#i have the critical thinking skills of a toddler.

[oddly-informed-raven]

what the fuck. this is like the reverse of the tom holland thing. why is james marsters not british.

[pidge-spots]

Finally started camp Cretaceous and oh my god the kids I can accept being idiots as they are children but these camp counselors??? As a camp counselor myself I have seen better decisions from my 6-12 year old campers. They just leave these kids? Alone? In a dinosaur filled forest? Repeatedly? Even after half of them wonder off and get themselves in life or death situations within 48 hours of being there they continue to leave these kids unsupervised! It’s like camp counselor 101 to not leave your kids alone. So many of the problems these kids get in could’ve easily been prevented if just one of the two adults supposedly watching these kids had stayed with the group.

[jewishbarbies]

anon: *sends a dozen different asks in less than a week complaining about the same thing every time despite my consistent lack of response*

me, once: yeah sorry i still don't care

anon: OH MY GOD YOU'RE LITERALLY OBSESSED STOP

[aliasl]

thinking a lot about Ryan (the boys) - Jack (supernatural) parallels

SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THE BOYS SEASON 4 FINALE

everyone obviously has strong feelings about Ryan killing Grace. sadly, i've only seen a lot of vitriol towards Grace for pushing Ryan into killing her... And it's Jack killing Mary all over again.

Grace is scared and has waaaaaaay more awareness of the current danger than Ryan, whereas Ryan is not objective about Homelander and is not understanding what's politically happening, all the bloodshed about to happen. Yes, Grace overloads Ryan with truth bombs about who Homelander is and is asking "too much" of him... but Ryan is not justified in killing her. Full stop. His life was not at risk. His AUTONOMY was. But he was face-to-face with his honorary aunt, who took him in and housed and clothed and fed him, crying, confiding her grief, expressing her love, visibly fearful and hesitant... and Ryan had to shut off his empathy to kill her in that moment.

And it's fiction! So, to serve the plot, this straw had to break. Ryan has gone from accidentally killing his mother in an effort to save her to then killing an honorary family member on purpose. Much to chew on; how did this sweet little boy get to this place? ... But people would rather spit out the story trying to be told (how radicalization happens, how how seemingly good people can be driven to selfish/evil actions, how power corrupts, and so much more) in favor of spewing misogyny. "she fumbled the bag!" "stupid hag got herself killed!" Immediate forgiveness for Ryan ("who among us would have acted any differently in that moment???" they cry), pointing all the blame towards the woman girlbossing-gaslighting a poor widdle boy.

Like... It's the same story again, as far as the vitriolic response to a woman "getting herself killed" by standing her ground/reaching out to a dangerous child. but i'll say it: THESE WOMEN DID NOTHING WRONG. the answer is not "let the dangerous, overwhelmed child walk away." the tragedy is that these women held out hope that their dangerous children wouldn't lash out at them when they reached out. they had trust. Ryan/jack didn't trust back. they rejected. they shut off their empathy.

now, Jack had his journey and we've seen him go the path towards redemption. but it's really awful to see Ryan kill Grace with no apparent sense of guilt and just walk away, and the only audience response i've seen is blaming either Grace or Butcher for RYAN'S ACTIONS.

and it's just not very heroic to refuse responsibility for one's actions. in a show about morality and redemption vs digging one's heels in and rejecting culpability, I really hope the boys pull off their morality tale and those uncritical of Ryan will learn better.

[creekfiend]

I wanted to make a bonsai kitten recovery post that outlines some of the stuff that I've been doing. Because I don't think that you need to ✨see a therapist✨ to start dealing with a lot of this stuff and I get really frustrated when that is the answer that everyone is constantly giving. Firstly a disclaimer, because I know what website I am on: this is a guide for things that have worked for me! I am not everyone and if there are things on here that do not work for you or even that you think are stupid, that is fine, but please do not make it my problem. If you are reading it and you're like "that sounds like it would actually be detrimental to my specific mental health because of my specific issues" then please disregard it. Use your critical thinking skills and do what you think is right for you!

My second disclaimer is that I didn't make any of this up myself; most of these are collected from various places either in therapeutic guide books or various websites about emotional regulation etc. Some of it is stuff that I have extrapolated from those places based on experience with what works for me or does not work for me. A lot of the way that I treat myself when I need to get my body and brain into a place where I can think about stuff productively is actually directly from gentle parenting guides, because frankly cptsd recovery stuff is very often like parenting a toddler. And the toddler is you. ALL THAT SAID,

The first skill that I had to get good at, that many of the other skills depend on, is to learn how to understand when I am Reacting to something. If I am Reacting it is extremely likely that that's going to only escalate the situation and make it much worse. I HAVE to be able to tell if I am Reacting emotionally to something in a way that is coming from a place of fear and panic. This is important because it involves not being prescriptive about your emotions. You could be Reacting to something that you do not logically feel is at all justified in making you feel that way and that doesn't matter! You can't be doing math equations to try to come to the answer of how you SHOULD be feeling; you have to be observing your mind and body to see how you factually ARE feeling and then respond to THAT. This can be really hard to learn how to do especially if you were abused as a child. (If you cannot think of yourself as someone who is abused as a child perhaps it would help to think of yourself as someone who simply was not taught various emotional regulation skills for mysterious reasons that have nothing to do with your parents' inadequacies.) I need to be able to glance inward and see what the physiological reaction that I'm having is and identify whether or not I feel like this is the biggest emergency in the world that needs to be addressed right now immediately! That is a sure sign that Mr Fight and Mr Flight are in the building and it is bad to make declarative statements or important decisions when that is the case. So, I have to work on dismissing them first. That is literally the first step to any of this. One of my friends calls this "fire mittens," which is to say, if you are wearing mittens that are on fire and you try to touch stuff, the stuff will also become on fire. You have to put the fire out first before you can touch other things.

Once I have determined that I am indeed Reacting and in a physiological state of fear, I have a document in my notes app that is a "what to do when you are in fight or flight mode" guide and it has several helpful things that I will try to outline here.

Firstly, the really important thing for me for trying to get back into an emotional state where I'm capable of making decisions and being thoughtful is to feel safe and comfortable. So I actually have some stuff in my document that is straight up just like "go in the blankie nest. put on this specific music album. light this specific scented candle." etc. You might want to have a specific food or drink that is comforting to you or some other sort of stim toy that helps you regulate. If there's any calming medication or supplements for anxiety that you take as needed, now is also the time to do that. Physical sensory grounding is really important for this. This is probably especially true if, like me, you are neurodivergent, but I think it is also true for everyone because we are animals! And you can't just think about it, you have to actually do it. Which sounds obvious but is the thing that has often tripped me up in the past. Once you start getting into the habit of actually physically doing this it DOES become easier though.

One of my rules is that if I want to respond to something but I am in fight or flight mode, I don't get to respond to it for at least 24 hours. I'm only allowed to respond once I've gotten myself out of fear mode. If it is some kind of comment on Facebook that has set me off, often this means that 24 hours later I realize that I actually don't want to get into it to begin with, which is great. If it's something that is pretty serious and interpersonal with a friend, sometimes that means I have to communicate to them that I'm going to take a while to process it and then get back to them. IMPORTANT: You CANNOT do this passive aggressively or else it undermines the whole thing. You can't phrase it in a way that will make your friends think that you are guilt tripping them for "making" you feel a way. It is VERY tempting to do this when you are in the first stages of trying to form this habit and you simply need to resist the urge because it will render this step worthless. I know. It sucks.

If I am feeling fearful and insecure about friends or loved ones, I also usually try to spend some time thinking about the people that I love and care about. Because often this stuff manifest for me as insecurity that the people that I care about do not care about me, or that they think that I'm being annoying, or that they are secretly thinking mean things about me. It's obviously not good for me to constantly be imagining that the people in my life who I care about are actually avatars of my own insecurity who are here to tell me that I'm secretly fundamentally unlovable! But crucially also it's ALSO not fair to those people to imagine them as that. They are not that guy, they are their own complex human beings with their own lives and experiences and interiority. So sometimes I do thought exercises where I will imagine my friends or loved ones doing things in their everyday lives and I will think about them as people and I will think about the things that they like to do and the things that they say and the places that they go, and I will try to imagine them fondly in those circumstances. This helps to remind me that they are just people and that the scary puppet wearing their faces is not real. To this end I sometimes will have a document of screenshots of things that they have said to me that I can use to reality check myself. I personally find reality checks to be essential for a lot of this. Things can feel true when they are not true at all. Things can feel wrong when they are actually true. The point of most of these exercises is to gently remind myself that those feelings are normal for me to be having, but that I do not need to let them dictate my responses.

It is crucial throughout all of this that you are nice to yourself. You can't talk to yourself in a mean way while you're doing this, or you will not get to a point where you are feeling safe enough to react from a place of not-fear. You can't make yourself feel ashamed or defensive for your emotional reactions. This is the particular area where I find gentle parenting protocols helpful. You HAVE to be patient with yourself.

Ok that's all for now bc I ran out of steam but I will try to think of more to add on another day maybe. Godspeed everyone

[itsclydebitches]

Still thinking about "Dot and Bubble."

Specifically, I'm thinking about how the racists of FineTime aren't just written to be cruel and entitled, but downright childish too. Lindy - in a move that dovetails nicely into the episode's commentary on social media - has the attention span of a toddler, going on and on about how boring work is even though, from what we're shown, she doesn't have to do anything other than sit there and socialize, which is presumably what she'd be doing if she didn't have to work, right? But since this is something she has to do per orders of the gross old people, she complains. "You're no fun!" she yells at Gothic Paul, the only one in her group taking a mature stance on this issue (and, notably, the only one with a very small number of subscribers).

Lindy lacks the maturity and critical thinking skills we would expect from someone her age. Again, this is definitely a layer of the social media side of the episode's thesis, but she nevertheless demonstrates a kind of emotional dysregulation that's usually only seen in younger, developing children. Lindy does not think for herself and cannot adapt to changes in routine/the way things are "supposed" to be. When told a fact - the police are unavailable - Lindy repeats, "but I really need the police" over and over as if her need is going to magic up a change in reality. She parrots rules and rejects them in equal measure, driven solely by her current desires: "We don't do that [lower the bubble]."/"I can do whatever I want!" She moves from disgusted to infatuated to angry in the blink of an eye, with her anger characterized by childish outbursts and language: "Now shut up I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!" When faced with something life-threatening, Lindy's response is to a) distract herself (by watching Ricky) and b) find a hiding place. Even taking her terror into account, she responds to these situations like someone far younger would. If I cover my eyes the bad thing disappears. If I hide under the bed, I'm safe.

And of course, Lindy's body is monitored in the way you would a child's. She's constantly watched by others, both her peers and, presumably, by the Homeworld. She's told when she needs to use the restroom which for me was VERY evocative of a parent speaking to their potty training child, trying to get them to articulate when they need to go by informing them of when it's most likely. Hell, Lindy literally can't walk without the assistance of this AI parent.

Yes, there are plenty of moments that evoke the very stereotypical, entitled teenager - talk of "partying," bragging about clothes, being obsessed with the guy online - but even more, I think, evoke the child. When Lindy plays the recording of "Mummy," smiling shyly at the praise before throwing out the kind of insults you'd expect to hear on an elementary school playground - "You're stupid" - she reads like she's a kid. Which is a hell of a commentary on her racism. The episode doesn't say that Lindy is literally a child (she's not, she even snaps as much). The episode also doesn't try to claim that being childlike equals harmless (quite the opposite). But equating racism with a childish, dangerously inept, can't-even-walk-or-use-the-bathroom-by-herself white woman... damn if that's not a statement.

[goawaypleasenowareyoukiddingme]

Venting Into the Void

Tw: Mention of rape, abuse, and Vivziepop.

Vivziepop claims to care about SA survivors but has a soft core rape porn playlist on her Zoophobia account. She defends fetishizing rape with a passion and talks over SA survivor voices. There are many times where consent is not taken seriously in her shows. Verosika raped Moxxie, Stella raped Stolas, Stolas sexually harasses Blitzo, Angel Dust sexually harasses Husk, all for laughs.

Vivziepop doesn't care about rape at all, and yet so many people want to pretend she does. It's sad. Her shows are so popular and you can't escape them. If you go to a convention, fanart of her works are everywhere and cosplayers too. Granted you don't have to like Viv to like her works but honestly, her shows aren't that great to begin with. The writing is inconsistent. It treats the audience like they're toddlers by telling and not showing.

And yet despite being capable of bashing a topic like "Charlie has Daddy issues" non stop with other characters saying it rather than showing it. There will scenes that require much more information, nuance, and care like the Loser Baby song. A song that fails to convey the message she tries to portray. It also sucks that Joel Perez sees no issue with people romanticizing the relationship between Angel and Valentino.

He will tell people critical of this to go watch Bluey rather than actually using empathy and critical thinking skills. On the plus side it seems Alex can understand valid critique of the show, as he was alright signing a critical video with Limus. Good on him. I'm glad despite Vivziepop clearly being an abusive person, that Alex will do as he pleases.

It's sad when people like Salem, Michael, and other employees get abused by her, and in Michael's case silenced. I hope that Vivziepop's victims get to live good lives. I just really wish more people could open their eyes and see that Vivziepop isn't a good person, that she doesn't deserve support. She's a privileged ritch woman that gets everything handed to her.

She doesn't need to be coddled, she already has enough yes men surrounding her. She'll never grow as a person for this exact reason. She throws away anyone who's even slightly criticizes her and keeps people who blindly agree with her. Also people still call her work independent but it's not anymore. Hazbin is a part of A24 and Amazon Prime. And Helluva has animation outsourced.

Independent animation has lee way for lower pay because it comes out of the creator's pockets typically. But Vivziepop doesn't have an excuse. She can pay her employees much more. She's seen on Instagram constantly taking vacations and splurging her money at restaurants. She actively chooses to not pay more. I can't escape Vivziepop related stuff in real life in convention situations and I can't escape it on the internet either.

Many artists that I genuinely like draw fan art of her shows. And I can't just unfollow every artist that makes that content as some of them are my friends and it seems like almost every single artist is doing it anyhow. I'd be following significantly less people if I were to stop following people who make Vivziepop work fan art.

I wish I could stop seeing related works to her on my timeline, it drives me crazy. Also Sam wrote that Valentino could be redeemed in season 2 so that only furthers the fact that Vivziepop truly doesn't give a fuck about representing rape in a caring way. Given that Vivziepop has drawn pedo, zoo, and other gross artworks, I wouldn't be surprised if she had committed some kind of crime herself.

It doesn't help her case when she promotes real animal abuse in Japan and is a pro-shipper. I saw someone say she's just a quirky millennial and harmless but she's anything but that. She hurts real people with her actions, she's kind of a monster.

Danm this was long but I just needed to anonymously get this off my chest. Sorry if there's any spelling or grammatical errors in this, it's just a vent not a professional article.

[omnipresentlemon]

Avatar Modern AU Headcanons: The Early Years

Spider was adopted into the family after Neytiri found him wandering around the neighborhood as a toddler in just a t-shirt and underwear on one of the coldest days of the year. She immediately went to the police station and within a week Spider was removed from the McCoskers and was taken in by the Sullys as his foster family.

Jake and Neytiri have it ROUGH for a couple years - four kids under four? Eywa have mercy.

Listen. It is inevitable that little kids have a favorite parent, but the Sully kids are a little extreme with their hardcore Mom Favoritism™️. Neteyam can only fall asleep if Neytiri sings to him. Kiri doesn’t like Jake reading their bedtime stories because “mama does the voices better.” If Spider gets hurt he is inconsolable until Neytiri kisses it better. Lo’ak throws a tantrum for at least an hour every time Neytiri leaves them with Jake. My dude is being bullied mercilessly by kids who can’t even spell their names yet.

I fully support @be-the-glenn-to-my-maggie’s headcanon that Jake and Lo’ak are mortal enemies until Lo’ak hits about 5. But like, in a Megamind kinda way.

Whenever Lo’ak is acting up Jake pretends to call Santa and tell him to put Lo’ak on the naughty list.

Lo’ak will tell other adults the most embarrassing shit about Jake in the worst circumstances.

When Lo’ak is two and realizes his parents have names other than mama and daddy, he calls Jake by his first name only for three months. Imagine trying to discipline your two-year old and he whips out the first name.

In retaliation, Jake refers to Lo’ak as “the brat attack” until Neytiri reminds him that he’s the adult in this situation. He still does it sometimes when Neytiri isn’t around.

Neytiri has the mom reflexes of a god. No ER trips on her watch.

In fact, the first ER visit for the Sullys was when Neytiri left the kids with Jake to go shopping with Mo’at for some baby stuff while she was pregnant with Tuk. They don’t even make it down the street before Jake is frantically calling about Spider splitting his head open on the edge of the coffee table.

Spider is the most accident prone of the kids not due to clumsiness but a serious lack of survival skills and critical thinking. He used to throw himself off the top of the bunk bed he shared with Lo’ak just for fun.

Spider is technically the oldest, but due to the McCosker’s neglect he has some developmental delays and regressive behavior. Neteyam loves being able to act like a big brother for Spider even though he’s a year younger. They have a rough patch when they’re a bit older and Spider starts to assert himself more, but at the end of the day they’re Team Eldest and lean on each other a lot.

Kiri was a leash kid. Jake thought it was embarrassing but Neytiri could no take another incident of Kiri disappearing in public because she saw something interesting and wandered off to investigate.

Bluey is a staple in the Sully household. Jake and Neytiri are just happy that the chokehold Paw Patrol had on their kids seems to have gone away. Plus, now whenever they’re mean to each other, they just have to ask, “would Bluey and Bingo treat each other like this?” It results in an instant apology 99% of the time.

They talk back to their kids babble like it’s the most interesting thing in the world. Neytiri has full-on soap opera plots. The kids find it hilarious.

Jake, at the end of the day, is a military dad. And that means it’s MMA every day in the Sully household, starting young. He’ll suplex them into the couch, throw them onto the bed from across the room, toss them so high in the air he sees the bottom of their feet. Neytiri at first hates it, but she sees how gentle Jake is and tries to let it go. Even if it gives her heart palpitations.

Neteyam’s first word was “dada”, Kiri’s “mama”, and Lo’ak’s “no��. Spider’s speech was severely delayed and it took half a year of speech therapy to get him where he needed to be developmentally, so there’s was hot competition between Jake and Neytiri over who would get his first word.

It’s neither of them. Spider’s first word was “Teyam”. Even when they’re older Neteyam lords it over Spider’s head (but if he thinks too much about it it’ll make him cry, he just loves his brother so much).

I def have more of these percolating in my brain, but for now, enjoy!

[grahambaham]

Something that has always annoyed me is the habit of many fans to declare that a villain of a certain piece of media is in the right when they are most definitely not.

A few examples that I can think of right now are Thanos, Magneto and Doom. What. The. Fuck.

First of all, Viktor Von Doom barely even has anything to be right about. The guy’s goal in life is to get as powerful as possible and use that power to rule the world or whatever, prove to everyone he’s smarter than Reed Richards (he is not) and to inflate his own ego as much as is psychically possible. Though that last one could be a result of the first two I guess. He basically wants the basic ass stuff all villains want, even if it’s not what they’re focusing on specifically. There is nothing for him to even be right about, my guy. Alright so the wanting to rule the world thing isn’t for his ego, though it helps. It is because he has a fucking god complex and thinks he’s the only one who can truly do it and properly protect the Earth from any future attacks. Everything about Doom basically boils down to his ego.

Now, I understand how Megneto, otherwise known as Max Eisenhart (Erik Magnus Lehnsherr is just an alias), can be a sympathetic villain. He’s gone through a lot and when very simplified his goal seems fairly noble. Dude just wants to protect mutants, make sure they’re safe and living their best lives or whatever. The problem is that he believes mutants are the superior species and treats humans how you might treat a mosquito. He wants to eradicate them completely, and so the world would be there for mutants to rule over and live happily ever after or whatnot. Any of that sound familiar to you? Yeah… Anyway, the point is that even though we can understand how he might’ve come to the point where he’s willing to do such horrible things, that does not mean he is right at all. People seem to think that the humans deserve it for the way they’ve treated mutants, even though there are a lot of good ones who most certainly don’t do that shit AND so many of them are children too. Because you do know that Max would legit murder even the little toddlers? Not for any reason other than ‘they’re human’. So yeah, he was not in the right. He was not the good guy all along or whatever. He is a villain and a horrible person who has also been treated horribly their whole life. Those two things can both be true. Having a bad childhood does not excuse your shitty actions though.

Last and certainly least we’ve got Thanos. First of all, that fucker did not give a shit about overpopulation or whatever in the comics. Bro wanted to court Death so he went around murdering people and destroying planets to impress her. Not very noble of him, I gotta say. Now as for the MCU, his goal is in fact to kill half the universe so more people could get more resources because he’s seen the way the poor live because of that lack of food and other things essential to living. Now, instead of using that infinite fucking power that he had in his hands to create more shit to give to everyone or, I don’t know, anything else? They’re called INFINITY stones for a reason? This fucker instead decided to just commit genocide real quick. I genuinely believe the only people who think this loser was right are actual children. Twelve years old at the most. Because there is no way in holy hell that grown men and women think Thanos was good and smart to use the INFINITE POWER IN HIS HANDS to just KILL A BUNCH OF PEOPLE INSTEAD OF SAVING MORE BY JUST WISHING FOR MORE RESOURCES OR FUCKING WORLD/UNIVERSE PEACE OR WHATEVER THE FUCK? Thanos is secretly twelve years old and hasn’t gained any critical thinking skills yet, I swear to fucking god.

So yeah, I guarantee whichever villain you think was right was not in fact right, they’re simply easy to sympathise with or their cause is. But if their way of making that sympathetic idea come true is murdering/torturing/conquering etcetera, then THAT MEANS THEY AREN'T RIGHT AT FUCKING ALL.

Good night.

[docholligay]

Shamash answers: ANime final

Overwatch headcanon or idea: Angsty

Only four people answered so you all win, and even more than that, you all get double the points your placement would usually garner! Thanks for playing!

3rd place, for showing up! Two points!

Dallas it, only this time it wasn't all a dream: Someone gets murdered by someone in-house- who was it?

@amhrancas ENJOY YOUR POINTS you delightful weirdo

3rd place, for being something that I imagine happens ABSOULTELY, 2 points:

I don't know enough of Overwatch, but maybe Mercy knowing Pharah has been seriously hurt and having to delegate treatment to someone else, because there is someone else in a more critical condition requiring brilliant Dr. Ziegler's personal attention. She does her best to focus, but her mind keeps drifting.

@vassekocho I actually think this happens after Lena and Fareeha get rescued from Moira. Fareeha is very badly hurt and in an insane amount of pain, but if Angela, who knows her body better than anyone, does not get it together Lena will DIE on this fucking table. She might anyway! But she definitely will if Angela doesn't start thinking about her instead of her wife.

For hitting the nail on the head, 2nd place with four points!

As Lena's symptoms progress but before it might be noticeable, she starts requesting adjustments to her equipment. She's able to play it off for a while, but Winston is observant, and he can only let himself be in denial for so long. When Lena requests aim stabilizers, he can't put it off anymore. She's too proud of her skills, of how well she can control her speed and her body, to ever even think she might need an assist like that. It turns into a fight, a row even, and is the one and only time Lena shouts at Winston to get away from her.

@katrani I think Lena gets pretty sensitive about how she's falling apart, especially before it gets so bad that she has to be like, "WELP" and spends a lot of time trying to convince herself and others that it's not a big deal and it's not that noticeable and she covers it just fine and the people that love her are constantly torn between wanting to honor Lena's desire for everything to be as absolutely normal as possible for as long as possible, and wanting to be like, "Okay can we all just get real for a moment here and admit you might need help with something?" And the more simple that 'something' becomes the more Lena wants to (and sometimes does) react like a toddler and throw a fit proclaiming she can DO IT.

For legit pulling at my heartstrings, 1st place, with six points!

Winston walks into his apartment, softly closing the door behind him. The party had been nice, and certainly what Lena would have wanted. Good food and good booze, a gathering of friends to celebrate a life rather than wallow many months after her death. He had laughed, though his heart wasn't in it. Joked through the pain. Assured everyone that he was fine. Declined Emily's offer to spend the night. She had grief enough; he would not burden her with his. He meanders into the kitchen, lit only by the glow of the full moon through the window. He retrieves a single, solitary cupcake and places it on the table, lighting the candle that is already set and sitting upright in the swirl of frosting, the light reflecting off the glass frame nearby. He stares, for a moment, at the irreverent grin, at the personality which could never truly be captured in a still frame yet somehow comes through in spades. "Happy Birthday, Lena." His voice is quiet, misting into the air as tendrils of smoke from the candle. "You are so, so missed." (Or: Winston pays a private homage to Lena every year on her birthday after her death.)

@seolh I love this. I am so glad you suggested prereleasing the questions if this is what I get in return!! Of course Lena's friends and family would gather and celebrate with plenty of beer and great shitty food, and absolutely she would want people to laugh and make fun of her and get drunk and have fun. It is exactly how she would want to be remembered.

And of course Winston can't do it! I mean, he can fake it, but every time he hears someone make a joke about her, or laugh about something she used to do, all he can think is, 'But she isn't here. How do you do it, when she's not here?' And it takes a fair amount of time and also Avi, for him not to just feel empty all the time. But he never stops feeling a twinge of pain on her birthday, on Christmas, any time that reminds him of how she should be here. Even when Emily remarries, he wants to be happy for her and will play at being happy for her because lena would somehow raise herself from the dead and beat him if he didn't, but it feels like betrayal to him. How could you not mourn her forever?

(Lena, of course, in the afterlife jsut going, 'Win, win, let me go. PLEASE. It isn't loyalty; it's just sad." )

[changingplumbob]

New Goth: Chapter 4, Part 4

Harvestfest wraps up

CW: Mentions of death Content Warning Guide

Savannah is the twin in pink with hair clips Mercedes is the twin in blue without hair clips

Full family photo! Then Milton decides that while everyone is here he may as well show them the puppet show he’s been working on.

Rahul: What is it called

Milton: School

Cassandra: I think I’ll have to watch from a seat if that’s okay

Savannah: Mama has a baby inside so she needs to be careful

Mercedes nods halfheartedly while Milton slips on the puppets and begins his tale.

The show isn’t all that bad. Of course at creativity level 3 it isn’t all that good either… There are a few funny jokes in it that make the Chopra’s laugh though, Rahul is the best audience a kid could want. Alexander and James are using the time that Milton is being watched to work out in the home gym. They’ve already seen many versions of this puppet play from Milton. Hamlet hangs around for a while hoping for a pat but the viewers seem engrossed.

In the end Milton receives a round of applause from the family.

Savannah: We should have a puppet theatre

Mercedes: Why

Savannah: We could do stories together

Mercedes: But we can do that with dolls. Why change

Rahul: You’re not a big fan of change are you Mercedes

Mercedes: No papa. But I would like a treehouse

Rahul: *laughs* Come on you two, we should find Uncle Alexander and Uncle James and thank them before we leave

Savannah: Why

Rahul: Good manners that’s why. Now come along

Savannah: I’d like an older cousin

Mercedes: I don’t want one to boss us around like Milton does

Milton: I heard that

Rahul: Girls, I said now!

Twins: *quickly standing* Yes papa

As they leave the library Milton sighs and turns to Viola.

Milton: Did you have a good time Viola

Viola: Ye ye, gooey. Ug?

Milton hugs the toddler who is happy with the attention. Alexander and Cassandra walk in talking and the youngest Chopra is scooped up.

Cassandra: We better be getting back to Henford

Alexander: Before storytime? I need practice

Cassandra: I doubt a teen would like you reading to them but what do I know. I think my ones are getting tired, and I may need a nap myself

Alexander: Take care of yourself sis

Cassandra: I will, and if I don’t Rahul does

The rest of the day passes quickly. Alexander has joined the critic career with his eye on being a food critic, finding it a great way to combine his literature degree with his cuisine hobby. James takes care of chores around the house since he is a neat sim after all. Alexander practices his research and debate until he hits level 4, coincidentally enough the level he needs for promotion. James meanwhile spends some time playing games online with Joey, Keira and Marta.

Milton looks at this toys again before bed. He’s glad Alexander got them for him, he’d missed them. Who knows if Bella’s journals would provide any answers as to where she was, but he wanted to keep trying. He only had one mummy, and he missed her every day. Of course in the middle of the night he woke up from a bad dream and realised the way to protect himself was clear, bear suit! Before we knew it Monday was here and Hamlet was waking everyone up accordingly.

James decided to spend the day doing something he loved, fishing! He invited the club around to check out the stream that ran along the edge of the property. It had begun to snow but with no ice the fish should be biting. I had hoped they would all deposit themselves along the stream but nope. Bob decided his time was better spent upstairs watching the culinary channel. Reece caught something! It wasn’t a fish but hopefully his skill has gone up a little.

After school...

James: How was school today

Milton: Good and bad. Can you help me with my project please Uncle James? It's meant to be a volcano

James: Sure, as an ex-teacher I know my way around a fake volcano. Now tell me about school. Why was it good and bad?

Milton: I gave the note from Alexander to my teacher about my costume and she was fine with it

James: But?

Milton: *sighs* Reynaldo and Maria hung out with me but everyone else avoided me

Friendly reminder that the twins go to a different school, I promise they were not avoiding him.

James: Don’t worry about "everyone else", focus on your friends. If they still think you’re awesome enough to hang around with no matter what you want to wear, they’re good ones

Milton: I guess. It’s just hard. People treat me different even before I was in this

James: Milton... your father died and we don't know what happened to Bella. Many of the kids in your class won’t be able to think about what that means, and won’t know what to say about it. Sometimes if people don’t know what to say they’ll say nothing

Milton: I don’t miss father so much now. But I need to know what happened to mummy

James: If you need any help going through those journals I’d be happy to help

Milton: I know but… I want to do it by myself. It helps me feel close to mummy. There, is the volcano done?

James: Almost. Now you have to present it

Milton: Present it?

James: Practice for class. I’ll be a good audience and you'll be prepared for your classmates

Joey decided to swing around for dinner to catch up with everyone. It’s leftover ham from the holiday so everyone ends up feeling a bit dazed. Alexander has to go write another column for work afterwards so James, Milton and Joey put in some gaming time. I’m not sure how Milton does in the bear suit but he’s not sad so we’ll stick with it.

Previous ... Next

[firelordslove]

Do you think the Smoke and Shadow comic foreshadows Zuko and Mai as future rulers of the Fire Nation?  It showcases their strategy skills along with improving their communication as they strive to find a solution to save the children of the fire nation capital. Even though they are broken up, they work well together and shows their compatibility as rulers.  Thoughts? 

omg my first anon, hello and thank you for asking me this question !!

I talk a little bit about this in my video essay, actually. while I hate the comics and I think it’s stupid that they broke up, it does give them a chance to grow as people and into their positions in the world. the writer confirmed that they got back together 3 years later, meaning they’re young adults when they reunite, and they would have grown from their teenage selves.

in The Promise (2012) we already see their communication improving (well, Mai’s anyway) when she says that Zuko can come to her with any issues he has and he should be able to talk to her about his feelings because she’s his girlfriend. this already shows that he has someone he can rely on who is willing to listen to him, someone he’s known for a long time.

in Smoke and Shadow (2015), we see this communication improving. one thing that gene luen yang got right is that Zuko would absolutely be pinning over Mai, given how much that loser (affectionate) was obsessed with her.

although she is with Kei Lo at the time, Zuko expresses how much he misses her and that he wants her back, as well as acknowledging how happy she looks. he does this instead of repressing his feelings, and Mai talks about her point of view of the situation, being open and honest (despite it not being what Zuko wants to hear).

it is not only their communication improving that shows the potential they have at running a nation together, but also who they’re going after in Smoke and Shadow (2015). one criticism that people give Mai is that she doesn’t care about people, and in turn, the Fire Nation citizens. however, in this comic we see her and Zuko working together to take down a terrorist organisation. while part of it is to protect Zuko, she calls her own dad (who is leading The New Ozai Society) “insane” for his political beliefs.

not only that, but she sends him to prison in the end and says that he deserves to go.

this is after she helped free her little brother, Zuko’s little sister and gaggle of other Fire Nation toddlers (with Zuko) !!

so, yeah. while I hate the comics, I think they do show some potential of Zuko and Mai working well together as rulers of a nation (even though “Fire Lady” doesn’t seem like an active role in politics, but we can pretend or hope that changes with Mai).

[tubborucho]

Yeah, I am pretty sure he thought of it as a light-hearted way to explain Sunny why Tallulah is moody. Doesn’t change the fact that it was a fucked up thing to say and genuinely hurtful for a literal toddler.

This and your point about people not being able to let go of the whole Dadza thing are two of my biggest problems with q!Phil. I know it's not cc!Phil's fault how people treat him but the way people overhype his parenting does make it more irritating as a viewer. It's not just fans, though, most characters seem to share this view of him as an amazing Dad. The fact that he stepped up for Tallulah when Wilbur left is great and the effort he puts in is great, but his parenting skills are just okay.

It feels like every time he talks to or about Sunny he ends up doing something bad that's brushed off because "that's just how Phil talks" or "he's just protecting his kids".

His reaction to Sunny's train was awful. I know he has a banter-y relationship with Tubbo but he was criticizing her father and her own choices right in front of her. It felt like he didn't even absorb any of what Tubbo was telling him. Like, why did he keep complaining about it feeling sterile when it was a brand new build and Sunny chose the white blocks themself?

The morality test about stealing the panda was completely unacceptable. Genuinely horrible thing to do to a child especially when he told her point blank at the end that it was a test that she managed to pass. Why would she trust someone who might be secretly testing her?

The talk in the museum was bad for both Sunny and Tallulah. Tallulah isn't "in a mood," she has genuine concerns but has still been making an effort with Sunny even while trying to maintain some distance. For Sunny he was playing up a very real insecurity to make a point. It's not really fair to Tubbo either, his game was having issues and he left his daughter with two of the people he trusts the most. I went to watch from the vod for slightly more context and chat reactions and Phil did not waste any time at all. The moment Tubbo was gone he rolled straight into it with Sunny.

There was also a point a few days ago where Tallulah showed some discomfort over Empanada and Phil responded with this:

Empanada’s nice, you like Empanada. You like Em. It’s Sunny you’re not a fan of. Sunny’s just all in your face with money and sunglasses and shit. But, like, Sunny’s fine too. Sunny’s just a bit much though. Sunny takes a while to get used to.

Sunny was not around for this but it's still a terrible way to talk about a child. They weren't even the egg Tallulah was concerned about at the time. And I do believe that q!Phil wasn't trying to be mean here but he still was. He is consistently unkind to Sunny even when he's trying to make a good point or a joking.

Wait, is the last thing a genuine quote? Because I haven’t heard this one before.

And yeah. Listen, Phil is a good parent. He takes care of Chayanne and Tallulah very well. He is a good parent, but it doesn’t mean that he is good that way for every other child ever. I think people forget that Dad figures in stories don’t mean that they are perfect in every adult-child relationship ever.

He is a great dad for Chay and Lullah. He is genuinely very condescending towards Sunny. It’s like every time they interact he just refuses to even try to see past his initial impression of them. Phil wrote her down for no reason as a shallow and tolerable at best kid in his books, and acts on that judgement in a way that he doesn’t care about her in any way past their basic safety and sometimes teaching them stuff if they need it immediately.

The only reason he pays Sunny any mind at all is that he cares for Tubbo. Also not in a parental way that people (and Tubbo lmao) seem to try and picture it as, but he cares. Sunny is just a tag along.

And don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that he should love her like his own or even really like her. It’s fine. I am saying that he still should treat her with the same grace as other kids that are not his – she is a child, you are speaking of and with a child, being mean about and to them is not okay. Especially because this child did literally nothing wrong.

[pinbones]

"They never taught us x in school" is sometimes a criticism of your school's biases or specific teachers being trash, but I think a lot of it comes down to the fact that kids have each subject once or twice a week, and learn at a high school level. You didn't get to learn a comprehensive history of your country's politics and culture because there wasn't enough time in between learning every other subject and doing all your extracurricular projects and learning how to write essays better than a toddler. And christknows kids barely do homework let alone read their textbooks cover to cover to see what they missed in class.

The point of school wasn't to teach you specifics about every topic on earth, that was never possible. It was making kids literate and setting them up for their future.

Back when kids were just taught to memorise flags and country names, schools caught flak for not teaching them about the culture and politics of those places ('facts instead of knowledge'). Now, when they DO teach you about a couple of countries' cultures and histories in more depth, people complain that it's too specific, or that those aren't the right country or time in history to learn about. You see the problem? The VASTNESS of planet earth and all of relevant human history? The generalised skills are the most useful ones, and I promise you they taught you those at school, even if they didn't give you a checklist of everything you would need to know to become ~informed about the world~. And now people are pointing out that students can't name every place on the globe, when that was never a skill anybody has ever used in their lives. (Psst -- globes and maps exist.)

Look through your old schoolbooks. They taught you how to analyse souces in history, and learning about WW2 or whatever was just a way to do that. In English, you learned how to recognise persuasive writing and how to do it yourself, probably by analysing everything from newspapers to poems. You were taught about other cultures and peoples in their respective language classes, you studied at least one. You might have learned about the impacts of tourism and climate change in geography and all the things we're doing to balance them. In chemistry and physics you learned about practical experiments and how they relate to real life phenomena that affect us daily. Food tech/woodworking/graphic design/resistant materials taught you about the design and production of new market products. You probably even learned the rules of the road as a bicyclist and pedestrian at school. School taught you about diseases and vaccines and handwashing, they taught you how to LOOK UP INFORMATION in libraries and how to format sources, and if you're on the younger end, they taught you how to use Google and probably made you get an email address when you didn't see the point of them.

If you were never taught skills, then I'm sorry. But half the point of school is teaching kids how to CONTINUE learning their whole lives. It's not to catch them up on everything that happened in the world by age 18. If you had to know everything important by the time you graduated, you'd never have left

[dukeofdelirium]

I'm not surprised that a lot of the young heterosexual guys in the ST fandom also suffer from the male loneliness epidemic. While Gen Y guys certainly weren't the smartest people to ever walk the earth, they at least had critical thinking skills and the ability to communicate and have discussions with people.

I see so many of these young men in this fandom wear stupidity like it's a badge of honor. They want everyone to know that they don't like using their brains and that they fully expect tv shows to be dumbed down to meet their lack of intelligence.

They also need constant validation and can't handle anyone challenging their viewpoints. They have no emotional control and sound like toddlers.

It's no wonder no one wants to date or even befriend them. It's exhausting being around people who enjoy being unintelligent, uninteresting, and have zero social skills or emotional intelligence.

Agreed lol. I especially don’t want to be around it. I already work full time and deal with morons daily, so engaging w any fandom for me is like filtering all the bullshit out as much as possible 😂

The fact they proudly state that ST is nothing but a “monster show” shows how dumb they are bc wtf leads you to even believe that conclusion in the first place? There’s obviously much more going on here than the sci-fi and horror elements, or the 80’s nostalgia and whatnot. Sure, that’s an aspect of it, but this is clearly a character and relationship driven show…

Whatever tho, they just wanna make fun of us and call us stupid for analyzing the show. It’s specifically because we believe in the gay romance and that we believe the story is representing homophobia through the horror and monsters that they call us names and act like we’re crazy. If it weren’t gay, they wouldn’t think or say those things.

And that’s exactly why they’ll hate s5. I hope it makes them scream and cry about it lol.

[rainbowdaisy13]

Some Swiffers have ZERO idea about typical child development milestones and it shows, Aaron's son is a typical 9 years old, and the kid Taylor is singing about in Robin is *way* younger than 9 going by typical milestones for children, I'm talking toddler age young.

Somebody needs to stop these cranky little 14 year olds from opening their mouths just to say the stupidest shit ever to adults with critical thinking skills that actually know how children work, can we get like a baby sitter in here to control these little assholes or something, like damn I've had enough 💀

Ok this is such a good point—toddlers say higher and higher when they are being pushed on a swing. They babble at themselves. 9 year olds are insane and play fortnight and so YouTube dances and yell safety when they fart—I own one so I know

I agree a ton of younger fans do struggle but unfortunately the amount of wine mom accounts I’ve seen spewing this shit is high as well