sucks. so yeah i get it and will thus always take time to listen to your recs and tell you what i think. i truly feel so honoured every time you take the time to rec me things bc it's really kinda putting yourself out there and i appreciate it a lot.

(7/7) oh and also bc i truly love and cherish all the stuff you introduced me to like i'm really, really thankful for your music so yeah i love you a lot for this as well ❤ - fiancee

putting a cut cos long winded asks call for long winded answers NOT that i dont love them because I DO

dude im so sorry about the a/c thing like i genuinely am........fuckin crime whoever thought to do that to you guys

THANK ME??? THANK YOU FOR LISTENING TO NOAH KAHAN EVEN THOUGH I WAS ANNOYING AS HELL ABOUT HIM fiancee you mean more to me than words can say thats all moving on i love you

yeah!! anxiety is a good song maybe not like My Favorite but frankly is there a bad julia michaels song. if so i have yet to find it. however do you know what a time. she did that one with niall which i personally think is very sexy of her <3 julia michaels can and will do it all

YOU MADE A PLAYLIST OF MY RECS.......STOP IM GOING TO CRY I REALLY AM fiancee...........................you are testing my emotional patience tonight i really might cry that is so cute and thoughtful and . JUST. also while listening to it in the car today i discovered like an absolute idiot that the album life changes is from is called. you guessed it. life changes.  SO.   anyway im not rec’ing ANY more thomas rhett songs unless you explicitly ask because maybe im in love w his whole discography and would die for him but thats nobody’s business but my own

yeah it really is........like i dont know whats making that wicked sound at the beginning of thanks i hate it i think its just a super distorted guitar but i LOVE it

GSKFLGMKDFJ did i really rec u those two songs before.......WELL IM NOTHING IF NOT CONSISTENT and obsessive ok that is fair i did kind of jump to conclusions there but anyway while we’re here promise this is the only real rec im adding to the list but three-thirty by ajr although i do feel like ive already given you this rec??? but that one just fucking decks me every day of my life so anyway. yeah

hitting myself in the face fiancee what the fuck did i do to deserve you. how’d i  win the fucking lottery on this one. like. just. i just . im all outta words im just love you so very much and i really really cherish you and this relationship we have and our friendship and the . mutualism of the song recs??? i love you a metric fuckton dude that is a promise

[drferox]

20 Questions with Dr Ferox #8

My gosh, there’s just so much stuff you vetlings want to know, isn’t there? Well, knowledge is good, so here we go with yet another info dump as I try to answer a big slew of your questions in one hit.

Anonymous said: I sometimes get your patreon emails or an update on your blog while I'm studying/struggling in the wee-hours of the morning (vetmed). I'm in WA, so where-ever you are it's also late/early. What are you doing up in the witching hours?

First of all, I am an AdultTM and as such I am permitted to set by own Bed Time. There are many reasons why you might receive notifications from me so ‘early’.

I have a blog post on queue every morning between 5am and 6am my time (so probably 3am and 4am your time). It goes up automatically, so I can see initial responses before I go to work.

I think Patreon sends its emails at the same time each day, regardless of when I post. I certainly don’t type there early in the morning.

Sometimes I’m on nightshift and can get kinda bored at 3am sometimes.

Sometimes I just can’t sleep, especially with the changing day/night cycles.

Most of the blog runs on queue, honestly. At least three posts a day do.

@banesidhe said: Just happened to discover your blog. Thank you so much for posting like you do (even the snark. I'm a 911 dispatcher, I appreciate the snark ;) ), and sharing your experiences. No vet question, but if you could only ever re/read five books for the rest of your life, which five titles would make your cut?

Ah, I have found many similar people to myself among emergency personnel. There’s a particular combination of gallows humor and wishing people would get to the point that unites us.

For fiction books:

Feral, Kerry Greenwood

The Shepherd’s Crown, Terry Pratchett

Monstrous Regiment, Terry Pratchett

Watership Down, Richard Adam

Good Omens, Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman

Hmm, bit of a trend there.

But the work books I couldn’t live without are:

Plumb’s Veterinary Drug Handbook

The 5 minute veterinary consult, Dog and Cat Edition

Ettinger’s Textbook of Internal Medicine, Expert Consult

BSAVA Rabbit Medicine & Surgery Handbook

Small Animal Surgery, Fossum.

Anonymous asked: what was the most exotic/rare patient youve ever had?

This fat meerkat.

Anonymous said: My dog is a shelter dog and we suspect she was abused before we got her (afraid of E V E R Y T H I N G) and weve been slowly working on getting her to at least ignore people we walk past or that enter the house and thats been making progress. But she hates the vet. Hates it. Gets in my lap and refuses to leave. New dogs people and smells. So her normal vet takes the approach of having one of us hold/console her while they do all the poking and listening and whatnot and muzzling her if they need to and just getting it done as quickly as possible. But this last time she saw a new vet and this vet took the approach of hand-feeding her almost an entire bag of treats and called it "stress-eating" and tbh you should have seen the look on my dogs face. She was so weirded out. Shes highly food motivated so it was like heaven to her but she was simultaneously very suspicious. Her face was like"i love this but idk if i trust it" it was great.Have a greatday!

If you an reinforce the behaviour by arranging frequent, short visits to the vet clinic where nothing happens but lots of treats, she may start to associate the vet clinic with positive things (food) ad no scary things. This might make the rest ofher life easier.

Anonymous said: I own fancy rats and just want to put out there to people, that while they are THE MOST amazing tiny friends, in my experience most vets are completely lost when it comes to their care & several I've seen refused to even touch my exceptionally friendly females. They often get respiratory infections requiring antibiotics. One of my friend's females passed away bc nobody would perform a simple surgery on her. So please be cautious when buying them. 

I would like to suggest that any surgery on a rat is likely to be not simple, because they do have particular anesthetic requirements that can make their recovery difficult. Also that a lot of traditional rat medicine hinges on using post mortem examination as a diagnostic tool, which is not useful at all with pet rats.

In dog and cat medicine most of our equipment and even medications are not suitable for rats, or very difficult to adapt. We simply have fewer options, and generally less experience with these species Most vets I know will attempt to treat them, but with a great big disclaimer saying I don’t do this often, and a quick question as to whether you’d prefer to go to a nearby clinic that does see rats more often.

Anonymous said: Hello, I recently took in 3 abandoned kittens and they're covered in fleas. They appear to be 6 weeks old and can't use meds or wash for them. I clean them with vinegar and dish soap and I was wondering if you knew of any other ways to help them since they hate getting wet. I also use a comb but they dislike that as well.

You can use capstar on kittens from 4 weeks of age, and Revolution from 6, probably earlier. Talk to your vet.

Anonymous asked: Strange question but do you know if that rage syndrome thing can happen in cats also? I know a cat who does that and also acts strangely in general at the same time?

It is not documented in cats, however Feline Hyperesthesia Syndrome may present in a similar way.

Anonymous said: Hey doc! I plan on getting my cat fixed soon and I'm worried about how it'll affect her. She's really skittish and prefers to stay in one room, could getting her fixed make it worse?? I guess like what are the possible behavioral effects is what I'm askin? For the qt: ive been here a while i just dont like or reblog stuff but i came for the vet knowledge and stayed for it too, especially the mythical creatures and dog breed info

She is probably not going to have any long term personality changes from being desexed, though might be out of sorts for a few days after the anaesthetic. If anything they tend to be less stressed because they’re not attracting Toms.

Another Anonymous said: My kitten was neutered yesterday and he's doing great, healing well, playing nonstop, remarkably agile despite the e-collar (navigating small spaces, jumping to high places), eating & drinking well. The vet didn't give us any aftercare instructions but I googled it -- and wish I'd done so before the surgery because I could've prepared better. A lot of it seemed obvious in hindsight but nothing I'd have thought of on my own. Do you have a flier or anything for your patients' humans? 

We send our patients home with aftercare instructions. We have a default one that we print for routine surgery like desexing, and a customized one for non-routine procedures.

We also read it out to our clients when they pick up their pet, and point out that all these instructions are written down, because it’s easy to forget details when you’re worried.

Anonymous asked: I have a question! I saw your desexing cats post and thought I might send it to you. I neutered my male cat but he still sprays and tries to roam the neighborhood. I try to keep him inside best I can. Is there a reason this happens?

It may be stress, but you should consult your vet to rule out any underlying urinary tract issue before assuming so. Your vet should be able to discus the various stress reducing techniques, changes and treatments that are available.

Anonymous asked: Whenever my roommate wakes up before me, she makes bacon for breakfast while the coffee is brewing. If she hasn't slept well, her coherence is sometimes a bit... lacking. If our cat happens to demand food, about half the time she ends up giving him a slice of bacon instead of cat food. We only recently figured out that she's been doing this. He's not getting fat, and gets actual cat food later, so is this OK, or do we need to try to figure out how to keep this from happening?

While bacon is certainly digestible, it is not a balanced diet. It would be ideal if you could minimize his bacon habit.

@nowgovanish said: Hello! I have a question about my 13 and 4 year old cats. They seem to have some pretty bad skin reactions to certain foods, and I've tried a lot of different food brands that my vet reccommended. The one that seems to work best is a grain free/ non chicken variant, but I see that you aren't a huge fan of grain free. Is there anything I should change or try sticking with what works?

I have said many times before that if it’s working, keep feeding it.

Novel protein diets, and ideally single proteins source diets, are more use for allergies than just going ‘grain free’.

‘Grain Free’ labelling on food particularly vexes me because it’s not regulated. You can find ‘grain free’ food that really mean ‘corn free’ and either use grain byproducts or straight up use rice. Last time I checked, rice was a grain.

It’s like ‘Hollistic’ - it means nothing on a pet food label. Neither does ‘Organic’, pet food companies do not have to use all organic products in pet food to label the food as organic. These are marketing ploys like ‘all natural’ which are targeting your emotions and don’t mean anything when it comes to the food.

If you’ve come across a novel protein diet, or a minimum ingredient diet, that is beneficial for your cats then stick with it. But recognise what’s marketing and what’s useful.

Anonymous said: I love my dog but he is a complete and total moron. He has strangled himself so often that his bark is now raspy. He even found a way to do it with a harness! We've resorted to jogging when walking him to try and keep up but is there some way to make it better? We've tried letting him learn on his own, pausing when he pulls, and getting a longer leash. If he was much smarter I'd accuse him of being into asphyxiation.

I would suggest that you potentially need to figure out what motivates your dog most. Consider using positive reinforcement to encourage him to heel on the lead, instead of wandering and pulling.

You might also want to consider something like a halti collar, which pulls the dog’s nose downwards to their chest when they pull, instead of something that goes around the neck.

Anonymous: Would you consider it a good generalization that dogs more closely resembling/related to wolves (like huskies) have less health problems? I am aware that no dogs are completely lacking in health problems.  Tax: came for good hard factual analysis.

No. And here’s the thing- all modern dog breeds are equally distant from their wolf-like ancestor, unless they have been recently mixed with wolves again.

Their health problems are different to those dogs with more extreme anatomy, but dogs that look like wolves are not inherently healthier.

@justslowdown said: a book i have discusses the man who created the GSD breed (aka isolated traits from a diverse population) pairing dogs with their daughters, granddaughters, great-granddaughters and onwards til more than 1/2 of the pups had to be culled. due you think this could be partially responsible for the health issues remaining more than a century later? "Very drastic inbreeding was espoused during the formation of the breed [...] to quickly form specific type" - The German Shepherd Dog by Ernest H Hart

Certainly.

This is called line breeding, where the offspring of a ‘perfect’ individual are repeatedly bred back to the same individual generation upon generation to try to recreate it. All you really do is lose genetic diversity very quickly and allow recessive deleterious genes to proliferate in the population.

This is why just about everywhere else that’s not the purebred pet world, this is considered a bad thing to do.

@eyestumblin said: Do you think horses would look significantly different if their wonky anatomy were more logical?

They would no longer be a horse.

@cirque-du-spoon said: I saw you mention sheep on the horse thread and I spent a fair bit of time on a sheep farm in Wales. The head shepherd once told me "sheep are born, they spend the rest of their life trying to die". Then he opened his landrover door, and the passenger footwell was maybe 6 lambs snuggled up to one of his old motherly collies.

The common phrase down here was “The aim in life of a Merino ewe is to die and take fifty of her friends with her.” It’s not really much of an exaggeration.

Anonymous said: I'm intrigued to hear the faults of sheep, lay it on me!

Oh I will. It’s on my list for a big write up.

@queenalia said: Hi! I love the post about why horses make no sense, and I was wondering if you would do a similar one for sheep (one of the most suicidal animals on earth in my opinion)?

It will definitely be done sometime in the next few weeks. As you understand, it’s not  quick answer.

@vulturegeorge said: Hey Dr.F, after reeding your "horses-are-spindily-legged-disasters" post and your comment about how sheep are worse, I was wondering if you wished to elaborate? I am currently working on a heard of 50 random sheep my uni bought with a ton of lung issues ... so it'd be super interesting to me. Question tax: came for the Lucifer story, stayed for all of your amazing advice & opinions. I hope you are finding balance between vetting and living. cheers!

I promise I will elaborate. I can’t leave a cliff hanger like that and not explain... eventually.