#i know there are also problems with enforcement

[honourablejester]

I’m watching bit compilations of the Fantasy High campaign(s) for Dimension 20 at the minute, and I’m watching one for Junior Year ep 16, and I love …

There’s a bit where some of Kipperlilly’s motivations for hating the party are revealed, and it’s revealed that she’s jealous that Riz’s father was killed, because she wants a cool and tragic backstory and thinks that her lack of it has kept her back at the adventuring academy while they had an advantage. And Siobhan, as Adaine, without batting an eye:

“And her response to that was to be mad at us, and not to kill her parents?”

To which the others respond … Okay, Adaine, that’s the sociopath test! And just general slightly spooked humour.

And I just love that … You can really see the girl who on her first day at school had a fight break out on top of her and wound up killing a lunch lady with a ladle. You can see the girl who did have to kill her abusive father after he casually murdered her sister. This is all coming from trauma, but she puts such a casual … Like, girl, get with the program on it. There’s such disdain for Kipperlilly whining about it instead of actually doing something.

I love that it is genuinely mostly a joke, she’s not seriously advocating for murder here, but it also does say quite a bit about Adaine. About her trauma and her pragmatism and her lingering perfectionism and her rather enforced nonchalance about the potential necessity of parent murder and her distinct attitude that if a problem presents itself, then you fix it, doing whatever you have to do in the process.

There’s just a sense that, you know, if Kipperlilly has decided to be evil and has decided that she’s fine with killing people, which we have proof she has, why is she not going with the logical solution to her problem? If you have decided that you’re fine with murdering people and that morality is no longer a stumbling block, why are you not doing the most efficient thing to solve your stated problem? If you’re going to be evil, be better at it.

Adaine would be an absolutely terrifying bad guy. And also probably needs more counselling.

[shitpostingsapphic]

"I hate Caitlyn because of the system she represents. I'm so tired of people acting like we can'thate her for that."

Let's have a long, hard talk.

This argument IS made in direct comparison to the oppressive systems we see in real life, so let's first talk about how Caitlyn compares to real world oppressive systems, her faults and the ways she fails the people she serves, and then let's talk about how you're just fucking wrong about her and how you hate the wrong character.

Caitlyn is an enforcer. Stating the obvious. She is a member of a larger system she chose to be a part of, because she wanted to serve the people. She was ignorant of the system's corruption as we see throughout season 1. Her initial intentions with becoming an enforcer are because she wants to fight injustice, defy the stuff politics of Piltover that she was raised under, and have her own identity.

At the end of season 1, several things happen to Caitlyn. She is abducted naked from her home, held hostage for at minimum 24 hours, during which time an array of things could have happened to her but of which we know for certain left her TERRIFIED of the young girl with blue hair she was abducted by. She watches that same girl fire an explosive that kills her mother. Preceding this, she has been witness to the ways Silco has harmed the people of the undercity and how he had the enforcers in his pocket in order to do it. Ekko explicitly tells her this. He tells her how Silco has ruined lives and how the enforcers were the manpower that let it happen.

Caitlyn walks away from season 1 changed in many ways. She is brokenhearted and traumatized, but still holds a strong desire to protect the innocent people of both cities. Because of who she has been up to this point, her belief is that she can rectify the wrongs by using the power of her position to do good instead of aid corruption. Her asking Vi to become an enforcer to do as much is in bad taste, yes. Which she later apologizes for and takes ownership for. That doesn't remove the good intention behind it. And it doesn't negate that Vi can later see the logic behind it. Being able to take control of a bad situation and use that power to do good instead of abusing that power to do bad, is an incredibly shaky but important position to be in. And the whole point of Caitlyn's character is how she navigates that--can she use her position to do good? As per GOOD WRITING, she's not going to get it perfect until she learns and grows.

We can acknowledge the moral ambiguity of using the grey, how it does harm, while also acknowledging the WAY it was used and for what purpose was both smart, economical, and GOOD. Doing bad things for good reasons. That's what the use of the grey was.

I'm not going to get into the memorial much, but all I will say for that, is it's an excellent example of people twisting Caitlyn's words and underselling the pain she's going through. If you can't acknowledge the right Caitlyn has to be upset at the people who just violently disrupted a memorial for mourning the loss of loved ones, I don't think you care to have a conversation about the humane treatment of others. And using Caitlyn's anger and grief as a "see?? She hates Zaunites!!" is so fucking stupid I'm not going to entertain an argument for that.

Caitlyn's setback is her trauma, her ignorance, and her heartbreak. She still isn't a fully realized character throughout most of season 2. She's learning and growing and unfortunately that is at the expense of the people she lords over while enforcing martial law. But if we acknowledge that, we also have to acknowledge the ways she changed the system so that needless suffering and punishment didn't happen. Confronting Ambessa when violence is used unlawfully. Improving the prison food and banning the use of the most inhumane cells in Stillwater. Bare minimum? Yes. But still ways she showed that she saw the Zaunites as humans and not as flesh covered problems the way Salo does. Not as problems to get rid of the way Ambessa does.

If the reason for your ire is because Caitlyn is a figure in a corrupt system, then your hatred is misdirected. The point of Caitlyn is to show the ways the system needs to change, and how the people within it who want to do good can often be misguided, but that doesn't mean they aren't good people or that they can't do good within their position.

If you fundamentally disagree with that, there isn't much of an argument to be had, but I will say that your ire is still misdirected.

I never see you guys discuss Salo or Ambessa.

Salo represents true bigotry in the system. It's a position he maintains all the way up to when his mind is commandeered by Viktor and the hexcore. Salo is the type of person who functions on confirmation bias--he already has a prejudiced view of Zaunites, and will use any opportunity to say "see? Told you so! We should put them down." Compared directly to how Caitlyn talks about them, asks Vi to help fix the system, fights against the system going too far, actively makes adjustments to change the way the system treats Zaunites, the claims that Caitlyn is a bigot don't hold up.

Ambessa IS the system. She IS the oppressive force that indiscriminately will take and take and take and sees violence as a tool and not a consequence to be avoided at all costs the way Caitlyn does. And for some fucking reason, no one who criticizes Caitlyn gives any weight to Ambessa's actions, ever. They don't discuss the way she manufactures the attack on the memorial to manipulate public opinion on Zaunites, as well as manipulate Caitlyn. They don't discuss how she sets Caitlyn up to be pressured to take the position of Commander and uses her grief, promises her justice, in order to warm Caitlyn to her and keep her as an ally, a pawn she can use. They don't discuss how she sent Maddie to be a spy, to be in Caitlyn's bed and to be as intimately close to her as possible, to make sure Caitlyn still was behaving the way she needed in order to see her plan through.

When discussing the manipulative, exploitative, and violent nature of oppressive systems, Caitlyn has become the scapegoat, when it is people like Salo and Ambessa who deserve your blame and your ire.

You wonder why people don't take your complaints about Caitlyn seriously? That's why. Because the show gave you very bold examples of oppressive individuals in control of the systems you hate, and you ignore both of them for the sake of hating on a beloved lesbian character, who is beloved because she is flawed and good natured and whose journey we enjoy because it's all about learning what to do when you're within a system that pulls you at every direction to do evil, and you still find a way to do good.

Do some more think pieces on Salo and Ambessa. Then maybe we can have nuanced discussions on Caitlyn.

[glade-constellation]

This might just be a very niche problem I have, but if I don’t say anything about it it’s going to keep bothering me.

Please stop calling the Astrals a cult.

This post is not directed at any singular person, it’s something I’ve seen since the Astrals were first introduced. I know a lot of people throw the word cult around, so I tried to ignore it, but I also think people need a reminder as to want a cult actually is.

A cult, by definition, is “a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious”. Basically, a religion based on weird or false information. Some definitions go even broader. What people tend to forget about is that cults have specific characteristics that classify them as cults.

First, cults typically display authoritarianism. There is typically one person in the group regarded as the leader, and they are treated with the highest of respect. Anything preserved as disrespectful towards this person is highly frowned upon, and can lead to harsh punishments. The leader can never be questioned and is never wrong about anything they say. There is no accountability to their actions.

You could say the Astrals portray this with Taurus and Leo, but that’s simply not true. They are very loud about their opinions, but they do not set the rules and they are not the leaders. They are simply the enforcers, just as Virgo is the judge. They simply play a role, they aren’t an authoritative leader. Plus, Gemini said some pretty disrespectful things about both and were allowed to have their opinion. Cults do not allow this behavior.

Which leads into the next point. Cults are very particular about behavior. They are isolationist by nature. They follow a very strict set of beliefs and rituals that must be upheld, or you will be shunned. Breaking them can also result in harsh punishment.

This one I can understand. The Astrals are very strict on rules and behaviors. Breaking them can result in death. Once again, you have to look at this in the right context. Astrals aren’t human. Both characters from the show and Reed himself have explained this. They cannot be held to human standards when they aren’t human. They have to have these rules, because one mess up isn’t just an oops situation. It could level worlds, kill entire universes. Lunar permanently disabled Earth, and has accidentally hurt others before with it. His punishment was completely fair considering what was at stake. I’m not agreeing with how they handled his training by any means, but you have to remember what was at risk.

There are other characteristics that just have nothing to do with the Astrals. The zodiac lore humans came up with pretty obviously aren’t real in TSAMS universe, they don’t have any “sacred text” to follow. They are enforcing cosmic rules to keep the balance of nature, not one set person. They work as a group, no single member has more power than the other. There is no abuse or exploitation of members because they aren’t a religion.

You want to call something a cult? Just look at our Dark Star group. Most are over here praising Cetus as some great higher being. They do everything in his name. The only reasons others are allowed to stay is because they’re spreading the DSP, and even then they’re aren’t really considered members so much as underlings. There are levels to their group. The higher you are, the closer you’re considered to Cetus. Anything else, they just kill. It’s about performance, not genuine belief. (There are cases like Rez where there is belief and then they just become deadly, because they believe everyone not in their group truly deserves their fate.) That is a cult. That is a religion built on false pretenses.

Context is key. Yes, Lunar wasn’t really treated with the best respect. There were things the Astrals could have done differently. Thing is, you cannot hold a non-human being to human standards. Plus, the last time they allowed someone to be an Astral, it backfired on them to the extreme (Cetus). When you have that much power, you have to enforce boundaries for yourself so you don’t accidentally kill a world. Lunar wasn’t blameless. He put himself in this situation the moment he even considered using DSP. The Astrals are not the only ones to blame for Lunar’s current predicament. If anything, the DS group are the ones to blame, not the Astrals. Cults will do that. They will exploit your weaknesses to draw you in and then keep you there. The only reason Rez wanted Lunar to join them was because Lunar had power Rez could use for himself. They dug at Lunar’s fear of uselessness and desperation for control of his life. Lunar is a victim, just not of the Astrals.

Cults are a real thing, they aren’t just a tool used in fiction. Real people are affected by them. Please stop throwing things like that around carelessly when you don’t know the true definition. It takes away from their true weight. Victims of cults are told they’re over exaggerating and telling lies. Turning real world problems into simple fictional tropes have real effects on real victims.

[renthony]

Goddammit I have things to say about Arcane again. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I have never been this obsessed with a show that pissed me off so much. Fucking hell.

Longish critical post under the cut.

Husband and I are re-watching Arcane from the beginning, specifically so we can do some critical analysis and frame-by-framing. This watch, I'm really fixated on the way Vi is reintroduced after being in prison, because it does not make any goddamn sense.

If Stillwater is primarily full of Zaunites working for Silco, and Vi is constantly fighting with them, but she's also constantly being tortured by the enforcers...who the fuck is watching her back? How is she alive? Yes, she has a solitary cell, but we see her let out into the common areas. If she has that many enemies in Stillwater, how has she survived this long? The answer seems to be "plot armor," and that's...not a good answer.

If she has literally zero allies in prison, and she is hated by both the inmates and the guards, she'd be dead. Even if we're supposed to assume Marcus gave the order to the other enforcers to keep her alive, we know for a fact that the enforcers are still abusing her, so they clearly don't actually give a shit, nor do they stop the other inmates from fighting with her.

Like, I don't care how much of a badass she is, she has to sleep sometimes. She has to eat sometimes. She has to take a piss sometimes. She is clearly in fighting-fit shape, she is clearly healthy enough to immediately start parkouring all over Zaun after release, so who's letting her have access to workout equipment? You don't get or stay that jacked just by punching a wall. How's she getting enough calories? You don't get the good food if everyone in the prison hates you. For all that she makes a joke to Caitlyn about prison food tasting awful, she is clearly not malnourished.

And who the fuck did her tattoos????? They're extensive and fairly high-quality. If someone else did them, who was she on good enough terms with? If she did it herself, who liked her enough to smuggle, sell, or share supplies with her?

It really wouldn't bug me as much if it weren't for the fact that the narrative seems to want me to see her as a forgotten loner who has nobody in her corner until Caitlyn. Fundamentally, that cannot be true, or Vi would have been murdered and dumped in the water long before Cait showed up.

Also, if Silco has that many people in Stillwater, how does he not have his fingers in the prison smuggling operation that clearly exists? I don't buy it. If he owns Marcus' ass that hard, and he's already involved in smuggling, he'd have spies and smugglers in Stillwater, too. I do not believe that Silco has the power and the confidence to casually threaten Marcus by showing up in the man's personal home, but not enough power and confidence to get spies into a prison that's already full of his own allies/underlings.

There are definitely possible answers to some of these questions, and I certainly have my own headcanons, but it really doesn't feel like the writers' room spent a lot of time thinking about the actual social issues and politics that they invoked for aesthetic.

Usually this is where I'd say, "I wonder what the S&P notes looked like, and I wonder how many episodes they got screwed out of, because so much of this could have been fixed with a little more runtime." Sadly, based on the shit that keeps coming out of Christian Linke's mouth, I don't think we can blame the corporate office for this one. If Christian Linke is telling the truth and the show got all the episodes they wanted, my ever-present "TV writers keep getting screwed, so I have to analyze the finished product with the knowledge that the creators likely got fucked over" goodwill completely vanishes.

The problem really seems to be that the show was written by centrists with a fundamentally flawed understanding of class struggle, drug use, the drug trade, and the prison-industrial complex. It's not surprising, but it does disappoint me.

And while I'm thinking about it, why is Shimmer somehow both drinkable and injectable in seemingly the same form???? Drugs can absolutely come in different forms, but we see people drink the exact same type of shimmer that other people inject. You don't drink injectable drugs. Fuck's sake, this is Skooma levels of "the writers just threw every scary-sounding drug in a blender to make Scary Super Drugs without knowing anything about how real-world drugs work."

Also, if the Firelights' big thing is that they hate Silco Because Of Drugs, I really wanna know how the hell Ekko found that many straight-edge anarchists willing to build a secret compound together. Are they against all drugs, or just shimmer? Where's their line?

[brainrot-jikan]

im not the biggest alhaitham/kaveh shipper (because im a rare pair ho) but it seems to me that in alhaitham/kaveh getting-together fics tend to be... unequal.

the beautiful thing about alhaitham and kaveh is that they're both equally right and equally wrong and equally dicks about it. but the writers for alhaitham/kaveh much more frequently seem to give alhaitham the burden change (the burden of the character flaw) instead of kaveh.

in any good character arc, the main character has a fatal flaw or misconception, and by the end of that arc they have addressed that flaw in some definitive way. scrooge was a scrooge and learned that being that way was detrimental; merlin from finding nemo was overprotective to a fault and had to learn that he couldn't (and shouldn't) control everything and to let go; the wolf from little red riding hood learns that you should stop while you're ahead.

stories centering around romance tend to lean heavily on character arcs, which makes sense. and since romance generally requires two individuals to be vulnerable and open and emotional with each other, it makes double sense that alhaitham/kaveh authors zoom straight into alhaitham's lack of emotional vulnerability.

this bothers me.

in society, individuals are expected to experience and present emotions in a specific way. if someone dies, you cry. if someone smiles at you, you smile back. if you're at a party, you're supposed to be having fun. if you don't do these things, you're seen as impolite at best and a inhuman freak at worst. when these behaviors are frequent it's often viewed as emotional immaturity, or a lack of ability to feel at all. the inability or lack of willingness to conform to societies emotional expectations of you is seen as a flaw and a reason for exclusion.

alhaitham is canonically disliked and avoided for being the way he is. he prefers it this way, but that doesn't mean the people perpetuating this avoidance are in the right. they are the societal pressure to conform that alhaitham blows off. alhaitham could be the way he is for a lot of reasons: avoidant attachment style, trauma, following someone else's example (eg. his grandmother), or just his base personality. it doesn't MATTER. he is the way he is. kaveh having to accept that should be part of the story.

putting the burden of the fatal flaw on alhaitham, making the way alhaitham treats kaveh and the people around him the problem, feels invalidating. it implies heavily that alhaitham's way of interfacing with the world, alhaitham's very SELF, is incorrect. my suggestion is to flip a larger portion of that burden onto kaveh. kaveh 👏 character 👏 arcs 👏

some examples/recommendations:

- make kaveh project his insecurities onto other people but especially onto alhaitham; he's overly reliant on other people for his own self worth, and he perceives alhaitham's lack of positive feedback as a direct reflection of how alhaitham feels about him. but learns along the way that alhaitham doesn't hate him, kaveh's actual struggle is with hating himself and being unable to his own self as worthy of love. maybe throw in how you are responsible for your own recovery, other people can help but you can't rely on them to carry you through self actualization.

- or, kaveh tries to make alhaitham behave more like a "normal" person, to be more pleasant and emotive and forthcoming, and then realizes he's in the wrong for trying to make alhaitham into something he's not, possibly for all the wrong reasons (not because he likes alhaitham better like that, but bc society says that's healthier and a better/more conforming way to be)

- or you could go ahead make alhaitham's issues the main problem but they're too complicated to overcome in a short period of time, so kaveh has to accept alhaitham is doing his best in his own way and not push for unrealistic and unhealthy changes. he could alter his own behavior to give alhaitham space and time and a safe place to land.

that got sappy so it's past time for me to dip out. go forth and ship things; but maybe consider letting alhaitham be a rude stone-faced bastard if he wants to be.

[whatwooshkai]

Gimme a number 5! :D

Chase's face is contorted in badly disguised panic as he stands there, finials practically brushing the lights on his back, waiting for instruction.

Charlie tries desperately not to laugh, coughing into his fist. "I am so sorry," he says, voice strained, as Mayor Luskey forces his way out of the car, fuming.

"BURNS!" he snarls, his toupee slightly askew, and he nearly trips over the grappler as he storms up to him. "WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!"

"So sorry," Charlie repeats, noticing that Chase has started nervously wringing his hands. "The police bot noticed your car was going above the speed limit and wasn't responding to the flashing lights, so he- uh, the AI, I mean- took the next logical step." He gestures at the scene. "Hence the grappler."

Chase had deployed it without asking, and Charlie hadn't even known what happened until the mayor's car had suddenly stopped and started swerving in front of them, caught in a trap of yellow nylon webbing.

"Well- well- fix it!" Mayor Luskey turns on his poor chauffeur and starts shouting again, and Charlie notices the slight sigh of relief from Chase as the attention is taken off them.

"Police bot," Charlie orders, biting back his smile, "fix this please."

"Yes sir," Chase says, sounding much less confident than usual.

-------------------------------

"I didn't even know you had a grappler," Charlie pipes up as they roll into the firehouse's driveway. "My last patrol car sure didn't."

"It was equipment I had back on Cybertron," Chase explains as the garage door closes behind them, then transforms when Charlie steps out. "I just haven't had a reason to use it until now."

"Well, uh, good to know," Charlie says, patting his hands on his hips. "Just maybe ask first next time?"

"Of course," Chase hums, and his finials flatten against his helm.

"So, do you have any other equipment you're holding out on me?" Charlie continues teasingly, and Chase's finials cant back.

"No," he answers, sounding almost disappointed. "A question better suited for Heatwave. I have not seen him use any of his arsenal."

"Really?" They step on the lift together. Normally Charlie would go back upstairs, but now he's curious. "What kinds of equipment?"

"I'd imagine it's similar." Chase taps his foot against the ground as the lift starts down. "He's got a kit hand."

"What's that?"

"Heatwave!" Chase addresses the fire bot instead, who's up on one of the pillars with the training dummy.

"What?" he calls back, leaning against it.

Chase gestures to Charlie. "He's curious about your equipment."

Heatwave frowns. "...What equipment?"

"Your firefighting equipment. You hand." Chase gestures abstractly.

"Oh." Heatwave jumps down and Chase offers his hand to Charlie, who climbs into it, and he's deposited onto Chase's shoulder for a better view. "Most of it's only accessible in my alt mode, but I got a few things."

He sticks his forearm out and a panel retracts. "Winch," he says, gesturing at it. "Got them on both sides. And my hand's kit." His left hand retracts back into his forearm, and he transforms tools out in rapid succession, including but not limited to a sledgehammer, an axe, a halligan, and a chainsaw. His hand's back in a few moments, and he offers Charlie a shrug. "I don't really have a need for them. I can usually brute force my way through any of the emergencies you guys have."

"True," Charlie hums, "but it's good to know. Thank you."

Heatwave blinks, then nods, turning away and going back to his dummy. Charlie looks to Chase. "Do the others have equipment like that, or, uh, 'kit' hands?"

Chase's finial flicks. "Why don't we go ask?" he says, voice colored with an excited lilt.

Charlie gets the distinct impression he's being included on something important, but he can't even begin to be sure of what. So he just smiles, pats Chase on the cheek, and lets him take him to the others.

[homuraakemis]

Also... correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't the people of Zaun always exposed to the Grey to a lesser degree? We are told from Cassandra's voiceline that the "rise of the industry in the Fissures led to the air becoming increasingly toxic" and that they call this polluted air "the Grey". We also see Smeech say that the Grey is "factory smog". So basically, the Grey is pretty much normal pollution with a fancy name, and Zaun is heavily affected because Zaun has many of these factories and is underground, so the pollution gets trapped there with no way to escape.

We are told that Cassandra developed the ventilation system as a way to help dissipate that pollution, but clearly the ventilation system is still not a perfect solution, because in Act 1 Season 1, we always see enforcers coming to Zaun wearing gas masks. Meaning that even with the ventilation system, the Grey is still there. People of Zaun are always exposed to it. And yet, people aren't dropping like flies. This, in my opinion, clearly seems to indicate that the harm that the Grey causes comes from a long term exposure, as well as the concentration of the gas.

I also think it's important to remember how difficult their choices were and what their goal was. They're trying to dismantle Shimmer. I think the fandom severely underestimates the harm that Shimmer has caused in the Undercity, especially considering that Shimmer is not a normal drug. It doesn't just cause addiction and health problems to the people who use the drug. As Ekko says when Vi and Caitlyn are in the Firelights hideout, "everyone here was an addict or a victim". Pay attention to the word "victim". Shimmer is a drug that turns people into monsters with very little control over themselves and their aggression. This fantasy drug doesn't just cause harm to the users, but it also causes harm to the people around them that can be attacked by them when they're in that state. And that's without even mentioning the child labor used in Shimmer factories, or the violence caused by all the gangs after Silco's death. So when Caitlyn and Vi decide to use the Grey, they're weighing the potential long term harm that might come from using the Grey in a few very specific areas, against the very huge short term harm that Shimmer and the chem-barons are causing to the Undercity right now. Could they have tried to dismantle Shimmer without using the Grey? They could, but that would require a much larger number of enforcers going to the Undercity and possibly causing more innocent casualties, which is exactly what Caitlyn and Vi were trying to prevent.

Using the Grey is a morally grey decision, yes, but it was the lesser evil in this context. And let's remember that Vi was right there with Caitlyn. Using the Grey isn't just about a topsider coming to Zaun with no knowledge of their plight. She has the help of Vi, who grew up with that pollution, who knows what that's like, but who is also someone who knows what the Undercity was like before Silco and can see the harm that Silco has caused, and why it needs to be stopped.

^^^———

This kinda stuff pisses me off because (again) you shouldn’t NEED to exaggerate things to be mad about it.

1. No one is saying it’s not lethal. ALL things can be lethal in excessive quantities and exposures. What we ARE saying is that the show does not SAY that it is lethal to breathe in, and in fact the show goes out of its way to show multiple people being able to handle the grey and deal with it in small doses. That’s important information you’re glossing over… the duration of the exposure.

2. Nowhere does Arcane say that people were dying en mass. The show DOES show that the grey presented an ongoing problem with continued exposure to the workers in the mines. This is reinforced multiple times, as both Vander and Silco worked in the mines and breathed the toxic air. The show presents what CAN happen to prolonged exposure… but the timeframe for exposure is left off the table. You DO NOT KNOW if that exposure is within minutes or years. Again: both Vander and Silco worked in the mines with the toxic gases and they ended up okay without fantasy cancer. So clearly the length of prolonged exposure MATTERS.

3. Yes, the gas made you choke and you struggled to breathe. That’s very clear. But the grey giving to cancer as a result? It is dependent on the person and their exposure. Not everyone who breathes it in will develop fantasy cancer as a result. If that were true, then Silco basically gave all the chem-barons fantasy cancer when he pulled his power play stunt back in Season 1. So once again, you guys are SPECULATING and you are INVENTING the severity based on information that isn’t entirely clear to us.

4. Case in point: Viktor. Skye and Viktor are shown playing in the toxic waters outside of a toxic cave. Skye didn’t develop fantasy cancer, but Viktor did. And part of that is likely due to the fact that his immune system was likely more compromised than Skye’s because of his being born crippled. Additionally, he spends a good chunk of his childhood feeding toxic plants to Rio with Singe in the toxic caves to create Shimmer. I have to suspect that that sort of exposure was NOT good for Viktor’s longterm health, wouldn’t you agree?

5. Once again you are using real life chemical warfare to hypothesize about a fantasy chemical and gas. The grey is not shown to spread much at all. Ekko repeatedly says that the air is denser down in the fissures and that results in the grey NOT behaving like normal gas. We see the gas almost snake its way into the buildings like a living thing. And we are shown that just outside of areas where a building is filled with the grey, it does NOT leak out.

This is important information because we are repeatedly shown that Caitlyn’s use of the grey is TACTICAL and STRATEGIC. She pumps it into specific targeted areas to clear the streets and incapacitate the chem barons and their goons. You cannot say that she “gassed the whole city” when the show GOES OUT OF ITS WAY to show that she is targeting SPECIFIC AREAS and that the grey DOES NOT dissipate and flow like normal gas.

So let’s recap what the SHOW presents to us:

The Grey is factory gas (man made) trapped underground. Exposure to the gas makes it very hard to breathe but not impossible. Many people in the show have been exposed to the gas for long periods of time and did not develop fantasy cancer. Everyone who is exposed to it in short bursts is seen recovering within minutes. The gas does not flow like normal gas and does not seem to seep out into the streets. When the grey is detected people DO NOT STAY AROUND it and leave (clear the streets) to avoid dealing with the adverse side effects. And the only person truly affected by the gasses in the fissures to the point that he’s slowly dying is a person who was born crippled and impaired and who willingly exposed himself to more of the danger than normal people did.

So when we look at it from this perspective, Caitlyn using the gas is still bad. She could potentially be hurting people long term, yes. But she’s also using it as a way to prevent more people from being hurt by a massive invasion and is actively using the grey in highly targeted areas. Zaun is MILES large, a single building on one side of the city getting pumped full of grey is not going to harm people miles away on the other side of the city. So this assertion that she “gassed the city” is just hyperbolic and misleading. We are even shown that they don’t even use it in the streets much if at all because they travel through the pipes pumping the grey in themselves.

You should be mad about Caitlyn using the grey. It’s a DIRTY TRICK to use it this way. Absolutely.

But you DON’T need to exaggerate the effects of it and make it seem like she’s fantasy Hitler gassing the city of Zaun like Auschwitz, you weirdos.

[sillygrossgirl]

The fact that after Dr Moumita was brutally raped and killed, yet to recieve a smidge of justice and evidence was even purposely destroyed to deter the investigation, people went to porn sites to search her name and find photos/ videos of her last moments alive. Recently found out this apparently happens everytime a case of someone being sexually assaulted/ killed goes "viral".

The thing is that its not exactly shocking to me, but it still makes my skin crawl. People are out here protesting and trying to get her justice, meanwhile others are doing this.

[arthallea]

there's like, a million horrible and exploitative and inhumane things that i hate when it comes to living in a rented apartment, but one of the ones i really hate is that i really cannot, in good faith, want to risk reporting neighbors because i know that it could, in the worst case scenario, result in homelessness for them and there is nearly nothing they could do that i would want to risk that for them. and that subsequently means i have to suffer if they're doing things that really affect my disabilities because i don't wanna risk them being homeless for it. AAAUGH

[myfootyrthroat]

I'm fine with that. For drunk driving especially, I think the fines should be extremely punitive because the consequences can be so severe and you can just not.

"Drunk driving fines are disproportionately harsh on low-income people."

Man, if only there were some way to avoid those.

[soshinee]

i really have loved being in japan in general so far but most of my students are so fucking mean to me 😭😭 like they’re just so so sooo mean they parrot and mock me when i call someone’s name and laugh when i talk in general and it’s like how am i supposed to curry their favor or gain their respect when they are openly making fun of me from the second i walk into their classroom for the first time💀

[aaronymous999]

I will never shut up about one of the worst tropes in fiction THAT NOBODY TALKS ABOUT- and ahem the winner is: “Pairing off every main character, and I mean EVERY into a romantic relationship at the end of the story or sometime during the story” even if it makes no sense to the plot, or the character made it clear they aren’t interested in romance, all because some authors for some reason ( there actually is a reason but yknow ) think all the characters need to be paired off for a happy ending. Fandoms engage in this trope too sometimes and I very much so dislike it. And then there’s the weird cousin of this trope, “Most characters get paired off, but mostly the women, the men don’t need a partner and three kids, mainly just the women.” LOOKING AT YOU WARRIOR CATS DONT DENY IT YOU ARE GUILTY AS CHARGED.

[gristlegrinder]

i have many thoughts about the expansion (almost all overwhelmingly positive) (maybe i’ll try to pin them down into a cohesive post after my retail shift today) but the thing i keep thinking about is how the diagonals on the compass rose seem to suggest where future expansion zones might be taking place. mr john arenanet please let us go to the charr homelands in the northeast blazeridge mountains. please. blood citadel. please. please. blood citadel. please

[bluesofasalamence]

It feels kinda annoying seeing posts about the NRA when they haven’t been politically relevant for the past 10 years, and even more annoying when liberals blame the NRA for not being able to pass gun control

like. the NRA has only 5 million members. Over 100 million people in the US have guns. They literally represent less than 5% of all gun owners, if they vanished or went bankrupt tomorrow liberals still wouldn’t be able to pass gun control because gun owners are one of the most politically active groups out there and they’re not interested on becoming felons overnight because of liberals passing ineffective laws that ban certain guns based on aesthetics and doubling the police budget instead of trying to help the average citizen so they don’t have to go to crime to make ends meet

This whole story of “Those things are hard to do, passing gun contrrol is much easier” sounds completely untrue every day that passes

[deadboyswalking]

staring into space as I realize this chapter is going to be like 8k

[thespacesay]

also even if they are NPD or whatever diagnosis you think "sociopath" aligns with, cool! what did they actually do that made you hate them? what about them was the problem?

and are you aware that a very large amount of mental illness, personality disorders, or generally difficulties in getting along with others or engaging in everyday life can be traced to childhood trauma? yes, their actions are their own - that's the point! their diagnosis is not the problem. their actions are.

I don't know who needs to hear this, but 99% of the time that ex of yours is not actually a narcissist or a sociopath simply because they sucked and you hate them. By using these words you are in fact demonizing actual mentally ill people, unlike your ex who is far more likely to just be an asshole